History DarknessInducedAudienceApathy / Films

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[[redirect:TooBleakStoppedCaring/Films]]

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!!Creator Examples
* Creator/PaulThomasAnderson:
** ''Film/{{Magnolia}}''. The rather self-centered behavior displayed by many characters in the cast, made it hard for some viewers to sympathize with them. With the exception of hospice nurse Phil Parma and Officer Jim Kurring, who’s quite possibly the one genuinely good character in the film.
** ''Film/ThereWillBeBlood'' can fall into this for some given its lack of sympathetic characters (HW being the few exceptions). The main character, [[VillainProtagonist Daniel Plainview]], is a vicious, amoral, stop-at-nothing [[TheSociopath sociopath]]. The main villain, Eli Sunday, is a smug, cowardly, hypocritical, religious zealot. Any background characters introduced, such as Henry, are shown to be no saints themselves. With so many unpleasant characters, it can be very difficult to find someone to root for.
** ''Film/TheMaster'': When you have a movie whose protagonists consist of a near-animalistic alcoholic pervert and a charismatic yet megalomaniac deluded cult leader, with the latter's cruel LadyMacbeth-esque wife thrown into the mix.
* A majority of Creator/DarrenAronofsky's work easily falls into this category due to the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism overly-cynical levels]]. Their moods are oppressively dark and self-serious, his characters self-destructive wrecks that are so goal-driven that they alienate those around them, and more often than not, they end on pretty downer notes or at least very bittersweet. Even ''Film/TheWrestler'' isn't completely safe from this, though it isn't quite as bleak as his other films. The only films of his that have genuinely happy endings are ''Film/{{Pi}}'' and ''Film/{{Noah}}'' (although the former can be considered an EsotericHappyEnding) and even those come after much brutality and horror beforehand with questionable, disturbed protagonists.
* Creator/AriAster:
** ''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 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/{{Midsommar}}'' has a cast full of either jerks or AffablyEvil, with a notable exception from the protagonist whose apathetic afterlife and manipulations took their toll on her mental health. Add heavy doses of shock horror, and the movie has been quite the turn-off to a not-insignificant portion of the film's audience.
* Creator/TimBurton has directed a few movies that fall under this trope.
** Inverted in ''Film/MarsAttacks''. All but a half dozen or so characters (and even they have pretty glaring flaws) are pompous, insensitive, immoral, or just plain stupid--but that's okay because the whole point of the movie is [[ComedicSociopathy you get to see the Martians kill all these jerks in countless hilarious ways]]. The few characters that ''aren't'' assholes [[NiceGuy (Ritchie,]] [[CoolOldLady his senile grandmother,]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes Byron Williams]] and his BadassFamily, [[AsHimself Tom Jones)]] all come together to save the day.
** Besides the catchy tunes, ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'' is a movie about a [[VillainProtagonist guy bent on revenge who kills people on the path to the]] DirtyOldMan who arrested him without reason to take his wife and daughter, and a woman who uses the victims [[IAmAHumanitarian on her pie shop...]] [[spoiler:and who so as to get a chance at a romance with Sweeney hid the fact that his wife, the reason for the whole carnage, was still alive.]] The perpetually bluish-gray color scheme does nothing to lighten the mood, either.
* A lot of the works of Creator/TheCoenBrothers (as an example, ''Film/TheManWhoWasntThere2001'' or ''Film/ASeriousMan'') are loaded with an absurd amount of BlackComedy... ''way'' too absurd and most importantly ''way'' too dark. Horrible people doing horrible things in an IdiotPlot that will most probably end with them dying horrible deaths... or worse yet, becoming an IdiotHoudini that will most probably carry on without having learnt anything. Or worse yet, good people will be [[TheChewToy driven through]] [[CosmicPlaything the wringer]] to the point that they come out the other side [[MaddenIntoMisanthropy maddened into becoming]] TheAntiNihilist... when they come out alive.
* The works of Creator/DavidCronenberg are often prone to this trope due to their [[BodyHorror morbid subject matter]], [[NauseaFuel grotesque imagery]], and near-total lack of levity, not to mention the fact that the characters generally tend to be pretty unpleasant people. Even his most famous and "mainstream" production, ''Film/{{The Fly|1986}}'', is not entirely immune as it does not shy away from the gore in the slightest. In fact, one scene had to be cut from the film precisely for inducing this reaction in the test audience.
* Creator/FrankMiller:
** ''Film/SinCity''. Hartigan is the only guy who's close to good, Nancy is a NeutralFemale, and all the other characters alternate between "amoral bastards" (Marv, Dwight, The Girls of Old Town) to "amoral monsters" (the people they're up against). And by the time ''Film/SinCityADameToKillFor'' comes around, Nancy has [[TookALevelInBadass taken an]] [[TookALevelInJerkass upgrade to]] another example of "amoral bastard" (one that is borderline insane, at that).
** ''Film/ThreeHundred''. The narrator described the Spartans as [[AlwaysLawfulGood the ultimate good guys]]. Because of his {{unreliab|leNarrator}}ility, though, it turns out the Spartans were just as [[AxCrazy insane]] and {{blood|Knight}}thirsty as their Persian enemies (the prologue spells out how the Spartans actually kill any infant that doesn't match their standards of health). Because of that, while the narrator described the battles between the Spartans and Persians as "good vs. evil" (or "order vs. chaos" if you prefer), to audience members, it seemed more like "[[EvilVersusEvil bad guys vs.]] [[BlackAndGrayMorality worse guys]]."
* Creator/GeorgeARomero:
** ''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 who only know how to answer everything on the basis of violence. And then we have the scientists, who are debatably less then noble for making irrational decisions that don’t help anybody, and whose boss is a madman who is teaching zombies to be docile 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.
** In its follow-up, ''Film/LandOfTheDead'', HumansAreTheRealMonsters is taken to an extreme; the protagonists are either very one-dimensional or are perfectly willing to let other living people die in order to achieve their goals, and the villains are a bunch of UpperClassTwit[=s=] who are ''also'' willing to let other living people die in order to achieve their goals. It really feels as if the best 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/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 FeudingFamilies 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 biggest BoxOfficeBomb of the whole series.
* Creator/MartinScorsese:
** ''Film/TheKingOfComedy''. This is likely why the parts where [[spoiler:Jerry is killed by Rupert that was suggested by Jerry Lewis himself or Rupert being beaten up by the FBI that was in the original script]] were omitted, given how this film for a BlackComedy is bleak as these moments. Also, the film is a dark deconstruction of celebrity life and fandom with no characters to really root for, with Rita being the only 100% sympathetic character. This issue is also one of the factors behind the film's lackluster performance at its initial release.
** ''Film/{{Casino}}'' is basically ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' without the humor or likeable characters, and with even more extreme violence and a whole lot of portentous symbolism. Consequently, it's much more divisive than its predecessor.
** ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'''s total absence of likable characters despite being a crazy comedy is often seen as the source for its controversy, and according to one Oscar voter who hated the fact that "there was no one to root for", this was the real reason why it was an Awards no-show.
*** They must've forgotten Denham, the FBI agent who serves as an antagonist to Jordan Belfort and ultimately takes him down. But then again, the film showcases that Denham doesn't get even a knee-jerk "thank you" for his efforts and Belfort (because he's rich and famous) gets a LuxuryPrisonSuite and a job that pays just as well as his old one once he gets out, completely unrepentant.
* The films of Creator/PaulVerhoeven almost always tend to suffer from this trope. Virtually everyone is a complete and utter sleazebag, and the so-called "[[DesignatedHero heroes]]" tend to be apathetic at best and borderline [[SociopathicHero sociopathic]] at worst. The frequent {{Gorn}} and explicit sex don't help matters either. Specific examples:
** ''Film/RoboCop1987'' didn't shy away from having {{corrupt corporate executive}}s, [[DirtyCop corrupt law enforcement]], and [[AxeCrazy crazed psychopaths]], featured lots of violent deaths, and took place in a CrapsackWorld that seemed to have no limits. The [[Film/RoboCop2 sequel]], which Verhoeven did not direct but co-written by Frank Miller (see his examples above), is even worse in this regard. The amount of darkness in it is one of the reasons Creator/PeterWeller didn't come back for ''Film/RoboCop3'', also co-written by Miller, as it featured even more violence than the 1987 original, frequent explicit use of the fictional drug Nuke, scenes meant to show more of Murphy's humanity were cut, and one of the main villains, Hob, is a [[SirSwearsALot fouled-mouthed]] [[EnfantTerrible 12-year old]].
** ''Film/{{Showgirls}}'': UsefulNotes/LasVegas [[TruthInTelevision may not be all glitz and glamor]], but it's really hard to root for the main character when she and everybody else act like terrible people, swear constantly, and have an overall cynical view. The only character that makes a positive effort is Molly and even she can't escape the bleak underbelly of Vegas since [[spoiler:she gets raped]].
** Although ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' is partly a comedy, it is a very dark comedy that suggests that [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans are as animalistic as any other creature in outer space]]. Although the genocidal alien bugs are clearly the bad guys (although there are some hints that they're actually just scapegoats for human propaganda), [[HeWhoFightsMonsters the humans have become arrogant and brutal in the course of fighting them]]. Condemned criminals are executed on live TV, computer websites pump users full of [[PatrioticFervor overbearing propaganda reminiscent of World War II newsreels]], schoolchildren are encouraged to gleefully stomp on helpless insects in a form of FantasticRacism, people are denied citizenship rights if they do not serve in the military, the {{drill sergeant|Nasty}} at the infantry boot camp is a bully (okay, sometimes a JerkWithAHeartOfGold) who seems to enjoy [[EqualOpportunityEvil physically humiliating both male and female recruits]], [[DisproportionateRetribution soldiers are punched in the face for uttering mildly rude remarks]], and the protagonist is at one point stripped to the waist and [[ATasteOfTheLash receives 10 lashes across his bare back]] in full view of the entire camp as punishment for ''accidentally'' causing a comrade's death (though the poorly designed, incredibly unsafe training area was just a disaster waiting to happen). It should be noted that the film is an inversion of [[Literature/StarshipTroopers the original novel]], in which the only executed criminal is a deserter who murdered a little girl, the drill sergeant uses a baton on the recruits sometimes but prefers to verbally dress them down, and the protagonist was whipped for actions that could have caused the death of a comrade through his negligence (violating established safety regulations to cut corners and make his job easier) if it had been actual combat rather than a training exercise.
* Creator/LarsVonTrier is the poster boy example of this trope due to the excessive cynicism from his works. The most egregious example including:
** ''{{Film/Melancholia}}''. There's no point to the plot. Or the characterization. Or the dialogue. [[ShootTheShaggyDog Or anything else.]] Everyone just dies, after living a sad life. But it's okay; the film assures you that they were all complete {{Jerkass}}es. We never see anything happy in the movie or anything that implies their world is anything other than apathetic and depressing. TrueArtIsAngsty taken to its logical extreme.
*** It’s possible to enjoy the film if you emphasize with Justine instead of her sister. The film is at first shown from her perspective, documenting how she’s getting progressively more depressed and apathetic towards her surroundings. This eventually reaches a point where she is not even able to complete simple tasks (like taking a bath) or get any enjoyment out of anything (“It tastes like ashes!”). Her sister, in contrast, is trying to drag her out of her funk. Their roles reverse when it becomes apparent that Earth and Melancholia ''will'' crash — Justine’s mood becomes vigorous and lasts in anticipation until the point of impact.
* Music/RobZombie:
** ''Film/TheDevilsRejects'' [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools is a deliberate example of this trope]]. Music/RobZombie makes it clear that there is no true good guy to root for. Only the flawed ([[HeroAntagonist Sheriff Wydell]]) vs. the worst of humanity ([[VillainProtagonist the Firefly family]]), making it one of the rare occasions where many enjoy the movie for its unrelenting bleakness.
*** Though some audiences have felt that he played that idea ''too'' well and that it ultimately made the film less fun to watch.
** His ''Halloween'' [[Film/{{Halloween2007}} remake]] and [[Film/HalloweenII2009 its sequel]] suffer from making almost every character an unlikeable {{Jerkass}}, even [[UpToEleven more so than the average slasher film]]. The few characters who aren't Jerkasses at the start either become one by the second film or disappear from the plot as quickly as possible.

