10 Horror Movies That Happen in the Dark, Best Seen On Your Projector
Amber Stefanson, Eli Waldum | Oct 24, 2023
Did you know we released our new 4K laser projector this month? That’s right, the Aurora Pro is now officially out and available for purchase! 🎉 And just in time for spooky season. To celebrate, we’ve put together this list of our favorite arthouse horror films for you to watch in the week leading up to Halloween. But there’s a bit of a twist — these are all movies where the horror happens in the dark.
Although home theater projectors are infamous for low contrast and muddy darks, there’s an exciting new feature we’re bringing to the Aurora Pro that’s going to revolutionize how it feels to watch horror movies on your projector.
With dynamic black, the black level drops significantly, creating inkier blacks and higher overall contrast with more detail in the shadows. Coupled with the incredibly massive screen you can cast with a projector, you’re in for a more immersive fright than ever before.
10. In Fabric (2018)
Image credit: Curzon Film
Spoiler-free synopsis
Sheila visits the department store and falls in love with an enchanting red dress. She purchases it to wear out on a date — but much to her surprise, the dress has a mind of its own, and soon its vengeful spirit takes a hold of the situation.
The disembodied dress poises for attack
Why it looks great on projectors
The color grading in this movie is what makes it so unique. The dress is a bright, cool red that pops out of the screen, and all of the blood in the movie is colored to match the dress.
This lends a surreal quality to the movie, inviting viewers to draw a connection between the color of the dress and the blood that it spills, while also suggesting that the blood in the universe of In Fabric is an otherworldly magenta. It’s an unusual and artistic take on color grading, and you’ll want a screen with accurate color reproduction to be able to fully appreciate it.
The saleswoman licks blood off her fingers
Our mini-reviews
Eli
Putting a spin on Say Yes to the Dress. Girlhood but make it scary. By making the object of terror in question a dress, In Fabric confuses the audience on how scary the movie actually is. Of course no one is going to believe you that a dress is haunting your life. It’s the perfect hiding object for terror.
Amber
This is the perfect horror movie to pick for a group of people split between loving horror and hating it. It’s just campy enough not to be scary, and just weird enough to give horror fans the creeps.
9. A Quiet Place (2018)
Image credit: Paramount Pictures
Spoiler-free synopsis
A family lives under the threat of a predatory species that hunts by sound. To stay safe, they must live in complete silence, masking the sounds of their footsteps and using sign language to communicate. As you can imagine, this is a difficult feat for a family with three kids.
Sign language enables the family to communicate safely
Why it looks great on projectors
Sound design is what A Quiet Place is known for. Its filmmakers are often lauded for their ability to make silence loud and make loudness frightening. To make the most out of this movie, check to see if your projector is compatible with Dolby Atmos and consider investing in some extra speakers.
If you missed A Quiet Place in the theaters, a 200” home theater projector with a surround sound system is the next most immersive and terrifying way to watch this movie.
Even a walk through the forest must be completely silent
Our mini-reviews
Eli
The silence is the real killer for me. I stayed in flight or fight mode when the film had silent-ish parts. The sudden intensity is fantastic.
Every actor does an amazing job given that no one speaks in the film. This is where facial expression and other film elements come in to make up for lack of dialogue and A Quiet Place executes it well.
Amber
The sound in A Quiet Place is so intense because there’s so little of it. There isn’t even any music in the background for a lot of the movie.
It’s the kind of movie that you’ll want to be fully immersed in, as it engages your senses in a unique and unsettling way.
8. Men (2022)
Image credit: A24
Spoiler-free synopsis
Harper escapes to Cotson, a small village in the countryside, to recover from a traumatic end to her marriage. Her stay is not as relaxing as she hoped. As she explores the town, all the men she meets share the same regressive and hostile opinion of women — and, even more unsettlingly — all look exactly the same.
In this intense bar scene, the same actor plays four men at once
Why it looks great on projectors
Men features exceptionally high contrast, both in color and in light. In one scene, the impossibly verdant forest is contrasted with Harper’s dull green coat. In the next, the bright sunlight bursting through a window is contrasted with shadowy interior corners. These visual highs and lows thrive in HDR.
Harper walks into a tunnel hidden deep in the forest
Our mini-reviews
Eli
Feels like being haunted by your past, present, and future. The enemy being all the men in the film is hilarious, scary, and comforting at the same time. Jessie Buckley crushes it everytime.
Amber
From the lush greens of the forest to the darkest corners of the town’s major establishments, Men is a sight to behold.
And through it all, there’s a very consistent brown and green color palette that grounds the movie, in a way. Makes it feel like everyone and everything is just a part of Nature, even when something weird and supernatural is going down.
7. Rent-A-Pal (2020)
Image credit: IFC Midnight
Spoiler-free synopsis
Lonely caretaker David is at an all-time low when he discovers a video tape of charismatic host, Andy, who invites him to have a conversation — asking questions and leaving time for him to answer. When David develops a strong parasocial relationship with Andy, the line between fantasy and reality gets messy.
