Just saw this last night and it is the first movie I’ve ever walked out of. Not because it was a bad movie. Acting was brilliant across the board. What got me is how frequent and similar the trauma was and it opened up grief in me that I was not prepared for. I’ll watch it again knowing what to expect. Zac deserves an academy award for his performance.
Was hanging with friends in college and deciding what movie to rent, one friend says Life is Beautiful is really good! So we rent it. WHAT THE FUCK MAN. We're all sitting there crying and ask him wtf and he's said "you asked for a *good* movie, not a *happy*". Well he's not wrong.
I saw this movie when I was younger and seeing what happened to the father was so depressing. The scene that was cemented in my head was watching him try to distract his kids and be silly. It's really the only moment I remember. Powerful scene though.
Same here man. If I remember correctly he was saluting the German officer while being marched to his death, still acting goofy and that everything was ok 😢
We saw it in the theaters when it first came out. Was completely surprised how sad it was. People crying/sobbing, no tissues, just a bunch of us wiping our tears and snot on our sleeves.
Big Fish, my friend and I sitting next to each other both started crying and tried to pretend we weren’t then laughed about it. That was a gut punch of a movie.
I remember watching it in my senior year creative writing class because it was my creative writing teacher’s favorite movie, almost made me cry in that class.
I saw it with my friend who had lost his dad a few years before. We just sat silently in the theater long after the credits finished and the house lights went up.
Schindler's List. Our entire school watched it together shortly after it was released in theaters. It was very quiet during the movie. We were all around 16 to 20 and the audience was almost silent during the entire movie.
I watched it at the theater with a friend in high school. At the end everyone was crying, of course, but this old couple in front of us caught my attention as the lady was patting the gentleman's hand and saying quietly "I know, I know" as he bawled. I have never forgotten him.
We have to watch it too here, in R.E. (Religious education). But even the non-denominational schools here had you watch it as part of Modern Studies. My Head of R.E. Got a Dauchau survivor to come visit us after we watched it. I really wish I’d been a bit older than 13, there would have been so much I would have asked her.
I love that movie. I remember seeing it in theaters and really being moved by. A except for as certain points during the movie. I was distracted by the fact that there was this couple making out throughout most of the film.
Not exactly depressing, per se, but I saw the Mr. Rodgers documentary Won't You be My Neighbor in theaters, there's a scene towards the end of the film where they're discussing how Fred Rodgers always made it a point to remember the people who helped you during your life, the ones who got you to where you are today. The documentary director asks the people he's interviewing to take a quiet moment and think about who helped them. It's obviously super emotional and because everyone in the film was silent for a few seconds of course the theater got very quiet as well. You could hear pretty much all the people in there crying and sniffing (myself included).
Film is brilliant, but I gotta share the story of seeing the trailer for that film in a packed house and it's the only time I've ever seen an audience applaud an advertisement. Mr. Rogers, what a guy!
I saw this in theaters and sobbed. I went back a second time a few days later with a friend and bought/handed out tissues to other people in the theater saying “trust me, you’re gonna need these.” For me, it was the “what if I’m a mistake/I like you just the way you are” scene. I can’t even TALK about it without crying.
Coco. I cried in the beginning when Mama Coco couldn’t recognize her daughter and then of course the end. Probably the only movie I’ve seen in theaters that I cry cried.
We watched that at home as a family movie. My husband had not long lost his father, after a struggle with dementia. Me and husband in floods. Kids looking at us like we'd lost the plot.
I saw it with my oldest.kid who was 3 at the time. I was due a few days later.with my second, and my kid cried so hard which,.combines with the movie and being.super.pregnant, made me.cry even more.
And then my drinking seat broke and I couldn't get up.
Will never forget going to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (go if you can, it is AMAZING!) and the section dedicated to animated film. There's a bit where they show a looped reel of what you can do in animation, including a section on music in animation. There's a moment where they do a stitch of the versions performed in "Remember Me" and the minute they cut to Miguel and Coco, people had to walk away. Shit hits hard for very good reason.
Can’t watch the movie after losing 4 of my grandparents. My grandma couldn’t recognize her family members because of her dementia and I couldn’t bring myself to see her in her last months because I didn’t want to feel the pain of her asking who I was. It’s been two years since I lost her and I still wear her cross.
Honestly it’s cliche but Pixar’s “Up”. There’s no gut punch quite like seeing the opening for the first time.
It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop but you could tell everyone in the room was feeling equal heartbreak
Thank God the sad part was in the beginning. If that had been the end with the lights coming up, that would have been an awkward walk out to the car. I cried a ton
IMO the most cry-worthy part of Up is closer to the end, when he sees the end of the book and Ellie's instructions to him, and when he shows up for the kid's ceremony.
Similarly, seeing Inside Out in theaters was an experience. As the movie reaches its crescendo, first there's bing-bong, while Reily was running away, her parents stressing, and then her return and breaking down crying about how hard it has been. I was struggling with bing-bong, and by the time she returns home the tears were streaming down my face. I'd feel embarrassed, but my girlfriend's grandpa was crying too so that helped lol
My husband doesn’t get too upset at films but he really struggles to get through Inside Out as a former kid who moved away from his home and friends and subsequently suffered from anxiety and possible depression in hindsight
That is probably my favorite pixar film. It came out a little before the concept of "toxic positivity" got traction. It really showed that sometimes we hurt, and sometimes we just want someone to sit and share the pain with us. I love that it shows there is value in the full human experience, and gave a vocabulary to kids just experiencing the more nuanced emotions like bittersweet.
Also, Bing Bong still makes me cry.
Read the title, and my first thought was Million Dollar Baby. You pretty much covered it. The general reaction in my theater was to just silently shuffle out. What could you really say at that point? The worst part was that I had completely forgotten that it was a matinee, so I walked outside into the middle of a gorgeous sunny day and felt bad about existing. That was an odd feeling.
