Movies You Should Never Watch Alone

As every beer commercial ever has pointed out, friends make life better.
And that's even truer when you want to watch certain movies, because you need someone to
scream with, someone to grab during the scary parts, and someone to call at all hours when
nightmares wake you up in a cold sweat.
So find a friend and gather your loved ones close, because here's a look at some movies
you should never watch alone.
The Ring
Despite the decidedly dated piece of technology at its center, this movie about a haunted
videotape has actually become even more acutely unsettling since its release more than a decade
ago.
Back then, you'd have to deliberately put the tape in your VCR and press play; but since
the advent of digital media, you could end up watching the whole accursed horrifying
thing on the internet before you knew what hit you.
It's like a rick-roll that ends in death!
Plus, if you watch The Ring, you have also by definition seen that video, so…
"Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down."
"Rahhhh!"
The Descent
Down we go further into the rabbit hole of blood-chilling terror, with the aptly-titled
adventure-horror The Descent.
It tells the tale of a few adventurous young women gearing up for a spelunking trip in
the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina.
But everything goes sour when they drop into the cave — with no way out.
Bathed in pitch-black darkness and surrounded by warped humanoid creatures known as "crawlers"
that are hungry for flesh and blood, the women are forced to fight their way out of the hole.
And just like a cave expedition, watching the The Descent is something you should never
do alone.
The Woman in Black
Daniel Radcliffe plays a baby-faced barrister who uncovers a sinister secret in this historical
horror movie.
The whole thing features a creepy gothic mansion, an old-school grudge, and a vengeful ghost
with an uncanny gift for convincing children to kill themselves.
So, y'know, not really something you should check out by your lonesome.
There's nothing like a good, old-fashioned haunted house story to give you the heebie-jeebies
when you watch it by yourself.
But The Woman in Black raises the stakes by imbuing every creaking door, every warping
floorboard, and every ordinary household object with a sense of freaky foreboding.
Even if you don't end up spotting the femme fatale from the title in her Victorian veil
lurking in a corner, the shadowy walk through your dark house after watching it is one you
won't want to make solo.
The Babadook
Written and directed by Aussie triple-threat Jennifer Kent in her directorial debut, The
Babadook centers around a mother and her son stalked by the creepy thing in the movie's
title: a pop-up book monster named Mister Babadook who threatens multiple murders if
anyone denies his existence.
"If you're a really clever one and you know what it is to see, then you can make friends
with a special one, a friend of you and me."
Following a series of febrile seizures, violent hallucinations, insomnia-induced blackouts,
and acts of physical aggression, all caused by the Babadook, Amelia and Sam try valiantly
to vanquish the beast once and for all.
One of the scariest films in recent memory, The Babadook isn't one to catch alone.
Don't Breathe
An opportunistic break-in goes terribly wrong in this film by Fede Alvarez, as a trio of
small-time teen crooks try to burgle a blind man who turns out not to be quite as easy
a target as he originally appeared.
The tables turn almost instantly, leaving the would-be thieves trapped in the dark,
unfamiliar house where a misstep or cough could bring their death.
And Alvarez keeps the tension at an unceasing fever pitch for the full duration of the movie.
Poltergeist
More than three decades after its original release, Poltergeist is still a who's who
of terrifying tropes: ghosts reaching out through the scrambled signals on your TV,
man-eating trees lurking outside your window, evil clowns hiding under your bed, and a portal
to another dimension casually stuffed into the closet.
And no matter how long it's been since you first saw it, Poltergeist still makes even
the most cookie-cutter suburban tract house feel like it might be full of otherworldly
threats.
Without a friend by your side, you'll be too creeped out to continue on.
"They're heeere!"
It Follows
The acclaimed horror darling It Follows sparked a new wave of smartly scary flicks — and
understandably so, as it's a film unlike any other in its genre.
Directed by David Robert Mitchell, this movie takes the teen slasher genre and completely
inverts it, replacing gore with an overwhelming, constant sense of dread and impending doom,
while slyly commenting on the whole "sex will get you killed" message in so many traditional
teen murder thrillers.
It Follows strings you along, leaving you sweaty and skeptical but wholly satisfied,
and will follow you long after its final scene.
Antichrist
Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe star in this experimental horror flick, which divided
both fans and critics thanks to its twisted narrative, obscure plot, and viscerally disturbing
sexual content.
