These Black Traumatic Movies Films Are Better Than The News (2025)

It seems like everyday when we turn on the news, there’s yet another trying, upsetting and arguably traumatizing thing going on. Whether it’s some absurd policy enacted by President Donald Trump that aims to erase the history and contributions of Black folks from or another senseless police brutality encounter—what’s beyond clear is that the news is no longer a safe space for us Black folks.

What’s also true is that in tough times like these, where the word “unprecedented” seems to be putting things lightly: it’s sometimes better and oddly comforting to deal with the trauma you’re familiar with than face the hardships of the trauma that you’re not familiar with. Whether that’s to gain some sort of semblance of escapism or to remind yourself that we as a people have overcome worse—watching certain projects that depict how we dealt with facing the worst fills some sort of hole in our psyche that helps us subconsciously deal with the current circumstances.

So it’s in that vein that we thought we’d take a look at a handful of Black trauma films in the hopes that it’ll either provide with either that sense of escapism or, in a weird way, a sense of hope that just like some our favorite characters in our favorite traumatic films—our story can end a bit differently.

Read on to get into the list!

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2 / 16

Cast: Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Nipsey Russell

Why It’s Traumatic: Three words: the subway scene.

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3 / 16

Cast: Tony Todd, Vanessa Estelle Williams, Virgina Madsen

Why It’s Traumatic: Do we really have to spell this one out for you? We bet you still won’t say his name in the mirror.

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4 / 16

Cast: Morris Chestnut, Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube

Why It’s Traumatic: Ricky’s death will go down in movie character death history because he truly didn’t deserve it. Those kinds of losses always hit hard.

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5 / 16

Cast: Queen Latifah, Kimberly Elise, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Vivica A. Fox

Why It’s Traumatic: They almost had it all. Almost! Cleo’s death, like Ricky’s just hits too hard.

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6 / 16

Cast: Michael Ealy, Kimberly Elise, Janet Jackson

Why It’s Traumatic: There’s a reason why fans still give Michael Ealy a side-eye for this movie. Those kids never deserved what they got.

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7 / 16

Cast: Tupac, Khalil Cain, Omar Epps

Why It’s Traumatic: Seeing Bishop turn on his friends over the course of this movie is truly a friend groups’ worse nightmare. We truly hated to see it.

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8 / 16

Cast: Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, Thandiwe Newton

Why It’s Traumatic: This is one of those films that really brought the haunting elements from the book and upped the ante cinematically. We think Toni Morrison would be moved.

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9 / 16

Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Octavia Spencer, Melonie Diaz

Why It’s Traumatic: This was one of those films that sit with you long after you’ve turned it off because of just how nonsensical Oscar Grant’s death truly was. God rest his soul.

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10 / 16

Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong’o, Brad Pitt

Why It’s Traumatic: There’s a reason why Nyong’o won an Oscar for her role in this. Her acting provoked a visceral response in audiences that won’t get out of their memories for a long time.

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11 / 16

Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Jodie Turner-Smith, Bokeem Woodbine

Why It’s Traumatic: The ending. The ending. The ending. This was one of the most upsetting films we’ve seen in a long time. Full stop.

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12 / 16

Cast: Mo’nique, Gabourey Sidibe, Mariah Carey

Why It’s Traumatic: The fact that this movie was loosely inspired by stories of real girls living in Harlem just makes this an extremely heartbreaking watch.

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13 / 16

Cast: Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Michael Ealy

Why It’s Traumatic: Listen, we get it—you want to right the wrong you created. But Will’s character in this film might have taken it too far and went a bit too deep.

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14 / 16

Cast: Djimon Hounsou, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Morgan Freeman

Why It’s Traumatic: Though the eventual mutiny of the Amistad ship turned out to be a triumph, seeing all that these enslaved men went through was still a lot.

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15 / 16

Cast: Janelle Monae, Gabourey Sidibe, Kiersey Clemons

Why It’s Traumatic: Aside from the depictions of Civil War-era slavery, the absurd ending was arguably just as bad as certain scenes in the film.

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