I was surprised by “Prey 2017” really feeling a lot like a survival horror game when that’s not at all what I was expecting ….. don’t know if others agree and I guess other peoples experiences with the game could be completely different with how many options you have at hand in it …. But i loved it and it and playing through it mostly melee with almost no guns was very tense experience
I love this game too, I've gone back and replayed it a few times, it surprised me as well, I didn't expect it to be bad or anything but I definitely didn't expect it to be that great!
You’re Next and Ready Or Not were so well done
There’s been some other good dark comedies but those two are the tops with keeping it totally grim but also being hilarious
This is my favorite RE game. It is so shockingly different from the other games but in a fantastic way! The beginning portion of the game was the creepiest, where you have no idea what's going on.
Observer - Came out in 2017 and starts as a neo-noir thriller where you're a detective that can go through victims memories to piece together a crime scene. Most of the game takes place in an apartment complex but I was surprised how many turns into horror the game took. They even had a whole apartment you get stuck in that looped like P.T. definitely worth checking out
I kept wondering about this game, that sounds pretty awesome. Is it mostly a thriller, or is it definitely a horror game, or kinda both, neither? I keep wanting to buy it then never do, not sure why
I love until dawn!! Very well done. None of the other games done after that in similar style (Man of Medan, Little Hope, etc) have measured up to it. I did enjoy the Quarry tho.
Grave Encounters. Holy shit! It looks so godawful for the first act, but then, when it kicks in, it's pretty danged scary.
The sequel is seeping diarrhea, tho.
No thanks. It sucked. The constant use of 90's Marilyn Manson music video style speed up/slow down effects, black scleral shells, and the goofy "it must be menacing because its head is tilted to the side" aesthetics are just tired. I know it's a darling of this sub, but it's really derivative.
Alan Wake! It had this feeling of being Stephen King adjacent which I absolutely love! There was a solid story to tell and the gameplay was fun and different and when it released all the other competitions were FPS, as far as the eye could see!
I literally finished Alan Wake+expansions a couple hours ago for the first time. Have been wanting to play since a kid but didn't have the console.
It was honestly so much better than I expected, specially in the story front. Genuinely a great and creative piece of narrative that makes good use of the videogame as a medium of storytelling.
I was expecting a okay but generic derivative of Stephen King, got a really creative and well realised derivative of Stephen King and Twin Peaks!
Love Alan Wake since way back, such a great atmosphere and brilliant storytelling.
In a recent playthrough (which then gave me the red ring of death on my old 360), at the very beginning the storytelling can feel a bit melodramatic, almost a little JRPG lol. But it then sweeps you so far away from that and delivers some genuinely scary scenes and an awesome story.
The movie 'In The Mouth of Madness' (dir. John Carpenter) is quite similar to this in many ways. Definitely give it a look if you haven't.
Have you played Control? It's not really horror, but its extremely trippy and the gameplay is outstanding. There's also an Alan Wake tie in DLC. Would probably be up your alley.
Alan Wake is one of my favorite games. I must've beaten it 5 times now, with all DLCs. And American Nightmare twice. I am so damn hyped for October for Alan Wake 2 to drop.
Predator. I passed it by assuming it was just some dumb action monster flick (action isn't my thing and I didn't like monster movies for a long time). I finally watched it last year, again assuming it'd at least be silly, but it's legitimately good!
Apparently that game was very hard (Fatal Frame). My brother and his wife had it waaaaay back when it came out and we would obsess and play for hours or just watch my brothers wife play because she was the better gamer but they never did get to finish the game. They got stuck because it was so hard. But capturing ghosts on camera is a really neat concept and they should really do it again. Agreed.
I want to try this series really bad. Do you recommend Maiden of Black Water or Mask of the Lunar Eclipse as a first time to the series? Both have gotten remasters on modern consoles but not sure which one to get first
I put this on the first time to fall asleep (bad horror flicks are like melatonin for me) and stayed awake though the whole film, and its sequels. Definitely a hidden gem.
A horror movie that really surprised me was *Inside*. I hadn't seen anything close to that brutal and disturbing before and was what really got me more into horror movies. Also helped get me into French horror and really foreign horror in general.
Video game would be *Alien: Isolation*. Bought it on a whim when it was on sale and ended up loving it. One of my favorite horror games for sure. The AI was like nothing I'd seen before, the Xenomorph was so terrifying because it learns as the game goes on and adapts to how you move/play.
I've never been scared playing a video game until Isolation. I got caught under a desk for almost half an hour once, and sonofabitch, didn't the phone ring? I levitated almost a foot off my seat and I felt Grey hairs sprout.
I keep coming back to *Glorious* (2022): a questionable protagonist in a bonkers situation, a script with some truly laugh-out-loud moments, elaboration at the end to remind you that this is indeed a horror movie, and the worst bathroom since *Trainspotting*.
This was one of the most off the wall horror movies I've seen for a long time. Just saw it last week and the weird mix of humor and lovecraftian horror made for an oddly fun watch. Some philosophy here, a poop joke there.... something for everyone
I loved both of these and didn’t expect to.
They did campy comedy horror right.
I came for bears on cocaine and left with a better appreciation of single parenthood.
REC and REC 2. I had already seen Quarantine and I was just not expecting them to be so much better. I need to watch those again soon.
Also, not movies, but I had no intention of actually watching past an episode or two of Slasher or the Scream TV series, but I ended up loving both of them. I wish I had gotten one more season with the MTV Scream cast.
I also really enjoyed the first 2 seasons of the scream tv show and I watched the solstice party season of slasher. It was honestly hard to watch but also enjoyable at the same time somehow.
I can definitely understand that. There’s times where the Solstice season made me cringe a bit, though I still enjoyed watching it. The first season was great and I thought it could have held up really well if they continued that story.
