10 Harrowing Movies That Will Crush Your Soul

4. Requiem For A Dream

No list of this nature would be complete without Requiem for a Dream, which tells the story of four characters battling terrible addictions. Sara (Ellen Burstyn) is addicted to amphetamines, while her son Harry (Jared Leto), his girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) and his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans in a rare, yet genuinely great dramatic turn) are hooked on heroin.

Plenty of films have tackled drug addiction and how it destroys people's lives. However, has any film ever explored this subject with as much harrowing ferocity as this one? Probably not. 

Requiem for a Dream is another one that's more disturbing than most horror movies. The intense performances, Clint Mansell's iconic score, and Darren Aronofsky's ferocious direction, combining rapid-fire montages, claustrophobic cinematography, and gruelling psychedelic horror, make this a picture that will simply be too much for many viewers.

There is no light and no happy ending here. Instead, it is simply one relentless downward slide towards an ending that is as brutal as it is inevitable. Sara ends up in a psychiatric hospital, Harry and Tyrone end up in prison (Harry has to have his arm amputated as well), and Marion is so desperate for heroin that she subjects herself to a degrading sex show.

The final sequence of Requiem for a Dream - a rapid, terrifying high-speed montage depicting these four horrible endings - is one of the most intense sections of any movie ever, which is perhaps why this is such a poster child for films you'll never watch again.