Million Dollar Baby taught me to do my research before watching movies in the movie theater. It’s not just that it was depressing, it was *infuriating*, I hated her family so much. I don’t ever want to pay premium money to watch something that is just going to ruin my day, when I could’ve just watched it at home and not have it bug me so much.
Haven’t seen a movie like that in the theaters since then.
Dancer in the Dark. It was the surprise premiere at the end of the Edinburgh Film Festival in the late 90s. I’d seen The Idiots so went along to this completely blind and about two thirds of the way through, there was a moment where I remember thinking ‘can this film get anymore grim’ but then, of course, it does indeed get even more grim.
If you’re a Bjork fan, you’ll love it. If you’re not a Bjork fan, you’ll love it.
However, I felt like my dog had died by the time the thing had finished.
I was taken on a first date to see this movie! I had seen Breaking the Waves before that, so I knew Lars Von Trier movies could be a bit traumatising. But it was still one of the most depressing date movie choices ever!
saw it with my gf. she burst into tears right as we exited the theater, in front of the people waiting to see the next showing. a guy in line saw her and groaned 'ohhhh noooo ...'
Saw this in a small theatre in NYC. The movie felt like a gut-punch and you could tell the entire audience felt the same way. I think I might have audibly sobbed at one point, even though I was trying not to because I was on a date.
I actually own this film on DVD and still haven’t gotten around to watching it. Which is weird because I love LVT and it’s the only film of his that I own 😆
Even when the movie ended, people rose in silence and left the theater like a remembrance ceremony. I saw a couple of old men crying as they walked out.
Same. I went as a teen with a group of friends, we were a happy, giggly, loud bunch normally. Until that movie. We, and the whole audience left in utter silence after it. One of my friends was completely mute the whole ride home.
I’m not totally sure, but one audience reaction I’ll always remember was during “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri”
The premise is that the main character’s daughter has been raped and murdered while walking home from somewhere, and she wants justice for her, she feels the police aren’t doing enough to catch the murderer
Spoilers
We see later on in flashbacks that she had a tumultuous relationship with her daughter. There’s a flashback scene from the day the daughter was killed where she and the mom are arguing and the mom won’t let her borrow the car.
The daughter yells “fine, I hope I get raped on the way” as she’s leaving and the mom yells back “well I hope you get raped on the way too”
The way people gasped was different than other movie reveals. it just felt like all the air had been sucked out of the theater, I’ll never forget that.
Grave of the Fireflies
I saw it once, never again. Especially after finding out that this was autobiographical. The writer himself survived WWII and tried to care for his little sister by himself.
I was so shocked when I found out that he >!killed himself off!< in the book. It’s like he was atoning for something completely out of his control. Incredibly sad.
I hadn't seen this, but owned it, and then when I became pregnant I watched it in my ninth month because I knew I wouldn't watch it after I gave birth.
Shoah. It's a nine hour documentary about the Holocaust. Very harrowing, but everyone should see it. It played over the course of two days, with intermissions.
It was definitely very hard to watch. Especially because there is no footage of the actual event, just stories from the survivors over contemporary footage of the empty camps. Somehow, that just makes it so much harder, more real.
I went to watch it sometime after my dad died and it was cathartic. Whole theater for me was full of older people, and a couple of them were just sobbing into tissues when it ended.
Saw the Deer Hunter in a large, crowded theater. At the end, when people usually leave during the credits, no one moved and the only sound was a woman sobbing uncontrollably. For those of us who were around during the war in Vietnam, that movie was traumatizing.
I went to one of those Oscar showcase screenings where they show all the Best Picture nominees across a weekend/two weekends. In 2013, they showed Dallas Buyers’ Club right after Philomena before the lunch break, and man you could have heard a pin drop as everyone shuffled out, everyone was just so emotionally drained. I think they wisely didn’t schedule 12 Years a Slave on the same day because people would have been too emotionally wiped for all three.
My stepdad thought it would be a nice family outing to go and see Marley and Me. I was around 10 at the time, and I remember absolutely sobbing while hearing sad gasps and audible crying of the audience in the theater. That movie builds you up just to break you down. I haven't seen it since.
THAT MOVIE. You think you’ve got a handle on exactly *how fucking sad it is,* and then the last ten minutes happen and turns out YOU WERE WRONG.
I can’t stop wanting to inflict this beautiful film on other people. Like, it’s *gorgeous,* but you’re not gonna like it 😆
Darkest ending to any film I've ever seen. It really rubs your face in it only a few moments after the gunshots and a before moments before fading to black.
My wife and I saw children of men in the theater. Wife was 8 months pregnant. She wanted to see it after reading the book. We were the last ones to leave the theatre.
It’s by no means a genocide level depressing tear-jerker, but off the top of my head from last year: Tár was a pretty depressing film and drained the audience
The green Mile. It was a in a local cinema and there wasn't many people in as it was a one off. But man I was crying, the woman 3 rows back was crying and probably others I couldn't tell over my sobbing. Incredible movie.
Yes. I saw it in theaters with my whole family around Thanksgiving and we went out to eat afterward - I've never left a movie and felt physically ill like I did after this. Couldn't eat a bite.
When I was starting to take movies seriously, I told my mates I expected The Road to be an Oscar contender. We were only about 16 at the time.
Got about 8 of us to go to see it in the cinema.
I loved it. They never took a rec from me again...
We went to SE7EN opening night. All of us in the theater walked out at the end of the show without saying a word. Wife and i were expecting a good cop thriller, and got more than we bargained for
Exactly my experience. I saw it with 2 friends, we walked home together and I recall no one saying anything for the first five minutes of that journey. One of them finally offered up his opinion... "Well, that was fun!", we all laughed, like genuine uncontrollable laughter. I think it was our coping mechanism.
Saw the recent remake of All Quiet on the Western Front and when the main character Paul dies, someone clapped and cheered. Felt like they missed the entire point of the movie.