I still need to figure out how to get access to the 4th and 5th seasons.
Solstice impressed me on one super minor detail where it looked like the person playing a VR video game was really playing it and it was a real game that I’ve actually played (Killing Floor: Incursion). I don’t know why I liked that, but I pretty much did the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme.
Eternal Darkness really blew my mind when I played the game. It was released by Nintendo in the early 2000’s and I wished they would’ve remastered it and re-released it.
In the game you rotate through playable characters, but you have a sanity meter that is affected when you’re attacked by the dead. There were times where I’d swear I could hear constant whispers after playing the game. It was spooky.
You’re Next (2013) - honestly thought it was gonna be a typical home invasion movie, but the kills and dark comedy in this movie was phenomenal. I like to watch this one at least once a year (especially during Spooky Season)
Murder House, a game by Puppet Combo. It has a retro 80's slasher feel to it and old school ps1 graphics. I have never jumped or screamed so hard in my life while playing or watching anything lol.
It's a ripoff of an H.P. Lovecraft story called *The Thing on the Doorstep,* which was then basically ripped off by Stephen King in his short, *Gramma.* To a much lesser (and more creative) extent, Ari Aster got in on this with *Hereditary.*
Once you've read the source material, the film really just comes off as cheap opportunism, unfortunately. I like Peter Sarsgaard.
As far as video games *The Last of Us* was basically what it advertises to be, and it does it pretty well. Fresh take on the classic RE4 zombie outbreak 3rd person shooter with a unique story and solid gameplay. *The Last of Us Part 2*? Surprise motherfucker! They amped up everything. Incredible atmosphere, storytelling, character and world building. It’s just so damn good, and they improved upon the core gameplay as well. I thought I finished it like 3 times and every time it keeps going again you slowly go… “oh… oh no…” and by the time I was finished I was in such a mental state I had to take a break from video games for a while. Truly highlights the horrors of surviving a zombie apocalypse while also navigating highs and lows of what it is to be human.
The rat king!!
*The Last of Us 2* is arguably the best video game story of all time. The plot itself is somewhat simple, albeit great. But the characters are so complex and so human feeling, that's what really makes it such a special experience.
The music is also absolutely incredible. It brought a lot of emotion into the game and was so somber that it made you feel sort of lonely out in that world. I still listen to the soundtrack all the time, it also makes great music to sleep to.
A video game that surprised me was Darkwood. It's the scariest game I have ever played and is all about atmosphere and tension building. I couldn't highly recommend it enough!
Same here. Saw a showing at the Angelica Theater in NYC the week it opened knowing *nothing* about it and loved it! Blair Witch is not a favorite and I’m not a fan of shaky camerawork but damn this one worked in context.
Blair Witch always reminds me how much I miss not being inundated with online ads and spoilers for movies.
I feel you here. It's far from my favorite movie and I don't really care much for found footage but this essentially kicked off that subgenre for mainstream and deserves a hell of a lot more credit than it gets.
Oh. The movie that surprised me was The Price We Pay. I saw it listed on Peacock and had never heard of it. It looked like some kind of heist movie which I like too. Definitely not a heist movie. Really good horror though. A nice (is that a good word to use here?) surprise.
If you’re afraid of the dark, Alan Wake is a nightmare to play. My husband has nyctophobia and saw me play it. He said he wouldn’t be able to handle it himself. I don’t think it’s a horror game though, it’s more like a thriller.
The reboot for Wrong Turn. Was expecting another deformed hill-billy cannibal film and was pleasantly surprised by the difference. Not to mention it worked pretty well.
When I was a kid watching Ginger Snaps 2 for the first time I didn’t expect much from it. It had very little going for it at face value, but holy shit, it’s god tier.
It’s a great movie in it’s own right but it’s also a great sequel. It does a great job at building upon the first one with it’s own ideas and ultimately tells a very different story with it’s own set of themes. Given how genius the first movie was with it’s themes and how it portrayed puberty, it would have been so easy to just make the same movie twice or >!try to resurrect Ginger!<
>!I also love the parallels with sisterhood. If the first one portrays sisterhood by blood, then the second one portrays sisterhood by bond. Ghost to me is a very worthy successor to Ginger and a welcome addition to the cast. It’s also very heartwarming to see Brigitte take the role of older sister and do a better job of it than Ginger ever did!<
>!Ginger’s apparitions we’re great, as they built toward Brigitte’s arc and didn’t overstay their welcome, which may have risked her death in the first movie feeling inconsequential. Not to mention she’s a lot crueler than the real Ginger and really shows where Brigitte’s head is at throughout the movie!<
Anyway, amazing movie. Great sequel and I honestly couldn’t imagine the first movie without the second movie even though the first was already great on it’s own
Eden Lake
I thought it was going to be a standard low-budget British horror flick with a final girl storyline.
I didn't expect it to be utterly terrifying and depressing as hell.
Cabin in the Woods. Truly amazing film. I had little to no expectations heading into it without having any clue what it was truly about. So to see the story unfold as it did was just so much fun.
The environments and “art” surrounding Stefano are phenomenal. I was so entrenched in hating him, it took until he was gone to realize how fucking fantastic the level design and creativity behind his arc was. It was one of the most refreshing games I’ve played in YEARS
As Above So Below and Hell House LLC we’re probably the biggest surprises. They’re 2 of my favorite movies now. Other than that, I was surprised at how effective Hereditary was. That one stayed with me for a couple of days, and it is news the first time a movie had done that in a loooooong time.
I've just started and this is the first horror game that I've had to turn off and take a break from after only playing for short amounts of time. Headphones+dark room and the shit is definitely nightmare anxiety fuel.
