Vaishali Adwant
Spine-chilling horror movies give you jitters and creeps and make you think about occurrences beyond our everyday lives. Experience a roller-coaster ride watching these top five Hollywood horror movies without scope for boredom or a dull moment.
1. Barbarian
The movie has an urban setting and the most unimaginable horror waiting to happen inside a rented Airbnb room. Tess, a documentary researcher, books an Airbnb room only to discover that Keith has already reserved it. The movie starts with a nightmare and follows a series of creepy situations in the newly discovered underground room. Unlike most gory horror movies, Barbarian has a psychological horror that unveils their rented home’s numerous dark and insidious secrets. A few situations in the film are unsettling. It depicts the horrors of blindly trusting online reservations in a new city and the aftermath of landing in life-threatening situations that also question your sanity.
2. A Quiet Place II
A post-apocalyptic psychological thriller starring Emily Blunt has the loudest silent scream. Evelyn, played by Emily, is a mother of three: a teenage son, a hearing-impaired daughter, and a baby. They set out on an insidious adventure where a community of souls resides. A meteor-like object has landed in the fictional town of New York, where Evelyn and her family reside. The E.T.-like creatures have devoured most Earth residents, making Evelyn and her children the few survivors. The movie has a Zombieland flair and spectacular performances by the actors. It’s a different horror movie to watch that can scare you away.
3. Malignant
James Wan, best known for creating The Conjuring Universe, is in charge of directing the film. The movie has an ensemble cast and a sequence of events envisioned by the character Madison Mitchell in her nightmares. Madison gets visions of people being murdered, only to find it happening in her real life. The movie has story elements and seems like an amalgamation of Jeepers Creepers meets Scream. Madison is pregnant, has nightmares and murderous visions, and has an abusive husband. The movie is made in Wan’s style of treating horror movies with typical horror condiments like creepy faces, flickering electronics, unexpected reflections, etc. The movie gives you enough scary moments in the most unexpected scenarios. Madison has a vision that Gabriel is a serial killer. Gabriel calls Madison, and the cudgel battling with the sanity of this character thickens. Malignant is one of those movies with a gripping plot that keeps you guessing till the end. Though Wan’s directorial potential has been more visible in the Conjuring series, Malignant is a treat for those who love gory and intriguing panic movies.
4. Come True
A Canadian horror movie about a teenage girl, Sara Dunn, who has to deal with her troubled relationship with her mother and also has nightmares. She cannot stay awake in her class because of these conflicting situations in her life. Sara comes across a sleep study programme that she thinks would help her deal with her nightmares. Things only turn out to be worse for Sara. Sara, who is homeless mainly because of her relationship with her mother, agrees to be a test subject for a sleep programme. The movie has a cliffhanger ending, and the audience wouldn’t know what to derive from it. Sara’s life gets nightmarish after the sleep study programme, leading to many more creepy occurrences and living a vegetative life. Sara’s life is going down a spiral with every experiment session, and the scientist has no solution but to watch the occurrences in horror. The theme of shadow people and the horror of the subconscious mind is well depicted. Is Sara’s sleep manipulated through nightmarish dreams? Or is it the result of shadow people haunting her subconscious mind? The movie ends with an unresolved mystery.
5. Evil Dead Rise
The Evil Dead series is about incantations and evoking evil through the Book Of The Dead. The movie starts with a possessed Jessica incapacitating her friends, with whom she is vacationing on the lakeside. The story moves to a tragic Earthquake and its survivors, Beth, Ellie, Danny, and Kassie. Ellie is possessed, and they unlock an undisclosed door to find recordings that show that the priest couldn’t exorcise the spirits from the Book Of the Dead. The movie is given the same gory treatment as the series in the franchise, with only an element of Earthquake, which sets the story apart. The performances are worthwhile, and the visuals are impressive throughout the movie, giving you enough jittery moments.
These top five Hollywood horror flicks give a peek into gory, thought-provoking, and psychological horror that is certainly not for the faint-hearted. Pick from these movies for an exciting weekend of popcorn and horror movies.
