10 Sci-Fi & Fantasy Films That Were Much Too Depressing For The Masses

2. Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Synecdoche, New York is one of the most relentlessly bleak US movies about the human condition out there. The entire goddamn film is a hypochondriac's nightmare, as Philip Seymour Hoffman's neurotic playwright Caden Cotard goes through the gamut of human suffering, from wrenching heartbreak and loss, to all manner of real and imagined illnesses. Though it has developed a cult following since its 2008 release, Synecdoche, New York didn't draw crowds on arrival. In fact, on a relatively minor $20 million budget, it was still a big flop, taking only $4 million worldwide. A huge American epic, Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut unblinkingly peddles its pessimistic world view, Caden discovering over the passing years that art, love and his own genius are all rendered absolutely meaningless in the face of impending mortality. Death, says Kaufman, is not only frighteningly inevitable, but also all-encompassing and destructive... and Synecdoche, New York is a front row seat at the long, long death scene of a group of characters trying to create art together in a giant theatre-cum-warehouse, around which a future Earth crumbles into dystopian hell.