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

10. Where The Wild Things Are (2009)

While loosely based on a popular children's book, there's little that's conventionally 'fun' or child-friendly about Spike Jonze's Jungian take on Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. Nine-year-old Max (Max Records) is the confused, lonely boy trapped between childhood and puberty in this adaptation, dropped by Jonze into a fantasy world populated by giant, depressed cuddly toys. Over 104 minutes, you slowly come to realise that Jonze has transformed Sendak's joyful world into a child's grim mind-spasm, with the 'wild things' of Max's imagination made into scary, tragic, literally weeping representations of the boy's emotionally rampant psyche. So the warring Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini) and K.W. (voiced by Lauren Ambrose) represent Max's divorced parents, Alexander (voiced by Paul Dano) represents Max's unhappy self and Judith (voiced by Catherine O'Hara) is Max's moody teenage sister, with whom he can no longer seem to relate. The imaginary world these neurotic monsters inhabit is also slowly being swallowed up by a sandstorm, and when Max's new best friend Carol tries to eat him, he decides to flee back to reality, finding his miserable home life preferable to this ridiculous place. There's also an ever-present, wistful pop soundtrack from Karen O, to remind you constantly what kind of mood you should be in. Enjoy, kids.