I love horror movies. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a fan of screaming my heart to thrills on-screen.
I don’t know where it came from exactly. Maybe it was my grandfather’s expansive VHS collection when I was growing up, which included the horror classics. It could be because of RL Stine’s incredible bibliography. Could have been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, completely enthralled with the mythology of it all. Maybe it’s all the Are You Afraid of the Dark? episodes I loved so much.
Of course, this could just be me rationalizing my (to my husband) irrational love for horror movies. It could really just be that I love getting scared.
Whatever the case, horror movies have been a constant go-to throughout my life. I turn to horror movies when I’m stressed out. I put on a horror movie when I’m bored—sometimes even when I’m alone. I’m constantly on the lookout for the next highly-anticipated horror masterpiece, hoping it lives up to the hype.
All in the Family
People may scoff at horror, thinking it’s all about cheap jump scares and stupid people who won’t move out of their house when something scary happens. But at its best, horror is about people, and how they react to trials, grief, and things they don’t understand. The best horror movies are self-portraits, made even more horrifying by the truth they present.
And horrifying truths? You usually find that all in the family.
One of my absolute favorites is A Tale of Two Sisters, a Korean film that navigates through the relationship between the titular sisters, their father, and his new girlfriend. As more and more inexplicable things happen in the house, the characters, and in turn, their relationships with each other start to unravel into an ending that really punches you in the gut.
The same goes for The Others, where Nicole Kidman lives in an isolated mansion with her two children who are photosensitive. The kids’ condition makes for eerily dark scenes in candlelight, while the unexpected arrival of housekeepers cultivates an irresistible sense of mystery. Everything culminates in an ending that truly challenges perspectives.
Then there’s Hereditary, probably the greatest addition to the horror movie roster in the last decade. Ari Aster’s debut shook up the genre in the best way. The family drama just gives hints of sinister undercurrents in the first half of its runtime, building up the characters and a sense of dread in the audience that’s watching them. When the first real jumpscare happens—the simplest sound in broad daylight—it shakes you in a way that doesn’t let up all the way until the crazy climax.
Mother Knows Best
Horror may run in the family, but the best ones really focus on mom.
My most recent watch on Netflix was Under the Shadow, the top-rated horror movie on Rotten Tomatoes at 99%. Set during the Iran-Iraq war, a mother and daughter live in an apartment building that gets hit by an undetonated missile. The tension builds as something seemingly supernatural torments the duo. This mirrors the horrors of war outside and the internal strife of the protagonist.
It is often compared to The Babadook, another great film that features a woman and her son. The characters are haunted by the titular entity, as much as they are haunted by their own grief. It’s almost uncomfortable watching their relationship unravel. The ending really says something about acceptance and learning to live with loss.
The Orphanage is another great one. A woman and her family buy the orphanage she grew up in to turn it into a center for children with learning disabilities. Then, her adopted son starts talking to children who aren’t there and disappears. The rest of the movie follows her trying to unravel the mystery of the disappearance and the ending will truly break your heart.
Sins of the Past
More often than not, horror movies tend to look into how past trauma continues to haunt people. For example, in Shutter, a Thai photographer captures ghostly figures in his images, which seem to be haunting him and his girlfriend. As they continue to investigate though, they realize that they the apparition’s story is closer to home than they think.
Another sleeper favorite is The Awakening, where a writer obsessed with uncovering hoaxes visits a boys’ boarding school. There, she discovers more about her own past than she dares to admit. The gothic ghost story definitely benefits from the isolated location and creepy kids. But it’s the heartfelt third act that makes the movie more than just a creepy watch.
Into the Unknown
Another sub-category of the horror genre is one that examines what we’re really most afraid of—the unknown. It’s the fear of death, or knowing something lurks in the shadows that we can not even begin to understand.
It’s the creepy antagonist of It Follows, which shapeshifts endlessly as unrelenting characters in pursuit of our leads. You never really know what it is, or what it wants—but it just follows. Supposedly a metaphor for sexually transmitted diseases, it builds on dread and certainly does not let up.
The uncertainty continues on in amazing movies like The Descent. A group of girlfriends go on a caving expedition and discover more in the caverns than just rocks and darkness. The threat of what lies beneath, though, also serves to amplify very human instincts of survival at all costs.
There’s also the beautiful Let the Right One In, probably among the best vampire movies ever made. The young leads are awkward, sympathetic, and terrifying—and the relationship between the two is something that really makes this more than just a bloodsucker hit. The American remake Let Me In is also great—but do yourself a favor, and check out the original Swedish version. The mood-setting is just amazing.
The Rest of the Horror Arsenal
As I said, there’s so much more to horror than just haunted houses and jump scares. And although all the movies I’ve mentioned above are some of my favorites, there are so much more worth checking out.
There are of course the classics, which have for better or worse defined the genre into what it is. This great video by Cinefix offers great insights into exactly why they’re in the Horror Hall of Fame.
I didn’t even go into the slashers—Scream is one that really redefined the idea of a slasher flick, and Scream 4 was a modern reboot that turned out better than I ever expected.
There’s Mike Flanagan and everything he’s doing over at Netflix. Midnight Mass and The Haunting of Bly Manor are great, to be sure. But The Haunting of Hill House is a series that is beautiful, haunting and heartfelt—but it’s not a movie, so it’s here only by special mention.
And there’s so much more on the list that I have yet to make time for. I recently watched Saint Maud, which was an incredible portrayal of how a woman can turn to faith to deal with traumatizing events. I’ve read nothing but praise for The Wailing, a Korean movie that follows how a small town reacts to a series of murders.
There’s so much more to the horror genre than you think, leaving impressions that last longer than your average Halloween reverie. A great horror movie can be thought-provoking and heartwrenching. It can leave you unsettled for days after watching. Some horror movies make you realize things about yourself and your relationships that you’d never thought of before.
But at the end of the day, the best thing about a great horror movie is getting a really good scare.
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