14 Most Depressing Movies Ever

The list is pretty good but it is hard to see something like Brokeback Mountain, Million Dollar Baby and Green Mile beat out movies like Mysterious Skin, Dancer in the Dark, Au Revoir Les Enfants and The Bicycle Thief! They leave a twisted knot in my stomach for quite a while.

Nice list! I agreed with all of those on there. Old Yeller scared me for life. The only other movie I thought was pretty depressing was either The Mist, or maybe I am Legend. Laugh if you want, but the seen with the dog was horribly depresing, and adding the horrible CGI badguys just put it over the top on depressing.
Great list, though!

Pretty good list with quite a variety of movies and release years. Well done.

Has anyone ever seen the movie "Stay"? it makes me cry every time, come on! stay totally crushes Brokeback Mountain! wtf?

Wow, how about "It's a Wonderful Life"? The lead contemplates committing suicide on Christmas Eve? The lead crashes his car while drunk-driving, terrorizes his kids/family, etc. Yeah, and THAT'S not dark?

I know the ending is supposed to be cathartic with it's message ("no man's a failure if he only has friends"), but I guess few have stopped to think how that message only makes it worse for people who realize they don't have any meaningful friendships/family (and it's not like dysfunctional families don't exist in America nowadays)?

I cry my eyes out every time I watch Sophie's choice. The Pianist is a very sad movie as well

I don't know if anyone has seen these movies but how about "Jack the Bear" w/Danny DeVito, terribly depressing. "Bastard Out Of Carolina" w/Jennifer Jason Liegh

I found that crappy movie, House of Sand and Fog, really depressing.

Synecdoche, New York- with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Michelle Williams

requiem was pretty heavy, but its one of my favorites. the color purple was the only movie that ever made me cry and want to slowly murder danny glover. not actually danny glover, but his character should get semi aggressive penis cancer from that fish. and then be eaten alive from the inside out by his own cancerous penis fish.

after the movie of horrible accounts, the barely happy ending was like being happy in saying "at least we didnt die"

the color purple

Garden state made me suicidal for three years. Also the Simpson's movie. I really wanted to hate homer.

hotel rwanda and das boot are some of mine.

The village...

Lilja 4-ever without a doubt was the most depressing movie I've ever seen and a close second would be Mysterious Skin.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300140/

Bridge to Terabithia

Now I hear people saying how depressed they get but how they want to see it again or liked it in some way. What's that all about? I don't think it's masochism.

Sophie's Choice. Fantastic movie but left me depressed and not wanting to see that one again.

Leaving Las Vegas.

Dancer in the Dark..

children of men is one of the most depressing movies i've seen. But then again I haven't seen requiem for a dream yet

Dr Zhivago was hardly "miserable". It was a beautifully crafted film, although I have to say to anyone like maasanova, don't worry about knowing the ending, the rest of the story is what is great, and if you REALLY want to see a GREAT version of Dr. Z, check out the Masterpiece Theatre remake that I saw on TV one night--MUCH grittier, more believable, less glamorous and I think more true to the original book, which was far more about the social conditions leading up to the civil war and afterward than it was about the romance, although that was a major part of it.

I don't know, I'm not into "sad" movies. But I've seen a few I think make the ones I know on this list look pretty silly.

I totally agree with the choice of "Million Dollar Baby", but "Grand Torino" is another that comes close and is a LOT sadder than Dr Z.

Pedro Almodovar's "All about my mother" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185125/ is both funny and totally heartbreaking (Penelope Cruz at her best and hottest).

How about French films? They seem to have mastered the class of depressing films. Le Jete, Mannon de le Source, quite a few sad French films out there.

So, Schindler's List is not one of the most depressing films ever?
Or The Killing Fields?

But NOTHING comes close to Pan's Labrynth, in my opinion.
http://www.panslabyrinth.com/
This was a pretty devastating film.

Revolutionary Road was awesome. Yeah, it's depressing to face reality. But it is also freeing.

