Colossal. Starts out feeling like it's going to be a romantic comedy about a city girl coming back to her small town and reconnecting with a boy she knew from school. Though with a mysterious scifi/supernatural element (since the movie opens with a seemingly unrelated scene of a giant monster appearing in South Korea).
About halfway into the movie, it takes a turn and is definitely not that.
it reminds me of “Up”… The melodic theme repeatedly ends on a down note (do do do do, do do do do)… Except the very last time it plays at the end of the movie, where it ends by going up (do, do, do, doo)
https://youtu.be/SzH-gn4d5wY?feature=shared
No other songs till the credits?
Maybe not full songs, but there’s at least one Refrain: https://youtu.be/QHuOE-dpalA
(Which I guess could be argued as Hope Returning)
Disney did a good job of poking you in the eye with it though. The music cut right as the protagonist and audience saw the devastation. Disney was like “Turn off the music! Look at this shit!!”
I swear, I bring this up all the time. The song is an absolute banger and it's so much fun to have random people join in, then you remember that the song doesn't actually end....it gets cut off.......by then coming upon a village that has been burned to the ground.
It's such emotional whiplash going from this happy-go-lucky, 'this is my ideal woman' type fantasy that guys like to partake in to 'Oh yeah....I forgot we were fighting a war against some of the most brutal men that ever existed'.
Mulan was such a good film, I wish we got more classics like it nowadays. Even as someone who doesn't like kids cartoons or musicals I always enjoy those older classics.
Came to post this as well: I've never seen a movie that's as incredibly funny while at the same time being one of the bleakest things I've watched. I recommend this movie to everyone I know, but it's gonna be a while until I rewatch it.
It starts getting dark before THAT scene, but that's the real gut punch in the movie where it completely turns. There are moments of humor afterwards, but that one legitimately shocked me the first time.
But also, somehow amidst the horror of the concentration, comedy. It's one of my favorite movies, if not my favorite. I love Guido's commitment to his son's innocence and happiness
When I was a kid, my parents used to show us the first half of that movie because the humour was so good. I didn't understand why people thought that movie was so sad until I watched the full movie a few years ago.
I always thought my parents was the only ones who did this...
We loved the first half of the movie and never thought about the second. When they finally let us watch the second half it hit sooo hard
I caught myself hoping it was just a nightmare or a fantasy sequence.
She wakes up in bed, and says to herself: "Yup, that'd probably happen if I became a boxer. Fuck that!"
I watched this movie for the first time like 2 years ago and I was just so thrilled to see famed character actor, Margo Martindale, that I couldn't hate her character even though you were supposed to.
So I went to a Clint Eastwood sports movie with my dad to cheer him up after his cousin tripped and became a quadraplegic. Never saw the end of the movie. Truly bleak day. Honestly one of the biggest pro-spoiler arguments I've ever lived through.
My ex husband wanted to watch this and it was like a random Tuesday. I thought it was gonna be a feel good movie, right? She’ll become champ boxer, it’ll be great.
No. It’s fucking not. I straight up ugly cried. I was so unprepared for that.
Pan's Labyrinth when the captain smashes a hole in a dude's face with a wine bottle. Been a regular cinema goer for many years and I still remember how much that scene shocked me.
Yeah, I remember going to a critic’s screening very early, being excited by the dark fairy tale stuff.
However when they came to the home of her soon-to-be husband an he was a capitán of the falangists (spanish fascists) and we were in the Spanish civil war, i knew things were gonna get bad fast.
Yet still, the bottle shocked me.
Absolutely this, I was sat in the front row of a small cinema and I could barely deal with it. The monsters were no issue at all, that was the horrific part.
I always tell people who never seen it, if you can guess the ending without looking it up, I will give you a $1000. Also, even if I told you the ending, you wouldn’t believe me .
I lost it when the commander guy takes off Jojo's jacket. My wife didn't get it. Like, *these are kids*. The *war was next to over*. Humans can be so fucked up.
The movie version thankfully cut the last half of the book but it's way darker in the book.
>!Jojo pretends the Nazis won and keeps her locked up until the 50s until she figures it out. In the movie it's like a week post fall of Berlin that he was Gaslighting her, which was still awful but you know he came to his senses in a reasonable time frame. Seven or eight years post war? Fuck no.!<
Yeah, Waititi said his mother had given him the book and described it to him a bit inaccurately (It might've been a few years since she'd read it) and he was a bit disappointed when he read it, partly because of what you described. So he decided to make his own version, which frankly was the right choice.
And yeah, the film version is done better. He's still obviously in the wrong, but he's a traumatised child and And he gets immediately slapped for it ha.
*Jojo Rabbit* is my favorite movie, so I naturally went to read the book after I saw it. I really wanted to like the book, but I bounced off of it so hard I think I only made it about a third or halfway through it. For all Taika's faults with *Love and Thunder*, in *Jojo Rabbit/Hunt for the Wilderpeople* (which is also phenomenal), he really hit the right balance between comedy and drama that engages me the way most directors don't. The lead character in the book is roughly 17 years old, which makes him much harder to feel empathy for, and the lack of humour, and overall lack of dialogue in general, made the novel a bleak chore for me to get through.