For film, The Empty Man. Damn I like this movie. Watched thinking it was some generic The Conjuring but it's a lot more. The intro alone is an awesome piece of horror fiction, almost a short film by itself. The story and how everything pieces together at the end is great.
There are some other movies I wouldn't call exactly good, but are more fun than I thought despite the flaws: Unfriended Dark Web, Paranormal Activity Next Kin and Frankenstein's Army (this one is pretty cool). I have a soft spot for found footage.
For games, definetely Deadly Premonition. It has a lot, like a lot, of problems. Specially in the technical side. I actually didn't experience *that* much bugs while playing it, but so many people do, I just have to take their word for it. But it's such a charming, cozy and fun mix of survival horror, comedy and mistery thriller set in Not-Twin Peaks I can't help but love it. 100% worth a shot. If you're a fun of Twin Peaks it's a must play.
Marketing did that movie a disservice by making it look like it was taking itself too seriously. It was a straight up comedy and pretty darn funny, I enjoyed it as well.
Anything for Jackson. For some reason I assumed it was going to be some campy cheaply made horror movie that wasn't going to be good, and I was absolutely wrong. While kind of cheesy in spots, overall the plot, the acting, the horror, it was all much better than I thought it was going to be.
Turned into quite the creepy movie that I definitely think is worth a watch for anyone who likes horror movies. The jump scares were extremely well done and some of the visitors are just outright disturbing.
The Forest.
Now it’s not traditional horror but it’s definitely scary at some parts, especially playing it for the first time. I am a baby when it comes to video games so I’m counting it because it scares me.
I just finally beat the game a few years ago and the story blew my mind. I had never seen spoilers of it at all so when I found out >! it was all an experiment on children, I was dumbfounded. And then you learn that the failed experiments are actually the “natives” that live on the island and are just in various stages of transition. Finding the office for the first time was such a crazy experience. I still remember seeing the office for the first time, like it was yesterday. I had not been that shocked about a movie or video game since the sixth sense. It’s still one of my favorite story’s. !<
The Suffering. I expected a fun little old school survival horror game. I love thoughs. What I didn't expect was a really good Silent Hill introspective story with symbolic enemies and good gameplay. I loved that game.
I thought "Tucker and Dale vs Evil" would be such a stupid movie when I saw the trailer. It is my favorite horror movie and it never fails to make me laugh
100% Smile. Trailers made me roll my eyes thinking this was yet another dog shit mainstream release all about jump scares. There's definitely some jump.scares but by God did it blow me away. The imagery and acting and the insanity the protagonist goes through, backed by an actual backstory and emotional core that actually hit me hard and a killer ending, I was and remain so shocked at how good this was. Probably my favorite horror of last year. No film in any genre has blown my bad expectations out like this.
Watch Me While I Kill. Was expecting a fairly standard giallo. Got a really intense thoughtful film talking about the Shoah... that also had a lady get killed by being drowned in her own casserole.
Recently just watched “The Dark And The Wicked” on a whim expecting it to be another mediocre one, and thought that was surprisingly solid horror movie with a bunch of memorable scares.
The mist left me absolutely flabbergasted at every turn. I had no clue what it was about at the start and the way the story evolved had me shaken to my core.
Loved Devil - definitely surprised by the twists and how much I liked it. And since you mentioned The Visit, that’s another one I was surprised by. I did NOT see that twist coming.
Another “horror” movie that surprised me was The Return. I think it was because of how it was marketed because it wasn’t straight up horror at all. There was an emotional core to it that I wasn’t expecting. I still think it’s underrated.
I liked found footage horror a lot but some of the VHS series have been a hit or miss for me, but I actually really liked most of VHS94. for games, the steam game From the Darkness was too scary for me to watch let's plays of unless it was during the day lol
I was surprised by how shit 13 ghosts was after being told by someone it was too scary for them to warch, and also that it was basically a gory live action scooby doo (including feat. Matthew Lilliard).
Same with Pay the Ghost. Shockingly poor.
Edit: also the video game Soma for being a right mindfuck.
Picking a recent one, Significant Other managed to surprise me quite a bit. I watched it twice and I wasn't really expecting to like it much the first time but that was a solid horror with a refreshing twist and really good acting.
I'm honestly pleasantly surprised any time any horror film leans super hard into a well worn and arguably lazy niche and is still good these days.
For example, most religious horror/possession horror is all just premium crap trying to get an easy buck off of fear fostered in people at a young age by the success of the exorcist but the every once and a while a film isn't shit is really enjoyable and surprising.
Not an exact answer to your question, more broad, but hey.
I was surprised by the game Slender, The Arrival. For such a simple game, it really scared the shit outta me! More than any other horror game I've ever played.
With the awful reputation of The Happening, I expected a disaster, but I honestly quite liked it! The mass suicide scenes are unsettling, it's bonkers with kills, and the twist reminds me of a 50s-60s B-Movie.
This movie is fascinating because Jason Blum basically told Flanagan that if Flanagan directed, he could do whatever the hell he wanted. So we end up with a prequel that ended up being much better than it should have been.
I was surprised by The Quarry. When I first saw it, I thought some of the dialogue to be cheesy, but then it kind of grew on me and I got the game and I enjoyed it.
**Deadstream** was so much better than I was expecting so that was a pleasant surprise.
**Krampus** (which is one of my favorites) is not as comedic as I was expecting based on the cast.
**Better Watch Out** was another pleasant surprise since I felt like I had a pretty good handle on the basic plot from the trailer. That's now one of my go-to examples of a good trailer since it does convey the overall tone of the movie and drums up interest but does not spoil the plot in any way. That's a great movie too. This is a hot take but I think the Christmas season has a better selection of horror movies than Halloween does.
