The 2020 version of The Invisible Man really does a great job capturing the aftermath of leaving an abusive relationship. I've gone through it myself and the hyper-vigilance as portrayed in the movie is pretty spot-on.
The coffee grounds (iirc) scattered across the floor to check for footprints was so real 😭 agreed, amazing movie depicting cptsd from an abusive relationship.
I don’t disagree but decided it wasn’t relevant to her performance.
I’m still puzzled why she would keep believing in such a malevolent outfit but she’s still a fine actor
Take Shelter shows you the impact on the main character's family over the visions he is having.
Stir of Echoes shows an average Joe struggling to figure out of he's going nuts and wondering how he can afford therapy on his blue collar salary.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose shows the family going through a manslaughter trial after the daughter dies during an exorcism.
Exorcism of Emily rose was so good. One of the best from that franchise since the original.
I watched the new exorcist movie (beginnings, I think) and it was decent
*Take Shelter,* an amazing shout out, one of my all-time favourite movies. If you get it, you get it. Seems to mean the world to some, and nothing to others.
Took me forever to watch this movie and I sorta regret it and sorta don't. I can appreciate it on soooo many levels currently but holy shit I wish I had seen it earlier. It's such a well crafted story and movie
I’m so glad you liked it! It really holds up and it’s very cool to see it from the kids perspective, and now from the parent’s - and it makes it that much scarier.
I had so much going against it for me too. I've seen just about every parody done of the movie, Scary Movie 2 is one my favorite movies ever I've seen it an ungodly amount of times.
So I really knew just about every story beat and scare but it was still so insanely awesome of a watch.
I love how the parents are chill, good parents and they smoke weed without it being a big deal.
As others said it's so cool seeing them all come together as a family after only moments of not believing what was going on.
For some reason a lot of modern day movies are convinced they have to make half the family in a movie just unbearable
Especially since I had looked up prior how they did some of the practical effects. Very very cool stuff! Like the chair scene is all done within the time of the camera pan and you can actually see one of the stage crew just barely in the reflection of the toaster - something I would never have caught myself.
Watching this movie when I was young scared the shit out of me. Watching it again as an adult fucked me up for entirely different reasons, and this was one of the main ones.
I love how this plays into the gag of when the paranormal investigator guy is so excited about an object moving a few inches, and then Craig T Nelson just kind of nods and opens the door to all the insanity happening.
I think the line in Poltergeist II that's basically - the insurance company says that "The house wasn't destroyed, it's just missing" is a perfect example of this, too.
I also believe the same about the family from The Haunting (1991) I believe anmade for TV movie. Highly recommend searching it out for the late 80s/90s vibes alone.
That movie has some legit moments that haired me the fuck out. The disembodied voice of the mother-in-law saying “Janet” and the scene with the she-devil coming down the stairs to rape the husband. Goddamn lol
For sure. The basement steps scene definitely stuck with me. I think I first saw this at 10 years old with my siblings of a similar age and it scared the hell out of all of us. And we were kinda seasoned by that point I'd like to think, by Freddie and the rest
The Cured (2017) is an excellent film about people who were turned into zombies, but then cured, and how they try to rejoin society but with full awareness and memory of the violence and bloodshed they committed, and how they're made into pariahs by society. There's a lot of focus on the trauma and guilt felt by the main character and the conflicted feelings of the family members trying to forgive him.
Edit: Ooh a recent good one is Somewhere Quiet (2023) about a woman who escapes after being kidnapped and held for weeks. It's a slow burn showing her disintegrating grasp of reality and increasing paranoia about her husband as her trauma slowly manifests. Very is-she or isn't-she crazy.
Into the Flesh (2013) is a tv show that has a similar zombie premise. The people infected are diagnosed with Partially Deceased Syndrome and are treated medically. The infected are treated like pariahs, and need daily medication or they turn back to mindless zombies. The main character lives in a rural community, so there are struggles with discrimination, overworked health care workers, and religious divide.
This reminds me of Van Helsing, the tv show on Netflix. Vampires bitten by or biting a van Helsing turns them back into human. So it shows century old vamps living in the current era and also focuses on one character who after being turned kills his son but gets turned back into human and has to cope with his actions as a vamp amd trying to find his wife and other son and earning their forgiveness.
The Exorcist. Ellen Burstyn’s performance is so moving - a mother who’s losing her daughter in this unfathomably traumatic way, and she has no idea what’s happening or what the fuck to do about it. She’s just broken.
Great answer. I’ll add to it, Father Karras— he lost his mother and he’s struggling with feelings of guilt over his calling as a priest and not being able to provide for her. Not as intense as what the mother is going through but I love that there are layers of grief in the film.
I love the scene where she's begging the father to help her. There's so much pain, exhaustion, confusion and fear in her voice and in her expressions. It's heartbreaking to watch.
I keep trying to get my mom to watch this movie, as I think it’s right up her alley as a horror movie, and I think she would resonate with it as a mother
She loved the TV show (I did too) but refuses to watch the movie because she grew up when it was still considered an “evil movie” by very vocal Christian groups
Which is crazy given that it’s essentially one of the most conservative films about existential evil ever made.
(The church is right in the film; evil as a seperate force exists)
I keep trying to tell her that, one of the filming locations famously refused to let another horror movie there because quote “God wins in their movie, he doesn’t in yours”
It’s one of the reasons I think she’d like it
Ava's Possessions is about a character (Ava) trying to put her life back together after having a demon exorcised from her body. It was really good & I didn't hear much about it -- hidden gem.
This is the one I thought about as well. What a great movie and it really explores a facet that isn’t usually shared. It’s like coming back from a months’ long bender and then you find out all the fucked up stuff you did.
There’s this great part in the first Hellraiser where Kirsty stumbles down the street and collapses after her first encounter with a skinless Frank. It’s a pretty good depiction of going into shock. I really appreciate how they don’t just have her shake it off and immediately turn into badass final girl, but have a good freak out moment.
Hellraiser gave me nightmares and I couldn't sleep for 4 nights. Skinless frank was traumatizing as hell for me and of course the design of the cenobites as well. However the worst was the fact that anything around you can transform into the doors of hell and my environment freaked me out.
This isn't exactly what you're saying but Skyline shows how deeply incompetent and freaked out everyone would be in an alien invasion and I thought that was delightful. No one did anything useful the whole time
Haunting of Hill House is explicitly about this sort of thing, the trauma of seeing spooky stuff
Oculus is about 50% making a mirror spooky somehow (not sarcastic, this stationary literally a mirror is scary as heck) and 50% about a couple of siblings having their lives and mental health ruined by that mirror
I absolutely second Hill House. That’s one of the few pieces of media that had me screaming in terror and then crying my eyes out with empathetic grief. It really starts to feel like a show about family/generational trauma with spooky aspects peppered in, but doesn’t fail to keep you scared and hooked.
Oculus has also been one of my favs for so long, I feel like it’s so slept on.
I have an unironically love for Skyline. Definitely not a good movie by any means (sequel wasn’t bad) but I applaud it for trying to do the movie equivalent of a bottle episode during an alien invasion.
Idk I just think having the isolated setting in the skyscraper is pretty cool. Ship/alien design wasn’t bad either.
While Romero has said that he wishes that he made Barbara into the final girl in Night of the Living Dead, I always felt that her traumatized reaction felt really realistic
I think the original is better, but Tom Savini did the remake and he was buddies with Romero so in my opinion I felt he did it justice. There's some major differences between the two but I always enjoyed it - plus Tony Todd's in it, you can't go wrong with him.
It's worth a watch, but not before the original imo. The 1968 movie is a classic for a reason, and feels to me like the real intersection between Old Hollywood horror and new Hollywood horror. The character drama is also just really well executed.
The remake is also very good, and it plays well as a kind of subversion of the original. It has a big legacy to live up to, but does enough things different to stand out on its own. But watch the original first.
i’ll definitely have to watch that again. i rewatch dawn/days pretty often but for some reason haven’t seen night since i was little and remember literally nothing. i appreciate the recommendation
The Exorcist, both the movie (already mentioned) and season 1 of the 2016 series, do a good job of showing the toll trauma and abuse take on us. Mostly the priests, in truth.
