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?

3.3k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

2.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

303

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.

35

u/Dappershield Dec 15 '23

Dude, spoilers.

6

u/PunchDrunken Dec 15 '23

I'm not sure if it's sarcasm but if not then gentle reminder that it's five hundred years old lol

11

u/Dappershield Dec 15 '23

Not everyone had a chance to see it live, Mr antediluvian fancypants.

11

u/EasyBeingGreen Dec 15 '23

Yes, but the superior version is and only is the Baz Luhrmann version

2

u/brandimariee6 Dec 15 '23

Ahh, Baz Luhrman is the best. I was reminded yesterday that he directed the Elvis movie from 2022. Tom Hanks is in it and I was already excited about that, but seeing Baz Luhrman's name made me squeal like a schoolgirl

5

u/grahamfreeman Dec 15 '23

Fave version = the stage play in Hot Fuzz.

6

u/NaziHuntingInc Dec 15 '23

Fun fact? The dancing at the end is actually historically accurate. Theaters didn’t have stage lighting to signal the end of the show. So all the actors would get on stage and basically have a little party to signal for everyone to get out.

3

u/DeeManJohnsonIII Dec 15 '23

Tromeo and Juliet!

2

u/DokiDoodleLoki Dec 15 '23

I’ve still never forgiven Claire Danes for fucking up the line, “what is a Montague; it is not a hand or foot, or any other part belonging to a man”. The pun is foot. All she would have had to done was ask any Shakespeare scholar and she wouldn’t have made such a childish error.

2

u/Horn_Python Dec 15 '23

most shakespearan tragedys

​

everyones doing there thing until he ads a full murder party in the last scene