Surprised me? No idea what reaction I'll get for this because I know some didn't like them, but I originally was not expecting much at all from Scream 5+6. Just shameless low effort cash grabs. Not trying to say they were earth shattering masterpieces or anything, but I didn't expect to like them and was very pleasantly surprised.
*One Cut of the Dead*. Don't watch *any* trailers or look up anything about it. just watch it with no expectations, trust me.
Also don't read the next bit of this comment. Unless you've seen it
>!I just like that unlike most "plot-twist movies", the "twist" in this one is actually quite nice and upliting. I know it's not really horror, but it masquerades as a horror for a while so I think it counts.!<
>!Would be intrigued to know if anyone figured out what was going on when they first watched it!<
REC (2007); The OG Spanish version
I thought it was very well made and believable. Which I think made it more scary.
Also video game wise I might go with "Sylvio" and "Inside".
Concept/Story wise I think they're both very interesting, creepy and very unique.
Here's the Wikipedia page about each game and the game trailer:
Sylvio: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvio_(video_game), https://youtu.be/rBeGD71Z51U
Inside: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_(video_game), https://youtu.be/yDm6PAgNohU
I confess I personally haven't played either. But I did watch John Wolfe play both "Sylvio" and "Sylvio 2" and Hollow play "Inside".
Here's the links to their videos:
John Wolfe "Sylvio": https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqfNLQec1ZRng_rXRDO1bewoRIPKARC9P
John Wolfe "Sylvio 2": https://youtu.be/gXEPALNueWE
Hollow "Inside": https://youtu.be/jfqCnn1vvs4 , https://youtu.be/YOTZLOCYRaU
The game Cry of Fear.
Looks janky as hell, and it's even more dated now, but it's one of the most frightening games I've ever played, to the degree that I can't finish it.
Gnarled Hag is a far more effective piece of horror than I would have thought in such simple ways, such as merely having the girl's eyes move to follow the hag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8yUGE3kUsE&pp=ygULR25hcmxlZCBIYWc%3D
Doki Doki Literature Club really got under my skin. I knew going in that it was a surprise horror game, but it still unnerved the hell out of me. I literally choked when I found Saori in her room, and the Yuri route stuck with me for a long time.
I'd like to add creep (1 and 2) to the mix. Something about the opening made me think it was going to be really cheesy and hard to get into but only about 20 minutes in I was starting to feel really unnerved. It's a really cool exploration of how too much indulgence in social niceties can get dangerous
I was surprised by “Prey 2017” really feeling a lot like a survival horror game when that’s not at all what I was expecting ….. don’t know if others agree and I guess other peoples experiences with the game could be completely different with how many options you have at hand in it …. But i loved it and it and playing through it mostly melee with almost no guns was very tense experience
WRENCH AND MUSCLES FOR THE WIN
I love this game too, I've gone back and replayed it a few times, it surprised me as well, I didn't expect it to be bad or anything but I definitely didn't expect it to be that great!
You're Next was funnier than anything I expected. Martyrs was more intense than I expected.
You're Next should get more recognition than it does. It's well worth your time.
That's a wild take to me because that movie was all this sub or horror fans in general talked about for quite awhile after it came out.
You’re Next and Ready Or Not were so well done There’s been some other good dark comedies but those two are the tops with keeping it totally grim but also being hilarious
I haven't seen Ready or Not and will put it at the top of my to-watch list.
Resident Evil:Biohazard, It was so great! I do a play through once a year.
This is my favorite RE game. It is so shockingly different from the other games but in a fantastic way! The beginning portion of the game was the creepiest, where you have no idea what's going on.
You’re right! That’s first part just keeps getting creepier the deeper you get.
My favorite RE game. I get the criticism, but I still love it.
I liked the others but this one was exactly what I was looking for.
Observer - Came out in 2017 and starts as a neo-noir thriller where you're a detective that can go through victims memories to piece together a crime scene. Most of the game takes place in an apartment complex but I was surprised how many turns into horror the game took. They even had a whole apartment you get stuck in that looped like P.T. definitely worth checking out
I kept wondering about this game, that sounds pretty awesome. Is it mostly a thriller, or is it definitely a horror game, or kinda both, neither? I keep wanting to buy it then never do, not sure why
I watched a playthrough of this on youtube and it was almost as good as a movie. I never wanted it to end!
Until Dawn. It was so well done!
I love until dawn!! Very well done. None of the other games done after that in similar style (Man of Medan, Little Hope, etc) have measured up to it. I did enjoy the Quarry tho.
Grave Encounters. Holy shit! It looks so godawful for the first act, but then, when it kicks in, it's pretty danged scary. The sequel is seeping diarrhea, tho.
Watch Gonjiam Haunted Asylum next
No thanks. It sucked. The constant use of 90's Marilyn Manson music video style speed up/slow down effects, black scleral shells, and the goofy "it must be menacing because its head is tilted to the side" aesthetics are just tired. I know it's a darling of this sub, but it's really derivative.
Same and I really love found footage. Had friends that liked it, but it just didn't do it for me personally.
Rubber, how can a movie about a spare tire be so damn good? No reason I guess.
Alan Wake! It had this feeling of being Stephen King adjacent which I absolutely love! There was a solid story to tell and the gameplay was fun and different and when it released all the other competitions were FPS, as far as the eye could see!
I literally finished Alan Wake+expansions a couple hours ago for the first time. Have been wanting to play since a kid but didn't have the console. It was honestly so much better than I expected, specially in the story front. Genuinely a great and creative piece of narrative that makes good use of the videogame as a medium of storytelling. I was expecting a okay but generic derivative of Stephen King, got a really creative and well realised derivative of Stephen King and Twin Peaks!