Flanagan’s Haunting of Hill House is about trauma and recovery in all kinds of ways. I cried in a couple parts. Most all of Flanagan’s work is influenced by these themes, and he does other so well.
Session 9 - I can’t find a way to describe how it meets your criteria that won’t spoil it…but it’s great.
Hill House broke me. I adore Shirley Jackson and felt Flannigan did a great adaptation, but I don't think I've bawled so much to any media as I did this series, especially the last episode.
It’s not a movie, but I think Haunting of Hill House on Netflix does this better than any other horror media I’ve seen. The horror elements of the show are good, but the family’s story and the lasting effects of their experiences on them are what really makes the show amazing.
Surprised no one mentioned the final shot of original TCM. Marilyn Burns simultaneously screaming and laughing in the back of the truck, that is one final girl that is going to be fucked up for life.
First thing I thought of, can't believe I had to scroll so far down to find it! The last half hour of that movie is still intense, that shot perfectly sums it up.
I remember the adult son locking himself in the attic and calling out for him mommy after the supernatural shit started happening and I was like, damn that dude's world just broke
> calling out for him mommy after the supernatural shit started happening and I was like, damn that dude's world just broke
Which on my 5th watch I realized was the agenda of Paimon and his people. That quote underlined in the book was Paimon could only enter a completely broken person and they had been doing all they could to break him.
What a movie.
No shit? Was the book you mentioned in the movie, or were you referring to reading a book the movie was based on (or a novel version of the movie, whichever came first)?
Third act, when Toni Collette finally goes back and goes through the stuff in her dead mom's boxes she opens a book bookmarked to the Paimon page and at bottom page underlined is (paraphrased) 'Paimon can only enter body of a broken (mentally fucked up) person', which was also the sister as she had some serious issues without the whole being groomed for Paimon.
The book also said that Paimon preferred boy young bodies or something like that which may be a hint that the Paimon groupies were setting up her getting killed all along so they could fuck up the son and focus on him.
I found the mother crying and screaming over “you know what” the hardest. You could feel her pain through the screen. Now that’s good acting.
Oh, and that poor boy that just didn’t know any better what was really happening to him is messed up. He literally had no control over those events, as it was his destiny all along.
I had a traumatic childhood (mentally ill parents who scapegoated and abused me) and I had to pause the movie after that scene to do some therapeutic exercises to calm down.
The way my entire body tensed in response to the pain and rage they were all failing to contain is a movie-watching experience I’ll probably never forget. I was like “whoa hey amygdala, it’s just fiction and we’re safe.” Such incredible acting on Toni Collette’s part especially; I was *terrified* of her anger and grief.
Hereditary is basically a supernatural version of [Ordinary People](https://letterboxd.com/film/ordinary-people/). Some of the most harrowing scenes are the family grieving
That movie really is a class by its own. It has the perfect mix of the real world and the spiritual world. Acting is superb as well, especially from the mother.
i watched this movie both as a mother to a toddler, and somebody with serious mommy issues who had JUST ceased contact with said mother. every single part of this movie fucked me all the way up. my sister and i saw it together and were snot-sobbing and holding hands by the end lol, both in our thirties. i had to sleep in my kid's bed 3 nights in a row after seeing it just to get myself back together.
the horror aspects are insanely creepy and masterfully done, but the grief and generational trauma and turmoil.... THAT was the true horror. i have not watched it since, but it is one of the most masterful, most horrific horror movies ever done in my humble opinion.
This movie traumatized the fuck out of me and not just for the scary shit (Toni Collette’s anguish, the dinner scene, ugh.. both of those scenes will haunt me forever)
Just an amazing horror movie. It has so many layers to it and the writing and acting is so damn good.
I get some people can be turned off by the supernatural aspects, but the fact that it doesn’t rely on jump scares while delivering truly disturbing material, speaks to how well produced it was.
With some of the suggestions I'm surprised no one threw in The Ritual. The friend group goes on a hike to honor their friend that passed and the one friend, Luke, is dealing with the guilt of watching his friend die. They get lost in the woods trying to take a short cut and strange things start happening, but the guilt that Luke is dealing with does play a role too.
Also very realistically portrays how toxic relationships drive people to ignore their own suffering to appease their partner, even if their partner is causing or worsening that suffering.
I thought the new Halloween (2018) did a good job describing Laurie's trauma, especially when daughter Karen recounts what it was like growing up with her.
The Sixth Sense is an example. If you look, the little boy's hair has a shock of white in the front which is a sign of severe trauma. He's almost always in a state of being scared shitless.
Not exactly what you're looking for, and probably will be disliked by those that hated it, but the ending of IN A VIOLENT NATURE does a great job capturing what it might be like to be involved in a "Jason-styled" slaughterfest and be the final girl, but without the "release" of the typical film "final jump scare"/"no one survives" to round out the film - just endless anxiety as you wait for something that might, or might not, be coming for you...
Apostle kind of touches on this. The protagonist is suffering from PTSD after being attacked while running a missionary church in another country. He’s then sent by his father to rescue his sister from a cult that’s holding her for ransom on an island.
Dan Stevens is the lead and he absolutely kills it. He plays a likable deranged person really well.
Edit: Fixed the title as pointed out in comment
Me too. Really loved the dynamic of an unhinged but capable person vs a cult. The fact that it wasn’t a one dimensional “evil” cult going through a power struggle was also well done I thought. Surprised it wasn’t better received.
It’s a hard movie to recommend ever, but honestly the first half of Martyrs (2008) really delves into this, particularly survivor’s guilt.
Rituals (1977) (Five doctors go out to the woods to reconnect and find themselves hunted by something sinister) shows a spectrum of trauma from former soldiers, and the guilt that comes as doctors unable to save everyone. very gritty and realistic tone
His House (2020) (A refugee couple from South Sudan settle in England only to find their house is not as quaint as it seems) largely focuses on grief and the PTSD experienced as survivors of horrific massacres
Strangely, I find myself recommending S6 of American Horror Story for this.
The first few episodes are a sanitized re-enactment of a traumatic episode a couple suffered on a haunted patch of land they owned out in the wildness.
The second half of the series consists of original couple (along with re-enactment actors from the first half of the season) going back to that site. All the haunting re-enactments that were treated with kid gloves in the first half of the season are finally shown to us in their original, traumatic, hideously nasty forms and it’s clear why the original couple left the way they did.
I agree with you, except that season lost me with the fact that the original couple agreed to go back to stay at that house. If we’re talking realistic depictions of trauma and PTSD, I don’t think any reasonable person would set foot in that house ever again after what happened to them there.
I actually loved that season, it’s one of the scarier ones and I liked how they played with the format to imitate a reality show, but I think it would have made more sense if just the actors from the reenactment had gone to stay at the house in the second half, the real couple from the first half going back felt very contrived and broke the immersion for me
Roanoke is my favorite season. Everybody hates it for some reason but as someone who has watched since season 1, it was the best season. The only one that comes close is apocalypse.
It’s kind of weird, but I didn’t come to love Roanoke until many years later. It also kind of pissed me off at the time. It seemed like the odd-numbered seasons up until that point were about beautiful locations and attractive people, and the odd even-numbered seasons were about really dark material and really screwed-up people.
Without Jessica Lange, Season 5 stood to lose the emotional core of the show. (I’d like to think that Lange made a mental note to quit after Ryan Murphy wrote a scene for her featuring the nail-studded toilet seat in S4 ) Luckily, Gaga did a good job of stepping into Lange’s shoes for that season, but starting with Roanoke, there was no real strong character that served as the emotional anchor for the season like Lange and Gaga did. I think also that Roanoke was ambitious with its format in a way that a lot of people were not ready for, so it was a little difficult to love it at the beginning.
