I believe as movie viewers, we have been conditioned through over a century of cinema (and generations of stories) that the majority of the time, things will work out and the protagonist will end up on top at the end of the film. However, this is not always a guarantee and expert filmmakers know just how much hope to give and take away from the audience.
My question is; At what point does a film stop towing that fine line between hope v. hopelessness thus taking you out of the movie? I tend to be a big fan of downer films and things that may not end so cheery, but there's normally still a semblance of "things might improve or at least they'll get out of this situation" during the runtime.
Example for me, and it's actually a film that I do enjoy, is Funny Games. The remote control moment is where I essentially give up on the film and check out. It was as if this movie was made in a lab to see how far an audience is willing to stay with it until the credits roll if hope keeps being stripped away beat by beat. I think Funny Games is a remarkable experiment to that extent but to literally undo the one gasp of air we get to remind us that there is no escape from this new hell was an insanely ballsy choice that, which ended up doing exactly what the director intended. I'm personally not saying that they should have all lived, or the bad guys needed to die, but in that moment we can just cut to black cause we will never engage again knowing that the rug can be pulled any moment. Curious to see what others think!