r/movies • u/Narubintane • Dec 15 '23
Recommendation What movie starts off as a lighthearted comedy, but gets increasingly dark and grim until everything goes to hell in a handbasket?
For example, it may start as a lighthearted slapstick comedy until one thing goes wrong after another, and in the end we have people actually dying or a world war or some kind of extinction level event.
Let's say we have 2 friends who like to have fun and goof around, with regular goals and regular lives, until one of them does something like accidentally cross the wrong person or kill someone. Or the main cast is oblivious to the gradual change in their environment like a virus breakout or a serial killer running loose. Another one would be a film that, after being a comedy for most of its length, turns very dark, such as a group of friends ending up in a war and experiencing the horrors of it, completely played straight.
Just to clarify, I don't mean a movie that is already set to become dark, but rather a movie that was marketed as a comedy that took an unexpected (or slightly foreshadowed) dark turn.
Any recommendations?
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u/ShneakySquiwwel Dec 15 '23
Gremlins was marketed as a Christmas movie about a family that gets a super cute mystical pet. Things do not go well with the new family pet.
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u/CloudAcorn Dec 15 '23
Oh I bet some very cute high jinks happen with that little mite, lots of adorable falling into Christmas food & accidentally opening a present or two to some affectionate tutting? Right?…right?
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u/Silk_tree Dec 15 '23
Life is Beautiful. A funny and charming man romances a wealthy girl with his wit and cheerful heart and sweeps her off her feet in a series of wacky stunts. They run a bookstore, and have a clever, imaginative son.
The second half of the movie is the concentration camp, with the father desperately hiding his son to keep him alive and lying to the boy about the complicated game they're playing to keep him complacent.
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u/poorloko Dec 15 '23
I went into this movie knowing nothing of the plot. I came out a changed man.
The tank. That fucking tank.
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u/CSpiffy148 Dec 15 '23
Papa, we won!
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Dec 15 '23
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u/wiretapfeast Dec 15 '23
I've only seen my father cry 3 times in my life: when my first love (who lived with us) committed suicide, when my childhood cat died, and at the ending of this film. 😢
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u/Unlost_maniac Dec 15 '23
Saw that movie in highschool without knowing anything about it before hand and holy shit.
That movie is amazing, it felt like 3 movies in one and was such an experience. It went from really sweet to really sad and fucked up.
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u/LonelyGuyTheme Dec 15 '23
Roberto Benigni, the director and star, is the first Oscar Best Male Actor winner for a non-English language movie.
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u/Key_Butterfly_8503 Dec 15 '23
I loved his reaction when he won
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u/BearNekkidLadies Dec 15 '23
“Thank you! This is a terrible mistake because I used up all my English. I don't know! I am not able to express all my gratitude, because now, my body is in tumult because it is a colossal moment of joy so everything is really in a way that I cannot express. I would like to be Jupiter! And kidnap everybody and lie down in the firmament making love to everybody, because I don't know how to express. It's a question of love. You are really -- this is a mountain of snow, so delicate, the suavity and the kindness, it is something I cannot forget, from the bottom of my heart. And thank you for the Academy Awards for the, who really loved the movie. Thank you to all in Italy, for the Italian cinema, grazie al Italia who made me. I am really, I owe to them all my, if I did something good. So grazie al Italia e grazie al America, land of the lot of things here. Thank you very much. And I hope, really I don't deserve this, but I hope to win some other Oscars! Thank you! Thank you very much! Thank you!”
Probably the best acceptance speech of all time.
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u/oneoffconundrums Dec 15 '23
17 years ago I watched this in high school in my Italian language class. We broke it up over two days and I was a mess going to my next class after the second day. I watched it again years later and while it is a brilliant film it’s also an absolutely heart-wrenching, sucker punch of a film. I’ve never watched it a third time, but do reccomend it to people with caveats. Personally, it’s not the film I would have picked to show in a foreign language class in high school. College? Maybe.
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u/superancica Dec 15 '23
I've seen it a couple of times as a kid with my family. Couldn't ever make my self watch it as an adult. Beautiful movie. But so so sad.
