Best Distraught Movies & TV Shows

After more than a year of paranormal attacks, including unexplained scratches, apparitions, disembodied voices and poltergeist activity, Karen and her family - daughter Chloe, 20, and sons Cameron, 21, and Colby, 15 - are distraught and in dire need of help. Paranormal investigator Tim Wood and paranormal researcher Sapphire Sandalo come to their aid and soon discover the entire town has a disturbingly dark history, and an oppressive energy has taken over.

Actress Myrtle Gordon is a functioning alcoholic who is a few days from the opening night of her latest play, concerning a woman distraught about aging. One night a car kills one of Myrtle's fans who is chasing her limousine in an attempt to get the star's attention. Myrtle internalizes the accident and goes on a spiritual quest, but fails to finds the answers she is after. As opening night inches closer and closer, fragile Myrtle must find a way to make the show go on.

Acclaimed actress Val Binnes decides to play a bold and uninhibited role in a controversial new movie for her ambitious, but neglectful and self-absorbed director husband Peter. Val finds herself becoming too caught up in the risqué part, throws caution to the wind, and has an adulterous affair with her hunky, but arrogant leading man Rick. Can Val and Peter's marriage survive the pressure and problems of making the picture?

Told in flashback form, the film traces the rise and fall of a tough, ambitious Hollywood producer, Jonathan Shields, as seen through the eyes of various acquaintances, including a writer, James Lee Bartlow; a star, Georgia Lorrison; and a director, Fred Amiel. He is a hard-driving, ambitious man who ruthlessly uses everyone on the way to becoming one of Hollywood's top movie makers.

Cynical and intelligent Arnold Mosk, a known drug user, is put into a disciplinary program at his high school meant for the seriously disturbed where he becomes the main target of the psychopathic Doug Van Housen and his gang.

Veteran buttoned-down LAPD detective Roger Murtaugh is partnered with unhinged cop Martin Riggs, who -- distraught after his wife's death -- has a death wish and takes unnecessary risks with criminals at every turn. The odd couple embark on their first homicide investigation as partners, involving a young woman known to Murtaugh with ties to a drug and prostitution ring.

After his sudden death, a devoted father's search for heaven brings him back to his distraught family and his wilderness fishing camp for a few precious days in the body of a wanted man.

A woman reports that her young daughter is missing, but there seems to be no evidence that she ever existed.

Distraught when her middle-aged lover breaks a date with her, 21-year-old Toni Simmons attempts suicide. Impressed by her action, her lover, dentist Julian Winston reconsiders marrying Toni, but he worries about her insistence on honesty. Having fabricated a wife and three children, Julian readily accepts when his devoted nurse, Stephanie, who has secretly loved Julian for years, offers to act as his wife and demand a divorce.

Zia, distraught over breaking up with his girlfriend, decides to end it all. Unfortunately, he discovers that there is no real ending, only a run-down afterlife that is strikingly similar to his old one, just a bit worse. Discovering that his ex-girlfriend has also "offed" herself, he sets out on a road trip to find her.

Socialite Judith Traherne lives a lavish but emotionally empty life. Riding horses is one of her few joys, and her stable master is secretly in love with her. Told she has a brain tumor by her doctor, Frederick Steele, Judith becomes distraught. After she decides to have surgery to remove the tumor, Judith realizes she is in love with Dr. Steele, but more troubling medical news may sabotage her new relationship, and her second chance at life.

