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

3. The Road (2010)

It always seemed inevitable that Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic downer The Road would get the big screen treatment. An immersive, sparsely cinematic novel, The Road appeared ready-made for a movie adaptation. But, somehow, Joe Penhall's faithful screenplay and John Hillcoat's stark direction ended up making McCarthy's hellacious Fallout 2.0 more dour, depressing and downright joyless than it was in the book. In The Road movie, as in the book, cannibals roam the landscape, snatching up people to slowly devour limb by limb; the roads are ashen, charred and lonesome as far as the eye can see; the sun, meanwhile, presumably hasn't been seen in this hell since before whatever it is that happened, happened. McCarthy's world appears more unforgiving on-screen than it ever did in your dark, disturbing dreams, though his two main characters - Man (Viggo Mortensen) and his son, Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) - are just as screwed as ever. Spoiler alert: Man still dies in a bloody coughing fit, and Boy is still left orphaned and in the care of an insane-looking Guy Pearce. Audiences mostly stayed away from this one, obviously, offering up just $27 million in ticket sales to put up against the $25 million budget.