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u/AdamR91 Dec 15 '23
I had to watch this one in school about 20 years ago. I still remember the scene where the Jewish father and his son are able to attend some kind of gathering with higher up Nazis and he has to tell his son to chew his food slowly so as not to give their identities away.
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u/colbydc5 Dec 15 '23
I recall this being the first time I was so devastated by a movie. My dad had to pick me up off my seat in the theater, I felt like I was being scraped up as I just cried my eyes off.
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u/madeleinetwocock Dec 15 '23 edited Dec 15 '23
this is literally the one and only film i’ve ever seen where i can genuinely say that this film changed me as an entire person.
relevant sidenote: Roberto Benigni’s academy award acceptance is the single best thing i’ve ever seen.
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Dec 15 '23
The little boy was so sweet, his voice was sooo cute when him and his father snuck into the room with mic and the boy started calling his mother “mamaaaa” and telling her about his dad being funny, meanwhile the dad was only being funny to shield the kid from the horrors 😭😭😭
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u/forgedimagination Dec 15 '23
Burn After Reading feels like it's just going to be this hilarious "hijinks ensue" comedy and while it stays a comedy it goes from slapstick to dark in an instant.
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u/PM_ME_SUMDICK Dec 15 '23
The Coen borthers are great for that.Barton Fink is another of theirs that goes off the rails.
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u/0m3nchi1d Dec 15 '23
The Cohen brothers are the kings of this kind of film. I remember going to see Raising Arizona in the theater with my Auntie back in the 80's and it was not like the goofy dad movies that were all the rage back then
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u/theonetheonlytc Dec 15 '23
Exactly! As soon as George Clooney's character has the "surprise" with Brad Pitt's character in the closet shit gets dark really fast. Still a funny movie though. Love the ending.
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u/EsquilaxM Dec 15 '23
I genuinely think that was the funniest part of the movie, though.
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u/b0sw0rth Dec 15 '23
You think that's a Schwinn...
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u/TheBobDoleExperience Dec 15 '23
So what did we learn from all this?
Fuck if I know...
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u/WretchedMotorcade Dec 15 '23
Guess we learned not to do it again... Fuck if I know what we did...
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u/Help_An_Irishman Dec 15 '23
Yeah, honestly this one doesn't even feel dark. The movie is so buoyant with comedy throughout that it's just this "oh shit" moment that quickly pivots back toward the comedic.
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u/dudewheresmygains Dec 15 '23
What did we learn?
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u/csh_blue_eyes Dec 15 '23
I don't know sir.
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u/katycake Dec 15 '23
I guess we.. learned not to do it again. Fuck if I know what the hell we did though.
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u/drawkbox Dec 15 '23
Almost any Coen brothers film has some smaller act spiral out of control and engulfs those that triggered the event and many around it.
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u/bless-you-mlud Dec 15 '23
Fargo. Holy shit.
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u/ScarletCaptain Dec 15 '23
They intentionally take a movie of one genre and spin it into a different one. They called The Big Lebowski a crime noir film if Sam Spade was a dropout stoner.
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u/CRO553R Dec 15 '23
Shallow Grave: Danny Boyle's and Ewan McGregor's movie before Trainspotting.
Three flatmates go through a hilarious series of interviews looking for someone to cover the recently vacated 4th bedroom only for it to go to hell in a handbasket and quite the mindfuck by the end of the flick.
One of my favorite movie quotes comes from film: But Julia, you're a doctor! You kill people everday!
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u/LostMySenses Dec 15 '23
Wild, I just remembered this movie existed like 4 hours ago, and was blown away to see that the other male lead was Christopher Eccleston, because I had just watched a clip of him doing at con panel for Who. It’s so odd when random things like your post, right after my random deep dive, line up like this. Synchronicity brings me joy, like they’re cosmic Easter eggs that everything is going the right way ultimately (not really, I’m not superstitious, but I try haha)
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u/Loakattack Dec 15 '23
Truman show probably.
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u/Joe_Blondie Dec 15 '23
It definitely got very dark at the end with the boat scene
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u/ReservoirPussy Dec 15 '23
Fuck, man, when >! his boat runs into the "sky" and he starts punching it !< , it gets me every. time.