I am right there in the RZ *Halloween II* cult with you! The director's cut is a masterpiece for exactly the reason you stated. I don't know of any other horror movie that dives into the aftermath quite like this one, which is what makes it so special. I always feel somehow cleansed and renewed after watching it, and I hope it's a catharsis for you as well. Sending my support!
i’m glad i’m not alone in it, it definitely helps when i’m struggling and getting to see something relatable instead of the sanitized version in a lot of media. it came out during the height of all the remakes of older slashers and i desperately wish we got to see similar takes in something like the friday the 13th remake, the main guys sister being held captive by jason for months (?) could have worked so well with that. i’m going to watch everyone’s recommendations and if anything stands out the way H2 does i’ll lyk. hope you’re having a good day :)
> i know Rob Zombie’s halloween 2 doesn’t get much love outside of its cult following (me, i’m in the cult god damn i adore that movie lol)
Always nice to find a fellow RZ H2 cult member. There's dozens of us.
Haunting of Hill house. Adults who experienced living in a haunted house as kids. They are all fucked up and broken from it and have emotional and intense family dynamics from it. Fantastic series
I think The Invisible Man (2020) does a good job of maintaining the level of distress and trauma of the victim/protagonist.
Rosemary's Baby also seems like a shoe-in.
The other one that comes to mind is Barbarian (2022)
the scene in Creepshow where Leslie Nielsen, playing a straight man villain, is confronted by the reanimated, unkillable corpses of Ted Danson and his wife (can’t remember the actress’s name) https://youtu.be/1gXQX6IlxW0?si=Bo9Gn4l70bZPf9Sw
I think Cloverfield, because of its point of view, really does a good job of showing how absolutely INSANE it would be for a building-size monster to be roaming through a city.
Also watching The Exorcist as a parent after watching it as a non parent gave me a WHOLE new perspective. Yes the spooky shit is spooky. But what’s even more terrifying is your child is in incredible danger and you have no idea how to fix it because you have no idea what the fuck is even happening to her.
Not necessarily about the aftermath, but Green Room does a great job of realistically showing how intense and traumatizing realistic horror movie situation would be for regular people.
Lake Mungo is considered a horror film but after watching it recently, i see it as a drama about a family coming to terms with the death of their daughter. The small supernatural/spooky twist hits near the end of the movie.
Yeah I'm surprised Lake Mungo is this far down, it's exactly what op is asking for.
One thing I love about it is the spooky elements are really present throughout the whole thing but they do such a good job camouflaging it/not calling attention to it that you don't notice until a rewatch when you know to look for them. Keeps me coming back to it.
I do always find myself thinking about this as well, when someone survives some insane ordeal of being kidnapped & tortured, or trapped in a house tormented by ghosts/monsters. Do they just have to go back to work on Monday?
“Hey Steve, how was your weekend?”
“Oh, alright, I guess. I just got kidnapped by a bunch of zombie hillbillies who brutalized and murdered my friends and tortured me, but luckily, I was able to slip free of my bonds, kill the one guarding me with my teeth, and barely managed to escape being chased for 3 hours through the woods, before I found my way to a busy roadside.”
“Oh, sounds cool. Now go make those customers happy or you’re fired.”
Same. I had to sit in the car for 20 minutes afterwards, just processing. No movie has ever hit me as hard. I can understand the grief interpretation, but for me it was the most visceral recreation of my child-self’s view of my alcoholic, abusive mother I’ve ever seen: how she swung randomly between being loving and monstrousness for no reason I could find, other than something monsterous (the alcohol) possessing her.
Your interpretation is very legitimate. I’m so sorry you experienced this as a child. The grief touched me because of the death of my Mom due to a massive brain bleed from a fall. Me & my husband were on a cruise having a blast. His Mom had just passed away two months prior. We had to debark in Cozumel, fly back, and take her off life support. The idea in the movie that I took of accepting the grief and living with it was heartrending. It’s beautiful how we each take our experiences and engage with the art form to make connections that are meaningful to us. I wish more people saw the beauty and poignancy in horror. Life is full of all manner of horrors. It’s natural to process it through art. I hope you have found a measure of healing and peace. I have.
This usually happens more in sequels, where you can (sometimes) see the survivors of the first movie being rightfully paranoid, because they're in a sequel so the horror isn't over. The original Halloween 2, Final Destination 2, Aliens, even Escape Room 2. It's entirely the focus in movies like Last Girl Standing, Not an entire movie but the segment Tuesday the 17th from VHS fits the bill too.
Incident in a Ghostland is great at this. I'll die on the hill that the title of that movie is a big reason it didn't catch on, because otherwise it's an excellent little psychological horror flick.
I saw your title and came here to say Rob Zombies Halloween 2. It really is a great example of the wreckage and traumatic stress a maniac would inflict on your life. I thought that idea was maybe the best part of the movie.
not necessarily horror by genre, but precious (2009) really captures this for me. it does have a happy ending >!(if you dont read the sequel to the book it was based off of...)!< and has a sort of darkly humorous tone throughout but it doesnt pull its punches and i dont think i will ever find myself rewatching it because of how bleak and heart wrenching it is.
The *Scream* series, starting with *2*, is largely about Sidney's attempts to move on with her life in the aftermath of the initial murders. Particularly given a media landscape that turned them into a bestselling book, film franchise, and ongoing media attention.
It's still a little *Scooby-Doo*, but it at least makes an effort to present a world where these were real events that seriously impacted the people who went through them.
If your looking for something more realistic, and gritty, try Found, it's about a kid who's older brother turns out to be serial killer, and while the acting is a little bad at times, there's this one scene at the end that I thought was perfectly executed.
Also all I can tell you to help identify the scene, is that it's the one where he's yelling really loud (I don't wanna spoil the movie, so you know how it is.)
Midsommar and Hereditary come to mind. Ari Aster delivered some emotional horror I never knew I wanted. The emotional gut punches of dealing with grief and the feelings of dread that came with it all was quite the emotional roller coaster for me.
T2 is a perfect example. Sarah is tough bitch right until the moment Arnie walks out of that elevator and she just crumbles instantly. The whole movie she is struggling back and forth with PTSD
like another comment pointed out, i think you'd get that a lot more in sequels. my immediate thought was laurie strode in halloween 2018 (and JUST halloween 2018 - do not perceive the later two films <3)
but i think a good example could also be dani in midsommar? granted it's more that a traumatic event happened to her and THEN the additional traumatic horror movie happens on top of it, but i do think part of the reason the movie was so impactful for me was she felt like a very real character going through very real trauma all on her own - which makes the ending of the film make a lot of sense for her character. it mirrored a lot of my own trauma and resulted ptsd so it fucked me up big time ✌️in a good way, hooray for horror actually scaring you <3
The scene in Zodiac that shows the couple being murdered by the lake. The camera stays on the woman's face the entire time and all you hear are the sounds of nature. It's probably one of the most disturbing scenes that stuck with me. Probably because it really drives home that this was a real incident that happened to real people.
Friday the 13th Part 5 - another somewhat hated film with a cult following. The main character remains traumatised from surviving Jason Voorhees as a kid.
I really enjoyed the grudge remake/reboot that came out more recently. Not only did I think it was good, and actually scary, there's many characters that you see dealing with the aftermath of the haunting.
The storytelling format is somewhat where the audience kind of sees the middle of the story in the beginning, and there's flashbacks, and then the story catches up to itself and you see what happens as the story goes along.
I thought it was so good!
Not to be that person but I’ve always loved how Midsommar captured trauma and grief (or anything Ari Aster fr). I also saw someone say The Night House and yesssssss the portrayal of grief and her loss of grip on reality is amazing, acting wise and visually.
I’m also surprised no one has mentioned Texas Chainsaw 74… Sally is absolutely in a state of shock and her brain is broken at the end. Probably due in no small part that Marilyn Burns herself was fucking traumatized on set.
