32 Great Movies You Can Only Watch Once
There are just some movies, that despite how great they are, are just impossible to watch more than once. Either the subject is too heavy, like a holocaust film, or the violence is too much, like some horror movies, or any other number of reasons. This is a list of 32 of those amazing films that you just can't watch a second time.
Schindler's List (1993)
The Steven Spielberg classic Schindler's List is one of the most difficult movies to watch ever. It's absolutely brilliant in the way it depicts the horrors and personal costs of The Holocaust, and while it's completely gripping and an amazing story, it is really hard to watch, emotionally. I've actually seen it twice after swearing to never watch it a second time, but I don't think I have it in me to watch a third time.
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
The Rwandan genocide of the '90s is still very raw in that part of Africa. The movie Hotel Rwanda is like other movies about people trying to save people from such events, like Schindler's List, is both heartwarming and completely heartbreaking. You really feel for everyone viscerally when you watch, and because of that, it's really hard to watch a second time.
The Green Mile (1999)
The Green Mile is a very different story than we are used to coming from the mind of Stephen King. It's not scary, in a traditional sense, but boy is it emotionally fatiguing. Michael Clarke Duncan's performance is what makes this heartbreaking movie about a prisoner on death row. The raw emotion he plays the role with is spectacular but absolutely draining.
The Zone Of Interest (2023)
The 2024 Oscar winner for Best Sound, The Zone Of Interest, is one of the most worthy recipients of that award in history. The way that director Jonathan Glazer told the entire menacing part of the story with sound is simply incredible. It is also not for the faint of heart. Not seeing the horrors of the Holocaust depicted on screen makes it all the more powerful because it's all in your mind, making it much more real somehow.
Uncut Gems (2013)
There is little harder than watching one man's decent in desperation and despair, like Howard (Adam Sandler) in Uncut Gems. You want to just reach out and hug and tell him to stop making things worse for himself. Audiences see every bad, desperate decision coming and are helpless to stop it. Sandler's performance is so good, that you completely forget this is the guy who played Billy Madison and is known for being funny more than a dramatic actor.
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave should be required viewing for every American. It should be taught in schools, it's that important. Chiwetel Ejiofor's depiction of the real-life Solomon Northup, a free Black man kidnapped and enslaved for 12 years in the American South. Slavery is America's original sin, one we still are grappling with a century and a half after it ended, and seeing the way Ejiofor and McQueen show it is really, really hard, but really important to do.
Midsommar (2019)
Horror movies are a lot of different things to different people. They can be campy and fun, or they can be psychologically terrifying. Midsommar is the latter, by a mile. There is nothing "fun" about Midsommar. It's one of the most disturbing movies made in the last decade, and it's a movie that will sit with you for a long, long time. So long, that you probably don't want to put yourself through it again. It's so good at doing what it sets out to do, you never want to see it again. Even star Florence Pugh was greatly affected by it.
Inside (2023)
2023's Inside is one of those movies I went into knowing virtually nothing about, save for the fact that it starred Willem Dafoe. Wow was that a tough watch to see a man trapped in a gilded prison cell of his own making when Dafoe's character finds himself unable to escape a penthouse apartment he was trying to rob. Dafoe's performance of a man driven to madness is both brilliant and terrifying.
Manchester By The Sea (2016)
Manchester By The Sea is one of those stories that just when you think things can't get worse, they do. One tragedy after another is revealed as the movie goes on and Casey Affleck's performance is one of the all-time greats in Hollywood history as the man who just can't seem to ever get a break, and is living one of the saddest lives you've ever seen on film. It's such a good movie, but too emotionally draining to watch more than once.
The Passion Of The Christ (2004)
Even for non-Christians The Passion of the Christ is an incredibly difficult watch. The sheer amount of violence so viscerally depicted is stomach-churning and disturbing. I do think it's worth watching once, despite the controversy that has always surrounded it and its director Mel Gibson, but once is enough.
The Revenant (2015)
Like a few others on this list, The Revenant is here not because of the story it tells, but rather how it's depicted. It's raw and violent and bloody and disturbing. It's a (mostly) true story, which makes it almost too incredible to believe, and Leonardo DiCaprio puts in one of his finest performances, but it's not a movie you watch over and over.
The Machinist (2004)
2004's The Machinist is worth watching - and impossible to watch again - for one reason, really, Christian Bale's performance. The actor legendarily lost 62 pounds for the role, playing an emaciated, delusional factory worker who is unable to sleep, ever. It's one of the most incredible acting jobs you'll ever see, and never want to see again.
Requiem For a Dream (2000)
Watching a decent into drug addiction can be among the most harrowing things to see in a movie and no movie is better (and scarier) for that than Requiem For a Dream. Viewers not only watch Sara's (Ellen Burstyn) downward spiral, but they feel it with Darren Aronofsky's direction and Burstyn's amazing performance.
Oldboy (2003)
When a movie starts out as unsettling as the 2003 South Korean masterpiece Oldboy and only gets more harrowing from there, you know it belongs on this list. Choi Min-sik is amazing as the man imprisoned in what looks like a hotel room for years. As he learns the disturbing fate of his wife on TV, he sinks further into despair. Things only get worse when he is finally freed from the room.
