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*trigger warning - upsetting content* The most upsetting film you've ever seen...

496 replies

YellowRedBlueGreen · 07/10/2022 17:13

Harry Brown - I absolutely hated it and felt depressed for days, probably because those kinds of gangs are real and only 100 miles down the road. I was especially hurt watching the two beginning scenes, where they shoot a Mum walking her baby in a park just for a laugh and when they beat to death an innocent man trying to stop his car being vandalised. It reminded me of a particularly well known case 15 odd years ago (GN) 💔

Midnight Express - when they hung the cat purely out of spite because they knew the prisoner loved it. I can't watch it

Dumbo - when the Mean Elephants reject him and he's crying by his bucket of water. Fucking kills me

OP posts:
Reigateforever · 07/10/2022 19:22

The Constant Gardener The little refuge girl, not understanding why she is being left behind by the aid worker and is running after the plane, while it is taking off with him inside.

PotatoFamily · 07/10/2022 19:22

Dancer in the dark

Its simultaneously one of the oddest and most harrowing films I’ve ever watched. It’s one of my favourites but it kills me to watch it

Mandyjack · 07/10/2022 19:22

Green Mile
Bambi when his Mum is killed
Dumbo
Fox and the Hound
I'm an empath so get tearful quite easily!

StapFooterin · 07/10/2022 19:25

Funny Games (the Austrian original, haven't seen the remake)

A Clockwork Orange

Twilight7777 · 07/10/2022 19:27

Lovely bones, my sisters keeper, the boy in the blue pajamas, the last house on the left (very graphic rape scene)

VenusClapTrap · 07/10/2022 19:28

Oysterbabe · 07/10/2022 18:21

The Cove. It's a documentary about the slaughter of hundreds of dolphins.

That episode of Futurama where Fry's dog waits a decade for him to return and dies waiting.

Argh, yes, Fry’s dog! I don’t even like dogs and I was crying like a baby.

OngoingCrisis · 07/10/2022 19:29

kateandme · 07/10/2022 19:21

The Jeffrey dahmer series has just done me in. And true. No no no

I tried to watch this but only managed about 10 minutes, felt sick and anxious

LadyKenya · 07/10/2022 19:30

The birth of a nation 2016 film

The pianist

JessesMum777888 · 07/10/2022 19:30

Twilight7777 · 07/10/2022 19:27

Lovely bones, my sisters keeper, the boy in the blue pajamas, the last house on the left (very graphic rape scene)

I forgot about that house on the left one it was horrible !!

laloue · 07/10/2022 19:31

Tyrannosaur right from the outset.

Aldith · 07/10/2022 19:32

Flowers in the Attic

MandyMotherOfBrian · 07/10/2022 19:33

EleanorRavenclaw · 07/10/2022 18:56

City of God, brilliant film but some shocking scenes.

Came to say this too. Such utterly pointless wasting of lives, like they mean nothing. Even worse when you realise some of the ‘actors’ actually came from those favellas and that is their daily reality.

Also, Pan’s Labyrinth. The ending obviously. But especially when you realise one interpretation might be that the fantasy is Ofelia’s way of dealing with her reality.

CuppaAndABiccie · 07/10/2022 19:33

I don’t think “A.I. Artificial Intelligence“ has been mentioned yet……
Heartbreaking! The artificial boy who doesn’t realise realise he’s not real - or why his mummy stops loving him. I’ve watched it once - never again - it broke me 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Also “Sophie’s Choice” - horrific dilemma.

“The Colour Purple” (although at least that has a happy ending!)

SoSo99 · 07/10/2022 19:34

'Inside Out' was a brilliant film and shouldn't have been terribly upsetting...but much to my surprise I suddenly burst out with an uncontrollable loud sob at the sad bit towards the end...then laughed at myself and ended up snorting and making a terrible embarassment of myself, much to my family's bemusement.

(Then I read a NYTimes review which mentioned that the most distressing part of the film for kids might be seeing their parents cry towards the end...and didn't feel so bad!).

kateandme · 07/10/2022 19:35

OngoingCrisis · 07/10/2022 19:29

I tried to watch this but only managed about 10 minutes, felt sick and anxious

Show quote history

Yup. I don’t know how it does it quite like it.obviously the content is awful,but it’s more than that.it does just make you feel anxious!

astarsheis · 07/10/2022 19:36

Killing Fields

Twilight7777 · 07/10/2022 19:39

Also there is 3 girls (true story) and a film by David schwimmer called Trust (currently on Amazon prime to rent) about a teenager who meets a boy from the internet who turns out to be a middle aged perve who charms her into a date, won’t say anything else about it cos it’s a good film and I don’t want to spoil it.

LikeTearsInRain · 07/10/2022 19:39

The Road with Vigo Mortensen

non stop sobbing through the entire credits and beyond

Bunchesxxx · 07/10/2022 19:40

whoruntheworldgirls · 07/10/2022 17:30

I don't watch films normally that would upset me but i found The Lovely Bones really sad

The book of Lovely Bones upset me so much I've never seen the film.

QueenImprov · 07/10/2022 19:42

Manchester by the sea. Just such a sad and depressing film, couldn't stop thinking about it for ages.

Sugarplumfairy65 · 07/10/2022 19:43

grayhairdontcare · 07/10/2022 17:20

Who will love my children
It's bloody harrowing

That would be my choice too. I first watched it about 40 years ago and still think about it

pompomdaisy · 07/10/2022 19:43

Manchester by the Sea

JeanBodel · 07/10/2022 19:44

Another vote for Dancer in the Dark.

Also the beginning part of UP (the kids' film). I didn't get past the beginning. The kids promised me it would be a nice easy watch as they know what a wuss I am. They were mistaken.

BusySittingDown · 07/10/2022 19:44

Trainspotting, when the baby dies of neglect.

Scum, where one of the lads in the borstal is gang raped and later slits his wrists. He is wailing in his cell for help but they ignore him. I haven't seen the film properly, just seen bits when DH was watching it but that scene was horrific.

Frezia · 07/10/2022 19:47

Any film in which children are hurt, neglected or in danger I just can't deal with anymore.

I've cried over so many but the one that sticks in my mind is Spielberg's "AI". The scene where the little android boy is getting abandoned in the woods by his human Mum and begs her to take him back made me break down ugly crying in the cinema. And the ending, when he spends thousands of years just repeating the same prayer over and over, to be turned into a real boy so his Mummy would finally love him. It broke me completely.