

Rebecca Shortall
893 votes 175 voters 10.8k views 15 items

List Rules Vote up the most horrifying aspects of this seemingly innocuous comedy.

Ironically, you may have forgotten about amnesia-themed romantic comedy 50 First Dates, the second in a trio of increasingly insipid Adam Sandler Drew Barrymore movies. Released in 2004, the am-rom-com sought to recapture the success of Barrymore and Sandler's charming The Wedding Singer, but ended up being one of the 21st century's first truly scary comedies. The central pair's chemistry is surely incentive to check out this sometimes-cute forgetfulness-themed flick about a womanizing veterinarian (Sandler) falling for a woman stricken with short-term memory loss (Barrymore), but isn't enough to mitigate the several reasons 50 First Dates is terrifying. 

In the film, Barrymore plays Lucy, a woman who suffered a head injury in a car crash and has no short-term memory; she can only remember her life up until the accident. Sandler plays Henry, a sleazy vet who hits on tourists and racks up one-night stands until he falls for Lucy. The morning after their first night together, she doesn't remember him, so Henry sets out on a quest to relentlessly hit on her until she marries him.  

Cute, right? If that description didn't raise any red flags, you're in for a shock: 50 First Dates is an existential horror movie in which Henry doggedly stalks a woman incapable of remember anything about him. He orchestrates an endless string of creepy meet-cutes, and manipulates her into falling for him. She's trapped in a prison made of time, robbed of agency by the men around her, forced to live the same day over and over, until everyone around her dies. And those are just a couple of reasons 50 First Dates will fill you with enough existential dread to sink the Titanic. 

1 80 VOTES
Lucy Will Suddenly Have To Give Birth With No Memories Of Pregnancy
Ranker Video
Video: YouTube

Henry went and got Lucy pregnant. Nine or so months from that day, she's gonna wake the hell up and her water will be breaking. Surprise pregnancy! Some births take days. Women are stuck in the hospital for upwards of a week.

So, think about this - Lucy's going to maybe come to terms with being pregnant, go through labor, then, if she falls asleep, wake up the next day having forgotten she's in labor? Or, if she stays awake all through labor, then falls asleep after the baby is born, she'll wake up to excruciating soreness and then suddenly have a baby foisted upon her.

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2 92 VOTES
Lucy's Family Robs Her Of Agency
Lucy's Family Robs Her Of ... is listed (or ranked) 2 on the list 50 First Dates Isn't Romantic - It's About A Guy Who Takes Advantage Of A Disabled Woman
Photo:  Columbia Pictures

Lucy's family endlessly recreates the day of her accident, going so far as to fill her shampoo bottles a little each day so she doesn't get suspicious about the slight discrepancy in weight. They've keep all their calendars set to October 13th, 2002, and the house is littered with old-ass newspapers. Surely they'd have disintegrated into nothing by now. 

The truly scary part is that Lucy's family doesn't give her any choice in the matter. They're Groundhog Day-ing her and she doesn’t know it. She's a prisoner to repetition but unaware of her prison, like Neo in The Matrix, a slave to a system he doesn't even realize exists. Lucy's family don't even give her the option of living another life. They've made the decision for her and now she's doomed to live a life repeated. 

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3 54 VOTES
If Lucy's Dad Dies She'll Have To Learn That Every Morning
If Lucy's Dad Dies She'... is listed (or ranked) 3 on the list 50 First Dates Isn't Romantic - It's About A Guy Who Takes Advantage Of A Disabled Woman
Photo:  Columbia Pictures

Lucy's dad, with whom she's especially close, isn't going to be around forever. The worst part about that, and Lucy's amnesia, is that she'll always wake up thinking her dad is alive. What if, one day, she slides Henry's memory tape into the VCR (by the way, the video thing? This movie came out in 2004. Was anyone still using VHS then?) and gets told by Henry that not only is she in love with him, but her dad is dead?

Two horrible pieces of news delivered in one fell swoop: your dad's dead and you're shackled to Adam Sandler for the rest of your life.  

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4 68 VOTES
Lucy Would Wake Up Every Day For 9 Months To Discover She's Pregnant After Henry Knocks Her Up
Lucy Would Wake Up Every Day F... is listed (or ranked) 4 on the list 50 First Dates Isn't Romantic - It's About A Guy Who Takes Advantage Of A Disabled Woman
Photo: Columbia Pictures

Imagine you wake up, safe in the knowledge you're in shape, in your 20s, and with no responsibilities or dependents. Then you look down and realize you're pregnant. You've got a big old pregnant belly and no knowledge as to how you got this way, who did it to you, or how far along you are. Now imagine that happening every day for nine months. That's some body horror right there, and it happens to poor Lucy when she gets knocked up by Henry: she is trapped in a prison of the mind and body.  

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