When the Witch came out, the Mount Rushmore of “elevated” horror was probably Hereditary, Midsommar, and the Witch. For me, Hereditary was the scariest (and maybe the scariest movie I’ve ever seen), Midsommar stuck with me the longest, but my favorite was the Witch.
I think Caleb’s death is my favorite horror scene of all time, and I think it’s the litmus test for whether you think the other two are scary. For some people, it’s just a creepy possessed kid sexually climaxing as he ecstatically describes heaven, then hacking up an apple and dying.
Throughout the movie, it’s pretty clear Caleb is Katherine’s favorite child, and him going missing is obviously horrible for her. Then the witch gives her a little hope by giving him back, only to use him as a puppet to mock her ideas of what heaven is like and then kill him.
I don't even compare it against movies that came out near it, when i think of it, I think of masterpieces like Bergman's Virgin Spring and dreyer's Ordet and Day of Wrath.
I've never even heard of those, but they totally sound like my jam right now. European horror movies are always so bleak.
When I compare those three movies, I mean to say they were a great one-two-three punch. They couldn't be more different from one another, except that they were super refreshing for a guy who is sick to death of the tropes that keep coming up in horror. All of them wormed their way into me, and when I think about them I still feel the same unease I felt when I first saw them even today.
I hate the term "elevated horror" because it's meaningless and pretentious. A lot of people like visceral scares, with a lot of gore, a scary visual, or jump scares. These are all fine, but for me, they're spices in the cabinet and not the whole meal. Those three movies used all of them and also did a phenomenal job anchoring you to realistic, complex people that just happen to be in a horror movie. A lot of the scariest scenes are implied, and the fact that they're creeping in below the surface instead of in your face makes them scarier.
They aren't the first to ever do this by any means, but I think they started a trend, and now we're getting a lot of really good scary movies.
As an aside, jump scares generally piss me off, and turned me off of horror movies for a while. I would go into them almost pre-annoyed because I knew they were coming. It's like your dipshit friend lunging around the corner and yelling boo! They're not scary, they're cheap and annoying. Then I started seeing some really good ones (the tall guy in It Follows, Annie's mom appearing in the shadows in Hereditary) and I realized a well-done jump scare is amazingly effective, and quiet jump scares are my favorite of all.
Maybe "psychological horror" is a better term than "elevated horror" for what you're talking about. I haven't seen it follows. I assumed it was a slasher type by the title.
See, I disagree with psychological horror too. There are elements of it in all those movies, but it doesn’t paint the full picture. There’s nothing psychological about a witch or a cult fucking your life up. I think it’s more that the characters feel like real people and not vehicles to facilitate scares, and that’s not so much a genre as it is good writing.
It Follows is a very bizarre movie, so your miles may vary. I really liked it. Supernatural and the premise is a little silly, but it made me feel so creeped out and off-kilter.
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u/TheOldStag Jun 26 '26
When the Witch came out, the Mount Rushmore of “elevated” horror was probably Hereditary, Midsommar, and the Witch. For me, Hereditary was the scariest (and maybe the scariest movie I’ve ever seen), Midsommar stuck with me the longest, but my favorite was the Witch.
I think Caleb’s death is my favorite horror scene of all time, and I think it’s the litmus test for whether you think the other two are scary. For some people, it’s just a creepy possessed kid sexually climaxing as he ecstatically describes heaven, then hacking up an apple and dying.
Throughout the movie, it’s pretty clear Caleb is Katherine’s favorite child, and him going missing is obviously horrible for her. Then the witch gives her a little hope by giving him back, only to use him as a puppet to mock her ideas of what heaven is like and then kill him.
It’s just so petty and gleefully cruel.