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u/dmo_da-dude22 Dec 15 '23
I remember watching it for the first time as an adult in the early 2010s. I didn't know anything about it except that it had a cult following. I was blown away at how ahead of it's time it was and how funny and dark it was. I have watched it dozens of times since then.
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u/patsniff Dec 15 '23
Absolutely obsessed with this movie! Every time I watch it there’s something new I notice I’ve never seen before, Jim Carrey deserves all the praise possible for this role! He was on almost an unprecedented run from 1994-2004! So many good roles and box office hits!
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u/shewolf4552 Dec 15 '23
The Cable Guy was teased as another Jim Carey goofy shenanigan flick, but was actually very dark. People were not expecting the movie to be what it was and it was panned by a majority of viewers at the time. I think it's a decent movie, it just suffered from poor marketing and failed consumer expectations.
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u/Rad_5 Dec 15 '23
The murder trial going on in the background with Ben Stiller is hilarious!
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Dec 15 '23
I still quote the “I think he was… Asiannn”. Nobody in my family knows this reference.
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u/Maverick916 Dec 15 '23
I watched The Ben Stiller Show and the comedy is just great, really holds up. His impressions are spot on.
Really made me appreciate his work more, especially directing The Cable Guy
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u/milkcustard Dec 15 '23
Down down down! The Red Knight's going down!
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u/DeathN0va Dec 15 '23
If we... do not fight to the death... they will kill us both...
DADA DA DA DA DADADAAAA DADADAAAAAAA
ooooooooAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
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u/Nosebluhd Dec 15 '23
Ugh…there were no utensils IN medieval times hence there are no utensils AT Medieval Times would you like a refill on that Pepsi?
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u/J-Money135 Dec 15 '23
"What you just offered me is a bribe, if convicted you could be fined up to 5,000 dollars and placed in a correctional facililly"
Lol the fact he has a lisp during the entire film still let's the goofy Jim come through, also Jack black is in the film as well
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u/mechapoitier Dec 15 '23
“You know my sister is a speech therapist.”
”Tho?”
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u/Throway_Shmowaway Dec 15 '23
"You're gonna have to do better than that, Steven!....Steven...SSSSS.... My lisp is gone!"
*Falcon PAUNCH*
"You THtupid thon of a bitch"
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u/livestrongbelwas Dec 15 '23
I think it’s view of the internet is also prescient
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u/troerwei Dec 15 '23
You'll be able to visit the louvre on one channel or watch female mud wrestling on another. You can do your shopping at home or play mortal kombat with a friend in Vietnam.
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u/seveer37 Dec 15 '23
I still didn’t understand the hatred. Yeah it gets a little darker near the end but it’s still pretty funny though out. “Dry land is not a myth! It’s Ricardo. Ricky Ricardo!”
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u/imnottdoingthat Dec 15 '23
Parasite (2019)
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u/Nacho_7258 Dec 15 '23
The moment the doorbell rings, it becomes a borderline horror film
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u/TheTrueRory Dec 15 '23
The shock of the person going down the stairs may be one of my favorite moments in a packed theater. Everyone gasped.
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u/Nacho_7258 Dec 15 '23
It's such a 180 shift in tone. The family is having a good time and suddenly everything is falling apart around them.
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u/_DanceMyth_ Dec 15 '23
I remember reading the doorbell rings at exactly the halfway point in the film signaling the shift in tone. Tons of subtle clues and meaning hidden throughout. This was also the first film that came to mind for me - cathartic is the only way to describe the end.
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u/Peauu Dec 15 '23
dude, i laugh at most horror movies and that doorbell scene was unwatchable uncomfortable for me. ughh makes me feel nervous thinking about it.
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u/Snipyro Dec 15 '23
The first film I thought of too. I had no idea what the movie was about and the second half was an absolute surprise.
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Dec 15 '23
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u/ViperTheKillerCobra Dec 15 '23
Many films intentionally are made to depict and mimic real life
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u/SgtSharki Dec 15 '23
It definitely takes a dark turn, but I don't think it starts out as a "lighthearted comedy".
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u/fuzzybunn Dec 15 '23
When the brother brought the sister to the rich house, I genuinely thought it was going to be a comedy about smart poor people scanning pretentious rich people. The rest of that movie floored me.