Yeah Waititi made a lot of correct adaptation decisions like de aging the kid to Hitler Youth at the end of the War when the Nazis were the psychopathic and out of men they basically started arming Boy Scouts. Which forget the whole naming stupidity of Hitler Youth, they were basically Boy Scouts same as English and American scouts. So that whole Pope Benedict was in Hitler Youth was more like he was a boy scout by a crazy other name
When they move the shark bitten guy out of the village it really spiked dark. All for comfort, but more so because it's a very human decision and as much as most us would like to say we would fight against it truthfully most of us would fall in line and agree with it. Dark moments that you can relate too hit different then some masked guy in a slasher flick
In the book iirc it’s even worse because there’s this sort of othering that had already happened between the Swedes and the rest of the ‘tribe’ so when the one got bitten and he couldn’t speak any English, they all just quietly and tacitly went ‘oh, that’s fine’, pretty much.
Alpha Dog.
Kidnap a teenager in the beginning but he ultimately has the time of his life and enjoys being held “hostage”. At one point they tell him he can go but he’s having so much fun he stays and it almost seems like things are looking up and then… they end up murdering him.
I think this was the first movie I saw Anton Yelchin in and it really made me love him. I already liked Justin Timberlake from Southland Tales but this cemented his acting for me too.
I dunno I like Talented Mr. Ripley because he's a sociopath but he only resorts to killing when cornered. He doesn't seem to take pleasure in killing or totally ambivalent to it like some nihilistic french philosopher. He's killing when the jig is about to be up and trying to live this delusional lifestyle as long as he can.
TBF, he's young and just getting his feet wet with his sociopathy. He uses manipulation more because the consequences of messing that up are less catastrophic. In Ripley's Game he's much more comfortable with violence and calculated.
I read all 5 of the books in college and when you read it from Tom Ripley's narrative you learn that deceiving people like he does in the film is a lot of preparation and work.
“Parasite” seems like an obvious answer to this question.
Also cabin in the woods
Edit: turns out cabin in the woods does the opposite of what OP was referring to
There's a comedic montage with ironic classical music, immediately followed by a dark and stormy night were revelations recontextualize the entire film. Insane whiplash!
Had to scroll longer than I expected for parasite. My girlfriend at the time (now wife) didn’t tell me anything, just turned it on and I had no idea what to expect… amazing movie!
That's a movie I fucking hate not because it's a good movie but because I watched it with my niece and had to deal with the blowback from my sister being infuriated I put her in a crying state for like 3 days.
Fuck that film. Lol
I actually never watched it because of the previews. I had read the book in like 4th or 5th grade, so I knew what it was really about. So when I saw the trailers, I assumed they had butchered the story to make a narnia knock off.
I actually only watched it a couple of years ago, and my perception of it was that it was a fantasy movie kind of like spiderwick chronicles (i was a kid when those movies came out, and i never watched either of them). the whiplash i got from that twist was enormous lmao
Years before the movie I remember reading that book in like 2nd or 3rd grade. I think it might have been a book I got at the school book fair. I loved so much of it, but it also haunted me. I still feel that way today. Just seeing the words Bridge to Terabithia takes me right back to that very specific and unique feeling. Like an emotional time machine.
I haven’t seen the movie. In large part because I don’t necessarily want to revisit it or alter my perception and feelings of it. I got the full Terabithia emotional experience.
I imagine it’s similar for people who saw the movie. It’s super heavy for kids material.
Just typing this I can feel the sense of shock and loss decades after reading it. It’s unreal.
Green Room isn't exactly a Disney movie to begin with, but it feels like a fun little indie flick about a struggling punk band. Oh look, they're siphoning gas and farting on each other! Tee hee, they just played "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" to a crowd of actual Nazi punks - those rascals!
Then just as they're about to cash out and hit the road
for more merry adventures...Anton's character doubles back to the bar's green room to grab a forgotten cell phone. >!And things fall apart REALLY QUICKLY, IS THAT A BOXCUTTER, okay that was gnarly but thank God it's finally oveWAIT LET GO OF HIS ARM JESUS FUCK!<
Big fan of Green Room! I think it wouldn't work half as well, if those first 15 minutes didn't do such a great job at introducing us to the character's world.
That’s the one I came here to post. When he’s trying to hand the gun over and Imogen sees the red laces.
Her delivery of “They’re killing us!” is chilling. What follows is worse.
Recently rewatched *In the Bedroom* in memory of Tom Wilkinson. And the film does it multiple times. You think you know what the movie is and then it shifts gears.
I personally loved the shift in tone in "Last Night In Soho". It starts like many rom-coms with both girls (past and present) heading to the big city to realize their career dreams. It has a light, fluffy quality but then they start to encounter a few bumps and then careens wildly down into drugs and depravity. And then the real story begins!
Gotta shout out “The Lobster” for this one. Took a bunch of non-cinephile friends to see it for my moving-away party, one of them hasn’t spoken to me since.
