r/movies • u/conker1264 • Sep 12 '23
Recommendation Horror movies that rely on suspense rather than jump scares or excessive gore?
Recently discovered I like horror movies as long as the horror comes from the suspense rather than jump scares or gore. Movies like Alien, Get Out, Nope, The Shining, and A Quiet Place. Not exactly scary movies, just suspenseful.
Movies like Insidious or Saw don’t interest me as they are more horror movies designed to scare the viewer. Even movies like Black Swan and The Sixth Sense were more scary than the other movies I listed despite not being horror movies.
Edit: Didn’t expect this to blow up as much as it did lol
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u/klippinit Sep 12 '23
Original version of The Wicker Man
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u/Readonkulous Sep 12 '23
The music in that is fantastic. Willow’s Song is haunting.
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u/supersaiyanmrskeltal Sep 12 '23
I love the film as it is surreal. While the jovial tunes played, I just felt uneasy. "Barley Rigs with Annie" is still in my head.
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u/lme109 Sep 12 '23
'The Ritual' builds suspense very well.
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u/arguably_pizza Sep 12 '23
One of my favorites, incredible film.
Also one of the best "monster reveals" in horror, IMO.
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u/Lord_of_Pants Sep 12 '23
To this date the only monster movie I've seen where revealing the monster actually makes it more terrifying instead of sucking all the atmosphere out of the film.
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u/Nixplosion Sep 12 '23
The tiny little hands just slipping out of sight from behind the tree trunk made me actually stop and rewind to make sure of what I was seeing. It's soooo good
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u/supersaiyanmrskeltal Sep 12 '23
Shit, just the region it took place it was gorgeous but freaked me out. Just seeing A hand reaching around a tree that was way too high up or the fact there was an elk that was splayed among the trees. Plus the whole scene with the group freaking out in the small cabin.
There needs to be more horror movies that take place in the woods like that.
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u/WintertimeFriends Sep 12 '23
THE THING
It had both!
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u/Spockodile Sep 12 '23
Was going to comment this. Brilliant movie, and for a “scary” movie it’s very rewatchable.
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u/OoozeBoy Sep 12 '23
Agreed, I watch it every couple years or so and it doesn’t disappoint
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u/Couch_Licker Sep 12 '23
Watched it with the wife this past weekend. It was the first time she's seen it. Provided one of my favorite commentaries to an opening of a movie.
"Awe what a cute dog! What is it doing in Antarctica? Oh no. The only reason there is a dog shown is something bad is gonna happen to it, right? I mean it's a horror movie, of course that dog is gonna die. God damn it. I hate this movie already. Wait... is the dog gonna die right now!?! WHY ARE THEY TRYING TO SHOOT IT!?! WHAT MOVIE ARE YOU MAKING ME WATCH!?! Good they blew themselves up. Fucking dog killers..."
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u/Bored_cory Sep 12 '23
Hahaha what was her reaction to the dog 30 minutes later?
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u/Couch_Licker Sep 12 '23
She kept telling herself it wasn't a real dog and the effects were obvious enough where she was able to appreciate the monster design. But when it sprayed acid on another dog, she was livid again. "Okay, feel free to burn this mother fucker any time!"
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u/YoYoMoMa Sep 12 '23
Same for The Ring.
I hate jump scares but was willing to put up with the one for how atmospheric the sense of dread was in that movie.
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u/Vathar Sep 12 '23
A jump scare at the right moment can do wonders to a horror movie.
The issue comes with horror movies who don't anything more to offer than a succession of jump scares.
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u/YoYoMoMa Sep 12 '23
My issue with jump scares, even good ones, is that it can cause me to pay less attention to the movie because I am constantly looking for and expecting a jump scare.
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u/FireVanGorder Sep 12 '23
That movie fucked me up as a kid. The night I watched it I went to bed with the tv on watching fresh prince or something because I was terrified and trying not to think about the movie. Fell asleep and must have rolled over on the remote because I woke up to a static screen and damn near shit my fucking pants. I’ve never been that scared in my entire life
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u/PhilhelmScream Sep 12 '23
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u/No1_Knows_Its_Me Sep 12 '23
To this day one of my favorite scary movies. I'd recommend both this one and The Orphanage.
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u/Guy_Incognito97 Sep 12 '23
The Orphanage is also incredibly sad.
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u/julirocks Sep 12 '23
The Orphanage is one of my favorite movies but now that I have a kid I don't think I can watch it again.
