Alien/Aliens is a given for most people. I have been watching Event Horizon during the spooky season for years. What are some of your favorite books and movies with a horror/psychological thriller lean?

    • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
      311·
      2 years ago

      It’s because Larry Fish does everything right, makes the best possible moves in his situation, and still has problems. There’s a strong case to be made that Capt Miller is the one of the smartest protagonists in a horror movie and that’s why the movie is so haunting.

    • 00Sixty7@lemmy.world
      26·
      2 years ago

      Typical ghost/demon etc supernatural films and even a lot of sci-fi horror are snoozefests in comparison to Event Horizon because this film really puts it all together on a scale that makes it horrific. It plays with the supernatural angle and actually even explains it in such a way that puts it closer to reality, and then compounds that horror with the crushing isolation, unfamiliarity and unknowability of space.

      I really wish there were more movies that got horror THIS RIGHT.

        • 00Sixty7@lemmy.world
          5·
          2 years ago

          I get your point and totally agree that direction isn’t followed NEARLY often enough, but I personally find it to be open to interpretation whether what they encounter is truly “hell” in a biblical sense or just an alternate dimension that can be construed in such a way that anyone who’s ever heard of the concept would define it as hell, and I prefer the latter at least in my own head.

          If you look at it through the lens of it not really being Hell Original ™ it becomes almost Lovecraftian, given that everyone who comes into contact with the dimension loses their minds and that the ship itself gains a kind of sentience having just passed through it, but the comparison to Hellraiser is definitely valid given all we see of it is just wanton violence amongst the ship’s original crew, so for all we know it could be straight up Satan driving the boat.

    • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      It reminds me a little of the Reavers in Firefly. We have this notion that when we are far removed from our familiar surroundings and isolated in bleak emptiness, that we will somehow stare into the void and lose our minds, turning savage and cruel as we go insane.

      But if it’s any consolidation, outer space is far too dangerous for it to ever get to that point. Even highly qualified professionals who are trying their best can find it difficult to survive in space. There’s no way a violently insane person would last 30 seconds there.

    • Andy@programming.dev
      23·
      2 years ago

      PSA: As is commonly recommended, watch the director’s cut if you can, especially if it’s your first time. The main difference is that the regular release has a voice over in the beginning explaining a lot (too much).

  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
    35·
    2 years ago

    Moon - really good psychological element and great acting.

    Pandorum - fun (and a bit hammy) action horror romp.

    Twelve Monkeys - really tight and suspenseful plot with great acting.

    Being John Malcovich - not sure if this fits in, but a great mind-bender of a sci-fi movie.

    • ImpossibilityBox@lemmy.world
      21·
      2 years ago

      Man, Moon is such a good movie. Sam Rockwell absolutely killed it which I was quite impressed by considering the last thing I saw him in was as Zaphod Beeblebrox in Hitchhikers. Quite a different set of acting chops he exercised.

    • solstice@lemmy.world
      7·
      2 years ago

      Being John Malkovich is easily one of the weirdest most different interesting movies I’ve ever seen. The writer, Charlie Kaufman, also wrote Eternal Sunshine, another great one.

      Adaptation is worth watching too, with Nicolas Cage playing two roles, based on the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orleans.

    • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      2 years ago

      Pandorum was a damn good film, a little goofy sure, but a really interesting idea based around what would happen if someone in that situation really did go off the rails and turn a colony ship into their own personal fantasy/hell for everyone else.

  • Headbangerd17@lemmy.worldEnglish
    33·
    2 years ago

    I haven’t seen anyone mention it but The Man From Earth is fantastic. It’s literally just about a guy saying goodbye to his friends and telling an unbelievable story. There aren’t any flashbacks or visuals illustrating the story. Just him talking and their reactions but it’s so well written that it really draws you in.

    Granted it’s not horror but more people should see this gem

  • maniajack@lemmy.worldEnglish
    271·
    2 years ago

    I don’t have much of an idea on if it was small but the movie Sunshine (2007) comes to mind. Loved that movie. It’s well worth a watch if you haven’t seen it.

    • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
      4·
      2 years ago

      The first 20 minutes and last 20 minutes are great. That guy who trapped them in the crucible was also great. Most of the rest of the movie was meh, influenced too much by other popular movies monster cliches at the time. I will always love that ending though. Didn’t expect the glass to crack and reveal that twist.

    • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      I watched it a lot as a kid. Came back to it a few years ago and it didn’t feel the same. Still a great movie

    • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      2 years ago

      Predestination is amazing. I read the book right after watching the movie, and the movie is just so much better.

      • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
        3·
        2 years ago

        They did a really great job with it, especially considering how dated a lot of Heinlein can feel now, what with all his relatively benevolent sexism (among many other things). Not many Heinlein stories have been made into books–I think that this is only the 3rd–so it was quite pleasing to see.

        • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          Agreed, if I read the book first I would not have thought someone could make it into such a great movie. Interesting observation about film adaptions. The only one that comes to mind is Starship Troopers. What are the others? Also, it’s interesting that they chose this little novel to make Predestination instead of his more well-known books.

          • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
            3·
            2 years ago

            IIRC he did a short story about a stowaway on a ship that threw off the fuel calculations by adding an extra 75kg of mass, so that they wouldn’t reach their destination if the stowaway wasn’t thrown out of the airlock. (And the ship couldn’t land without the captain, so…) I’m pretty sure that was a movie plot on Netflix, but I’ll be damned if I could tell you the title of either.

            Philip K. Dick on the other hand… His books have been turned into tons of movies, and since he was asking questions about humanity (versus being harder science fiction), they’ve aged much better.

            • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              2 years ago

              I am genuinely curious why Philip Dick is so popular among the film makers. I think I read somewhere that the reason might be because his books are not very detailed, just sketches, which allows movie-makers to bend his stories to their liking. One author I would like to see adapted more, though, is probably Ted Chiang. Love his stories.

              • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
                2·
                2 years ago

                I think it’s because he had such interesting ideas, things that were extremely original, but also stories and ideas that readers and audiences can relate to in some way. Some of the best science fiction can be very dense; The Diamond Age, or Solaris. Even Roadside Picnic is difficult to film, because how do you visually depict something that’s entirely beyond human understanding? (Tarkovsky gave it a helluva try though!) Dick is focusing more on the people; the science fiction setting is a way to get at his ideas about things like what defines humanity.

                That’s my take anyways.

                • nodimetotie@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  1·
                  2 years ago

                  Right, although I never really enjoyed reading Dick. Just too dry and depressing af. Interesting ideas, though. On the point about difficulty to film, that’s where games come in! I’ve never player Stalker, but I think it is well regarded. Same with the Metro series. And yeah, Tarkovsky is hard to watch. I don’t think I finished either Solaris or Stalker

  • IHaveTwoCows@lemm.ee
    181·
    2 years ago

    Omg I gave up scrolling for not seeing John Carpenter’s The Thing

    Alien, The Thing, Event Horizon are the great Scifi Horror Trilogy

    • BrockSampson@lemmy.world
      4·
      2 years ago

      In fairness OP asked for “smaller films/ stories” and then name dropped probably one of the biggest horror films ever.

      • IHaveTwoCows@lemm.ee
        1·
        2 years ago

        Ah…did not notice the “smaller”…though The Thing and Event Horizon were both box office flops

  • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
    16·
    2 years ago

    Is Andromeda Strain small enough? I love both the story and the movie. The combination of high stakes and routinously slow and boring procedures to scientifically-like contain\eradicate the unknown virus is hypnotyzing.

  • Know_not_Scotty_does@lemmy.world
    16·
    2 years ago

    It is really campy and the books are much better than the movie but John Dies at the End is a fun movie that doesn’t take it too seriously.

    • Tenthrow@lemmy.worldOPM
      6·
      2 years ago

      Oh hell yeah! I watched that movie yesterday! I am a HUGE fan of the books, and enjoyed the movie quite a bit.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    15·
    2 years ago

    The French short film La Jetée is told almost entirely in still photos, but it’s very haunting. 12 Monkeys was based on it. I like 12 Monkeys, but I actually like La Jetée more. There’s also the short American film 12:01 PM which is excellent. Both are on YouTube.

    • Tenthrow@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      Very solid suggestion. It was amazing what that film managed to accomplish in such an unusual way.