15 Romance Movies with Extremely Dark Endings

Love is the strongest emotion in the world, so it makes sense why audiences everywhere enjoy a good romance movie. Watching two characters fall blissfully in love can be cathartic for many viewers, providing warmth in an occasionally cold world. However, a happy ending isn’t always realistic, with real life often getting in the way in a variety of tragic ways.

Some romance movies reflect this reality, taking a darker approach to the genre. Despite the tragedies these films offer, they can also provide audiences with insight into their own emotions and motivation to overcome their own pain. Here are fifteen movies that aren’t afraid to show the bleaker side of love, though it should be kept in mind that some of them contain sensitive topics that may be triggering for some viewers.

Update February 7, 2024: Looking for something more somber this Valentine’s Day? This article has been updated with even more romance movies with tragic endings, and where you can stream each title.

Massive Spoilers Ahead as The Tragic Endings in Each Film Will be Discussed

Anna Karenina (1935)

Inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece novel of the same name, Anna Karenina features one of the most tumultuous relationships ever written. Anna Karenina is married to the Russian imperial minister, Count Alexei Karenin. Because of this, she has a powerful image to uphold. However, everything changes when she meets cavalry officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky. The two are immediately attracted to each other and embark on a secret affair. Rumors begin to stir, but it isn’t until Anna falls pregnant and accidentally publicly displays her affection for Vronsky at a horse race that it becomes a scandal.

Related: Best Movies to Watch When You’re Single in February

A Literary Classic Brought to the Screen

A lot of complications then begin to arise. Anna’s entire life begins to fall apart as the affair taints her role in society. Her husband no longer wants to be married to her, and she decides to leave to live with Vronsky and their daughter, Anya, in Italy. However, things take a turn for the worse when Vronsky begins to lose interest in Anna, and although never unfaithful, she believes he is. Anna then becomes convinced that he is to wed Princess Sorokina and, overcome with delusions, jumps under a train. It is a tragic ending and an early example of how Hollywood loved to embrace a tragic dark romance.

Rent Anna Karenina on Apple TV+

Atonement (2007)

Atonement is as equally heartbreaking as it is dark. At age 13, Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) is a spectator in her sister Cecilia’s (Keira Knightly) relationship with the housekeeper’s son, Robbie (James McAvoy). Initially, Briony is infatuated with Robbie but starts to believe he is harmful to her elder sister after watching them. After Robbie gives Briony an explicit note to give Cecilia detailing his true feelings, she becomes convinced that he is sexually obsessed with her sister. One evening, Briony walks in on the pair sleeping together, but because of her previous assumptions, she believes her sister is being molested. This belief is heightened even more when her cousin, Lola, blames Robbie for committing a crime against her. As a result, Robbie is arrested despite Cecilia stating he is innocent.

Lingering Lies Kills True Love

After a few years, Briony visits her sister to apologize and recant her testimony, understanding the gravity of her mistake. She learns that Robbie is also living happily with Cecilia after their years apart, and cannot forgive her for her actions. However, decades later, an elderly Briony heartbreakingly reveals that Cecilia and Robbie were never reunited. That, even fictitiously, she cannot atone for her lies. Robbie died on the beaches of Dunkirk, and Cecilia died in the Blitz, robbed of their happy ending by an unreliable narrator. Atonement struck a nerve with audiences and critics and was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Rent Atonement on Apple TV+

Revolutionary Road (2008)

Revolutionary Road is a powerful critique of the lives of women in the 1950s. It follows the lives of April (Kate Winslet) and Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio), who met in 1948 at a house party. When they meet, Frank has a pretty traditional outlook on life, aiming for careers that are expected of him. On the flip side, April dreams of being an actress, seeking freedom in her life. Instantly, the pair already feels mismatched, but based on the 1950s idea of the nuclear family, the pair marry and move into a suburban home on Revolutionary Road. While living here, April becomes pregnant and, as a result, falls into caregiving while her acting dreams falter.

Fighting Against the Expectations of the Nuclear Family

Eventually, both April and Frank become deeply depressed about their lives, although the former is the only one willing to do anything about it. In an attempt to rebuild their marriage and find passion in life, April suggests that the family move to Paris. However, when April falls pregnant again and Frank receives a promotion, cracks begin to form. Desperate to get away from her mundane life, April performs an abortion at home, which tragically kills her. It’s an incredibly dark ending that is still relevant by today’s standards, highlighting the extreme importance of women having agency over their lives and bodies. While Titanic might be the tragic romance most people think of for Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road is far darker as there is no hopefully ending or true love reuniting at the end of this.