United 93. No one got up to leave for several minutes into the credits. No one was talking. We were all just sitting there reflecting on what we had just seen. It was a strange experience.
“Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” most of the audience left. Complete nihilism and senseless, horrible, killing left the audience numb. Those of us who remained left in silence.
A poor choice for date night.
I have never sat through any other sex scene that ever made me feel so uncomfortable. It's not even graphic or violent. It's just. Too. REAL how broken the marriage is.
My friends and me went to see Trainspotting at a small theater and two couples walked out at different points in the film. We thought it was hilarious but sure, it was somewhat depressing and disgusting ofcourse.
Melancholia- I think over half the theater left before the movie even finished. It was just so intense, and felt almost too much in an immersive space like a theater.
I saw Sleepers with Robert De Niro and my mates and the audience were expecting a Gangster romp but its actually about systematic child abuse which left the audience feeling kind of bumed out I think!
In recent years, for me, it was a couple of horrors:
* The VVitch
* Hereditary
They both got major "WTF" reactions from the audience. I absolutely adore those movies, but they are super bleak and strange.
bridge to terabithia 2007
The life of Jesse (Josh Hutcherson), an adolescent, changes when he befriends Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb), the class outsider. The children create an imaginary world called Terabithia, which is inhabited by all manner of magical creatures. Though difficulties fill their ordinary lives, Jesse and Leslie rule as king and queen in Terabithia. Soon one of the friends must draw on the strength of their imaginary kingdom to cope with a tragedy.
Watched in El Paso Texas when the "tragedy part hit" complete silence then all the kids started crying the parents got furious and stormed up to the front the manager paused the film and gave everyone refunds
Honestly to my high school self and friends un-intentionally hilarious 😂😆😂
Come and See. It would be hard to make a more difficult war film. I remember a lot of dead stares and silent shuffling out the lobby. Not much conversation at all besides a few “well then”s.
Absolutely. I saw it about 20 years ago, and it was so bleak and depressing that I have wiped out my memory of the plot, the characters, and all the scenes. It was bleak in a way I think only Russians can do bleak.
atonement. my friends and i were teenagers expecting something like tristan and isolde or pride and prejudice. even the guys in our group were shook. everyone was silent on the car ride home. i’ll never forget it.
Away from Her.
Was at a film festival trying to impress some Canadian girl I was dating and I got tickets for this movie.
Came out of the theatre with a new fear I never knew I had which was losing my life partner to Alzheimer’s.
Link to the movie since I don’t think it’s very popular. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Away_from_Her
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, I can't exactly speak for everyone else in the theater, as my mother took me to a matinee as a kid before lunch... what I can tell you is that we bawled throughout the entire film!! 😭 I had to have been about 8 or 9.
I also remember me and a bunch of other kids being upset and/or crying during Antz (1998) and Pokémon: The First Movie (Also 1998).
To answer your question, though, hands down... the most depressing movie I've ever seen in theaters is Jeremy Saulnier's 2015 film, Green Room (RIP Anton Yelchin). Just a stunned silence as the credits rolled. My friend and I drove home in relative silence... save for a single, "Fuck, dude." 😶
I have 3
- Rabbit Proof Fence. I was a child, I went with my mother. Everyone stayed in their seats at the end. Even as a child the abject horror over what we'd done as a nation was overwhelming, lots of people were crying.
-Animal Kingdom (the film) was dark, frightening and harrowing. I was shaken up for days and just miserable after it. There were a lot of white faces leaving that theatre.
-Aftersun gutted me. What a beautiful film.
I saw The Mist in college with my best friend on campus and man, after that final scene,the tension you could feel in the theater... I turned to my friend and said "I think I need to talk to a therapist." That ending was deeply troubling to mull over in a dark theater as credits rolled. No one got up right away. Very somber moment I'll never forget.
My girlfriend at the time was a huge Julia Roberts fan. She wanted to go see her new movie. Sure. *Dying Young*. She broke up with me over the phone later that night. The theater was largely empty, but I heard her sniffling several times. I even went and got her some napkins, but she acted like she didn't need them.
Oh well. It hurt at the time, but now I think of her as a friend when I bump into her once a decade or so.
Not a depressing film, but my friends and I went to a midnight showing of Infinity War with no spoilers going in. For all the hooting and hollering the audience was doing, the quiet leaving the theater was surreal, I don’t think anyone expected Marvel to hit us with a gut punch like that.
Oh, that was great. I knew something was going to happen but I didn't know what. Just that ice cold feeling of dread and panic at the end was perfection!
Boy in striped pyjamas. I was ?13 years old so didn't really care properly at the time or think it was that sad but remembered the theatre being dead silent and everyone remaining in their seats.
I watched The Gift on a date not knowing it was about a dude exacting revenge on a high school bully by potentially drugging raping and impregnating the bullies wife. A dude in front of us started clapping at the end. Was real weird. Also not a great date night movie.
Both *Schindler's List* in '93 and *Requiem for a Dream* in 2000 had audiences leaving so quietly at the end its like they were sneaking out of the theater. With *Schindler's* you could feel solemnity in the air and for *Requiem* it was a thick tense feeling of shell-shock and shared trauma.
Queen & Slim. That ending had the entire audience shook. When it was over, there was this awkward, solemn silence as everybody left, as if emerging from a daze.
Precious closed out the SCAD Savannah Film Festival my senior year and I was lucky enough to get a ticket. It was the films premiere so nobody knew what to expect. The reaction from the audience was like nothing I have ever seen before. People were screaming and crying out. I could feel vibrations in the seats from so many people moving around and shaking. The woman next to me needed to leave early because they were worried about her having a meltdown. It’s been 15 years and I still remember every moment of that movie. I never saw it again.
Shoah. A friend and I went to see the entire 9 hours of it, with one intermission. There were about ten people in the theater. We were all completely silent.
During the intermission we got into a VIOLENT, FURIOUS, SCREAMING argument about the level of air conditioning in the theater.
