We all know movies where we know who the “monster” is, like in Friday the 13th, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, or A Nightmare on Elm Street, but then there are movies that never show the monster or don’t show it until the end. Those make it scarier, the psychological knowing that you can’t see what is killing people- the unknown can be very scary.
In The Happening, even though I personally thought that the “killer” reveal was very silly, it still was something that you couldn’t see. People around the main characters would kill themselves, and you didn’t know why until the end, and the big reveal actually made me upset.
In the Final Destination series, you can’t see the killer, even though the killer is death itself. When things keep happening beyond their control, and because they cheated death before makes it that much scarier. I like horror movies that are more psychological or post apocalyptic/survival horror rather than monster horror. I find those ways scarier.
In The Mist and The Bird Box, you don’t see the monster at all. The Mist is covering the monster, and it starts to throw out different things from locusts attacking the people taking shelter in the supermarket, and in The Bird Box. The characters literally can’t look at the monster or it will kill them. The killer entity, whether it be a monster or something invisible, the not being able to see it messes with your head.
I love movies with a twist, and one of the best genres that have the best twists are the movies that are based on true stories. The ones where you get invested in the characters and you trust them, and then later you find out it was the brother or another family member the whole time. Or the ones where a child is involved and then you find out the neighbor is the one who is hiding the truth and their daughter is the one who kidnapped the baby, even though the real mother had to go to prison.
Psychological horror and true crime are my favorite genres, and they keep getting better and better over time.
