Horror movies can often be a great way to explore certain heavy subjects, uniquely free to explore the more terrifying aspects of dark topics in an unrestrained way other films don’t get the benefit of. It’s easy to dismiss horror as a low-brow class of film, with so many lighthearted, poorly-written, or goofy horror movies filling out the annals of the genre with fluff. Yet horror can be a great way to release some catharsis on delicate or morbid subjects, working like a kind of exposure therapy.

Obviously, the most prescient topic for horror films to explore is death, being the only type of cinematic story arguably centered on the loss of life above all else. Of course, death takes many forms, and the exploration of grief or lingering trauma can be just as important to a horror film as the actual horrific kills currently happening in the plot. However, death and the feelings that surround it is far from the only heavy topic that has been masterfully examined through a horror movie lens.

10

Midsommar

Ari Aster’s disturbing fairy-tale

After the haunting success of Hereditary, Ari Aster’s filmography managed to add another jewel with Midsommar. The story focuses on Florence Pugh’s Dani, who reels from the tragic murder suicide perpetrated by her sister just before her boyfriend, Christian, is on the precipice of breaking up with her. Out of guilt, Christian invites Dani along on an international trip to visit the secretive cultist commune of the Hårga in Sweden.

Midsommar is all about how cults similar to the Hårga are able to capture new members by preying on the weak and disenfranchised. Between her toxic relationship and her recently deceased family, Dani has no one to turn to, and the Hårga are able to capitalize on this by offering her an alternative that spreads the suffering between all of its members. Between the heavy use of psychedelics, eerie fairy-tale aesthetic, and the dark themes it explores, Midsommar is a shockingly terrifying film despite taking place almost entirely in broad daylight.

9

The Lodge

A meditative purgatory of found family

Even calling The Lodge a horror movie may be a stretch to some, but the psychological thriller is undoubtedly a spooky and effective means of exploring some nuanced themes. The survivor of a mᴀss suicide orchestrated by a cult, Grace is thrust into an awkward scenario when her new husband invites her to spend Christmas with him and his children in an isolated lodge in the wilderness. After a work obligation leaves Grace alone with her would-be stepchildren, strange happenings begin tearing at old wounds in her psyche.

The Lodge is another exploration of the lingering scars cult and religious extremism can leave in the mind, as the disturbing events unfolding in the lodge pick away at Grace’s already delicate sanity. The found-family aspect also turns quite cruel as the children’s compliance in Grace’s torture is called into question. Navigating the rough waters of zealousness, touchy family dynamics, and underlying psychosis, The Lodge is an expansive purgatory that’s difficult to look away from.

8

Talk To Me

A haunting glimpse into the afterlife

One of the recent triumphs of the long-standing greatness of Australian horror, Talk to Me addresses long-standing grief by shaking hands with literal ghosts. The film centers on a group of teenage friends who discover a shocking new pastime thanks to a magical mummified hand, allowing them to willingly be possessed by the spirits of ᴅᴇᴀᴅ people. The grief-stricken Mia, still abusing drugs in the wake of her mother’s death, sees the cursed object as a means to see her beloved Mom again, heedless of the consequences of holding on for too long.

Talk to Me manages to explore multiple heavy subjects with finesse via the ghastly return of vengeful spirits. Obviously, the themes of grief, loss, and acceptance are all easy to grasp, with Mia’s search for her mother’s soul quickly leading her down a terrifying spiral. What’s easier to gloss over, however, is the hand’s metaphor as a stand-in for drug addiction, something the film doesn’t put an overt spotlight on but is echoed in how Mia covets the hand’s power even at the expense of the well-being of herself and others.

7

Goodnight Mommy

A maddeningly suspenseful thriller

Displaying the depth and breadth of European horror, Goodnight Mommy is a haunting thriller whose fundamental conceit is a perilous one. The film follows a pair of twin boys who are re-united with their mother after a devastating accident left her recovering in the hospital for months on end, requiring reconstructive facial surgery. The boys grow suspicious that the woman underneath the bandages is not their mother at all, leading to a wickedly tense cat-and-mouse game that doesn’t become clear until the final shocking twist.

Goodnight Mommy preys on the fact that even blood relations as typically strong as mother and son can become fractured and distorted with the right trauma. The final twist further plays on an inability to let go of the past, as lingering trauma tears apart what might have otherwise been a perfectly idyllic family unit. It’s a shame that the American remake made only 8 years later wasn’t able to effectively capture these same subjects.

6

Smile

Demonized trauma

Few films have been better at making a disturbing beast out of trauma than 2022’s Smile. Smile tells the story of Rose, a therapist who watched her own mother overdose on drugs at a young age. After a patient grins and kills herself in front of her, Rose finds herself the subject of a devious curse that causes its victims to endure scarring hallucinations in the form of smiling people before eventually driving them to commit suicide themselves in front of someone else, perpetuating the cycle again.

