So I'm on a bit of a horror kick at the moment and I've revisited some old favourites like Event Horizon and Pan's Labyrinth, but I'm hungry for more and I could do with some recommendations for films I haven't seen before.

As a side note, I would heartily recommend either of these films to anyone who enjoys horror. Event Horizon has some failings in the cinematography, but it's a cult classic for a reason and has that wonderful 90s horror.

Pan's Labyrinth is a must watch for anyone that's into horror and is an especially good fit for people on this forum. It's got that whimsical feeling of a young girl exploring a newfound fantasy world, set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War.

Also, honourable mention goes to Dog Soldiers, which is an excellent comedy horror. A squad of British soldiers on a training exercise in the highlands of Scotland run into and have to fight off werewolves. It's got a bit of horror with a tinge of werewolf films (where the werewolf isn't the protagonist), a dash of siege film, tied together with some lovely dark humour. Sean Pertwee is one of the stars and he's one of my favourite actors. Definite recommend if you want something you can laugh at but still get those shock moments.

Anyone got recs for horror films? Extra points go for sci-fi or comedy horrors.

 

The Witch (2015) is a pretty good imitation of a story that might have been told by puritans in the days of the Massachusetts Bay colony. It very much resembles a period-typical cautionary tale about sin and straying from the church and society. The film goes for some shocks here and there, but there are no literal jump scares.

 

Anything by John Carpenter. The Thing and In the Mouth of Madness are among the best horror movies ever made, in my opinion.

Let the right one In. (I'd suggest the Swedish version to the American, but either works.) The book was far, far, FAR darker and better, but it's still solid low-key horror and a better lovestory than Twilight, etc.

 

Ready or Not, which was honestly one of my favourite films of last year - a young woman sits down to play a game with her new in-laws on her wedding night, a long-standing tradition to welcome new members of the family...except the game she picks out of a hat is hide and seek, so they send her off to hide while they break out the axes. As horror films go, it's probably about on par with a good episode of Supernatural in terms of tone; a few jump scares, a lot of blood, and laugh out loud funny throughout. Trailer, although fair warning, it does spoil a couple of the better moments.

Also released last year, US, directed by Jordan Peele. Perhaps not the instant classic that Get Out became, and I don't think some of the (apparent) logic behind it quite holds up to close scrutiny, but it's worth watching for Lupita Nyong'o's dual performances, which if there was any justice should have seen her at least get Oscar nominated. It's the story of a family of four and a weekend at the beach house which goes terrifyingly wrong when creepy doppelgangers show up. I made sure to go to a morning showing so I could wind down over the course of the day, but still found myself lying awake at 3am with all the lights on, twitching whenever something creaked (I'm...not really a great horror fan, if I'm honest).

If you liked Pan's Labyrinth, it might be worth checking out Crimson Peak, also by Guillermo del Toro. I have to say, I found it a little disappointing when I watched it, but it's a film I think I'd appreciate more if I watched it again; I feel like it got mis-marketed as an out and out haunted house scare-fest, which it kind of isn't, although there's definitely elements of that. Speaking of haunted house movies, The Woman in Black, starring Daniel Radcliffe, is actually pretty decent, and will probably be even better if you're not watching it in a cinema filled with screaming teenagers there to gaze at Radcliffe, which was my viewing experience.

On a different note, I remember Slither being a lot of fun, although how it's held up in the fourteen years since it came out, I'm not sure. But if Nathan Fillion as the small-town sheriff leading the fight back against alien zombie things, directed by James Gunn, sounds remotely appealing, check it out.

 

Zodiac (2007) - The basement scene is so creepy and bone-chilling that it made me uncomfortable. The fact that the zodiac killer was never caught adds to the tension.

Hereditary (2018) - The little details in the backgrounds that you don't initially notice are genuinely scary. One of the few ghost movies I enjoyed.

The Silence (2019) - The scariest thing about this movie is that it technically could happen.

(There is a real cave in Romania called the Movile Cave which developed it's own ecosystem independently of the rest of the earth, based completely on chemosynthesis instead of photosynthesis. )