26 Horror Fans On The Film That Left Them Feeling Uneasy Even After It Ended

"1408: You never see the actual evil entity -- the room itself is evil, and provided most of us spend a lot of time in rooms, it makes you paranoid."

By Holly Riordan

Updated 7 months ago, May 31, 2024

Ask Reddit compiled a list of movies for every diehard horror fan — and they did not disappoint.

1. The Grudge

“Normal spooky ghost monsters just chase you around and jump out on you, but you’re safe at bed time when you get under the covers and pull them over your head, unless it’s the freaking horrible lady ghost with The Grudge who literally appears in your bed and crawls up to your face making a noise like a creaking door.

And that’s why I now vacuum pack myself before I go to sleep.” — PM_Me_Rude_Haiku

2. Men Behind The Sun

“It’s based on actual events at a Japanese prison camp during WWII, in which they performed thousands of horrifying experiments on their prisoners. The worst scene is the live vivisection of a child. And the girl whose arms they freeze and dunk into boiling water. What sickens me more than anything is the US gave the man in charge of the prison a pardon for his crimes in exchange for all the research they gathered.” — EmilyRose1982

3. 1408

“You never see the actual evil entity — the room itself is evil, and provided most of us spend a lot of time in rooms, it makes you paranoid. Honestly, one of the very few films that left me with a deeps sense of unease after watching it.” — Skeleton_fries

4. The Descent

“This one is one of my all time favorites. I’ve always had a bit of a thing for underground worlds, been building a fantasy novel around it for years. I feel like this movie is criminally underrated, it was even unsettling before they encountered anything down there just by the claustrophobia of it. Even the personal issues between the characters felt interesting to me and the resolution of it was brutal, and usually those side stories just annoy me.” — Definitely_Working

5. Exorcism Of Emily Rose

“I don’t know why but there was some weird uneasiness after the movie. The worst part is that after watching it, I suddenly woke in the middle of the night and it was 3:00 AM, I was scared to death.” — OzzyVozzy

6. 8mm

“Someone brought that to a post prom movie party not really knowing much about it. We all watched it in horrified silence.” — keeperofcats

7. Martyrs

“Martyr’s is the quintessential ‘feel uneasy’ for days, if not weeks after watching it.

Yes it belongs in the ‘gore porn’ genre of horror but it’s well worth the watch because unlike the Saw sequels, Hostel, The Hills Have Eyes and any other entries in this genre, Martyr’s does well to give us a really strong story that has you questioning what actually happened at the end.

If you do want to see the movie make sure you get the French version as Hollywood did a remake about 2 years. Unfortunately I found this out the hard way when a friend bought me it [thinking it was the French version] as a gift to replace the copy I had lent out to a former coworker and never gotten back. The Hollywood version is a nearly shot for shot remake with a few details left out and a much more scaled down ‘fucked up’ factor.” — egnards

8. It Follows

“One of the greatest things about the movie is they mixed seasons and time periods to create an unsettling feeling because the setting isn’t logical. There are 50s tvs, 70s cars and cards from the early twentieth century. The shell e-reader functions like a kindle, but has no modern equivalent. It also seems to be the only object that has modern technology in a house that has wallpaper and cord phones. The characters spend time outdoors in pools but in the same week wear winter coats while everyone else in the background dresses lightly. The filmmakers really brought it all together to create an eerie sense of unease.” — the_flying_spaghetti

9. Se7en

“SPOILERS: The one that really creeped me out was when the swat team broke in to the guy’s apartment and found him tied to the bed, looked like he was dead. The one swat member leaned in close and made some comment, and the guy suddenly woke up and was just making this horrible gurgling sound and shaking.

For a week or two after, any time I closed my eyes that’s what I could see.” — TrainAss

10. Lights Out

“Lights Out fucked me up pretty good. Our house is really dark, even with all the curtains open, and SO made me watch it in bed at like 2am. I made him keep the lamp on till I fell asleep.” — leac1801

11. The Devil’s Rejects

“I felt as if I needed a shower after watching it.” — ConCons_Husband

12. The Ring

“Legit thought I was going to die 7 days after watching it for the first time.” — meowdryhepurrrn

13. Misery

“Because people like Annie Wilkes exist, and prolonged, personal hostage/torture situations just like that have happened, are happening and will happen again… and could happen to any of us.” — Gavaroc

14. The Mist

“The ending made me so uncomfortable.” — psychotic-chaotic

15. The Strangers

“It is just a random act of violence. The only reason given for why it happened is arguably the most unsettling reason I have ever seen in a horror movie.

It could happen anywhere at any time. Things like this make me worry about the world around me. My nieces are growing up more and more every day. I worry about the world that they are going to go into someday. Movies like this always leave the thought in my head that maybe it is not safe anymore, not only that…but maybe it wasn’t safe to begin with and I was just too blind to see it. I question way too many things and I always feel uncomfortable and unsure of what the answers are supposed to be.” — ThePlague13

16. Audition

“I loved this film. I bought the DVD and found a screensaver on it so installed it and thought no more of it and started to watch the film in another room. Film ends and I’m thinking WOW and a bit on edge, turn the tv off and was about to goto bed when I hear “kiri kiri kiri kiri kiri” clear as day in my flat. After almost soiling myself for a good 30 seconds I noticed the PC was still on in the other room and the screensaver was running and clearly had audio. Scared the living crap out of me.” — Fever_twitchtv

17. Frailty

“Spoilers: Frailty is such an under appreciated gem of a horror film. It’s ending was so powerful because you never even considered that Bill Paxton’s character was anything but insane.” — Population-Tire

18. Sinister

“Fantastic sound design, fantastically eerie music that sets the scene, and a perfect example of implying gruesome violence rather than showing it.” — Nightowl21

19. The Hills Have Eyes

“If you watched that movie and weren’t scared you were probably one of those hill people.” — purplecannibal

20. Alien

“I remember once after watching it, I was looking for my cat in my house and she ran into the garage, at night, where the overhead light is out and was like…. Yeah, there’s something familiar about this scenario.

Also, anyone like me who saw ALIEN: Covenant (and loved it) can probably understand why I avoid the tall grass in the lot behind my house.” — AdamFiction

21. Skeleton Key

“I think because that scene with the kids gets into your head a lot more once you’ve left the theatre and had a chance to digest what actually transpired.” — maldio

22. Pet Semetary

“Both the movie and the book. That shit is tragic and dark.” — TheGlennDavid

23. R.E.C

“Make sure you get the one in Spanish with subs. You can skip the sequels if you want, but the first is genuinely a good horror movie.” — ILoveSmite

24. Goodnight Mommy

“The entire theatre sat in silence for a good ten minutes and it was like you could visibly see the ‘???’ coming out of every one of our heads.” — ewitsannie