Revolutionary Road, Permanent Midnight... those are a couple that left me deflated.

Donnie Darko I always thought was depressing too.

I'm not a fan of this film genre and I have only seen The Green Mile, which was not even depressing to me and Requiem for A Dream which is in my top ten films of all time.

But his list should have spoiler warnings. I've always wanted to watch Dr. Zhivagio but now I already know the ending.

"We Own the Night" didn't make the list?! That was an extremely bleak movie. I left the movie theatre feeling quite depressed.

I would have to add two additional movies that made me very sad.
"My Dog Skip" and "Simon Birch." Both of these will make a grown man weep!

Have any of you heard of Der Siebente Kontinent(The Seventh Continent)??

Schindler's List was a heavy movie.

Requiem for a Dream...I haven't seen that one yet, but the title makes me feel kind of sad.

It may be anime but "grave of the fireflies"

I thought "Murder in the First" would make the list.

geez i thought most of those were rather over rated in this case... sad sure, emotional ok, but depressing? damn we have diffrent meanings for depressing...

(comical depressing)
i mean anything with Hanna Montana in it... automatically depressing
anything with power rangers... automatically depressing
any foreign film remade by Hollywood... automatically depressing
any "reality" tv person in a movie or on tv again... automatically depressing
the saw movies...automatically depressing... this shows us just how crappy horror movies have become... i mean ok saw 2 was good... but ya... the rest had moments of redemption but nothing more...
most remakes of movies... depressing... now once in a while they come out ok, some even good... but most suck
video game movies... depressing, they seem to find the most intellectutally disfunctional dork ever, give him a good game title that he puts into the blender of his mind and the result is a nearly unwatchable POS movie
comic/superhero movies... mostly depressing... they can but fun to watch but only because its fun to mock how stupid they are... its like your own mystery science theater 3000 with out the cool robot puppets....
anything with Ben Affleck in it... automatically depressing... he just seems to suck so bad it ruins the movie experience...
most singers who try to act... depressing

now if you are talking about really depressing films
try
food inc.
corn king
processed people
zeitgeist
flow
the lorax... yes the cartoon, or the book its better
animal farm, the cartoon is a good start, read the book
1984, atleast watch the movie to get a clue, the book is FAR better
rollerball - the original movie you need to pay attention a little but there is ideas there
Enron
planet earth, blue planet, nature of things, (why because you will be lucky if your grand children will ever see this for themselves, this is all they will ever know of what we have done to this planet, through our actions of polluting everything coupled with environmental changes)

Sob.

i think they forgot "My Sisters Keeper". the working title for that movie was "sad."

Pee-wee's Big Adventure should be on that list. That movie had me in stitches.

why not 15? Waterworld.

requiem for a dream made my brain puke..

This is a dumb list. Several of the listed movies are not depressing at all. For example the Green Mile. It was a drama with an unusual ending but far from depressing. Same goes for Million Dollar Baby, sad, but not depressing. Here's a few I would include on the list.

Death of a Salesman (Dustin Hoffman)
Soylent Green (Charlton Heston)
All Quiet on the Western Front (RIchard Thomas, Ernest Borgnine)
On the Beach (Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner)
1984 (John Hurt, Richard Burton)

I would put the 'The Road' on this list, I have never left a cinema quite as depressed as i did after watching it.

"Til the devil knows you're dead" would be a good addition. "Closer" could also be up there. I'm a big crybaby when it comes to movies so it looks like since I haven't watch 3-4 of these on the list, I have some downloading to do.

I'd like to add The Road to this.

No "Shindler's List"? Or would that be too many Nazi movies?

Between Million Dollar Baby and Boys Don't Cry, Hillary Swank has cornered the market on "LOL BAD END" movies.

Oh, and lets not forget Amelia.

Simon Birch.

Haha i read the title and said "Requiem for a dream better be on there"... looks like i wasnt the only one!

yah by far the most depressing movie is requiem for a dream.

I'll take a shot and say number one is requiem for a dream before reading the article.