David becomes obsessed with Andy
Why it looks great on projectors
In Rent-A-Pal, there’s an interesting visual distinction between what’s real life and what’s just on screen. David watches the video tapes of Andy on a CRT TV, complete with static distortion. We know he’s on screen because he has this visual barrier surging over him.
Yet in the age of digital media, it’s harder to see this distinction. There isn’t any filter over your movie that looks especially digital, especially if you’re watching on a high-quality 4K screen. You just have to know that what you’re watching is imaginary even though it looks real.
This effect is played up in the movie as David becomes unsure whether Andy is more than just a video tape host. At times, Andy appears to lean out of the screen, past the barrier of CRT static. He looks real.
It’s an incredibly spooky effect that would only be possible with a depiction of analog technology on a digital medium. And the bigger and higher-resolution your screen is, the more frightening this effect becomes.
Andy leans forward, separated by a thin veil of static
Our mini-reviews
Eli
How far would you go to gain a friend? Obviously not this far. Feels like a Black Mirror episode. The consistent 4th wall breakage is a great terror element a part of the story. Makes me feel like I’m watching David through another TV.
Amber
Rent-A-Pal is a classic isolation-into-madness kind of horror movie, like The Shining or The Lighthouse, but with an analogue twist. The sound editing is what really sells it.
As he leans out of the screen, Andy’s voice modulates between sounding garbled and tinny like it’s coming from the TV and sounding warm and clear like he’s right next to you. I’m still not sure if he was real, or just a figment of David’s imagination.
6. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Image credit: Decla-Film
Spoiler-free synopsis
Francis tells the story of a fated visit to a sideshow attraction with his fiancée and best friend. The outing quickly spins into tragedy when the host of the show makes a bold and unsettling prediction that turns out to be true.
Dr. Caligari welcomes visitors to his show
Why it looks great on projectors
There’s something romantic about watching old movies on a projector. You may not have a proper film projector and reel canister of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari at home, but there’s no reason you can’t get the full experience on a modern projector.
Try turning off the lights and projecting this movie onto a plain white wall. If you have a newer laser projector, try enabling dynamic black or other dimming technologies so that the unlit margins on either side are less noticeable. The result: a massive screen in the perfect square aspect ratio.
The movie set features dramatic painted-on shadows
Our mini-reviews
Eli
Truly an artistic horror film. The dystopian-like architecture contributes to the eerie story of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. A silent horror film that uses other elements to create terror was very impressive at the time the movie was released but I still consider it impressive today.
Amber
Such a boldly stylized film. It can be hard to convey a story with no more dialogue than can fit on a few text frames, but the expressionist set design goes a long way in establishing the characters’ motives and feelings.
5. Talk To Me (2023)
Image credit: A24
Spoiler-free synopsis
A group of teenagers are in possession of a haunted artifact: an embalmed hand that enables one to interact with the dead for as long as they hold it. Hooked on the rush of communing with the other side, the teens become increasingly careless as they begin passing it around at parties.
Protagonist Mia is pressured into trying out the hand for the first time
Why it looks great on projectors
Talk To Me is one of A24’s scariest horror movies to date. If you want to be completely immersed in the action, you’ll want to watch it on an extra-large screen. It’s the perfect occasion to pull your projector a little further back from the wall so that you can enjoy the movie on a screen so large that it consumes your entire field of vision.
It’ll be just like going to the movie theater, but no one else will be there to talk over the movie and break you out of your horror-induced trance.
Mia’s pupils dilate as she’s possessed by a spirit
Our mini-reviews
Eli
New party game unlocked. What would you do to contact someone on the other side? The hand is a great symbol for that idea.
Much more emotion is put into the writing and acting in this horror film. Makes it stand out against the others a little.
Amber
Instant classic. Talk To Me perfectly blends supernatural and psychological horror. Fear, consequence, dread, madness… it’s like someone took all the aspects of horror movies that make them terrifying and mixed them all up together. And let me tell you, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
4. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014)
Image credit: Vice Films
Spoiler-free synopsis
A ruthless vampire haunts the streets of Bad City each night, slaughtering the men who assault, abuse, or disrespect women. Amid her vigilante streak, she has a chance encounter with Arash, a hopeless romantic who brings out her soft side.
The Girl decides whether to spare Arash’s life
Why it looks great on projectors
For every detail that’s lost when filming in black and white, something else is gained. In the absence of color, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night has an extraordinarily expressive contrast between light and dark. This transforms the mood of the film, adding an air of mystery, seediness, and old-world romance.
These dramatic, high contrast scenes are brought to life on a screen with a high contrast ratio and low black level. That is, with a high contrast between the lightest and the darkest possible shades and with the darkest shade being as black as possible.
The dramatic light on The Girl’s face creates a powerful focal point
Our mini-reviews
Eli
I never knew what was gonna come next. I adore this film so much. This is a very well executed artistic horror film. The bedroom scene gets me every time. It’s such a cute moment for the main characters. I always love the use of shadows especially in black and white films.