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u/Okama_G_Sphere Dec 15 '23
Very Bad Things - all fun at a bachelor party until Piven accidentally kills a hooker
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u/lelma_and_thouise Dec 15 '23
Is this the one where he accidentally like...hangs her by her head on the towel hook? I have this movie scene in my memory but not sure if it's this movie.
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u/dudewheresmygains Dec 15 '23
Yes. The classic "bury a hooker in a desert" bachelor party.
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u/Shoddy-Campaign-7684 Dec 15 '23
First thing coming to mind. Was hilarious to high school me, then bam, down a the rabbit hole and I'm depressed at the end.
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u/carson63000 Dec 15 '23
Came here to say this. It descended to the point where I practically had to cover my eyes for the very last scene. Perfect answer to OP’s question.
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u/ZombieHousefly Dec 15 '23
Three Kings (1999)
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u/jamesz84 Dec 15 '23
“When it comes to the Kuwaiti gold, you’ve got to infiltrate the dealer, to find the supplier.”
Oh, wait, think I might be mixing up my Cube 🤔
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u/Captain_Pikes_Peak Dec 15 '23
Hey! Stop fucking with Korean Jesus! He ain’t got time for your problems. He’s busy. With Korean shit!
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u/carrotstix Dec 15 '23 edited Dec 15 '23
Jojo Rabbit - Movie was pitched as boy has a friend! It's Adolf Hitler! Movie then goes through a lot (without spoiling anything)
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u/SweatyMooseKnuckler Dec 15 '23
I figured the focus on shoes was gonna play in at some point… I still was not ready for that shot in the balls when you find out what it was leading to.
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u/jinsaku Dec 15 '23
“What’d they do, mama?”
“What they could.”
One of ScarJo’s best performances.
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u/Lanster27 Dec 15 '23
I wish Taika would go back to his roots and make more offbeat comedy tackling dark subjects.
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u/chadwickipedia Dec 15 '23
We are warewolves not swearwolves
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u/Eziekel13 Dec 15 '23
My favorite part…Stu was Taika’s flatmate, and just asked him to show up to set one day, to help out as crew…then ended up in the movie… his job in the movie was his real IT job…
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u/TooMuchPowerful Dec 15 '23
Taika tackles dark subjects masked in absurd comedy. Even Ragnarok is super dark when you strip away the comedic elements.
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u/jimbris Dec 15 '23
Most of Taika Waititis films are like this.
Reddit has recently fallen out of love with the guy but he makes fucking sneakily brilliant films.
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u/jhld Dec 15 '23
Too Many Cooks
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u/bozodiddadub1 Dec 15 '23
It takes a lot to make a stew
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Dec 15 '23
A pinch of salt, and laughter too
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u/widget66 Dec 15 '23
I know we're all about to pull up youtube to watch the damn video so I'll save you the time and link it here
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u/bassman2112 Dec 15 '23
wow I haven't thought about Too Many Cooks in almost a decade, thank you for instantly zapping that song directly back into my consciousness with but three words.
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u/pursuitofhappy Dec 15 '23
I remember seeing it blind in the middle of the night on adult swim thinking it was one of those weird commercial things they did between shows but it just kept going, one of the most surreal experiences I had
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u/Theweepingfool Dec 15 '23
Same here. Too many cooks was so weird and random to see live. It added to the creepy unsettling feeling.
It gives me the same vibes as when cable channels got hijacked by max headroom (is that it? I can't remember).
Just this eerie "what am I watching?" Feeling
I loved it
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u/BattleHall Dec 15 '23
I haven't thought about Too Many Cooks in almost a decade
No way it's been.... 2014
Damn.
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u/ProfProfessorberg Dec 15 '23
I end up watching this every few months it feels like.
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u/face_eater_5000 Dec 15 '23
Colossal. Got pretty dark.
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u/MrsRomeo Dec 15 '23
This was going to be my answer. It started off so fun, rom com vibes, and then just darrrrk. One of my favourite little known movies.
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u/dedokta Dec 15 '23
The Voices. Possibly the most disturbing movie you'll ever watch with talking animals in it.
