Why We Watch Sad Movies

We’ve all been there. Frantically grabbing tissues from the plush cinema seats while tears stream down our face with snot dripping from our nose. Then the lights turn on as the movie ends, and you’re left picking up pieces — both the tissues thrown around you and of your shattered soul. Despite sad movies leaving us with some pretty bad emotional damage, why is it that we keep watching them? Warning: Some spoilers ahead.

Striking a Tone

First, lets define what sad movies really are. They take on a few common themes and plots, with the most general being about loss: the loss of a family member (The Farewell), the loss of a friend (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), the loss of a lover (Me Before You), and the list goes on. Sad movies are fundamentally good movies; they transcend linguistic barriers and touch the hearts of viewers all around the world. They make us connect with and wear the emotions of the onscreen characters as if they were our own, with their pain becoming our collective pain for that short 90 minutes. Even if you aren’t the type to cry at the movies, you can’t deny that these movies involve true skill and artistry, not just by the actors but by the whole production team.

However, while this explains why sad movies often take centre stage at critically renowed award shows and film festivals, it doesn’t explain why exactly people are magnetically drawn to them.

(Cast members of 'Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,' pose together at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, where they won both the U.S. dramatic audience award and the grand jury prize. Source: CTV News)

Crying makes us ... happier?

Imagine that it’s raining, you just found out you failed a test and worse, you just spilled your cup of hot coffee. It’s natural to want to just get home, sit back and enjoy a sad movie. Will it make you sadder? Sure. But it will also help you enjoy the movie even more. A 2012 study of American college students found that realism and engagement act as two mediators for people's enjoyment of depressing films. According to the authors, 'sadness enhances perceived reality and increases a sense of involvement, leading viewers to enjoy the sad film'. This also means that watching a sad movie gives us the space to sit in our emotions, allowing us to acknowledge and process our sadness in a relatively healthy way instead of bottling it up.

Another study done in 2016 also showed that watching sad films can potentially boost pain tolerance and feelings of group bonding. Simply put, consuming sad and depressing content can actually make us feel good because of an increase in endorphins that make us happier. Hence, watching a sad movie, while sad, can prove to help with your mood, making you feel better about your bad day after all.

Crying = Catharsis

Painful emotions that we experience throughout the course of our lives can manifest in many different ways, one of them being through suppressed stress. Therefore, there is a need to release these emotions through catharsis. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, catharisis is the process of releasing strong emotions through a particular activity or experience in a way that helps you to understand those emotions. Crying while watching sad movies can thus be a form of catharsis to help us deal with tough feelings that we have tucked away into a deep corner of our consciousness.

Personally, I love watching sad movies for the sole purpose of crying. After a particularly stressful academic semester with little to no time for processing my emotions between my assignments, consuming a sad movie is like drinking a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter day for my soul. Finally being able to let go and feel all of my emotions through a good movie is extremely satisfying.

In some unique cases, watching a sad movie just to cry can even become a trend! Just look at the throves of people who eagerly booked tickets to document their teary reactions to the now famous Thai movie, How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies. The plot revolves around an elderly woman and her grandson, who, while initially eager to take care of her following her cancer diagnosis in order to inherit her home, eventually learns to love and sincerely care for his grandma in her final months. Due to the hundreds of videos of people testing their willpower on TikTok, the film blew up in Singapore. Within a week of its release here, it topped the box office charts, garnering an impressive $1.16 million in ticket sales.

Although moviegoers clearly knew what they were in for, many were still eager to see whether they would actually cry when watching the movie. Or if you’re anything like me, the question would be, how much?

Crying helps us learn

Finally, watching an onscreen character go through trials and tribulations can become a key learning experience for viewers. As the character deals with a myriad of emotions like grief and loss, it helps us to appreciate and be more grateful for the lives that we have. Sad movies give us the space to learn from the characters pitfalls and mistakes and reflect on the journey that they have been through. This gives way to us finding a deeper meaning in the stories and continuing to ponder on that meaning after we’ve finished consuming them and apply the lessons that we have learnt in our daily lives.

Take Marley & Me, for example. The plot is as follows: Newlyweds John and Jenny Grogan (Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston) leave behind chilly Michigan and move to Florida, where they buy their first house and begin working for competing newspapers. Soon after, the Grogans get Marley, a cute yellow Labrador puppy. However, Marley quickly develops into a mischievous handful. Despite ruining the furniture and failing obedience school, he consistently brings out the best in John, Jenny, and their growing family.

Marley, though wild and unruly, teaches the family multiple life lessons. His unbridled enthusiasm for life reminds them to live in the moment and appreciate the simple joys. Marley’s unwavering loyalty and unconditional love serve as a constant source of comfort and happiness for the family. Even as Marley eventually grows old and eventually passes on, his legacy lives on in the hearts of the family as they realise that Marley, with all his antics, was the perfect dog for them. They learn to live with the grief and appreciate the memories that they made with him. Cue the waterworks.

As viewers, we are brought along on the journey that Marley has with his family and learn alongside the Grogans. Though ultimately a tearful ending, we walk away with a deeper appreciation for our loved ones and life in general.

In the same vein, researchers studied participants who watched the 2007 film Atonement, about a young girl who wrongly accused her older sister’s lover of raping her sister, eventually leading the lovers to be tragically separated by the Second World War. They found out that participants who experienced greater sadness while watching the tragic movie reported both enjoying the film more and experiencing greater happiness in their lives, but only if they thought about their close relationships while watching the film. This means that thinking of your loved ones while watching a sad movie that covers themes like family and relationships can actually increase enjoyment of the film, even if you do end up sobbing by the end of it.

So, it’s all good?

With all that’s said and done, sad movies, like any other genre, is certainly an acquired taste. Though some people avoid them like the plague, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to sit back, relax, and cry uncontrollably for the better half of an hour. Even if you’re not the type to cry during sad movies, there are definitely still benefits to watching such films. If not for anything else, its to enjoy a good movie and try and see if you can relate to anything the characters are going through. I’ll bet that you can.