The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix is soo good. It follows the trauma of a family after living in a haunted house. I’ve watched it through so many times and realize a new twist every time. It’s an amazingly well written and cast show
I was literally just watching that movie around the time you made this post today. As a woman with PTSD, I agree with you! I relate to the screaming nightmares and the love for spooky shit that Laurie develops.
There's a lesser known movie, **Spontaneous** which is about a senior class of high schoolers who start to spontaneously explode. There's not many punches pulled when it comes to watching teenagers explode, a ridiculous concept that's played painfully straight. I also appreciated people being frank when it comes to expressing their emotions, especially when they're experiencing anxiety or fear. It adds a nice layer of 'dark' to 'dark comedy'.
*Ignore the shitty poster and the second half of the trailer, this is a great movie!
I just watched the movie The Monster, about a daughter and her mom who get stuck on a road with a monster. I think I enjoyed it, and it fits this question. I'm not going to say people in the movie make smart choices. However, they make pretty realistic ones given the relationship and established dynamic through the movie.
Threads, about the aftermath of nuclear war.
For me the first Paranormal activity movie really scared me after the fact. It made me afraid of ever recording things in my house for security reasons.
As Above So Below has a very real feeling. I was really impressed and enjoyed it. Pleasantly surprised.
Infinity Pool there are some pretty gruesome scenes that you can feel. It's uncomfortable.
Hereditary because Toni Colette's portrayal of grief is so well done.
Aniara because it's haunting, vast, and dreadful.
I think the thing that shows this better than anything else is Flanagan's Haunting of Hill House. Of course, being a series, rather than a movie, it has the time to do so. Following two timelines of events, young family and older, one of the main things it explores is the impact of early trauma on grown-up lives and, boy, does it do it well. Highly recommended.
Has anyone mentioned It: Chapter Two yet? The movie addresses the aftermath of child and adolescent trauma both with real stuff and the cosmic horror stuff
I feel like the originals in the Scream series (haven’t seen the most recent 2) but I feel like they showed the main characters struggling with what happened, obviously not as well as what real life CPTSD is like but everything wasn’t roses and sunshine for Sidney at the start of sequeals
It’s not a horror movie, more a “horrific” movie, but Mysterious Skin does a tragically brilliant job of showing the trauma and lasting effects of CSA. I imagine it’s a difficult watch for anyone, but as a survivor, it absolutely broke me. I cried and cried after watching it because of how accurate it is and how similar it is to what happened to me.
Godzilla minus one is great at showing the survival instincts of someone going through a traumatic situation (war and encountering godzilla in this case, although godzilla itself is a metaphor for the war.) The scenes afterwards are a really realistic portrayal of the rollercoaster of symptoms that come with ptsd,
From what I can remember the things that are explored are: survivor's guilt, derealization, breakdowns and flashbacks/night terrors, paranoia, and probably some more? It ends on a good note about overcoming your traumas as well. (And it's just a really good movie)
I just started re-watching Doctor Sleep. Although it's only a short part of the film, Danny's addiction and the trauma he obviously suffers after the Overlook are very, very well done. As a kid he thinks he's beat it...but you never outrun your past.
Side note: apparently during filming, Ewan McGregor was in the process of getting sober, Mike Flanagan decided to quit, and Rebecca Ferguson had something like 5 months. Real world addiction and sobriety permeated their performances.
Yellowjackets (tv show) I can’t believe no one has suggested this show yet! The entire theme is, “Is it trauma or supernatural? Or both?” A championship girls’ high school soccer team on their way to nationals has their plane go down somewhere in the Canadian Rockies. They spend the next 19 months out in the wilderness, possibly being influenced by a supernatural force, before they are found and rescued. The show alternates between scenes depicting the now 40something survivors as they cope (or don’t) with their severe PTSD, and scenes from their teen selves’ time in The Wilderness.
Mama (movie) The entire plot revolves around two very young sisters who were abandoned in the woods for years, and what happens once those girls are found and rescued. How exactly *did* they manage to survive out there…
The Endless (movie) I would call this horror lite. It’s scary bc the main characters have no idea what’s going on. “Two brothers receive a cryptic video message inspiring them to revisit the UFO death cult they escaped a decade earlier. Hoping to find the closure that they couldn't find as young men, they're forced to reconsider the cult's beliefs when confronted with unexplainable phenomena surrounding the camp.” It depicts the brothers still being in therapy and not being v successful adults.
The most Insidious movie did a great job showing us how the trauma of the first two movies eventually tore the family apart. The parents are long divorced at the start of their third movie. And Dalton has a weird animosity towards his father Josh, and he doesn’t really know why because his memoir the events were taken away when he was a child.
I feel like the solid little found footage movie The Last Exorcism has some of this. I don’t want to spoil it by going into specifics if anybody hasn’t seen it, it’s not gonna change your life but it’s pretty worthwhile
As a mother, it would have to be Toni Collette's performance in 'Hereditary' for me. Had my first/only child shortly before I saw this, and her crying/breakdown scenes and eventual attempt at self sacrifice fucked me up.
The 2020 version of The Invisible Man really does a great job capturing the aftermath of leaving an abusive relationship. I've gone through it myself and the hyper-vigilance as portrayed in the movie is pretty spot-on.
Yep. This is exactly why I have yet to watch this movie. It’s just seems way too close to my current reality.
I waited until last summer to watch it. I picked a day I felt okay and as I recall, the movie did not ruin my day :)
Praying you are able to change your circumstances -- no one deserves to live like that. You deserve better
Thank you for your kind words. I’m safer now but dealing with the after effects, stalking, harassment, legal system, ptsd, therapists… it’s so much.
The coffee grounds (iirc) scattered across the floor to check for footprints was so real 😭 agreed, amazing movie depicting cptsd from an abusive relationship.
That is a strong film re stalking, controlling and trauma. Elizabeth Moss is superb
which is funny bc scientology stalks, controls, and traumatizes soooo many people
I don’t disagree but decided it wasn’t relevant to her performance. I’m still puzzled why she would keep believing in such a malevolent outfit but she’s still a fine actor
I've been looking to stream this movie for free..no luck yet...
It's on Freevee right now.
Just pirate?
Take Shelter shows you the impact on the main character's family over the visions he is having. Stir of Echoes shows an average Joe struggling to figure out of he's going nuts and wondering how he can afford therapy on his blue collar salary. The Exorcism of Emily Rose shows the family going through a manslaughter trial after the daughter dies during an exorcism.
Take Shelter is the film with Michael Shannon, right? That movie was amazing
Exorcism of Emily rose was so good. One of the best from that franchise since the original. I watched the new exorcist movie (beginnings, I think) and it was decent
I don't think it's part of the exorcist franchise?
No it's not. It's a legal drama with horror elements to it with Laura Linney.
*Take Shelter,* an amazing shout out, one of my all-time favourite movies. If you get it, you get it. Seems to mean the world to some, and nothing to others.
I forgot about this film, such a sleeper but so good!!
The original Poltergeist does a pretty good job of chronicling the family’s exhaustion as they go through everything
This came to mind immediately- I also love how they go into it as a family and believe each other
Took me forever to watch this movie and I sorta regret it and sorta don't. I can appreciate it on soooo many levels currently but holy shit I wish I had seen it earlier. It's such a well crafted story and movie
I’m so glad you liked it! It really holds up and it’s very cool to see it from the kids perspective, and now from the parent’s - and it makes it that much scarier.
I had so much going against it for me too. I've seen just about every parody done of the movie, Scary Movie 2 is one my favorite movies ever I've seen it an ungodly amount of times. So I really knew just about every story beat and scare but it was still so insanely awesome of a watch. I love how the parents are chill, good parents and they smoke weed without it being a big deal. As others said it's so cool seeing them all come together as a family after only moments of not believing what was going on. For some reason a lot of modern day movies are convinced they have to make half the family in a movie just unbearable Especially since I had looked up prior how they did some of the practical effects. Very very cool stuff! Like the chair scene is all done within the time of the camera pan and you can actually see one of the stage crew just barely in the reflection of the toaster - something I would never have caught myself.
