There’s only one day left until Halloween, but it’s still not too late to find something scary to watch.
Like a lot of people who grew up in religious homes, I was strongly discouraged from watching horror movies (they invite demons!). Fortunately, I was also allowed to stay up late… alone, which is how I discovered TNT’s “MonsterVision” segment.
It introduced me to the worlds of Stephen King, Alfred Hitchock and Wes Craven.
Now, I watch horror year-round and given that it’s one of the most popular film genres, I know I’m not alone.
While many stick to classics, like the Halloween franchise or, my personal favorite, The Shining, some of the scariest films don’t always lean on gratuitous violence. They subtly display the scarier aspects of the human experience, such as guilt and loss.
Here are 11 horrifying (and potentially disturbing) flicks — ranging from scary good to” I wish I didn’t watch this” — to stream or rent before spooky season ends. Note: There may be some spoilers ahead.
Married couple Bjørn (Morten Burian) and Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch) go on holiday to Italy with their daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg). While there, they meet a Dutch couple named Patrick (Fedja van Huêt) and Karin (Karina Smulders), and their mute son, Abel (Marius Damslev), who’s about the same age as Agnes. Finding that everyone gets along, Bjørn and Louise accept an invitation to visit the family for a quick getaway, but things quickly become less than friendly when both Patrick and Karin begin displaying behavior that borders on the inappropriate.
James McAvoy starred in the American recreation of this Danish psychological horror, but the original is much better and a not-so-gentle reminder that it doesn’t always pay to be polite.
If you see any films on this list, make it this one.
Directed by Pascal Plante, Red Rooms follows a questionable protagonist, Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy). A model by day and poker player by night, Kelly-Anne is obsessed with the trial of Ludovic Chevalier, who has been accused of not only killing three teenage girls but filming their grisly murders and uploading the footage to what is known as “red rooms” on the dark web. While the third film is yet to be found, most people, including the viewer, assume Chevalier’s guilt. But what does Kelly-Anne think, and why is she showing up to his trial every day? Other than some blood-curdling audio, Plante has an almost Hitchcockian approach to this thriller-horror hybrid, allowing audiences’ minds to fill in the blanks to what never appears on film. The movie not so subtly critiques cultural voyeurism, especially when it comes to true crime, making the viewer confront their own apathy. Highly praised by critics and horror fans as a modern-day horror classic, if this doesn’t get under your skin, you might just be a psychopath.
A group of friends takes a hiking trip in Northern Sweden after losing a friend in a robbery gone wrong. After one of them gets injured, they decide to cut through the forest to get back to civilization. They soon regret this decision, as each begins witnessing unsettling things, including a mutilated moose and bad dreams, when they descend deeper into the woods. An allegory for survivor’s guilt, The Ritual is an atmospheric nightmare that never fails to remind me why I don’t do wilderness adventures.
If you’re a horror fan, you’ve probably seen Wolf Creek, the 2005 movie about three Australian backpackers who have the misfortune of getting roadside help from sadist Mick Taylor (loosely based off real-life serial killer Ivan Milat). Unlike the original, which is often characterized as a slow burn, the sequel gets to the grit and gore within the first 10 minutes of the film. The movie largely follows Paul, who inadvertently gets in the way of Mick and one of his victims. Feeling robbed of his kill, Mick makes it his business to make Paul pay in a nail-biting game of cat and mouse throughout the Australian outback and, eventually, Mick’s home. Lovers of blood and guts will get a kick out of this, but I personally could only watch the film once.
Suicide Club follows three detectives investigating a string of gruesome mass suicides in Japan. At first, they seem to be unrelated, but odd clues, including a sketchy website and a roll of skin (I know, gross!), indicate something more sinister is at play. Is there a cult pressuring civilians to end themselves, or is it something else? Interpreted in some horror circles as a retelling of the Pied Piper, the movie explores themes of social conformity, isolation and the power of media.
This 1960 French-Italian horror doesn’t have much in the way of jump scares but it is just as unsettling as Michael Pearce’s Beast or Robert Eggers’ The VVitch. Les Yeux Sans Visage, which translates to Eyes Without a Face, follows a mad-scientist doctor (Pierre Brasseur) obsessed with fixing his daughter Christiane (Édith Scob), who was disfigured in an accident that he caused. His grand plan? Kidnap young women who bear a resemblance and perform a facial transplant, of course.
