Why Horror?

I used to think of myself as someone who once hated horror movies, but grew to love them. However, if I really take a close look at my life--including my childhood--I've always had a deep love of all things dark, disturbing, and creepy.

When I was a kid, I read scary stories voraciously. Yes, the classic Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz with those unforgettable illustrations by Stephen Gammell (important note: Gammell also illustrated other children's books of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, such as The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant and Song and Dance Man by Karen Ackerman. Elder millennials know his art well), but also In a Dark, Dark Room, also by Alvin Schwartz, the nonfiction books of Daniel Cohen, most notably his book about horror movies from the silent era until the 70's, and The Very Scary Almanac by Eric Elfman. Not to mention the insanely popular Goosebumps series. By 7th grade, I was reading Stephen King's very much not-for-children fare. 

I developed a fascination with Vlad the Impaler and Elizabeth Bathory when I was pretty young. Reading about historical torture devices interested me to a degree that probably freaked my parents out (did they even know?). In short, I was a morbid little turd. And I can assure you that none of these deviant interests turned me into a serial killer or someone with violent tendencies. Because being into scary, disturbing things doesn't make you violent, it makes you curious. And, if there is something I want more than anything in this life, it's to KNOW. 

The desire to know things...not just anything, but the stuff you're not supposed to know...goes hand in hand with my anxiety, which is as much a fixed facet of my personality as anything else. When I was a kid, I'd always ask my parents "what if" questions: "what if I wake up and there's a bug in my room?", "what if Sarah is mean to me again on the playground" (FUCKING Sarah), "what if you're not there?". I was so scared, so anxious--I just wanted answers. I just wanted to know what the plan was. 

That desire to have answers followed me into adulthood. I want to know what happens in managers meetings at work. I want to what people say about me when I'm not in the room. Hell, I even want to know what bullshit Trump is spewing in his ever more insane press releases now that he's cut off from Twitter. But, as you can imagine, I--and everyone else--shouldn't really know everything. Not if we want some amount of peace of mind. 

So, what does all of this have to do with horror movies? Horror movies scratch so many of the itches I naturally possess: the need for catharsis, the curiosity about terrible things, the desire for media that so consumes me in the moment that my anxious brain can have a rest. Yes, horror can be soothing for anxious minds. Sounds crazy right? Here's an easy to read article about the phenomena and here's a more academic one. Obviously, this doesn't hold true for everyone. Among my own circle of friends, I know people who have chronic anxiety who either hate or are neutral on horror films. Just as medication doesn't work for everyone and yoga doesn't work for everyone, horror films (and other forms of horror-tainment) won't be an effective coping strategy for everyone suffering from anxiety disorders. 

But for those it does help, there is a certain logic to it. Horror movies allow you to experience fear and anxiety in an objectively safe situation. Yes, you might feel unsafe, but in reality, you're just fine. Now, why would you willingly choose to feel fear and anxiety? Well, for one thing it's a form of exposure therapy. We tend to avoid so-called "negative" emotions and feelings, but as anyone who has studied mindfulness and/or Buddhism knows, it's important to "make friends" with those negative emotions (check out Tara Brach's life-changing book Radical Compassion for more about accepting difficult feelings). Watching scary movies lets us approach those intimidating feelings and practice living through them. 

Another reason is catharsis. What is catharsis? It is "the process of releasing, and thereby providing release from, strong or repressed emotions". What are some emotions we like to repress? Sadness. Anger. Fear. What kind of media do we often reach for during a difficult time, like a breakup or the death of a loved one? Tearjerkers. Alanis Morrisette's Jagged Little Pill. Things that help us cry and scream. Likewise, if you have a lot of anxiety and fear, reaching for media that encourages bringing those feelings to the forefront can have the same effect as watching a movie like Beaches or The Notebook when you need to cry. 

Finally, horror movies are just fucking good. Horror used to be a maligned genre, but thanks to Ari Aster, Jordan Peele, and other horrenaissance directors, scary movies are getting more respect than ever. But you don't need to watch snooty, artsy horror movies to get that buzz. Many people prefer classic slashers to the intensity of films like The Babadook or Midsommar, which are about the horrors of grief and isolation. 

