Romanticmoviesaren’t always necessarily such light-hearted affairs, with plenty of films centering on love quickly taking turns towards the dark and depressing. In the modern era,romantic comediesare the most commonly associated type of film with romantic love. Yetever since William Shakespeare’sRomeo and Juliet,pairing love with tragedy has been a common practice in storytelling. Plenty of films revolving around romantic relationships can get quite morose as they progress in a multitude of different ways.
There are several different avenues romantic movies can take to become more bleak. In many cases,romancefilms with abrupt genre shiftswill combine the typical niceties of passionate love with saddening or even downright horrifying events, making for peculiar blends of different types of movies. More rarely, a given romance film will wait until the last minute to make a grand story reveal that re-frames everything in a decidedly macabre context, twisting a heartwarming story into something darker.
10Unfaithful
Rides The Fine Line Between Love And Hate
Eroticism and thrillers go hand-in-hand, as proven relentlessly by films likeUnfaithful.True to its name, the movie’s story centers ona seemingly happy married couple, Edward and Connie Sumner, whose relationship is thrown into disarraywhen Connie engages in a scandalous affair with a stranger after a chance encounter.
Unfaithful
Cast
Unfaithful is a psychological thriller directed by Adrian Lyne. The film stars Richard Gere and Diane Lane as a married couple whose relationship unravels after the wife engages in an extramarital affair with a younger man, played by Olivier Martinez. As the affair intensifies, it leads to unforeseen consequences that put their marriage and lives in jeopardy.
It isn’t long before Edward discovers her infidelity, leading to some violent developments. In truth,Unfaithfulisn’t a typical romance film from its very premise, with both Edward and Paul going on their own romantic arcs with Connie.
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While the taboo thrills of Connie’s unfaithfulness drives the drama, the unbelievable escalation of the narrative once Edward finds out is shocking to say the least, resulting ina thriller that is, at its core, quite romantic. The downer ending ofUnfaithfuldrives home the painful message that even the briefest of lapses in judgment can comprehensively ruin someone’s life, not to mention their relationship.
9A Star Is Born
A Disheartening Dissection Of Love And Show Business
The film that provedLady Gaga’s acting prowess,A Star Is Bornis the latest of a long line of drama films of the same name stretching back to the original movie, released all the way back in 1937. Recycling the same plot,A Star Is Bornposits Bradley Cooper as Jack Maine, an established musician, opposite Gaga’s Ally, an aspiring artist yet to be discovered.Though both characters have their demons, the two find mentorship and romantic lovein one another on their journeys as performers.
A Star is Born
A Star Is Born follows seasoned musician Jackson Maine as he discovers and falls in love with struggling artist Ally. With Jack’s encouragement, Ally reaches stardom, but their relationship becomes strained as Jack grapples with personal challenges, impacting the dynamics of their partnership and their paths to success.
Things take a bleak turn as Jack’s underlying struggles with alcohol abuse worsen as Ally eclipses him in popularity, portrayed wonderfully by Lady Gaga’s very real talent as a pop star sensation. As things with Jack come to a boiling point, Ally remains hopelessly devoted to him, sacrificing everything to keep him from succumbing to his internal struggles. However sunnyA Star Is Bornbegins,the film is likely to leave viewers wallowing in tears by the time the end credits roll.
8Bones And All
A Twisted Tale Of Young Love
Sitting at the woefully under-explored intersection of horror and romance,Bones And Allexamines what passionate love is like from the perspective of two slasher villains.Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet star opposite one another as a pair of cannibals. While Russell’s Maren feels shame for her dark urges, hoping to find a way of overcoming them, Chalamet’s Lee encourages her to embrace her hunger for human flesh, showing her the ropes of an experienced murderer. The two then embark on a road trip across the country in a search for Maren’s birth mother.
Bones and All
Bones and All is a horror/romantic drama from director Luca Guadagnino starring Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet as two new cannibalistic lovers living on the fringes of society. When Maren (Russell) falls back into her compulsion to eat flesh at a slumber party, she is sent out on the run to avoid being arrested. She soon meets Lee (Chalamet), another “eater,” just like her. The two begin an intense romance as they finally find someone who understands them - but unfortunately for them, they aren’t the only eaters nearby.
Bones And Alldoesn’t keep its horrific nature a secret, with the film openly taking place in a world in which cannibals, called “eaters”, are seemingly far more common, able to identify one another off scent alone. The film is mired in gore and puppy love the entire way through, making for a bizarre mix of emotional drama. As disgusting as Lee and Maren’s journey gets, their relationship is oddly sweet, even if it is steeped in atrocities.
