Movies from the Dark Side

[JMTX]

Since this came up on the Dark Knight thread, I thought it would be interesting to discuss "dark" movies in general.

I've always found myself drawn to movies with a darker tone, especially if the darkness was juxtaposed over otherwise light-hearted or fanciful subject matter. Dark comedies are always a favorite of mine.

So what are your favorite "dark" movies?

In addition to The Dark Knight, my list would include:

The Last Unicorn
The Phantom Tollbooth
Heathers
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Edward Scissorhands
Sweeny Todd
Welcome to the Dollhouse
Donnie Darko
The Science of Sleep
Silence of the Lambs
Princess Mononoke
Jin-roh and the Wolf Brigade
The Butterfly Effect
Pitch Black
Chronicles of Riddick
Legend
The Never-ending Story

That's just a short list for starters. I'm sure I'll think of some others as we go!

[JTShooter]

American Psycho (another Bale movie) was dark.

[NORCOCOP]

What no anime JMTX, I thought Beserk would be at the top of the list. I liked American Psycho and quite a few of JMTX's selection also. How about Kil Bill and the comic booky movie with Tarantino co directing a few years ago. The name escapes me this late hour but it was pretty killer. It had a slew of stars including Bruce Willis and Jessica Beil if I remember right.

Sorry JMTX I just seen Jin-Roh and Princess Mononoke!

I have been meaning to watch the Bleach series.

[JMTX]

Oh yah, lots of dark anime!

Death Note takes the cake for dark anime though I think! Wowza, that was an AWESOME series.

Full Metal Alchemist has more than it's fair share of dark episodes too.

Also Vampire Hunter D and Trinity Blood.

[NORCOCOP]

I like Vampire Hunter D also, but may have to look into a few of the others. How about Ghost in the Shell? Not to dark but I liked it anyway's.

[JMTX]

Honestly? I've never actually seen Ghost in the Shell. Don't tell my friends!

If you haven't seen Death Note, you simply HAVE to. It's not a very long series...maybe 30 episodes? Certainly not more than 50. (Which seems small after watching all 150 some-odd episodes of Inuyasha.)

Death Note is just spectacular. It's a fantasy/crime drama, modern setting.

Oh and Full Metal Alchemist is just awesome, though I'm not through watching them all yet. It's made me cry about 3 times.

[NORCOCOP]

Huh, when I get some extry time I will have to chekc into them.

How about Dexter, I like it for a series on TV but don't have showtime so I ahve to wait for a while to see the new season.

[JMTX]

I've never seen that one....

I don't watch many shows when they're actually on TV. I rent them from netflix and watch them from beginning to end in my leisure time.

[NORCOCOP]

It is intresting and I like to do the whole renting it all once thing too, I can't stand waiting for weeks, months, or years for resolution. But the Dexter series is catchy, the good guy is a real sicko who meats out some seroius street justice to some really deserving recipients.

[JMTX]

If you like that you might indeed like Death Note.

It's about this guy named Light who finds this magical notebook. If you write someone's name in the book, they die (you can effect the time, method, circumstanes, etc.)

He's the son of a police chief and decides to use the Notebook to kill criminals. He basically becomes a vigilante but his heart is initially in the right place.

However, the police figure out that someone is causing the death of all these criminals and set up a task force to catch him. The task force is lead by this awesome detective AND Light's Father.

As things go on, Light becomes power hungry and corrupt and ends having to kill tons of innocent people to keep from getting caught himself...he becomes an extremely dark character.

[NORCOCOP]

Well Dexter actually seems to have been heading the opposite direction, he is a loner serial killer who kills other serial killers and in not so nice ways. He uses his job in forenics, blood spatter analysis, to aid in detection and elimination of victims. But as the show progresses he becomes less detached from others, however his killing spree continues unabated.

[JMTX]

Hmm...I will have to check that one out.

[Armitage]

+1000000000 on Death Note! My wife got me into it after she read about it on one of her message boards - we bought the first book one night, both finished it, and the next day I went back and bought books 2-12!! Finally finished the series the other day, and now we want to rent the DVDs as they look pretty good.

Not to mention, the various parodies on youtube are pretty damn funny, particularly the "Chocolate" one (Deathnote with a Spongebob voiceover).

[M-11]

Donnie Darko is one of my favorites.

"What are Feces?"

"Baby Mice."

"AWwwwwwwww!"

Lets see, Good dark movies

Blade Runner,
2001,
The first CROW,
Catch 22,
Omega Man,
Curse of the Vampire,
Dog Soldiers (Possibly the best Werewolf/British Military movie ever)
Very Bad things (Just gets sicker and sicker, JMTX would love it)

I'll add more as Ithink of them

M-11

[TheKansan]

I truly enjoy movies that spiral downward from the beginning.

One that comes to mind is Memento.
Another one would be Requiem for a Dream.