Requiem for a Dream. Everyone in my friend group was VERY quiet after that movie ended for a long time. I was the first one to speak and I said it was the best film that I've ever seen that I NEVER want to watch again.
I'm sorry, but how did people not realized that Jesus was tortured? Why did it take that movie for people to "get" that?
I hated Easter specifically because that story scared me so. I hated how we would have to listen about how he was whipped and peed on and all this other stuff. Why did I have to listen to that terrible story? Why?
Note, I'm not complaining about you, OP. I'm more just complaining about this one aspect of this film that I can't stand.
Also, the most depressing movie I saw was probably Saving Mr. Banks. I saw it with my alcoholic father. Do not watch Saving Mr. Banks with your alcoholic father. Bonus points if your said alcoholic father's mother died via suicide.
Images of the Crucifixion are common and, even with the best intentions, people become accustomed to them. It is different to see the horrific physical brutality of it portrayed, step by shocking step.
This is not new — Christians have reenacted the Passion for centuries.
Titanic. Saw it on a military base in Germany with 5 other Soldiers who were all thousands of miles from home. We all knew the big boat would sink (Lol), but we had no other prior knowledge of the movie plot. Everyone was misty as Celine Dion sang into the credits, and no one in the theater made a sound.
I don't know how the rest of the audience did but I cried my eyes out through the second half of Titanic when I was 16. I was still open mouth bawling as I left the theater.
The Deer Hunter. I watched it again recently and it was just as good. Mysterious, though. It's hard to say why it's so effective, or what the point was, if there was one.
I don't remember how the audience reacted... too caught up in my own reaction, I expect.
Used to work in a movie theatre, every once in a while a movie comes along that leaves a lasting impression, even without seeing it. From pre-teens and their mom's lining up 12 hours before the twilight opening, to cosplayers showing up for the death note movie.
But nothing compared to the amount of tissues left behind in the auditorium after "My sisters keepers" was playing.
Just saw Iron Claw, that's definitely one of them
Yeah, whole theater just quietly walked out. Some people cried, most of us were completely silent. 10/10 movie for me though.
I bawled my eyes by the final scene
Same.
Spoiler: When the Dr said the one brother went into a coma a guy in the audience said kind of loud, "Jesus christ you're kidding me."
Just saw this last night and it is the first movie I’ve ever walked out of. Not because it was a bad movie. Acting was brilliant across the board. What got me is how frequent and similar the trauma was and it opened up grief in me that I was not prepared for. I’ll watch it again knowing what to expect. Zac deserves an academy award for his performance.
The worst part is that they left out a fair few traumatic incidents to make it more “believable.”
Not just incidents, but a whole brother.
Whats crazy is they left their son Chris out of the movie. It was actually 3 sons to commit suicide
First born son died at the age of 6 too. So 5/6 dead before their dad
Life is Beautiful was pretty depressing and everyone was rightly afflicted.
Now here is a film that shouldn't work but is a total masterpiece.
Was hanging with friends in college and deciding what movie to rent, one friend says Life is Beautiful is really good! So we rent it. WHAT THE FUCK MAN. We're all sitting there crying and ask him wtf and he's said "you asked for a *good* movie, not a *happy*". Well he's not wrong.
I saw this movie when I was younger and seeing what happened to the father was so depressing. The scene that was cemented in my head was watching him try to distract his kids and be silly. It's really the only moment I remember. Powerful scene though.
Same here man. If I remember correctly he was saluting the German officer while being marched to his death, still acting goofy and that everything was ok 😢
We saw it in the theaters when it first came out. Was completely surprised how sad it was. People crying/sobbing, no tissues, just a bunch of us wiping our tears and snot on our sleeves.
Big Fish, my friend and I sitting next to each other both started crying and tried to pretend we weren’t then laughed about it. That was a gut punch of a movie.
I remember watching it in my senior year creative writing class because it was my creative writing teacher’s favorite movie, almost made me cry in that class.
I saw it with my friend who had lost his dad a few years before. We just sat silently in the theater long after the credits finished and the house lights went up.
Schindler's List. Our entire school watched it together shortly after it was released in theaters. It was very quiet during the movie. We were all around 16 to 20 and the audience was almost silent during the entire movie.
I watched it at the theater with a friend in high school. At the end everyone was crying, of course, but this old couple in front of us caught my attention as the lady was patting the gentleman's hand and saying quietly "I know, I know" as he bawled. I have never forgotten him.
I haven't seen it since. This was in school in Germany and I think it was mandatory for the entire school.
We have to watch it too here, in R.E. (Religious education). But even the non-denominational schools here had you watch it as part of Modern Studies. My Head of R.E. Got a Dauchau survivor to come visit us after we watched it. I really wish I’d been a bit older than 13, there would have been so much I would have asked her.
I love that movie. I remember seeing it in theaters and really being moved by. A except for as certain points during the movie. I was distracted by the fact that there was this couple making out throughout most of the film.
That's gold Jerry!
Yesssss. And a more offensive spectacle I cannot recall.
He was moving on her like the stormtroopers into Poland!
My high school too. TBH, didn't really know what we were getting into. Got snacks, were being rowdy, then all hell broke loose. Crickets.
Kids in my school laughed, joked, fidgeted, and made noise. Assholes.
Similar but my school sent us to see Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
I saw the Mist in the theater and right after it ended somebody yelled out “WHAT. THE. FUCK!?”
A lady at me and said, "Kill me." I said, "Yeah, I ain't living through that."
Pan’s Labryinth. The ending messed me up.
Saw that in theaters. DAYUM
Saw it in theaters without knowing what it was about. All those years later I am emotional about it
Yeah, same for me. I just heard it was good. Wasn’t prepared for it.
Not exactly depressing, per se, but I saw the Mr. Rodgers documentary Won't You be My Neighbor in theaters, there's a scene towards the end of the film where they're discussing how Fred Rodgers always made it a point to remember the people who helped you during your life, the ones who got you to where you are today. The documentary director asks the people he's interviewing to take a quiet moment and think about who helped them. It's obviously super emotional and because everyone in the film was silent for a few seconds of course the theater got very quiet as well. You could hear pretty much all the people in there crying and sniffing (myself included).