While widowed Porter Ricks is away at school learning to be a park ranger, his teen-aged son, Sandy, under adult supervision from a neighbor, remains at the family home in the Florida Keys with his pet dolphin, Flipper. While Po (as Porter is called by most) is away, Sandy learns that the family home, built on state land, is being torn down to make way for a highway. In turn, Sandy would be sent to live with relatives, while Flipper would be sent to the seaquarium permanently. Not wanting to be separated from Flipper, Sandy, using his skiff, runs away with Flipper. A distraught Po returns home to look for his son. Meanwhile, the Hopewell family from Britain are vacationing in the area. Their sailboat is hijacked by three escaped convicts, who take the father, Halsey, hostage, and set the three Hopewell women - mother Julia, and teen-aged daughters Gwen and Penny - adrift, they who eventually land on the island where Sandy is hiding... Written by Huggo

After receiving congratulations from the Home Secretary for solving his most recent case, Charlie is sought out by Pamela Gray, a beautiful but desperate young socialite whose brother Paul awaits execution for the murder of a weapons inventor. She is so convinced of his innocence that she becomes distraught when she overhears Neil Howard, her brother's lawyer and her fiancee, confide to the detective his belief in his client's guilt. Angered at this disclosure, she returns his ring and breaks off the engagement. Although the execution will take place in 65 hours, Charlie pledges to expose the murderer. All potential suspects are reassembled in the country mansion of family friend Geoffrey Richmond, where the murder took place, as Charlie tries to expose the real murderer before time runs out.

In a small Japanese town, Ko-Ko is appointed to the unenviable position of executioner. Knowing he must successfully perform before the appearance of the Mikado in a month's time, Ko-Ko finds a suitable victim in Nanki-Poo, who is distraught over his unrequited love for the maiden Yum-Yum. Nanki-Poo agrees to sacrifice his life if he is allowed to spend his remaining days with Yum-Yum, who is betrothed to Ko-Ko.

Dan Bellows finds former stage star Joyce Heath a penniless drunk and takes her to his Connecticut home for rehabilitation. Unaware that she is married to Gordon, he asks his fiancée Gail to free him and offers to sponsor Joyce in a play. When Gordon refuses to give Joyce a divorce, she runs the car into a tree crippling him for life. Joyce urges Dan return to Gail, opens her play, and begs Gordon for forgiveness.

Family Liaison Officer Lisa Armstrong becomes a little too emotionally involved with a case (to the point where she might compromise it) concerning a pair of missing Morecambe twins to whose distraught parents she is assigned.

Having recently witnessed the horrific results of a top secret project to bring the dead back to life, a distraught teenager performs the operation on his girlfriend after she's killed in a motorcycle accident.

A woman, distraught because of her recent miscarriage, accidentally injures a child in a hit-and-run accident, but she keeps the incident a secret. Overcome with guilt and remorse, she seeks out the child in the hospital and attempts to help him regain his speech, even though, if successful, it might mean he will implicate her for the crime.

Child bride Claudia Naughton has made life difficult for her husband David because she can't stand living so far away from her mother. She's also afraid her husband doesn't find her desirable enough. To remedy both situations, she sells their farm to an opera singer so they'll have to move back to the city near her mother, and she tries to make her husband jealous by flirting with a neighbor. Eventually, Claudia has to learn to grow when she discovers that she's about to become a mother and that her own mother is gravely ill.

Fifteen-year-old Deena Marten wants the same freedom every teenager craves. But when she can't have her way, her rebellious temperament erupts in violence. Her parents, Cynthia and Todd, fear her new boyfriend, Garret, 17, is the cause. Distraught, Stephanie turns to alcohol, and Todd escapes in his work. They're unaware their Boy Scout son Adam, 13, sips from a vodka bottle hidden in his bedroom. And the problems in this dysfunctional family continue to worsen.

Shmuel, a Hasidic cantor in Upstate New York and distraught at the untimely death of his wife, struggles to find religious solace, while secretly obsessing over how her body will decay. As a clandestine partnership develops with Albert, a local community college biology professor, the two embark on a darkly comic and increasingly literal undertaking into the underworld.

When notorious pirate Henry Morgan is made governor of Jamaica, he enlists the help of some of his former partners in ridding the Caribbean of buccaneers. When one of them apparently abducts the previous governor's pretty daughter and joins up with the rebels, things are set for a fight.

Sandra Carpenter is a London-based dancer who is distraught to learn that her friend has disappeared. Soon after the disappearance, she's approached by Harley Temple, a police investigator who believes her friend has been murdered by a serial killer who uses personal ads to find his victims. Temple hatches a plan to catch the killer using Sandra as bait, and Sandra agrees to help.

