10 Saddest Horror Movie Moments

8. Bob's Death - Possession

The Orphanage Tomas
Gaumont

Balancing being sad and terrifying can be a fine line to walk, but when you pull it off, you can leave your audience with a hollow pit in their chest that will never really go away. 

The most famous scene in 1981's Possession, when Isabelle Adjani's character Anna finally loses her mind in an empty subway hall, is considered one of the most disturbing scenes in horror history. 

Anna and Mark's young son Bob spends the entire film helplessly sitting there and watching his mom and dad rip themselves and each other apart, often rarely ever acknowledging him and what effect this has on his life. In the end, he is taken in by Anna's doppelganger Helen, who proceeds to make the same mistake as the original by forming a relationship with Mark's doppelganger.

Realizing that he is about to watch the same relationship fall apart the same way again, the little boy instead chooses to drown himself in the bathtub. Breaking the generational cycle of abuse the only way he can.

 
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John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?