Scary asylums! Creepy disfigured people! People being punished for ‘not moving on and letting their trauma control them’! Violent and dangerous ‘crazy’ people! Poverty coded scary old women who must be a witch!
While asylums are less common horror locations these days, it still doesn’t stop the genre from using pop psychology to frame itself as deep while simultaneously expousing harmful messages. Usually written by people with very shallow understanding of the themes they’re employing for cheap scares at the expense of some of the most marginalized groups.
Also this might be cringe taste but some horror I actually do like are Jordan Peeles movies, because the themes of those are things like “Wow racism is horrificly dehumanising” and “Animals should be respected.”
Most modern horror does a bit of a better job at this.
I def recommend The Menu for example, about class issues vs ruling class. I can pull up my list and find some others too if you are ever in the mood. I’m a big horror fan.
But yes it is interesting when problems still show up. Horror fans are normally from various marginalized groups because we jive with the themes and relate to the baddies most of the time. I think that has contributed to the shift. But that doesn’t stop the slop (and I don’t mean fun slop like Frogs)
Looking through the comments. I extend to anyone. Hit me up if you’re ever interested but don’t want to sit through the shit. Also ALWAYS check through "does the dog die’ I’m too desensitize anymore, sadly mostly from IRL.
Editx2 holy shit how the hell did I forget Sinners? Like most amazing horror movie lead by Black people. Like just amazing.
Oh shit you’re right. Sinners is amazing. Everyone go watch Sinners. It avoids all those bad tropes I talked about.
I want to add a caveat to my post that while I know I said I hate most of the popular horror tropes, I still do appreciate it when horror is done well and can understand why people like it.
Don’t take my taste too seriously either, I am the kind of person that likes old rubber suit Kaiju movies, after all
Look up The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and watch it
You will (probably) not be disappointed
‘Alucard is Dracula backwards’ ass name. I love it
(Or Nilbog is Goblin backwards for the more literary amongst us)
You should watch it too, it’s great
There’s aliens, a mutant, a skeleton, and a meteoronomer (not a meteorologist)
Hell yeah give me recommendations. I don’t like truly terrifying stuff and loath jump scares (I startle very easily) but I love creeping dread and uncanny stuff.
Sinners was awesome, I enjoyed a chinese ghost story (comedy horror), the Nosferatu remake and the classic, I can’t remember more off the top of my head but generally dread/doomed characters/supernatural stuff are my jam.
Sadly I’m not as versed in Chinese stuff yet; I need to go a little deeper than Stremio for those. I have a few Korean ones, though.
R-Point (2004): I don’t remember jumpscares in this and it’s entire thing is slow dread. Saving Private Ryan with ghosts, filmed on a haunted location.
I would say the Last Voyage of Demeter is very much about slow dread. There is animal death.
Hokum does some nice stuff with supernatural dread feel, but there are some jump scares
Lake Mungo is honestly a pretty good classic and I would argue the whole thing about it is to create a feeling of dread. There is a scene with some very explicit grooming thing (portrayed as bad) going on, but the whole thing is a fake documentary style. There is one scene that you could argue is a jump scare but I don’t think it’s much of a jump scare as it is something is suddenly there through the fuzzy of the camera.
The Haunting of Hill House season 1: is a awesome series, however, there are a few jump scares there as well. However, that uninterrupted shot that goes on for 15 minutes is absolutely amazing.
Good Boy (The one with the dog): I think fits this pretty well, a horror movie from the dogs perspective.
Iron Lung is honestly nothing but dread. I think there is about one jump scare-ish thing, and little gore till the very end.
The new Undertone movie was pretty good and very much supernatural dread. I do think there are a few jump scares, though.
Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (irnoic given what is being talked about here) But I think this one focuses more on the doctor causing harm then anything. There are jump scares though.
Pontypool I love this one, though it def has its drawbacks, It doesn’t stick the final act very well, and there is a very weird racist scene towards Arab people in the middle of it.
Host: Love this one, however there is a LOT of jump scares in it. Seance over zoom gone wrong.
Hell House series (especially the new one Carmichael Manor) absolutely love these, I think this would be very good for supernatural dread and not a whole lot of jump scares. And the ones that exist are not very sudden and have a build up that is builds up and builds up. So they are not as surprising. More toaster “why did I jump at that” jump scare"
I would say Blair Witch Project (the first one do not touch anything else) but I have to acknowledge that, as someone who grew up at the height of the marketing campaign of people telling you it was a real story, I don’t know if it has the same feel as it did back then. I would say it hits what you are describing perfectly, but def go in with the idea that this is real and someone who is new to analog horror. It’s honestly best watched in a dark room on a laptop with headphones.
(As always, make sure to check out Does The Dog Die. I love recommending horror films but always feel like someone who has smoked a lot of weed trying to gauge a good dose for a new person, if that makes sense? This may or may not be based on a true story of my sister-in-law giving me a 10g gummy for my first weed experience)
This is what I have from my list as of right now. I’ve only started keeping a list within the past year so there might be some I’m forgetting to get on here.
Thanks :)
NP! I hope its fun or useful in anyway lol.