As a seasoned veteran of watching horror movies, I don’t find myself scared very often these days, whether that be due to my overexposure to the genre, or getting older and maturing past some of my younger self’s fears. There are however, a few sub-genres, styles or tropes that do still unsettle me or give me the occasional chill when I’m home alone at night.
Stalking and Paranoia
When you think of stalking in horror you may think of masked slashers like Michael Myers following from a distance, killing anyone who gets in their way, or perhaps an obsessed ex boyfriend or someone the character knows being seen everywhere they go, trying to get in contact with them. This isn’t particularly scary to me. My fear is much more specific than the generalised idea often portrayed in horror.
As I’ve gotten older, I have found that the things that scare me most often lean towards the more realistic aspects of horror, the things that can genuinely happen to you. To me, what’s scary about stalking is not just the idea of being followed by an unknown person, but also the paranoia that comes with it. Someone could be outside your house watching your window without you knowing, following you from a distance while you run errands, or simply just being everywhere you are, eyes fixated on you and only you, completely unknown to you. You may feel a sense of paranoia knowing that you have a stalker, but not knowing who. Perhaps recieving ominous letters with no address, seeing things slightly out of place, the fear of someone being in your own home. Everyone knows what the feeling of being watched is like, but that feeling made real terrifies me to my core.
The specific feeling I look for in stories like this is hard to find in cinema. There have been very few movies that leave me with the same genuine feeling that the fear of being followed in real life gives. A movie that explores this really well and kind of sums up my fear in this sense is Watcher (2022). Chloe Okuno’s paranoia driven thriller follows an American woman (Julia) and her Romanian-American husband (Francis) who move to Bucharest where Julia begins to suspect she is being stalked by the person watching her from the apartment across the street. All of this takes place during the reign of a vicious serial killer called the Spider, whom Julia starts to associate with her mysterious watcher. The way this movie is shot almost perfectly encapsulates what the very real feeling of being watched feels like. It creates an incredible sense of paranoia, particularly when the idea that Julia may be being stalked by a serial killer comes into the picture.
Cult Horror
This one kind of ties in with the stalking fear to an extent for me. The general idea of a cult is not particularly scary for me; of course in real life cults prey on the weak and ruin relationships and lives by inducting members into their ranks, but the typical media versions tend to place emphasis on cults targeting individuals for torment.
The hostility towards non members is the element that affects me personally. The paranoia and isolation caused by people not believing you are being targeted by a (often satanic) cult. The fear that there may be a group of people, perhaps people in your life, working behind the scenes to ruin your life in every way possible is quite a terrifying thought, and is made even scarier when you think about what their end goal may be, whether that be satanic rituals or a death cult.
Probably the most obvious example of this in film is Rosemary’s Baby (1968) which follows a young couple who move into a New York apartment building. Shortly after moving in, Rosemary becomes pregnant and then begins to suspect that her neighbours are part of a satanic cult who wants to harm her baby. The way the movie depicts the paranoia of friendly yet suspicious neighbours is seriously unnerving and the reveal that (spoiler) the cult is real is very effective. Other movies like The House of the Devil (2009) and The First Omen (2024) also portray this kind of feeling along with the intense isolation very efficaciously.
Cosmic Horror
This is perhaps the most broad of the three so far since it’s essentially an entire genre that really haunts me quite deeply. Cosmic horror emphasises the horror of the incomprehensible and the unknown, and often tackles ideas such as cosmic dread and forbidden knowledge. H.P. Lovecraft is essentially the godfather of this genre, with an alternate name for the genre being Lovecraftian horror.
The obvious aspect from this genre to be fearful of is the multitude of creatures beyond comprehension and description, but honestly what they represent is far more horrifying. In Lovecraft’s work, the mere existence of these indescribable gods and monsters is enough to drive a person to complete insanity, with humans being unable to come to terms with their insignificance in the grand scheme of the universe. I mean, the idea that these beings are so powerful and uncaring that they could destroy everything we know without any maliciousness or even intent is life-changingly horrid stuff.
There are absolutely other genres of horror and general things that scare me but these three in particular really give me the creeps. As someone who loves to feel that rush of adrenaline from fear, I will gladly seek out any kind of media from these genres just to satisfy that part of me. What sub-genres, styles and tropes scare you the most? Is there a specific reason why? I’d love to know!