!!Specific Works
* ''Film/EightHeadsInADuffelBag'': The [[DesignatedHero "hero"]] is a vicious criminal and all-around meanie, and everyone else is either a smart-aleck or [[TheScrappy so cartoonish that it's hard to view them as anything but annoying]].
* Some entries in the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' series can run headlong into this:
** Many fans of the series have criticized ''Film/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.]] Even a few of the actors in the franchise has this view, including Creator/RonPerlman (who played Johner in ''Film/AlienResurrection'') and Creator/LanceHenriksen, who played Bishop in ''Aliens'' and ''3'' and despite being in the film, he didn't sugarcoat his view on it, flat-out calling the film nihilistic in both the documentary and commentary.
** ''Film/AlienCovenant'': [[spoiler:The hopeful tone at the end of ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' is rendered null and void in the first half-hour, as the Engineer home planet is completely wiped out and Elizabeth Shaw dies ([[DeathByCameo off-screen, no less]]) via experimentation by David. The crew of the ''Covenant'' are killed off in increasingly-messy ways, and the film ends with the only overt [[TheBadGuyWins "bad guy wins" ending]] in the series -- David has taken Walter's place aboard the ''Covenant'', has Daniels and Tennessee at his mercy, and plans to infect some[=/=]all of the colonists in cryosleep with facehugger embryos he's smuggled onboard. Not to mention that David (the villain) always seems to have the upper hand on the protagonists. Some viewers have claimed that some of the plot points are {{Ass Pull}}s just to make sure that David wins.]]
** A common complaint about ''Film/AliensVsPredatorRequiem'' is that the film tries ''way'' too hard to be as disturbing and viscerally disgusting as possible. This manifests primarily in the form of uninteresting human characters (on top of them dropping dead like flies as collateral damage fodder in the extraterrestrials' conflict), the Xenomorphs being incredibly vile [[BodyHorror even by their standards]] (most notably with the Predalien turning ''pregnant women into Chestburster nests, having said bursters eating the child within''), and a heavy-handed DownerEnding with [[spoiler:the government nuking the city]] - a perfect example of the typical villainous "we do what we want and everybody else is expendable" mentality that is typical of the franchise (but is more unsettling than usual because it's happening on modern-day Earth). Additionally, the trope name becomes incredibly literal with a lighting direction so poor that it is almost impossible to see ''anything'' on the screen (especially the [[JustHereForGodzilla much-important titular conflict]]).
* Some critics said ''Film/AmericasSweethearts'' had this problem. Among the main characters in the title, Eddie is a ticking time bomb ([[JerkassWoobie although it's understandable, given the headline-making breakup]]) and Gwen is an unapproachable, manipulative RichBitch [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking who can't even put ankle boots on right]]. Among the side characters, the agent played by Billy Crystal is mining all the drama for his own benefit. The only likable character is Gwen's sister mainly because she has to put up with Gwen and is just beginning to grow a backbone after losing a bunch of weight but her goal is to get together with Eddie so it doesn't really matter.
* Part of the reason the Creator/JamesCameron[=/=]Creator/GuillermoDelToro film of ''Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness'' was canceled (the other part was an out-of-control-budget)--it's an R-rated horror film about two races of fighting {{Eldritch Abomination}}s who pay no mind to the doomed humans, and, unlike, ''Underworld'' there isn't even a romantic plotline to root for. It's also possible the execs thought it was just ''Franchise/AlienVsPredator'' [[RecycledInSpace with tentacles and penguins.]] Besides, with the mentioned war between two alien species, the black semiliquid polyvalent stuff that shoggoths are made of, and a group of human scientists exploring eldritch ancient ruins, Del Toro thought ''{{Film/Prometheus}}'' did his idea already, anyways.
* ''WesternAnimation/BebesKids'' features the protagonist Robin Harris (based on the real-life comedian who passed away just two years before the film's release), who proves to be more often than not an irresponsible adult who would even go as far as to abandon the children in an attempt to escape the ruckus of an amusement park. The titular trio themselves also cause lord knows how much money worth of destruction of said amusement park and are, in general, very misbehaved. Leon, the only sympathetic character, still takes a lot of crap from the titular trio. Really, there's hardly a single character in the whole film worth rooting for.
* ''Film/BeingJohnMalkovich'' suffers from this; all the main characters are, at the very least, horrifically selfish human beings who don't really care who gets hurt in pursuit of their various wants. The only remotely sympathetic character in the movie is Creator/JohnMalkovich himself, and that's mostly because he's more of a plot device than an actual character. For the uninitiated, [[spoiler: Creator/CharlieSheen(!) has, by the end of the movie, very likely learned that John Malkovich is trapped in his own head while other people dominate him, and he is likely going to follow the puppetmasters who are possessing Malkovich into the next host, an adorable and harmless seven-year-old girl.]]
* This goes back all the way to the beginning of feature-length cinema--[[ValuesDissonance for modern viewers]], [[SocietyMarchesOn anyway]]--with ''Film/{{The Birth of a Nation|1915}}'' (1915). Admit it: you want absolutely ''no one'' to triumph, because the conflict is between white supremacists who want to keep blacks from voting and ''[[HeWhoFightsMonsters black]]'' supremacists who want to keep ''whites'' from voting.
* ''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 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 absurd 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."
* Believe it or not, ''Film/TheBreakfastClub'' can have this effect on more cynical viewers. The {{crap|sackWorld}}piness of Shermer, Illinois, pretty much goes from being PlayedForLaughs (as in ''Film/SixteenCandles'') to being PlayedForDrama. Every adult (barring the janitor Carl) is a viciously selfish scumbag of some sort, abusing the kids for their own benefit. The kids themselves, [[BlackAndGrayMorality while morally]] [[AntiHero better people]], are so deeply dysfunctional that one can't help but feel a bit nihilistic. "When you grow old, your heart dies" sums it all up '''perfectly.'''
* This was a common criticism leveled against ''Film/TheButterflyEffect'', with many reviewers claiming that it was so oppressively dark that it almost became [[{{Narm}} hard to take seriously]]. The entire first half-hour of the movie is a nonstop TraumaCongaLine for the main character, where he's nearly strangled by his institutionalized father, gets molested by his neighbor, accidentally murders a woman and her baby with dynamite, watches his dog get tied up in a sack and burned to death, sees his best friend lose his mind, and receives news that the love of his life has committed suicide. The rest of the movie follows his attempts to make everything better with time-travel...[[FromBadToWorse which end up making it]] ''[[FromBadToWorse worse]]''.
* ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods'' has an InUniverse example. [[spoiler:At the end of the film, it is well in the ability of the surviving characters to prevent TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt by way of HeroicSacrifice. It's just that they've gone through so much trauma that they simply ''don't care anymore'' and let the {{Eldritch Abomination}}s destroy everything by refusing to satisfy them with death.]]
* ''Film/TheCandySnatchers'' is an ExploitationFilm centering on a young schoolgirl being kidnapped and held for ransom by the protagonists. If this sounds like a cheesy excuse for some sexy BoundAndGagged shenanigans, you'd be quite, ''quite'' wrong. It's actually a very bleak, cruel, and mean-spirited film where ''all'' of our viewpoint characters and nearly all secondary ones are [[BlackAndGrayMorality varying shades of evil]] that the audience can only root against. The one character left to care about is the completely innocent victim, and the physical, psychological ''and'' sexual (because ''[[GratuitousRape of course]]'' the movie would go there, too) abuse she constantly endures are portrayed as far too realistic and heart-wrenching to have any kind of amusing or titillating qualities; whatever the filmmaker's intention was, the only thing that her trauma and suffering can arouse in the viewer is pity. All told, it's an ''extremely'' poor choice for a "Bad Movie Night" with any friends you want to hear from again afterwards.
* ''Film/CannibalHolocaust'': On the one hand, you have a team of amoral documentarians led by a narcissistic psychopath who's willing to stage horrible atrocities in order to make his 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 [[AccompliceByInaction 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: [[NotSoDifferentRemark "I wonder who the real cannibals are."]]
* The indie psychological drama ''Film/CombatShock'' is a particularly extreme example of this trope. Lacking the masterful cinematic technique and interesting characters of similar films such as ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}'', ''Film/TaxiDriver'', and ''Film/TheDeerHunter'', it instead presents the audience with a remorseless march into the dark as the protagonist, a [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam War]] [[ShellShockedVeteran 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/TheConIsOn'': It is hard to summon up much sympathy for Harry and Peter, the {{Villain Protagonist}}s. Unlike most ConMan movies, they are not {{Lovable Rogue}}s, but amoral thieves who dabble in drug dealing, and who are in their current predicament due to their own greed and stupidity. The people they rip off are horrible people, and the gangsters chasing them are worse, but they remain unsympathetic.