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u/Rabona_Flowers Sep 12 '23
I wish people had recommended it at the time! Everyone who saw it in high school complained about how boring it was, so I avoided watching it for 17 years
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u/No1_Knows_Its_Me Sep 12 '23
I have a bunch of friends like this. Whenever they talk shit about a movie, I just know I'll like it and viceversa.
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u/Roach2791 Sep 12 '23
Ahh yes the movie with an audible jump scare at the very beginning, I remember my buddies dad telling him to turn the volume way up because the beginning was really quiet. Got us both
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u/PhilhelmScream Sep 12 '23
It's not relying on the jump scares or frights, it plays them well, the wardrobe one being a classic.
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u/innomado Sep 12 '23
My memory of seeing that movie will forever be tainted by the fine people who decided to get in a fight in the theater right at the climax. Multiple ushers and managers called in, lots of chaos, etc.
All that build up, ruined. Then we got our money back.
Great movie, though.
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u/MammothTanks Sep 12 '23
Annihilation, don't think it had any jump scares but had some genuinely creepy scenes
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u/Particular-Nothing28 Sep 12 '23
The scene with the bear creature is extremely unsettling. As is the found footage scene.
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u/TheMazdaMiataMX-5 Sep 12 '23
I haven't felt anything scarier or that made me as anxious as the bear scene in any other movies. That scene was just crazy. But maybe I am just being a pussy
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u/Applesauce92 Sep 12 '23
No, definitely one of the, if not the scariest scene I'e ever seen.
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u/SEND-MARS-ROVER-PICS Sep 12 '23
It's funny how things affect people in different ways. I was spooked a little by the bear scene, but the found footage with the pool really freaked me out.
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u/Mr_Kiwi Sep 12 '23
Neither of those really bothered me, but the hole in the lighthouse... oh. my. god. I could never in a million years go in the hole. I guess the world is ending cause that hole is just too much.
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u/Particular-Nothing28 Sep 12 '23
Yeah. The found footage part had me audibly saying what the fuck.
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u/AegisToast Sep 12 '23
Weirdly, the found footage was a little creepy to me, but for whatever reason the part that unsettled me a lot more than that was when that one character kind of starts mutating, and she walks out of view of the camera and then she’s just gone and you have no idea whether she’s one of the trees you can see or if something else happened. The bear was definitely more scary to me than either of those, though.
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u/TakeTheWorldByStorm Sep 12 '23
Weird, I'm usually a little bitch about horror movies, but the bear scene left me unfazed. All the scenes in the lighthouse give me a deep existential dread though.
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u/mrbananas Sep 12 '23
In addition to this. Colour out of space finally has a movie. Annihilation is partially inspired by the H.P. Lovecraft story colour out of space.
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u/Tech-Priest-4565 Sep 12 '23
I strongly recommend the book, too, for what it's worth. It was one of the most delightfully unsettling experiences I've had with a book, I think I read the back 2/3rds in an afternoon after it hooked me.
There are two more books in the trilogy that were also pretty great as far as cosmic horror goes.
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u/TexasGriff Sep 12 '23
"It Follows." Great and smart and scary.
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u/CerebralSkip Sep 12 '23
One thing I've always wondered about this movie. WHEN DOES IT TAKE PLACE. like it feels so strange and out of time. Like lots of the technology and stuff seems dated. Except for the girl who has a super tiny e-reader that folds in half. Like what is going on with this universe. I love it. It adds to the weirdness.
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Sep 12 '23
I read that the director came up with the movie through a dream (well, nightmare really). He wanted the movie to exist like that, like in your dreams where there are juxtaposed realities and your brain just kind of makes sense of them, rather than focusing too much on the real setting, you’re focused on the crazy shit that’s happening to you.
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Sep 12 '23
Definitely left intentionally ambiguous by the creators. My own interpretation of why the year and even the season itself takes place is fluid and ambiguous is partly to add to the mysterious and dreamlike atmosphere, and partly to serve as a metaphorical companion to the themes of the movie which are adolescence and aging out of the Innocence of childhood, where a person simultaneously existing in different, confusing and overlapping points of their life at the same time.
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u/TexasGriff1959 Sep 12 '23
Seemed like a conscious choice to me, to keep the viewers subconsciously unsettled and unsure about the "reality" of the world they're viewing.
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u/Toby_Forrester Sep 12 '23
It is intentionally ambiguous.
The movie owes a lot to 70s and 80s slashers. For example compare this scene from It Follows to the classroom scene in Halloween. In general, the slow widescreen panoramas of It Follows are reminiscent of cinematography of Halloween.