Plenty of horror movies focus on trauma as an overarching theme, but few do so with as much rigor or latent fear as Smile. Rose’s descent into madness picks at her oldest wounds while also inflicting brand-new ones, unleashing some of the most disturbing imagery in a modern major horror release along the way. By the time the actual Smile enтιтy shows its true form, it’s far too late to escape the misery of the trauma it represents.

5

The Ritual

Crosses Norse mythology with modern misgivings

Yet another horror movie that revels in the echoes of the past’s tragedies, The Ritual adds a healthy dose of guilt to the equation. The plot concerns a group of backpacking friends who go on their first trip together since their last adventure led to the tragic death of one of them, thanks in part to the inaction of the cowardly Luke. When one of them is injured on a back-country hiking trail in Sweden, a shortcut through the woods soon turns ᴅᴇᴀᴅly as the group comes across an ancient creature and the cult surrounding it.

As terrifying as the current events of The Ritual are, the entire story is rooted in the guilt Luke feels over his part in the late Rob’s death. Besides the brilliant creature design and effectively eerie atmosphere, The Ritual provides a thorough investigation of this guilt that only continues to lead more innocent travelers to the slaughter. The courage Luke is ultimately able to summon over the course of his hellish journey makes for quite a satisfying arc and a good catharsis for anyone finding themselves in a similar predicament.

4

I Saw The TV Glow

Examines gender idenтιтy from a horror perspective

While the themes of I Saw the TV Glow may be lost on viewers not in the know, the horror film is a brilliant metaphor for the plight of trans idenтιтy in a modern landscape. The story centers on the young Owen, who bonds with fellow teenager Maddy over their favorite show, The Pink Opaque. When Maddy becomes convinced that herself and Owen are actually the characters in the show living out a false reality, Owen questions everything he holds to be true, including his own idenтιтy.

The trans themes of I Saw the TV Glow are obvious to those who know what to look for, from the color palette to the fact that Owen’s supposed “real life” as TV character Isabel reverses his gender. The film is exceptional at exploring the horrific implications of the reality of life for trans people via its clever metaphor. Doing so with dream-like Lynchian horror, I Saw the TV Glow captures one of the most delicate subjects around with finesse and fear.

3

Se7en

A dour interpretation of religious faith

Religion is another subject frequented by heavy horror movies, from spiritual possessions to zealous cults. Perhaps the single crowning achievement of David Fincher, Se7en makes Christianity as terrifying as possible thanks to the actions of a depraved serial killer who murders his victims for their supposed violations of the seven ᴅᴇᴀᴅly sins. Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman star as a pair of detectives tasked with tracking down the murderer, only to find themselves and their families targeted before long.

The insidious John Doe is the driving force of terror in the film, with his own religious fervor taking thematic precedent as a means of exploring the vile ends Christianity can lead to when weaponized by the wrong hands. However, the film arguably has more to do with apathy and hope than it does with belief and cynicism, with the denizens of its unnamed city inoculated against even the most heinous manifestations of its crime and corruption. With so much to chew on, it’s no wonder Se7en is still so talked about three decades later.

2

The Witch

A more personal dissection of Christian values

Speaking of religion, The Witch may be the one film in famed historical filmmaker Robert Eggers’ catalog that breaks down such a pervasive and concise topic. The Witch takes place in the earliest European settlements in North America, in which a particularly religious family of pilgrims are kicked out of their local community for their unmatched and intense piety. Attempting to make it on their own in the wilderness, the family is soon besieged by a profane witch led by the devil himself.

The family of The Witch goes to show just how dangerous the gospel can be when used as a means of subjugation, wreaking havoc upon the interpersonal relationships of the close-knit family. However, the evils lurking in the darkness the family warns each other of are revealed to be very real, owing to a deeper, more primordial terror lurking within the cracked web of branches that is the American countryside. With its faithfulness to the time period and subtle, slow build-up of dread, The Witch has a one-of-a-kind heaviness.

1

The Babadook

The vicious aftermath of death

So many horror films center around the destructive nature of grief and the enduring pain it can cause, but few are able to put things in as succinct terms as The Babadook. Another horror film from Down Under, The Babadook follows the life of a recently-widowed woman who struggles to raise her unruly six-year-old by herself, with the boy’s increasingly erratic behavior rapidly depleting her sanity. After reading a disturbing children’s book, the two of them are harᴀssed by the insidious and nightmarish Babadook.

The Babadook doesn’t mince words over the fact that its тιтular villain very clearly represents grief and depression. The film makes it clear that the Babadook can’t be defeated, but merely held at bay, representing the lasting grief that the loss of a spouse can inflict on one’s life. An intimate yet spine-chilling exploration of the human psyche, The Babadook is one of the best horror films to earnestly represent such a morbid subject matter.