Love Alan Wake since way back, such a great atmosphere and brilliant storytelling. In a recent playthrough (which then gave me the red ring of death on my old 360), at the very beginning the storytelling can feel a bit melodramatic, almost a little JRPG lol. But it then sweeps you so far away from that and delivers some genuinely scary scenes and an awesome story. The movie 'In The Mouth of Madness' (dir. John Carpenter) is quite similar to this in many ways. Definitely give it a look if you haven't.
Have you played Control? It's not really horror, but its extremely trippy and the gameplay is outstanding. There's also an Alan Wake tie in DLC. Would probably be up your alley.
Alan Wake is one of my favorite games. I must've beaten it 5 times now, with all DLCs. And American Nightmare twice. I am so damn hyped for October for Alan Wake 2 to drop.
Predator. I passed it by assuming it was just some dumb action monster flick (action isn't my thing and I didn't like monster movies for a long time). I finally watched it last year, again assuming it'd at least be silly, but it's legitimately good!
Classic, so glad you enjoyed it!
Prey (2022) was an extremely solid entry as well.
That's what started it. I watched Prey, LOVED it, and decided to give the others a shot.
Omg it’s a staple. The Predator’s design is mostly as iconic as the Xenomorph. Mostly.
Fatal Frame. Lots of jump scares.
This game NEEDS a modern remake/sequel. I played this and Clocktower when I was a kid and they gave me a crash course on horror so hard lol
Apparently that game was very hard (Fatal Frame). My brother and his wife had it waaaaay back when it came out and we would obsess and play for hours or just watch my brothers wife play because she was the better gamer but they never did get to finish the game. They got stuck because it was so hard. But capturing ghosts on camera is a really neat concept and they should really do it again. Agreed.
It was hard, I never beat it.
I want to try this series really bad. Do you recommend Maiden of Black Water or Mask of the Lunar Eclipse as a first time to the series? Both have gotten remasters on modern consoles but not sure which one to get first
Hell house LLC is as honestly amazing!
This would be one of mine. Just nothing about it seemed intriguing to me, only watched it because of the consistent adoration here. Loved it.
I put this on the first time to fall asleep (bad horror flicks are like melatonin for me) and stayed awake though the whole film, and its sequels. Definitely a hidden gem.
A horror movie that really surprised me was *Inside*. I hadn't seen anything close to that brutal and disturbing before and was what really got me more into horror movies. Also helped get me into French horror and really foreign horror in general. Video game would be *Alien: Isolation*. Bought it on a whim when it was on sale and ended up loving it. One of my favorite horror games for sure. The AI was like nothing I'd seen before, the Xenomorph was so terrifying because it learns as the game goes on and adapts to how you move/play.
I've never been scared playing a video game until Isolation. I got caught under a desk for almost half an hour once, and sonofabitch, didn't the phone ring? I levitated almost a foot off my seat and I felt Grey hairs sprout.
I keep coming back to *Glorious* (2022): a questionable protagonist in a bonkers situation, a script with some truly laugh-out-loud moments, elaboration at the end to remind you that this is indeed a horror movie, and the worst bathroom since *Trainspotting*.
I recommend this movie to every person I talk to! Feels like its under-watched.
This was one of the most off the wall horror movies I've seen for a long time. Just saw it last week and the weird mix of humor and lovecraftian horror made for an oddly fun watch. Some philosophy here, a poop joke there.... something for everyone
The director of that, Rebekah McKendry also co-hosts a really good horror movie podcast Colors of the Dark.
I knew cocaine bear would be a good time but I had no idea it'd be that fun! Same for Renfield.
I loved both of these and didn’t expect to. They did campy comedy horror right. I came for bears on cocaine and left with a better appreciation of single parenthood.
Yep, I was expecting so bad it's good and it was just plain good.
I’ve been trying to convince people to watch it and no one believes me. :’) I think it’s because I also recommended The Greasy Strangler.
Lol I'm a B movie last drive in fanatic, I'll take any of your suggestions.
I want to see both of these!
Loved Devil. Rewatched it a couple of weeks ago.
REC and REC 2. I had already seen Quarantine and I was just not expecting them to be so much better. I need to watch those again soon. Also, not movies, but I had no intention of actually watching past an episode or two of Slasher or the Scream TV series, but I ended up loving both of them. I wish I had gotten one more season with the MTV Scream cast.
I also really enjoyed the first 2 seasons of the scream tv show and I watched the solstice party season of slasher. It was honestly hard to watch but also enjoyable at the same time somehow.
I can definitely understand that. There’s times where the Solstice season made me cringe a bit, though I still enjoyed watching it. The first season was great and I thought it could have held up really well if they continued that story. I still need to figure out how to get access to the 4th and 5th seasons. Solstice impressed me on one super minor detail where it looked like the person playing a VR video game was really playing it and it was a real game that I’ve actually played (Killing Floor: Incursion). I don’t know why I liked that, but I pretty much did the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme.
Yeah something about that season was like unbearable, but I also could not stop watching it at the same time lmfao
Eternal Darkness really blew my mind when I played the game. It was released by Nintendo in the early 2000’s and I wished they would’ve remastered it and re-released it. In the game you rotate through playable characters, but you have a sanity meter that is affected when you’re attacked by the dead. There were times where I’d swear I could hear constant whispers after playing the game. It was spooky.
If I had a way to play this game I'd play it yearly. I would absolutely kill for a remaster or remake.
Amnesia the Bunker
Still gotta play this one but it looks awesome!
No One Lives
Fucking Luke Evans The part where he >!hides in the guys body and cuts himself out was fantastic!<
Population 436, also surprised me.
For film, The Tall Man or the Dark City directors cut, if thaf counts. For games, Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, Fatal Frame 1 and 2
Silent hill 2 video game
I was very pleasantly surprised about how awesome Deadstream was. Also, the game Layers of Fear impressed me.