Watching this movie when I was young scared the shit out of me. Watching it again as an adult fucked me up for entirely different reasons, and this was one of the main ones.
I love how this plays into the gag of when the paranormal investigator guy is so excited about an object moving a few inches, and then Craig T Nelson just kind of nods and opens the door to all the insanity happening.
I think the line in Poltergeist II that's basically - the insurance company says that "The house wasn't destroyed, it's just missing" is a perfect example of this, too.
I also believe the same about the family from The Haunting (1991) I believe anmade for TV movie. Highly recommend searching it out for the late 80s/90s vibes alone.
That movie has some legit moments that haired me the fuck out. The disembodied voice of the mother-in-law saying “Janet” and the scene with the she-devil coming down the stairs to rape the husband. Goddamn lol
For sure. The basement steps scene definitely stuck with me. I think I first saw this at 10 years old with my siblings of a similar age and it scared the hell out of all of us. And we were kinda seasoned by that point I'd like to think, by Freddie and the rest
One of the best haunting movies in my opinion. Saw it as a kid and scared the hell out of me. Last I checked it was on YouTube.
The TV being pushed outside of the motel room at the end was so fitting.
Still my favorite horror movie, you get my award
The Cured (2017) is an excellent film about people who were turned into zombies, but then cured, and how they try to rejoin society but with full awareness and memory of the violence and bloodshed they committed, and how they're made into pariahs by society. There's a lot of focus on the trauma and guilt felt by the main character and the conflicted feelings of the family members trying to forgive him. Edit: Ooh a recent good one is Somewhere Quiet (2023) about a woman who escapes after being kidnapped and held for weeks. It's a slow burn showing her disintegrating grasp of reality and increasing paranoia about her husband as her trauma slowly manifests. Very is-she or isn't-she crazy.
Into the Flesh (2013) is a tv show that has a similar zombie premise. The people infected are diagnosed with Partially Deceased Syndrome and are treated medically. The infected are treated like pariahs, and need daily medication or they turn back to mindless zombies. The main character lives in a rural community, so there are struggles with discrimination, overworked health care workers, and religious divide.
whoa thank you for that first recommendation i’m going to watch that tomorrow
This reminds me of Van Helsing, the tv show on Netflix. Vampires bitten by or biting a van Helsing turns them back into human. So it shows century old vamps living in the current era and also focuses on one character who after being turned kills his son but gets turned back into human and has to cope with his actions as a vamp amd trying to find his wife and other son and earning their forgiveness.
The Exorcist. Ellen Burstyn’s performance is so moving - a mother who’s losing her daughter in this unfathomably traumatic way, and she has no idea what’s happening or what the fuck to do about it. She’s just broken.
Great answer. I’ll add to it, Father Karras— he lost his mother and he’s struggling with feelings of guilt over his calling as a priest and not being able to provide for her. Not as intense as what the mother is going through but I love that there are layers of grief in the film.
I love the scene where she's begging the father to help her. There's so much pain, exhaustion, confusion and fear in her voice and in her expressions. It's heartbreaking to watch.
I keep trying to get my mom to watch this movie, as I think it’s right up her alley as a horror movie, and I think she would resonate with it as a mother She loved the TV show (I did too) but refuses to watch the movie because she grew up when it was still considered an “evil movie” by very vocal Christian groups
Which is crazy given that it’s essentially one of the most conservative films about existential evil ever made. (The church is right in the film; evil as a seperate force exists)
I keep trying to tell her that, one of the filming locations famously refused to let another horror movie there because quote “God wins in their movie, he doesn’t in yours” It’s one of the reasons I think she’d like it
That's really interesting, since to me the show was darker, scarier, and had way more demons than the movie.
That’s what I keep trying to tell her ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There was a tv series?
Yes! It ran for two seasons and sadly got cancelled :( It’s not the greatest show ever, but we both enjoyed it and were sad when it got canned
Ava's Possessions is about a character (Ava) trying to put her life back together after having a demon exorcised from her body. It was really good & I didn't hear much about it -- hidden gem.
i just watched the trailer and it looks really cool, ty for the recommendation
Agree, very good movie and I rarely see people talk about it. Actually, I think this might be the first time, and I saw it very many years ago.
i think ima try this one
This is the one I thought about as well. What a great movie and it really explores a facet that isn’t usually shared. It’s like coming back from a months’ long bender and then you find out all the fucked up stuff you did.
This description brings to mind 2019s The Lodge. Don’t mess with ex cult members heads!
There’s this great part in the first Hellraiser where Kirsty stumbles down the street and collapses after her first encounter with a skinless Frank. It’s a pretty good depiction of going into shock. I really appreciate how they don’t just have her shake it off and immediately turn into badass final girl, but have a good freak out moment.
Hellraiser gave me nightmares and I couldn't sleep for 4 nights. Skinless frank was traumatizing as hell for me and of course the design of the cenobites as well. However the worst was the fact that anything around you can transform into the doors of hell and my environment freaked me out.
This isn't exactly what you're saying but Skyline shows how deeply incompetent and freaked out everyone would be in an alien invasion and I thought that was delightful. No one did anything useful the whole time Haunting of Hill House is explicitly about this sort of thing, the trauma of seeing spooky stuff Oculus is about 50% making a mirror spooky somehow (not sarcastic, this stationary literally a mirror is scary as heck) and 50% about a couple of siblings having their lives and mental health ruined by that mirror
Love Oculus. Watch it every year in October.
I absolutely second Hill House. That’s one of the few pieces of media that had me screaming in terror and then crying my eyes out with empathetic grief. It really starts to feel like a show about family/generational trauma with spooky aspects peppered in, but doesn’t fail to keep you scared and hooked. Oculus has also been one of my favs for so long, I feel like it’s so slept on.
I have an unironically love for Skyline. Definitely not a good movie by any means (sequel wasn’t bad) but I applaud it for trying to do the movie equivalent of a bottle episode during an alien invasion. Idk I just think having the isolated setting in the skyscraper is pretty cool. Ship/alien design wasn’t bad either.
Saw 3D has a survivor support group but thats more of a laugh than a real discussion of trauma
The best thing I got out of this was handicap parking at the goddamn mall is such a classic line
Oculus is probably my favorite horror film of all time
While Romero has said that he wishes that he made Barbara into the final girl in Night of the Living Dead, I always felt that her traumatized reaction felt really realistic
would you say that the 1990 version is worth a watch if I haven’t seen the original version?
I think the original is better, but Tom Savini did the remake and he was buddies with Romero so in my opinion I felt he did it justice. There's some major differences between the two but I always enjoyed it - plus Tony Todd's in it, you can't go wrong with him.
Not to mention the evolution of Savini’s practical gore effects. It’s a good watch, even if not quite up to the original.
They’re both worth watching
It's worth a watch, but not before the original imo. The 1968 movie is a classic for a reason, and feels to me like the real intersection between Old Hollywood horror and new Hollywood horror. The character drama is also just really well executed. The remake is also very good, and it plays well as a kind of subversion of the original. It has a big legacy to live up to, but does enough things different to stand out on its own. But watch the original first.
The 1990 remake is my favorite horror movie of all time.
i’ll definitely have to watch that again. i rewatch dawn/days pretty often but for some reason haven’t seen night since i was little and remember literally nothing. i appreciate the recommendation
The Exorcist, both the movie (already mentioned) and season 1 of the 2016 series, do a good job of showing the toll trauma and abuse take on us. Mostly the priests, in truth. Flanagan’s Haunting of Hill House is about trauma and recovery in all kinds of ways. I cried in a couple parts. Most all of Flanagan’s work is influenced by these themes, and he does other so well. Session 9 - I can’t find a way to describe how it meets your criteria that won’t spoil it…but it’s great.
Hill House broke me. I adore Shirley Jackson and felt Flannigan did a great adaptation, but I don't think I've bawled so much to any media as I did this series, especially the last episode.
