High-Key Horror

October 24, 2018 5:55 AM

I'm looking for references for high-key (brightly lit, think Hallmark Christmas Movies) horror films. Ideally, the scariness lives in the brightly lit world, not in the shadows. Is there anything like this out there?

Sub-question: I'd love to hear of any Christmas horror movies that exist.

posted by lizifer to Media & Arts (23 answers total)

Christmas horror movie: Krampus
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 5:58 AM on October 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

Funny Games U.S. (a shot-for-shot remake of the original German film) mostly takes place in a bright, beautiful day, and it's terrifying. The sunny, country club aesthetic enhances the depravity.
posted by matrixclown at 6:03 AM on October 24, 2018 [6 favorites]

Alfred Hitchcock was of this school, more or less, though his movies were not classic horror. Maybe The Birds would be an example. Or The Trouble With Harry.
posted by SemiSalt at 6:03 AM on October 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

Jaws is largely well lit.
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 6:07 AM on October 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

Brian de Palma liked to make these. Try Carrie (avoid the remake) and The Fury, though almost anything he made between '73 and '84 qualifies.

Christmas horror (though also pretty funny): Gremlins.
posted by ubiquity at 6:36 AM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

As far as Christmas horror goes, I thought A Christmas Horror Story was better than Krampus. But no Christmas horror marathon would be complete without Santa's Slay, starring Jewish professional wrestler Bill Goldberg as a murderous Santa Claus.

Oddly, when you asked about well-lit horror, the first movie that came to mind was Fido.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:51 AM on October 24, 2018

Rare Exports is the best christmas horror movie there is! It's Finnish and subtitled if I remember correctly. Not sure what "high-key" means though. It's kind of dark, but you definitely see a bunch of scary parts in full lights, just maybe not for the entire movie.
posted by Grither at 6:51 AM on October 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

Oh, and another foreign one that fits for half at least is Dead Snow. Frozen zombie nazis come back to life to terrorize a group of Norwegians on a camping trip. There's a sequel, as well. These are kind of horror comedy tho.
posted by Grither at 6:54 AM on October 24, 2018

The Stepford Wives?
posted by rollick at 7:28 AM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

Dawn of the Dead is one of the greatest horror movies I know and the vast majority of its scary scenes are daylight exteriors or interiors set in an abandoned but still brightly lit shopping mall. It's a pretty good contrast to the earlier Night of the Living Dead, which took place mostly at, you know, night. But it's a pretty low-budget film so maybe not what you're looking for. I feel like a lot of contemporary zombie films are pretty well-lit, too, but can't recall anything specific.

There are only two gory/scary scenes in Mary Harron's American Psycho, but both of them are fairly well lit. The first one is set to "Hip to Be Square." That's as much a black comedy as a horror film, though.

It seems to me the Scream films have mostly high key lighting, don't they? Again, they're sort of comic.
posted by Mothlight at 7:40 AM on October 24, 2018 [4 favorites]

Do you mean just brightly lit as in shot "flat" (with little colour or texture) or do you mean shot in the very conventionally boring way Hallmark Holiday movies are shot in (like a better lit TV soap opera)?

Hitchcock mentioned above I think is a good place to start - Birds and North By Northwest come to mind but especially in his colour films rely on scenes to be very well lit. David Lynch does the same. Kubrick's the Shining largely occurs during the day and when it doesn't the Hotel is very well lit. Most of the scary stuff in the Wicker Man happens during the day. Cujo like Jaws happens mostly during the day. A lot of the Witch happens during the day. Early Spielberg film the Duel takes place during the day.

As for Christmas films:
Silent Night, Bloody Night
Black Christmas (1974)
Late Night Trains
Christmas Evil
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
posted by Ashwagandha at 7:49 AM on October 24, 2018

Response by poster: By high-key I mean that no-shadows, super "flattering", incredibly boring way that Hallmark movies are shot. I'm looking for saccharine horror. I feel like the dangerous congeniality in Get Out is close to what I want (although the lighting is better in Get Out).
posted by lizifer at 7:52 AM on October 24, 2018

The Shining is pretty bright and sparkly in parts, especially that bathroom... swoon... But it's for sure not boringly shot.