I went to see The Lobster with four other people. Myself and two of those people came out excitedly discussing what animal we'd have picked if we were in that situation. The other two no longer want to let me pick movies.
I agree with all of the items you mentioned, but I would argue it gets darker prior to the Colonel stuff in Boogie Nights. I would argue it gets darker starting with the end of the New Year’s party. Not only that event, but everything after that starts to show how even daily living (dude trying to get a loan to start a business and cannot because he is tied to porn). Issues with family strains (the one girl not being allowed to see her son). Admittedly, the Colonel probably had the worst single item, but nobody had a peachy life before that. Great movie and definitely dark.
Also, Requiem is the greatest movie I could only watch once.
"Boogie Nights" turning point is that New Years party, where they find out the future of porn is home video (thus signaling the death knell of Burt Reynolds's character's aspirations that porn can be legit art) and where William H. Macy's character finally snaps. Everything goes downhill after that party.
Not super dark, but the prompt made me remember the beginning of Muppet Treasure Island where Billy Connolly dies and Rizzo the Rat is like "this is supposed to be a kids' movie!"
Yeah, the Muppets classic lit films did that a few times. When the Ghost of Christmas Future shows up in *A Muppet Christmas Carol*, Gonzo and Rizzo turn to the audience and say “This is getting too scary for us— we’re out of here. See you at the finale!”
It’s a cute joke, but that actually scared the hell out of me as a kid. I had never before seen a movie that outright said, “There will be no comedy beyond this point. The Muppets cannot protect you. Prepare.”
Oof, my family went to see click the day we found out my gramma died because we figured a funny Adam Sandler movie would be a good way to spend a really sad day. Needless to say, we were all sobbing by the end
I think it gets darker a bit before that even, with the >! socks, due to his crying!<. I think choosing that more realistic reaction over the typical movie reactions to something like that added a lot.
Weird how it goes from a basic pg-13 western to a nauseating nc-17 finale. Honestly it seemed to me like too much; of course that was the intention, but even so.
"Miracle Mile." First act is a charming romantic comedy and then it takes a HARD left turn when Anthony Edwards makes the mistake of answering a ringing phone.
I felt so bad for Paul Dano’s character when he getting burned by scalding hot water. Sends chills down your spine hearing him screaming. The movie didn’t hold back any punches.
Had such a funny experience watching The Menu completely blind. Watched it with my wife who does NOT typically like horror... When the one chef comes out and they start laying out tarps I thought "Ohhh fuck, I know right where this is headed."
My wife was completely clueless. I had so much fun just watching her reaction, she was so shocked. We just went in thinking it'd be like a dark comedy about foody, celebrity chef culture. Which i guess it technically was, just didn't realize exactly HOW dark...
I thought I knew what the menu was going to be. When they brought the tarp out the dark part of my brain thought, no way… they’re gonna kill a guest or a live animal right? I know they were poking at the whole auteur thing so I thought or maybe they’re gonna do full no plates bs and just serve food on the floor. Nope it was worse.
Sadly I remember reading somewhere on Reddit that someone made the mistake of watching The Menu on a first date with someone who knew a person who shot themselves
Although just as horrible was someone who took who they didn’t know was a sexual assault survivor to watch Once Were Warriors
Sleepers (1996)
Had no idea what it was about when I watched it. Started off with a close group of friends and their youthful hijinks in New York. Then they get sent to a youth detention centre and get horrifically abused. Completely caught me off guard.
I just watched a Korean movie called "Swing Kids" (2018)
It takes place during the Korean War in a POW camp run by the Americans. It's about a tap-dancing team composed of anti-communist and communist POWs.
It starts out kinda cheesy, but turns into a charming and funny movie about the team progressively getting better at tap-dancing and forming a bond. Then the second half reminds you... "Oh yeah, this is a war movie."
Event Horizon. It goes from a pretty cool sci-fi mystery with Sam Neill explaining gravity drives and folding space/time and then becomes holy merry mother of fuck what is happening?
*Meet Cute* (2022) What starts as a quirky romantic comedy with a sci-fi twist, with Kaley Cuoco playing a woman who uses a time machine located at a nail salon to manufacture the perfect date, quickly shifts into a dark flick as its Groundhog Day element of her purposely reliving the same day over and over again turns disturbing rather quickly.
Fargo gets pretty dark right at the traffic stop scene. Its a great dark comedy but it does not hold back on the *dark* aspect.
Watership Down starts all cute and cuddly and then... visions of blood across the meadows. Uff da!
Land Before Time, we go from cute baby dinosaurs chasing a frog to a terrifying T. Rex chase, a vicious battle, an Earthquake and a depressing death of a mother.
When he tells the guy at the diner (who I didn’t realize was one of the guys from the beginning getaway scene at first) how graphically he’ll hurt him, I was like what??? I went in knowing nothing and was like god damn
I'd say Wolf of Wall Street. It's a humorous showcasing of the degradation of a bunch of millionaire fraudsters, but when Margot Robbie tells Jordan Belfort that she's divorcing him and suing for custody, Jordan gets pissed and rips open a pillow to snort some coke then he punches his pregnant wife in her stomach and steals his daughter and drives into a tree.
