Horror films provide a unique adrenaline rush that can’t be matched. Sometimes feeling scared is the best thrill there is. It’s the closest we can get to the danger of confrontation without actually engaging in it. It’s one of the best ways to feel alive from the safety of home. It takes a great director to tell a well-crafted and engaging story that makes the viewer genuinely afraid.
A film doesn’t necessarily need to be a horror film to scare the wits out of the viewer. While plenty of horror films rely on occasional jump scares, brutal kills, and out-of-this-world scenarios, the movies on this list adequately deliver spine-chilling narratives without using common fright tricks. Indeed, these movies are not classified as horror at all. Some are about outlandish scenarios that dive into the depths of revulsion. Some take us on a tour of the darkest parts of humanity with stories that have and will occur. Some of these movies are even dark and twisted tales meant for children. Here are the top ten scariest films that are not horror.
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10 Coraline
Photo Credit - Laika, Pandemonium Films
Dakota Fanning voices the titular character in this 2009 cult classic. Coraline is a girl in need of more attention from her boring parents after a move that she didn’t want. Upon exploring her new home, she finds a portal into an alternate reality where she receives everything she wants. Unfortunately, this happy new reality is actually a trap set up by the buttoned-eyed version of her mother. She wants Coraline’s soul, as well as that of her parents. This cult film, although meant for children, recognizes that being scared is an enlivening experience. Coraline takes some dark turns that could be frightening to children, but it comes with an important message of being careful what you wish for and is a good film that demonstrates the importance of overcoming one’s fears.
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9 Deliverance
Photo Credit - Elmer Enterprises
From director John Boorman comes the 70s classic about a harrowing tale of survival. Deliverance sees a group of city men partake in a white-water rafting trip gone horribly awry, finding themselves stalked through the woods by murderous hillbillies. This sounds like a horror film, but it’s a survival film and a look at masculinity in the face of danger. It dances startlingly close to the edge of horror as it touches on key themes of male pride and macho weakness to discomforting degrees. A heinous and unimaginable assault puts the four men to the test as they struggle to survive not only their assailants but to comprehend and acknowledged what has happened to them. Viewer discretion is advised for anyone going into this film as it involves sexual assault and themes that may be triggering to some.
8 Nightcrawler
Open Road Films
Nightcrawler is a dark and discomforting look into the world of stringers, journalists who wait for stories to break, so they can record and sell the footage. One key piece that makes this film an unintentional horror masterpiece is Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance as the unnerving and emaciated Lou Bloom. With the sole determination to move up in life, Lou enters the world of ambulance chasers, willing to do anything to get ahead. His methods are unethical and downright disturbing, both in the field and with his boss. His wide-eyed and crazed visage keeps the audience feeling uncomfortable without even trying, and he gives us plenty of reasons to feel uncomfortable, proving that you don’t need in your face terror or copious amounts of blood to be scared.
7 Night of the Hunter
Night of the Hunter follows Harry Powell, an ex-convict on the hunt for his former cellmate’s hidden stash of money. Upon his release, Powell misrepresents himself as the prison chaplain to get close to his cellmate’s widow. He cons her into marriage as a way to learn of the cash’s whereabouts, but after the vows are said, Powell starts to change for the worse. He soon becomes sadistic and intimidating in his search for fortune. This film is a classic thriller, but the con’s search and the pursuit of his cellmate’s children, coupled with violence and sexual undertones, make for an incredibly disturbing film with an antagonist that puts Nightcrawler’s Lou Bloom to shame.
6 Akira
Photo Credit - Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Akira received universal praise for its (at the time) groundbreaking animation, design, and thematic depth. Despite being animated, it’s a pretty scary non-horror movie. In it, we explore a world ravaged by nuclear war through the eyes of a bike gang leader Kaneda as he searches for his injured friend, who was taken to a military complex for treatment. What makes Akira scary isn’t the story, but the jaw-dropping visuals. The film is rife with visual horrors from a sentient teddy bear, mutating bodies, fast-aging children, and many more. The musical score by Shoji Yamashiro adds an extra creepy layer. The film, as a whole, is a masterpiece, but most people often overlook just how terrifying it is.
5 Prisoners
Alcon Entertainment
Critically acclaimed director Denis Villeneuve’s film Prisoners is a horror for parents. Moms and dads everywhere know what it’s like to intensely care for their child’s safety, and they more than likely know the anxiety of imagining the worst happening to them. Prisoners sees a father’s moral and spiritual core tested when both his and a friend’s daughters go missing. Believing a disabled man to be responsible, he kidnaps him and severely tortures him for days to discover their whereabouts. Hugh Jackman’s performance as the distraught father is shocking yet understandable. This film forces the audience to reconcile with the knowledge that they too could be driven to extremes for their children, and it’s scary to behold the boundaries crossed to ensure their safety.
4 Requiem for a Dream
Thousand Words, Protozoa Pictures
What makes Requiem for a Dream so scary is the true-to-reality depiction of drug addiction. Darren Aronofsky’s film follows four friends in every stage in an unflinching and sad look at a very real issue that many people face. We see everything here, from the beginning stages to the side effects, to the severe withdrawal symptoms when trying to get clean. Be careful rooting for the core characters in this film because not everyone gets a happy ending, finding themselves in despair most can only imagine. If ever you know of someone going through the trials of addiction, think of this film and know that the battle they face is one beyond normal comprehension.
3 Come and See
Photo Credit - Belarusfilm, Mosfilm
Many war films step closer to being horror than most traditional films as they illustrate mankind in their darkest hours. Come and See is arguably the darkest war film ever made as it depicts the very real atrocities of Nazis on the Belorussian front in 1944. The very depths of human depravity are on full display in this film, as seen through the eyes of a child in a dreamlike depiction. After finding an old rifle, he decides to join the Russian resistance against the Germans. He starts as a cheerful teenage boy, but by the end he is scarred by the things he’s seen, and his hair has turned gray. It’s a visceral look at humanity at its worst during one of the world’s bloodiest conflicts.
2 Oldboy
CJ Entertainment
A loutish man wakes up one day to find himself imprisoned in a hotel-like room with no explanation why he’s there. Fast-forward 15 years, he is released back into the world. With nothing to lose, he sets out to find the man who locked him away and find out why. Part action film, part love story, Oldboy can also be considered an unconventional horror story through use of imagery and its shocking conclusion. The viewer can’t help but have a dirty feeling in the grimy world they are dropped in. This feeling only continues to elevate as time goes on. Many consider Oldboy to be an action revenge film, but it takes a big step into revulsion horror along the way, through brutal action sequences, self-mutilation, and horrifying moral ambiguity. Even if it’s not the best action film or the scariest horror, Oldboy isn’t a movie that will leave the mind so easily after watching.
1 Parasite
Parasite follows a Korean family, the Kims, living in squalor when an opportunity presents them with the chance to change their lives. They begin conning their way into the home of the Parks, a wealthy family, by getting the present house staff fired and acquiring their positions. When the Parks go on vacation, it allows the Kims to move in. However, when a bizarre encounter happens, everyone’s lives are changed forever. Parasite starts as a comedy in the first half but gives way to a violent thriller afterward. Bong Joon Ho expertly uses horror elements to animate the different relationships in class and experience. Revulsion separates the two wealth classes and helps to paint the Kims as parasites within the Park’s household. They are separated by layers of discomfort, but the two eventually slam into each other by the end as mayhem ensues, resulting in horrific death and bloodshed. Bong Joon Ho’s expert blending of horror into his story earned him the Oscar for best picture, proving his expertise in filmmaking and deftly toeing the line of horror without crossing it.
