10 Horror Movies That Are Better The Second Time You Watch Them – Screen Rant

Horror isn't the most rewatchable genre, but rom The Shining to Us, these scary movies are so full of detail and nuance they demand a second viewing.

Horror is not typically a genre whose films get rewatched, and for two reasons because most movies tend to follow a formulaic plot that rarely deviates from the norm, and because the thrill of the genre is inextricably linked to the narrative twists and surprise endings (which aren't be as exciting the second time around.)

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That being said, there are horror films that most certainly deserve, or even demand, a rewatch, as the stories they tell are so complex and layered that a single viewing is barely enough to skim the surface. These films don't rely on jump scares, but tap into the most secret nightmares that people experience.

Stanley Kubrick's very successful adaptation of a Stephen King novel is widely considered to be one of his best works, and one of the most impressive achievements in cinema period. The Shining takes place in a distant hotel, surrounded by miles of snow, with no escape possible for anyone staying in it during the winter.

Jack Torrance's slow devolution from man to monster is equal parts fascinating and horrifying, but it is the character of Wendy that requires a closer lookas sheserves as the audience for Jack's state of mind.

Psychological horror is truly one of themost agonizing genres to experience, because it exposes humanity for all its evil, dissecting its trauma until there's nothing left. The Babadook is adefinitive example. It shows how a single mother with a severely troubled son deals with a nightmare come to life, except that the creature in question might not have supernatural roots at all.

Watching this movie with this realization in mind results in a completely different reading of the narrative as it goes from a standard jump-scare flick toone about the demons that thrive within the soul.

"In space, no one can hear you scream", reads the tagline for Alien, Ridley Scott's classic about a parasitic extraterrestrial life form, whose apparent aim is to gruesomely massacre everyone onboard a commercial freight vessel in the year 2122.

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Or so it feels on the surface.The depth of Alien can only be plumbed from multiple viewings because only then will the actual villain of the story become obvious. It may not be overly complicated, but its simplicity should not be mistaken for a lack of insight.

Comedian Jordan Peele proved that he can handle horror with considerable finesse, starting with his directorial debutGet Out, a brilliant take on the "realities of racism." Us, however, is on another level of genius. Two families, each of themidentical mirrors of the other, save for the fact that one of them is filled with murderous intent and the other is desperately trying to save their lives.

The climax is a plot twist of legendaryproportions, adding an element of surprise that practically inverts the crux of the film and instantly demands a second watch. Who is Adelaide Thomas, really?

The Thing is a practical effects extravaganza, from flying gore to flaming monsters tothe most frightening trutha humanwould ever have to face who can and who cannot be trusted, and how caneach category be identified?

Thebeing from outer space is not meant to beperceived in its actual form, because doing so would have destroyed the metaphor forfaith that director John Carpenter worked so hard to develop. As such, The Thing does not reveal its secrets upon cursory examination, such is the amount of detail incorporated into the movie.

Ari Aster's Midsommar is difficult to digest, which is exactly why it needs to be consumed over and over again. What appears as slasher entertainment turns out to be a hallucinatory fever dream set underthe eternalsun of the Arctic Circle.

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Elderlypeople euthanizing themselves, cultists performing the Viking blood eagle on innocent victims, a protagonist awash in vibrant flowersMidsommar is a visual delight, starkly contrasting withitseerie content anddisturbingtone.

Dark Water (the original J-Horror version, not the watered down English remake) follows a divorced woman, Yoshimi Matsubara, and Ikuko, her little daughter, as they attempt to rebuild their lives. Without two incomes to pay for rent,Yoshimiis forced tomove into a rather decrepit apartment building, where she comes across the specter of a dead child.

The film integrates Yoshimi's parentless childhood into itself, spacing out specific scenes that sync in with the present timeline. The conclusion, unlike most instances in the horror genre, is shockingly warm and infinitely compassionate. Best of all: there is quite a lot of discover and rediscover.

Under the Shadow is nothing short of fantastic. A woman and her daughter undergo a series of unpleasant encounters with a Djinn haunting the floor above their apartment in Tehran, Iran. The plot alone is enough tomake even the stoniest of viewers uneasy, but with its setting (the War of the Cities during the 1980s), numerous other dimensions come into play.

Thestatus of women in Iran, the indiscriminate bombing of city blocks, the disappearance of the father each of these componentsare woven together to produce a masterpiece of cinema. Every viewingbecomes a new experience.

The Witch is an unnerving story set in the 1600s about a family of six as they are exiled into the forest for refusing to recant their "blasphemy". Everything takes a turn for the worse when their baby disappears, at which point the twins begin singing eerie songs about their goat, Black Phillip.

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The protagonist is Thomasin, the eldest daughter, who has to prove that she's not behind the macabre events that follow and, by extension, that she's not the witch. The fact that the ending makes The Witch even more mysterious provides the film with excellent rewatch value.

Alejandro Amenbar's The Othersprovides one heck of a predicament forGrace Stewart and her two kids, all of whom live in an old mansion on the British coastline with the creepiest overtones imaginable. As they wait for their patriarch to return from World War II, Anne Stewart begins talking about ghostsroaming the place, which their mother disregards as some sort of unsavory prank enacted by the domestic help.

That is, until she begins to experience the supernatural herself. The resolution to the family's problems is quite different from whatan audience would expect from a horror movieof the haunting kind no matter how many timesthey experience it.

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In real life, Ajay disguises himself as an academic, mainly writing textbooks for children who all hate him for making their lives more miserable. He also writes about TV and film, strewing his opinions across the internet to see if people care (they don't).

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10 Horror Movies That Are Better The Second Time You Watch Them - Screen Rant