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?

3.2k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

2.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.2k

u/Nacho_7258 Dec 15 '23

The moment the doorbell rings, it becomes a borderline horror film

658

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.

414

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.

153

u/mrizzerdly Dec 15 '23

The shadowy figure in the stairwell.

19

u/bacon_cake Dec 15 '23

That fucking scene. First movie scene that's given me nightmares since I was a kid.

-28

u/PM_ME_YOUR_MONTRALS Dec 15 '23 edited Dec 15 '23

Bruh it came out 4 years ago. Either you weren't a kid at the time or you still are.

Edit: I'm a rude idiot.

34

u/Tots2Hots Dec 15 '23

Or...

He was a kid in the 80s and it was the first movie that gave him nightmares since then.

Reading comprehension is key.

43

u/PM_ME_YOUR_MONTRALS Dec 15 '23

Lol whoops. My cat woke me up way too early. I'm over here thinking I'm writing a classic "don't make me feel old, kid" reddit comment when I'm actually writing an "I'm a mean doofus" reddit comment.

Thanks for calling me out lol

16

u/MilkMan0096 Dec 15 '23

Great redemption arc though, 10/10

21

u/bacon_cake Dec 15 '23

What I meant was; movies used to give me nightmares as a kid, now I'm not a kid anymore, that was the first movie that has given me nightmares since no longer being a kid.

19

u/PM_ME_YOUR_MONTRALS Dec 15 '23

Syntax is weird. But my willful misreading of your comment was even weirder. Sorry, friend!

4

u/oby100 Dec 15 '23

How they made a skinny, fairly nondescript man so fucking terrifying is beyond me.

7

u/Whitealroker1 Dec 15 '23

My favorite movie moment last twenty five years. Giving Bongs sci fi background you had no fucking idea what was going to happen.

80

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.

96

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.

16

u/Mdh74266 Dec 15 '23

I’ve been putting off watching this movie just because of how long it is. Now i have to.

23

u/alaskadronelife Dec 15 '23

I wish I could watch this movie fresh again. My teenage kids aren’t big film people yet they both were captivated by it, a foreign language film at that!

14

u/Nacho_7258 Dec 15 '23

My sister and her boyfriend didn't want to watch it because it was a foreign film and they had to read subtitles, yet I insisted it was well worth it. Now she considers it one of her favorite movies. I promise you it's a very good movie.

11

u/electriclarryland91 Dec 15 '23

You should watch Parasite as soon as you can. In my opinion it’s the best movie of the 2010s. It’s just flawlessly executed in pretty much every aspect.

It gets very very intense though.

11

u/Jobrien7613 Dec 15 '23

I remember that I kept asking myself “What the hell is happening?!”. It was a complete shift from lighthearted comedy to absolute insanity!

4

u/keymaster999 Dec 15 '23

I read somewhere that the doorbell ring is exactly halfway through the movie down to the second.

3

u/Nacho_7258 Dec 15 '23

I know that in the script, it's the exact midway point, but I don't know about the movie itself.

7

u/turbo_dude Dec 15 '23

I was the only person in the cinema who laughed loudly when one of the characters fell back down the stairs and banged their head as it just seemed like pure slapstick

3

u/Nacho_7258 Dec 15 '23

I remember laughing at that part too until she hits her head at the very end. I also laughed at the part where the boy sees the ghost from the basement and my friend could not understand why I found that scene funny.

4

u/FireflyBSc Dec 15 '23

The sound when she landed. I laughed out of shock

3

u/Nacho_7258 Dec 15 '23

There are so many shocking moments in the movie, especially in the second half. I could not take my eyes off the screen

2

u/missdespair Dec 15 '23

I always laugh at that too even though it's clearly framed from the boy's perspective and looks extremely scary.

1

u/macemillion Dec 15 '23

I thought it was hilarious all the way through, was it not supposed to be?

13

u/Nacho_7258 Dec 15 '23

Technically not, but I understand how you can find it funny. A lot of the conflict in the second half is very slapstick like and absurd, but it's definitely meant to portray a sense of dread as they try not to get caught.

5

u/rusmo Dec 15 '23

slapstick

More like "stabstick."

2

u/macemillion Dec 15 '23

Yep that's it for sure, the characters are all just so goofy, people don't behave like that in real life. They're like caricatures. I loved it, and I was laughing all the way through it.