A big draw of horror movies is the way they can leave you feeling on edge for days, or even weeks, after watching them. But while the horror genre churns out some truly fucked up films, none of them leave you with the level of existential terror and general dread as the 2003 live action “family comedy” The Cat in the Hat. So if you’re looking to feel unsettled, but not “Mike Meyers in a cat suit” unsettled, here are a few horror movies you should check out.
Hereditary (2018)
The scene in this movie where a possessed Toni Collette is crouched upside down on the ceiling, banging her head against a wall is total nightmare fuel. You’ll be guaranteed to wake up in a cold sweat at least once after watching this – but at least that will serve as a reprieve from the recurring nightmare you have where Thing 1 and Thing 2 get loose inside your house and absolutely wreck your shit. Anything is better than that.
The Strangers (2008)
If you are looking for a horror movie that feels like it could happen in real life, this home-invasion terror will definitely have you double-checking your locks at night. Which is great, but won’t do anything to prevent the Cat from just materializing in your closet at any time. He is inevitable.
Midsommar (2019)
Cults are creepy, but Scandinavian pagan suicide cults whose members want to skin your face and wear it are another level of creepy. Topped in creepiness, in fact, only by a damp Alec Baldwin in a too-small, sweat-stained tank top telling you that “nobody likes a suck up” while in the midst of an elaborate scheme to swindle your mom out of all she’s worth.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
This film is perfect if you’re interested in the gory type of horror. Banned in several countries for its grotesque depiction of a group of hitchhikers getting brutally murdered by a family of cannibals, nothing is more nausea-inducing than this film. Nothing, perhaps, except watching a giant, hulking freak of a cat in the middle of an obvious psychotic break chop his tail off in front of two preteens while pretending he’s the host of an unhinged little “cooking show”.
So check out these movies if you want to feel disturbed, but not in an “anthropomorphic talking cat wants to teach you how to have fun” sort of way. You’d have to be truly deranged to enjoy that shit.