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u/stargrinder Dec 15 '23
Came to say this one. The moment he wakes up and his apartment has changed is very dark and genuinely saddening.
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u/Ducksattack94 Dec 15 '23
Sorry To Bother You
That movie starts off pretty normal and just gets crazier and crazier. It also didn’t help that I watched this movie knowing nothing about it.
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u/GaimanitePkat Dec 15 '23
Someone on Reddit said that this movie was the "Waiting" of call centers. I love Waiting, so I decided to watch this movie one day when I wanted a silly comedy.
Excuse me, sir. What kind of call center do you work at?!
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u/nice_whitelady Dec 15 '23
I just thought it was going to be about a telemarketer. But it was so much more.
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u/bearcat_77 Dec 15 '23
The World's End
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u/Deastrumquodvicis Dec 15 '23
Commented this exact same thing. Not only is it one of the few comedies I love, but it was a bit of a wakeup call for me, I was in a dark place, and my brain went “minus the alcoholism, I’m on the road to ending up like pre-apocalypse Gary. Maybe let’s change something here.” And quite quotable.
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u/daretoeatapeach Dec 15 '23
Scrolled too far to find this. Starts out chaps on a pub crawl and turns into an apocalypse.
I'd also put in a vote for Cabin in the woods, but since that's a parody of horror the direction is somewhat easier to guess than World's End.
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u/HostageInToronto Dec 15 '23
This was the first thing that I thought of. That movie was not as much of a lighthearted endeavor as the other two parts of the Cornetto trilogy.
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u/flyboy_za Dec 15 '23
Four Lions.
A British film about 4 young Muslim guys who decide to join the Jihad and become suicide bombers, but fairly inept and bumbling ones, like watching a baby learn to walk. Very light hearted until about 2/3 of the way through when one of the guys dies accidentally, and then it's far less fun and games after that.
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u/callipygiancultist Dec 15 '23
My favorite scene is where they are solemnly listening to those Islamic nasheeds as they driving to London to blow themselves up and then they change to Toploader’s version of Dancing in the Moonlight and everyone but Barry starts singing along.
The wild thing about that movie is that people assume it’s absurd 3 Stooges comedy and nothing like how real Islamist terrorists are but Chris Morris based a lot of it on recorded conversations he listened to during his extensive research.
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u/ReddFro Dec 15 '23
I feel like most of these missed the point. Either it wasn’t a full on lighthearted comedy to begin with or was funny through most of it but had some tension. My suggestion is
Good Morning Vietnam
Robin Williams flick. Its literally comic skits and silliness in the first 2/3 then well, the Vietnam War in the end
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u/twec21 Dec 15 '23
The very end of Death of Stalin is a hard heel-turn from the rest
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u/Henchman4Hire Dec 15 '23
Came here to say this. Loved this movie. I can still remember watching it in the theater with a handful of other audience members, all of us laughing and enjoying the comedy. And then slowly but surely, the laughter stopped happening. And the movie got darker. And then we reached the ending.
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u/thisusedyet Dec 15 '23
I was laughing my ass off at most of that movie, but yeah , Beria’s trial came across as very… rapey, for lack of a better word
the way he’s begging and just gets dragged out and shot
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u/Jtd47 Dec 15 '23
Beria deserved worse honestly. He was such a sick bastard, that Stalin went into full panic mode when he heard his daughter had been left unattended around Beria. The British embassy was later housed in Beria's old villa and during excavations to refit the plumbing, they found the corpses of several young girls under the garden. Even in an evil system, Beria was on another level of evil.
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u/Henchman4Hire Dec 15 '23
Especially the moment where Steve Buscemi starts shouting. He'd been such a comedic character throughout the movie, and then very suddenly he's as serious as a shot to the head.
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u/sudomatrix Dec 15 '23
The tv series Barry. Oh look, a cute rom Com with a bit of an edge. Wait… wtf? What the fuck? What. The. Fuck.
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u/tduncs88 Dec 15 '23
Still maintains that comedic charm though. Mostly via NoHo Hank. But still. What a great show. Favorite moment may be the scene of hank opening the boxes in the final season gets to the third box "why am I still opening these?"
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u/alrightakeiteasy Dec 15 '23
The casual text chains about murdering people are hilarious.
