The best horror movies are those that don’t just scare, they linger in your mind for days, compelling you to think about it, their plots, their characters, the implications of what it was trying to say. There is a treasure trove of Internet articles that lists the best horror movies to watch, but in this unique time we are in, it’s great to have a refresher. Here are some horror movies to catch up on:
Best Horror Movies
The best movies to watch, especially if it is in the horror genre, are the ones that don’t follow the traditional way of jump scaring people. The movies we’ve collated here excel in their own fields because of the combination of thrill, fear, and chills. Here are some horror movies to catch up on, if you haven’t seen them yet:
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
The second part of the story of Hannibal Lecter, the Silence of the Lambs takes the titular character, Clarice Starling, into the mind of the famous forensic psychiatrist. It’s actually the first movie produced from the book series by author Thomas Harris, with Red Dragon – the first book – only made into a film in 2002.
The Silence of the Lambs is particularly scary because when you think about it, it explores how a person can turn into the very thing that he/she despises. It’s not a movie that deals with the unnatural or the undead, it deals with human behavior, and why serial killers think the way they think. And uh, cannibalism is in there too. If you’re one for a psychological thriller, The Silence of the Lambs is one of the best movies to watch.
It Follows (2014)
One of the recent horror movies that really made an impact. It Follows tells the story of a curse that’s passed on through sexual intercourse. David Robert Mitchell’s second full feature, the movie is brilliantly paced, with truly mind-blowing sequences, and effective jump scares that don’t ruin the storytelling.
What separates It Follows from other scary movies is that it preys on the mind as well as the body. There’s an imminent threat of death, but the struggle that a person goes into before succumbing to it. It’s also the plight of ending or continuing a cycle, a pattern, a curse. Underneath, topics such as sex and sexual health are also discussed.
A Quiet Place (2018)
A Quiet Place is actor John Krasinki’s directorial debut, and was an instant hit upon its launch. At least 340 million in the box office, catapulting Krasinki as one contemporary voice for the genre. The movie follows the story of the Abbott family, who learned sign language in order to stave off aural monsters that plagued the Earth.
The movie is terrifying because, in a world where you’re basically dead meat if you make a sound, breathing seems to be a silent scream for suicide. It takes its audience to the extremes of the agonies of being silent, and how it is to live in a world where nature’s sound can kill you if you are not careful.
Hereditary (2018)
Another great horror movie of 2018, Ari Aster’s Hereditary is as complex as it is colorful. Following the death of the family’s matriarch, a family uncovers an inheritance that tests the boundaries of their relationships, and their perception of what’s real and not. A great directorial debut from Aster who also helmed the brilliant Midsommar, Hereditary is one for the ages.
What makes it terrifying is the slow burn of uncovering the secrets, the odd things that happen in between, and the horrors of how people’s lives can be upended by just a simple clicking of a young girl’s tongue. The terrifying moment of the movie is when the family is in the room together, and you know something is about to go down.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
When it came out, The Blair Witch Project wasn’t an overnight success. The indie film wasn’t a favorite among moviegoers, but as critics saw it and talked about it, this $60,000-budget documentary-style horror film soon became a huge hit. The premise is simple: three college students follow a story about a witch in the woods.
The Blair Witch Project was ahead of its time and it partly started the documentary, found footage style storytelling that Paranormal Activity and others capitalized upon. It turns any kind of woods into a scary, mysterious place, one where you should always steer away from.
Takeaway
Being entertained is one of humanity’s endless pleasures. With horror movies, we are not only transported into a place of imagination, but also confronted with the horrors of our modern societies. Movie critics have always said that horror stories are always a reflection of a point in time and people’s behavior at the time.