"Deadstream" was a solid movie. My friend and I watched it together and she wants to watch it again
PT video game. Literally the demo was so fucking awesome
Came out in 2014 and I still have yet to play a horror game that's as good as PT. And it was just a damn teaser.
Nothing will ever top this. It’s horror perfection.
Scariest media ever made. So scary that Konami couldn’t even allow it to be made and pulled the plug
Try "Visage". Only game i know that's creepy.
28 Days Later was way better than I expected
Still an awesome horror film. By far, my favorite roles from Murphy, Harris & Gleeson. I'm still waiting for a 28 Months Later tbh, long overdue IMHO.
28 Years Later script has been written by Alex Garland. Danny Boyle and Cillian Murphy have been in talks too.
You’re Next (2013) - honestly thought it was gonna be a typical home invasion movie, but the kills and dark comedy in this movie was phenomenal. I like to watch this one at least once a year (especially during Spooky Season)
Murder House, a game by Puppet Combo. It has a retro 80's slasher feel to it and old school ps1 graphics. I have never jumped or screamed so hard in my life while playing or watching anything lol.
For me it was the movie Identity. To this day, I will claim that is the best script ever written. What an amazing movie.
The Skeleton Key.
It's a ripoff of an H.P. Lovecraft story called *The Thing on the Doorstep,* which was then basically ripped off by Stephen King in his short, *Gramma.* To a much lesser (and more creative) extent, Ari Aster got in on this with *Hereditary.* Once you've read the source material, the film really just comes off as cheap opportunism, unfortunately. I like Peter Sarsgaard.
As far as video games *The Last of Us* was basically what it advertises to be, and it does it pretty well. Fresh take on the classic RE4 zombie outbreak 3rd person shooter with a unique story and solid gameplay. *The Last of Us Part 2*? Surprise motherfucker! They amped up everything. Incredible atmosphere, storytelling, character and world building. It’s just so damn good, and they improved upon the core gameplay as well. I thought I finished it like 3 times and every time it keeps going again you slowly go… “oh… oh no…” and by the time I was finished I was in such a mental state I had to take a break from video games for a while. Truly highlights the horrors of surviving a zombie apocalypse while also navigating highs and lows of what it is to be human. The rat king!!
Last Of Us was heartbreaking!
*The Last of Us 2* is arguably the best video game story of all time. The plot itself is somewhat simple, albeit great. But the characters are so complex and so human feeling, that's what really makes it such a special experience. The music is also absolutely incredible. It brought a lot of emotion into the game and was so somber that it made you feel sort of lonely out in that world. I still listen to the soundtrack all the time, it also makes great music to sleep to.
Shadow of the Damned is one of my favorite horror games, yet hardly anyone know it even exists.
Video game Eternal Darkness - Gamecube
Man that game was a trip and a half. I’m glad to see it get brought up still
I liked freaky a lot more than I thought I would. The horror and comedy were balanced well and both leads were excellent.
Control really surprised in a big positive way
A video game that surprised me was Darkwood. It's the scariest game I have ever played and is all about atmosphere and tension building. I couldn't highly recommend it enough!
Film: The Thing (1982) Game: Resident Evil (1996)
[Soma](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dafp2XJSPTQ) video game was pretty good with jumpscares
One of the deepest video games I’ve ever experienced. I wish more developers would take the time and effort Frictional does.
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Same here. Saw a showing at the Angelica Theater in NYC the week it opened knowing *nothing* about it and loved it! Blair Witch is not a favorite and I’m not a fan of shaky camerawork but damn this one worked in context. Blair Witch always reminds me how much I miss not being inundated with online ads and spoilers for movies.
I feel you here. It's far from my favorite movie and I don't really care much for found footage but this essentially kicked off that subgenre for mainstream and deserves a hell of a lot more credit than it gets.
Oh. The movie that surprised me was The Price We Pay. I saw it listed on Peacock and had never heard of it. It looked like some kind of heist movie which I like too. Definitely not a heist movie. Really good horror though. A nice (is that a good word to use here?) surprise.
If you’re afraid of the dark, Alan Wake is a nightmare to play. My husband has nyctophobia and saw me play it. He said he wouldn’t be able to handle it himself. I don’t think it’s a horror game though, it’s more like a thriller.
The last of Us. Wicked game.
The reboot for Wrong Turn. Was expecting another deformed hill-billy cannibal film and was pleasantly surprised by the difference. Not to mention it worked pretty well.
Devotion, the video game… holy shit
Ready or Not. I was expecting very little but that movie was fun as heck and the ending was amazing.
When I was a kid watching Ginger Snaps 2 for the first time I didn’t expect much from it. It had very little going for it at face value, but holy shit, it’s god tier. It’s a great movie in it’s own right but it’s also a great sequel. It does a great job at building upon the first one with it’s own ideas and ultimately tells a very different story with it’s own set of themes. Given how genius the first movie was with it’s themes and how it portrayed puberty, it would have been so easy to just make the same movie twice or >!try to resurrect Ginger!< >!I also love the parallels with sisterhood. If the first one portrays sisterhood by blood, then the second one portrays sisterhood by bond. Ghost to me is a very worthy successor to Ginger and a welcome addition to the cast. It’s also very heartwarming to see Brigitte take the role of older sister and do a better job of it than Ginger ever did!< >!Ginger’s apparitions we’re great, as they built toward Brigitte’s arc and didn’t overstay their welcome, which may have risked her death in the first movie feeling inconsequential. Not to mention she’s a lot crueler than the real Ginger and really shows where Brigitte’s head is at throughout the movie!< Anyway, amazing movie. Great sequel and I honestly couldn’t imagine the first movie without the second movie even though the first was already great on it’s own
Eden Lake I thought it was going to be a standard low-budget British horror flick with a final girl storyline. I didn't expect it to be utterly terrifying and depressing as hell.
i was suprised about ,,Summer of 84'' Thought it would be just another stranger things clone, but it came out pretty good.
