Looking for psychological Horror films featuring a monster

September 21, 2024 3:05 PM

I'm looking for smart, emotional horror film recommendations that have the following two elements: 1. A supernatural non-human-bodied monster that isn't an alien or a ghost, and doesn't which possess/inhabit people -- and 2. is a metaphor for something, the way Babadook was a metaphor for grief. Thanks!

PS: demons are okay though - as long as they're not possessing people but rather remain in a non-human form throughout the film

posted by egeanin to Media & Arts (21 answers total)

The Blob, 1958 (alien eats people, doesn't possess them unless I'm mistaken)??? And I gather from some Googling that the Blob is a stand-in for the fear of an imminent Soviet invasion.
posted by forthright at 3:31 PM on September 21 [1 favorite]

So not Smile, but perhaps It Follows?
Perhaps Barbarian?
posted by miasma at 3:41 PM on September 21

Response by poster: Not to thread-sit, but there are no non-human-bodied monsters in those movies. (And The Blob is an alien)
posted by egeanin at 3:43 PM on September 21

Are we ruling out werewolves a la ginger snaps - as a metaphor for puberty/menstruation and/or sexual awakening. Like maybe the monster has a dog body and does a werewolf really inhabit a host as such?
posted by eastboundanddown at 3:47 PM on September 21

Apologies!!! I flunked reading comprehension on this question.
posted by forthright at 4:08 PM on September 21

Best answer: The Host, Bong Joon-ho’s 2006 Korean monster movie. It’s genre bending and is in part a criticism of the US military’s treatment of locals and the local environment.
posted by vunder at 4:10 PM on September 21 [11 favorites]

I'll mention the obvious one: Godzilla is a metaphor for the threat of thermonuclear war.

I believe that Cronenberg's treatment of The Fly is a meditation on the fear of terminal illness and how hard it is to care for someone whose humanity is being lost to disease. (Sure, Brundle starts out human-bodied, but he doesn't end that way.)

On a happier note, Turning Red deals with a different form of body horror: puberty and menstruation. (And you're not going to convince me that a giant red panda is "human-bodied.")
posted by SPrintF at 4:13 PM on September 21 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Possession, perhaps? It features a very gooey monster that is definitely not an alien or a ghost. The creature, along with the other horror aspects, tie into the film's themes of marital distress and separation.
posted by Transmissions From Vrillon at 5:58 PM on September 21

Maayyybe The Cabin in the Woods, though at least some of the monsters are human/alien/ghostly and the underlying metaphor is extra meta. (It's worth a watch, though, and it's one of those movies that's best seen without knowing too much about it in advance.)
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:10 PM on September 21 [1 favorite]

Best answer: OK, what about the following:

1. The Endless (2017) and Resolution (2012) by Aaron Moorehead and Justin Benson. The two films are connected in a shared universe where a supernatural "monster" exists in a disembodied way yet that is able to captures images on film and controls what people see on screens. It's a malevolent presence, seemingly connected to the land where it dwells, definitely not a ghost or alien. It seems to be saying something about filmmaking, cults and finding one's purpose. I think this will meet your goal. See them in chronological order.

2. He's Watching (2022) and New Religion (2022) one is US and the other Japan, they are not connected as films, yet they both happen to cover the idea that a supernatural "monster" is operating through media and technology, manifesting its malevolence via screens, and exploiting bitterseweet memories (and perhaps changing them). It seems to have to do with destiny and regret....

3. Pontypool (2008) the "monster" is contained in language itself, it takes people over and makes them violent. People initially believe it's a virus or a zombie outbreak, but "language is a virus, oo-ooh" as Laurie Anderson (and William Burroughs) would say.
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 7:28 PM on September 21 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Oh, and The Nightmare (2015) and Come True (2020), two Canadian movies that talk about how the sleep world contains monsters (they might be gods, they are definitely supernatural entities) that exist in a liminal space between the nightmare world and the awake one, and the monster sometimes bleeds through, (or perhaps it sucks you into a sleep induced alternative world). The first one is in the form of a mockumentary about sleep paralysis, the second one is a surreal narrative. They are by two different filmmakers, yet the monster appears in the same way, with glowing eyes in the dark.....
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 7:34 PM on September 21 [2 favorites]

Maybe The Wolf House, an unusual animated 2018 movie inspired by Colonia Dignidad in Chile.
posted by 2N2222 at 8:01 PM on September 21 [2 favorites]

I almost forgot: Forbidden Planet (1956)


! It's sci-fi, but the monster comes from the Id, the repressed forces of unconscious drives that remained behind when the inhabitants of the planet died. Despite that, it's not a ghost. It's free-floating rage and anger turning into tangible monsters!
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 8:11 PM on September 21 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I marked "The Host" as a best-as (because I remember really liking it) however it's been a while since I've seen it -- would it count as a supernatural horror film? I'm not really looking for Godzilla/The Fly-type stories where it's a more of a sci-fi mutation run amok.
posted by egeanin at 10:26 PM on September 21

Here are a few more out-of-left-field ideas:

Duel (1971), Killdozer (1974) and The Car (1977) - 3 films where a vehicle becomes a supernatural monster that preys on people. Duel is an early TV movie by Stephen Spielberg and is great.

Burn Offerings (1976) House (1985) and Hausu (1977) where a building houses the supernatural monster. They're not quite just "haunted house" films because the houses themselves are supernatural

Demon on the Island (Le Demon Dans L'Ile) (1983) and Maximum Overdrive (1986) where machines and appliances become malevolent

Demon Seed (1977) and M3Gan (2022), where AIs become supernaturally sentient evil entities
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 12:49 AM on September 22

Best answer: The Night House (2020) features an invisible, sometimes physical, force that appears in negative space in the house’s moldings, supports, etc. it is evidently supernatural, and may be a manifestation of grief or something else…
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:33 AM on September 22

How about the Fisher King?
The Red Knight is a monster, he seems to be a kind of demon rather than a human being, he is definitely not an alien or a ghost, and he is very much a metaphor.

Then again, maybe I focused on the wrong part of the question. It's not a horror movie. Sorry.
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:54 PM on September 22 [2 favorites]

Host (2020) is a film about some friends who do a seance over Zoom during lockdown, and how that goes horribly wrong. The supernatural force is something like a demon, but it doesn’t possess people. Because the actors were all isolating and had to figure out how to do their own stunts and filming, with the director working remotely, it’s also an interesting technical film. I thought the film was a metaphor for isolation and self-destruction related to lockdowns, but that might be reading too much into it….
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:25 PM on September 22 [1 favorite]

I marked "The Host" as a best-as (because I remember really liking it) however it's been a while since I've seen it -- would it count as a supernatural horror film?

The Host is about a monster that's a mutated aquatic creature caused by illegal dumping of toxic chemicals by the US military. It's similar to Godzilla being mutated/woken up by US nuclear testing. No super-natural stuff, per se.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:09 AM on September 23

**Spoilers for The Ritual and No One Gets Out Alive** - both these should hit the bill, more description follows below.

Broadly, The Ritual is about processing guilt and trauma while No One Gets Out Alive is about the exploitation of Mexican immigrant women for the benefit of white, American men.

Both films feature sacrificing people to gain power/immortality from a god.

No One Gets Out Alive has ghosts in it, but they are secondary and act as omens of misfortune. Both films do heavily feature humans as the antagonists working on behalf of the god (or using the god for their own benefit), but no one is possessed or inhabited by the creature.
posted by slimepuppy at 6:59 AM on September 23

The recent movie Oddity might fit your parameters. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
posted by tacodave at 2:29 PM on September 24