The book hit way harder. I had to reread that chapter a few times to make sure I was reading it rightI thought that this thread was about a singular movie.
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Movies that you thought were lighthearted but were actually really dark
- Thread starter zeemumu
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Oh, a cute rom-com! This is a great soundtrack! Hey, it's a young Ray Liotta! Oh, shit, this escalated quickly!
One of the best tonal change in movies. Blew me away the first time I saw it.
crazy monkey
Banned
You should watch Reign over me, best non comedy adam sandler movie ever.
Fancy Clown
Member
I thought Rififi was gonna be a fun, jazzy little caper film with some loveable French rogues for some reason. Instead it's a bleak as hell noir with some bastard characters (and an amazing caper). I liked what it turned out to be a lot better.
toddhunter
Member
But it also has Doogie Howser in it ... so what can you do.
Wait a second....you haven't seen Willy Wonka? I didn't know this was possible.
It kind of gets even more light hearted than the 90210 with space marines it claimed to be.
Very Bad Things.
I don't know if "lighthearted" is an accurate description for a dark comedy, but this movie is like 95% dark and 5% (not very funny) comedy. Early on, the main group stab a bellhop in the chest with a corkscrew and lock him in the bathroom, which admittedly isn't a scene ripe for laughs, but to hear the guy's panicked screams and crying as he slowly dies sets a real disturbing tone that the movie never bounces back from.
I don't know if "lighthearted" is an accurate description for a dark comedy, but this movie is like 95% dark and 5% (not very funny) comedy. Early on, the main group stab a bellhop in the chest with a corkscrew and lock him in the bathroom, which admittedly isn't a scene ripe for laughs, but to hear the guy's panicked screams and crying as he slowly dies sets a real disturbing tone that the movie never bounces back from.
Starphoenix
Member
Brave Little Toaster. I watched the movie all the time as a kid and seemed to recall it being this bright, cutesy animated feature. Then I found the movie on Youtube... I was so very, very wrong.
Chairmanchuck
Member
Not really a movie, but damn:
John Kowalski
Banned
I thought The Ornithologist really was a movie about watching birds.
shawnbuddy
Member
I thought Ant Man would be cute and funny and in some cases it tried to be, but I walked out of the theater bummed out because what really drove the whole thing was themes about absent fathers and father figures. Both Ant Men put other priorities ahead of their children and mentees, mostly to terrible consequences. Even one of the lighthearted comedy characters mentions his dad missing from his life.
Love this movie. Used to watch it a lot as a kid.
Claude Kenni
Member
Didn't know anything about it beforehand and was really caught off guard with how it went.
All Possible Ways
Member
Coraline made me see buttons differently.
MikeBreezy92
Member
I thought I was the only one lol
I'll go with Fantastic Beasts. You'd expect it's just a light-hearted continuation of the Harry Potter universe in prequel form with some guy chasing his funny looking creatures around an American city, yet you get a story about
orphans, the occult and cults,
child abuse, (including a boy being battered by his "guardian" for life and then being exploited by someone that pretends to befriend him to the point where his hopelessness leads him to his death), social outcasts and the struggle to fit into a society and groupings which you fundamentally disagree with but have to live with, etc.
child abuse, (including a boy being battered by his "guardian" for life and then being exploited by someone that pretends to befriend him to the point where his hopelessness leads him to his death), social outcasts and the struggle to fit into a society and groupings which you fundamentally disagree with but have to live with, etc.
The advertising hid that Pan's Labyrinth was subtitled so hard that when I saw it in the theater, one of the theater employees came out and warned us beforehand. I'm guessing there were lots of complaints in prior showings.
DizzyCaffeine
Member
I'll go with The Bad News Bears. Mathau is a raging alcoholic, and there's a kid name Lupis that uses racial slurs. The movie would be depressing if it weren't so much fun.
That movie was way better than it had any right to be
Colossal
trailer made it look like a comedy
movie is not funny and actually pretty fucking dark
Yes good example.
Though a comment on the poster-
it's a huuuuge giveaway
I mean, it had the word grave in it. I would have hesitated a little seeing that word if I was depressed and looked into the plot.
Carnby
Member
I came here to post Click. I thought it would be a comedy. It felt more like a Twilight Zone episode.
Went in expecting a silly "sexy comedy" starring Jim Carrey.
This is a really good one. Do people remember the trailer for this movie? Ends with "Mr. Blue Sky" and everything. I think I had heard at the time that it was darker and more dramatic then I had heard... But it was amusing how it seemed like a silly and manic Jim Carrey romp from the trailer.
Despite the tone thing (maybe because of it?), it's kind of an amazing trailer, looking back on it now.
Astral Dog
Member
Coraline
I remember watching the last hour of that and going "why the fuck wasn't rest of the movie like this"
I've never seen this movie but I remember the commercials. Just read the Wiki and......wow, didn't expect that.
My only contribution to this is Event Horizon. Had no idea it was a horror flick and was surprised. The 'decoding of the video' scene was the clincher for me to change my expectations quickly.
LilWayneSuckz
Member
I would say the poster itself gives away a lot of the backbone of the movie.
But the underlying plot of the movie is terrifying/depressing enough.
Moral Orel was generally funny (if in a brutal satire of American christianity kind of way) until the end of Season 2
when Orel's dad accidentally shoots him while hunting, then the veneer of humor drops away and season 3 is just an investigation of a boy with a really screwed-up family growing up, realizing that his dad had always been abusive but that he had played it off in the innocence of his own childhood while the show was meant to be funny. He eventually gets a happy ending, at least.
butzopower
proud of his butz
There was a GAF thread on it, but Kung Fu Elliot goes from goofy to pretty dark towards the end:
I thought that this thread was about a singular movie.
I wouldn't include it as this just because I read the book years prior to seeing the film, so the wham moment didn't hit me nearly as hard as it should have. But if I expand to movies and books then definitely.
adamsappel
Member
Another dark Jim Carrey movie is The Cable Guy. A new wacky comedy with the guy who played in Ace Ventura, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber! Uh, no.
Third act of the movie had no right to exist in an Adam Sandler movie.
Although not dark, Bicentenial Man gets very heavy even tho it was marketed as a comedy.
We all know the joke of people spoiling this movie with "the dog dies", and you know it's true, but i thought he'd die in a cheap move for drama trying to evoke "feels" from the audience but instead
He dies of old age after living a good life with his family
I thought that this thread was about a singular movie.
came in here to post this
I take it you didn't dig it
Kabuki Quantum Lover
Member
Miracle Mile starts as a romantic comedy and swerves after the first 10 minutes into a race to flee incoming USSR nuclear warheads.
Angelus Errare
Banned
The trailers gave it away too.