This anthology tells three stories: a man buys a car that takes him back and forth through time; a tale of vampires; and a distraught mother asks for her drowned son to come back to life and gets more than she bargained for.

It is pouring with rain at one minute to midnight on Friday the thirteenth, and the driver of a London bus is peering through his blurred windscreen as his vehicle sails down an empty road. Suddenly, lightning strikes, and a vast crane above topples into the path of the oncoming bus... Then Big Ben begins to wind backwards. Time recedes. And we discover the lives of all the passengers and the events that brought them to that late-night bus journey, from the con-man with a hundred-pound cheque to the businessman's distraught and elderly wife. Time flows on, inevitably, to the crash -- and past it, as some live and some die.

When a devious plot separates CIA agent Peter Sandza from his son, Robin, the distraught father manages to see through the ruse. Taken because of his psychic abilities, Robin is being held by Ben Childress, who is studying people with supernatural powers in hopes of developing their talents as weapons. Soon Peter pairs up with Gillian, a teen who has telekinesis, to find and rescue Robin.

An ex-special services veteran, down on his luck and desperate for work, takes a job as a security guard at a run-down mall in a rough area of town. On his first night on the job, he opens the door to a distraught and desperate young girl who has fled the hijacking of a Police motorcade that was transporting her to testify as a witness in a trial. Hot on her heels is the psychopathic hijacker and his team of henchmen, who will stop at nothing to extract and eliminate the witness.

Lori becomes distraught when her best friend, Cindy Roth, drowns under mysterious circumstances while on a trip with her husband, Randy. Determined to honor Cindy and learn the truth, she starts to uncover disturbing evidence from Randy's past.

An inspirational true story about how a rural community rallied around a distraught family to search for their missing two year-old boy and through doing so changed the lives of many of those involved.

A society novelist brings a brash young chorus girl home in order to study her for inspiration for his new novel. His family is distraught, but soon her behavior has forever altered their snobbish ways.

On the eve of World War II, zany heiress Amanda Kelly travels by train to Switzerland. While passing through Germany, she meets a sweet elderly lady, who suddenly vanishes. Distraught, she questions her fellow passengers who claim that the woman was never there. Unsure if it's all in her mind or if there's a more sinister plot afoot, Amanda teams up with photographer Robert Condon to discover the truth.

A distraught movie extra flees a movie set with a fancy costume and car. Circumstances lead her to begin impersonating a Countess, while a fellow extra takes on the role of her servant.

Medical intern Robert Morley is distraught after his wife dies in childbirth. He's resentful of his new son and wants nothing to do with him. He leaves the child with his aunt and uncle and heads off to Europe to pursue his medical studies. Morley returns to his hometown six years later, now a successful doctor and engaged to be married to a beautiful socialite. He also feels differently about the boy and attempts to gain custody from his aunt and uncle.

Two young girls are sent away to live with their uncle, which sets off a chain of events resulting in an Indian attack on the town.

Distraught, confused, and half-wild with fear, Sarah Carter emerges alone from the Appalachian cave system where she encountered unspeakable terrors. Unable to plausibly explain to the authorities what happened - or why she's covered in her friends' blood - Sarah is forced back to the subterranean depths to help locate her five missing companions.

A distraught college student finds a phone that enables her to talk to her deceased mother in the past. Instead of a heart attack, she learns that her mother was murdered. She tries to use the phone to stop the murder from occurring before the killer finds and kills her too.

A multi-camera comedy about a close-knit, sports-crazed Boston family whose somewhat athletically challenged son, Ronny, is chosen by his father to be his assistant high school basketball coach, much to the surprise of his more qualified siblings. Ronny wants nothing more than to move away, join the singles scene and find a partner. His distraught mother, Marjorie is not upset that her favorite son is gay, but that he wants to leave Boston and his family. Ronny's plans change, however, when his politically incorrect and outspoken father, Arthur stuns everyone with his choice for an assistant. Touched by his father's offer, Ronny embarks on a completely different future and he can be sure that his loving family, including his twin brothers Sean and Gerard and his sister Jackie, are going to have a very vocal opinion about it.

