21 of the Most Depressing Movies of All Time

Ideally, art is supposed to make you feel — and not just the feeling that makes you scream, “Hell, yeah!” There’s a time and a place for lighthearted romcoms and light-brained action-adventures, but sometimes, they’re only good for popcorn target practice. Maybe you’re freshly divorced, staring down the barrel of your own mortality, or just generally kind of down about *gestures vaguely at everything*. Whatever the case, you do not want to watch pretty people fall in love and/or race cars.

When Redditor einsteinfrankenstein got in such a mood, “nothing hit me as hard as Requiem for a Dream,” they told r/Movies. “It’s really the kind of movie that makes you think that fate must play a big role in people’s lives because quite early on you get the sense that things will turn out badly for these characters and they are not going to be able to change things no matter what they do. And indeed things take a turn for worse in the most dramatic fashion that it’s not just depressing but also horrifying. It’s not just what actually happens to them but it’s also the visuals the movie uses and the music together that really hammer home the message. You hate it, but you can’t look away.”

They then asked, “What was the most absolutely depressing movie you (have) ever seen?” and their fellow Redditors brought nothing but cinematic sadness to the table.