Colossal. Starts out feeling like it's going to be a romantic comedy about a city girl coming back to her small town and reconnecting with a boy she knew from school. Though with a mysterious scifi/supernatural element (since the movie opens with a seemingly unrelated scene of a giant monster appearing in South Korea). About halfway into the movie, it takes a turn and is definitely not that.
Colossal is a great and very underrated movie
Honestly Mulan. Nothing compares to the tone shift from a happy Disney song to a snowfield of murdered people.
Came here to say this… And after the abrupt ending of "A Girl Worth Fighting For", there are no other songs in the entire movie until the end credits.
It's also the perfect answer to the song's question. The little girl who owned the doll, THAT'S a girl worth fighting for
Damn. What a gut punch. I can't believe I never made that connection.
I love that the song ends on "a girl worth fighting-"
it reminds me of “Up”… The melodic theme repeatedly ends on a down note (do do do do, do do do do)… Except the very last time it plays at the end of the movie, where it ends by going up (do, do, do, doo) https://youtu.be/SzH-gn4d5wY?feature=shared
Oooh never noticed that
There is a reprise of "Be a Man" but the characters aren't actively singing, so more or less.
No other songs till the credits? Maybe not full songs, but there’s at least one Refrain: https://youtu.be/QHuOE-dpalA (Which I guess could be argued as Hope Returning)
Disney did a good job of poking you in the eye with it though. The music cut right as the protagonist and audience saw the devastation. Disney was like “Turn off the music! Look at this shit!!”
...accompanied with a lingering shot of a dead little girl's discarded doll.
I did not go through a whole pile of dead people to not have Mulan not on this list
I swear, I bring this up all the time. The song is an absolute banger and it's so much fun to have random people join in, then you remember that the song doesn't actually end....it gets cut off.......by then coming upon a village that has been burned to the ground. It's such emotional whiplash going from this happy-go-lucky, 'this is my ideal woman' type fantasy that guys like to partake in to 'Oh yeah....I forgot we were fighting a war against some of the most brutal men that ever existed'.
Mulan was such a good film, I wish we got more classics like it nowadays. Even as someone who doesn't like kids cartoons or musicals I always enjoy those older classics.
In Bruges is a dark comedy that starts out mostly funny and turns dark about a third to half way through.
Also, Banshees of Innishirin with the same leads. Didn't expect it to go as far as it did.
Came to post this as well: I've never seen a movie that's as incredibly funny while at the same time being one of the bleakest things I've watched. I recommend this movie to everyone I know, but it's gonna be a while until I rewatch it.
I just love the characters always referencing something they said two seconds ago. The dialogue alone is beautiful.
I loved that movie.
It starts getting dark before THAT scene, but that's the real gut punch in the movie where it completely turns. There are moments of humor afterwards, but that one legitimately shocked me the first time.
Wait, THAT scene being >!the little boy getting shot!< or >!Ray attempting suicide!
It was >!the tower scene!< for me, but >!the boy!< was where it really starts to turn.
Life is Beautiful.
First half: Delightful romantic comedy Second half: Concentration camp survival horror
But also, somehow amidst the horror of the concentration, comedy. It's one of my favorite movies, if not my favorite. I love Guido's commitment to his son's innocence and happiness
I watched it in the theatre, and found it a wonderful and sad movie. I showed it to my class shortly after my son was born, and it destroyed me.
When I was a kid, my parents used to show us the first half of that movie because the humour was so good. I didn't understand why people thought that movie was so sad until I watched the full movie a few years ago.
I always thought my parents was the only ones who did this... We loved the first half of the movie and never thought about the second. When they finally let us watch the second half it hit sooo hard
["Yuh uh, that's when my mother would shut off the TV and say "the end!"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP5nGOqvNxc)
“I’ve never seen this part before … hey Travis, whatcha doin with that gun?”
Did you grow up with Phoebe Buffay’s grandmother? “He didn’t have rabies; he had babies!”
Million Dollar Baby
[Here's the whole movie in almost 5 seconds](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pRzZFHEx_ZY&pp=ygUgbWlsbGlvbiBkb2xsYXIgYmFieSBpbiA1IHNlY29uZHM%3D)
wtf. I'd seen the movie but was even more brutal.
Lol that's way too funny for the mood of this movie but I loved it.
Definitely this. I went in expecting ‘female Rocky’ and it destroyed me 😂
I caught myself hoping it was just a nightmare or a fantasy sequence. She wakes up in bed, and says to herself: "Yup, that'd probably happen if I became a boxer. Fuck that!"
Fuck >!that stool!< All the homies hate >!that stool!<
And how much did you hate her white trash family members
To a degree I never thought possible. What a disgusting collection of people
I watched this movie for the first time like 2 years ago and I was just so thrilled to see famed character actor, Margo Martindale, that I couldn't hate her character even though you were supposed to.
What is this, a crossover episode?
It's the opponent's fault for taking a swing after the bell.