* The war drama ''Film/{{Conspiracy|2001}}'' about the Wannsee Conference is a dramatization of a historical event that ended in the genocide of millions, which is [[ForegoneConclusion clear from the start]]. Every major character in the film is [[EvilVersusEvil a heinous war criminal so morally bankrupt]] that there's no one left to root for. The only one who somewhat maintains audience sympathy for [[EvenEvilHasStandards feeling they're crossing a line]] is blackmailed into submission by much scarier men. It concludes with the revelation that [[ShaggyDogStory the discussion was entirely pointless]] and Heydrich was going to carry out the Holocaust anyway. Finally, most of the Nazis [[KarmaHoudini never received any comeuppance]] and went on to live uneventful lives after the war.
* One possible reason why ''Film/TheCounselor'' received many mediocre reviews; There aren't many people to root for. Most of the characters are bad guys/girls, and the titular character is somewhat naive and foolish.
* ''Film/TheDayAfter'' and its [[TransAtlanticEquivalent British counterpart]] ''Film/{{Threads}}'' both suffer heavily from this trope, which was arguably the ''point'', as both films sought to demonstrate that in the event of a nuclear war, there will be no happy endings. As such, it could feel pointless to root for any of the characters since they're all fated to die horribly or ([[FateWorseThanDeath perhaps worse]]) live as wretched scavengers in an irradiated, ruined world. This is especially true in ''Threads'', where a full-scale war breaks out as opposed to the limited exchange seen in ''The Day After'', with society (and even human language) subsequently crumbling to the point that the post-war generation will never rebuild civilization. While this is probably a message that needs to be addressed, in this case, some people definitely tuned out [[DontShootTheMessage before the films could get their message across]].
** Although this did not hold true when ''The Day After'' initially came out: at the time, a happy ending (or something that resembled a happy ending [[FridgeLogic if no one looked at it too closely]]) was so common that audiences genuinely expected one. The lack of one was both a surprising and sobering experience to audiences of the time.
* ''Film/DontBreathe'' stars a trio of burglars who decide to break into the home of a blind war veteran and steal the $300,000 settlement he got when his daughter was killed in a car accident. Even with Rocky's admittedly sympathetic motive of moving herself and her sister away from their AbusiveParents, such a [[DesignatedHero repulsively horrid act]] ''would'' have you [[RootingForTheEmpire completely on the side of the blind man]], but he is so unsympathetically crazy [[spoiler:to the point he's an [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil outright kidnapper and rapist]]]] that it's impossible to root for him either. TheReveal about the Blind Man was meant to [[BlackAndGrayMorality give the robbers the moral high ground]] but it doesn't change how predatory and heartless their intended crime was (they were ''counting'' on him being a harmless blind man and thus an easy victim), basically making it impossible to want anyone to succeed.
* One of the many criticisms for ''Film/FantasticFour2015'' was that the film's tone was too serious and invoked DarkerAndEdgier for the sake of it without actually executing it properly (especially considering how the source material and previous film adaptations were much lighter and surreal in tone). Furthermore, the lack of any real bonds between the characters at the end of the movie - or the perception that the characters themselves are underdeveloped - have also been heavily criticized, as some critics argued that the grim tone would have worked if the characters were actually interesting or worth rooting for. As a result of said tone, the movie ended up being universally panned in terms of critical & audience reception as well as becoming a huge BoxOfficeBomb.
* The ''Franchise/FinalDestination'' series has this problem involving the second variant of this trope. There's no point in getting emotionally attached to them or rooting for them to make it because the rules say death will not be cheated and they're all going to die. Even finding out the reason why the visions that allow the characters to cheat death happen can add to this trope. Hoping for some kind of BigGood to this series or something similar? [[spoiler: Nope. It was Death doing it all along, and then killing them later because... [[ForTheEvulz I dunno, he's a dick.]]]]
* The characters in ''Film/{{Gamer}}'' are either [[TheSociopath sociopathic monsters,]] obnoxious {{jerkass}}es, or people who are so [[FlatCharacter one-dimensional]] that it's very hard to care for them. Kable isn't safe either, as he too is a psychopath even outside of [[DeadlyGame "Slayers"]], willing to kill random people, and snaps Rick Rape's spine [[DisproportionateRetribution just because he was hitting on his wife,]] [[DesignatedHero even though Rick wasn't in control of his actions.]] The only real likable character is Ken Castle, mainly because of Michael C. Hall's [[HamAndCheese gloriously silly performance.]] And he's the friggin' villain.
* This is the ultimate fate of Gus Van Sant's ''Film/{{Gerry}}''. The movie really doesn't give the audience any motivation to care for the two, as what little dialogue is awashed by entire stretches of silence and the whole situation being caused by their incredible shortsightedness. In the end, the movie only serves as a test for patience until Damon!Gerry kills Affleck!Gerry and finds civilization just before the credits roll. Creator/BradJones described the movie as being nothing more than "sand and walking".
* ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'' in general can stir up this feeling after a while. With each film, regardless of which timeline you're watching, it seems like [[TheBadGuyWins Michael always wins in some way]]. Be that he [[BreakTheCutie traumatizes his victims severely]], spreads his influence, or just simply won't stay dead. And that's not even getting into the fact that anyone who survives one film will very likely die in the next or so, making it difficult to grow attached to any of them.
* One thing that can be said about ''Film/TheHatefulEight'' is that it certainly lives up to its name: the characters are full of hate, contempt, and lies, and when the truth about most of them is revealed some viewers probably won't care what happens to them when the bullets start flying.
* Creator/LloydKaufman faced this problem when writing ''Health Club Horror''. He wanted to have the monster only kill bad people (which was an idea left over from an unfilmed script he worked on the previous decade with Creator/StanLee), but the monster was also a bad guy. His solution was to make the monster a hero and make the movie a comedy. Thus, ''Film/TheToxicAvenger'' was born.
* 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, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking 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: [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere just gives up and runs away]]]], which is hardly a heroic thing to do.
* An older example of this trope can be found in the Universal movie ''Film/HouseOfFrankenstein''. The characters aren't very likeable (with the possible exception of [[JerkassWoobie Daniel]]), the story is rather cynical, and in the end, [[KillEmAll everybody dies]]. Not even Svengoolie's SoBadItsGood sense of humor could save this one.
* ''Film/{{Hulk}}'' can be seen as this because it clearly resembles a Greek tragedy with little to no humor and shows a highly abusive father to the hero. Many put the blame on director Creator/AngLee, who for being best-known for character-driven dramas (aside from ''Film/CrouchingTigerHiddenDragon''), went too far with that approach.
* ''Film/TheIdesOfMarch'' sets itself up as a movie in which an idealistic US presidential political campaign manager has his idealism destroyed by the paranoid nature of politics and corruption. Which might be interesting, except the character in question does some morally questionable actions from the beginning of the story. This makes it hard for the audience to like him or view him as the WideEyedIdealist the script insists he is. As a result, the entire plot just seems sort of pointless.
* ''Film/TheIncredibleMeltingMan'': The protagonist is a loser, the villain is a pathetic WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds, the violence and gore quotient is through the roof, and virtually everyone with a speaking part dies, including [[spoiler:the hero]]. Then it ends with [[spoiler:the villain melting and his remains scooped into a bucket]]. Certainly among the most unremittingly bleak movies to grace ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' ([[{{Narm}} and yet is one of the]] ''[[{{Narm}} funniest]]'' [[{{Narm}} as a result]].)
* ''Film/IronSky'': Okay, so on one side of the conflict we have [[StupidJetpackHitler Moon Nazis]] who want to either conquer or perhaps destroy the Earth (the movie isn't quite clear which). On the other side you have the people of Earth, a collection of {{Jerkass}}es and [[TheDitz Dumbasses]] so universally horrible they actually come close to making [[AcceptableTargets the Nazis]] look like good guys by comparison. The whole thing is so bad, the fact that the movie's ending with [[spoiler: both the Nazis' moonbase and most life on Earth being destroyed]] can be considered a happy ending.
* ''Film/ItLivesByNight'': Between asshole John, whiny Cathy, and pervy Sheriff Ward, there's no one to identify with. That, and the ''actual'' darkness, as the [[WhoForgotTheLights lighting in the film is pretty awful, too]].
* ''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.
* ''Film/KenPark''. We have a [[PosthumousCharacter dead title character]], [[IBangedYourMom a literal motherfucker]], a DumbJock, [[AsianHookerStereotype an oversexed Asian-American girl]], and a violent [[TheSociopath sociopath]] and sexual sadist [[spoiler:who later kills his grandparents]]. The supporting cast isn't any better, leading [[WebVideo/BrowsHeldHigh critic Kyle Kallgren]] to ask "Is every single character in the film a loathsome cad?!" And the only remotely likable characters in the whole movie? [[spoiler: They're the grandparents. And their grandson gets an erection from stabbing them to death. Yeah...]]
