Horror films allow viewers to explore their most difficult emotions: not only fear, but grief, pain, and anger as well. Recent releases such as The Night House and The Amusement Park tackle several heavy traumas, but they still face some stiff competition from some of the greatest and saddest horror movies of all time.
Whether they are scenes of heroic sacrifice like in A Quiet Place or of senseless cruelty like in the original version of Carrie, there are many moments in horror movies that evoke deep sorrow rather than scares.
Forced Separation (Basket Case)
Basket Case is the story of conjoined twins Duane and Belial, who want to kill the doctors that separated them against their will as children. A flashback showing the traumatic event has young Duane screaming desperately for help as he's dragged into the makeshift operating theater. Even Belial's face is plainly terrified as the doctors forcibly anesthetize them, then cut them apart.
Duane wakes up after surgery with his telepathic bond with Belial half-broken: he can hear Belial, but cannot mentally speak back to him. Dazed and bandaged, he follows Belial's voice into the backyard, where he finds his grievously wounded brother in a trash bag: their spiteful father threw poor Belial into the garbage to die.
Lawrence Talbot's Death (The Wolf Man)
Werewolf stories are rife with tragedies, such as The Howling and An American Werewolf in London. But Larry Talbot, one of the best movie werewolves, has a particularly cruel twist to his death in the 1941 film. The reason Larry returns home in the first place is because his brother just died, and it will be the first time in years he's spoken with his father, Sir John Talbot.
The film ends with a transformed Larry mindlessly attacking his lover Gwen. John intervenes and beats him to death with a silver-headed cane. It's only after that the "wolf" transforms back into Larry, and John sees that he's just killed the only son he has left. The pair will never have the chance to reconcile now, and John will live with the guilt and loss forever.
Insect Politics (The Fly)
David Cronenberg loves to explore the horror of an irreversibly transforming body, but his 1986 remake of The Fly is the one that best showcases the tragedy of physical and mental degradation. Physicist Seth Brundle accidentally fuses his genetic makeup with that of a fly, causing him to slowly turn into an insectoid creature.
In a harrowing monologue, Seth warns Veronica away from him by explaining how he's becoming fully inhuman and will hurt her if she stays: "I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over, and the insect is awake." Veronica leaves in tears, but Seth is too far gone to do the same, despite trying: insects don't cry, after all.
Where Is Simon? (The Orphanage)
Produced by Guillermo del Toro, The Orphanage (El Orfanato) follows Laura, who is refurbishing the orphanage she was raised in. Before she can, her son Simón vanishes, after he starts talking about his new "imaginary friend" Tomás. Tomás is revealed to be a ghost, but he isn't responsible for Simon's disappearance: Laura is.
Simón had been hiding in Tomás' secret room in the basement. In trying to find him, Laura accidentally blocked the entrance she didn't realize was there, trapping Simón down there for weeks. Laura's reaction when she finally finds her son's body and realizes what happened is heartbreaking.
Prom Night (Carrie)
Brian de Palma's 1976 adaptation of Carrie still holds up today, and its climax is still just as powerful as it was almost fifty years ago. High school student Carrie White is bullied relentlessly at school and abused by her Christian fundamentalist mother at home. Sue Snell, regretting her part in bullying Carrie, tells her boyfriend Tommy Ross to take Carrie to the prom and show her a good time.
The iconic scene where Carrie has pig's blood dumped on her as she's being made prom queen isn't just cruel and humiliating. It's a negation of Sue and Tommy's act of genuine kindness, and the last straw in Carrie's life of degradation. At this point, it doesn't matter whether the crowd is actually laughing at her or not: Carrie believes they are, and slaughters them for it.
That Ending (The Mist)
Even horror icon and Mist-writer Stephen King was shocked at The Mist's ending, its final moments are that horrifically powerful. Differing from the novella's ambiguous ending, the movie's ending sees David, his son, and company stranded in the mist with no hope of escape.
David fatally shoots his companions and his own son, thinking it's the only way to save them from a brutal death by monsters, but is left with no bullet for himself. He goes outside to let the monsters kill him...only for the mist to finally clear, revealing military trucks full of survivors and help. David's screams when he realizes that if he had only waited a few seconds, they would have all been saved, are gut-wrenching.
Charlie Is Dead (Hereditary)
A movie that definitely deserves the hype, Ari Aster's 2018 debut Hereditary is a study in grief and family trauma. Teenage son Peter rushes to drive his little sister Charlie to the hospital when she has a severe allergic reaction. When Charlie sticks her head out the window for air, Peter swerves, and Charlie is decapitated by a telephone pole.
Realizing what's happened, Peter goes into shock, driving home in a trance and lying awake in bed all night. The next morning, their mother Annie goes to the car, only to find her daughter's body in the backseat. She starts howling and sobbing in grief, and through the whole funeral and burial she is inconsolable and Peter is still catatonic.
No Survivors (Night of the Living Dead)
Horror fans who have never seen the original 1968 film might be shocked at how bleak it really is, which is one of the reasons Night of the Living Dead still holds up today. Though the zombie horde is frightening, when the night is over, it's other humans that kill sole survivor Ben.
Police and vigilantes hunting zombies come across the farmhouse. Seeing Ben in a window, they shoot him in the head without a second thought. "Another one for the fire," they say. The credits play over grainy photographs of Ben's body being dragged out and burned with the dead zombies: a sickening end for anyone, but especially for a man who was nothing but brave, smart, and heroic the entire film.
"I Have Always Loved You" (A Quiet Place)
At its core, A Quiet Place is about family and what it means to be part of one. As Lee and Evelyn define it, the identity of a parent centers around how they can protect their children. Throughout the movie, eldest child Regan fears that her father Lee no longer loves her because he blames her for her youngest brother Beau's death.
How much he blames her is irrelevant: Lee loves his daughter more. When the family is cornered by aliens, Lee sees only one way to protect his children. But first, he locks eyes with Regan, and slowly and clearly signs to her, "I love you. I have always loved you," before screaming, letting the creatures kill him so Regan and Marcus can escape.
Seok-woo's Sacrifice (Train to Busan)
Seok-woo's character arc is about learning to stop prioritizing himself above all else, so he can be a better father and set a better example for his daughter Su-an. Near the end of the film, he is bitten by a zombie while trying to protect his daughter. Though Su-an is screaming for him not to, Seok-woo knows he has to die before he can harm her.
He transforms as he prepares to jump, flashing back to holding newborn Su-an for the first time. Smiling, he falls from the train to his death. As Su-an and Seong-kyang approach safety, soldiers nearly shoot them, thinking they're zombies. Su-an proves their humanity and saves their lives by tearfully singing "Aloha Oe," the song she had practiced for her father.