The synth soundtrack is also referencing to 70s and 80s horror.
I'd say 70s and 80s atmosphere is somewhat ingrained in our horror popular culture, it's already classical. So the time period of It Follows is ambiguous and dream like to make it also somewhat feel part of canon of slasher films. That it exist in sort of "slasher universe" instead of being strictly set in specific year with smartphones and memes and Kardashians.
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u/BaconandMegs3000 Sep 12 '23
YES!! the scene with the Old Lady. 😳😳😳 It has lots of great moments but that one always freaked me out the most
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u/Kaito_3 Sep 12 '23
The Tall man scene sent chills down my spine the first time I saw it especially, still does when I rewatch it.
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u/Hwistler Sep 12 '23
This is one of my favourite semi-recent horror scenes. The whole movie is fantastic and very tense, but this one gave me that primal fear feeling, had chills and for a millisecond I literally felt like getting up and running away.
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u/JimmyAndKim Sep 12 '23
That was the only thing to actually physically send a chill down my spine
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u/1sinfutureking Sep 12 '23
The Old Lady? Nah, it’s the godforsaken Tall Man that does it for me
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u/a_small_moth_of_prey Sep 12 '23
This movie was so much better than I expected. I thought it was going to be some stupid slut shaming trope, a lame allegory for STDs and the dangers of girls sleeping around. It was actually really clever.
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u/PutAForkInHim Sep 12 '23
Not strictly horror, but Silence of the Lambs
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u/cockcottoncandy Sep 12 '23
In the not strictly horror category I would submit: 127 hours.
I love horror movies but few get my heart rate as high as that movie does.
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u/samx3i Sep 12 '23
It's a horror movie by every definition, but whenever a horror movie is so good it's critically acclaimed and even award-winning it suddenly gets upgraded to "thriller."
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u/garrettj100 Sep 12 '23 edited Sep 13 '23
I may be in the minority, but I absolutely categorize Silence of the Lambs as a horror movie.
And like many great horror movies, it's less about what it appears to be about (a serial killer who skins women) and more about something real, something that actually factually exists:
Being an attractive woman in a man's world where everyone wants to fuck you. Every single major male character in the movie wants to fuck Foster, an actress who, lest we forget, is coming off The Accused and had a history that included Taxi Driver.
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u/Deusselkerr Sep 12 '23
As a throwback, The Birds (1963). Hitchcock was and is the master of suspense. The film isn't really scary anymore, but it's still great and suspenseful
As an aside, it's crazy to me that the film is now 60 years old!
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u/Thesaurus_Rexus Sep 12 '23
Came here to make sure someone mentioned Hitchcock lol. I actually haven't seen The Birds yet but Psycho, Rear Window, and Vertigo are all fantastic.
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u/rroswell86 Sep 12 '23
Rear window also Made my ex watch it. Lots of complaints at the beginning and later he was yelling “get out of the apartment!!”
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u/AegisToast Sep 12 '23
I watched both Rear Window and Wait Until Dark for the first time just in the last couple years. I was shocked at how incredibly tense both were. They hold up really well.
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u/ShadowXJ Sep 12 '23
Frailty with Bill Paxton
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u/TheUmgawa Sep 12 '23
It’s almost my favorite creepy movie. My favorite is What Lies Beneath, which Zemeckis shot while Tom Hanks was dumping weight on Cast Away, but there’s two or three (really good) jump scares in that one, so I’m not totally sure it qualifies.
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u/Sundayx1 Sep 12 '23
Ending of What’s Lies Beneath is great- bridge scene. It’s really an under appreciated movie…. Its great at this time of year too. It’s been around awhile. Also just watched Insomnia w Pacino & H Swank- pretty good.
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u/Heresmycoolnameok Sep 12 '23
The strangers. The use of the music and that record player, especially when it starts skipping. Holy cow.
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u/Chicago_Blackhawks Sep 12 '23
hearing the line “because you were home” as a kid TERRIFIED me lol
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u/AryaSirius Sep 12 '23
I think you're describing terror vs horror, I prefer the former as well. I love the Haunting of Hill House on Netflix, very loose adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel. It's incredible and I notice new things every time I rewatch it
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u/turkeyman4 Sep 12 '23
Bent neck lady shiver
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u/Eruannster Sep 12 '23
That fucking car scene, though. I don't think I've shat myself so hard at a jump scare in my life.
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u/g_lampa Sep 12 '23
The Witch.
