Although non-horror fans may consider all horror movies to be very much the same, we die-hards know that they are definitely not. Some are more campy, others are deadly serious. There are some with extreme gore, and others that manage to keep things scary without lots of blood.
And then there are horror-comedies, some of which manage to be terrifying and funny at the same time. But for this particular list, we are putting our focus firmly on unsettling horror films…ones that make us feel uncomfortable.
Be aware that these synopses may contain spoilers, so proceed with caution.
Bone Tomahawk – The first three quarters of this film is an engrossing, character-driven Western, set in the 1890s. A couple of highwaymen (Sid Haig and David Arquette) are ambushed while at an Indian burial ground, one is killed, and the other goes to the town of Bright Hope to hide his loot. He is followed by a native American tribe known as Troglodytes, and they don’t play around.
When they abduct the highwayman and two others, Sheriff Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell) sets off to rescue the three, accompanied by a deputy (Richard Jenkins) and a gunslinger (Matthew Fox). While travelling together, the three men talk and share stories, and we get to know them.
Then comes the third act, when all hell breaks loose. Despite my spoilers warning, I will not go into detail about the shockingly brutal event that starts this into full-on horror territory. It comes almost out of nowhere, and is so extreme that even my hard to shock husband’s jaw literally dropped.
What follows is extremely unsettling, and will stick with you long after the end credits role.
Bone Tomahawk is currently streaming on Netflix.
The Girl Next Door – Boy, is this one a tough watch. It’s very well done, and 100% keeps viewers engrossed, but I’m not sure it’s a film I will ever watch a second time. While it’s not a faithful adaptation of a true story, it is inspired by one – the torture/murder of Sylvia Likens, which happened in 1965.
In the film, teenage Meg and her younger disabled sister Susan are sent to live with their Aunt Ruth after their parents die in a car accident. Ruth has three sons, and many of the neighborhood kids hang out at the house, where Ruth gives them beer and cigarettes…she is definitely not mother of the year.
As Ruth begins to abuse and neglect her nieces, particularly Meg, the kids get in on the action as well, and everything escalates to the point where Meg is stripped, beaten, and bound in the basement. Practically the whole neighborhood participates in this horrifying mistreatment, and young David eventually tries to help her.
There is no happy ending here, and what really makes The Girl Next Door hit especially hard is that so many of the events in the film actually did happen to Sylvia Likens. The acting performances are great, especially that of Blanche Baker as Ruth.
The Girl Next Door can be streamed on tubi.
Green Room – A punk band called the Ain’t Rights are on the road heading towards a gig that is cancelled, and they accept a last-minute offer to play at a bar in the woods in Portland. Turns out, the bar is a hangout for neo-Nazis. The Ain’t Rights set out for a hasty goodbye after their show, but Pat quickly goes to the green room to retrieve a lost phone, and that’s when the hard times begin.
Pat sees the body of a young woman, and now the skinheads know they can’t let the band members get out alive. As they barricade themselves in the room, Pat (Anton Yelchin), Sam (Alia Shawcat), Reece (Joe Cole) and Tiger (Callum Turner), along with the dead girl’s friend Amber (Imogen Poots) have to fight off the skinheads and their leader Darcy (played exceptionally well by Patrick Stewart).
This is another brutal flick, with plenty of violence and blood, and even a dog that has been trained to attack and kill humans. Be prepared, many of the characters you will become attached to will not make it to the end of the movie alive.
Green Room can be watched on demand on Amazon Prime Video.
Incident in a Ghostland – A great twisty-turny horror movie, Incident in a Ghostland is surprisingly disturbing. Pauline and her two young daughters Beth and Vera travel to the home they recently inherited from their Aunt.
Shortly after arriving, the three are violently attacked (and Vera is sexually molested) by a large man and a woman who are titled as Fat Man and Candy Truck Woman, narrowly escaping death. Cut to 16 years later, when Beth is now a very successful horror writer with a husband and a child. She gets a phone call from Vera, who is still living in that awful house with her mother.