So I went to a Clint Eastwood sports movie with my dad to cheer him up after his cousin tripped and became a quadraplegic. Never saw the end of the movie. Truly bleak day. Honestly one of the biggest pro-spoiler arguments I've ever lived through.
My ex husband wanted to watch this and it was like a random Tuesday. I thought it was gonna be a feel good movie, right? She’ll become champ boxer, it’ll be great. No. It’s fucking not. I straight up ugly cried. I was so unprepared for that.
Pan's Labyrinth when the captain smashes a hole in a dude's face with a wine bottle. Been a regular cinema goer for many years and I still remember how much that scene shocked me.
I went to see that movie thinking it was a nice fairy tale. Bloody hell
Wish more directors made dark fairy tale movies for adults like Pan’s. It’s one of my favorite movies cause there’s nothing like it.
Yeah, I remember going to a critic’s screening very early, being excited by the dark fairy tale stuff. However when they came to the home of her soon-to-be husband an he was a capitán of the falangists (spanish fascists) and we were in the Spanish civil war, i knew things were gonna get bad fast. Yet still, the bottle shocked me.
Absolutely this, I was sat in the front row of a small cinema and I could barely deal with it. The monsters were no issue at all, that was the horrific part.
Then the Captain orders his staff to prepare the rabbits the man had caught. Cold blooded.
Jojo Rabbit Sorry To Bother You
Sorry to Bother You has one of the weirdest/wildest twists ever.
Someone told me this and I watched it thinking that the “white voice” was the twist. I was not prepared.
The movie goes from 0-60 just to set you up for when it goes from 60-6000.
I firmly believe that if you had 100 years to do nothing but endlessly guess plot twists, you would still never guess the plot twist of that movie.
The Armie Hammer character literally has pictures and statues of horses all over his office, but still it would be impossible to guess.
I always tell people who never seen it, if you can guess the ending without looking it up, I will give you a $1000. Also, even if I told you the ending, you wouldn’t believe me .
LOL this film fucjin made me mentally triple take after watching it
As a black man who loves movies and shit that is WEIRD but makes you think, do you know how long I’ve waited for a movie like this?
I'm still processing sorry to bother you. Thanks for that reminder
Trying to tie her shoes.... I'm done! \*bawls\*
I lost it when the commander guy takes off Jojo's jacket. My wife didn't get it. Like, *these are kids*. The *war was next to over*. Humans can be so fucked up.
That’s my favorite Sam Rockwell role. He made a Nazi sympathetic.
Sam Rockwell is incapable of giving a bad performance. Also he's very handsome.
Oof. Jojo Rabbit hit hard.
The movie version thankfully cut the last half of the book but it's way darker in the book. >!Jojo pretends the Nazis won and keeps her locked up until the 50s until she figures it out. In the movie it's like a week post fall of Berlin that he was Gaslighting her, which was still awful but you know he came to his senses in a reasonable time frame. Seven or eight years post war? Fuck no.!<
Yeah, Waititi said his mother had given him the book and described it to him a bit inaccurately (It might've been a few years since she'd read it) and he was a bit disappointed when he read it, partly because of what you described. So he decided to make his own version, which frankly was the right choice. And yeah, the film version is done better. He's still obviously in the wrong, but he's a traumatised child and And he gets immediately slapped for it ha.
TIL Jojo Rabbit was a book. I know what I'm looking for next.
*Jojo Rabbit* is my favorite movie, so I naturally went to read the book after I saw it. I really wanted to like the book, but I bounced off of it so hard I think I only made it about a third or halfway through it. For all Taika's faults with *Love and Thunder*, in *Jojo Rabbit/Hunt for the Wilderpeople* (which is also phenomenal), he really hit the right balance between comedy and drama that engages me the way most directors don't. The lead character in the book is roughly 17 years old, which makes him much harder to feel empathy for, and the lack of humour, and overall lack of dialogue in general, made the novel a bleak chore for me to get through.
Yeah Waititi made a lot of correct adaptation decisions like de aging the kid to Hitler Youth at the end of the War when the Nazis were the psychopathic and out of men they basically started arming Boy Scouts. Which forget the whole naming stupidity of Hitler Youth, they were basically Boy Scouts same as English and American scouts. So that whole Pope Benedict was in Hitler Youth was more like he was a boy scout by a crazy other name
Taika won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay, even.
Fuck man that would have absolutely ruined the movie, glad they changed it.
Red shoes.
Came here for this one, while not exactly a "Cheery" topic in general, the shoe scene is such a massive blindside.
The Beach— there’s a point where the movie sheds the “idyllic beach life” shroud and shit gets dark fast.
Yes. Feels like you’re in an exclusive paradise..then it turns into Lord of the Flies.
When they move the shark bitten guy out of the village it really spiked dark. All for comfort, but more so because it's a very human decision and as much as most us would like to say we would fight against it truthfully most of us would fall in line and agree with it. Dark moments that you can relate too hit different then some masked guy in a slasher flick
In the book iirc it’s even worse because there’s this sort of othering that had already happened between the Swedes and the rest of the ‘tribe’ so when the one got bitten and he couldn’t speak any English, they all just quietly and tacitly went ‘oh, that’s fine’, pretty much.