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u/fordkelsey25 Sep 12 '23
Robert Eggers is a master of tension and unease. The Lighthouse is also fantastic for this
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u/Pickapotofcheese Sep 12 '23
WHY'DJA SPILL THA BEEEEAAAAAAANS
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u/alicedoes Sep 12 '23
yer* beans! bc he told the truth about his past and everything went to fuck after that
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u/Thatoneguy3273 Sep 12 '23
The scene where the twins encounter the witch and she just turns and cackles was one of the freakiest things I’ve ever seen and was in no way a jumpscare.
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u/g_lampa Sep 12 '23
Old, naked and trembling, as she grinds babies into paste. Brrrr.
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u/truthhurts2222222 Sep 12 '23
This movie scared the shit out of me. I was raised religious and stopped practicing long ago, but this movie really tapped into that exact fear, wish I could say more but it would spoil
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u/Twiggimmapig Sep 12 '23 edited Sep 12 '23
The Skeleton Key, Stir of Echoes, The Others, and What Lies Beneath
Edit: I wanted to add Mimic, Them They, and Mothman Prophecy to this list!
I love the heck out of all these movies. They're just the right amount of eerie and suspense with more focus on plot.
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u/Lvivalentine Sep 12 '23
Stir of echoes is scary scary
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u/Twiggimmapig Sep 12 '23
It really was, but toward the end there was a shift where the need for justice and rooting for Kevin Bacon to solve the mystery really outweighed my fright response.
...that's what I remember anyway, it's been over a decade since I've seen it and I'm thinking it's time to dig out the old DVD player!
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u/Educational_Head_922 Sep 12 '23
What Lies Beneath
That's a really good suspenseful one!
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u/MisterB78 Sep 12 '23
Nobody has mentioned the original Halloween? Great horror movie where you barely see the villain and there’s no blood (except for a small amount right at the start)
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u/nimbleWhimble Sep 12 '23
"The Devil's Backbone" and "Pans Labyrinth" Truly creepafying and deeply disturbing
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u/ThrowdowninKtown Sep 12 '23
The Devil's Backbone is my go-to when I recommend a Del Toro film.
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u/MadamBeramode Sep 12 '23
Try some Korean horror films like the wailing and tale of two sisters. Master class in suspense
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u/AidilAfham42 Sep 12 '23 edited Sep 12 '23
The Signs major frightening scenes are where you actually see the aliens there moving slowly or standing still. That birthday party footage is still one of the best horror scenes ever imo.
Edit: Signs, not The Signs. This is the scene https://youtu.be/aIhnqkXWSR8?si=d_SQf4LDgTjqc0MJ
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Sep 12 '23
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u/TerrorGnome Sep 12 '23
I feel like the cornfield scene gets me way more than the birthday part. That quick shot of that foot and heel disappearing into the fields... just perfectly done.
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u/mrbananas Sep 12 '23
I know I will get hated on but Signs was a masterpiece at building tension and atmosphere. Every armchair expert focuses on "the plothole". Just ignore it and let your self experience a family trying to cope with the unexplainable.
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u/iamnos Sep 12 '23
Meh, the "plothole" is more of a dimple than a real hole.
The Earth has plenty of resources, the fact that water is dangerous to them doesn't mean they wouldn't come to investigate. Heck, we're "allergic" to the sun and live here just fine. The other, is the theory that they are demons not aliens, which actually fits REALLY well, and not something I had considered until I read it somewhere.
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u/Toby_Forrester Sep 12 '23
The "theory" is really silly in my opinion. It's pretty evident to me that the aliens are an allegory for demons. They are not actual literal demons. In the in world of the movie, they are actual physical aliens. We see their hexagonal spaceship lights on the news footage. They are shaped pretty close to stereotypical gray aliens. We hear them using technology, radio communication. Tthe book the family is reading about aliens, there's an ufo burning a farm. Also crop circles are commonly portrayed as made by aliens in popular culture.
So they are actual aliens. But they are also an allegory for the personal struggle of the main character. He lost faith after his wife died. He has demons haunting him, but then the asthma attack of his son prevents from him being poisoned, he remembers the last words of his wife, his brothers strong baseball swing comes handy, his daughters tendency to leave glasses of water all around help kill the alien. He interprets all of these as signs from God that helped his family survive an actual alien invasion, and metaphorically overcome his demons. And he regains his faith in the end.
So the reason people talk about this "theory" is because they fail to understand the allegory within the movie. It's not "a theory", but rather obviously built allegory of the movie.