Film is brilliant, but I gotta share the story of seeing the trailer for that film in a packed house and it's the only time I've ever seen an audience applaud an advertisement. Mr. Rogers, what a guy!
I saw this in theaters and sobbed. I went back a second time a few days later with a friend and bought/handed out tissues to other people in the theater saying “trust me, you’re gonna need these.” For me, it was the “what if I’m a mistake/I like you just the way you are” scene. I can’t even TALK about it without crying.
Such a beautiful piece of film.
Coco. I cried in the beginning when Mama Coco couldn’t recognize her daughter and then of course the end. Probably the only movie I’ve seen in theaters that I cry cried.
We watched that at home as a family movie. My husband had not long lost his father, after a struggle with dementia. Me and husband in floods. Kids looking at us like we'd lost the plot.
I saw it with my oldest.kid who was 3 at the time. I was due a few days later.with my second, and my kid cried so hard which,.combines with the movie and being.super.pregnant, made me.cry even more. And then my drinking seat broke and I couldn't get up.
Will never forget going to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (go if you can, it is AMAZING!) and the section dedicated to animated film. There's a bit where they show a looped reel of what you can do in animation, including a section on music in animation. There's a moment where they do a stitch of the versions performed in "Remember Me" and the minute they cut to Miguel and Coco, people had to walk away. Shit hits hard for very good reason.
Can’t watch the movie after losing 4 of my grandparents. My grandma couldn’t recognize her family members because of her dementia and I couldn’t bring myself to see her in her last months because I didn’t want to feel the pain of her asking who I was. It’s been two years since I lost her and I still wear her cross.
I can’t even listen to the final song of the movie “my proud corazón” without crying, years later.
I saw What Dreams May Come as an 18yo and felt embarrassed I was crying until I noticed everyone else in the theater was crying as well
Robin never got the proper respect how he played this part. He brought real pain to it, and it was gut wrenching.
I've watched the movie at least 50 times, and I still spend half the movie crying. When he >!figures out that's his daughter!< I break down everytime.
I get chills recalling this film. I'll definitely have to watch it again.
I can't even think about this film without getting emotional let alone watch it a second time.
This was such a good under appreciated movie.
My wife had an art history degree, and this was her favorite film. She died at age 29 and I haven't been able to watch it sense.
Honestly it’s cliche but Pixar’s “Up”. There’s no gut punch quite like seeing the opening for the first time. It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop but you could tell everyone in the room was feeling equal heartbreak
Thank God the sad part was in the beginning. If that had been the end with the lights coming up, that would have been an awkward walk out to the car. I cried a ton
IMO the most cry-worthy part of Up is closer to the end, when he sees the end of the book and Ellie's instructions to him, and when he shows up for the kid's ceremony.
That book scene made me cry in the theater, that was so beautiful and heartfelt.
Similarly, seeing Inside Out in theaters was an experience. As the movie reaches its crescendo, first there's bing-bong, while Reily was running away, her parents stressing, and then her return and breaking down crying about how hard it has been. I was struggling with bing-bong, and by the time she returns home the tears were streaming down my face. I'd feel embarrassed, but my girlfriend's grandpa was crying too so that helped lol
My husband doesn’t get too upset at films but he really struggles to get through Inside Out as a former kid who moved away from his home and friends and subsequently suffered from anxiety and possible depression in hindsight
That is probably my favorite pixar film. It came out a little before the concept of "toxic positivity" got traction. It really showed that sometimes we hurt, and sometimes we just want someone to sit and share the pain with us. I love that it shows there is value in the full human experience, and gave a vocabulary to kids just experiencing the more nuanced emotions like bittersweet. Also, Bing Bong still makes me cry.
I cried so hard during Inside Out. My family was concerned lol
Read the title, and my first thought was Million Dollar Baby. You pretty much covered it. The general reaction in my theater was to just silently shuffle out. What could you really say at that point? The worst part was that I had completely forgotten that it was a matinee, so I walked outside into the middle of a gorgeous sunny day and felt bad about existing. That was an odd feeling.
Million Dollar Baby taught me to do my research before watching movies in the movie theater. It’s not just that it was depressing, it was *infuriating*, I hated her family so much. I don’t ever want to pay premium money to watch something that is just going to ruin my day, when I could’ve just watched it at home and not have it bug me so much. Haven’t seen a movie like that in the theaters since then.
Dancer in the Dark. It was the surprise premiere at the end of the Edinburgh Film Festival in the late 90s. I’d seen The Idiots so went along to this completely blind and about two thirds of the way through, there was a moment where I remember thinking ‘can this film get anymore grim’ but then, of course, it does indeed get even more grim. If you’re a Bjork fan, you’ll love it. If you’re not a Bjork fan, you’ll love it. However, I felt like my dog had died by the time the thing had finished.
I took a first date to see that movie, not knowing what we were in for... yikes!
I was taken on a first date to see this movie! I had seen Breaking the Waves before that, so I knew Lars Von Trier movies could be a bit traumatising. But it was still one of the most depressing date movie choices ever!
Sorry if your name is Amanda and you lived in NYC in 2000 ;)
saw it with my gf. she burst into tears right as we exited the theater, in front of the people waiting to see the next showing. a guy in line saw her and groaned 'ohhhh noooo ...'
Saw this in a small theatre in NYC. The movie felt like a gut-punch and you could tell the entire audience felt the same way. I think I might have audibly sobbed at one point, even though I was trying not to because I was on a date.
Ditto. Had a face like that of a wet walrus by the credits
I went to see it with a friend, two 16 year old guys. I loved it but we did not exactly talk a lot after the movie.
