10 More Horror Movies So Sad You Can Only Watch Them Once
2. Martyrs
Martyrs is absolutely one of those movies you're best advised to watch while knowing as little as possible, but even if you're spoiled on the particulars of its narrative, it'll leave you positively shook.
Without giving too much away, Pascal Laugier's almost unrelentingly bleak, hopeless psychological horror follows two young women who attempt to reckon with their abusive childhoods.
Even if you take away the film's shockingly violent opening sequence and its several deranged twists, Martyrs is a profoundly grim summation of the human condition, to inflict great pain upon others and also oneself.
This is a film that needs to come with about a dozen separate trigger warnings, so boldly does it plumb the depths of human pain and suffering, where guilt and trauma transpires into self-harm.
It is a film that provides little in the way of catharsis for the audience, only daring them to follow these tortured characters all the way to the almost impossibly horrifying conclusion.