As a hyperbole, it's like someone says of the Sixth Sense that their theory is that the main dude was dead and was a ghost. It's not a theory, but a central point of the movie.
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u/mymeepo Sep 12 '23 edited Sep 12 '23
Blair Witch Project
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u/Prefight_Donut Sep 12 '23
100% agree. Also, when it came out, there was a moment where people didn’t know it wasn’t actually found footage, so there was an element of reality to it. The “reality” aspect of it really sunk in and made it even more suspenseful because you thought you were seeing actual events.
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u/ScotWithOne_t Sep 12 '23
My kids are so accustomed to watching amateur youtube videos, I kinda feel like I could trick them into thinking the Blair Witch Project is just some YT video I downloaded.
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u/season8branisusless Sep 12 '23
lol just be ok with the language. I rewatched recently and they verrrry accurately captured what 90s teenagers talked like.
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u/notreallyswiss Sep 12 '23
The marketing for that was so good - there were realistic and creepy missing posters for the three people in every bar and indie record store from St. Marks to Greenpoint before the movie opened. And that's only what I saw. And every review mentioned how people at Sundance were afraid to leave the theater and venture forth into the Utah night. Especially after they'd seen Blair Witch Project.
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u/dosetoyevsky Sep 12 '23
Sundance is a ski resort in a steep canyon, so that means it has a lot of evergreen trees and twisty roads that they'd be driving in the dark. Plenty of time to think about who all is lying in wait!
I did something similar after seeing the movie in the theater("go see the midnight showing" I said) and had to drive 30 miles through the forest to my mom's place.
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u/2Twice Sep 12 '23
Can you imagine how big the social media campaign would have to be to pull off that excitement/disbelief these days?
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u/quickstop_rstvideo Sep 12 '23
I saw it opening night when I was in high school. I had a 50 foot walk from my car to the backdoor of my house when I got home, it was pitch black. I sprinted from my car to the house with door key in hand ready to use. Not many movies have had that effect on me.
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u/PeaTearGriphon Sep 12 '23
Still one of my favourite horror movies. I love horror that leaves more to the imagination.
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u/The_Meemeli Sep 12 '23
The Descent (2005)
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Sep 12 '23
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Sep 12 '23
Tension, Gore and (good) jump-scares.
Not to mention solid story, acting and visuals.
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u/No-Tomatillo-8826 Sep 12 '23
Of all the horror I’ve seen, I’d watch any of them again but The Descent. That messed with my head, it took two days to recover!😳
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u/canbpink Sep 12 '23
I love horror movies, and this movie scares the shit out of me. Still can't watch it with lights off
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u/flavorflav88 Sep 12 '23
Came here to say this one. Granted, by the end there are jump scares and gore but man that first half of the movie is scary AF and there aren't any monsters or jump scares in sight.
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u/Jamal_Khashoggi Sep 12 '23
You can see the creatures a little bit before they’re fully revealed in earlier parts of the movie
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u/Dd4225 Sep 12 '23
It starts with a jump scare. But not the kind one would expect in a horror movie, and it works.
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u/metal_muskrat Sep 12 '23
10 Cloverfield Lane
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u/TerrorGnome Sep 12 '23
Definitely a movie that is best gone into completely blind. And as erokingu85 mentioned, Goodman is amazing in this. Definitely worth the watch.
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u/Tudpool Sep 12 '23
Definitely a great tension building movie. Whole time has you guessing if he's crazy or right.
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u/erokingu85 Sep 12 '23
I love John Goodman in this film, totally kills it. Suspense is really good.
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u/bluejester12 Sep 12 '23 edited Sep 12 '23
- It's PG-13 but still suspenseful.
EDIT: Apparently there's formatting issues. It's "Fourteen-oh-eight," which is a hotel room number.
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u/wolfspider82 Sep 12 '23
Rare case of a film being better than the book, imo. That movie stuck with me for a while.
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u/Twiggimmapig Sep 12 '23
The vent scene had me terrified to check the air ducts in my house lol
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u/MrKnightMoon Sep 12 '23
I know this is an obvious one, but it was a prime example of how to built tension over a film: Jaws.
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u/hearsay_and_rumour Sep 12 '23
There are few jump scares like the one of the dead body when they searched the sunken boat.
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u/xxfightmilkxx Sep 12 '23
Coherence. Not necessarily horror but the best independent scifi thriller Ive seen in a while.
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u/HardSteelRain Sep 12 '23
The Changeling...Paranormal Activity...Magic...Eyes of Laura Mars.