The mask that Christiane wears is said to have loosely inspired the featureless face of the William Shatner mask worn by the character Michael Myers in Halloween.
Archaeologist Scarlett Marlowe (Perdita Weeks) seeks to follow in her deceased father’s footsteps by finding the Philosopher’s Stone — yes, like in Harry Potter. After she and one of her friends hypothesize it is likely beneath the catacombs in Paris, France, she and a small group begin the descent through the tunnels. As they walk, it soon becomes clear they’re not really venturing miles underground but through each circle of hell, as described in Dante’s Inferno. Think of this film as a traditional quest story gone horribly wrong, where characters must face their sins if they want to escape. The found footage-style film is the first feature to be shot in the actual catacombs and is an exploration of guilt and atonement.
Katie (Morfydd Clark) is a nurse who has been traumatized after losing a patient. Now a devout Roman Catholic, she performs private care for terminally-ill Amanda (Jennifer Ehle), a former dancer. Katie, who calls herself Maud, becomes convinced she is meant to save Amanda’s soul. Obviously, this does not go well.
A study in religious psychosis (with a grimace-inducing ending), this is a dreary film with body horror elements. It’s not scary in the traditional sense. Nevertheless, it sticks with you, as do its overarching themes of loneliness, decimated dreams, repression and our ineluctable need for purpose.
[Where to stream The Taking of Deborah Logan] Photo: Bad Hat Harry Productions
A group of students temporarily move in with an elderly woman and her daughter as part of a college project. Deborah Logan (Jill Larson) has Alzheimer’s and has agreed to be filmed to shed light on the degenerative disease. At first, things seem fine, but soon tensions rise as Deborah starts acting squirrely. Besides random violent outbursts (typically against herself), she’s begun displaying odd behavior, such as throwing up dirt (earthworms included). Doctors blame the disease, but the filmmakers and her daughter suspect the weird behavior is linked to a physician who disappeared years earlier after being discovered sacrificing young girls in a demonic ritual.
It’s not The Exorcist, but The Taking of Deborah Logan is fun and will get your heart rate up. The ending isn’t the happiest, but it’s satisfying in the way that true horror fans will appreciate.
If someone you loved disappeared without a trace, how far would you go to find them? That’s exactly what protagonist Rex (Gene Bervoets) must ponder in this 1988 Dutch-French classic. After his girlfriend Saskia (Johanna ter Steege) disappears on a vacation road trip, he desperately searches for her for the span of three years. Unlike traditional horror whodunnits, the audience knows exactly who the culprit is: an unassuming family man, Raymond (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), who just also happens to be a psychopath. Psychologically torturing Rex through a series of postcards with promises to reveal his identity, audiences get a glimpse into Raymond’s motives. Eventually, it all comes to a head when the two meet face to face and Raymond gives Rex the option to learn Saskia’s fate. What this film lacks in carnage and jump scares, it makes up for in nail-biting suspense.
FILM: The Florida Project
There’s plenty of visual evidence exhibiting Willem Dafoe’s exhibitionism (including, but not limited to being Madonna’s candlestick in 1993′ Body of Evidence), but none takes the cake more than his work in Lars von Trier’s indescribable Antichrist. His butt is prominently featured in the film (and buttcrack on movie poster!), and so too is his johnson. But after further review, apparently Willem’s willy was actually TOO big for the big screen that they had to use a less distracting penis double. Some things you just can’t make up. Photo: Everett Collection
A couple (Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe) lose their child in a horrific accident while they’re in an intimate moment. Heartbroken, the wife is hospitalized. Once released, her husband, a psychiatrist skeptical of the medical intervention she’s received, takes the pair to a cabin in the wood called Eden. While nameless in the film, it’s clear the couple is a dark take on Adam and Eve, post-fall, and their time in name will prove more hell than paradise on earth. If you like movies that make you think but still crave scenes that make you gasp, Antichrist delivers, though it’s not for the faint of heart. While too artistic to be considered gore porn, prepare for scenes that make the Saw franchise look like Sesame Street.
