It’s a bit amusing to say that a horror movie can leave us sad at times, but it does happen since there are a lot of emotions that horror can pull out of a person, and sorrow is one of them since like it or not, a lot of horror movies deal with loss. That alone can make a person sad since the whole idea of feeling sad can be a very visceral and powerful thing, or it can be due to something that we grasp a little too late or right at the moment and can’t help but feel bad about. Some movies might actually make people cry since the sadness left behind by the horror that’s passed by like a lumbering beast, without a care as to how it will affect others, can crush the heart in a metaphorical way and challenge the sanity to stay intact when it comes to mourning what’s been lost. Then there are those horror movies that are saddening simply because of all the protagonists have to go through only to realize that the road ahead after the movie is over is still long and bound to be every bit as uncertain as it was to begin with.
Here are a few horror movies that left people more sad than terrified.
5. I Am Legend
There are usually a lot of mixed reactions to this story since it’s one that has a couple of different endings and it’s also something that feels as though it could have been executed a little better in some ways. But what is sad about it is that the guy that has essentially lost everything, even his dog at one point, eventually gives up and is ready to take on the nightmarish creatures that he’s been trying to find a cure for over the years. But what’s truly sad is that without him around in the theatrical ending, since he sacrifices himself eventually, there’s no way to know if the cure even ends up working.
4. Jacob’s Ladder
Throughout the movie, one can’t help but feel sorry for Jacob since the guy is going through a bout of PTSD that no one should ever have to experience, and the nightmares he’s experiencing are absolutely horrifying. But to learn that his own government was experimenting on the troops in his unit is even worse since this is bound to make a person feel more like a guinea pig than a human being. By the end of the movie, the sadness really kicks in when it’s discovered that Jacob never made it out of the country and that everything that’s been happening has been a dream sequence as he struggled to stay alive.
3. The Mist
The original ending to the story that spawned this movie was even sadder to be honest since the movie ending is simply tragic in a way that makes a person feel cheated somehow, as though the ending should have been cut off not long after the group left the store. But the gunshots that are heard from within the vehicle near the end are damning in such a monumental way that a lot of people might actually feel their breath catch as they contemplate whether they could do the same thing, or if they’d choke in the process and consign themselves to whatever fate had in store for them.
2. The Fly
Some folks might want to argue that this movie is more horrifying than sad since there is a lot more terror to it than anything else. But the sadness has more to do with the idea that Seth was really trying to make something that would aid humanity in some way, and was more or less innocent of any wrongdoing up until he came up with the plan to try and scrub his DNA by using the teleporters with another human being. When it became clear that he was dying though he actually longed for death. There is a good deal of sadness there, especially when considering that his legacy would pass along to his son in the next movie.
1. The Sixth Sense
Yes, this one definitely gets the sad vote since Cole was a very sad case and so was Malcolm. Haley Joel Osment and Bruce Willis were both great in this movie since they created a story that told about a young boy that needed an outlet for the strange ability he harbored but couldn’t control and a man that, after helping one more person, had to be taught how to finally let go. The surprise at the end was something that managed to trick a lot of people, but it also brought with it a sense of closure that was no less saddening, but also brought a bit of relief since it felt that Cole and his mother would be fine, and Malcolm and his wife had finally learned to let go.
It’s not often that people walk out of a horror movie crying.
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