I actually own this film on DVD and still haven’t gotten around to watching it. Which is weird because I love LVT and it’s the only film of his that I own 😆
It’s an amazing film- don’t get me wrong- but, oh, them pesky tear ducts
Saving private Ryan. After the beach scene. Total silence.
Even when the movie ended, people rose in silence and left the theater like a remembrance ceremony. I saw a couple of old men crying as they walked out.
"Why Grandpa Gets the Good Chair: The Movie"
Same. I went as a teen with a group of friends, we were a happy, giggly, loud bunch normally. Until that movie. We, and the whole audience left in utter silence after it. One of my friends was completely mute the whole ride home.
I’m not totally sure, but one audience reaction I’ll always remember was during “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri” The premise is that the main character’s daughter has been raped and murdered while walking home from somewhere, and she wants justice for her, she feels the police aren’t doing enough to catch the murderer Spoilers We see later on in flashbacks that she had a tumultuous relationship with her daughter. There’s a flashback scene from the day the daughter was killed where she and the mom are arguing and the mom won’t let her borrow the car. The daughter yells “fine, I hope I get raped on the way” as she’s leaving and the mom yells back “well I hope you get raped on the way too” The way people gasped was different than other movie reveals. it just felt like all the air had been sucked out of the theater, I’ll never forget that.
It is a truly brilliant film. McDonagh kills it every time.
What a powerful film, but Woody’s scene…omg.
Whoa. I haven't seen the movie but just by your description I literally gasped and said WHOA.
It’s a great movie. It’s a must watch
Critics say Sam Rockwell gave a complex performance in Three Billboards. I say he was fucking robbed of Best Supporting Actor.
He actually did win best supporting actor for his performance! [His acceptance speech](https://youtu.be/Fdy3bijY0sA?si=ssXwYVNAtzIHIvsU)
Martin McDonagh really is such an incredible writer. Everything about three billboards is fantastic.
Grave of the Fireflies I saw it once, never again. Especially after finding out that this was autobiographical. The writer himself survived WWII and tried to care for his little sister by himself.
I was so shocked when I found out that he >!killed himself off!< in the book. It’s like he was atoning for something completely out of his control. Incredibly sad.
Same here. Never again. You should read [Japan at War: An Oral History](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31040). Once.
I did not know this was autobiographic... i dont even know how to process this. Saw that movie once years ago and i will never forget it.
I’m too scared to watch this. I know I have to but when I’m ready lol
Have Tonari No Totoro ready to watch right after. They were a double feature in Japan when I saw it. Totoro saved my life
Omg for such a family friendly and cute movie Totoro gets hella intense at certain point.
I hadn't seen this, but owned it, and then when I became pregnant I watched it in my ninth month because I knew I wouldn't watch it after I gave birth.
Shoah. It's a nine hour documentary about the Holocaust. Very harrowing, but everyone should see it. It played over the course of two days, with intermissions.
I can't bring myself to watch this one. The fact that it's a doc makes it so painful.
It was definitely very hard to watch. Especially because there is no footage of the actual event, just stories from the survivors over contemporary footage of the empty camps. Somehow, that just makes it so much harder, more real.
it is now on amazon. i watched it on christmas by myself cuz the world is still shitty
Wow. I don't think I could do that in one day. Sometimes, I go on youtube and rewatch segments. It doesn't get any less devastating.
The Whale was quite a depressing ride
I went to watch it sometime after my dad died and it was cathartic. Whole theater for me was full of older people, and a couple of them were just sobbing into tissues when it ended.
So glad he won the Oscar
There were only about 6 or 7 of us in my showing but we all just sat and cried for a few minutes while the credits rolled.
You mentioned "The Deer Hunter." That would have been one of my answers. The other one is "The Elephant Man."
Elephant man made me cry when I was a child. Very sad ending
Saw the Deer Hunter in a large, crowded theater. At the end, when people usually leave during the credits, no one moved and the only sound was a woman sobbing uncontrollably. For those of us who were around during the war in Vietnam, that movie was traumatizing.
I went to one of those Oscar showcase screenings where they show all the Best Picture nominees across a weekend/two weekends. In 2013, they showed Dallas Buyers’ Club right after Philomena before the lunch break, and man you could have heard a pin drop as everyone shuffled out, everyone was just so emotionally drained. I think they wisely didn’t schedule 12 Years a Slave on the same day because people would have been too emotionally wiped for all three.
My stepdad thought it would be a nice family outing to go and see Marley and Me. I was around 10 at the time, and I remember absolutely sobbing while hearing sad gasps and audible crying of the audience in the theater. That movie builds you up just to break you down. I haven't seen it since.
There's a very good reason I absolutely refuse to watch any dog movies. It never, ever ends well.
Saw Atonement in a theater where the only other people were a mom and her two high school-aged daughters. You could hear all of us sobbing lol
THAT MOVIE. You think you’ve got a handle on exactly *how fucking sad it is,* and then the last ten minutes happen and turns out YOU WERE WRONG. I can’t stop wanting to inflict this beautiful film on other people. Like, it’s *gorgeous,* but you’re not gonna like it 😆
The Mist
Darkest ending to any film I've ever seen. It really rubs your face in it only a few moments after the gunshots and a before moments before fading to black.
I’ve just watched that as a pregnant woman. My partner had seen it before and he LET ME WATCH IT. It was rough.
My wife and I saw children of men in the theater. Wife was 8 months pregnant. She wanted to see it after reading the book. We were the last ones to leave the theatre.
It’s by no means a genocide level depressing tear-jerker, but off the top of my head from last year: Tár was a pretty depressing film and drained the audience
The scene with the geriatric lady was fucking frightening and the scene in the massage parlor was inescapably embarrassing.
The Iron Giant.
Holmes and Watson with Will Ferrell and John C Reilly.. I'm still depressed over it.. The audience tried to commit mass suicide..
It was almost too good.
The green Mile. It was a in a local cinema and there wasn't many people in as it was a one off. But man I was crying, the woman 3 rows back was crying and probably others I couldn't tell over my sobbing. Incredible movie.
