History DarknessInducedAudienceApathy / Films

* You can tell ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle'' was trying (and failed, considering the company the film was released by) to emulate Creator/{{Dreamworks|Animation}}' then-huge brand of snarky, in-your-face "edgy" humor by just how cynical it is, from how the main character is bullied by his entire town, his father being openly ashamed of him and passively having one character be [[MindRape mind raped]]. It doesn't help that the film was conceived out of [[ExecutiveMeddling Michael Eisner]]'s hatred of [=DreamWorks=] founder/Disney Renaissance alumnus Jeffrey Katzenberg, and this was his attempt to beat [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame at his own game]]. However, these factors make the film too mean-spirited in tone for most people to really enjoy.

** ''Film/{{Hereditary}}'' has this problem for the opposite reason as most horror films: not because the characters are [[DevelopingDoomedCharacters poorly acted, boring, or just plain detestable]] so that [[EightDeadlyWords you don't care]] [[KickTheSonOfABitch or at times outright cheer on]] what happens to them, but because they're a realistic and fairly sympathetic ordinary suburban family - which makes what happens to them even less fun to watch. For a ''significant'' number of people, the movie had already over this line after [[spoiler:a child gets ''decapitated'']] in a horrible car accident 45 minutes in, the fact that things only proceed to ''[[FromBadToWorse get worse]]'' from that point onward, culminating in [[spoiler:a complete KillEmAll DownerEnding]] can make it [[AngstAversion a hard film to enjoy.]] Aster stated that one of his intents with the film was to create a scenario in which the audience would feel real sympathy for the sort of characters that would be nameless, faceless {{Sacrificial Lamb}}s in any other horror movie. Given the [[CriticalDissonance exceedingly polarized reaction to the film]], the argument can definitely be made that he succeeded a bit too well.

** ''Film/{{Hereditary}}'' has this problem for the opposite reason as most horror films: not because the characters are [[DevelopingDoomedCharacters poorly acted, boring, or just plain detestable]] so that [[EightDeadlyWords you don't care (or at times outright cheer on) what happens to them]], but because they're a realistic and fairly sympathetic ordinary suburban family - which makes what happens to them even less fun to watch. For a ''significant'' number of people, the movie had already over this line after [[spoiler:a child gets ''decapitated'']] in a horrible car accident 45 minutes in, the fact that things only proceed to ''[[FromBadToWorse get worse]]'' from that point onward, culminating in [[spoiler:a complete KillEmAll DownerEnding]] can make it [[AngstAversion a hard film to enjoy.]] Aster stated that one of his intents with the film was to create a scenario in which the audience would feel real sympathy for the sort of characters that would be nameless, faceless {{Sacrificial Lamb}}s in any other horror movie. Given the [[CriticalDissonance exceedingly polarized reaction to the film]], the argument can definitely be made that he succeeded a bit too well.

** ''Film/{{Hereditary}}'' has this problem for the opposite reason as most horror films: not because the characters are [[DevelopingDoomedCharacters poorly acted, boring, or just plain detestable]] so that [[EightDeadlyWords you don't care what happens to them]], but because they're a realistic and fairly sympathetic ordinary suburban family - which makes what happens to them even less fun to watch. For a ''significant'' number of people, the movie had already over this line after [[spoiler:a child gets ''decapitated'']] in a horrible car accident 45 minutes in, the fact that things only proceed to ''[[FromBadToWorse get worse]]'' from that point onward, culminating in [[spoiler:a complete KillEmAll DownerEnding]] can make it [[AngstAversion a hard film to enjoy.]] Aster stated that one of his intents with the film was to create a scenario in which the audience would feel real sympathy for the sort of characters that would be nameless, faceless {{Sacrificial Lamb}}s in any other horror movie. Given the [[CriticalDissonance exceedingly polarized reaction to the film]], the argument can definitely be made that he succeeded a bit too well.