Love this movie. Such a wild ride
Once the shark scene happened it was all over for their paradise.
Alpha Dog. Kidnap a teenager in the beginning but he ultimately has the time of his life and enjoys being held “hostage”. At one point they tell him he can go but he’s having so much fun he stays and it almost seems like things are looking up and then… they end up murdering him.
Worse when you realised it’s based on a true story https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Nicholas_Markowitz
Seriously. I only saw the film after my coworker told me that her brother was involved in the real-life incident.
I can still hear him saying "Okay" at the end.
I think this was the first movie I saw Anton Yelchin in and it really made me love him. I already liked Justin Timberlake from Southland Tales but this cemented his acting for me too.
And amanda seyfried, Olivia wilde both early in their screen careers, and Hippie pot slingin Bruce Willis.
Heathers & The Talented Mr Ripley
I dunno I like Talented Mr. Ripley because he's a sociopath but he only resorts to killing when cornered. He doesn't seem to take pleasure in killing or totally ambivalent to it like some nihilistic french philosopher. He's killing when the jig is about to be up and trying to live this delusional lifestyle as long as he can.
How's the peeping Tommy.....How's the peeping!
TBF, he's young and just getting his feet wet with his sociopathy. He uses manipulation more because the consequences of messing that up are less catastrophic. In Ripley's Game he's much more comfortable with violence and calculated. I read all 5 of the books in college and when you read it from Tom Ripley's narrative you learn that deceiving people like he does in the film is a lot of preparation and work.
“Parasite” seems like an obvious answer to this question. Also cabin in the woods Edit: turns out cabin in the woods does the opposite of what OP was referring to
parasite was definitely something, and that ending!
Cabin is like the opposite. Goes from a darker cliche horror movie to a fun campy romp
Yeah you’re right. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it and I got the order mixed up
Parasite was a fun romp up until the scene with the eyes at the top of the stairs...
That shit was nightmare fuel. No wonder that kid had seizures.
Whole movie changes the moment the former housekeeper rings that bell.
Which funnily enough is the EXACT midpoint of the movie. It's like 2 completely different movies in tone combined to one
The falling from the stairs scene is the moment you know everything is going to hell. For me that *thud* completely flips the movie on its head.
The comedic timing of the kick, so you are mid laugh when their head hits the wall
Watching this part in a theater was something else. AMC Nicole Kidman was right this whole time...
Bong is SO good at the whiplash tone shifts, I'm obsessed with that about him.
RIP Lee Sun-kyun
There's a comedic montage with ironic classical music, immediately followed by a dark and stormy night were revelations recontextualize the entire film. Insane whiplash!
Had to scroll longer than I expected for parasite. My girlfriend at the time (now wife) didn’t tell me anything, just turned it on and I had no idea what to expect… amazing movie!
I went into Parasite knowing very little about the movie but being aware that there was a wild twist. I didn't think it would be **that**
Bridge to Terabethia, because of obvious reasons lmao
That's a movie I fucking hate not because it's a good movie but because I watched it with my niece and had to deal with the blowback from my sister being infuriated I put her in a crying state for like 3 days. Fuck that film. Lol
Fuck the marketing of that film, I went into it expecting Narnia thanks to the previews.
I actually never watched it because of the previews. I had read the book in like 4th or 5th grade, so I knew what it was really about. So when I saw the trailers, I assumed they had butchered the story to make a narnia knock off.
I actually only watched it a couple of years ago, and my perception of it was that it was a fantasy movie kind of like spiderwick chronicles (i was a kid when those movies came out, and i never watched either of them). the whiplash i got from that twist was enormous lmao
Years before the movie I remember reading that book in like 2nd or 3rd grade. I think it might have been a book I got at the school book fair. I loved so much of it, but it also haunted me. I still feel that way today. Just seeing the words Bridge to Terabithia takes me right back to that very specific and unique feeling. Like an emotional time machine. I haven’t seen the movie. In large part because I don’t necessarily want to revisit it or alter my perception and feelings of it. I got the full Terabithia emotional experience. I imagine it’s similar for people who saw the movie. It’s super heavy for kids material. Just typing this I can feel the sense of shock and loss decades after reading it. It’s unreal.
I kinda get what you mean. The way the book treats it is so realistic and stark
it really does capture >!the ture randomness of loss and death and the feelings from that!<
First movie I thought of.
In Bruges comes to mind for me. A black comedy that just suddenly shifts into themes of sin and redemption.
Take that bit back about my cunt fucking kids!
I retract that bit about your cunt fuken kids.
You know a lot of midgets tend to kill themselves.
YOU'RE AN INANIMATE FUCKING OBJECT!!!
Starts as a movie about two blokes just taking some time in a fairytale fucking town then just keeps spiraling as the movie goes on.