Watch Revolutionary Road on Max

Never Let Me Go (2010)

Based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s critically acclaimed novel of the same name, Never Let Me Go is completely devastating. Set in an alternate timeline to our own, a medical breakthrough has allowed the human lifespan to extend beyond 100 years. The breakthrough in question is a procedure where individuals are cloned from others in order for their organs to be harvested. The story focuses on three of these clones – Kathy, Ruth and Tommy – who are in a love triangle with one another. As children, they learn of their fate, although it never seems to hit them.

When Your Chance of Love is Taken Away From the Start

After Ruth and Tommy get more serious, Kathy becomes a carer – a clone who doesn’t have to donate any organs yet, so long as they support and comfort those who have. The trio reunites some years later, and Ruth is keen to keep Kathy and Tommy together, telling them that she believes deferrals are granted to donors in love. However, the now-in-love couple learns that deferrals aren’t real and will never get to live together. Donors aren’t treated as though they have souls, and Tommy and Kathy are beside themselves with grief. Tommy dies on the operating table soon after, with its dark ending a sinister reminder that holding onto those we love, regardless of how much time is left, is the most important thing of them all.

Rent Never Let Me Go on Apple TV+

One Day (2011)

Right person, wrong time is a concept that many people are familiar with. One Day, which is based on the book by the same name by David Nicholls, takes this concept and turns it into its entire narrative. Dexter (Jim Strugges) and Emma (Anne Hathaway) spend their graduation night together on July 15, 1988, although nothing sexual happens between them. Instead, they begin an incredibly close friendship that lasts two decades, with the film revisiting them each year on July 15. Sometimes they’re together, sometimes they’re apart, but most importantly, one of them is always romantically involved with another.

Related: Best Romance Movies That Use the Fake Dating Trope

Finding the Right Person at the Wrong Time

Despite how painfully obvious it is that Dexter and Emma love each other, the pair do not start a romantic relationship until 2001. Viewers then get to watch the pair blissfully be in love for five years, which is satisfactory for those who believe in the aforementioned mythical soulmate connection. However, right when it seems like the pair are ready to start off on their own, fate intervenes in the cruelest of ways. While riding her bike, Emma is hit by a truck and dies, leaving Dexter alone in the world without her for the first time in two decades. Director Lone Scherfig’s follow-up to An Education might not have received the same critical or awards acclaim as the previous work, but One Day is a devastating romance with a tragic ending.

Rent One Day on Apple TV

Tyrannosaur (2011)

Joseph, an unemployed widower plagued by violence and rage, reaches a new low when he kills his dog in a drunken rage, affirming to himself that he has become irredeemable. However, when he meets a compassionate woman named Hannah, he finds that he might have the potential to redeem himself through a relationship with her, despite his reservations about accepting her into his life.

Dark Secrets and Desperation

Paddy Considine’s Tyrannosaur focuses on two severely broken individuals who are the furthest thing away from believing they deserve any semblance of a romantic relationship. This makes for a very tenuous courting that only really starts to come to fruition in the later moments as Joseph finally lets up. However, it turns out that Hannah has a dark secret that even he can’t fathom, leaving the film’s final moments in a devasting realization that the relationship would never work. Though consistently bleak, the movie is worth seeing for the performances of Olivia Colman and Peter Mullan, whose portrayal of broken adults is unforgettable.

Watch Tyrannosaur on Tubi

Sightseers (2012)

Sightseers is an underrated British gem that focuses on a truly twisted romance. Caravan enthusiast Chris takes his girlfriend, Tina, on a road trip. However, things get dark almost immediately when Chris brutally murders a man for littering. Claiming it was an accident, Chris then goes on to murder even more people on their trip, all for various reasons. Tina soon finds out about his actions, and murders a bride-to-be after she kisses Chris during her hen party. However, Chris is disgusted by what she’s done.

A Dangerous British Romance

As the film nears its conclusion, Chris professes that he believes his murders are justified, whereas Tina’s are not. This puts a strain on their relationship, and they no longer have the connection they shared at the start of the film. Eventually, the pair get their passion back, and Chris determines that they should do a love-pact suicide by jumping off a bridge. But when the time comes down to actually doing it, Tina lets go of Chris’ hand as he falls to his death. Tina wanted to express herself in her own way without losing herself in her relationship.