7Remember Me
Has One Of The Most Shocking Gut-Punch Endings In Cinema History
In stark contrast toBones And All,the dark parts ofRemember Medon’t rear their heads until the literal last minute of its runtime. Starring Robert Pattinson, the film divides most of its story between a coming-of-age story and an adorable romance. Robert Pattinson stars as a college student who begins a relationship with a young woman as a way of getting back at her father, a police detective who arrests him after a late night brawl. But before long, the relationship gets more serious due to the couple’s similar journeys with grief and trauma.
Remember Me
Remember Me is a romantic drama film directed by Allen Coulter, starring Robert Pattinson as Tyler Hawkins, a rebellious young man struggling to come to terms with his family’s past, and Emilie de Ravin as Ally Craig, a free-spirited woman who helps him find redemption.
In a shocking twist, one of thepenultimate scenes ofRemember Meslowly pulls out to reveal Tyler standing in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11th, 2001, shortly after dying in the infamous terror attacks. This bizarreending that nearly ruins the movieresults in a tonal whiplash, plunging the otherwise endearing story of young love back into tragedy. If it weren’t for the shocking ending,Remember Mewould be a hopeful, if not lighthearted, love story.
6Something Wild
From Romcom To Thriller In No Time Flat
While it’s easy enough to corrupt a romantic drama with a downer ending, turning a straight-up romantic comedy on its head is a much more difficult task. Yet somehow,Something Wildmanages to make it work, presentinga happy-go-lucky odd couple romance story that quickly devolves into a stalker thriller. The fun begins when investment baker Charlie falls for the free-spirited Lulu, breaking out of his regimented lifestyle with her whimsy and joie de vivre.
Something Wild
Something Wild is a 1986 comedy-drama directed by Jonathan Demme. The film stars Jeff Daniels as Charles Driggs, an uptight yuppie whose life takes an unexpected turn after he meets the free-spirited Lulu, played by Melanie Griffith. Their spontaneous adventure becomes more complicated when Lulu’s ex-convict husband, Ray, portrayed by Ray Liotta, enters the scene, leading to a blend of humor and tension.
Things go awry when Lulu’s ex, the dangerously unstable Ray (fittingly played by Ray Liotta), barges back into her new relationship. Before long, Ray is forcing both Lulu and Charlie to commit criminal acts with him, drastically changing the tone of the narrative. As tensions boil over, what wasa screwball romcom becomes a tense fight for survivalas Ray presents more and more of a danger to the newly-formed couple.
5Miracle Mile
Takes Its Simple Love Story To Apocalyptic Territory
Miracle Milestarts off innocently enough, with a meet-cute at the La Brea tar pits between twin leads Harry and Julie offering prospects of a new relationship. As the two agree to meet again, their plans are interrupted when Harry hears something he wasn’t supposed to on a payphone.
Miracle Mile
Miracle Mile, directed by Steve De Jarnatt, centers on Harry, who, after meeting the girl of his dreams, receives alarming news of an impending nuclear strike on Los Angeles. The film unfolds over the course of a tense hour as panic ensues and Harry races against time.
A frightened voice identifying himself as Chip warns Harry that an all-out nuclear war is imminent before seemingly being shot, plungingthe lovestruck protagonist into a state of terror. Indeed, it isn’t long before word gets out about the impending disaster, andMiracle Mileplaces itself on a fast-track to becoming apost-apocalyptic film.
The incredibly depressing ending makesMiracle Mile’s beginning and end the two terminal points of a long sliding scale from hopeful heat-flutters to world-ending doom and gloom.
Harry and Julie’s desperate bid to escape to safety togetherturns what could’ve beenan easygoing romance into a desperate bid for survival.The incredibly depressing ending makesMiracle Mile’s beginning and end the two terminal points of a long sliding scale from hopeful heat-flutters to world-ending doom and gloom.
4Life Is Beautiful
One Of The Most Poignant Holocaust Films Ever Made
A period movie set at the precipice of World War II, the dark placesLife Is Beautifulquickly heads into shouldn’t altogether be a shock, but that doesn’t make them any less painful when the film eventually gets to them. Starting in Tuscany,Life Is Beautifulbegins asa slapdash romance between a Jewish waiter and a school teacher. Despite coming from different worlds, they manage to make a relationship work, and even have a child together.
Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful is a 1997 Italian film directed by and starring Roberto Benigni. Set during World War II, the film tells the story of a Jewish-Italian bookstore owner who utilizes his imagination and humor to shield his young son from the horrors of internment in a Nazi concentration camp. The film explores themes of love, sacrifice, and the power of optimism in the face of unimaginable adversity.
Flash forward a few years, and the onset of the holocaust sees the lovable Guido and his son, Giosuè, interned in a concentration camp. Guido does his best to assuage his son’s fears by making the atrocities of the war out to be a game him and his son are participating in, but he can only stave off the horrors from his child’s perception for so long.Ending with one of the most tear-worthy beats ever put to screen,Life Is Beautifulproves the thesis statement of its title with high highs and low lows.
3Colossal
A Quirky Monster Movie Romance That Gets Dark Quickly
Combining the thrills of a typicalgiant monster moviewith a genuine romance doesn’t seem like a formula that would work, yetColossalmanages to balance these two concepts quite deftly. The film revolves around a failed writer who returns to her hometown, standing on the edge of a budding romance with her childhood friend.
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Complicating matters is the fact thatboth are somehow able to conjure huge creatures that follow their movements, a lizard and a robot, in South Korea while standing on a certain spot in a local playground at a specific time of day. Subverting expectations yet again,Colossalgoes into shockingly dark territory when the initially lovable Oscar becomes controlling and threatening, abusing the power of his kaiju for selfish means.
Colossal
After leaving her boyfriend in New York City, Gloria moves back home and tries to live a quieter life. But when a giant monster starts destroying soul, she slowly realizes that she may be connected to the creature’s actions. Anne Hathaway stars as Gloria alongside Jason Sudeikis, Austin Stowell, and Tim Blake Nelson.
Before long, the struggle between giant fighters turns into a metaphor for breaching the atmosphere of a toxic relationship, making fora fascinatingly unique experience. It seems unlikely that romance, giant monsters, and serious themes of abuse could mesh together so well, butColossalstands tall, making it all somehow work.
2He Loves Me…He Loves Me Not
Changes Genres Alongside The Perspectives Of Its Characters
Also known by its native French title,À la Folie… Pas du Tout,this foreign language film gives a new meaning to limerence and obsessive romance. The story first followsa young art student named Angélique, who naively engages in an affairwith the charming and successful cardiologist, Dr. Loïc Le Garrec.
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not is a French psychological thriller directed by Laetitia Colombani. Starring Audrey Tautou, the film revolves around a young woman named Angélique, who becomes deeply obsessed with a married cardiologist. The narrative explores themes of unrequited love and delusion, presenting two contrasting perspectives that unravel the true nature of their relationship.
When he seems unable or unwilling to ultimately return her affections, Angélique becomes morose, resorting to violent ends in the wake of her spurned adoration. A simple tragic romance takes a turn for the horrifying when the film replays the same events halfway through, this time from Loïc’s perspective.
A simple tragic romance takes a turn for the horrifying when the film replays the same events halfway through, this time from Loïc’s perspective.
It turns out that the two never actually slept together, with Angélique’s unreliable narration early on being merely representative of her delusions. What seemed like a heartening romance drama from the earliest scenes quickly becomes something more sinister asLoïc discovers the depths of his secret admirer’s psychosis.
1Stranger Than Fiction
A Contemplative Romance That Breaks The Fourth Wall
One of the more cerebral films ofWill Ferrell’s typically comedic filmography,Stranger Than Fictionmerges heady explorations of drama with novel magical realism. The film positions Ferrell as a Type A IRS agent who lives his life planned to the last meticulous detail, thriving in routine. However, whenthe narration of a famous author begins to overtake his thoughts, he finds himself swept up in a whirlwind romance with a baker he’s in the process of auditing.
Stranger Than Fiction
Stranger Than Fiction (2006) is a drama-comedy that follows Harold Crick, an IRS agent who begins to hear a narration of his life, which leads him to discover that he is a character in an author’s novel. Faced with his impending death, he must navigate his relationship with the author and his own existence. The film explores themes of free will, fate, and the nature of storytelling.
Things go awry when Ferrell’s character learns that his “author” has a habit of killing off her protagonists, starting a nerve-wracking countdown. In the end, the hapless IRS agent has to choose between a noble sacrifice and his own life, flinging the story into an anxiety-ridden moral conundrum. Even ifStranger Than Fictionultimately has a happy ending, its quite unsettling and dark for a typical romancemovie, regardless of its fantasy elements.