** ''Film/{{Hereditary}}'' has this problem for the opposite reason as most horror films: not because the characters are [[DevelopingDoomedCharacters poorly acted and boring]] so that [[EightDeadlyWords you don't care what happens to them]], but because they're a realistic and fairly sympathetic ordinary suburban family - which makes what happens to them even less fun to watch. For a ''significant'' number of people, the movie had already over this line after [[spoiler:a child gets ''decapitated'']] in a horrible car accident 45 minutes in, the fact that things only proceed to ''[[FromBadToWorse get worse]]'' from that point onward, culminating in [[spoiler:a complete KillEmAll DownerEnding]] can make it [[AngstAversion a hard film to enjoy.]] Aster stated that one of his intents with the film was to create a scenario in which the audience would feel real sympathy for the sort of characters that would be nameless, faceless {{Sacrificial Lamb}}s in any other horror movie. Given the [[CriticalDissonance exceedingly polarized reaction to the film]], the argument can definitely be made that he succeeded a bit too well.

* Creator/JohnSingleton's ''Film/HigherLearning'', his follow-up to the Oscar-nominated ''Film/BoyzNTheHood'' and to ''Poetic Justice'', was not a great success because not only did it contain an embarrassing amount of {{Narm}}, but almost all the characters were hard to like. (Like ''Film/{{The Birth of a Nation|1915}}'', to which it has occasionally been compared, this is a movie in which the black characters are bad and the white characters are worse.) In fact, the only two truly sympathetic characters were a college professor whose role is fairly minor and a female student-athlete who is killed by [[spoiler: being shot in the stomach]]--extremely unfair, since [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth she has not hurt or even acted rudely to a single person throughout the movie]]. Everyone else is at best a {{Jerkass}}, InnocentlyInsensitive, or just generally irresponsible. Then there's the girl's murderer, a VillainProtagonist of sorts, who is not heroic by any measure; however, we're led to understand how [[JerkassWoobie he became extremely frustrated and then enraged]] by his CrapsackWorld environment. Life at the college campus is so miserable, in fact, that in the end [[DesignatedHero the nominal hero of the story]] [[spoiler: just gives up and runs away]], which is hardly a heroic thing to do.

* ''Film/MenaceIISociety''. The film itself invokes this trope, [[TropesAreTools showing that it's one of the few times where it can be executed correctly]]. There is no point getting emotionally attached to any of the main cast of the film, as it is a dark representation of how dangerous the neighborhoods of Watts, California are. The main character (Caine) embraces the life of a criminal, his best friend O-Dog is a terrible person who has no justifiable motivation for his sadism and murder, the same applies to the other members of the gang. Given that, it is very difficult to truly sympathize with most of the main characters, [[EvilVersusEvil especially when you consider that they are all practically at war with gangsters like them.]]

** In its follow-up, ''Film/LandOfTheDead'', HumansAreTheRealMonsters is taken to an extreme, and the alternative is to root for the one-dimensional good guys and the zombies, who are quite obviously still dangerous undead predators that nobody sane would want to see receive anything other than bullets in the brain. However, the entire series was building up to this kind of setting.

* ''Planet of the Apes'':
** ''Film/DawnOfThePlanetOfTheApes'', as opposed to the previous movie, has practically no respite from the grim and gritty tone. The movie opens with the human race being wiped out by a pandemic and things only go downhill from there. Every barest hint of a HopeSpot in the movie is swiftly ruined, and the finale implies that everything is about to get much worse.
** And indeed, ''Film/WarForThePlanetOfTheApes'' made things very downbeat. It's DuringTheWar, and not only there's the expected casualties (one of whom, Caesar's son, drives the plot as it inspires him to seek revenge), but a prisoner camp for the apes is heavily featured. Given humans are the enemy, only the child Nova is played in a sympathetic light, with everyone else being cruel and vindicative. That being said, [[EarnYourHappyEnding the suffering protagonists manage to get an uplifting conclusion]].