* ''Film/KickAss'' got this treatment from some (though not as much as [[Comicbook/KickAss the comic]], listed [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy/ComicBooks here]]), particularly once a child (albeit [[LittleMissBadass a heavily armed one]] [[LaserGuidedTykebomb who kills people without mercy]]) gets brutally beaten[[note]]The reason this scene induces apathy varies: for some it's because [[WouldntHurtAChild a kid is being beaten up]]. For others, it's because they realize [[RootingForTheEmpire they're rooting for the beater]]. [[/note]].''Film/KickAss2'', on the other hand, was straight-up described as "unpleasant" by many reviewers and viewers, for being DarkerAndEdgier, BloodierAndGorier, and making characters both [[HappyEndingOverride suffer after finishing the first movie well]], and behave more as jerks as a result (culminating in Hit-Girl [[spoiler:making a GirlPosse [[BrownNote vomit and defecate profusely]]]]).
* ''Film/KillingThemSoftly'': Jackie is a sociopathic StrawNihilist, Frankie and Russell are [[StupidCrooks two dumbasses]] who aren't even vaguely likeable, and the rest of the cast are mainly a bunch of gangsters with no real depth. The movie almost seems to embrace being set in a world of degenerates, if the ending is anything to go by.
* ''Film/LawAbidingCitizen''; at least for viewers who are not cheering Clyde on after he's started murdering attorneys, judges and lawyers indiscriminately. He's initially seen as sympathetic because Darby killed his wife, daughter and got away with it by paying off Clyde's attorney, but after the aforementioned slaughter during the movie's second half? Not so much. The members of the justice system come off no better, as they're unilaterally portrayed as [[StrawCharacter horrible individuals who couldn't care less about enacting true justice than do stuff that only benefits them]]. Well, except for Cindy, [[spoiler: though she dies too]]. [[EvilVersusEvil No side looks any better than the other near the film's end]]. Nick, very conspicuously, has ethical issues with his job. He's suppressed most of them by the TimeSkip, but Clyde brings them roaring back.
* ''Film/{{Logan}}'' is already a bleak and harsh movie on its own, but taken as part of the Film/XMenFilmSeries, it basically turns the whole series as a ShaggyDogStory with moments of YankTheDogsChain, as [[spoiler:despite fighting for a better future for mutants in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', ''Logan'' opens with mutants dying out thanks to modified crops. Additionally, both the title character and Professor Xavier are miserable with Xavier going senile, which has caused him to lost control of his powers and [[DroppedABridgeOnHim accidentally kill most of the X-Men as a result]] and Wolverine's HealingFactor giving out and as a result, the adamantium on his bones is starting to kill him--and both die over the course of the movie.]] The only bright spot is [[spoiler:the ComicBook/{{X 23}} children escaping to Canada for safe haven.]]
* Avoiding this trope may have played a part in ''Film/MadMax'' creator Creator/GeorgeMiller making the [[Film/MadMaxBeyondThunderdome third film]] LighterAndSofter, as the previous two films had been hit with this criticism due to some of their more violent scenes, which in combination with the [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] setting and Max's AntiHero status gave the series an unpleasant HumansAreBastards vibe in the eyes of many critics.
* 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, his wife and in-laws are {{Upper Class Twit}}s and the [[PoliceAreUseless police fail to solve the murder]].
* Like ''Conspiracy'', ''Film/MenBehindTheSun'' is a dramatization of a historical event that resulted in the deaths of many innocent people, where the main characters are all heinous war criminals who never receive any comeuppance for their actions. Unlike ''Conspiracy'', however, ''Men Behind the Sun'' includes ''lots'' of {{Gorn}} (including a real cadaver) and gratuitous scenes of animal cruelty. This along with the fact that the film makes virtually no attempt to humanize either the victims or the perpetrators has led many to criticize the film for coming across as [[ExploitationFilm exploitative]] rather than informative.
* ''Film/MenaceIISociety''. The film itself invokes this trope, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools showing that it's one of the few times where it can be executed correctly]]. There is no point in 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.]]
* Legendary Picture's ''Monsterverse'':
** Discussed in [[http://www.businessinsider.com/the-monsters-are-more-important-than-the-humans-in-disaster-movies-2014-5 this article]] on ''Business Insider'' about ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}'' and other monster and disaster movies. Anne Billson notes that the reason Franchise/{{Godzilla}} is a more interesting character than most of the humans is because we don't really want to get emotionally attached to people who are going to be killed later in the midst of catastrophe. We're willing to accept uninteresting characters who are either BornLucky when it comes to surviving the violent events or who don't get much development before their demises because we prefer that to being genuinely heartbroken by all the misery, tragedy, and death.
** Its sequel, ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'', did not garner great critical reviews due to its bleakness and unrelenting tension (as well as not focusing enough on the humans, [[CriticalDissonance which most viewers]] [[JustHereForGodzilla aren't bothered by]]). The AnyoneCanDie card is played so hard that almost none of Monarch's soldiers survive, and the sheer number of casualties, intended for shock value, instead [[AMillionIsAStatistic makes it hard to care]].
* ''Film/{{Nightcrawler}}:'' Lou Bloom, our sociopathic VillainProtagonist, is a freelance news cameraman who directly or indirectly causes several deaths to get good pictures and remove competitors. He also blackmails his main customer into sleeping with him. Nina Romina, meanwhile, is a firm believer in IfItBleedsItLeads, and only cares about getting shocking stories to keep the ratings up.
* 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 [[KillEmAll 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:[[KillEmAll 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/PawnSacrifice'', though competently made as a film, is ''heavily'' marred by the fact that Bobby Fischer's pride and utter contempt for everybody and everything other than chess made him a completely unlikeable piece of crap protagonist. His only redeeming quality is his intelligence, but it isn't enough to cover his faults or make anybody like him. The movie seems to intentionally portray him as such, but when the audience has nobody to root for and no desire to see the conflict of the film through to its end then people start to leave the theater. You actually want to see the perfunctory Russian antagonist win just to make this asshole suffer. By the end of the film, the audience is just as exhausted as the poor schlubs in the movie that have to babysit Bobby through his life-long string of temper tantrums.
* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' series:
** ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'' had this problem for some viewers, with ''everyone'' backstabbing each other and shifting alliances on a whim that it got hard to root for anyone by the end unless you cared about their motivations. Of course, such a thing should be expected, given that the protagonists are all pirates by this point, even Will and Elizabeth. Even so, the climax of the film had them cheer about how pirates represent freedom and such... when they pillage and murder. Hardly heroic.
** ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides'' suffers even more from this, as without Will and Elizabeth every major character in the film is basically a self-serving criminal.
** ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales'' cranks this up even ''more'', with the entire cast of self-serving criminals having taken a ''massive'' [[TookALevelInJerkAss level in jerk ass]] (even ''Gibbs''), making the movie honestly quite unpleasant to watch. The closest it gets to likeable characters are newcomers Henry and Carina, who are [[BaseBreakingCharacter Base Breakers]] at best and essentially carbon-copies of Phillip and Syrena, who were essentially carbon-copies of Will and Elizabeth. Really, the only character keeping the movie [[IncrediblyLamePun afloat]] is the CreepyAwesome Salazar and his ship that ''eats other ships''... and we're supposed to root against him.
* ''Film/ThePrestige'' suffered from this. Nolan didn't really give the audience enough clues about who the real protagonist was (the one we actually wanted to see win), because both main characters acted rather heinously at times. It isn't until the end when one character triumphs that the audience goes "Oh, I guess he was the good guy all along", and by then, we're not sure if we should be happy or angry about the outcome. This one is particularly tricky because [[spoiler:we don't know which twin was doing what throughout the movie. All we can really be sure of is that the brother that gets executed tried to save Angier from drowning. For all we know, the one that survives was responsible for all the worst things "Alfred" Borden did. About the only HopeSpot is that the surviving twin says he was the one who loved Sarah, which ''might'' indicate that he was Jess's real father and that he will work hard to give her a good life.]] It should be noted that the original which it was based on had two completely different protagonists who were the offspring of the magicians and were trying to reconcile why their families have been at odds for so long. The documents they find show that both men made a great deal of mistakes that led to being equally to blame. It also had a different ending.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' is a rare animated example. It shows a faithful depiction of the book of Exodus but its 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 its most famous and intense songs "Deliver Us" and "The Plagues".
* ''Film/RedZoneCuba'' owes its largely negative reception to this. Griffin is an UnintentionallyUnsympathetic DesignatedHero whom the film portrays as a flawed but decent guy, but any heroic actions he did were [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk for selfish reasons]]. The film ''intends'' him to cross the MoralEventHorizon when he rapes a blind girl and murders her father, but he was an unrepentant {{Jerkass}} from the start. Needless to say, few viewers felt sorry for him after he died.