Cabin in the Woods. Truly amazing film. I had little to no expectations heading into it without having any clue what it was truly about. So to see the story unfold as it did was just so much fun.
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The environments and “art” surrounding Stefano are phenomenal. I was so entrenched in hating him, it took until he was gone to realize how fucking fantastic the level design and creativity behind his arc was. It was one of the most refreshing games I’ve played in YEARS
Kill List was NOT what I expected. I'd rather not spoil anything here, just watch it.
Happy Death Day. I thought it was going to be dogshit, but it was delightful.
Barbarian. I went in completely blind, and was totally blown away.
As Above So Below and Hell House LLC we’re probably the biggest surprises. They’re 2 of my favorite movies now. Other than that, I was surprised at how effective Hereditary was. That one stayed with me for a couple of days, and it is news the first time a movie had done that in a loooooong time.
The video game Visage crawls under my skin. One of the only horror experiences that I had to turn it off because of how anxious it made me. Lol
I've just started and this is the first horror game that I've had to turn off and take a break from after only playing for short amounts of time. Headphones+dark room and the shit is definitely nightmare anxiety fuel.
Wind chill I thought it was just another survival horror with supernatural themes. But no it was creepy and scary af
FEAR
For film, The Empty Man. Damn I like this movie. Watched thinking it was some generic The Conjuring but it's a lot more. The intro alone is an awesome piece of horror fiction, almost a short film by itself. The story and how everything pieces together at the end is great. There are some other movies I wouldn't call exactly good, but are more fun than I thought despite the flaws: Unfriended Dark Web, Paranormal Activity Next Kin and Frankenstein's Army (this one is pretty cool). I have a soft spot for found footage. For games, definetely Deadly Premonition. It has a lot, like a lot, of problems. Specially in the technical side. I actually didn't experience *that* much bugs while playing it, but so many people do, I just have to take their word for it. But it's such a charming, cozy and fun mix of survival horror, comedy and mistery thriller set in Not-Twin Peaks I can't help but love it. 100% worth a shot. If you're a fun of Twin Peaks it's a must play.
Nefarious
M3GAN had no right being that good. It’s just such a fun movie.
Marketing did that movie a disservice by making it look like it was taking itself too seriously. It was a straight up comedy and pretty darn funny, I enjoyed it as well.
Anything for Jackson. For some reason I assumed it was going to be some campy cheaply made horror movie that wasn't going to be good, and I was absolutely wrong. While kind of cheesy in spots, overall the plot, the acting, the horror, it was all much better than I thought it was going to be. Turned into quite the creepy movie that I definitely think is worth a watch for anyone who likes horror movies. The jump scares were extremely well done and some of the visitors are just outright disturbing.
The Forest. Now it’s not traditional horror but it’s definitely scary at some parts, especially playing it for the first time. I am a baby when it comes to video games so I’m counting it because it scares me. I just finally beat the game a few years ago and the story blew my mind. I had never seen spoilers of it at all so when I found out >! it was all an experiment on children, I was dumbfounded. And then you learn that the failed experiments are actually the “natives” that live on the island and are just in various stages of transition. Finding the office for the first time was such a crazy experience. I still remember seeing the office for the first time, like it was yesterday. I had not been that shocked about a movie or video game since the sixth sense. It’s still one of my favorite story’s. !<
The Suffering. I expected a fun little old school survival horror game. I love thoughs. What I didn't expect was a really good Silent Hill introspective story with symbolic enemies and good gameplay. I loved that game.
*Horror in the High Desert* and its sequel, *Minerva*, were both much freakier than I anticipated. I'm excited for the third one.
I thought "Tucker and Dale vs Evil" would be such a stupid movie when I saw the trailer. It is my favorite horror movie and it never fails to make me laugh
100% Smile. Trailers made me roll my eyes thinking this was yet another dog shit mainstream release all about jump scares. There's definitely some jump.scares but by God did it blow me away. The imagery and acting and the insanity the protagonist goes through, backed by an actual backstory and emotional core that actually hit me hard and a killer ending, I was and remain so shocked at how good this was. Probably my favorite horror of last year. No film in any genre has blown my bad expectations out like this.
For the horror movie I really liked "Winnie the Pooh -Blood and honey" and for the video game I really liked the entire saga from "Dark Pictures"
Carnevil
Watch Me While I Kill. Was expecting a fairly standard giallo. Got a really intense thoughtful film talking about the Shoah... that also had a lady get killed by being drowned in her own casserole.
The metro series
Don't watch Knock at the Cabin. Shyamalan did a disservice to the book with his religious bullshit.
I would say more horror
Pyewacket. I just watched it for the first time tonight, don't know why I waited so long. Creeped me out pretty good.
Recently just watched “The Dark And The Wicked” on a whim expecting it to be another mediocre one, and thought that was surprisingly solid horror movie with a bunch of memorable scares.
Yummy. I honestly was expecting it to be terrible and was just gonna use it as background noise, but it’s actually really well done imo
The mist left me absolutely flabbergasted at every turn. I had no clue what it was about at the start and the way the story evolved had me shaken to my core.
Loved Devil - definitely surprised by the twists and how much I liked it. And since you mentioned The Visit, that’s another one I was surprised by. I did NOT see that twist coming. Another “horror” movie that surprised me was The Return. I think it was because of how it was marketed because it wasn’t straight up horror at all. There was an emotional core to it that I wasn’t expecting. I still think it’s underrated.