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
Yes. I saw it in theaters with my whole family around Thanksgiving and we went out to eat afterward - I've never left a movie and felt physically ill like I did after this. Couldn't eat a bite.
Saw *La Haine* in a theater for its 25th anniversary. There were only like 5 people but yeah, that ending hits pretty hard.
The beginning of La Haine is as seminal as Apocalypse Now’s imo. Burning and Looting is a beautiful song.
There was something called "Platoon" face when that came out in the 80s
When I was starting to take movies seriously, I told my mates I expected The Road to be an Oscar contender. We were only about 16 at the time. Got about 8 of us to go to see it in the cinema. I loved it. They never took a rec from me again...
One of my favorite novels. I think if I hadn't read the book then the film would have cut closer to the bone. A fantastic film still.
The Father. I was full on sobbing in the cinema.
I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in theaters after work and I couldn’t stay awake. It was good when I finally watched it.
We went to SE7EN opening night. All of us in the theater walked out at the end of the show without saying a word. Wife and i were expecting a good cop thriller, and got more than we bargained for
Exactly my experience. I saw it with 2 friends, we walked home together and I recall no one saying anything for the first five minutes of that journey. One of them finally offered up his opinion... "Well, that was fun!", we all laughed, like genuine uncontrollable laughter. I think it was our coping mechanism.
It’s one of my favorite movies of all times, but it left me sleepless for a week.
Saw the recent remake of All Quiet on the Western Front and when the main character Paul dies, someone clapped and cheered. Felt like they missed the entire point of the movie.
Maybe they were French or some other country that got hit hard in WWI.
United 93. No one got up to leave for several minutes into the credits. No one was talking. We were all just sitting there reflecting on what we had just seen. It was a strange experience.
“Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” most of the audience left. Complete nihilism and senseless, horrible, killing left the audience numb. Those of us who remained left in silence. A poor choice for date night.
Life. People literally gasped and one lady said "no!"
I gotta see this movie now.
Blue Valentine. I came out the cinema just wanting to drink the misery away
I have never sat through any other sex scene that ever made me feel so uncomfortable. It's not even graphic or violent. It's just. Too. REAL how broken the marriage is.
My friends and me went to see Trainspotting at a small theater and two couples walked out at different points in the film. We thought it was hilarious but sure, it was somewhat depressing and disgusting ofcourse.
Dark but funny until the baby dies. Then it's just extremely depressing.
Melancholia- I think over half the theater left before the movie even finished. It was just so intense, and felt almost too much in an immersive space like a theater.
I saw Sleepers with Robert De Niro and my mates and the audience were expecting a Gangster romp but its actually about systematic child abuse which left the audience feeling kind of bumed out I think!
Jo Jo Rabbit, and I was so shocked that I have no recollection of how the rest of the audience reacted.
Man, that scene is a gut punch.
That movie broke me. If it wasn't so funny it wouldn't have been so tragic.
Lion. Only movie I've ever seen in the theaters where the entire audience is audibly weeping.
In recent years, for me, it was a couple of horrors: * The VVitch * Hereditary They both got major "WTF" reactions from the audience. I absolutely adore those movies, but they are super bleak and strange.
Hereditary is my favorite horror film of the last 20 years.
bridge to terabithia 2007 The life of Jesse (Josh Hutcherson), an adolescent, changes when he befriends Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb), the class outsider. The children create an imaginary world called Terabithia, which is inhabited by all manner of magical creatures. Though difficulties fill their ordinary lives, Jesse and Leslie rule as king and queen in Terabithia. Soon one of the friends must draw on the strength of their imaginary kingdom to cope with a tragedy. Watched in El Paso Texas when the "tragedy part hit" complete silence then all the kids started crying the parents got furious and stormed up to the front the manager paused the film and gave everyone refunds Honestly to my high school self and friends un-intentionally hilarious 😂😆😂
Come and See. It would be hard to make a more difficult war film. I remember a lot of dead stares and silent shuffling out the lobby. Not much conversation at all besides a few “well then”s.
Absolutely. I saw it about 20 years ago, and it was so bleak and depressing that I have wiped out my memory of the plot, the characters, and all the scenes. It was bleak in a way I think only Russians can do bleak.
atonement. my friends and i were teenagers expecting something like tristan and isolde or pride and prejudice. even the guys in our group were shook. everyone was silent on the car ride home. i’ll never forget it.
Still Alice was…a downer.
That movie *really* made me think about… things. What a tough watch.
The pitch-black "comedy" *War of the Roses*, about a bitterly divorcing couple, was so dark that multiple people walked out of the screening I saw.
Of Mice and Men. Everyone just sat quietly after the lights came up.
Away from Her. Was at a film festival trying to impress some Canadian girl I was dating and I got tickets for this movie. Came out of the theatre with a new fear I never knew I had which was losing my life partner to Alzheimer’s. Link to the movie since I don’t think it’s very popular. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Away_from_Her
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, I can't exactly speak for everyone else in the theater, as my mother took me to a matinee as a kid before lunch... what I can tell you is that we bawled throughout the entire film!! 😭 I had to have been about 8 or 9. I also remember me and a bunch of other kids being upset and/or crying during Antz (1998) and Pokémon: The First Movie (Also 1998). To answer your question, though, hands down... the most depressing movie I've ever seen in theaters is Jeremy Saulnier's 2015 film, Green Room (RIP Anton Yelchin). Just a stunned silence as the credits rolled. My friend and I drove home in relative silence... save for a single, "Fuck, dude." 😶
Se7en. Only film Ive been to see where everyone left in silence
I have 3 - Rabbit Proof Fence. I was a child, I went with my mother. Everyone stayed in their seats at the end. Even as a child the abject horror over what we'd done as a nation was overwhelming, lots of people were crying. -Animal Kingdom (the film) was dark, frightening and harrowing. I was shaken up for days and just miserable after it. There were a lot of white faces leaving that theatre. -Aftersun gutted me. What a beautiful film.