* This is a significant factor in why the films that Creator/MollyRingwald initially starred in after severing ties with Creator/JohnHughes failed, consequently contributing to the decline of her career as a leading lady. In her attempt to progress into more serious, adult fare that would earn her respectability as a young actress, the three films ''The Pick-Up Artist'', ''Fresh Horses'' and particularly ''Film/ForKeeps'' instead only alienated critics and audiences with what they saw as needlessly angsty and melodramatic storylines that centered on Ringwald's characters [[TraumaCongaLine undergoing hardship after hardship]] without much in the way of relief, be it with family members or romantic relationships. By the time ''Betsy's Wedding'' flopped, people were so burned out that they likely flocked to the early films of Creator/JuliaRoberts, especially ''Film/PrettyWoman'', to escape from the dismal dreariness and the perceived pretentiousness of Ringwald's fare.
* The original version of ''Film/{{Rollerball}}'' has the same problem as ''The Butterfly Effect'' - its attempts to be somber and "profound" (up to and including the use of classical music) are so overdone that is becomes [[{{Narm}} impossible to take it seriously]]. Not only is the story set against the backdrop of a [[CrapsackWorld soulless capitalist dystopia]], but [[spoiler:Jonathan's victory at the end occurs at [[PyrrhicVictory such a high price]] that it's practically meaningless.]] And given the general state of things, the situation is unlikely to ever improve. Instead, the film implies, the apathetic populace will remain compliant and continue to observe the titular BloodSport like there's no tomorrow, which we are told there isn't. Not exactly a very pleasant look on life.
* Two words: ''Film/TheRoom''. Johnny is a borderline incomprehensible Mary Sue who finds stories about domestic abuse funny, Lisa is incredibly stupid and/or callous, Mark is a douchebag and an idiot, and Denny has drug problems and a ''very'' creepy relationship with Johnny and Lisa. The writing and acting don't help, either. Some of the supporting cast aren't much better; Claudette is a more pragmatic version of Lisa, Chris-R is a violent drug dealer who holds Denny at gunpoint, Mike does absolutely nothing plot-relevant, Peter (the OnlySaneMan) goes missing halfway through the film, and Steven just casually saunters into the plot in the last twenty minutes and acts as if we have any idea who he is. Michelle is the OnlySaneMan who actually bothers to stick around for the duration of the film, and that isn't enough to prevent [[spoiler: Johnny's suicide]].
* 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, resulting in the film being very boring to watch. The humor is also just as off-putting since the jokes are either boring and lazily written or gross and nauseating.
* 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 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.]]
* Although it's not too overbearing in ''{{Film/Stoker}}'' due to its dark sense of humor, the film's plot is ultimately [[spoiler: about a CreepyUncle seducing his niece and turning her into [[TheSociopath a sociopath]] and ultimately succeeding]].
* ''Film/StrangeDays'' presents a highly dystopian version of [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture the year 1999]], and includes a lengthy, gruesome rape and murder scene in the first act, all of which can easily turn some viewers away.
* ''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]] or doomed 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.
* ''Film/ThisIsTheEnd'' nicely deconstructs this problem. The main characters are selfish, irritating assholes to all and sundry... and then are forced to ''realize'' this when [[spoiler:the Rapture occurs and ''no one'' at a Hollywood house party, themselves included, are considered good enough to make the cut]]. What follows is a set of characters coming to the conclusion that you ''can't'' be a complete dick to people, not if you want to actually enjoy your life, leading to [[spoiler:each of them making a HeroicSacrifice in turn for the others]].
* ''Film/ToEndAllWars'' suffered this, [[WordOfGod apparently]], before the film was recut to lighten it a bit. The director’s cut is even further lightened, cutting short the [[{{Bowdlerize}} most violent moments as well as the strongest language]].
* 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.
* ''{{Film/The Tracey Fragments}}'', big time. Every single character is mentally disturbed, borderline-sociopathic, drug-addled, and/or completely selfish, so there's hardly any reason for an audience to put forth the effort to give a damn.
* ''Film/TragedyGirls'' can get this from some people, which is probably part of the reason why it only got a limited release. Our two [[VillainProtagonist main characters]] are sadistic, fame-hungry {{serial killer}}s, who pick off their classmates one-by-one. While there's a lot of BlackComedy and the film is a satire, it can be a bit much for people who don't like that sort of thing.
* Between the enigmatic, sexually predatory alien and her hormone-bloodied victims, ''Film/UnderTheSkin'' is ''very'' short on sympathetic characters or compelling conflict. The alien does seem to get better later on, [[spoiler: but it's too little too late, and the story spills into full-on EvilVersusEvil at the end when she's attacked and killed by a would-be rapist.]] The deformed man is essentially the only sympathetic character who is explored in any real depth.
* The horror film ''Film/{{Unfriended}}'', like most horror movies, suffers from this. Virtually all of the characters are thoroughly horrible people, even the ones who initially come off as comparatively sympathetic. The evil ghost Laura, who committed suicide due to being bullied, is said to have been a bully herself when she was alive. Ken, who otherwise seems fairly blameless, nevertheless says Laura deserved everything that happened to her. Blaire, the ostensible FinalGirl and seemingly the most moral of our protagonists, [[spoiler:turns out to be an AlphaBitch [[BitchInSheepsClothing in Sheep's Clothing]], as she was responsible for the video that drove Laura to suicide]]. More than one critic said they found the film's depiction of the amorality of American millennial teenagers more frightening than the actual premise.
* ''Film/VeryBadThings'' is a BlackComedy that focuses almost entirely on the "black" part, and not enough on the "comedy" part. The characters are all either assholes, psychopaths, complete wimps, or some combination thereof. The whole film is a downward spiral from bad to much, much, worse (it has so much murder and grisly fates that DeathAsComedy and BloodyHilarious stop being appliable), with next to no {{Hope Spot}}s. It's hard to feel sympathy for anyone and ends with the survivors literally ruined as human beings in one way or another.
* The 1982 film version of Music/PinkFloyd's album ''Music/TheWall'' falls victim to this, to the point that neither lyricist/writer Roger Waters nor designer Gerald Scarfe are terribly fond of the finished result.
* This was an issue that many critics, including Creator/RogerEbert, had with the infamous ''Alien'' rip-off ''Film/{{Xtro}}'' - the tone was so spiteful and nihilistic that many of them couldn't be bothered to care about the plot or characters. Not only is the film practically overflowing with [[TakeThat mean-spirited jabs]] at [[Film/ETTheExtraterrestrial other]] [[Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind films]] portraying extraterrestrial life as benevolent, it almost seems to mock the audience for believing in such a notion. The extremely bleak tone is not helped in the slightest by the distinct lack of likable characters - while Sam [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes does genuinely love his son]], the acts he commits [[WasOnceAMan in his new form]][[note]]which include killing the son's pet snake and eating its eggs as well as impregnating a woman and [[BodyHorror giving birth to himself fully grown]][[/note]] are so horrifying that it's difficult to see him as anything but a monster, and everyone else is either a victim or slimy and/or apathetic.
* An early draft (and by that, we mean "''was worked on for about four years''") of ''{{WesternAnimation/Zootopia}}'' was discarded for this reaction. It focused on the ConMan [[FantasticFoxes Nick Wilde]] as a primary protagonist and involved open anti-predator prejudice as exemplified by laws requiring all predators to wear {{shock collar}}s. It was felt that doing this made Zootopia resemble a police state and combining that with an already cynical point-of-view character made the film so dark that viewers would rather want Nick to escape Zootopia than to fix it. The solution was to shift focus towards WideEyedIdealist Judy Hopps, and the eventual story and setting became more viewer-friendly as whole.
* The little-known dystopian flick ''Film/{{ZPG}}'' likely owes its obscurity to this trope. There’s really no point in caring about what happens since we know that the environment has been ruined to the point that the human race will soon be doomed to extinction even with the titular population control initiative in place. The EsotericHappyEnding ''really'' doesn't help, nor does the intentionally claustrophobic, studio-bound production.
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* ''Film/TheDayAfter'' and its [[TransAtlanticEquivalent British counterpart]] ''Film/{{Threads}}'' both suffer heavily from this trope, which was arguably the ''point'', as both films sought to demonstrate that in the event of a nuclear war, there will be no happy endings. As such, it could feel pointless to root for any of the characters since they're all fated to die horribly or ([[FateWorseThanDeath perhaps worse]]) live as wretched scavengers in an irradiated, ruined world. This is especially true in ''Threads'', where a full-scale war breaks out as opposed to the limited exchange seen in ''The Day After'', with society (and even human language) subsequently crumbling to the point that the post-war generation will never rebuild civilization. While it is certainly true that SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped, in this case, some people definitely tuned out [[DontShootTheMessage before the films could get their message across]].

