Number 5's Surreal Creepy Film Collection

[vulcanlogician]

The Block Island Sound is on Netflix rn. It's pretty good.

I'll give it a look! The blurb I read said that it's best to go into it without knowing too much beforehand, so, I'll stop reading about it and just give it a watch.

Yeah. Don't read anything. I think it's a really good movie.

[zwanzig]

Yeah. Don't read anything. I think it's a really good movie.

That was pretty good! Thank you for the recommendation. It definitely had that sinister, creepy tone to it that hits the right weird buttons for me. I'm glad I didn't read anything about it beforehand.

[zwanzig]

A few more mainstream ones on my list, to get it out of the way. I don't really want to talk much about these ones. But they fit the same criteria; surreal, creepy, unsettling, with hinted deeper lore of something large and sinister.

Silent Hill (2006)
Get Out (2017)
Black Swan (2010)
In the Tall Grass (2019)
The Babadook (2014)

A lot of the films I put on the list deal with cults/ancient rituals/clandestine groups, eldritch horrors from beyond, madness/duality of madness vs reality, people being seduced/preyed upon by sinister/supernatural forces. As I said in the beginning. Not your typical ghost story, not your run of the mill fantasy, not the expected human murderer.

[Silver]

Horror is my favorite genre, but honestly movies just aren't what they used to be. New good films are a rarity.

[zwanzig]

Horror is my favorite genre, but honestly movies just aren't what they used to be. New good films are a rarity.

Agree. I tend to shy away from mainstream promoted horror films. I JUST recently watched the Conjuring 1 & 2 because I'd been avoiding it for that reason. And even then, I don't consider those horror but some light, scary fantasy. I get it, the thing is a franchise and they want Ed and Lorraine to be in the next films, so, they gotta triumph and all. And I've got no arguments with the quality that Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga bring to the projects. But the climax of both films is like a Legend of Zelda boss fight.

I find more success in that horror that "lingers" with indie or low-budget or less well known movies.

For instance, Wounds (2019) AKA: The Translation of Wounds was great. It is hard to find anywhere, yet the quality feels mainstream as far as production value.

Disturbing and mysterious things begin to happen to a bartender in New Orleans after he picks up a phone left behind at his bar. (imdb)

It deals with old school Gnosticism and trying to connect through the portal of flesh wounds to an eldritch horror like an Old One in the beyond.

I stumbled upon the trailer back in 2019 amidst several other lesser known horror films and found it and watched it last year. I forget where.

[vulcanlogician]

In the Tall Grass (2019)

I found this movie pointless and half-comical. About half way through I was like "Okay. That's enough walking through grass."

[zwanzig]

In the Tall Grass (2019)

I found this movie pointless and half-comical. About half way through I was like "Okay. That's enough walking through grass."

I can understand that point of view. And it's not one of my favorites. But I did like the atmosphere, the dread, and the existential loss of identity within the grass. It made me feel anxious and eerie, "Why is this here? Is it the grass itself, like in The Ruins (2008)? Or is there something deeper, behind it?" And the stuff with the ancient stone. It left me unsettled and wanting to know more. In the same breath, I agree. It's not as strong as other things I've seen.

[Silver]

I was actually a huge fan of In The Tall Grass. One of the better films amidst so many horrible ones of the genre.

[vulcanlogician]

Lights Out (2016)

[Silver]

One I really liked was The Lodge.