Me? I tend to like the artsy ones. But they also have to be good and well-paced. Slow burns are ok, as long as they, in fact, burn. Nothing's worse than wanting to be scared and watching a slooooooow horror movie where nothing happens. 

With that in mind, here is a pretty comprehensive list of my favorite horror movies with a short description and, instead of a rating, I'll rank them from least intense to most intense, so horror novices who want to get into the genre can start at the with the easier films and work their way to the scarier ones.

Happy screaming!

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Rosemary's Baby

The scariest thing about this 1968 film based on the novel by Ira Levin is that it's directed by a guy who went on to rape a child. You might have heard of him--Roman Polanski? I definitely wouldn't fault anyone for avoiding this tale of a woman who is tricked into bearing Satan's child due to who directed it, but if you're looking for a classic horror movie that has no gore, no jump scares, but a deep sense of paranoia and tension, this might be the one for you.

Get Out

Jordan Peele's social-horror film about the treachery of white liberalism is really more of a thriller with horror elements. And it is one of the best films of the 21st century. Even if you're the biggest scaredy-cat on the planet, you probably should still see Get Out since it is now part of our shared cultural conversation around race. 

The Invisible Man (2020)

Another thriller-with-horror-elements, Leigh Whannell's modern take on the H.G. Wells novel is about a woman on the run from her abusive--and very rich--boyfriend. When she is told that said boyfriend is now dead, Cecilia can finally be at peace...or can she? There are a few jump scares in this movie, and some violence, but nothing overly gory. 

The Invitation

Directed by Karyn Kusama (who also directed Jennifer's Body), The Invitation is all about the slow build up of tension during a party thrown by a married couple who invite the wife's ex-husband and his new girlfriend. At first, most of the tension revolves around the relatable awkward dynamics of being at a party with your ex. But when the conversation pivots to the couple sharing about a group they joined called "The Invitation", we have to wonder if something more devious is going on at this party. This is truly one of the most tense movies I've seen and you never know what's *really* going on until the very end. There is some violence, but nothing over-the-top. 

The Shining 

Now we're moving from kinda-horror to straight-up horror, although Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is still fairly safe for horror novices. If you don't live under a rock, you're probably at least somewhat familiar with this movie. Hell, The Simpsons did an entire parody of it. A family moves into an empty hotel in the mountains of Colorado to basically "hotel-sit" for the winter season. However, the dad gets cabin fever and goes bananas, trying to kill his wife and kid. There are some truly unsettling images (see below!) and run-of-the-mill violence, but I watched this movie alone in my unfinished basement when I was 12, so I'm sure you adult readers out there can handle it!

The Silence of the Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs is notable for being one of the very, very few horror-thrillers to ever win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Although it has aged poorly in its discussion of transgender people (although to be fair, the movie explicitly states that Buffalo Bill is NOT trans), the movie holds up as one of the most chilling films of all time. There's a scene at the end where Jodie Foster must hunt down a bad guy in total darkness that is probably one of the best movie scenes, period, in cinema history. 

The Conjuring

While all the films above are relatively safe for horror novices, we are now moving into genuinely scary and/or gory/intense territory. The Conjuring is a haunted house movie based on supposedly true events (I have no opinion of whether or not the Warrens were scam artists). You have jump scares, ghostly figures, screaming kids--the whole shebang--in this movie. But it's a damn good movie, period. There are now a fuckton of movies set "within The Conjuring universe" but the only really good one is this OG movie about a family tormented by the spirit of a dead woman in their new home. 

Candyman (1992)

The 2021 sequel is really good, but the original Candyman sets the stage for one of the most romantic and tragic horror villains of all time. In present day, a grad student is researching urban myths and runs across the story of Candyman--a killer with a hook for a hand--based out of the Cabrini-Green projects in Chicago. She awakens his spirit...and his heart, as she reminds him of his lost love. Candyman has violence (including a dead dog), child endangerment, jump scares, a fuckton of bees, and a white savior narrative...so watch at your own risk! 

