10 Most Unexpectedly Depressing Movies

If you've not seen Dead Poets Society, it's easy to assume that this film about an English teacher, John Keating (Robin Williams), who uses poetry to inspire the students of an elite boarding school is a pretty typical, Oscar-baiting drama.

But it's far more of a bittersweet affair than that, most typified by the mid-film suicide of one of the titular poetry club's members, Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard), after his domineering father pulls him out of the school and ships him off to military school.

Sure, the film's message is very much "seize the day!" (or rather, carpe diem), but it still ends with Keating being fired from the school after his students are intimidated into signing a paper effectively blaming him for Neil's death.

For a film that seemed to be taking a much broader angle for most of its runtime, those final 20 minutes completely take the wind out of its sails - for better or worse.