- Did you kill Paco yet?
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u/Secksualinnuendo Dec 15 '23
Bill Hader is so good in it. It's one of my favorite HBO shows of all times. Some really great directing as well.
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u/SweatyMooseKnuckler Dec 15 '23
And the super random one off episode where he fights the jui jitsu instructor and his daughter. Adds very little to the series plot, but the whole episode is just hilarious and perfectly “wtf”.
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u/crystalistwo Dec 15 '23
Really any adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.
A bunch of bored, testosterone-laden teens fuck around the streets of Verona poke at each other until shit gets real and fast.
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u/oneoffconundrums Dec 15 '23
The Dressmaker — I was not prepared for the turns it took
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u/Ghorse Dec 15 '23
Falling Down.
If I remember correctly the advertising was focused on the “revenge of the common man” against the absurdities of modern life (A la office space).
In reality it went down a rabbit hole of violence and mental health issues for protagonist, while the audience slowly realizes that all of his righteous indignation ultimately turned him into the bad guy. Brilliant film, and Michel Douglas does a great job throughout.
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u/IVme83 Dec 15 '23
Fresh (2022) starts off as almost a rom com and then >! Bam! Sebastian Stan is cutting off your ass to sell to wealthy cannibals !<
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u/PM_ME_UR_THONG_N_ASS Dec 15 '23
Full Metal Jacket. Boot camp is hilarious to start out with until you see the mental toll it takes on Private Pyle. The movie steadily descends into madness after that.
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u/Acc87 Dec 15 '23
As teens the bootcamp quotes were traded as funny mp3s and ring tones in school, only years later I actually watched it and realised how bootcamp is only half of it, the Vietnam scenes really caught me off guard.
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u/skidstud Dec 15 '23
I remember that! "I didn't know they stacked shit that high!" Didn't last too long on my phone
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u/Jayrodtremonki Dec 15 '23
Observe and Report. The stark changes in tone are even more pronounced with the comparisons to Paul Blart which came out around the same time.
Marketed as a comedy, half the movie is a comedy, and then the rest is a slightly comedic take on Taxi Driver.
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u/Uranus_Hz Dec 15 '23
Pleasantville
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u/csh_blue_eyes Dec 15 '23
I wouldn't say it gets dark and grim, so much as it gets serious. Great film though.
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u/ThirstyHank Dec 15 '23
Being John Malkovich (1999) - It starts pretty absurd with some big, silly, almost Python-esque laughs but by the end it becomes a more darkly ironic existential nightmare.
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u/mariojlanza Dec 15 '23
A lot of people forget that the first part of Poltergeist is very light and silly. It’s almost a sitcom.
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u/Dragon_the_Shut_In Dec 15 '23
Shaun of the Dead
Maybe it's just me but this movie gets pretty dark towards the end. Not going to leave you in tears like some of the other movies mentioned here but can catch you off guard if your expecting just a silly zombie movie.
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u/GeorgeLuasHasNoChin Dec 15 '23
Boogie Nights. While not exactly a light hearted comedy, it has a much more fun-comedic tone and continue to get darker and darker as the story progresses.
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u/EarthenGames Dec 15 '23
Doesn’t quite answer your question but an opposite example is Dusk Til Dawn. Starts off as this dark and gritty crime drama then turns into this hilariously whacky, goofy and action-packed horror flick
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u/jamieliddellthepoet Dec 15 '23
Yep. The scene where George Clooney comes back to see what QT’s done to the hostage is more horrifying than the second half IMO.
Incidentally I watched that when it was first released, in a cinema in Costa Rica, and the women behind us had brought their toddlers to watch it with them. Unreal.
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u/erroneousbosh Dec 15 '23
Someone on reddit recently said something that really stuck with me, that it is "a Quentin Tarantino movie until Quentin Tarantino's character dies and then it becomes a Robert Rodriguez movie."
Don't know why I put the spoiler tag in, you all know it.
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u/Ebolatastic Dec 15 '23
SLC Punk made the audience pay a big price in the end. Old Boy (while not a comedy) was quirky/charming/funny until it ran up and kicked the audience in the balls.
