10 Great Horror Movies That Will Crush Your Soul

And finally, this might be an obscure example to end the list on, but, as anyone who's seen it knows all too well, it's justified. Pulse, directed by Japanese horror legend Kiyoshi Kurosawa, is among the bleakest horror movies there will ever be.

Most horror films focus on scaring their viewers, and though Pulse does have some shattering frights, the key to its power is that it's so utterly depressing and nihilistic. It's an apocalyptic horror that tells two parallel stories of ghosts using the internet to invade the world of the living, for, as they explain to the two main characters, death is eternal loneliness. 

Alongside its creeping supernatural terror, Pulse focuses heavily on the subjects of loneliness and Depression - a particularly prescient topic given the well-documented epidemic of Depression and suicide in modern Japan. It's an unrelentingly sad movie with pretty much nothing in the way of hope, and almost all of the characters die after losing the will to live. Pulse is a really great movie, but for most viewers, it's going to be too upsetting to watch more than once.

After all, although Pulse does have some memorably brilliant scares, its depictions of death and mental illness are even more terrifying. That is what makes Pulse one of the most uniquely harrowing and soul-crushing movies, in any genre, of the 21st century.