10 Great Movies That Are Hard To Watch Twice (Because They're Too Scary)
The best scary movies are revered for a variety of reasons besides their chilling and unsettling premises. Not only do they provide viewers a chance to give their anxieties and fears free rein while in the safety of their own home, they often explore twisted themes that test the tenacity of the human spirit. They don't need to be overwhelmingly gory or full of jump scares to do the job, but in order to be considered great, there's a particular benchmark they need to hit for horror fans.
There's no better testament of achievement - nor higher compliment- for a scary movie than viewers foregoing a second viewing. Any movie that's truly terrifying will successfully frighten its audience so much that they'll be unable to relive the emotional impact of the experience. These are the movies that people have trouble convincing themselves to watch again because they're just too intense.
10 Hereditary
A slow burn movie that sucks in its viewers, Hereditary focuses primarily on a family entrenched in toxic behavior after the death of its matriarch. As strange situations start to manifest around the house, it becomes clear that the unspoken mental trauma that has taken hold is part of dark secrets from the past that will doom them to a horrible fate.
While it may start out at a lethargic pace, by the end of the movie, most audiences aren't prepared for what shocking revelations are in store. But make no mistake - the mental horrors are as terrifying as the physical ones.
9 Insidious
With a creative concept, a smart cast, and masterful use of suspense from director James Wan and composer Joseph Bishara, Insidious is a movie that will make the hairs stand up on the back of viewers' necks any time of the day or night. It focuses on a malevolent spirit desperately trying to inhabit the body of a boy, and the incredible lengths his family will go to ward it off.
One of the pillars of the jump-scare horror genre, Insidious earns its title very well because of the subtle way in which it infects viewers' consciousness just enough to then really deliver the terror when it introduces some truly horrific imagery. That it specifically deals with what happens when people sleep makes it especially difficult, especially if one was planning on using sleep as an escape from its content.
8 Lights Out
The concept that the absence of light creates a breeding ground for evil is a primordial fear, leftover from the earliest humans gathering around a campfire. Keeping it burning through the night was essential because if its flames died, the threats at the boundaries of the light would suddenly be given agency to attack from the shadows.
Some of the best, most enduring horror movies are based on a simple premise that everyone can relate to. Lights Out relates to the fear of the dark, and what lurks in it (in this case a demonic spirit named Diana). It's so effective that viewers won't be able to sleep without lights on for weeks.
7 Silent Hill
Based on the popular video game series of the same name, Silent Hill brought the disgusting creatures of the franchise to horrifying life. With more reality given to the fictional foes, audiences suddenly had to start thinking about pixelated characters as plausible.
The environment of Silent Hill aside, it's some of the visuals at the end of the movie, when characters are trying to escape, which make it hard for some viewers to get through. After all, who would willingly return to that town, knowing what evils lurk in its innards?
6 [REC]
Employing a clever use of found footage and traditional film, this movie about a camera crew cut off from the outside world while documenting supernatural occurrences in a tenement building, is the sort of horror fare that will stick with people long after they've gotten through it.
Filled with creepy imagery seen through the night vision on various cameras, [REC] feels like a documentary, which is to say it feels as real as possible, and makes great use of all sorts of scares inherent to the found-footage medium. The final scenes, though many viewers may have seen coming, nevertheless contain imagery that burns into the consciousness.
5 The Grudge
When a family tries to make a new life for themselves in Tokyo, it seems like the chance for a fresh start, but there's something very old and very angry lurking on the premises. Soon they're each haunted by something that seems to want to take out its suffering on the living.
Whether watching the original or the remake, this movie is unsettling, disturbing, and full of cringe-inducing situations designed to make viewers' skin crawl. The discomfort factor in The Grudge is at an all-time high, especially concerning a demonic presence that is omnipresent and could appear at any time (even in the shower).
4 The Ring
VHS tapes may not seem so frightening anymore, but one, in particular, caused a lot of chaos, especially when it summoned what would eventually become a new horror icon for the genre. It focuses on a newspaper reporter who investigates a tape that kills anyone who views it within a week, struggling to make a breaking story around something she doesn't dare watch.
Like the best horror movies, it makes viewers care about its main characters, to the point where their suffering is part of what drives the thrills and chills as the seven days tick by.
3 Paranormal Activity
Strange occurrences around their new house keep a young couple up at night, but no matter what they do they can't explain what's going on (or get a good night's sleep). With their tempers rising from fatigue and stress, they decide to record what goes on in their house while they sleep, to terrifying results. The fact that most of the movie looks like real footage makes the fear very authentic.
After watching Paranormal Activity, viewers will not only sleep with the light on but may not sleep at all. The gnawing thought that things could be happening to them when they're unaware is enough to put them off having anything to do with the Paranormal Activity franchise.
2 The Strangers
When a young couple embarks on a relaxing weekend alone in the country, they don't expect to come in contact with another soul, but three mysterious strangers have other plans. They begin to insert themselves into the couples' lives slowly and deliberately, terrifying them over the course of several days until they're driven to desperate measures.
Technically a slasher movie, it doesn't rely on jump scares and tense, suspenseful music. The Strangers is alarmingly, suspiciously, and unnervingly quiet. There's something sinister about these people who invade a couple's most private space, without motivation, for no other reason than because they can, and cause nothing but chaos.
1 The Descent
The Descent is about six women's descent into a complex cave system and one woman's descent into madness. In order to help the latter process the grief of losing her family in a car accident, the women try some recreational spelunking, but what they encounter in the darkness will test not only each other's friendships but their ability to survive to see daylight again.
The movie is frightening not just because it's incredibly claustrophobic, but because like all good contributions to the survival horror genre, it reveals the erosion of societal pretense and human decency when the worst outcomes imaginable become probable.