Caddish lawyer Lee Gentry is going out with Katy Costello, but carrying on an affair with dancer Carmen Brown. When he wants to end the dalliance with Carmen, she is so distraught that she becomes suicidal. Seizing the gun from Carmen, he accidentally shoots her, and thinking she's dead, concocts a series of increasingly outlandish alibis to cover his tracks under the guidance of a ghostly apparition that is his alter ego.

Sandy is distraught when, having saved Flipper by pulling out a spear, his father insists the dolphin be released. A grateful Flipper, however, returns the favor when Sandy is threatened by sharks.

Joe spends a lot of his time at Nick's Pacific Street Saloon. Tom, who credits Joe with once saving his life, stops by regularly to run errands for Joe. Today, Tom notices a woman named Kitty when she comes into Nick's, and he quickly falls in love with her. Meanwhile, a distraught young man repeatedly calls his girlfriend, begging her to marry him. Nick himself muses on all the various persons who come into his bar, some to ask for work and others just to pass the time.

A distraught mother suspects her teenage son is a psychopath who may shoot up his high school, but when he outsmarts the mental healthcare system she is forced to take matters into her own hands.

Sara Collins is gone. But before the FBI can solve the mystery of where she is, they first need to figure out who she really is. Nothing is as it seems. Everyone is a suspect. Everyone has a secret. And no one is safe. Sara is the beautiful young wife of prominent Georgia Senator Jeffrey Collins, and she has gone missing. Through the eyes of Senior FBI Agent Graham Kelton, ambitious reporter Judy Nash and the distraught members of the Collins family, viewers will journey inside a sensational, mysterious national soap opera.

Haunted by the death of her young daughter, a distraught woman develops an all-consuming obsession with a girl she believes is her reincarnated child.

In the wake of a nuclear war, a young woman survives on her own, fearing she may actually be the proverbial last woman on earth, until she discovers the most astonishing sight of her life: another human being. A distraught scientist, he’s nearly been driven mad by radiation exposure and his desperate search for others. A fragile, imperative strand of trust connects them. But when a stranger enters the valley, their precarious bond begins to unravel.

Succumbing to the stresses of her personal and professional lives, Sylvia, a Seattle morning show weather forecaster, has a meltdown live on-air. Now, unemployed, lacking career prospects, and with a mess of a romantic life, she moves in with her little brother. She must learn how to cope with being 35-years-old and unfortunately famous for melting down on live television.

A Los Angeles taxi driver helps a distraught woman on the run from gangsters after they murder her husband and young son.

An abusive husband is angered that his wife is having trouble conceiving a child. One night, after leaving his house following a fight, she overdoses on pills. After bringing her to the ER to save her, the husband discovers that she was, in fact, pregnant and had lost her child in the process of attempting suicide. Distraught, he decides to sue her for "property damage" and "breach of trust", among other things. She hires her feminist friend from New York to defend her, which is a difficult task in the southern town of Newnan, Georgia, which is predominantly pro-life. Written by Anthony Ventarola

It's the final chapter in this chilling, real-life story of Sheriff Buford Pusser, a good-hearted lawman set on keeping his town safe. Still distraught over his wife's death, he blows up every moonshine still in McNairy county and burns the brothels and whiskey joints to the ground. Having gone too far, he's voted out of office, but that doesn't stop the mob from seeking their revenge. Buford soon discovers how small his town is when he runs out of highway with the mob on his trail.

Patty is lying awake one night in a church basement, distraught and scared. She is to be executed the next morning for refusing to take the Mark of the Beast. Patty knows what lies ahead if she takes the mark but can still not believe in Christ.When those around her try to comfort her and encourage her to accept the Lord, she lashes out at them.

A distraught disc jockey seeks out a mystery caller who may be the killer of his girlfriend.