2. Michael Haneke
The Movie: The Depressing, Slow-Burn Drama That Will Make You Hate Humanity And Want To Die Few will argue that Michael Haneke
isn't a great director; after all, just this year he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for his work on the sublime (and sublimely depressing) Amour. Looking back through Haneke's filmography, there is the same misanthropic bent cutting through all his films - he seems keen to torture his audience, making them sit through immensely uncomfortable scenes of marital turmoil, murder and
literal torture for our apparent betterment. His film Funny Games is essentially a critique of how we as audiences consume violence, and seeks to judge us for our complicity in its pervasiveness in society. It's difficult to imagine Haneke making a bright, cheerful, inspirational film; the works clearly reflect his world-view of some sort, and so it doesn't follow that this would ever drastically change. Simply, Haneke is the maestro of "feel bad" films.