(I meant the bathroom where Jack gets told he's always been the caretaker, not the bathroom with the rotting tublady.)
posted by Don Pepino at 8:24 AM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

Cube 2: Hypercube was brightly lit. And didn't have much else going for it.
posted by Hatashran at 9:00 AM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: There are a number of horror comedies that have a deliberately bright but flat look, generally to comment on horror lurking in a suburban milieu: try PARENTS (1989), SERIAL MOM (1994), PSYCHO BEACH PARTY (2000), SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004), FIDO (2006), and SIGHTSEERS (2012).
posted by eschatfische at 9:15 AM on October 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

There is an Inside No. 9 episode of a Krampus film called The Devil of Christmas. It's is properly nasty. And brightly lit.
posted by glasseyes at 9:39 AM on October 24, 2018 [4 favorites]

I had a long list of Christmas horror movies for my daughter's Guide leader last year, including Rare Exports, Krampus, and the original Black Christmas.

Adding;

Better Watch Out
Treevenge
Sint
Wind Chill
Dead End (2003) (Adding the year to avoid confusion with other titles)
Anna and the Apocalypse
posted by Chuckles McLaughy du Haha, the depressed clown at 10:06 AM on October 24, 2018

I still don't totally understand what you're looking for- are you looking for good movies that also happen to be brightly lit and badly shot like a Hallmark movie? Or bad movies that are brightly lit and give you the same cheesy feeling as a Hallmark movie? "Saccharine" is throwing me off- you want only really sentimental movies?

If this is any help, The Dentist is awesome and gross but has very soap opera-style production values and mostly takes place in daylight hours.

Also, I cannot second "The Devil of Christmas" enough. It's brilliant.
posted by cakelite at 10:08 AM on October 24, 2018

Saccharine horror is a new one for me as well. Are you looking for horror films that sneak up on you? So shot like a conventional Hallmark TV movie with a similar tone until the horror sneaks up on you? Maybe the story is sweet and congenial until it is not?
posted by Ashwagandha at 10:38 AM on October 24, 2018

Response by poster: Sorry for the confusion! I'm looking for traditionally-beautifully-lit horror, where the horror lies in the apparent normalcy. Stepford Wives has a bit of that.

I'm wondering if a horror movie exists where the peril is in the brightly-lit, cheerful times (and since I recently finished working on a Hallmark Movie it seemed like a good reference).

Ashwagandha has it! Everything seems normal until it's really really not. American Psycho has a little of this too.
posted by lizifer at 2:06 PM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

If that's the case I think eschatfische's suggestions above are good ones. Maybe The Stepfather (1987) or House of the Devil (2009)? Ever see the Adult Swim short Unedited Footage of a Bear? It might fit your brief.
posted by Ashwagandha at 4:40 PM on October 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

Argento's Tenebre might work for you? It hits both of the themes I see in your question and follow-ups: it's brightly, flatteringly lit ( I once described it as "the cleanest slasher flick ever". It does get bloody, but... artistically so), and the horror is definitely lurking in the brightly-lit spaces, and kinda sneaks up on you because of that.
posted by rhiannonstone at 9:45 PM on October 24, 2018

Depends on definition of horror.... Little Otik comes to mind as something that it normal-ish that turns creepy AF as it goes along. Audition (1999 film) goes the same sort of 'seems normal if a bit odd' into AAARRRRGGGHHHH "I'm not sleeping tonight". Mushishi is anime and sort of like the X-Files in that it's day to day stuff that leaves you all creeped out and afraid to go to bed.

I think there's a bit of foreign horror/creepy doensn't as often fall into the dark and spooky and scare jump or gore as US-ish horror. Much more likely to be everyday life that gives you the heebie-jeebies and keeps you awake at night.
posted by zengargoyle at 2:25 AM on October 25, 2018