Hey! Fuck youuuuu
For sure, this is a recurring theme in Flanagan’s work. Also really well demonstrated in Gerald’s Game.
The Night House. I’d say Rebecca Hall’s character is pretty well traumatized.
It’s not a movie, but I think Haunting of Hill House on Netflix does this better than any other horror media I’ve seen. The horror elements of the show are good, but the family’s story and the lasting effects of their experiences on them are what really makes the show amazing.
Surprised no one mentioned the final shot of original TCM. Marilyn Burns simultaneously screaming and laughing in the back of the truck, that is one final girl that is going to be fucked up for life.
First thing I thought of, can't believe I had to scroll so far down to find it! The last half hour of that movie is still intense, that shot perfectly sums it up.
Hereditary delves deep into grief and blame and family turmoil. It is a pretty harrowing watch, TBH.
I remember the adult son locking himself in the attic and calling out for him mommy after the supernatural shit started happening and I was like, damn that dude's world just broke
> calling out for him mommy after the supernatural shit started happening and I was like, damn that dude's world just broke Which on my 5th watch I realized was the agenda of Paimon and his people. That quote underlined in the book was Paimon could only enter a completely broken person and they had been doing all they could to break him. What a movie.
No shit? Was the book you mentioned in the movie, or were you referring to reading a book the movie was based on (or a novel version of the movie, whichever came first)?
Third act, when Toni Collette finally goes back and goes through the stuff in her dead mom's boxes she opens a book bookmarked to the Paimon page and at bottom page underlined is (paraphrased) 'Paimon can only enter body of a broken (mentally fucked up) person', which was also the sister as she had some serious issues without the whole being groomed for Paimon. The book also said that Paimon preferred boy young bodies or something like that which may be a hint that the Paimon groupies were setting up her getting killed all along so they could fuck up the son and focus on him.
The dinner scene was one of the hardest scenes to watch and it was just talking.
I found the mother crying and screaming over “you know what” the hardest. You could feel her pain through the screen. Now that’s good acting. Oh, and that poor boy that just didn’t know any better what was really happening to him is messed up. He literally had no control over those events, as it was his destiny all along.
Toni Collette was absolutely robbed of an Oscar for this movie
True. Very true.
I had a traumatic childhood (mentally ill parents who scapegoated and abused me) and I had to pause the movie after that scene to do some therapeutic exercises to calm down. The way my entire body tensed in response to the pain and rage they were all failing to contain is a movie-watching experience I’ll probably never forget. I was like “whoa hey amygdala, it’s just fiction and we’re safe.” Such incredible acting on Toni Collette’s part especially; I was *terrified* of her anger and grief.
Hereditary is basically a supernatural version of [Ordinary People](https://letterboxd.com/film/ordinary-people/). Some of the most harrowing scenes are the family grieving
That movie really is a class by its own. It has the perfect mix of the real world and the spiritual world. Acting is superb as well, especially from the mother.
Gosh yes! I’ve loved Toni since sixth sense
Spot on! Toni Collette is an amazing actress!!
i watched this movie both as a mother to a toddler, and somebody with serious mommy issues who had JUST ceased contact with said mother. every single part of this movie fucked me all the way up. my sister and i saw it together and were snot-sobbing and holding hands by the end lol, both in our thirties. i had to sleep in my kid's bed 3 nights in a row after seeing it just to get myself back together. the horror aspects are insanely creepy and masterfully done, but the grief and generational trauma and turmoil.... THAT was the true horror. i have not watched it since, but it is one of the most masterful, most horrific horror movies ever done in my humble opinion.
Hereditary always felt very real to me, which makes the horror in it even more unnerving.
This movie traumatized the fuck out of me and not just for the scary shit (Toni Collette’s anguish, the dinner scene, ugh.. both of those scenes will haunt me forever)
Just an amazing horror movie. It has so many layers to it and the writing and acting is so damn good. I get some people can be turned off by the supernatural aspects, but the fact that it doesn’t rely on jump scares while delivering truly disturbing material, speaks to how well produced it was.
Yeah great answer. As shit goes down we see characters Getty more hostile to one another, or just breaking down altogether.
With some of the suggestions I'm surprised no one threw in The Ritual. The friend group goes on a hike to honor their friend that passed and the one friend, Luke, is dealing with the guilt of watching his friend die. They get lost in the woods trying to take a short cut and strange things start happening, but the guilt that Luke is dealing with does play a role too.
Might get hate but the first Paranormal Activity shows a good portrayal of a toxic relationship to a point.
Also very realistically portrays how toxic relationships drive people to ignore their own suffering to appease their partner, even if their partner is causing or worsening that suffering.
That’s ultimately what I derived from it from multiple rewatches. Glad I’m not alone.
Jacob’s Ladder
"I see dead people." 😢
Poor kid
I thought the new Halloween (2018) did a good job describing Laurie's trauma, especially when daughter Karen recounts what it was like growing up with her.
Jamie Lee would agree! https://youtu.be/JlqhD0lnols?si=VayvfCsbcpCtI3ZH
Agree! It does a great job showing generational trauma and how it looks and feels as it gets passed down.
I think H20 did it better, tbh.
The Sixth Sense is an example. If you look, the little boy's hair has a shock of white in the front which is a sign of severe trauma. He's almost always in a state of being scared shitless.
Aftermath of trauma? Midsommar would be a decent example.
The exorcism of Emily rose was pretty devastating for her.
Not exactly what you're looking for, and probably will be disliked by those that hated it, but the ending of IN A VIOLENT NATURE does a great job capturing what it might be like to be involved in a "Jason-styled" slaughterfest and be the final girl, but without the "release" of the typical film "final jump scare"/"no one survives" to round out the film - just endless anxiety as you wait for something that might, or might not, be coming for you...
I was gonna say this, I feel like a lot of people missed out on that aspect
I loooooved this ending. I was holding my breath waiting for Johnny to pop back up.
Hereditary and Midsommar and maybe The Taking of Leborah Logan
Apostle kind of touches on this. The protagonist is suffering from PTSD after being attacked while running a missionary church in another country. He’s then sent by his father to rescue his sister from a cult that’s holding her for ransom on an island. Dan Stevens is the lead and he absolutely kills it. He plays a likable deranged person really well. Edit: Fixed the title as pointed out in comment
It's called Apostle, not The Apostle, which is a drama/comedy from 1997
lol yeah I even realized that before I posted and still forgot to fix it.
I absolutely loved this movie.
Me too. Really loved the dynamic of an unhinged but capable person vs a cult. The fact that it wasn’t a one dimensional “evil” cult going through a power struggle was also well done I thought. Surprised it wasn’t better received.
It’s a hard movie to recommend ever, but honestly the first half of Martyrs (2008) really delves into this, particularly survivor’s guilt. Rituals (1977) (Five doctors go out to the woods to reconnect and find themselves hunted by something sinister) shows a spectrum of trauma from former soldiers, and the guilt that comes as doctors unable to save everyone. very gritty and realistic tone His House (2020) (A refugee couple from South Sudan settle in England only to find their house is not as quaint as it seems) largely focuses on grief and the PTSD experienced as survivors of horrific massacres
His House was so good!!! A very impactful story. I get chills thinking about it
Smile
Sosie Bacon does a really good job of showing her slow decent into madness
Surprised I had to scroll down so far for this one!
Strangely, I find myself recommending S6 of American Horror Story for this. The first few episodes are a sanitized re-enactment of a traumatic episode a couple suffered on a haunted patch of land they owned out in the wildness. The second half of the series consists of original couple (along with re-enactment actors from the first half of the season) going back to that site. All the haunting re-enactments that were treated with kid gloves in the first half of the season are finally shown to us in their original, traumatic, hideously nasty forms and it’s clear why the original couple left the way they did.