* This goes back all the way to the beginning of feature-length cinema--[[ValuesDissonance for modern viewers]], [[SocietyMarchesOn anyway]]--with ''Film/{{The Birth of a Nation|1915}}'' (1915). Admit it: you want absolutely ''no one'' to triumph, because the conflict is between white supremacists who want to keep blacks from voting and ''[[NotSoDifferent black]]'' [[NotSoDifferent supremacists who want to keep]] ''[[NotSoDifferent whites]]'' [[NotSoDifferent from voting]].

* ''Film/CannibalHolocaust'': On the one hand, you have a team of amoral documentarians led by a narcissistic psychopath who's willing to stage horrible atrocities in order to make his 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 [[AccompliceByInaction 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."]]

** Inverted in ''Film/MarsAttacks''. All but a half dozen or so characters (and even they have pretty glaring flaws) are pompous, insensitive, immoral, or just plain stupid--but that's okay because the whole point of the movie is [[ComedicSociopathy you get to see the Martians kill all these jerks in countless hilarious ways]]. The few characters that ''aren't'' assholes [[NiceGuy (Ritche,]] [[CoolOldLady his senile grandmother,]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes Byron Williams]] and his BadassFamily, [[AsHimself Tom Jones)]] all come together to save the day.

* Creator/WilliamFriedkin:
** ''Film/KillerJoe''. Save for Dottie, pretty much every character in the film is either a Jerkass, TooDumbToLive or a monstrous sociopath like Joe is.
** Ask a person who was around in UsefulNotes/TheEighties about this trope, odds are their answer will be ''Film/ToLiveAndDieInLA'' [[SociopathicHero Richard Chance]] is really not that different on the morality scale from his quarry, Rick Masters, and many of the characters are slimy or apathetic. John Vukovich is seemingly the only guy with some normal standards of goodness, but by the time the film's DownerEnding comes around, [[spoiler: he's become just as bad, if not ''worse'', than Chance himself.]] Moreover, the violent amorality clashes rather awkwardly with the glossy, ''Series/MiamiVice''-esque visual aesthetic, to the point of one reviewer describing the film as "a fetid movie hybrid: Miami Vile."

* This could be the reason why the films of Creator/ToddSolondz, most notably ''Film/WelcomeToTheDollhouse'', have never gotten much mainstream attention. Everyone, seemingly without exception, is profoundly miserable, solipsistic, or sociopathic. Sometimes, they are ''all three''.

* ''Film/ItLivesByNight'': Between asshole John, whiny Cathy, and pervy Sheriff Ward, there's no one to identify with. That, and the ''actual'' darkness, as the lighting in the film is pretty awful, too.

* 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, {{Upper Class Twit}}s.

** ''Film/SinCity''. Hartigan is the only guy who's close to good, Nancy is a NeutralFemale, and all the other characters alternate between "amoral bastards" (Marv, Dwight, The Girls of Old Town) to "amoral monsters" (the people they're up against).
*** And by the time ''Film/SinCityADameToKillFor'' comes around, Nancy has [[TookALevelInBadass taken an]] [[TookALevelInJerkass upgrade to]] another example of "amoral bastard" (one that is borderline insane, at that).

* ''Film/EightHeadsInADuffelBag'': The [[DesignatedHero "hero"]] is a vicious criminal and all-around meanie, and everyone else is either a smart-aleck or [[TheScrappy so cartoonish that it's hard to view them as anything but annoying]].

* ''Film/{{Nightcrawler}}:'' Our sociopathic VillainProtagonist, who is in every scene, is a freelance news cameraman who directly or indirectly causes several deaths to get good pictures and remove competitors. He also blackmails his main customer into sleeping with him. She, meanwhile, is a firm believer in IfItBleedsItLeads, and only cares about getting shocking stories to keep the ratings up.

** ''Film/{{Midsommar}}'' has a cast full of either jerks or AffablyEvil, with a notable exception from the protagonist who is very apathetic after life and manipulations took their toll on her mental health. Add heavy doses of shock horror, and the movie has been quite the turn-off to a not-insignificant portion of the film's audience.
* Creator/TimBurton directed a few.

* Creator/TimBurton directed a few. Besides the catchy tunes, ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'' is a movie about a [[VillainProtagonist guy bent on revenge who kills people on the path to the]] DirtyOldMan who arrested him without reason to take his wife and daughter, and a woman who uses the victims [[IAmAHumanitarian on her pie shop...]] [[spoiler:and who so as to get a chance at a romance with Sweeney hid the fact that his wife, the reason for the whole carnage, was still alive.]] The perpetually bluish-gray color scheme does nothing to lighten the mood, either.