Amber
One of my favorites. It’s so gothic, suspenseful, and morbidly romantic. I love how you go in thinking the movie’s going to be a certain way based on the title before your expectations are completely subverted and you realize that the girl who walks home alone at night is the dangerous one.
3. Barbarian (2022)
Image credit: 20th Century Studios
Spoiler-free synopsis
Tess arrives at her Airbnb to discover that it has been double-booked. Unable to find other accommodations at the last minute, she decides to share the house with Keith, the stranger who has already checked in. Her stay quickly goes awry when she hears someone in the basement and goes to investigate.
Tess is greeted by a stranger when the key to her Airbnb isn’t in the lockbox
Why it looks great on projectors
What’s your go-to source of light when you have to find something in the dark? Chances are, you’d whip out your phone’s flashlight. In Barbarian, this is exactly what Tess does as she explores the basement beneath her Airbnb.
Cell phone flashlights may be bright, but they’re weak and reveal very little in the distance. And since a character has to hold the phone, the lighting moves sporadically when the character holding it is panicking. This strategic choice of lighting keeps the suspense alive for an extra long time.
For the best experience during these dark scenes, see if your projector supports dynamic black. This intelligent feature will improve contrast, bring out details in low-light scenes, and generally ensure that the darks are darker.
Tess uses her phone flashlight to navigate
Our mini-reviews
Eli
Adding Airbnbs to my list of what horror movies have ruined for me. Talk about mommy issues jeez. Very interesting way of piecing together the story of the basement.
Amber
This movie rattled me to my core. If you can, go into Barbarian blind the first time you watch it. There’s nothing quite like the fear of the unknown. And nothing is revealed to you until protag Tess discovers another layer of horror within her Airbnb.
2. Nope (2022)
Image credit: Universal Pictures
Spoiler-free synopsis
The Haywood siblings investigate an unidentified flying object that passes over their family horse ranch every night. Believing this phenomenon to have caused the death of their father, they attempt to prove its existence by capturing it on video — a feat made dangerous by its predatory and secretive nature.
The Haywood enlist the help of a documentarian
Why it looks great on projectors
The team behind Nope developed a new technique to shoot night scenes so that they can accurately portray the way that we experience darkness after our eyes have time to adjust.
To achieve this effect, they filmed each scene twice — once in daylight using regular film, and once using infrared film. The infrared film captures shape and depth without shadows, while the daylight film captures light and color.
They layered these images and color-corrected the footage to create a rich, inky blue that feels like nighttime with no natural light sources.
For the truest experience, you’ll want to make sure that your projector is calibrated with near-perfect color accuracy (with a Delta-E reading under 3). That way, you can experience this reproduction of moonlight the way Jordan Peele intended. You can learn more about the color calibration process in this video.
Emerald Haywood makes a phone call under the moonlight
Our mini-reviews
Eli
I never look at a slow moving cloud in the sky the same again. Thank you Jordan Peele for making another masterpiece.
I love the animal usage in Hollywood and entertainment backstory in the film. A topic not discussed more in our lives I think. Using a real piece of history makes the film more believable. The dynamic between the brother and sister is also very believable.
Amber
Every moment watching Nope feels like another big reveal. The horror in this movie is so vast and eldritch that to be able to understand the weight of what’s going on, it needs to be revealed in bite-sized pieces.
1. The Descent (2005)
Image credit: Pathé Distribution
Spoiler-free synopsis
In this all-women horror movie, a group of adrenaline-seeking friends venture into an unexplored cave system. When the cave entrance collapses, trapping them inside, they begin finding evidence of a previous expedition — along with a lurking suspicion that they’re not alone.
The group uses a red flare to assess the cave system
Why it looks great on projectors
Inside the cave, the only source of light are the headlamps, flashlights, and improvisational light sources that each climber brings in. The result: extremely dark scenes with bright, colorful light sources that will put HDR to the test.
Once she loses her headlamp, Sarah uses a glow stick to navigate
Our mini-reviews
Eli
You never know what is lurking in the darkness. Feels like everytime I watch horror movies I unlock a new fear. Don’t think caves are for me anymore. Feels like they are doomed from the start so you are just forced to watch their descent into death throughout the movie.
Amber
It’s what you can’t see that makes horror movies truly scary. The Descent is so dark that you never quite know what you’re looking at. And even when the scene is lit, the light reveals so little.
Two characters will be fighting when one of them gets thrown off a cliff — but with their headlamps flailing around as they wrestle, you’re never quite sure who’s coming out on top. The tension is unbelievable in the final moments before the victor is revealed.
A Few Last Projector Tips
Before you settle down with your horror movie, don’t forget to turn off the lights and close your curtains. Not only are dark rooms sought after for making horror movies scarier, but projectors look much better in a dark room than anywhere else.
Also consider getting a gray or Fresnel screen, as these surfaces will ensure that the shadows in your movie are as inky black as possible.
We hope you have a wonderful Spooktober!
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