15 Most Unexpectedly Depressing Movies Of All-Time

4. The Mist (2007)

The Mist isn't a particularly upbeat film; it concerns a group of small-town Americans who find themselves holed up in a convenience store after a terrible storm, which spreads a thick mist everywhere - inside of which there are monsters. Horrific, terrifying monsters. It's up to David Drayton, a graphic artist played by Thomas Jane, to protect his son from the threat lurking outside. Frank Darabont - director of other Stephen King-based films such as The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile - is behind the camera, and he directs the picture with a tense and claustrophobic dread that carries the movie. Which is to say, The Mist is the kind of film you expect to come out of the theatre having had your emotions rattled for the sum of almost two hours. And yet, nobody could have anticipated the insanely depressing ending of the film in which David kills his son in an act of mercy just moments before soldiers arrive to save the day and kill the monsters. It's an ending that - in its unrivalled bleakness - lingers with you for months afterwards.