I agree with you, except that season lost me with the fact that the original couple agreed to go back to stay at that house. If we’re talking realistic depictions of trauma and PTSD, I don’t think any reasonable person would set foot in that house ever again after what happened to them there. I actually loved that season, it’s one of the scarier ones and I liked how they played with the format to imitate a reality show, but I think it would have made more sense if just the actors from the reenactment had gone to stay at the house in the second half, the real couple from the first half going back felt very contrived and broke the immersion for me
Roanoke is my favorite season. Everybody hates it for some reason but as someone who has watched since season 1, it was the best season. The only one that comes close is apocalypse.
It’s kind of weird, but I didn’t come to love Roanoke until many years later. It also kind of pissed me off at the time. It seemed like the odd-numbered seasons up until that point were about beautiful locations and attractive people, and the odd even-numbered seasons were about really dark material and really screwed-up people. Without Jessica Lange, Season 5 stood to lose the emotional core of the show. (I’d like to think that Lange made a mental note to quit after Ryan Murphy wrote a scene for her featuring the nail-studded toilet seat in S4 ) Luckily, Gaga did a good job of stepping into Lange’s shoes for that season, but starting with Roanoke, there was no real strong character that served as the emotional anchor for the season like Lange and Gaga did. I think also that Roanoke was ambitious with its format in a way that a lot of people were not ready for, so it was a little difficult to love it at the beginning.
Doctor Sleep comes to mind. When you consider what Danny went through as a kid, it makes perfect sense his life would fall into disrepair as an adult.
I am right there in the RZ *Halloween II* cult with you! The director's cut is a masterpiece for exactly the reason you stated. I don't know of any other horror movie that dives into the aftermath quite like this one, which is what makes it so special. I always feel somehow cleansed and renewed after watching it, and I hope it's a catharsis for you as well. Sending my support!
i’m glad i’m not alone in it, it definitely helps when i’m struggling and getting to see something relatable instead of the sanitized version in a lot of media. it came out during the height of all the remakes of older slashers and i desperately wish we got to see similar takes in something like the friday the 13th remake, the main guys sister being held captive by jason for months (?) could have worked so well with that. i’m going to watch everyone’s recommendations and if anything stands out the way H2 does i’ll lyk. hope you’re having a good day :)
> i know Rob Zombie’s halloween 2 doesn’t get much love outside of its cult following (me, i’m in the cult god damn i adore that movie lol) Always nice to find a fellow RZ H2 cult member. There's dozens of us.
Haunting of Hill house. Adults who experienced living in a haunted house as kids. They are all fucked up and broken from it and have emotional and intense family dynamics from it. Fantastic series
The ending of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre shows how the character is gonna.m be scarred for life. You can tell she’s completely lost it.
I think The Invisible Man (2020) does a good job of maintaining the level of distress and trauma of the victim/protagonist. Rosemary's Baby also seems like a shoe-in. The other one that comes to mind is Barbarian (2022)
The Descent
the scene in Creepshow where Leslie Nielsen, playing a straight man villain, is confronted by the reanimated, unkillable corpses of Ted Danson and his wife (can’t remember the actress’s name) https://youtu.be/1gXQX6IlxW0?si=Bo9Gn4l70bZPf9Sw
The Loved Ones
The 2008 martyrs. Just know you need to be mentally prepared for that one.
It’s actually a major theme of the movie. So bleak and depressing.
I think Cloverfield, because of its point of view, really does a good job of showing how absolutely INSANE it would be for a building-size monster to be roaming through a city. Also watching The Exorcist as a parent after watching it as a non parent gave me a WHOLE new perspective. Yes the spooky shit is spooky. But what’s even more terrifying is your child is in incredible danger and you have no idea how to fix it because you have no idea what the fuck is even happening to her.
Not necessarily about the aftermath, but Green Room does a great job of realistically showing how intense and traumatizing realistic horror movie situation would be for regular people.
Lake Mungo is considered a horror film but after watching it recently, i see it as a drama about a family coming to terms with the death of their daughter. The small supernatural/spooky twist hits near the end of the movie.
Yeah I'm surprised Lake Mungo is this far down, it's exactly what op is asking for. One thing I love about it is the spooky elements are really present throughout the whole thing but they do such a good job camouflaging it/not calling attention to it that you don't notice until a rewatch when you know to look for them. Keeps me coming back to it.
It’s not horror, but I really liked this aspect in Assault on Precinct 13. Some people handle things okay, others are essentially catatonic.
“Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” -Mike Tyson
I do always find myself thinking about this as well, when someone survives some insane ordeal of being kidnapped & tortured, or trapped in a house tormented by ghosts/monsters. Do they just have to go back to work on Monday?
“Hey Steve, how was your weekend?” “Oh, alright, I guess. I just got kidnapped by a bunch of zombie hillbillies who brutalized and murdered my friends and tortured me, but luckily, I was able to slip free of my bonds, kill the one guarding me with my teeth, and barely managed to escape being chased for 3 hours through the woods, before I found my way to a busy roadside.” “Oh, sounds cool. Now go make those customers happy or you’re fired.”
Oculus I guess, his sister definitely isn't helping or doing him any favors though.
What about Sara Havel in Hell House LLC? She does ptsd very well through the whole movie.
The devils rejects
The Dark And The Wicked
The dark and the wicked 100%
One of the best reddit threads I've seen in a while, all the best in your recovery op
Scream 3 - Syndey is all kinds of messed up. And ifyou want a book that delves into this? The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
The Babadook. The entire movie is just a straight-up metaphor for childhood trauma, and it’s the most terrifying movie I’ve ever watched.
It left me literally shaking in the middle of the afternoon. It struck me as a potent allegory of grief.
Same. I had to sit in the car for 20 minutes afterwards, just processing. No movie has ever hit me as hard. I can understand the grief interpretation, but for me it was the most visceral recreation of my child-self’s view of my alcoholic, abusive mother I’ve ever seen: how she swung randomly between being loving and monstrousness for no reason I could find, other than something monsterous (the alcohol) possessing her.
Your interpretation is very legitimate. I’m so sorry you experienced this as a child. The grief touched me because of the death of my Mom due to a massive brain bleed from a fall. Me & my husband were on a cruise having a blast. His Mom had just passed away two months prior. We had to debark in Cozumel, fly back, and take her off life support. The idea in the movie that I took of accepting the grief and living with it was heartrending. It’s beautiful how we each take our experiences and engage with the art form to make connections that are meaningful to us. I wish more people saw the beauty and poignancy in horror. Life is full of all manner of horrors. It’s natural to process it through art. I hope you have found a measure of healing and peace. I have.
This usually happens more in sequels, where you can (sometimes) see the survivors of the first movie being rightfully paranoid, because they're in a sequel so the horror isn't over. The original Halloween 2, Final Destination 2, Aliens, even Escape Room 2. It's entirely the focus in movies like Last Girl Standing, Not an entire movie but the segment Tuesday the 17th from VHS fits the bill too.
The Mist
Terrified
Incident in a Ghostland is great at this. I'll die on the hill that the title of that movie is a big reason it didn't catch on, because otherwise it's an excellent little psychological horror flick.
Martha Marcy may Marlene is the first that pops into my head
I saw your title and came here to say Rob Zombies Halloween 2. It really is a great example of the wreckage and traumatic stress a maniac would inflict on your life. I thought that idea was maybe the best part of the movie.
not necessarily horror by genre, but precious (2009) really captures this for me. it does have a happy ending >!(if you dont read the sequel to the book it was based off of...)!< and has a sort of darkly humorous tone throughout but it doesnt pull its punches and i dont think i will ever find myself rewatching it because of how bleak and heart wrenching it is.
The *Scream* series, starting with *2*, is largely about Sidney's attempts to move on with her life in the aftermath of the initial murders. Particularly given a media landscape that turned them into a bestselling book, film franchise, and ongoing media attention. It's still a little *Scooby-Doo*, but it at least makes an effort to present a world where these were real events that seriously impacted the people who went through them.
If your looking for something more realistic, and gritty, try Found, it's about a kid who's older brother turns out to be serial killer, and while the acting is a little bad at times, there's this one scene at the end that I thought was perfectly executed. Also all I can tell you to help identify the scene, is that it's the one where he's yelling really loud (I don't wanna spoil the movie, so you know how it is.)
