Top 5 Pessimistic Movies

THE WAGES OF FEAR

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Just watched a great movie last night. It's David Lynch meets the Coen brothers in the best Danish Western you're ever likely to see. It's called "Terribly Happy" and the crummy little town it takes place in could not be more Ligottian. Dark throughout with a delightfully twisted ending.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsslA308XV8
 
I haven't seen many but one's that come to mind would be Se7en, Bad Lieutenant, (the Harvey Kietel one) 1984, There Will Be Blood and Leaving Las Vegas. Se7en is probably the bleakest movie I have ever seen. Kevin Spacey is indeed a disturbed individual in that film. A line from John Doe's diary found in his apartment reads: "What sick ridiculous puppet's we are, and what gross little stage we dance on. What fun we have, dancing and f***ing. Not a care in the world. Not knowing that we are nothing. We are not what was intended".
 
orwell84 said:
Se7en is probably the bleakest movie I have ever seen. Kevin Spacey is indeed a disturbed individual in that film. A line from John Doe's diary found in his apartment reads: "What sick ridiculous puppet's we are, and what gross little stage we dance on. What fun we have, dancing and f***ing. Not a care in the world. Not knowing that we are nothing. We are not what was intended".
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1995 was a great year for bleak and pessimistic films: Usual Suspects, Seven, 12 Monkeys, Kids, La Haine, Leaving Las Vegas. The zeitgeist was different in the mid-nineties and even Hollywood reflected that. The original post-Cold War optimism had been shot to hell. Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Chechnya. And there was also a sense of doom approaching the millennium's end, the whole thing about Y2K, etc. Then, techno-optimism prevailed and now we have to suffer through insanely expensive films for teenagers where the good guys always win.
 
xylokopos said:
orwell84 said:
Se7en is probably the bleakest movie I have ever seen. Kevin Spacey is indeed a disturbed individual in that film. A line from John Doe's diary found in his apartment reads: "What sick ridiculous puppet's we are, and what gross little stage we dance on. What fun we have, dancing and f***ing. Not a care in the world. Not knowing that we are nothing. We are not what was intended".
Click to expand...

1995 was a great year for bleak and pessimistic films: Usual Suspects, Seven, 12 Monkeys, Kids, La Haine, Leaving Las Vegas. The zeitgeist was different in the mid-nineties and even Hollywood reflected that. The original post-Cold War optimism had been shot to hell. Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Chechnya. And there was also a sense of doom approaching the millennium's end, the whole thing about Y2K, etc. Then, techno-optimism prevailed and now we have to suffer through insanely expensive films for teenagers where the good guys always win.
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Interesting observations. I think we may be heading down the slope again. Easily my favorite movie of the year so far is Ex Machina which I wouldn't describe as "techno-optimism." As far as "... now we have to suffer through insanely expensive films for teenagers where the good guys always win." We may be in for more of the same if these films keep making over a billion dollars. I can only guess that you are referring to movies like the Fast & Furious series and superhero movies. I haven't seen any of the FF movies, but the most recent Avengers film almost did me in. That's enough of that for a good long while.
 
My favourite film is Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo due to it being a melancholic Poe-esque nightmare (ala Ligeia) come to life. I've always imagined that Stewart's character jumps to his death immediately after the film ends. It's a film with no hope for anybody, and it's beautiful for that.
 
Consider THE MIST, Stephen King, directed by Frank Darabont. Pessimistic with steroids...ESPECIALLY THE ENDING! What is this existence all for? It left me with an itch to throw myself from a high building.
 
I only can think of one movie. I watched it once when I was a kid and it freaked me out major. And I refuse to watch it ever again. It’s titled “the music box”. I had no idea that movies could tell stories in such vivid and shocking ways as this movie did. Deeply disturbing...it gives me the heebies just thinking of it.
 
Chernobyl Diaries: American tourists slum it in Chernobyl ruins as if it were a theme park, get eaten by mutants and radiation poisoning.

Grave of the Fireflies: bleak, dark anime about Japanese children left to fend for themselves during Tokyo fire bombing. No survivors, only ghosts.
 
Neon Demon: brilliant condemnation of the model industry as horror and madness. The children don't need Saturn. They eat themselves literally. The eye, the eye...Two more to go.
 
Ten pessimistic movies:

Chinatown (1974)

Barry Lyndon (1975)

1984 (1984)

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

The Pledge (2001)

The Mist (2007)

The Road (2009)

Buried (2010)

Never Let Me Go (2010)

The Sunset Limited (2011)
 
miguel1984 said:
Ten pessimistic movies:

Chinatown (1974)

Barry Lyndon (1975)

1984 (1984)

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

The Pledge (2001)

The Mist (2007)

The Road (2009)

Buried (2010)

Never Let Me Go (2010)

The Sunset Limited (2011)
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Great list miguel. Chinatown, Barry Lyndon, and The Pledge are among my personal favorites.

Passolini's Salo ate a little piece of my soul. The only movie I can think of since childhood that truly scared me.
 
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