Civil War (2024)
Alex Garland's Civil War has garnered huge praise that it is worthy of, but the movie's premise and action are so tough to watch, that I'll likely never see it again. That sickness in my stomach I felt as I watched is both high praise and the reason for my decision. Seeing some of the images of a country at war that you never expect to see is haunting and scary.
The Whale (2022)
Like other examples on this list, The Whale is carried by the performance of its lead actor, Brendan Fraiser. The Academy Award-winning role is played with such raw emotion, that it's impossible to look away from, yet it's not something I ever want to relive.
Whiplash (2014)
There was a ton of praise for Whiplash when it was released in 2014, and it's deserving of all of it. The depiction of a student learning drums from an impossible taskmaster is nothing short of fantastic, yet you can't watch the movie and not feel all the violence and mental anguish right in your gut for the runtime of the movie. JK Simmons is terrifying in his role as the sadistic conductor pushing Andrew (Miles Teller) to the brink of sanity.
Happiness (1998)
Though it's billed as a comedy, Happiness is as dark as a comedy can get. It's praised for its bold decision to cover issues that are rarely talked about, and so disturbing I'd rather not do that here, and the cast, including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ben Gazzara, Jared Harris, Lara Flynn Boyle, and more. Still, it's hard to watch even once, much less twice.
Life Is Beautiful (1997)
It's rare for a movie as funny as Life Is Beautiful to be so hard to watch again, but that's exactly what is it. The movie was controversial for the comedic elements within telling a story about the Holocaust, but Roberto Benigni is so good at the tragic clown that it's impossible to appreciate the movie. Even if you never want to see it again.
American History X (1998)
While some movies are too hard to watch a second time because they are emotionally draining, American History X is impossible to watch again because it's just too disturbing. We don't want to believe that people like Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) exist, though we know they do and that makes it really hard to digest once, much less twice.
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
The level of self-destruction that Nicolas Cage's character in Leaving Las Vegas is astounding. When I saw it, it both repulsed me and made me want a drink, which is disturbing on a lot of levels. It's so heartbreaking to watch anyone so depressed and hopeless as the character is.
The Pianist (2002)
Like other movies about The Holocaust, The Pianist is incredibly heartbreaking and hard to watch. Unlike movies like Schindler's List, it's really about one man's trials through the whole event and that makes it even more tragic to see everything happening around him. It's not just those murdered in the Holocaust, the survivors are also victims.
Nightcrawler (2014)
Nightcrawler asks a lot of important questions and despite being almost a decade old, it's still questions we need answers to about the role of the press in our society. For that reason, it's an important movie to watch. The violence and disturbing images make it both critical and appalling to watch and for those reasons, once is enough.
My Girl (1991)
Everything is tougher when it's kids. The death of a child is among the most heartbreaking things in the world, and My Girl is brutal in that respect. What makes it even harder is how sudden the death is in the movie, making it a wonderful movie, but one that you never want to watch again.
The Saw Movies
The name of the company that produces the Saw franchise is Twisted Pictures and that name says it all. The horror movies are stone classics in the genre, but for anyone even a little squeamish, these movies are unwatchable nightmares. Even those of us that can stomach them once, have had enough by the end.
Steel Magnolias (1989)
There is no question that Steel Magnolias has an amazing cast, led by the great Sally Field in one of her best roles. It's still a movie you only want to watch once. It's a little more rewatchable than some of the other movies on this list, but only due to the performances. It's truly one of the most iconic tear-jerkers in Hollywood history.
The Act of Killing (2012)
Most of this list is fictional movies, but The Act of Killing is a documentary and that makes everything even more visceral. It's not only a true story - and a disturbing one at that - it features the real people involved. It's a naked look at the worst humanity can be and for that it's necessary viewing, but not multiple times.
Marley & Me (2008)
There are millions of families that can directly relate to Marley & Me, which is what makes it both wonderful and sad. Many people know exactly how important dogs can be, especially to young families, and even though we know in the back of our heads that our dogs won't live forever, yet when we lose them, it really hurts. Marley & Me would be very rewatchable if it ended with the family moving the farm and Marley happily running around. But that's not how it ends and for that, it puts it in the same category as Old Yellar. Once is enough.
Sophie’s Choice (1982)
There is no question that the role of Sophie Zawistowska in Sophie’s Choice is one of the finest performances of Meryl Streep's career, and that is really saying something. It's a revelation to watch her play this incredibly difficult role, and for that, everyone should see the movie. The "choice" she has to make wouldn't be wished on anyone's worst enemy and for that, we know we can only watch it once.
Fruitvale Station (2013)
2013's Fruitvale Station forces the audience to confront, viscerally, some of the worst aspects of life in America for African Americans. It's not a pleasant thing to watch, though like others on this list, should be required viewing. It's hard to get through, but completely worth it in the end. It's a movie that will stick with you forever, so once is all you need.
Mother! (2017)
There is a genre of movie, like Mother!, that are so hard to watch for mothers especially that they deserve their own sub-category of movie. That's not to say it's easy to watch for anyone else. The ending is so disturbing, that I still have nightmares about it, despite loving the movie.
127 Hours (2017)
Danny Boyle's 2017 film about the harrowing ordeal Aron Ralston (James Franco) went through is so well told and shown that audiences can feel the scariest moments. The scene of Ralston cutting through the nerves on his arm is to this day the most squeamish I've ever felt in a movie. Another movie I absolutely loved, along with many of Boyle's movies, but the only one I never want to watch again.
