Sure, supernatural beings are scary. But they can also be a sign of lazy filmmaking, according to one member of a popular online film forum.
“I would love to get scared by a movie without it being, ‘Oh, the ghosts/demons are behind all this.’ I feel like that’s all I see on streaming suggestions,” the forum member wrote. “Any ideas?”
Fellow cineastes had plenty of ideas. Here are 25 of the most unsettling.
1. Vivarium (2019)
Ever think the suburbs are horrifying? This might be the movie for you. Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots are a couple looking for a starter home but wind up trapped in an anonymous neighborhood they cannot escape. At one point, they even burn the house down! But that doesn’t work, either. One forum member calls the movie “extremely uneasy and disturbing.” Another describes it as “slow but creepy.”
2. Dark Skies (2013)
Another suburban horror show, although it’s more sci-fi than blood and gore. Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton are parents who live on a quiet street. Things suddenly get unquiet: Household items get rearranged, flocks of birds crash into their house, one kid starts sleepwalking (or is he?), and strange marks appear on the children’s bodies. Spooooky.
3. The Babadook (2014)
Troubling things happen to an exhausted single mother and her troubled child. But are they really happening, or are they a manifestation of shared trauma? Single parents will likely identify with the mom in this Australian psychological horror flick; however, they should avoid reading creepy pop-up books to their children. (Fun fact: “Babadook” is an anagram for “a bad book.”)
4. A Cure for Wellness (2016)
Inspired in part by Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, this is a horror-thriller film about a young executive tasked with retrieving the company CEO from a spa/rehabilitation center in the Swiss Alps. If you guessed something odd is happening at this place, you’re right!
5. Black Swan (2010)
Darren Aronofsky directed this psychological horror film starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. Under tremendous pressure due to a production of Swan Lake, a professional ballerina (Portman) begins to lose her grip on reality. She won a Best Actress Oscar for her intense performance. Co-star Mila Kunis shines, too.
6. Annihilation (2018)
Natalie Portman again, only this time she’s an Army veteran and biology professor who investigates a quarantined Florida region that is apparently being colonized by aliens. The cinephile who posted the original question says Annihilation is “one of my absolute favorite movies of all time.”
7. The Cell (2000)
Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, and Vincent D’Onofrio star in a sci-fi thriller about scientists who use a “synaptic transfer system” to enter the mind of a comatose murderer. All they want is the location of his latest victim, who may still be alive. Naturally, they get a lot more than that. “Such a scary movie!” shudders one commenter.
8. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Rosemary’s Baby tapped deeply into the 1960s zeitgeist when war raged, demonstrators marched, and some people openly suggested that God was dead. Rosemary (Mia Farrow) wants to have children, but her self-centered actor husband (John Cassavetes) drags his feet. Becoming acquainted with an elderly married couple changes Rosemary’s life – but not in a good way. Truly creepy.
9. Frailty (2002)
Bill Paxton directs and co-stars this thriller about a religious man who says God is telling him to kill certain people. His young sons are required to go along with his beliefs. Matthew McConaughey and Powers Boothe also star. A movieholic calls this film “an all-time classic,” and another agrees: “It’s my fave Bill Paxton movie.”
10. Get Out (2017)
Freshman director Jordan Peele (Nope, Us) hit the ground running with this creepy thriller about a young black man (Daniel Kaluuya) who travels to Alabama to meet his white girlfriend’s family. Lil Rey Howery, LaKeith Stanfield, and Bradley Whitford also star. The movie has a 98% approval rating on RottenTomatoes.com. “If you haven’t seen Get Out, watch it NOW!” commands one ecstatic fan.
11. Unsane (2018)
A woman traumatized by a stalker asks for counseling and inadvertently signs a consent form for a 24-hour hold. Upset by this knowledge, she lashes out – which the psychiatric hospital considers evidence that she needs to stay longer. Meanwhile, guess who gets a job at that very institution? Fun fact: Unsane was filmed entirely on an iPhone 7 Plus.
12. I See You (2019)
Greg Harper (Jon Tenney) is investigating the abduction of a young boy. His off-duty life is a mess: His wife (Helen Hunt) had an affair, and all kinds of odd things keep happening in their home. According to one forum member, I See You has one heck of a twist: “You think it’s heading one way, then at the end you’re like what the (heck) just happened?!?”