* Creator/TimBurton directed a few:
** Inverted in ''Film/MarsAttacks''. All but a half dozen or so characters (and even they have pretty glaring flaws) are pompous, insensitive, immoral, or just plain stupid--but that's okay because the whole point of the movie is [[ComedicSociopathy you get to see the Martians kill all these jerks in countless hilarious ways]]. The few characters that ''aren't'' assholes [[NiceGuy (Ritche,]] [[CoolOldLady his senile grandmother,]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes Byron Williams]] and his BadassFamily, [[AsHimself Tom Jones)]] all come together to save the day.
** Besides the catchy tunes, ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'' is a movie about a [[VillainProtagonist guy bent on revenge who kills people on the path to the]] DirtyOldMan who arrested him without reason to take his wife and daughter, and a woman who uses the victims [[IAmAHumanitarian on her pie shop...]] [[spoiler:and who so as to get a chance at a romance with Sweeney hid the fact that his wife, the reason for the whole carnage, was still alive.]] The perpetually bluish-gray color scheme does nothing to lighten the mood, either.

** ''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.

** ''Film/{{Magnolia}}''. The rather self centered behavior displayed by many characters in the cast, made it hard for some viewers to sympathize with them. With the exception of hospice nurse Phil Parma and Officer Jim Kurring, who’s quite possibly the one genuinely good character in the film.

* A majority of Creator/DarrenAronofsky's work easily falls into this category due to the [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism overly-cynical levels]]. Their moods are oppressively dark and self serious, his characters self destructive wrecks that are so goal driven that they alienate those around them and more often then not, they end on pretty downer notes or at least very bittersweet. Even ''Film/TheWrestler'' isn't completely safe from this, though it isn't quite as bleak as his other films. The only films of his that have genuinely happy endings are ''Film/{{Pi}}'' and ''Film/{{Noah}}'' (although the former can be considered a EsotericHappyEnding) and even those come after much brutality and horror beforehand with questionable, disturbed protagonists.

** ''Film/{{Midsommar}}'' has a cast full of either jerks or AffablyEvil, with a notable exception from the protagonist who is very apathetic after life and manipulations took their toll on her mental health. Add heavy doses of shock horror, and the movie has been quite the turn off to a not-insignificant portion of the film's audience.
* Creator/TimBurton directed a few.
** Inverted in ''Film/MarsAttacks''. All but a half dozen or so characters (and even they have pretty glaring flaws) are pompous, insensitive, immoral, or just plain stupid--but that's okay, because the whole point of the movie is [[ComedicSociopathy you get to see the Martians kill all these jerks in countless hilarious ways]]. The few characters that ''aren't'' assholes [[NiceGuy (Ritche,]] [[CoolOldLady his senile grandmother,]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes Byron Williams]] and his BadassFamily, [[AsHimself Tom Jones)]] all come together to save the day.

** ''Film/ThreeHundred''. The narrator described the Spartans as [[AlwaysLawfulGood the ultimate good guys]]. Because of his {{unreliab|leNarrator}}ility, though, it turns out the Spartans were just as [[AxCrazy insane]] and {{blood|Knight}}thirsty as their Persian enemies (the prologue spells out how the Spartans actually kill any infant that don't match their standards of health). Because of that, while the narrator described the battles between the Spartans and Persians as "good vs. evil" (or "order vs. chaos" if you prefer), to audience members, it seemed more like "[[EvilVersusEvil bad guys vs.]] [[BlackAndGrayMorality worse guys]]."

** In its follow-up, ''Film/LandOfTheDead'', HumansAreTheRealMonsters is taken to an extreme; the protagonists are either very one-dimentional or are perfectly willing to let other living people die in order to achieve their goals, and the villains are a bunch of UpperClassTwit[=s=] who are ''also'' willing to let other living people die in order to achieve their goals. It really feels as if the best 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/TheKingOfComedy''. This is likely why the parts where [[spoiler:Jerry is killed by Rupert that was suggested by Jerry Lewis himself or Rupert being beaten up by the FBI that was in the original script]] were omitted, given how this film for a BlackComedy is bleak as these moments. Also, the film is dark deconstruction of celebrity life and fandom with no characters to really root for, with Rita being the only 100% sympathetic character. This issue is also one of the factors behind the the film's lackluster performance at its initial release.

*** They must've forgotten Denham, the FBI agent who serves as an antagonist to Jordan Belfort and ultimately takes him down. But then again, the film showcases that Denham doesn't gets even a knee-jerk "thank you" for his efforts and Belfort (because he's rich and famous) gets a Luxury Prison Suite and a job that pays just as well as his old one once he gets out, completely unrepentant.

** Although ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' is partly a comedy, it is very dark comedy that suggests that [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans are as animalistic as any other creature in outer space]]. Although the genocidal alien bugs are clearly the bad guys (although there are some hints that they're actually just scapegoats for human propaganda), [[HeWhoFightsMonsters the humans have become arrogant and brutal in the course of fighting them]]. Condemned criminals are executed on live TV, computer websites pump users full of [[PatrioticFervor overbearing propaganda reminiscent of World War II newsreels]], schoolchildren are encouraged to gleefully stomp on helpless insects in a form of FantasticRacism, people are denied citizenship rights if they do not serve in the military, the {{drill sergeant|Nasty}} at the infantry boot camp is a bully (okay, sometimes a JerkWithAHeartOfGold) who seems to enjoy [[EqualOpportunityEvil physically humiliating both male and female recruits]], [[DisproportionateRetribution soldiers are punched in the face for uttering mildly rude remarks]], and the protagonist is at one point stripped to the waist and [[ATasteOfTheLash receives 10 lashes across his bare back]] in full view of the entire camp as punishment for ''accidentally'' causing a comrade's death (though the poorly designed, incredibly unsafe training area was just a disaster waiting to happen). It should be noted that the film is an inversion of [[Literature/StarshipTroopers the original novel]], in which the only executed criminal is a deserter who murdered a little girl, the drill sergeant uses a baton on the recruits sometimes but prefers to verbally dress them down, and the protagonist was whipped for actions that could have caused the death of a comrade through his negligence (violating established safety regulations to cut corners and make his job easier), if it had been actual combat rather than a training exercise.

* ''WesternAnimation/BebesKids'' features the protagonist, Robin Harris (based on the real life comedian who passed away just two years before the film's release), who proves to be more often than not an irresponsible adult who would even go as far to abandon the children in an attempt to escape the ruckus of an amusement park. The titular trio themselves also cause lord knows how much money worth of destruction of said amusement park and are, in general, very misbehaved. Leon, the only sympathetic character, still takes a lot of crap from the titular trio. Really, there's hardly a single character in the whole film worth rooting for.
* ''Film/BeingJohnMalkovich'' suffers from this; all the main characters are, at the very least, horrifically selfish human beings who don't really care who gets hurt in pursuit of their various wants. The only remotely sympathetic character in the movie is Creator/JohnMalkovich himself, and that's mostly because he's more of a plot device than an actual character. For the uninitiated, [[spoiler: Creator/CharlieSheen(!) has, by the end of the movie, very likely learned that John Malkovich is trapped in his own head while other people dominate him, and he is likely going to follow the puppetmasters who are possessing Malkovich into the next host, an adorable and harmless seven year old girl.]]

* ''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 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."

* ''Film/TheCandySnatchers'' is an ExploitationFilm centering on a young schoolgirl being kidnapped and held for ransom by the protagonists. If this sounds like a cheesy excuse for some sexy BoundAndGagged shenanigans, you'd be quite, ''quite'' wrong. It's actually a very bleak, cruel and mean-spirited film where ''all'' of our viewpoint characters and nearly all secondary ones are [[BlackAndGrayMorality varying shades of evil]] that the audience can only root against. The one character left to care about is the completely innocent victim, and the physical, psychological ''and'' sexual (because ''[[GratuitousRape of course]]'' the movie would go there, too) abuse she constantly endures are portrayed as far too realistic and heart-wrenching to have any kind of amusing or titillating qualities; whatever the filmmaker's intention was, the only thing that her trauma and suffering can arouse in the viewer is pity. All told, it's an ''extremely'' poor choice for a "Bad Movie Night" with any friends you want to hear from again afterwards.

* ''Film/TheConIsOn'': It is hard to summon up much sympathy for Harry and Peter, the {{Villain Protagonist}}s. Unlike most ConMan movies, they are not {{Lovable Rogue}}s, but amoral thieves who dabble in drug dealing, and who are in their current predicament due to their own greed and stupidity. They people they rip off are horrible people, and the gangsters chasing them are worse, but they remain unsympathetic.

* ''Film/TheDayAfter'' and its [[TransAtlanticEquivalent British counterpart]] ''Film/{{Threads}}'' both suffer heavily from this trope, which was arguably the ''point'', as both films sought to demonstrate that in the event of a nuclear war, there will be no happy endings. As such, it could feel pointless to root for any of the characters since they're all fated to die horribly or ([[FateWorseThanDeath perhaps worse]]) live as wretched scavengers in an irradiated, ruined world. This is especially true in ''Threads'', where a full-scale war breaks out as opposed to the limited exchange seen in ''The Day After'', with society (and even human language) subsequently crumbling to the point that the post-war generation will never rebuild civilization. While it is certainly true that SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped, in this case some people definitely tuned out [[DontShootTheMessage before the films could get their message across]].

