The film does sound like a pile of shite but it’s got a funny name. It also sounds like something some people here would like, people who like to go to “dark places”. [;)]
On a related question though what’s the most depressing film you’ve seen? I’m not sure what it would be but I’d certainly propose ‘Henry: Portait of a Serial Killer’ as a candidate. It’s grinding bleakness and sheer abscence of hope (by the end) is arguably unparalleled from other feature films. Of course there are probably lesser known dark films that make it look like ‘High School Musical’ but I can’t think of them (or don’t have them in my collection.) I remember there was a discussion about ‘Salo’ before but I think Henry is more disturbing as it is more real/believable. The more polished a film is the less disturbing it is too, hence all these torture porn films of late that are so ineffectual.
‘Eraserhead’ is a classic downbeat film too but it doesn’t leave me feeling bad because it’s JUST TOO GOOD!
When I was really young (roughly 4/5 grade) Planes, Trains, and Automobiles really depressed me because I didn’t know who to feel more more sorry for. Poor Steve Martin who really just wants to get home to spend the holidays with his family and keeps getting sabatoged by some big fat fuck who has no friends and is making his life a hell! Or poor John Candy who is soo lonely with no family or friends he has to sabatoge some poor guy on the way home to see his family in order to have some companionship. Lose/lose [:(]
When I was a little older(roughly 7/8 grade) The Hitcher really saddened me. This nice kid on his way to college tries to do something nice for a hitch-hiker and the hitch-hiker ruins his life!! The absolute worst was when he tied the nice kids new found girlfriend between a diesel and it’s trailor and hit the gas and you hear her body rip![:(]
Finally, When I was out of college, I think Salo is the next saddening movie. that’s the first movie that really stayed with me for quite a while after seeing it! followed by the Gaspar Noe films Irreversible and I Stand Alone
Man that rape scene in Irreversible if a pretty horrofic sight to sit through!
Late,
grmpysmrf
Dear Zachary.
Check it out, and try not to read too much about it ahead of time. I sobbed through the whole thing, and the next day in the shower I curled up into a fetal position and bawled some more.
I’d put “Plague Dogs”, “Threads” and “Dead Ringers” on the list for most depressing films. ‘Henry: Portait of a Serial Killer’ should definitely be on there too, that film is a little too real.
And for some odd reason, Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’. Don’t know why but that film has always left me seriously depressed.
I still haven’t seen ‘Time of the Wolf’, almost rented it probably a dozen times, but something else comes up. Is it worth seeing?
‘Dancer In The Dark’ is a pretty depressing film, but still one of my favorites of Von Trier. ‘The Vanishing’ is a fascinating watch though.
Miyazaki’s ‘Grave of The Fireflies’ is the all time feel good animated movie of the year I tell you. Its about 2 orphans in post WWII Japan, and it does not have a happy Disney ending.
Probably the most soul crushing stygian blackness on film for me though is ‘What Dreams May Come’ from Richard Matheson’s novel of the same name. It has some inspired visuals of the afterlife and a Dante’s Inferno-esque plot, but man is it depressing. The ending of ‘The Rapture’ was a big downer as well.
Dear Zachary.
Check it out, and try not to read too much about it ahead of time. I sobbed through the whole thing, and the next day in the shower I curled up into a fetal position and bawled some more.
I’ve heard about this one. It blitzed the docu film festivals recently? Sounds like it certainly validates the film medium, for practical purposes at least.
@ Peligro: ‘Come and See’. This is an excellent war film, one of the best ever made. Brilliant cinematography, acting & music. Very harrowing subject but a joy to watch just because it’s made so well. Terence Malick took a lot from it for his ‘The Thin Red Line’. It was also one of the first films to pioneer the Steadicam, to awesome effect (esp. the scene when they run from the village and all the bodies are piled up by the house) The end to the film is one of the most memorable I’ve seen too. The guy who made the film also made a biopic on Rasputin which looked cool (you can see a trailer for it on the Come and See dvd) but I haven’t seen it yet.
War films I suppose are bound to be depressing. Anyone see ‘When The Wind Blows’? It’s a British animated film from the 1980s. Really good and very tragic tale about an old couple who try to survive in their country home after nuclear war breaks out. All the advice given to them by the gov. is completely ineffective and they die a slow ignominous death. Roger Waters did the soundtrack for it.
Another very depressing film is ‘The King’ by James Marsh (guy who made ‘Man on Wire’). Made a few years ago stars Gael Garcia Bernal and William Hurt. To sum it up briefly a young guy, a bastard child, goes to Texas to find his dad, a preacher. He keeps his identity secret, has sex with his half sister then kills her and her mother and goes to his dad looking for forgiveness. Extremely bleak and a shattering assault on pompous evangelical Christianity.
I recently saw this for the first time about 2 weeks ago and it damn near broke my heart to see Bjork play this role. I just kept hoping that she was going to get some break in the movie and at the end when she sings “My Favourite Things” I just about lost it. Truly the saddest movie I’ve seen in a long time, if not ever.
The only other movie I could say that struck a note like that with me is ‘Requiem For A Dream’. Not even closely on par with ‘Dancer…’ but I saw it in the midst of a huge drug and alcohol binge/addiction and it really scarred me.
[reply]“Henry,” definitely. White folks with no money, no education, and sociopathic tendencies scare me.
These are the guys the film is based on:
They did a lot of bad shit in their day. Momma didn’t love Henry. Momma treated Henry bad. Henry went out into the world.[/reply] While Henry and Ottis certainly did not commit as many murders as they said they did, somewhere in the 300s, they were a particularly despicable duo even cannibalizing some of their victims. Recently Ottis Toole was posthumously named as the murderer of John Walsh’s (of America’s Most Wanted) son after years of being a suspect.
Henry is loosely based on the real events, but you have to remember it was made in 1986 very close to when they were arrested and wasn’t widely seen for a few years. Michael Rooker was fantastic as Henry, and showed up for his audition wearing the clothes he wore in the film.
henry came to mind when i started reading this thread.
another depressing film with the name henry is “henry fool” with james urbaniak. but that one eventually takes a turn. serial killers’ life stories tend toward the “this person is stuck in time on an issue he never resolved with his momma, uncle, dad, babysitter”. wackjobs are wackjobs.
