Do you have horror movie recs?
Edit: I should add that my favorite horror subgenre is “found footage/documentary-style”, and I’ve found a LOT of really good films in that genre (mostly independent/low budget). So before you roll your eyes, give ‘em a chance!
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
The Crazies (2010) - If anything, it’s a very well-shot film. Timothy Olyphant has the most specific walking gate I’ve ever seen. Also it’s directed by the dude whose movie I’ll be in next year.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) - If I remember correctly, this is one of the first legit horror films I ever saw.
Halloween (2007) - In NO way does this one top the original, but I like it because it adds the storyline added in the (endless) original sequels to the original premise, giving the mindless slaughter a bit more depth. Don’t consider the sequel. Seriously.
The Grudge (2006) - Shamefully, I’ve never watched the original Ju-On from beginning to end, but the English remake is also pretty solid. If I remember correctly, the director and most of the production team was Japanese and didn’t speak a lick of English, and vice versa for the actors. So it’s kinda like a typical Japanese horror film with…white people? Yeah.
The Babadook (2014) - A widowed mother struggles to raise her difficult 6-year-old son who is plagued by nightmares and hallucination of a monster. A disturbing storybook called ‘The Babadook’ turns up at their house, and the son’s hallucinations and nightmares slowly become a reality. This one is still making the indie theatre rounds and is very, very highly rated. At least two different people recommended I watch this film, and while I wasn’t 100% satisfied with it, it is very, very good. It relies on building horror rather than cheap scares, and the relationship between the mother and son is heartbreaking.
The Conjuring (2013) - Fuck the haters man, this movie made me cry it scared the shit out of me.
Dead Silence (2007) - James Wan, director of The Conjuring and Insidious first presented us with this often-forgotten gem featuring creepy af ventriloquist dummies (and Sookie’s brother from True Blood).
Mirrors (2008) - Ex-cop Kiefer Sutherland takes a job as night security at an old, burned down mall that has a lot of mirrors and a lot of evil shit trapped in those mirrors. The unrated version is the better version, for sure.
The Orphanage (2007) - Watch it in Spanish. It’s sad, it’s creepy, it’s good.
The Woman In Black (2012) - That horror film DanRad did post-HP. Not very original, but the suspense and the build of the scares is enough to give you heart problems.
Found Footage/Documentary:
The Bay (2012) - Covers a fictitious environmental disaster that befalls a lakeside town in New England on July 4th. It’s slow-build, not really jump scare-filled, and is narrated by a girl with a relatively annoying nasal voice over a skype call as she tries to get out the true story of what happened that day and why the government is covering it up. This one was good in that it didn’t take the really obvious/cliché route most films like this take, and it’s actually very sad!
The Tunnel (2011) - An up-and-coming reporter tries to uncover why a water conservation plan in the tunnels under Sydney is suddenly abandoned by the government, and why the homeless who live in these tunnels have started to disappear. Similar to The Bay, it’s slow build, with lots of cut-in footage of post-event interviews with some of the characters. I’ve come back to this one several times simply because I like the setting and atmosphere.
Grave Encounters (2011) - Set in 2006, we follow a ghosthunter show crew as they film in an abandoned mental hospital. This one scared the shit out of me the first time I watched it (horror w/ headphones by yourself at 4am is not a good idea kiddies), despite its rather cheesy outcome. Don’t watch the sequel - it’s not worth it.
As Above/So Below (2014) - A young woman’s obsession with finishing her father’s quest to find the philosopher’s stones leads her to the infamous Paris Catacombs and, quite literally, into hell itself. This one’s fun because it’s very smart and doesn’t really hold your hand - either you catch onto the characters’ dynamics and “sins” they face in hell or you don’t, and prior (basic) knowledge of Dante’s Inferno and the Seven Circles of Hell helps a lot too. Otherwise, it’s a super lame horror film with few jumpscares. There’s an excellent thread on Reddit you must read through after watching the movie which discusses the film in-depth.
The Sacrament (2014) - Essentially a fictitious, modern retelling of the Jonestown Massacre back in the 70s. Great build-up, good pacing, nothing too exciting or scary but a well-told, realistic story nonetheless.
The Den (2014) - Takes the concept of meeting strangers on sites like Omegle or ChatRoulette and the literal worst case scenario that could happen to someone who engages the bad ones. The ending act is pretty far-fetched, but the way this film is “shot” is very clever (almost entirely through laptop cameras).
Ghostwatch (1992) - Set up as an old BBC live tv broadcast on Halloween. After its television premiere in ‘92, there was a 10-year ban placed on the film before it could be repeated on the BBC, and to this day the film has not been broadcast in Britain since its release. Obviously, it’s all very outdated now, but easily one of the more unique premises, and definitely one of the earliest in the genre.
Devil’s Pass (2013) - Independent film with a budget that shows where it cut off, for sure, but cool premise nonetheless: A group of American students travel to Northern Russian to attempt solving the 50-year-old Dyaltlov Pass incident.
V/H/S (2012) - a bunch of short horror films of varying story-telling quality strung together with a frame narrative. It’s good, it’s bad, it’s different.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007) - Told as a documentary made by the FBI to use as a training tool for students. It follows the actions of a serial killer who filmed all of his murders then left them on VHS tapes for the cops to find. Easily one of the most disturbing, fucked up movies I’ve ever watched, and I’m pretty sure to this day it still has never received an official DVD release. You are warned.
**Willow Creek (2013) - A man obsessed with discovering the truth of the Bigfoot legend travels with his girlfriend to the location where the original Bigfoot footage was shot in the 60s. I really liked this one because it feels less scripted, less predictable for how a scene or dialogue will go, and you have to pay attention to the details shown or mentioned early on. Definitely not your typical monster flick - basically “Blair Witch meets Bigfoot”.
Uh…yeah. Off the top of my head, that’s a pretty solid start. I’ll reblog this with more stuff as I think of them.
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