Horror Through The Decades: Your Guide To LoFi Horror

As Twisted50 is currently working on its latest horror short film project, we thought it would be nice to hint at what our project will be about with some great films to help you get in the mood!

Perfect Blue (1997) – Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue is a great example of how animation can transcend and elevate the horror experience, especially regarding delusions and alternate perceptions of reality. Where does reality begin and imagination end? The film is also fantastic at delivering upon its themes of the price of fame. When does a parasocial relationship become a relationship between a celebrity and their overbearing stalker? When does the obsession with career and beauty become an enabled version of narcissism brought upon by yourself and those around you? Satoshi Kon has his viewers ponder these thoughts as the story continues to blur the line between commentary and madness within the modern age of stardom and fantasy. 

Seconds (1966) – John Frankenheimer’s Seconds isn’t nearly as discussed as compared to other horror films from that time, but it’s still held in high esteem and praise. Frankenheimer wants his audience to ask themselves when yearning becomes greed. Is the grass truly greener on the other side? Rock Hudson’s character, Arthur Hamilton, yearns more for life, even though he has what people would deem a successful life with financial success and a loving family. He still wants to step into the other side of the garden and escape his perfect, white picket fence life. So, when an opportunity to change faces and have a whole new identity is on his lap, how could he refuse? However, how much is he truly willing to pay in the process to be further emotionally fulfilled? 

Brain Damage (1988) – Frank Henenlotter is a cult director who has rightfully earned the reputation of being able to handle campiness, commentary, and creepiness equally. His films will make you laugh, scared, and brainstorm on the insanity he creates within his world, even if the commentary is accidental on Henenlotter’s part. When you watch one of his films, you enter his domain, and you are its willing prisoner to the insanity. Brain Damage is no different from the rest of his filmography. A young man named Brian gets a bit too attached to the alien yet parasitic creature named Elymer that begins to host inside Brian’s body; however, Brian becomes obsessed with the hallucinations that Elymer produces for him in exchange that Brian helping Elymer feed on the brains of other people. Will Brian’s addiction start to feed off of him, or will it continue to feed off of others? 

The Blair Witch Project (1999) – The found-footage film that catapulted the 2000s into wanting to make every horror film related to found footage in some way. The Blair Witch Project’s importance in modern-day filmmaking cannot be overstated. The film now contains many modern tropes, such as an ambiguous ending, characters being stuck in a loop, and even using the internet as a way to successfully market your movie. The beauty of the film is how much it has stretched the imagination of filmmakers and what they can do. 

Ring (1998) – Hideo Nakata’s Ring ( or Ringu) brought upon a new decade of Japanese horror where mystery propels the horrifying linger to crawl onto the viewer’s mind. Urban legends tend to slowly creep up on people, and that’s what Ring does best. If someone told you they got a mysterious call saying they would die in a week after watching an eerie videotape, you probably wouldn’t believe them, but the idea would still sit freely in your mind. An Urban legend combined with modern-day technology is novel, which is why Ring found great success in the U.S., too, especially with the American remake. 

We hope these spooky films creep up on you and possibly frighten you! Halloween is a special time of year, and it’s the best excuse to start watching classic horror films.