5 horror movies to watch even if you're afraid of your own shadow

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Horror films are a specific genre. Not everyone can enjoy fear and horror. However, there are films, the significance of which for cinema is so high that everyone, for the sake of acquaintance with them, is simply obliged to go through a session of titillating nerves.

Nosferatu. Symphony of Horror

• Director: Friedrich Murnau.
• Germany, 1922.
• Duration: 94 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 0.

The first film adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" today will cause only a condescending smile on the faces of the audience. The film is completely safe for the most fearful audience. Horror scenes of silent films will seem too comical and naive for contemporaries.

Why watch

At one time, Murnau's painting was truly revolutionary: the use of Gothic scenery and open landscapes was innovative in the cinema of the early 20th century.

The gloomy image of a silent monster with a bare skull and long claws has become cult. Many ideas regarding the nature of connoisseurs of human blood (for example, fear of light) were used in later vampire films.

Psycho

• Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
• USA, 1960.
• Duration: 109 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 5.

According to many film critics, "Psycho" is Hitchcock's best film and the greatest masterpiece of world cinema. Shooting from the first person, impeccable staging of murder scenes, suspense permeating the whole picture - the effect of presence here reaches such strength that the viewer literally feels the knife stabs of an insane maniac.

Why watch

The strength of the American director's picture is not at all in creating violent and frightening scenes. Hitchcock was one of the first to use Freudian ideas about the psychological structure of personality in cinema. The killer has a clear contradiction of three layers: "Super-I", "It" and "Ego".

Hitchcock acts as a doctor who diagnoses and explains the causes of manic evil. After him, psychoanalytic themes began to be played up in almost every second movie, but not everyone managed to do it as subtly and metaphorically as the great maestro of horror films.

Rosemary's baby

• Director: Roman Polanski.
• USA, 1968.
• Duration: 136 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 0.

There are almost no special effects in the film, it is completely devoid of frankly frightening scenes. The young family moves to a new apartment in New York, meets neighbors, and leads a normal life.

The fear of the main character, like the fear of the viewer, is born from scratch. It comes from a misunderstanding of whether to be afraid or not. Are all these lovely housewives really adherents of a satanic cult waiting for a baby devil from Rosemary, or is all this the heroine's paranoia?

Why watch

Polanski was the first to use the psychological device of the ambiguity of events so powerfully. Until the end credits, the viewer cannot be sure of the truth of what is happening. This state of uncertainty is fraught with much more fear than a frank portrayal of evil in the flesh.

If you want to know what is called psychological horror, Rosemary's Baby explains it better than any other movie.

Exorcist

• Director: William Friedkin.
• USA, 1973.
• Duration: 122 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 0.

A child who strips himself of innocence with scissors and lavishes obscene curses, rotating heads 360 degrees, flying beds - only a small part of what you will remember "The Exorcist".

The twenty-minute session of exorcism at the end is shown with such meticulous naturalism that for a second you forget about the artistry of the picture. The dancing around the maddened girl is disgusting and terrible.

Why watch

The Exorcist was the beginning of a huge number of exorcism-themed films. And it is not surprising: at one time the picture received wide recognition from a mass audience, as well as many awards, including an Oscar.

The phenomenon of exorcism in itself testifies to the helplessness of science, and a person unconsciously does not want to live in a world outlined by physics and chemistry - there must be room for something else in it. The devil is an irrational, inexplicable phenomenon, before which science has no choice but to resign.

In Fridkin's film, science reluctantly and slowly signs an act of surrender, recognizing that a person can never completely subjugate this world.

Shine

• Director: Stanley Kubrick.
• USA, UK, 1980.
• Duration: 144 minutes
• IMDb: 8, 4.

The ominous grin on the face of Jack Nicholson, who breaks the door to his victim with an ax, will forever remain in the memory of those who saw him. The incomparable acting and the abundance of truly eerie horror scenes make Kubrick's film a spectacle not for the faint of heart. On a visual level, The Shining is probably the creepiest horror movie on this list.

Why watch

It is not enough for a horror film to be scary to become one of the classics. He must be intelligent to a certain extent. Kubrick conducts an artistic experiment, during which it turns out that the reason for the insanity of the hero of the film Torrance is a lack of self-satisfaction.

A person strives for harmony, even if fictional. Nicholson's hero, an alcoholic and a loser in life, finding himself in a secluded place, creates his own fantasy world without social pressure. The Overlook Hotel with its unreal inhabitants is a stronghold of harmony and tranquility. For a permanent residence permit in it, Torrance is interfered with only by his wife and child, the best way to get rid of which is an ax.

Social issues, the deep metaphor of each shot and the abundance of various artistic techniques made Kubrick's creation one of the best in the history of cinema.