The subject matter is purely evil, and any dark shit you can imagine is thrown in - pedophilia, bullying, parentally-inforced brainwashing, and of course a great deal of murder. Despite being set at summer camp, occupied by hormonal preteens and scantily clad counselors, the setting oozes pervasive dread beneath its middle-of-nowhere beauty. That's right, a slasher made the list a campy 80s one at that, but Sleepaway Camp sets itself apart from all the gory, tit-filled cheese in several ways: It has a feel entirely its own. She's endlessly bullied by her fellow camp goers, but those who do wrong receive their due. Synopsis: A traumatized, shy young girl goes to summer camp with her cousin. To this day I can't trust a woman in an old wedding gown, emerging from a lake. This ambiguity is all through atmosphere, making Let's Scare Jessica to Death an absolute must watch, own, or cherish for any lover of atmospheric horror. Throughout viewing you're made to wonder, "Is this paranormal, psychological, a zombie flick, or a vampire movie?" Viewer's can't ultimately distinguish between a legitimate haunting taking place, or a matter of psychosis. Impressively, the horror subgenre Let's Scare Jessica to Death falls under is almost unpoinpointable until the very end. Due to some masterful sound work, this haunting flick often chills more through the eerie whispers in Jessica's head than it does with shocking visuals. Synopsis: After being released from the psych ward, Jessica moves with her husband to a country house, where they find a strange girl living.īoth one of the greatest titles in film, and one of the creepiest slow-burners in horror history, Let's Scare Jessica to Death is drenched in paranoia, ridden with scary sights and sounds, and quintessential 70s weirdness.
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Enough about my rightfully pretentious ass - I present to you The Most Atmospheric Horrors of All Time.
![bizarre horror movies you havent seen bizarre horror movies you havent seen](https://www.denofgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/watership-down-3.jpg)
There's no specific order within this list, as it would be impossible and just plain goofy to list films from "most atmospheric" to "least atmospheric." The atmosphere in many of these movies isn't perfectly describable, which is a testament to the artful vision of the filmmakers, so quite a few make the countdown simply based on how I felt or feel while watching them. In the interest of putting people onto my favorite skin-crawling flicks, I'm compiling for you a list of the most atmospheric horrors in existence - films with a uniquely anxious tone that unsettle a viewer throughout, whether that be through sight, sound, or a mood those sights and sounds collide to create. By lack of open-mindedness they're left with gimmicky jump scares and mediocre remakes of classics some barely classics that Hollywood decided were heavily romanticized. If I may inject some "I" in here - I can't help but be upset when people show no interest in watching a film because it's "old." They may write off anything pre-2000's as "cheesy," solely because of the time period when it was made. Unfortunately, folks who stick to modern horror are missing out on authentically disturbing ambience through suspense, score, and skillful shooting. Admittedly, there's been a slight resurgence of atmosphere playing a major part of the terror in modern horror, as evidenced by Jordan Peele's work in Get Out, but nearly all of the creepiest weird cinema lays in the 60's, 70's, and early 80s.
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Horror minds of the 60s and 70s had this drawn out paranoia down to perfection. In fact, some overlooked outdoorsy kill-fests are among the most atmospheric films the horror genre has to offer ( The Burning and Just Before Dawn to mind,) but an overacted death in front of heavy synths doesn't leave audiences with the same sense of unease as a slow-burning, unwavering feeling of dread. This isn't to say a well-shot woodsy slasher doesn't evoke a mood of its own. Atmosphere is a key element of horror (vital for some,) that seemed to taper off around the early 80s when campy slashers took over and gory deaths of half-nude teens grew to be viewers' top priority.