Watch Sightseers on Tubi

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

Only Lovers Left Alive follows two vampires, Adam and Eve, who have been married for centuries. Because of fears that human blood in the 21st century is contaminated, the pair have to rely on separate suppliers of the ‘good stuff’ to remain alive. As the pair grows depressed about what humanity looks like now, they decide to rekindle their romance. Eve realizes that Adam is planning to commit suicide, and wants to prove to him that life is worth living, even if it’s not going in the direction that they expected.

An Eternity is a Long Time to Be in Love

Towards the end of the film, they learn that Eva’s ‘good stuff’ supplier and old friend, Marlowe, has been poisoned from drinking contaminated blood. The pair then begin to contemplate their survival, not eager to revert to the 15th-century ways of draining blood from their victims. Throughout the film, it’s clear that Adam loves humans for their creativity but hates their violence and greed. Interestingly, this is also what both Adam and Eve dislike about themselves, regardless of how civilized they pretend to be. Ultimately, they decide to feed from a young couple to survive, reminding audiences we’re all animals underneath who will always fight for our basic needs. This is very much an anti-Twilight film, as this is a vampire romance not meant to last.

Rent Only Lovers Left Alive on Apple TV+

The Duke of Burgundy (2014)

The Duke of Burgundy follows two women, Evelyn and Cynthia, who are involved in an unconventional romantic and sadomasochistic relationship. This carries over into every facet of the pair’s life, from the academia of Evelyn studying lepidopterology under the older Cynthia to the daily chores overlooked with scrutiny. Bordering on abuse at first, it becomes evident that Evelyn craves Cynthia’s mean wit as the movie progresses.

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Let’s Play Master and Servant

Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy takes a unique narrative approach in exploring the complex relationship between Evelyn and Cynthia, emphasizing atmosphere and eroticism over a straightforward narrative. Entirely focused on the relationship and the constant obsessions with sadomasochism, the movie enters a somewhat perverse and dark territory from the get-go. However, the ending adds a sting to all the events that came before, and it paints a different kind of desperation through control that is both unsettling and tragic.

Stream the Duke of Burgundy on AMC+

The One I Love (2014)

A struggling couple, Ethan and Sophie, are considering separation despite their long history together. To save their marriage, they decide to rent a vacation house and try to reconnect with one another. However, they are slowly met with the realization they are not alone, as duplicates of themselves presenting their best qualities that make the other fall in love with them. Ultimately, they are given the chance to live together to start life new, but they must first determine which version is the one they love.

Can you Love Someone Through Both the Good and Bad?

Backed by convincing performances from Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss as Ethan and Sophie, the Charlie McDowell indie romance/drama The One I Love presents the viewer with a challenging situation. The relationship between the two is strained to the point of exhaustion, but the reminder of why they fell in love with each other in the first place shows both what their desires were and the person they gave up on being for the other. So, do you accept the person for who they are, knowing what they may be able to be again, or do you start anew? The final moments of the film answer that question in an emotionally devastating manner and a final longful gaze that is utterly heartbreaking.

Stream the One I Love on Pluto TV

Crimson Peak (2015)

One of the greatest modern gothic movies, Crimson Peak sticks to the genre’s roots by providing viewers with plenty of dark romanticism. Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) is a young heiress living in New York in 1887, where her mother’s ghost warns her to stay away from Crimson Peak. Some years later, she meets the English baronet Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) and his sister, Lucille (Jessica Chastain). The two quickly fall in love, and despite several red flags, they quickly marry and move into Crimson Peak with Lucille. While there, Thomas inexplicably leaves the room at night, and Edith becomes haunted by several unsettled ghosts.

Delectable Gothic Horror for the Dark Romantic

As time goes by, Edith develops a mysterious illness. One of the spirits haunting her leads her into the house’s cellar, where she finds a trunk full of incriminating information on Thomas and Lucille. The pair have a marriage and murder pact to finance Thomas’ endeavors, where Lucille poisons each of his wives to claim their money. Just when it appears it couldn’t get any darker, Thomas and Lucille are exposed as having an incestuous relationship together, which leads to Lucille murdering Edith’s father after he discovers the truth. It’s a hauntingly dark ending, and Edith is able to break free from her ghosts to pursue her creative passions. Crimson Peak was sold as a straightforward horror film which disappointed many audiences who saw it in theaters, but going in knowing it is a gothic tragic romance makes the movie a much better experience.