Beth reluctantly returns to the house, and her mother tells her that Vera has never mentally recovered from the attack, retreating to the basement. Vera tells her sister that Fat Man and Candy Truck Woman are still stalking them, and Beth begins to hallucinate and have bad dreams.
But is all of this real? Filled with disturbing shots of the two girls made up to look like dolls, and with equally disturbing scenes of Fat Man sexually groping dolls and the two sisters, Incident in a Ghostland is definitely unsettling.
Incident in a Ghostland is streaming on tubi.
Martyrs: A French Extreme film enters the chat
Martyrs – If you have never seen the original French version of Martyrs, you have most likely at least heard of it. And yes, it is just as disturbing as everyone says it is. When it was originally screened at Marche du Film in 2008, audience members actually walked out, citing its “graphic and disturbing” content.
A girl named Luci escapes after being tortured and imprisoned for more than a year, and is placed in an orphanage, where she becomes close friends with Anna. Anna is the only person she trusts, and she tells her traumatic stories about her confinement.
Fifteen years later, Lucie breaks into a home and brutally kills the family members, including two children. She calls Anna, who shows up and is horrified at the carnage she sees. Luci insists that the couple were involved in her torture and kidnapping, and insists that demons are after her. When Anna sees only Lucie inflicting harm on herself, her friend insists it’s the demons.
Spoiler***** At the heart of all of this is a cult that is kidnapping and torturing young girls and women to transform them into “martyrs” who they hope will then share the secrets of the afterlife. Unfortunately, most of them end up dying from the torturous acts they are subjected to, but Lucie holds out the longest.
The scenes of torture and injury are graphic and hard to watch, but if you can take it, Martyrs is a hard-hitting and thought-provoking horror movie.
Martyrs is streaming on tubi.
Terrified – Our final two films are both Argentine, and were written and directed by Damien Rugna. This guy has a demented imagination, and a lot of talent, but both films are definitely rough watches, and definitely not for everyone.
Terrified almost immediately goes to an unsettling place in the first ten minutes. Clara hears voices in her home, and tells her husband that the voices are talking about killing her. He dismisses that idea, but is awakened that night by thumping noises coming from the bathroom. He opens the door to find Clara’s body being violently thrown around in the shower by an unseen force, and the thumping sounds are her bloodied body slamming into the wall.
A neighbor awakens every night to something moving his furniture around and shaking his bed. Another neighbor recently lost her young son when he was hit by a bus. In a scene that is positively blood curdling, the boy’s decomposing body shows up at her kitchen table, with a bowl of cereal and milk set in front of him.
A police commissioner and a paranormal investigator set out to find out what exactly is happening in this neighborhood, and the scares keep coming. Vulture named Terrified one of the best horror movies of 2018, and it certainly was.
Terrified is available to watch on Shudder.
When Evil Lurks – Our final film (also created by Rugna) came out last year, and was almost immediately recognized as one of the best horror features of the year. It won multiple awards at Sitges and Festival international du film fantastique de Gerardmer.
Brothers Pedro and Jaime discover a gruesome corpse near their worksite, and discover that an old woman is hiding her son Uriel. Uriel has become possessed by an unborn demon, and is now referred to as a “Rotten,” due to his decomposing physical appearance.
The landowner of the place where the body was found insists the brothers remove Uriel and dump him far away, but along the road, his body flies out of the truck and cannot be found. Now the demon is after Pedro and Jaime and everyone they love, so they pack up their mother and go after Pedro’s ex-wife Sabrina, her new husband, their daughter Vicky, and Pedro’s two sons Jair and Santino.
As in Terrified, you don’t have to wait very long for the most shocking scenes. The Rotten himself is pretty gag-inducing, but there is a scene involving Sabrina’s dog that caused me to gasp aloud.
While our intrepid group tries to survive while being hunted by a demon, many troubling events take place, leading to a bleak ending.
When Evil Lurks is available to stream on Shudder.