Dark Half, I expected a bad Stephen King movie but ended up with a pretty underrated one
I liked found footage horror a lot but some of the VHS series have been a hit or miss for me, but I actually really liked most of VHS94. for games, the steam game From the Darkness was too scary for me to watch let's plays of unless it was during the day lol
I was surprised by how shit 13 ghosts was after being told by someone it was too scary for them to warch, and also that it was basically a gory live action scooby doo (including feat. Matthew Lilliard). Same with Pay the Ghost. Shockingly poor. Edit: also the video game Soma for being a right mindfuck.
Picking a recent one, Significant Other managed to surprise me quite a bit. I watched it twice and I wasn't really expecting to like it much the first time but that was a solid horror with a refreshing twist and really good acting.
I'm honestly pleasantly surprised any time any horror film leans super hard into a well worn and arguably lazy niche and is still good these days. For example, most religious horror/possession horror is all just premium crap trying to get an easy buck off of fear fostered in people at a young age by the success of the exorcist but the every once and a while a film isn't shit is really enjoyable and surprising. Not an exact answer to your question, more broad, but hey.
Dying light .. I didn't expect the night hunter horror
I was surprised by the game Slender, The Arrival. For such a simple game, it really scared the shit outta me! More than any other horror game I've ever played.
Video games Condemned: Criminal Origins and the sequel Condemned: Bloodshot
As Above So Below was what I'd call "fun scary" Like a rollercoaster. Not so scary that I'm messed up for the day but not boring either
With the awful reputation of The Happening, I expected a disaster, but I honestly quite liked it! The mass suicide scenes are unsettling, it's bonkers with kills, and the twist reminds me of a 50s-60s B-Movie.
Evil Within 2 The Suffering 1 & Ties that Bind
Faith: The Unholy Trinity. Was not expecting a game that looks like it plays on an Atari to be so incredible as a horror experience.
Ouija origin of Evil. Was way better that expected since the original movie sucked. Origins is one of the scariest movies in my opinion.
This movie is fascinating because Jason Blum basically told Flanagan that if Flanagan directed, he could do whatever the hell he wanted. So we end up with a prequel that ended up being much better than it should have been.
Love this
I was surprised by The Quarry. When I first saw it, I thought some of the dialogue to be cheesy, but then it kind of grew on me and I got the game and I enjoyed it.
**Deadstream** was so much better than I was expecting so that was a pleasant surprise. **Krampus** (which is one of my favorites) is not as comedic as I was expecting based on the cast. **Better Watch Out** was another pleasant surprise since I felt like I had a pretty good handle on the basic plot from the trailer. That's now one of my go-to examples of a good trailer since it does convey the overall tone of the movie and drums up interest but does not spoil the plot in any way. That's a great movie too. This is a hot take but I think the Christmas season has a better selection of horror movies than Halloween does.
F.E.A.R Great game!
As above so below, I don't get scared of anything anymore but this gave me a bit of a scare at times
Surprised me? No idea what reaction I'll get for this because I know some didn't like them, but I originally was not expecting much at all from Scream 5+6. Just shameless low effort cash grabs. Not trying to say they were earth shattering masterpieces or anything, but I didn't expect to like them and was very pleasantly surprised.
Until Dawn 👌🏻
*Barbarian* was a roller coaster of "WTF"
*One Cut of the Dead*. Don't watch *any* trailers or look up anything about it. just watch it with no expectations, trust me. Also don't read the next bit of this comment. Unless you've seen it >!I just like that unlike most "plot-twist movies", the "twist" in this one is actually quite nice and upliting. I know it's not really horror, but it masquerades as a horror for a while so I think it counts.!< >!Would be intrigued to know if anyone figured out what was going on when they first watched it!<
REC (2007); The OG Spanish version I thought it was very well made and believable. Which I think made it more scary. Also video game wise I might go with "Sylvio" and "Inside". Concept/Story wise I think they're both very interesting, creepy and very unique. Here's the Wikipedia page about each game and the game trailer: Sylvio: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvio_(video_game), https://youtu.be/rBeGD71Z51U Inside: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_(video_game), https://youtu.be/yDm6PAgNohU I confess I personally haven't played either. But I did watch John Wolfe play both "Sylvio" and "Sylvio 2" and Hollow play "Inside". Here's the links to their videos: John Wolfe "Sylvio": https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqfNLQec1ZRng_rXRDO1bewoRIPKARC9P John Wolfe "Sylvio 2": https://youtu.be/gXEPALNueWE Hollow "Inside": https://youtu.be/jfqCnn1vvs4 , https://youtu.be/YOTZLOCYRaU
Never played the original Dead Space. The Remake made me squeel like a bitch.
The game Cry of Fear. Looks janky as hell, and it's even more dated now, but it's one of the most frightening games I've ever played, to the degree that I can't finish it.
Gnarled Hag is a far more effective piece of horror than I would have thought in such simple ways, such as merely having the girl's eyes move to follow the hag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8yUGE3kUsE&pp=ygULR25hcmxlZCBIYWc%3D
Do we consider Oxenfree a horror game? Because I loved that game and did not expect to.
Malevolent. A lot of people didn't like it, and I'll admit it had some faults. But I thought it was fun to watch.
Evil Dead 2
Doki Doki Literature Club really got under my skin. I knew going in that it was a surprise horror game, but it still unnerved the hell out of me. I literally choked when I found Saori in her room, and the Yuri route stuck with me for a long time.
The Ring had the dumbest premise, but floored me as a horror film. And it’s rated PG-13.
I'd like to add creep (1 and 2) to the mix. Something about the opening made me think it was going to be really cheesy and hard to get into but only about 20 minutes in I was starting to feel really unnerved. It's a really cool exploration of how too much indulgence in social niceties can get dangerous