Stream Crimson Peak on Netflix

Cold War (2018)

The historical drama set during the height of the Cold War follows a music director who falls in love with a talented singer and tries to persuade her to flee communist Poland for France. The two begin an intense love affair as they travel across Poland, Berlin, Yugoslavia, and Paris, but still feel the overwhelming oppression of the communist party and its effect on people.

Love in the Time of War

Visually, you would be hard-pressed to find a production more tailored to the romantic than Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War. Presented in crisp black and white, beautifully shot, and utilizing the background and culture of Europe’s iconic historical landmark, the movie flows like a dream. This extends to the intense romance between the young couple, and viewers will find themselves rooting for their success from the moment they first lock eyes. Unfortunately, love in a time of war is not always so straightforward, and the fate that awaits the two is far from the picturesque love story the visuals exude.

Stream Cold War on Prime

A Star Is Born (2018)

Serving as the fourth adaptation of the 1937 classic of the same name, A Star Is Born stars Bradley Cooper as aging rock star, Jack, and Lady Gaga as Ally. From the first moment they meet, Jack and Ally seem perfect for each other. While out for drinks, Jack visits a drag bar, where Ally is singing a cover of La Vie En Rose by Edith Piaf. Her vocals are heavenly, and it’s evident to see how Jack became so entranced by her. Putting full faith in her talent, Jack helps Ally become a star, all while they fall deeply in love.

Related: Best TV Couples of All Time, Ranked

Struggles with Addiction Getting in the Way of Happiness

However, hope doesn’t last long in this film. Since childhood, Jack has struggled to care for his mental health. As an adult, he’s a full-fledged alcoholic, which causes rifts in his marriage with Ally. After he publicly humiliates her while drunk, Jack is placed in rehab for two months, and it seems as though things might work out this time. But after Ally’s manager berates him and makes him feel as though he doesn’t deserve Ally, he commits suicide in their garage. It’s a truly gut-wrenching ending that isn’t afraid to show the reality of addiction.

Rent a Star is Born on Apple TV+

Little Fish (2020)

Set on a dystopian Earth, Little Fish takes place during a period when a virus known as Neuro-Inflammatory Affliction (NIA) is spreading and threatens to erase the memories of anyone infected. When a young couple, Emma and Jude, contract the virus, they are forced to face the reality that their memories of each other will slowly disappear, and they will become strangers.

An Underseen Gem

The timing of Little Fish’s release, discussing a global pandemic, almost buried the sci-fi romance movie altogether. Thankfully, Chad Hartigan’s film did end up seeing the light of day, as it is a well-constructed piece of indie filmmaking that nails its concept while presenting an unforgettable love story (pun intended). While the inevitability of the tragic ending is pretty much set up from the beginning, it does not make the movie any less impactful. For anyone who has had someone suffer from memory loss, the films will radiate with those who understand the challenges and eventual conclusion.

Rent Little Fish on Apple TV+

Bones and All (2022)

Bones and All is a dark coming-of-age movie that uses cannibalism as a metaphor for addiction and how it isolates people in society. Teenager Maren (Taylor McKenzie) is abandoned by her father shortly after her 18th birthday, as he realizes he cannot control her cannibalistic tendencies. She decides to travel to Minnesota to find her mother, who is also like her. While on the way, she meets other ‘eaters’, including Sully (Mark Rylance), who is incredibly dangerous, and Lee (Timothee Chalamet). Maren sticks with Lee, and the two fall intensely in love with each other, guiding each other through their addiction. However, the pair do not realize they’re being stalked by Sully, who is scorned over Maren’s rejections.

An Intense and All-consuming Romance

While the pair attempt to live a normal life together, Sully hunts Maren down at their apartment. As Sully is attacking Maren, Lee arrives and kills Sully, but is fatally wounded in the process. Lee has accepted his death, and instructs Maren to eat him “bones and all”, which she does. It’s an incredibly dark but beautiful ending, representing how love can be addicting and all-consuming, as Lee will now always be a part of Maren. Pitched as the “cannibal love story”, Bones and All was a hard sell for audiences as it grossed $15.2 million worldwide against a reported $16 million budget, but the fact that it made any money at all given the dark premise and even bleaker ending is a testament to how good it is.

Stream Bones and All on Prime