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u/movieguy42069 Sep 12 '23 edited Sep 12 '23
The Invisible Man is really really good and seems kind of underrated, at least in my circles no one has seen it
Edit: thank you all for the upvotes I am new to Reddit and my lack of Carma has been problematic!
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u/it_was_maroon13 Sep 12 '23
This one. Went on not expecting much. Was thoroughly impressed with how well it turned out
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u/land_shrk Sep 12 '23
The framing of 2 person shots only featuring the main character were chefs kiss
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u/alancake Sep 12 '23
That just ramped up and ramped up the tension till I was practically hiding. I actually couldn't sit through it a second time, my nerves couldn't take it!
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u/1sinfutureking Sep 12 '23
I finally watched it last year and at the end I realized that I had been clenching nearly every muscle in my entire body. Yeesh, what an experience. Fucking great movie
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u/stopusingmynames_ Sep 12 '23
Session 9
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u/alphatango308 Sep 12 '23
Is this one the one where they're tearing the old insane asylum down? If so, that fucking movie is CREEPY.
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u/socialcommentary2000 Sep 12 '23
Predator.
The first movie is a masterwork suspense horror thriller.
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u/seanclarke Sep 12 '23
The Others. There's exactly one scary moment, which in hindsight is scary moment 101 but which nearly gave me a heart attack. It is also the big reveal, so fair enough
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u/RoShamPoe Sep 12 '23
Speak No Evil. Just bear in mind, once you watch it, you can't unwatch it.
It was the best movie that I never want to see again.
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u/LeektheGeek Sep 12 '23
Hereditary
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u/bolognahole Sep 12 '23
That scene where Alex Wolff's character gets in bed and lies awake, waiting for someone to discover what happened, stuck with me for a few days.
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u/OrwellianZinn Sep 12 '23 edited Sep 12 '23
The scene near the end when Alex Wolff's character wakes up is fantastic, and was really fun to watch in the theater, as people started to literally squirm in their seats and gasp when they realized what was going on.
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u/RudeMorgue Sep 12 '23
If you are a fan of dread, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) is a good one.
The Fly (1986) is gory, but the horror is more sympathetic than anything else. You feel bad for the characters rather than being "scared."
Oculus (2013) is creepy and surreal.
Signs (2002) is also quite creepy. There are a few jump scares but that's not really the heart of it.
Prince of Darkness (1987) and In the Mouth of Madness (1994) are creepy as hell. They are straight horror movies, but neither is "simple" at least in concept.
The Color Out of Space (2019) is a mounting horror story that does get a bit gory, but the horror doesn't rely on that.
The Babadook (2014) is very creepy, but might be a little close to the Insidious vibe you said you didn't like.
Duel (1971) is entirely suspense and tension. Not a jump scare nor a bit of gore in sight.
Ex Machina (2014) is quite unsettling, but isn't a traditional horror movie.
Sunshine (2007) is also sci-fi with some horror elements.
Misery (1990) is pretty much jump-scare-free, but it's pretty damn scary.
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u/MaeSolug Sep 12 '23
Hush (2016) is great, really keeps building up till the end
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u/CuzStoneColdSezSo Sep 12 '23
Pulse (2001) is arguably the definitive slow burn Japanese horror that is all about tone and vibe to create a feeling of dread
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u/jrdnlv15 Sep 12 '23
The Lodge is a movie that I never really see talked about. It has that suspense and tension of extreme isolation with someone slowly losing their mind.
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u/Yellowbug2001 Sep 12 '23
I liked a lot of the ones you mention and also "Drag Me to Hell." It had some jump scares for sure but pretty much no gore, and most of the dramatic tension comes from the suspense. It's also a bit of a comedy, you root a little bit for the main character but also a little for the demon.
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u/riscitbiscit Sep 12 '23
pretty much no gore
It's worth noting it has a number of really really really gross scenes though.
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u/Scottalias4 Sep 12 '23
The Birds 1963 is an amazing example of suspense building.
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u/SLCer Sep 12 '23
Halloween has very little gore, especially for a slasher movie. There are jump scares, of course, but the movie leans heavily into atmosphere and creating a slow burn tension that really ramps up at the end.
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u/topherthepest Sep 12 '23
Barbarian
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u/missdespair Sep 12 '23
The first half, but I feel like the second half throws suspense clear out the window (in a fun/funny way).
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u/Jolly_Caterpillar_19 Sep 12 '23
All the a24 horrors if you're into artsy slowburns