* This is one of the reasons why the 2006 3D reboot of ''[[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968 Night of the Living Dead]]'' isn't very well liked. Apart from being drastically different from the original, the tone is pretty bleak and most of the characters aren't exactly likable. [[spoiler:That, and they [[EverybodyDies all pretty much die by the end of the film]]]].
* One of the biggest criticisms of the ''Film/ParanormalActivity'' series is that it's difficult to grow attached to any of the characters, considering [[spoiler:[[EverybodyDies they all die]], and the [[TheBadGuyWins demonic force haunting them always wins]] because there doesn't seem to be any way to permanently stop it]].

* ''Film/BodyOfEvidence'': As Ken Begg points out in his [[http://www.jabootu.com/boe.htm review]] "It finally just hit me that a major problem with this picture is that there isn’t a single vaguely likeable character in the whole deal. Frank is a [[YourCheatingHeart colossal, adulterous jerk.]] Rebecca is at [[EthicalSlut best a slutty weirdo]], at worst a [[TheVamp cold blooded killer]]. Garrett is a [[TheDitz doofus who prosecutes people under the most retarded rationales imaginable, and does so poorly.]] Even the victim was an [[DirtyOldMan old pervert]]. Now, this isn't necessarily fatal, but for it not to be, the film must be extremely well made. Needless to say, this is not the case here."

* This is why the 4th movie in the Creator/SamRaimi ''[[Film/SpiderManTrilogy Spider-Man series]]'' got cancelled. The script had Peter and MJ divorced after he had an [[YourCheatingHeart affair]] with ComicBook/BlackCat. He also was a deadbeat dad to their son. Raimi felt like Peter was such a {{Jerkass}} that the audience would be put off and refused to shoot it. Sony ultimately just decided to [[Film/TheAmazingSpiderManSeries reboot the series for good.]]

* ''Film/MenaceIISociety''. The film itself invokes this trope. There is no point getting emotionally attached to any of the main cast of the film, as it is a dark representation of how dangerous the neighborhoods of Watts, California are. The main character (Caine) embraces the life of a criminal, his best friend O-Dog is a terrible person who has no justifiable motivation for his sadism and murder, the same applies to the other members of the gang. Given that, it is very difficult to truly sympathize with most of the main characters, [[EvilVersusEvil especially when you consider that they are all practically at war with gangsters like them.]]

* Those that don't like Creator/WoodyAllen's ''Film/MatchPoint'' often cite this as a reason: the murder victim is clingy and whiny, the murderer himself is an unrepentant scumbag, and the other characters are, for the most part, [[UpperClassTwit Upper-Class Twits]].

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' is a rare animated example. It shows a faithful depiction of the book of Exodus but it's intense imagery and tragic stories of Moses and Rameses can be too much for moviegoers to handle. It also shows graphic depictions of the ten plagues and slavery as shown in two of it's most famous and intense songs "Deliver Us" and "The Plagues".

* ''Film/TheThing1982'' has much the same problem as ''Literature/TheTerror'' (see [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy/{{Literature}} Literature]]) - between the {{Gorn}}, the heavy-handed gloomy atmosphere, and the fact that the story follows a bunch of starving, freezing Antarctic researchers being stalked by a murderous EldritchAbomination, it's a pretty depressing experience. The fact that it ends with [[spoiler:[[KillEmAll all the protagonists dead]] and the base destroyed]] could thus be considered almost merciful. Director Creator/JohnCarpenter has even attributed the film's poor box-office performance to this trope.

* Similar to the ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' example listed below, ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' nearly suffered from this. Jeffery Katzenberg [[ExecutiveMeddling urged the employees at PIXAR to make the film "more adult" and "edgier"]]. The result was an early screening in which Woody and the other toys (aside from Buzz) were constantly-angry [[{{Jerkass}} Jerkasses]]. In this version, Woody grabs Buzz and throws him out the window, then he and the other toys start yelling at each other, and the other toys attack him and throw him out the window too. Jeffery Katzenberg, Roy Disney, and Peter Schneider were appalled by it, and PIXAR was given two weeks to rewrite the film as they saw fit and make Woody and the other toys more likable.

