Racketboy Month of Horror 11: The Pandemic Edition

[marurun]

Hey, I have a thought. How about some recommendations for those of us who are pansies and don't like the really scary stuff? Jump scares? No good! But creepy atmosphere can be solid. I know I've been enjoying Penny Dreadful of late. I don't find that particularly scary, but I don't think that's what they're going for.

Still, horror-themed comedies and light-weight horror films would be great to help those of us who simply cannot do actual scary.

[Czernobog]

Hey, I have a thought. How about some recommendations for those of us who are pansies and don't like the really scary stuff? Jump scares? No good! But creepy atmosphere can be solid. I know I've been enjoying Penny Dreadful of late. I don't find that particularly scary, but I don't think that's what they're going for.

Still, horror-themed comedies and light-weight horror films would be great to help those of us who simply cannot do actual scary.

I really enjoyed The Babysitter and this years sequel The Babysitter Killer Queen on Netflix as really energetic horror-comedies. There's a good bit of over-the-top gore (fairly ridiculous looking) and they're not remotely scary but I have a feeling I was grinning through most of their run-times.

[dsheinem]

Hey, I have a thought. How about some recommendations for those of us who are pansies and don't like the really scary stuff? Jump scares? No good! But creepy atmosphere can be solid. I know I've been enjoying Penny Dreadful of late. I don't find that particularly scary, but I don't think that's what they're going for.

Still, horror-themed comedies and light-weight horror films would be great to help those of us who simply cannot do actual scary.

comedy:
Young Frankenstein
Shaun of the Dead (a little gory though)
Ernest Scared Stupid

light horror:
most pre 1960s mainstream American horror is pretty tame on the jump scares/gore, so I’d stick with that kind of thing (e.g. Universal monster films)

[Czernobog]

^Ernest Scared Stupid and Young Frankenstein are Halloween classics! You know what I mean, Vern?

I also really enjoyed the comedy Dracula Dead and Loving It when I was younger but it's been so long I can't remember much about the film.

[PretentiousHipster]

Hey, I have a thought. How about some recommendations for those of us who are pansies and don't like the really scary stuff? Jump scares? No good! But creepy atmosphere can be solid. I know I've been enjoying Penny Dreadful of late. I don't find that particularly scary, but I don't think that's what they're going for.

Still, horror-themed comedies and light-weight horror films would be great to help those of us who simply cannot do actual scary.

The 1967 film Viy will be PERFECT for what you're looking for.

The Fall of the House of Usher the 1928 version
The Czech Beauty and the Beast
Schalcken the Painter
Eyes Without a Face
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Braindead if you don't mind a lot of gore
Dracula the 1958 version
Frankenstein 1931 version
Anything by William Castle
Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 version
The Invisible Man
Island of Lost Souls
I Walked With a Zombie
The Hands of Orlac
Night of the Demon
Kill, Baby, Kill
The Seventh Victim
Taste of Fear
The White Reindeer
Witchfinder General (and anything with Vincent Price)

There's probably quite a few more but I should stop now

[prfsnl_gmr]

Hey, I have a thought. How about some recommendations for those of us who are pansies and don't like the really scary stuff? Jump scares? No good! But creepy atmosphere can be solid. I know I've been enjoying Penny Dreadful of late. I don't find that particularly scary, but I don't think that's what they're going for.

Still, horror-themed comedies and light-weight horror films would be great to help those of us who simply cannot do actual scary.

I’ll second DSH’s recommendation for older films, like Carnival of Souls, The Haunting, The Innocents, etc. Those movies relied a lot more on creepy atmosphere than gore or jump scares. Newer films like The Babadook, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, The House of the Devil, I am the Pretty Thing That Lives In The House, It Follows, The Witch, etc. also rely a lot on atmosphere and sound design, but unlike older films, they are genuinely frightening/upsetting and feature at least a little gore or a few jump scares. (Even something as tame as The Others features a couple of jump scares.)

Modern movies that: (1) aren’t comedies; (2) feature a creepy atmosphere; (3) aren’t too scary; and (4) don’t feature jump scares is going to be quite a challenge! I’ll see what I can come up with...(The Others is the closest I’ve come so far, but if I recall correctly, it features at least a couple of jump scares.)

[dsheinem]

Modern movies that: (1) aren’t comedies; (2) feature a creepy atmosphere; (3) aren’t too scary; and (4) don’t feature jump scares is going to be quite a challenge! I’ll see what I can come up with...(The Others is the closest I’ve come so far, but if I recall correctly, it features at least a couple of jump scares.)

I think that some animated films - things like Corpse Bride, Coraline, The Nightmare Before Christmas (and some other non-animated Burton projects too) might qualify.

I don't know if zombie-related stuff (most of the Romero films, Zombieland, etc.) might fit, too... Some Stephen King-related stuff might also be good, but usually those films do feature a jump scare or two (e.g. Carrie, The Mist, etc.).

[marurun]

Modern movies that: (1) aren’t comedies; (2) feature a creepy atmosphere; (3) aren’t too scary; and (4) don’t feature jump scares is going to be quite a challenge! I’ll see what I can come up with...(The Others is the closest I’ve come so far, but if I recall correctly, it features at least a couple of jump scares.)

See, that's a disappointment. That's a lot of lost opportunities. I like creepy, but I don't like scary, but creepy can work really well for a movie. Look at City of Lost Children or Dark City or Pan's Labyrinth.

[prfsnl_gmr]

OK. If you’re cool with those, I can definitely find something for you!

[prfsnl_gmr]

Tonight, we half-watched Man-Made Monster (1941). It’s a little-known universal horror film in which Lon Chaney, Jr. plays a man who, after surviving an accident, develops an immunity to electricity. An admittedly mad scientist exploits this to make him into some sort of electric-absorbing super-man to advance the human race (and, also, “as a way we might someday prevent the hundreds of deaths each year due to accidental electrocution”). Lon Chaney then murders another scientist (the not-mad one who wants to prevent accidental electrocution), and the mad scientist, who also controls his thoughts, I guess, makes him confess to the murder. He’s convicted, and sentenced to death...IN THE ELECTRIC CHAIR! This makes him stronger than ever, and he goes on a rampage that ends the only way it could have...by his rubber suit getting caught, by accident, in barbed wire as he was crossing a field. This causes him to lose all of his electricity, and he gets all wrinkly and sad. All of this, plus a romance between a newspaper man and a newspaper woman, occur over the course of an hour, ten minutes of which are occupied by dog tricks. (Did I mention there’s a really cute dog in this? Well, there is, and it’s awesome at looking cute and rolling over.) Hesitantly recommended in an it’s-so-bad-and-ridiculous-it’s-kind-of-good(?) sort of way.

prfsnl_gmr’s Halloween Movie List 2020 - Outbreak Edition
Slither (2006) -
The Creeping Flesh (1973) -
Man-Made Monster (1941) -