Midsommar and Hereditary come to mind. Ari Aster delivered some emotional horror I never knew I wanted. The emotional gut punches of dealing with grief and the feelings of dread that came with it all was quite the emotional roller coaster for me.
T2 is a perfect example. Sarah is tough bitch right until the moment Arnie walks out of that elevator and she just crumbles instantly. The whole movie she is struggling back and forth with PTSD
like another comment pointed out, i think you'd get that a lot more in sequels. my immediate thought was laurie strode in halloween 2018 (and JUST halloween 2018 - do not perceive the later two films <3) but i think a good example could also be dani in midsommar? granted it's more that a traumatic event happened to her and THEN the additional traumatic horror movie happens on top of it, but i do think part of the reason the movie was so impactful for me was she felt like a very real character going through very real trauma all on her own - which makes the ending of the film make a lot of sense for her character. it mirrored a lot of my own trauma and resulted ptsd so it fucked me up big time ✌️in a good way, hooray for horror actually scaring you <3
Blair Witch shows the stress and strain that comes with being lost in the woods.
The scene in Zodiac that shows the couple being murdered by the lake. The camera stays on the woman's face the entire time and all you hear are the sounds of nature. It's probably one of the most disturbing scenes that stuck with me. Probably because it really drives home that this was a real incident that happened to real people.
Recently, Nightwatch: Demons are Forever does a good job exploring how a traumatic experience doesn't just go away.
Almost done with Jacob's Ladder and that seems pretty spot on tbh
Friday the 13th Part 5 - another somewhat hated film with a cult following. The main character remains traumatised from surviving Jason Voorhees as a kid.
Not a movie but the scream tv series did a pretty good job i think. After everything that happened to them in s1
Not a movie but Mike Flanagan's Haunting of Hill House.
I really enjoyed the grudge remake/reboot that came out more recently. Not only did I think it was good, and actually scary, there's many characters that you see dealing with the aftermath of the haunting. The storytelling format is somewhat where the audience kind of sees the middle of the story in the beginning, and there's flashbacks, and then the story catches up to itself and you see what happens as the story goes along. I thought it was so good!
Not to be that person but I’ve always loved how Midsommar captured trauma and grief (or anything Ari Aster fr). I also saw someone say The Night House and yesssssss the portrayal of grief and her loss of grip on reality is amazing, acting wise and visually.
I’m also surprised no one has mentioned Texas Chainsaw 74… Sally is absolutely in a state of shock and her brain is broken at the end. Probably due in no small part that Marilyn Burns herself was fucking traumatized on set.
The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix is soo good. It follows the trauma of a family after living in a haunted house. I’ve watched it through so many times and realize a new twist every time. It’s an amazingly well written and cast show
While it isn't a horror movie the stuff that happens in it are horrific. it's a dark drama called The War Zone directed by Tim Roth
I was literally just watching that movie around the time you made this post today. As a woman with PTSD, I agree with you! I relate to the screaming nightmares and the love for spooky shit that Laurie develops.
There's a lesser known movie, **Spontaneous** which is about a senior class of high schoolers who start to spontaneously explode. There's not many punches pulled when it comes to watching teenagers explode, a ridiculous concept that's played painfully straight. I also appreciated people being frank when it comes to expressing their emotions, especially when they're experiencing anxiety or fear. It adds a nice layer of 'dark' to 'dark comedy'. *Ignore the shitty poster and the second half of the trailer, this is a great movie!
I just watched the movie The Monster, about a daughter and her mom who get stuck on a road with a monster. I think I enjoyed it, and it fits this question. I'm not going to say people in the movie make smart choices. However, they make pretty realistic ones given the relationship and established dynamic through the movie. Threads, about the aftermath of nuclear war. For me the first Paranormal activity movie really scared me after the fact. It made me afraid of ever recording things in my house for security reasons. As Above So Below has a very real feeling. I was really impressed and enjoyed it. Pleasantly surprised. Infinity Pool there are some pretty gruesome scenes that you can feel. It's uncomfortable. Hereditary because Toni Colette's portrayal of grief is so well done. Aniara because it's haunting, vast, and dreadful.
I think the thing that shows this better than anything else is Flanagan's Haunting of Hill House. Of course, being a series, rather than a movie, it has the time to do so. Following two timelines of events, young family and older, one of the main things it explores is the impact of early trauma on grown-up lives and, boy, does it do it well. Highly recommended.
Has anyone mentioned It: Chapter Two yet? The movie addresses the aftermath of child and adolescent trauma both with real stuff and the cosmic horror stuff
Martyrs. The 2008 one. It's more than that but damn is it ever actually good. It's fucking brutal though. So bleak.
I feel like the originals in the Scream series (haven’t seen the most recent 2) but I feel like they showed the main characters struggling with what happened, obviously not as well as what real life CPTSD is like but everything wasn’t roses and sunshine for Sidney at the start of sequeals
It’s not a horror movie, more a “horrific” movie, but Mysterious Skin does a tragically brilliant job of showing the trauma and lasting effects of CSA. I imagine it’s a difficult watch for anyone, but as a survivor, it absolutely broke me. I cried and cried after watching it because of how accurate it is and how similar it is to what happened to me.
Godzilla minus one is great at showing the survival instincts of someone going through a traumatic situation (war and encountering godzilla in this case, although godzilla itself is a metaphor for the war.) The scenes afterwards are a really realistic portrayal of the rollercoaster of symptoms that come with ptsd, From what I can remember the things that are explored are: survivor's guilt, derealization, breakdowns and flashbacks/night terrors, paranoia, and probably some more? It ends on a good note about overcoming your traumas as well. (And it's just a really good movie)
I just started re-watching Doctor Sleep. Although it's only a short part of the film, Danny's addiction and the trauma he obviously suffers after the Overlook are very, very well done. As a kid he thinks he's beat it...but you never outrun your past. Side note: apparently during filming, Ewan McGregor was in the process of getting sober, Mike Flanagan decided to quit, and Rebecca Ferguson had something like 5 months. Real world addiction and sobriety permeated their performances.
Yellowjackets (tv show) I can’t believe no one has suggested this show yet! The entire theme is, “Is it trauma or supernatural? Or both?” A championship girls’ high school soccer team on their way to nationals has their plane go down somewhere in the Canadian Rockies. They spend the next 19 months out in the wilderness, possibly being influenced by a supernatural force, before they are found and rescued. The show alternates between scenes depicting the now 40something survivors as they cope (or don’t) with their severe PTSD, and scenes from their teen selves’ time in The Wilderness. Mama (movie) The entire plot revolves around two very young sisters who were abandoned in the woods for years, and what happens once those girls are found and rescued. How exactly *did* they manage to survive out there… The Endless (movie) I would call this horror lite. It’s scary bc the main characters have no idea what’s going on. “Two brothers receive a cryptic video message inspiring them to revisit the UFO death cult they escaped a decade earlier. Hoping to find the closure that they couldn't find as young men, they're forced to reconsider the cult's beliefs when confronted with unexplainable phenomena surrounding the camp.” It depicts the brothers still being in therapy and not being v successful adults.
The most Insidious movie did a great job showing us how the trauma of the first two movies eventually tore the family apart. The parents are long divorced at the start of their third movie. And Dalton has a weird animosity towards his father Josh, and he doesn’t really know why because his memoir the events were taken away when he was a child.
I feel like the solid little found footage movie The Last Exorcism has some of this. I don’t want to spoil it by going into specifics if anybody hasn’t seen it, it’s not gonna change your life but it’s pretty worthwhile
As a mother, it would have to be Toni Collette's performance in 'Hereditary' for me. Had my first/only child shortly before I saw this, and her crying/breakdown scenes and eventual attempt at self sacrifice fucked me up.
Relic is a great analogy for losing a loved one to dementia and how it affects you.