Top 5 Pessimistic Movies

[luciferfell]

Combat Shock, Planet of the Apes 2, I Stand Alone, Cannibal Holocaust, The Brood. But on a side note I would also add most pornography as meeting the criteria.

[DoktorH]

I would rank Population 436 as a pessimistic movie in the vein of Wicker Man or Wake Wood. Population 436 (Video 2006) - IMDb

[MagnusTC]

I watched High Plains Drifter (Eastwood, 1973) last night, surprisingly bleak and metaphysical.

[njhorror]

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM almost made me pathologically depressed in one night! Just a miserable, painful, frighteningly real movie. Could never watch it in its entirety again after that. The scene where the two older women sitting on the bench crying after visiting their friend in the hospital is heartbreaking.

[dr. locrian]

THE FLY. Cronenberg version, of course.

[Speaking Mute]

Four that have been missed in the listings so far:

1. Bridge Over River Kwai
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Tideland
4. Cube

Judging from reviews of Gilliam's Tideland, the film was simply too unredeemingly bleak for the average viewer to handle.

[dr. locrian]

Quote Originally Posted by Speaking Mute

Four that have been missed in the listings so far: 1. Bridge Over River Kwai 2. There Will Be Blood 3. Tideland 4. Cube Judging from reviews of Gilliam's Tideland, the film was simply too unredeemingly bleak for the average viewer to handle.

This is a weird phenomenon, but three of your choices above (#1, #2, and #3) have endings which fill me with ecstasy every time I watch them. Yes, they are pessimistic/bleak as hell in their own ways, but they hit my so-bleak-it's-wonderful buttons just right.

[Speaking Mute]

Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Locrian

Quote Originally Posted by Speaking Mute Four that have been missed in the listings so far: 1. Bridge Over River Kwai 2. There Will Be Blood 3. Tideland 4. Cube Judging from reviews of Gilliam's Tideland, the film was simply too unredeemingly bleak for the average viewer to handle. This is a weird phenomenon, but three of your choices above (#1, #2, and #3) have endings which fill me with ecstasy every time I watch them. Yes, they are pessimistic/bleak as hell in their own ways, but they hit my so-bleak-it's-wonderful buttons just right.

I can definitely relate for There Will Be Blood and Tideland - the former due to Plainview's triumphant irredemption (to coin an appropriate word), and the later due to the amount carnage involved undermining the chance "happy ending".

[ChildofOldLeech]

- Come and See: about the closest cinematic equivalent to Kosinski's Painted Bird there is; the war movie as nightmare.

[dr. locrian]

Speaking Mute, those films viewed in succession would make for a great, dark night of cinema.