* The indie war drama ''Film/CombatShock'' is a particularly extreme example of this trope. Lacking the masterful cinematic technique and interesting characters of similar [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam War]] films such as ''Film/ApocalypseNow'', ''Film/TheDeerHunter'', ''Film/FullMetalJacket'', and ''Film/{{Platoon}}'', it instead presents the audience with a remorseless march into the dark as the protagonist, a veteran living in total poverty and in a broken household with a [[BodyHorror deformed child]], slowly loses his grip on sanity. It all culminates in [[spoiler:the protagonist murdering his entire family and then [[DrivenToSuicide committing suicide]].]] Many in the audience probably wished he'd done so earlier, thus sparing them the torment of watching him suffer.

* ''Film/CannibalHolocaust'': On the one hand, you have a team of psychopathic, narcissistic documentarians who are willing to stage horrible atrocities in order to make their film more "interesting". On the other hand, the Yanomami tribesmen don't come off much better in spite of the film's attempts to portray them in a sympathetic light, being depicted as vicious cannibals and gang-rapists. [[OnlySaneMan Faye]] and [[IgnoredExpert Dr. Monroe]] are pretty much the only remotely decent characters in the entire film, and even so, the former still participates in the team's crimes - albeit reluctantly - and in the end [[spoiler:suffers a brutal and protracted demise despite being the least guilty of the four]]. The relentlessly oppressive, nihilistic tone and [[{{Gorn}} graphic gore]] (including scenes of real-life animal slaughter) don't help, either. As Dr. Monroe so eloquently puts it: [[NotSoDifferent "I wonder who the real cannibals are."]]

* ''Pirates Of the Caribbean'' series:

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueDarkApokolipsWar'', the GrandFinale for the ''WesternAnimation/DCAnimatedMovieUniverse'', '''''really''''' falls into this. These films have always had trouble with making the heroes likable, and now we have those same heroes dying horribly in downright disturbing ways all throughout the film in addition to a lot of civilian death and general mayhem, not unlike Marvel's ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}'' event. The darkness is so oppressive that it becomes difficult to care after a while. [[https://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/1133822-justice-league-dark-apokolips-war-review Many reviews]] [[https://www.ign.com/articles/justice-league-dark-apokolips-war-review make a very clear warning]] that this film is very violent and people should steer clear if they can't stomach it. As if that wasn't enough, the entire Animated Universe ends with a PyrrhicVictory as most of the heroes are dead, insane or crippled and the Earth left near-inhospitable. This leads to Constantine to order Flash to go back in time and prevent the tragedy from happening, which will change the entire timeline. Many fans feel that this makes the entire DCAMU not worth watching or getting invested in.

** ''Film/BatmanReturns'', the sequel to ''Film/Batman1989'' (also directed by Burton), is considered by many to be one of the strangest and most depressing Batman films for many years, bordering on nihilistic, from the grotesque villains to the DownerEnding. While this is a big part of the appeal to some fans, for others it makes it difficult to enjoy. There's also the fact that for all its bleakness it is also rather campy in some aspects (especially the more fantastical elements related to Penguin's plan), which some argue leads to the film's tone feeling muddled. It was also the darkest Tim Burton movie at the time, and the backlash pushed him back to his comedic roots with ''Film/EdWood''.

* The notorious 2004 sex-comedy, ''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'', suffers from this. The main characters are, at best, bland and unlikable, or worse, creepy and disgusting (one of them has a fetish for mixing [[{{Squick}} vagina juice with jam sandwiches]]) and the whole story revolves around them having sex with incredibly ugly women, sitting in the pub drinking beer, and just doing nothing remotely interesting. The humor is also just as off-putting, since the jokes are either boring and lazily written, or gross and nauseating.

* The notorious 2004 sex-comedy, ''Sex Lives of the Potato Men'', suffers from this. The main characters are, at best, bland and unlikable, or worse, creepy and disgusting (one of them has a fetish for mixing [[Squick vagina juice with jam sandwiches]]) and the whole story revolves around them having sex with incredibly ugly women, sitting in the pub drinking beer, and just doing nothing remotely interesting. The humor is also just as off-putting, since the jokes are either boring and lazily written, or gross and nauseating.

