(1990) The Reflecting Skin By Philip Ridley
Very much like the Edgars movies (VVitch, Lighthouse) in that you think you see the rational side, but given the child’s perspective, for him it really is supernatural. The more I think about the ending, the more worse and worse possibilities I see, and then I too would rather it be vampires…
I’m the exact opposite. Give me more feel good comedies.
I didn’t see this listed anywhere else so…
The Platform, 2019 Spanish film
Rather relevant to this time.
Terry Gilliam’s largely panned/lost/forgotten
TIDELAND
Has Jeff Bridges, is probably the most disturbing movie I’ve ever seen. Trigger Warnings!!!: less than 5 min in, something will occur that is deeply disturbing. I am here to warn you that it is not going to get any “better”…
At that point decide if you are in or out (no judgment;)
Happiness (1998) by Tod Solondz is one of the more perturbing movies I’ve seen. Feel sad and dirty after watching
Disclaimer, it’s all horrors:
- Possum
- Speak no evil - original, not the shitty am*rican remake
- Goodnight mommy - original, not the shitty americ*n remake
- Obsession
- Hereditary - and the other Ari Aster movies
- Sinister
- Evil Dead - new movies
- VVitch
- Lighthouse
- the house that Jack built
- Substance - maybe
I’ll add to this:
- The thing (1979)
- The Mist (2007)
Non-horror movies (although some w horror elements):
- Aniara (2018)
- There will be Blood
- Nocturnal Animals
- The House that jack built
- Pi
- Coffee Table
Not sure if it fits, but “Moon” definitely came to mind. although might not fit OPs preference
Together (2025)
I did not care for Hereditary.
Hard disagree. I hope I never watch another movie without a happy ending. These things are supposed to be escapist, not just like real life lol
They can be escapist in a sense that you can become more thankful of your own life after seeing one so horrible in a movie. Instead of seeing a film where everything goes right and then fantasize and wonder why that can’t just happen to you.
- Memento
- Black swan
- Event horizon
- The fountain
- Pan’s labyrinth
- Requiem for a dream
- A scanner darkly
- Vatel
A scanner darkly
+1
Dune?
I’M GONNA BE ON TELEVISION HARRY!
Read the book, especially the intro, it’s even bleaker. Last Exit To Brooklyn, both book and film, are great as well.
What book is this referring to?
edit: Nvm, figured it out. For anyone else who hasn’t seen this movie, the book/movie is Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby.
Most of Black Mirror
Totally agree first couple seasons of Black Mirror and especially the Christmas special.
But then it got the Netflix treatment and kinda felt more like another Twighlight Zone reboot attempt
Black Mirror is great, but I can’t watch it because it makes me so sad. Same with rewatching Grave of the Fireflies.
Grave of the Fireflies was such an amazing movie, but yes, profoundly saddening. A beautifully coloured picture, one that so easily seems to encapsulate both everything that’s best about human beings, whilst simultaneously also conveying everything that’s wrong with our species.
I’d love to watch it though again, but every time I’ve tried, I’ve not been able to because what kept me going through the first viewing, i.e. hope for both of them, just isn’t there anymoe because we all know how it will end for them both.
One of the most viscerally tragic movies I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of them.
Even on the first watch you find out that there’s no hope for them, but because that moment passes you delude yourself and forget about it
The later ones are a bit too happy. Charlie Brooker is going soft with all that lovely Netflix cash.
I thought The Fountain was known for being off puttingly pretentious, though it’s been so long since I’ve seen it. All I can remember is a space tree orb
It is, and also not particularly bleak. Especially compared to some of Aronofsky’s other films.
How could i forgot about Pan’s Labyrinth?? So beautiful
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned 12 Monkeys. It checks all 3 marks including having “fate” as an integral part of the plot.
Movie or show? I haven’t seen either, but I’m interested.
The show is a mediocre example of just cranking out single season sci-fi shows based on even just a self contained short film whether or not the concept can actually produce that much material.
The movie is a pretty decent adaptation of La Jetée, which is a really good concept for a short or at MOST feature film. Here’s another good adaptation that’s honestly even better IMO.
I meant the movie. I haven’t watched the show.
Brazil (1985). It’s this, but also a comedy.
That movie is so fucking bizarre. I totally have to nominate it for family movie night.
It’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but for a few of us it’s one of the all-time greats.
so you want a classical tragedy?
It is pretty notable that Western culture has totally abandoned fatalism in exchange for optimistic and fantastical personal agency.
It ties into our founding Myth of Progress, where everything is going to get better, whereas most cultures throughout history of treated this mortal plane as a cyclical at best and random at worse.
To be fair, the conditions of material reality are cyclical at best, and random chaos at worst. I think that the absolute domination of Christianity in the west sowed the seeds of this progress narrative. Christianity (and its many branches) somewhat stands out from other philosophies in its perception of a finality.
My hot take is that the renaissance and then the industrial revolution brought with it the means by which westerner Christians could start to imagine tangibly bringing that vision of heaven to earth. I believe there was an ideological split where many Christians stopped believing in a god and started secularizing Christian theology, blending it with other ideas and beliefs. This split creates competing views of the finality, the fundamentalists believe they are waiting for the world to end, the secularists believe they are building a utopian heaven. The rich assholes who don’t believe in anything but power take full advantage of this split to drive conflict in the working classes, much the same with racism.
If we build a utopia it will fail, if we wait for the end we will surely bring it upon ourselves. The foundation of the ideology is so excessively optimistic that reality cannot fit within it; that might be okay, heck if i know anything.
Yes, I think any fair reading of history points to cycles. What’s kind of hilarious to me is that one of the best historians, Marx, totally decided to ignore that reality and project a Happy End Time Utopia for humanity. And then we also had Francis Fukuyama, with the End of History, thinking that Neoliberalism was that permanent state of cosmic happiness.
I’m not sure where Christianity fits into all of this. It is often blamed for this optimistic bent, but the Orbus Fortuna was a medieval concept and that was a thoroughly Christian culture. Early Christians (and Jews) of that era were expecting a permanent real-world Return of the King situation, but quickly pushed any hope of a final peace into the afterlife.
Cynical trends when in boom times, hope when in bust times
You’re looking for Last of the Mohicans. The book and the movie.
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The Road
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Van Diemen’s Land
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Valhalla Rising
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The Proposition
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Threads
The plague dogs, grave of fireflies, full metal jacket
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The new Resident Evil movie.
I knew it was going to end badly going in, but damn that was bleak.
…I loved it.