* The ''Franchise/FinalDestination'' series has this problem involving the second variant of this trope. There's no point in getting emotionally attached to them or rooting for them to make it, because the rules say death will not be cheated and they're all going to die. Even finding out the reason why the visions that allow the characters to cheat death happen can add to this trope. Hoping for some kind of BigGood to this series or something similar? [[spoiler: Nope. It was Death doing it all along, and then killing them later because... [[ForTheEvulz I dunno, he's a dick.]]]]

* One thing that can be said about ''Film/TheHatefulEight'' is that it certainly lives up to its name: the characters are full of hate, contempt and lies, and when the truth about most of them is revealed some viewers probably won't care what happens to them when the bullets start flying.
* Creator/LloydKaufman faced this problem when writing ''Health Club Horror''. He wanted to have the monster only kill bad people (which was an idea left over from an unfilmed script he worked on the previous decade with Creator/StanLee), but the monster was also a bad guy. His solution was to make the monster a hero, and make the movie a comedy. Thus, ''Film/TheToxicAvenger'' was born.

* ''Film/ItLivesByNight'': Between asshole John, whiny Cathy and pervy Sheriff Ward, there's no one to identify with. That, and the ''actual'' darkness, as the lighting in the film is pretty awful, too.

* ''Film/KickAss'' got this treatment from some (though not as much as [[Comicbook/KickAss the comic]], listed [[DarknessInducedAudienceApathy/ComicBooks here]]), particularly once a child (albeit [[LittleMissBadass a heavily armed one]] [[LaserGuidedTykebomb who kills people without mercy]]) gets brutally beaten[[note]]The reason this scene induces apathy varies: for some it's because [[WouldntHurtAChild a kid is being beaten up]]. For others it's because they realize [[RootingForTheEmpire they're rooting for the beater]]. [[/note]].''Film/KickAss2'', on the other hand, was straight-up described as "unpleasant" by many reviewers and viewers, for being DarkerAndEdgier, BloodierAndGorier, and making characters both [[HappyEndingOverride suffer after finishing the first movie well]], and behave more as jerks as a result (culminating in Hit-Girl [[spoiler:making a GirlPosse [[BrownNote vomit and defecate profusely]]]]).

* ''Film/LawAbidingCitizen''; at least for viewers who are not cheering Clyde on after he's started murdering attorneys, judges and lawyers indiscriminately. He's initially seen as sympathetic, because Darby killed his wife, daughter and got away with it by paying off Clyde's attorney, but after the aforementioned slaughter during the movie's second half? Not so much. The members of the justice system come off no better, as they're unilaterally portrayed as [[StrawCharacter horrible individuals who couldn't care less about enacting true justice than do stuff that only benefits them]]. Well, except for Cindy, [[spoiler: though she dies too]]. [[EvilVersusEvil No side looks any better than the other near the film's end]]. Nick, very conspicuously, has ethical issues with his job. He's suppressed most of them by the TimeSkip, but Clyde brings them roaring back.
* ''Film/{{Logan}}'' is already a bleak and harsh movie on its own, but taken as part of the Film/XMenFilmSeries, it basically turns the whole series as a ShaggyDogStory with moments of YankTheDogsChain, as [[spoiler:despite fighting for a better future for mutants in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', ''Logan'' opens with mutants dying out thanks to modified crops. Additionally, both the title character and Professor Xavier are miserable with Xavier going senile, which has caused him to lost control of his powers and [[DroppedABridgeOnHim accidentally kill most of the X-Men as a result]] and Wolverine's HealingFactor giving out and as a result the adamantium on his bones is starting to kill him--and both die over the course of the movie.]] The only bright spot is [[spoiler:the ComicBook/{{X 23}} children escaping to Canada for safe haven.]]

* ''Film/MenaceIISociety''. The film itself invokes this trope, [[Administrivia/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.]]

** Discussed in [[http://www.businessinsider.com/the-monsters-are-more-important-than-the-humans-in-disaster-movies-2014-5 this article]] on ''Business Insider'' about ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}'' and other monster and disaster movies. Anne Billson notes that the reason Franchise/{{Godzilla}} is a more interesting character than most of the humans is because we don't really want to get emotionally attached to people who are going to be killed later in the midst of catastrophe. We're willing to accept uninteresting characters who are either BornLucky when it comes to surviving the violent events or who don't get much development before their demises because we prefer that to being genuinely heartbroken by all the misery, tragedy and death.

* 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 [[KillEmAll all pretty much die by the end of the film]]]].

* ''Film/PawnSacrifice'', though competently made as a film, is ''heavily'' marred by the fact that the Bobby Fischer's pride and utter contempt for everybody and everything other than chess made him a completely unlikeable piece of crap protagonist. His only redeeming quality is his intelligence, but it isn't enough to cover his faults or make anybody like him. The movie seems to intentionally portray him as such, but when the audience has nobody to root for and no desire to see the conflict of the film through to its end then people start to leave the theater. You actually want to see the perfunctory Russian antagonist win just to make this asshole suffer. By the end of the film the audience is just as exhausted as the poor schlubs in the movie that have to babysit Bobby through his life-long string of temper tantrums.

** ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'' had this problem for some viewers, with ''everyone'' backstabbing each other and shifting alliances on a whim that it got hard to root for anyone by the end, unless you cared about their motivations. Of course, such a thing should be expected, given that the protagonists are all pirates by this point, even Will and Elizabeth. Even so, the climax of the film had them cheer about how pirates represent freedom and such... when they pillage and murder. Hardly heroic.

* Two words: ''Film/TheRoom''. Johnny is a borderline incomprehensible Mary Sue who finds stories about domestic abuse funny, Lisa is incredibly stupid and/or callous, Mark is a douchebag and an idiot, and Denny has drug problems and a ''very'' creepy relationship with Johnny and Lisa. The writing and acting don't help, either. Some of the supporting cast aren't much better; Claudette is a more pragmatic version of Lisa, Chris-R is a violent drug dealer who holds Denny at gunpoint, Mike does absolutely nothing plot relevant, Peter (the OnlySaneMan) goes missing halfway through the film, and Steven just casually saunters into the plot in the last twenty minutes and acts as if we have any idea who he is. Michelle is the OnlySaneMan who actually bothers to stick around for the duration of the film, and that isn't enough to prevent [[spoiler: Johnny's suicide]].
* 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, resulting in the film being very boring to watch. The humor is also just as off-putting, since the jokes are either boring and lazily written, or gross and nauseating.

* Although it's not too overbearing in ''{{Film/Stoker}}'' due to it's dark sense of humor, the film's plot is ultimately [[spoiler: about a CreepyUncle seducing his niece and turning her into [[TheSociopath a sociopath]] and ultimately succeeding]].

* ''Film/VeryBadThings'' is a BlackComedy that focuses almost entirely on the "black" part, and not enough on the "comedy" part. The characters are all either assholes, psychopaths, complete wimps, or some combination thereof. The whole film is a downward spiral from bad to much, much, worse (it has so much murder and grisly fates that DeathAsComedy and BloodyHilarious stop being appliable), with next to no {{Hope Spot}}s. It's hard to feel sympathy for anyone, and ends with the survivors literally ruined as human beings in one way or another.

** ''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 ending that blurs the line between BittersweetEnding and 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''.

* One of the many criticisms for ''Film/FantasticFour2015'' was that the film's tone was too serious and invoked DarkerAndEdgier for the sake of it without actually executing it properly (especially considering how the source material and previous film adaptations were much lighter and surreal in tone). Furthermore, the lack of any real bonds between the characters at the end of the movie - or the perception that the characters themselves are underdeveloped - have also been heavily criticized, as some critics argued that the grim tone would have worked if the characters were actually interesting or worth rooting for.

** ''Film/{{Showgirls}}'': Las Vegas may not be all glitz and glamor, but it's really hard to root for the main character when she and everybody else act like terrible people, swear constantly, and have an overall cynical view. The only character that makes a positive effort is Molly and even she can't escape the bleak underbelly of Vegas since [[spoiler:she gets raped]].

* This goes back all the way to the beginning of feature-length cinema--[[ValuesDissonance for modern viewers]], [[SocietyMarchesOn anyway]]--with ''Film/{{The Birth of a Nation|1915}}'' (1915). Admit it: you don't want ''anyone'' to triumph, because the conflict is between white supremacists who want to keep blacks from voting and ''[[NotSoDifferent black]]'' [[NotSoDifferent supremacists who want to keep]] ''[[NotSoDifferent whites]]'' [[NotSoDifferent from voting]].