The most depressing movie

[Everlong]

I was with a group of people talking about the most depressing movies we've ever seen, and I was trying to challenge people to name a movie more depressing than Requiem For a Dream. Are there any that you can think of that can equal that level of soul-crushing status?

[KaiserGlider]

There was one I watched overa year ago called City of Life and Death. It's a black and white film that deals with the aftermath of the battle of Nanjing. Throughout the movie people are getting beaten up, raped, shot, a baby gets thrown out a window, and in the end the main character commits suicide. It was a tough film to watch.

[Kirbi]

I got nothing. As a side-note, I can't believe I have to see that movie again.

(imdb 250)

[PorkChop]

Grave of the Fireflies

[Circled Square]

Not sure if I'd say the movie is "depressing", but that moment in Place Beyond the Pines...it's like that instant sadness type of thing. IDK.

[Romo]

Precious is pretty flippin depressing

[Matteo]

The Girl Next Door has to be up there. It has to be one of the most upsetting and disturbing films I have seen. It truly makes you feel helpless and despondent. It's brutal and hard to watch. It makes you feel so arrantly dejected, disconsolate and wretched. So much so I have never ventured to revisit it. It's one of the few films I often think about, but don't have any desire to rewatch. And then there's The Ascent. Out of all the films that I have ever seen, I believe this one shows war at its most tragic, brutal and harrowing. I'd even put it ahead of the notoriously grim Come and See. It's an extremely forceful and depressing experience. It gets under your skin and candidly confronts you with the grim realities of war.

And then there's The Elephant Man. It may very well be the most dejecting film I have ever seen. I have intentionally avoided seeing it on a numerous occasions because, frankly, it upsets me way too much. Not only is Lynch a brilliant surrealist, but he can clearly handle the dramatic without coming across as schmaltzy or overly-sentimental. This entire work is just one depressing blow after another. This one kept me down for days after I saw it for the first time. Michael Haneke's The Seventh Continent is an extremely bleak and dismal film, too.