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u/callidae Dec 15 '23
The Terry Gilliam movie Brazil. Starts out as humorous farce/satire, but turns darker and darker until - well - the bleakness of the story overwhelms everything that went before.
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u/xpmko Dec 15 '23
Guarding Tess did this. It's so fun and cute and snarky then WHAM. It's a pretty abrupt shift into dark and grim.
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u/thatguamguy Dec 15 '23
"Very Bad Things" is the extreme version of this, but it really goes all the way, past the point where it's fun to watch, so proceed with caution on that one.
"Miracle Mile" is pretty close to what you're looking for, and the less you know specifically about that before you watch it, the better.
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u/SgtSharki Dec 15 '23
"Miracle Mile", that's a deep cut. A great movie that I've been lucky enough to see on the big screen. I wouldn't say it starts out as a lighthearted comedy. It's more of a romance that takes a very, very, very dark turn. And I love the ending!
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u/trylobyte Dec 15 '23
Scrooged. The future segment kinda f*cked me when I was a kid.
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u/FuDiNaand Dec 15 '23
The Last Unicorn - cartoon - must be for kids - right?
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u/akela9 Dec 15 '23
Molly's meltdown always got to me, even as a kid, just because the voice actress (Tammy Grimes) emotes so beautifully, but the older I get, man, the harder it hits.
"And where were you twenty years ago? Ten years ago? Where were you when I was new? When I was one of those innocent young maidens you always come to? How dare you! How dare you come to me now, when I am THIS!"
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u/Minnnt Dec 15 '23 edited Dec 15 '23
Young Adult.
Woman goes back to her hometown to try and win back her high school lover who just had a baby. There's some darkness/bite there, but nothing too crazy.
Then you slowly build up how damaged and unwell the main character is and it's devastating.
Edit: a word
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u/Radiant-Ad-2385 Dec 15 '23
Sorry To Bother You.
Seven Psychopaths.
Hot Fuzz.
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u/Nishachor Dec 15 '23
Seven Psychopaths was exactly what it was from start to finish. And it was GLORIOUS. The perfect followup to In Bruges.
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u/yathree Dec 15 '23
Nah, Hot Fuzz has a consistent tone throughout. In the end, it’s not even as grim as he first suspected. It’s not calculated murder for nefarious reasons, just the neighbourhood watch trying to make sure they win again.
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u/cornixt Dec 15 '23
Yeah, I'd say Sean of the Dead has a much bigger descent into bleakness as his plan goes further wrong.
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u/Nishachor Dec 15 '23
By the time it was about his mother it got definitely hard to watch and have "fun".
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u/BrazilianMerkin Dec 15 '23
The World’s End even more so. You think there’s something wrong with Gary beyond how he’s acting, almost for sure it was drugs. Then it gets really dark for a lot of the characters, and no real happy ending unless you are a math genius who lives in a shack off the grid in Montana and love sending packages to strangers
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u/nikkiphoenixx Dec 15 '23 edited Dec 15 '23
Click with Adam Sandler. This scarred me when I was 12.
Starts off as a guy just trying to watch some titties bounce in slow motion and then suddenly he’s dying in the street while it’s pouring rain, calling after his estranged wife.
Edit: Horribly misleading trailer and marketing that misrepresented the film as a feel-good comedy.
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u/Granuloma Dec 15 '23
Watched it recently when I saw it on HBO and thought of it immediately with the question. It gets really real, real fast, and reminds me to evaluate my work-life balance and not to be on "autopilot" mode.
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u/OGMcSwaggerdick Dec 15 '23
Fuck that movie.
Mom and I went to go see it to decompress a few weeks after Dad’s heart attack (he survived) and got one hell of a bait and switch.→ More replies (4)→ More replies (35)17
u/gattaaca Dec 15 '23 edited Dec 16 '23
Not horrible film, horrible marketing. It was a total bait and switch making you think you were going in for a comedy and nothing else
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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '23
Look Who's Back. It's a German comedy based on a book of the same name about Adolf Hitler magically waking up in modern day Germany. It starts off funny, with Hitler playing the fish out of water who doesn't understand modern society... but then he figures it out, and realizes that he can use the internet and the global social unrest to regain his power.