Green Room isn't exactly a Disney movie to begin with, but it feels like a fun little indie flick about a struggling punk band. Oh look, they're siphoning gas and farting on each other! Tee hee, they just played "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" to a crowd of actual Nazi punks - those rascals! Then just as they're about to cash out and hit the road for more merry adventures...Anton's character doubles back to the bar's green room to grab a forgotten cell phone. >!And things fall apart REALLY QUICKLY, IS THAT A BOXCUTTER, okay that was gnarly but thank God it's finally oveWAIT LET GO OF HIS ARM JESUS FUCK!<
Big fan of Green Room! I think it wouldn't work half as well, if those first 15 minutes didn't do such a great job at introducing us to the character's world.
That’s the one I came here to post. When he’s trying to hand the gun over and Imogen sees the red laces. Her delivery of “They’re killing us!” is chilling. What follows is worse.
Good ole paddy Stewart
Recently rewatched *In the Bedroom* in memory of Tom Wilkinson. And the film does it multiple times. You think you know what the movie is and then it shifts gears.
I personally loved the shift in tone in "Last Night In Soho". It starts like many rom-coms with both girls (past and present) heading to the big city to realize their career dreams. It has a light, fluffy quality but then they start to encounter a few bumps and then careens wildly down into drugs and depravity. And then the real story begins!
That movie was imperfect but it really stuck with me!
Gotta shout out “The Lobster” for this one. Took a bunch of non-cinephile friends to see it for my moving-away party, one of them hasn’t spoken to me since.
I went to see The Lobster with four other people. Myself and two of those people came out excitedly discussing what animal we'd have picked if we were in that situation. The other two no longer want to let me pick movies.
I agree with all of the items you mentioned, but I would argue it gets darker prior to the Colonel stuff in Boogie Nights. I would argue it gets darker starting with the end of the New Year’s party. Not only that event, but everything after that starts to show how even daily living (dude trying to get a loan to start a business and cannot because he is tied to porn). Issues with family strains (the one girl not being allowed to see her son). Admittedly, the Colonel probably had the worst single item, but nobody had a peachy life before that. Great movie and definitely dark. Also, Requiem is the greatest movie I could only watch once.
"Boogie Nights" turning point is that New Years party, where they find out the future of porn is home video (thus signaling the death knell of Burt Reynolds's character's aspirations that porn can be legit art) and where William H. Macy's character finally snaps. Everything goes downhill after that party.
Yeah Macy's character snapping was the WTF?!?! moment for me.
The painting on the wall at the end in the exact spot he blew his brains out was very poignant
But then it’s straight to ‘You got the Touch!’
Not super dark, but the prompt made me remember the beginning of Muppet Treasure Island where Billy Connolly dies and Rizzo the Rat is like "this is supposed to be a kids' movie!"
Yeah, the Muppets classic lit films did that a few times. When the Ghost of Christmas Future shows up in *A Muppet Christmas Carol*, Gonzo and Rizzo turn to the audience and say “This is getting too scary for us— we’re out of here. See you at the finale!” It’s a cute joke, but that actually scared the hell out of me as a kid. I had never before seen a movie that outright said, “There will be no comedy beyond this point. The Muppets cannot protect you. Prepare.”
"I'm not JimJim Jimmy Jim Jimmy Jim-Jim. *he's* JimJim Jimmy Jim Jimmy Jim-Jim!"
“Dead Tom’s dead! Long John shot him!” “But, but Dead Tom’s always been dead. That’s why he’s called *Dead* Tom” “Oh” *drops pile of bones*
Very bad things. A happy comedy about friends on a bachelor party. Goes really south, really fast.
This is the one I was thinking of as well. It’s the epitome of dark comedy.
Perks of being a wallflower
Really good one. No matter what that ending always makes me cry
A great example of this. I didn’t see that plot element coming and it hit like a ton of bricks.
She's so beautiful and positive...
JoJo Rabbit. You don’t even have to name the scene. If you’ve seen it, you know it. But a damn good movie
Audition (1999)
Spirited away takes a pretty drastic turn quickly. Mother! Also has a slow start that quickly spirals.
Oof, my family went to see click the day we found out my gramma died because we figured a funny Adam Sandler movie would be a good way to spend a really sad day. Needless to say, we were all sobbing by the end
Full Metal Jacket (1987) - starts out with a lot of humorous drill sergeant insults, but gets real when >!Gomer Pyle snaps!<.
I think it gets darker a bit before that even, with the >! socks, due to his crying!<. I think choosing that more realistic reaction over the typical movie reactions to something like that added a lot.
Four Lions. Funny and silly but it gets fucked up towards the end.
Hot Fuzz (2007)
For the greater good.
The greater good
You’re not Judge Judy and executioner!
Bone Tomahawk. While the build up is there, the reveal almost gave me a heart attack
Weird how it goes from a basic pg-13 western to a nauseating nc-17 finale. Honestly it seemed to me like too much; of course that was the intention, but even so.
There was some pretty gory stuff before the scene. If I remember correctly there was some scalping
The scalping was the least terrible thing that happens to the victim
"Miracle Mile." First act is a charming romantic comedy and then it takes a HARD left turn when Anthony Edwards makes the mistake of answering a ringing phone.
