10 Saddest Horror Movie Moments

From Hereditary to Martyrs, Horror can make you cry as much as it can make you squirm.

By Tilly Owen /

Horror movies are mainly known for one thing. It’s no real surprise that many horror movies are designed to well, scare you. Be it jumpscares, terrifying imagery or even something truly horrifying that you don’t even see on screen. It takes a truly special horror movie to make you laugh, and an even more special one to make you cry.

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Some scary films are just horribly depressing and carry a heavy, suffocating atmosphere that makes you want to curl up into a little ball and forget the whole thing. And then there are those horror films, that scare you and make you feel something far deeper with only one moment. These flicks are regular horror shows for the most part, but then in a split second or in one scene absolutely shatter your heart into itty bitty pieces all over the floor

Whether it’s a killer ending, an instant that flips the entire film on its head or a truly evil trauma a character goes through - these horror films go beyond terror. These films make us wish for the big bad monster lurking around the corner as it’d be far easier to deal with than the emotional horrors we’re being forced to watch through our fingers.

10. Insect Politics - The Fly

David’s Cronenberg’s best known work is most famous for its disgusting and tragic portrayal of a brilliant mind and man lost to a nightmare of his own creation. Granted, the whole arc of the film is depressing enough, with a doomed love story at the centre of the slimy storm. Played in a way that is oddly beautiful amongst all the acid vomit and wall crawling, it is the Insect Politics speech delivered by Jeff Goldblum that really hits the audience and his lover with the reality of the situation.

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Measured yet still unsettlingly still quite manic, Seth Brundle tells Veronica about the vicious and downright nasty world of the insect – made even more real by his vile appearance. Looking into his empty eyes, the audience and Geena Davies’ character see the absolute lack of humanity, of Seth himself, as he tells the woman he loves most that he will kill her.

It's not personal, it's just his nature now. He, like the insect, cannot be trusted, and it’s absolutely, utterly devastating. Seth knows what he has said to her is true, and is for the best, but we see it break his heart as well as Vernoica’s. The language of the short monologue is as delicate as the wing of a fly, but Veronica and the audience now know that Seth is really and truly lost.

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