9 Fantastic Movies Too Devastating To Watch More Than Once

Some of the greatest films ever made do not enjoy much success on the home video market. They don't have diehard fan bases that can quote the movie verbatim. And they certainly don't inspire viewing parties with all your friends and a big tub of popcorn.

Because, while they may be remarkable, downright essential pieces of filmmaking, they're also much too harrowing and soul-crushing to sit through more than once. In fact, watching these cinematic achievements again would be a sadistic exercise in self-torture.

These are the kinds of viewing experiences so devastating that you have to take a shower immediately afterwards just to try and wash away the agony. But no matter how hard you try, you won't be able to wipe them from your brain. So just why in the hell would you want to put yourself through that again?

Now, that's not to say all generally sad movies need to be locked away after the first viewing. No, to truly be unwatchable a second time they need to be top-to-bottom bleak, tragic, depressing, disturbing, or some combination of the four.

And don't you worry, every movie on this list nails that quota. Hard.

Just as a note, all horror movies have been purposely left out, as there would have to be an entirely separate article dedicated to the many films in that genre too sickening to watch a second time.

Of all the love stories that have been depicted on the big screen, few come close to representing the depressing realities of so many once-great relationships that eventually fall apart because...well, we're all human. And that, more than anything else, makes Blue Valentine incredibly moving and a ridiculously hard pill to swallow.

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams play a young married couple who are more than on the rocks. They're basically in the rocks. Both actors' performances are so intense and spot-on that each and every fight they have onscreen looks as if it took a real toll out of them as real people.

Their story of a love gone bad is shot beautifully, using frequent flashbacks to their passionate and carefree beginnings to illustrate how far off the map they've gone and create a nagging sense in the viewer that, no matter what, the present can never quite live up to the past.

So...that's fun.

The scenes set in the present tense are emotionally brutal and anyone who's experienced one-twentieth of the grim relationship trauma depicted is going to feel those scars all over again. By the time the couple gives up on even being able to hate f--k each other to get some kind of pleasure out of their relationship, viewers will be hard-pressed to make it to the end of the film, let alone watch it a second time.