Movies/TV Shows that made you feel dismal

Movies and TV shows grab you. They pull at your heart strings, make you feel really good, cause you to throw the table out in anger, or knock you out due to extreme boredom. But there's one particular mood set that I seldom hear audiences talk about, and that's when a movie or TV show just makes you feel awful. It drains you of all good feeling because of how much it impacted you. Here are some of my examples.

Fire Walk With Me
After hearing so much about this series and hearing that a new one was coming out, I bought the Blu-Ray set to see what the fuss was about and was instantly hooked onto the show. Even for a series that featured episodes directed by David Lynch, it felt welcoming. After finishing all two seasons of the show, I moved onto the movie "Fire Walk With Me" and shoot. All of a sudden I'm in this twisted, uncomfortable and totally random world where things don't make any sense. Is that David Bowie? What happened? This black lodge stuff is very unsettling. Something abut a ring? An agent disappears? Wasn't Kiefer Sutherland in this movie? Why is Twin Peaks all gloomy? When the film was finally over, I felt like I had made a mistake. Is this what David Lynch wanted the whole series to be like? Because if it was, I don't think I would have survived one episode. I understand that when you're doing a movie focused around a teenager's death that it's not going to be a bright movie, but this was David Lynch doing his unique form of unsettling dialed up to 11.

Evangelion
I remember every anime fan talking about this series. It was revered as one of the best anime series ever produced. Naturally, I dove in. Since this was in the early 00s where spoilers weren't easily accessible, I had no idea what was coming. The series was pretty epic for starters. Incredible mecha designs, wonderful use of music and an interesting premise that I was dying to figure out how it was all going to end. Than the last two episodes happened and everything came crashing down. It's like going deep sea diving and admiring all the wonders around you. There's an unsettling feeling about it all, but it's worth it because you're experiencing something awesome. And than the rope snaps, your vision cuts out and you're falling deeper and deeper into an unknown abyss and all you can think about is wanting out. You want to swim upwards, but you can't.. That's how the last two episodes of Evangelion felt when I watched them the first time. We reach such a milestone with the series that the last two episodes turn into the most non-sensical thing I've ever seen. What just happened? Why is this happening? What does it have to do with anything? And than, "Congratulations!". AAAHHHHHHHHHH! This ruined my whole week.

So those are my two picks that I can think of off the top of my head. Anyone

Se7en? That's the only one off the top of my head. I mostly avoid that kind of stuff.


I don't watch the Oscar-bait movies in the last 10-15 years. They are not always tear-jerking but they are usually jerking some kind of emotion in clumsy heavy-handed ways.

The Road.

I made it through maybe 15 minutes before I looked at my husband and said "I'm about ready to open a vein here. Turn it off." Seriously, I'm sure it was a good movie (if you LIKE feeling depressed), but it was definitely not for me.

RotJ..

Gotta go with Jacob's Ladder. It was probably the intended effect.

I don't get too bummed out watching fictional things but the ending of a Rick and Morty episode was interesting given it's more a comedy show.
Basically they seriously effed up their reality through their typical hjinks, Rick pulls a hail Mary and they teleport to an exact
parallel universe where "they" die in a lab accident explosion. And they just step into those lives, as if nothing had happened.


Now I'm a fan of Mazzy Star but now that song puts me here.

CessnaDriver said:

I don't get too bummed out watching fictional things but the ending of a Rick and Morty episode was interesting given it's more a comedy show.
Basically they seriously effed up their reality though their typical hjinks, Rick pulls a hail Mary and they teleport to an exact
parallel universe where "they" die in a lab accident explosion. And they just step into those lives, as if nothing had happened.


Now I'm a fan of Mazzy Star but now that song puts me here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNa4NKFE6wE

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i agree 100% with this. I was baked when I watched this episode and it was an instant buzz killer... But brilliant. Morty walking around like a zombie knowing he's in another reality... One where he had to bury his own body, and Rick isn't affected at all, because he probably has done this before.

Everything you said about Evangelion. Why am I watching this kid's therapy/brainwashing?

I had to give up on Daredevil. Just found it dire and helpless.

I generally don't get that way, but then again, I tend to avoid the dark, dank and disgusting shows and movies completely. I hate those with a passion, hence I just skip them.

Funny Games... Wasn't sure how to feel after watching it. VERY disturbing

Revolutionary Road. I just sat there when it was over for ten minutes gutted.

firesprite said:

The Road.

I made it through maybe 15 minutes before I looked at my husband and said "I'm about ready to open a vein here. Turn it off." Seriously, I'm sure it was a good movie (if you LIKE feeling depressed), but it was definitely not for me.

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Watched the whole thing and me and the wife were depressed for days. You missed out on all the totally slit your own throat parts...It was an EXCELLENT movie but holy crap it was awful.

Irreversible.

Irredeemable would be more apt.

The original "Night of the Living Dead".

firesprite said:

The Road.

I made it through maybe 15 minutes before I looked at my husband and said "I'm about ready to open a vein here. Turn it off." Seriously, I'm sure it was a good movie (if you LIKE feeling depressed), but it was definitely not for me.

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It was a terrible movie based on an overrated terrible book. Evangelion I second, its a guilty pleasure but it makes no freaking sense no matter what and the remakes don't help any sense and the creator is still tight lipped about half of it. Honestly I liked the part where Shinji wakes up and thinks it's all a dream and the world is normal but i think that was meant to be a dream.

I tend to avoid:

- "Sad" movies. As in, movies where the point of the film seems to be to elicit something like sadness. There are some amazing dramas out there that do this, but...I really just don't care to go there. Example: Schindler's List. Nope. Pass. I know it's an amazing film. I know it was incredibly moving and well done. I don't care to be moved that way. Some people don't like scary movies, I don't like sad movies. It's as simple as that.

- Movies about the awfulness of humanity. As in, torture porn and other similar stuff. Human Centipede? No thank you. Hostel? Not interested. Saw? Didn't see it, don't plan to. Even when these are well made films (for what they are), I just...don't wanna.


For the most part, at least in the past, I have made an exception for war films. Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Saving Private Ryan, The Deer Hunter, etc. Recently, though, I found myself unable to get through Fury. I might go back to it at some point, but...*****, it's just so bleak and awful. I got as far as the sequence where they're driving in column and this one tank gets hit and brews up, and you see guys climbing out on fire. At that point, I turned it off. That was probably....two years ago now? Something like that, anyway.

Hamburger Hill was brutal especially when you know the history going in.

Gallipoli because I saw it in theaters and was 13 at the time and old enough to "get it" and I was gutted at the end. Also The Mist, good God that was a five star awful ending that made me feel icky.

Bryancd said:

Gallipoli because I saw it in theaters and was 13 at the time and old enough to "get it" and I was gutted at the end. Also The Mist, good God that was a five star awful ending that made me feel icky.

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What's worse is King actually really liked that ending to the movie more than the one he had in the book.

Lone Survivor. I read the book so I knew what was coming, but watching U.S. soldiers getting gunned down, and knowing it really happened is not fun. It's one thing to watch a war movie, but these guys were ambushed and had little chance.