Horror and the surreal: it’s a combination that goes together surprisingly well.
Horror already lives in the disquieting areas where the weird thrives, so adding in a dream-like environment with unsteady logic often feels right at home in the genre.
So for your mind-blending pleasure, here are four surreal horror films you should add to your queue immediately.
No promises that these films won’t haunt your dreams (and your nightmares).
Picnic at Hanging Rock
The setup for Picnic at Hanging Rock is deceptively simplistic: a girls’ boarding school is on an ordinary outing on Valentine’s Day when a group of students and their teacher simply vanish on the eponymous Hanging Rock in Australia.
Nobody knows where they went or why they simply seemed to dissolve into thin air. When it comes to Picnic at Hanging Rock, there was so much myth surrounding the story, with many believing it was based on a real-life disappearance.
Truth be told, it’s all fiction, but that doesn’t make it any less haunting. Although he’s produced some interesting films over the years, it’s not a stretch to call this film director Peter Weir’s masterpiece.
It’s dreamy and weird and beautiful as well as deeply unsettling. The horror here is subtle, but it oozes from every gorgeous frame.
There are so many emotions you can cycle through while watching Picnic at Hanging Rock, but more than anything, you leave with your mind completely rearranged by its surreal appeal.
Wild at Heart
This one’s for all the David Lynch fans still in mourning. Of course, if you’re anything like me, you’ll probably be mourning Lynch for the rest of your life, which means we’ll all need a lot of surreal comfort.
The truth is you can pick literally any of his films for a list like this—my first inclination was to go with Eraserhead—but I’m going to go off the beaten path instead and choose Wild at Heart.
Calling Wild at Heart a horror film might be a bit of a stretch; with its often whimsical moments and homages to everything from Elvis to The Wizard of Oz, it’s more of a fairy tale gone askew.
But here’s the thing: even with its sun-soaked landscapes, the horror is always there, lurking at the margins. From the brutally fatal car accident along the side of the road to Laura Dern’s Lula being terrorized by Willem Dafoe’s Bobby Peru, there’s no end to the creeping terror that follows the on-the-run lovers (played by Dern and Nicolas Cage).
Nobody could do horror quite like David Lynch, and while critics often categorized his films as drama or thriller, genre fans know better. He was truly one of the greatest horror filmmakers of all time, and we’ve lost an absolute genius this year.
So take an evening, and give Wild at Heart—or any Lynch film—a watch.
Hausu
This is one of the more obscure films on this list, but fortunately, over the last decade, Hausu has been steadily gaining in cult status.
And for good reason. A group of Japanese schoolgirls head out into the countryside to visit one of their classmate’s aunts. Things soon descend into a surreal—and extremely colorful and gory—nightmare.
There’s no film out there quite like Hausu. Distributed by Toho, the same company that brought audiences Godzilla, critics didn’t know what to make of it at the time, which happens all too often with unusual horror films.
With an adorably evil devil cat named Blanche and more gruesome death scenes than even the most outlandish slasher film, Hausu is an eye-popping surrealistic horror adventure.
Released in 1977, not long after the kaleidoscopic 1960s, it’s also the ultimate psychedelic horror film, so if you haven’t seen it yet, now’s the perfect time to put it on your watchlist.
The Exterminating Angel
A group of rich socialites come together for a lavish dinner party one evening, only to stay late into the night with no inclination whatsoever to leave the gorgeous parlor of the host’s home.
Soon they realize they cannot leave at all. This surreal masterpiece from Luis Buñuel was released over sixty years ago in 1962, but it still somehow feels as relevant and resonant today.
The tale gets under your skin and stays there. After all, in a cruel and senseless world, what is free will anyhow?
There was also a Season Six episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer called “Older and Far Away” that was an homage to this film, so some horror fans might already be familiar with the general outline of The Exterminating Angel.
But for anyone who hasn’t seen the original film, it is highly recommended.
Featured still from “Wild at Heart” via The Samuel Goldwyn Company
