Say what you will about the recent trend of elevated horror, but few other subgenres tackle grief in such a devastating fashion. The best recent examples of these are Bring Her Back and Talk to Me. Both explore grief without shying away from the brutality that it can leave in its wake.
These films remind us about the grief that we experience every day. If you’re still haunted by that film’s exploration of grief, loss, and the dangers of messing with the afterlife, here are five more cinematic trips to the dark side to keep you up at night.
The Babadook (2014): When Grief Manifests as a Monster.
This Australian horror film finds a widowed mother dealing with the death of her husband and her troubled son. The film follows her as she tries and fails to throttle her grief so that she can take care of her disabled son. Ultimately, these feelings manifest themselves as the Babadook.
The film itself is dark and broody, really giving us a window into the mother’s mind as she deals with the pressures of life alone. There are not a ton of scares in the film. Instead, The Babadook relies on a steady supply of dread and rage to keep the audience occupied.
The Sixth Sense (1999): I See Dead People… and They’re Really, Really Sad.
The central point of this film doesn’t get enough attention. In The Sixth Sense, people hang around as spirits instead of departing. What do they do with this time? Nothing really. Make rooms cold and scare children, apparently. However, the point that often gets overlooked is the longing both the living and the dead can feel.
If you or a loved one died, would you want an eternity of experiencing your last terrible moments, desperately trying to reach out to loved ones for help? Now, this is likely a metaphor for how the living handle grief. Stuck in a loop of loss, desperately wanting something we can’t have. Either way, it’s a haunting world to live in.
What Dreams May Come (1998): A Journey Through Heaven and Hell for Love.
This movie is cheesy, melodramatic, and visually stunning all at the same time. Robin Williams plays a man who dies and goes to heaven, but then must journey into hell to rescue his wife, who died by suicide and is trapped there.
The film explores what it means to love and sacrifice for another person. The effects are weird, but the message is clear. What Dreams May Come isn’t for everyone, but if you’re in the mood for a visually arresting and emotionally charged exploration of grief and the afterlife, it’s worth a watch.
Hereditary (2018): Generational Trauma, Demonic Cults, and a Whole Lotta Head-Banging.
Okay, yeah, this one is intense. Hereditary is about the things that are passed down to us that we don’t really want. If you have ever had a complicated relationship with someone dying, you may know what I mean. The person may be gone, but that anger management issue they gave you is here to stay.
The performances are amazing in this film. Hereditary sucks you into its world and wraps around your lungs until you can’t breathe. It’s a film that will leave you feeling shaken, disturbed, and maybe a little bit grateful for your own (hopefully less-cursed) family.
The Others (2001): Are We Really the Ghosts?
Here is a fun one. What would grief look like as a ghost? Grace is waiting for her husband to come home from war in a secluded mansion in the Channel Islands with her two children, who have a photosensitivity disease, forcing them to live in near darkness. She comes to suspect that the house is haunted. But by what? She isn’t sure.
The Others is a movie that has great scares and a family to root for. The film explores themes of grief, isolation, and the blurry line between the living and the dead. The important message here is, if you aren’t actually living, how do you know you aren’t dead?
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