13. Aftermath (2021)
Very loosely based on a true story about a couple cruelly harassed by a woman they outbid on a house, Aftermath takes some elements of the story and adds even scarier ones. Natalie (Ashley Greene) and Kevin (Shawn Ashmore) move into a new home as part of the healing process after Natalie’s affair. Turns out the house has some pretty dark secrets. “One of the scariest films I’ve ever seen,” announces one forum member.
14. Melancholia (2011)
A rogue planet is coming awfully close to Earth’s orbit. Uh-oh. Lars von Trier directs Kirsten Dunst, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgard, John Hurt, and other stellar (heh heh) performers. Turns out the potential end of the world is a real bummer.
15. Cure (1997)
A Japanese detective investigates a series of murders where the killers stick around afterward and tell police they remember nothing of what happened. Is it a cult? Paranormal activity? Something in the water? We ain’t sayin’. One filmgoer calls it the “scariest movie with no real explanation as to why it’s so scary – just watch it!”
16. Inside (2022)
Willem Dafoe is an art thief who gets sealed into a high-rise NYC apartment during a burglary. His handlers abandon him and there’s no way to call for help. The thief is in one of the most expensive zip codes in the world, in a penthouse that costs millions, and is slowly starving to death. As the Crypt Keeper would say, “Try a little irony – it’s good for your blood.”
17. Caveat (2021)
A man agrees to spend five days “babysitting” a disturbed woman in a dilapidated house on an island. The salary is swell, but remember what your dad always said about things that seem too good to be true? Sheila O’Malley of the RogerEbert.com website says Caveat is “an impressive and often terrifying film…a reminder of how much can be done on a low budget if one is inventive enough.”
18. The Endless (2017)
Two brothers decide to visit the cult they belonged to as children. Things are not good there – but not for the reasons you might guess. New York Times reviewer Glenn Kenny says the movie “rewards patience with mind-bending twists and turns.” So stick with it.
19. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Colin Farrell is Steven Murphy, a respected surgeon with a lovely wife (Nicole Kidman) and two children. The son of a former patient tries to ingratiate his way into Murphy’s home life, and things go very, very wrong. WickedHorror.com says the movie is “horror in its purest, most distilled form, freed from the shackles of jump scares or exposition.”
20. A Quiet Place (2018)
John Krasinski directs and co-stars (with his wife, Emily Blunt) in this post-apocalyptic thriller about invading aliens who hunt their victims by sound. Their family survives off the grid, but how long can they hold out – especially since she’s pregnant? (Hint: Babies are LOUD.) One cinephile thinks A Quiet Place and its sequel, A Quiet Place II are “both brilliant films, and the acting in them is clutch!”
21. Midsommar
Florence Pugh stars in this 2019 folk horror film about friends who visit Sweden for a solstice festival. Are the festivities quaint remnants of ancient paganism, or are they something else? “Midsommar will stay with you,” promises one cinephile. Another calls it “disturbing.” In a good way, we hope.
22. Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
Adrian Lyne (Flashdance, Fatal Attraction, 9½ Weeks) took a chance on this psychological thriller about a Vietnam veteran (Tim Robbins) haunted by PTSD. Or maybe it isn’t PTSD. Only modestly successful at the time, Jacob’s Ladder has earned a cult following. “It’s one of the best,” a forum member raves.
23. The Fisher King (1991)
Terry Gilliam (12 Monkeys, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, the Monty Python TV show) directs a fantasy/comedy/drama about radio shock jock Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges), who wants to redeem himself by saving a man (Robin Williams) whose life was ruined by Jack’s on-air antics. Amanda Plummer, Michael Jeter, and Mercedes Ruehl co-star. Oh, and there’s also a quest for the Holy Grail. In New York City.
24. The Thing (1982)
A team of American researchers in Antarctica battle an extraterrestrial creature that takes the form of whatever organism it encounters. That makes it tough to determine who is real and who isn’t. Also, it’s very cold. The cast includes Kurt Russell, Keith David, and Wilford Brimley. John Carpenter (Halloween, Escape From New York, Starman) directs. According to one cinephile, “Every horror fan should watch it at least once.”
25. Fall (2022)
Hope you’re not afraid of heights because a big chunk of this survival flick takes place atop a 2,000-foot TV broadcasting tower. A couple of climbing buddies scale it so that one of them can scatter her husband’s ashes. Do things go wrong on the way back down? You bet they do! The New York Times calls the movie “a nerve-shredding thriller.”
Source: (Reddit).