** Many fans of the series have criticized ''[[Film/{{Alien 3}} Alien³]]'' for being unrelentingly grim and nihilistic. The film ''starts'' by killing off the entire supporting cast of ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', rendering the time Ripley spent rescuing Newt from the atmosphere processor on LV-426 as a [[HappyEndingOverride colossal waste of effort]]. In their place are a group of violent inmates on a backwater prison planet who sport shaved heads (making it difficult to tell them apart) and are almost all interchangeable. The few sympathetic supporting characters are killed off very early in the film or die en masse in the tunnel scene just before the ending. The audience has no reason to root for any of the inmates besides Dillon, despite the film's attempt to claim otherwise. It ends with [[spoiler:the lead character (Ripley) sacrificing herself to stop Weyland-Yutani from getting their hands on the xenomorph]], and the only people alive at the end are a group of W-Y commandos and a single prisoner. However, it is noteworthy that the film's ending is actually a BittersweetEnding, not a DownerEnding- [[spoiler: Ripley dies, but ''she [[TakingYouWithMe takes the last Xenomorph with her.]]'' The fight is over, and humanity won, at the cost of a relative few lives.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueDarkApokolipsWar'' , the finale for the ''WesternAnimation/DCAnimatedMovieUniverse'' , '''''really''''' falls into this. These films have always had trouble with making the heroes likable, and now we have those same heroes dying horribly in downright disturbing ways all throughout the film in addition to a lot of civilian death and general mayhem, not unlike Marvel's ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}'' event. The darkness is so oppressive that it becomes difficult to care after a while. [[https://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/1133822-justice-league-dark-apokolips-war-review Many reviews]] [[https://www.ign.com/articles/justice-league-dark-apokolips-war-review make a very clear warning]] that this film is very violent and people should steer clear if they can't stomach it. As if that wasn't enough, the entire Animated Universe ends with a PyrrhicVictory as most of the heroes are dead, insane or crippled and the Earth left near-inhospitable. This leads to Constantine to order Flash to go back in time and prevent the tragedy from happening, which will change the entire timeline. Many fans feel that this makes the entire DCAMU not worth watching or getting invested in.

*** ''Starship Troopers'' is this only for those viewers who want it to be heroic. For viewers who accept it as a satire, it's hilarious.

** ''Film/SurvivalOfTheDead'' is the moment that this trope hit rock bottom in this series. Every single major character is a loathsome asshole, "BewareTheLiving" personified, and the WackyWaysideTribe that is most important to the plot is a pair of DuelingFamilies that can't stop trying to kill each other even when they are being literally gnawed on by the zombies. Not surprisingly, this was the FranchiseKiller of the ''Dead'' series, or at least delayed plans of another one being made [[AuthorExistenceFailure until it was too late.]]

** ''Film/DayOfTheDead''. The previous two ''Dead'' films had fairly traditional protagonists and antagonists among the zombie invasion. In this DarkerAndEdgier entry, it says a lot when most people argued that a [[BlackAndGreyMorality morally questionable]] MadScientist and his favorite zombie specimen were the only interesting characters in the whole film.

** In its follow-up, ''Film/LandOfTheDead'', HumansAreTheRealMonsters is taken to an extreme, and the alternative is to root for the zombies, who are quite obviously still dangerous undead predators that nobody sane would want to see receive anything other than bullets in the brain. However, the entire series was building up to this kind of setting.

** ''Film/DayOfTheDead''. The characters from the previous two films had their flaws, but some of them were still nice. In this third movie, we have the military, who are horrible people, racist, sociopaths and misogynists who only know how to answer everything on the basis of violence. And then we have the scientists, who are definitely not very interesting, and whose boss is a madman who is teaching zombies to be dociles and smarter, and feeds them with bits and pieces of their dead friends. Not surprisingly, many viewers hope that the zombies will kill them all.