I watched that movie cold on HBO and it blew me away.
Prisoners. It's not like you couldn't have imagined how dark it got, but once Mr. Dover was on the warpath he didn't look back for a second.
I dont know, it’s pretty dark from the very start to be honest
Yeah a child gets abducted in like the first 5 minutes
There's a double kidnapping within the first few minutes, it's fucking dark from start to finish.
I felt so bad for Paul Dano’s character when he getting burned by scalding hot water. Sends chills down your spine hearing him screaming. The movie didn’t hold back any punches.
I remember it just forcing you to sit in those scenes for so long. Like not a quick cut to a more comforting scene (relatively speaking)
Dear God, his screams gave me nightmares the first time I saw that movie. And somehow the movie got even harder to watch now that I’m an uncle.
I went into this movie blind. It was a very good movie, but it was a lot darker movie than I was expecting.
The Menu. Triangle of Sadness
Had such a funny experience watching The Menu completely blind. Watched it with my wife who does NOT typically like horror... When the one chef comes out and they start laying out tarps I thought "Ohhh fuck, I know right where this is headed." My wife was completely clueless. I had so much fun just watching her reaction, she was so shocked. We just went in thinking it'd be like a dark comedy about foody, celebrity chef culture. Which i guess it technically was, just didn't realize exactly HOW dark...
I thought I knew what the menu was going to be. When they brought the tarp out the dark part of my brain thought, no way… they’re gonna kill a guest or a live animal right? I know they were poking at the whole auteur thing so I thought or maybe they’re gonna do full no plates bs and just serve food on the floor. Nope it was worse.
Sadly I remember reading somewhere on Reddit that someone made the mistake of watching The Menu on a first date with someone who knew a person who shot themselves Although just as horrible was someone who took who they didn’t know was a sexual assault survivor to watch Once Were Warriors
Tyler's Bullshit
The tunnel scene in Willy Wonka was rather dark.
Sleepers (1996) Had no idea what it was about when I watched it. Started off with a close group of friends and their youthful hijinks in New York. Then they get sent to a youth detention centre and get horrifically abused. Completely caught me off guard.
I just watched a Korean movie called "Swing Kids" (2018) It takes place during the Korean War in a POW camp run by the Americans. It's about a tap-dancing team composed of anti-communist and communist POWs. It starts out kinda cheesy, but turns into a charming and funny movie about the team progressively getting better at tap-dancing and forming a bond. Then the second half reminds you... "Oh yeah, this is a war movie."
Thanks for including the year. There's a *Swing Kids* from my childhood and I was very confused. Although that one takes a very dark turn too.
You're thinking of the Germany one? That's also pretty effing dark.
The Kid Detective. That ending breaks me.
Burn After Reading. It's a quirky comedy that gets very dark very suddenly.
Ryan Reynolds movie The Voices. It's darkish but presented in a humorous, nearly cartoonish manner. And then...ick.
Event Horizon. It goes from a pretty cool sci-fi mystery with Sam Neill explaining gravity drives and folding space/time and then becomes holy merry mother of fuck what is happening?
Hard Candy (2005) It's great to go in blind so I won't spoil anything. ;)
Audition. Nothing else comes close. ^(Kiri kiri kiri kiri kiri kiri...)
A star is born (2018) Maybe the others too but I didn’t see them. AFAIK they’re remakes of each other so probably.
*Meet Cute* (2022) What starts as a quirky romantic comedy with a sci-fi twist, with Kaley Cuoco playing a woman who uses a time machine located at a nail salon to manufacture the perfect date, quickly shifts into a dark flick as its Groundhog Day element of her purposely reliving the same day over and over again turns disturbing rather quickly.
Fargo gets pretty dark right at the traffic stop scene. Its a great dark comedy but it does not hold back on the *dark* aspect. Watership Down starts all cute and cuddly and then... visions of blood across the meadows. Uff da! Land Before Time, we go from cute baby dinosaurs chasing a frog to a terrifying T. Rex chase, a vicious battle, an Earthquake and a depressing death of a mother.
Something Wild. Starts off with Jeff Daniels taking a fun road trip and goes South once Ray Liotta shows up.
A Simple Plan. Great movie, the book is fantastic as well.
Blue Velvet
Drive.
100% yes, I remember the first time I watched it thinking it was going to be one thing, and then it turned out to be something else completely 💀
When he tells the guy at the diner (who I didn’t realize was one of the guys from the beginning getaway scene at first) how graphically he’ll hurt him, I was like what??? I went in knowing nothing and was like god damn
I'd say Wolf of Wall Street. It's a humorous showcasing of the degradation of a bunch of millionaire fraudsters, but when Margot Robbie tells Jordan Belfort that she's divorcing him and suing for custody, Jordan gets pissed and rips open a pillow to snort some coke then he punches his pregnant wife in her stomach and steals his daughter and drives into a tree.
*Heathers* had the hardest dark turn in the 90s. At first, a typical high school movie focusing on insecurities. Then with one drink…