10 Harrowing Movies That Will Crush Your Soul
8. The Iron Claw
They say that life is stranger than fiction, and few movies prove that point better than The Iron Claw. The true story that this movie tells is one so full of tragedy and misfortune that, if it had been used for a fiction film, it would've been criticized for being too unbelievable. In fact, the real-life story was slightly altered, as writer-director Sean Durkin felt the story in its real form would be too unbearable. The feature that we got, wonderful though it is, was already desperately sad.
The story in question is that of the Von Erich family, a group of professional wrestlers who were beset with tragedy after tragedy as the toll of the physically taxing sport and the expectations of their toxic patriarch (Holt McCallany) break them one by one. By the end of The Iron Claw, only Kevin Von Erich (Zac Efron) is left alive, and the film's final scene - Kevin's two little boys comforting their grieving father - is one of the most gut-wrenching scenes in recent memory.
While The Iron Claw is a frightfully upsetting movie whichever way you cut it, it will likely be completely traumatizing for those (like your writer) who were unaware of the real story. This could just be the most feel-bad film of the 2020s so far.