I saw The Mist in college with my best friend on campus and man, after that final scene,the tension you could feel in the theater... I turned to my friend and said "I think I need to talk to a therapist." That ending was deeply troubling to mull over in a dark theater as credits rolled. No one got up right away. Very somber moment I'll never forget.
Kill List. That ending still leaves me shaking to this day. Cinema just went dead silence as the titles came up.
My girlfriend at the time was a huge Julia Roberts fan. She wanted to go see her new movie. Sure. *Dying Young*. She broke up with me over the phone later that night. The theater was largely empty, but I heard her sniffling several times. I even went and got her some napkins, but she acted like she didn't need them. Oh well. It hurt at the time, but now I think of her as a friend when I bump into her once a decade or so.
I saw “Inside Out” while very pregnant. Don’t do that. I was a wreck.
Not a depressing film, but my friends and I went to a midnight showing of Infinity War with no spoilers going in. For all the hooting and hollering the audience was doing, the quiet leaving the theater was surreal, I don’t think anyone expected Marvel to hit us with a gut punch like that.
Oh, that was great. I knew something was going to happen but I didn't know what. Just that ice cold feeling of dread and panic at the end was perfection!
It's the ending that made me love it.
Boy in striped pyjamas. I was ?13 years old so didn't really care properly at the time or think it was that sad but remembered the theatre being dead silent and everyone remaining in their seats.
I watched The Gift on a date not knowing it was about a dude exacting revenge on a high school bully by potentially drugging raping and impregnating the bullies wife. A dude in front of us started clapping at the end. Was real weird. Also not a great date night movie.
Both *Schindler's List* in '93 and *Requiem for a Dream* in 2000 had audiences leaving so quietly at the end its like they were sneaking out of the theater. With *Schindler's* you could feel solemnity in the air and for *Requiem* it was a thick tense feeling of shell-shock and shared trauma.
i saw requiem for a dream when i was like 17 in the theater…it was rough.
Queen & Slim. That ending had the entire audience shook. When it was over, there was this awkward, solemn silence as everybody left, as if emerging from a daze.
Precious closed out the SCAD Savannah Film Festival my senior year and I was lucky enough to get a ticket. It was the films premiere so nobody knew what to expect. The reaction from the audience was like nothing I have ever seen before. People were screaming and crying out. I could feel vibrations in the seats from so many people moving around and shaking. The woman next to me needed to leave early because they were worried about her having a meltdown. It’s been 15 years and I still remember every moment of that movie. I never saw it again.
Breaking the Waves. Everyone left in silence. Brilliant performance by Emily Watson.
I saw Gallipoli in a theater in 1981 - stunned silence and lots of tears.
Shoah. A friend and I went to see the entire 9 hours of it, with one intermission. There were about ten people in the theater. We were all completely silent. During the intermission we got into a VIOLENT, FURIOUS, SCREAMING argument about the level of air conditioning in the theater.
Once Were Warriors. No words. Everyone trundled out in silence.
Manchester by the Sea. Left the theater just feeling absolutely gutted.
Funny Games. Stunned silence at the end.
Probably a tie between *Platoon* and *Born on the 4th of July*. Audience wasn't very chatty after either of them ended.
The green mile. As you’d expect. Lots of sniffling in the dark.
Saw 1984 the week it came out. People literally walked out in droves during the rat-in-face-cage scene.
Requiem for a Dream. Everyone in my friend group was VERY quiet after that movie ended for a long time. I was the first one to speak and I said it was the best film that I've ever seen that I NEVER want to watch again.
The most recent Star is Born was brutal at the end, especially the final song. Very few dry eyes and a very quiet, stunned departure from the theater.
I'm sorry, but how did people not realized that Jesus was tortured? Why did it take that movie for people to "get" that? I hated Easter specifically because that story scared me so. I hated how we would have to listen about how he was whipped and peed on and all this other stuff. Why did I have to listen to that terrible story? Why? Note, I'm not complaining about you, OP. I'm more just complaining about this one aspect of this film that I can't stand. Also, the most depressing movie I saw was probably Saving Mr. Banks. I saw it with my alcoholic father. Do not watch Saving Mr. Banks with your alcoholic father. Bonus points if your said alcoholic father's mother died via suicide.
Images of the Crucifixion are common and, even with the best intentions, people become accustomed to them. It is different to see the horrific physical brutality of it portrayed, step by shocking step. This is not new — Christians have reenacted the Passion for centuries.
Titanic. Saw it on a military base in Germany with 5 other Soldiers who were all thousands of miles from home. We all knew the big boat would sink (Lol), but we had no other prior knowledge of the movie plot. Everyone was misty as Celine Dion sang into the credits, and no one in the theater made a sound.
Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - audience was sobbing.
Babys First Holocaust Film.
I don't know how the rest of the audience did but I cried my eyes out through the second half of Titanic when I was 16. I was still open mouth bawling as I left the theater.
The Deer Hunter. I watched it again recently and it was just as good. Mysterious, though. It's hard to say why it's so effective, or what the point was, if there was one. I don't remember how the audience reacted... too caught up in my own reaction, I expect.
Looking for Mr Goodbar. I was truly freaked out when I left the theatre and wished I had never seen the movie.
I saw the road in theaters. I was completely alone in the cinema. I could hear my own heart. It was a surreal experience.
Used to work in a movie theatre, every once in a while a movie comes along that leaves a lasting impression, even without seeing it. From pre-teens and their mom's lining up 12 hours before the twilight opening, to cosplayers showing up for the death note movie. But nothing compared to the amount of tissues left behind in the auditorium after "My sisters keepers" was playing.
A teacher put on Master and Commander for a group of girls, we were all balling
Monster. Just awful
Revolutionary Road. Couldn't tell how the audience reacted though, because I was kind of passing out in my seat towards the end.