Insidious

Though merely PG-13, Insidious scared the fuck out of me, so I can only assume it will scare the fuck out of others. A married couple have two sons. When one son falls and hits his head, he falls into a coma--and weird things start happening around the couple's house. They are convinced the house it haunted, so they move...only for weird shit to start happening in the new house. It turns out that their son (still in a coma, although being kept on life support at home) is haunted. More specifically, he is somewhere on the astral plane, which allows creepy shit to come from another dimension into this dimension. Yeah, it's a weird premise...but there is some spooky shit in this movie that you will not be able to unsee, including one of the most intense jump scares of all time. Also, the idea that PEOPLE can be haunted freaks me out personally. 

Midsommar 

The infamous Midsommar is not super scary in the traditional sense--it's more disturbing and upsetting than anything else. A young woman loses her entire family in a horrible tragedy and her piece of shit boyfriend is no help. So when she takes a trip to Sweden with that boyfriend and his grad student friends, she is excited to potentially leave some of that grief behind. Too bad the commune they're visiting is a DEATH CULT! Midsommar has one (long) scene of horrifically gruesome violence and a LOT of heavy emotions. It's also really funny, beautifully shot, well-acted, and just an all-around excellent film. Some people even say it has a happy ending. I guess you'll have to watch it to see how you feel about the final shot of the film.

It Follows

The unique premise of this film is what makes it so scary: an entity, we don't know exactly what, can take the form of any human being. If you have sex with someone the entity is haunting, it will then begin following you at a slow, yet steady pace. You can run from it, but it will never stop following you until it kills you. The only way to get rid of it is to have sex with someone else--BUT, if they die, it reverts back to you. It Follows is not particularly gory, but it is unsettling to the max. The fact that the entity takes the form of a person who just walks at you means the viewer will be scanning the screen the whole time, wondering where the entity will be next. This is a great movie for people who like to be scared, but don't like a lot of violence.

The Ring 

Another PG-13 film that almost gave me a heart attack, The Ring is legitimately terrifying on every level. It has unsettling images, jump scares, creepy children, people walking/crawling funny, etc. I once watched this movie with my extended family and my uncle, usually a alpha male type, exclaimed at one point "this really is a nightmare!!". The Ring is one of the few movies that caused me to lose sleep for a while after I saw it the first time AND I make a point not to think about it too much to this day because it will keep me up at night. Even though probably many of us saw the film in middle or high school, I would only recommend it to people who WANT to be scared.

Hereditary

Take the emotional torture porn of Midsommar and combine it with the unsettling images of The Ring and you have Hereditary. Ari Aster's breakout film was marketed so shrewdly to hide a HUGE twist that is both emotionally horrifying and nausea-inducing. A family faces one of the worst things that could happen, which leads mom Annie to start attempting to communicate with the dead. Creepy shit goes down. *Put on Stefon voice* This movie has it all: the occult, ghosts, gruesome images, jump scares, creepy shit happening in the background, parents screaming at children...you name it! While not as polished (or as good, in my opinion) as Midsommar, Hereditary is freaky, hands down. You will be scared and you will be unsettled.

The Descent 

The Descent is probably the scariest movie I've seen because of one word: claustrophobia. A group of female spelunkers explores a cave, only for the entry to collapse, trapping them inside. It turns out that the leader of the group knew the cave was unmapped but thought it was a good idea to explore it anyway. As the group works to find a way out, they realize that they are not alone--some cave-dwelling humanoids are down in the dank depths with them. And they're hungry. The Descent works on two levels: one, being trapped in a cave is terrifying. Two, humanoid creatures are terrifying. But humanoid creatures stalking you while you're trapped in a cave is mind-blowingly scary. While not as violent as some of the movies on this list, The Descent is the stuff of nightmares.

Honorable mentions:

A list of scary movies that are also good, but didn't make it onto my list for various reasons:

Green Room

You're Next

The Poughkeepsie Tapes

Lake Mungo

Us

The VVitch

A Dark Song

Suspiria

The Cabin in the Woods

The Love Witch

The Lighthouse

Ready or Not

The Babadook

Bram Stoker's Dracula

...and so many more!