Centered on a couple grieving the death of their son, the movie starts out with a graphic
sex scene and delves into some seriously dark places as it explores themes of motherhood,
grief, misogyny, and sexual violence.
Not for everyone — or maybe anyone — and certainly not to be watched alone.
Deliverance
A bromantic river-rafting trip turns into an all-out, life-ruining nightmare in this
classic from 1972, starring Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds back in their heyday as chiseled
leading men.
Deliverance was a multiple Oscar nominee the year it was released, which makes it a damn
fine movie by all accounts.
But thanks to That Scene — film buffs...you know the one — it makes for damn uncomfortable
viewing.
Like a trip down the Cahulawassee River, the narrative journey of Deliverance is one better
taken with a few close friends.
The Human Centipede
There may never be another body horror film as thoroughly, utterly repulsive as The Human
Centipede…except maybe the Human Centipede sequels, which are just like The Human Centipede,
but somehow grosser.
In this first entry in the series, a demented scientist kidnaps three people and surgically
attaches them, mouth-to-butt, to create the "human centipede" from the title — a procedure
touted in the movie's promotional materials as "one hundred percent medically accurate."
Despite a broad consensus that The Human Centipede is profoundly disgusting and lacking in all
respects except a unique premise, it still rated decently with critics.
But much like its central, monstrous surgical creation, this movie just doesn't work as
a solo undertaking.
Lake Mungo
This underrated Aussie horror flick is a suspenseful slow burn from start to finish, as it tells
the story of a family consumed by grief in the wake of their teenage daughter's death.
It's shot documentary-style and with lots of creepy tension stemming from barely-glimpsed
threats and unseen things that go bump in the night.
Lake Mungo spends nearly every one of its 89 minutes building to an incredibly freaky
climax that'll scare you half to death while also leaving you with many, many more questions
than answers.
Hard Candy
Before she earned raves for playing Juno MacGuff or walked through walls as Kitty Pryde in
the X-Men, Ellen Page cut her teeth on a very different kind of role.
Back in 2006, Page played the sadistic, iron-hearted Hayley Stark in Hard Candy.
A 14-year-old who has "victim" written all over her at the start of the film, Hayley
quickly turns the tables on Jeff, the 32-year-old photographer and probable predator she met
on the internet.
After inviting herself to his home, she drugs him and tortures him in a series of brutal
scenes that seem to go on forever.
Between its killer suspense and dark subject matter, Hard Candy isn't a comfortable viewing
experience, but it's ever so slightly more bearable if you have a companion to share
the bad vibes.
Unfriended
If ever there was a movie best watched with half a dozen of your closest pals, it's Unfriended.
Six teenagers on a group chat find themselves being picked off one by one by an unseen,
Skype-based entity that might or might not be the ghost of their dead friend.
Unfriended is an original horror story for the social media age, and it's definitely
meant to be a group experience.
Feeling extra bold?
Make it a virtual get-together and watch it with your besties on a Google hangout… and
hope that nobody experiences any, ahem, technical difficulties.
Green Room
If you thought the other movies on this list were intense, you haven't seen anything like
Green Room.
An all-out raucous horror picture framed around a dimly lit hardcore punk show, this film
skirts the edges of torture porn but spins toward absurdity with elements reminiscent
of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, zooming in on a keen portrayal of what the punk subculture
is all about.
The band at the center of the story is The Ain't Rights, featuring the late Anton Yelchin
as the bassist Pat and Alia Shawkat on guitar as Sam.
They open their set list with a cover of the Dead Kennedys' "Nazi Punks F–k Off" and
later find the body of a girl backstage.
Realizing she'd been murdered, the members of The Ain't Rights attempt to notify authorities
but are themselves attacked by a group of neo-Nazis led by the chillingly evil Patrick
Stewart of all people.
"I think I'm smarter than you!"
Mama
What can compare to a mother's love?
Well, that's exactly what the Guillermo del Toro-produced movie Mama aims to answer.
Starring Interstellar's Jessica Chastain as the hesitant but well-meaning Annabel and
Game of Thrones' Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in a double role as the financially devastated,
homicidal Jeffrey and his grief-stricken twin brother Lucas, this supernatural flick delivers
both a myth buried in maternity and a whole truckload of scares.
From the shadowy figure that lingers over Lucas' two feral young nieces to the final
reveal that's equally as haunting, this film is definitely one worth watching… just,
you know.
Not alone.
Ex Machina
Robots and red lights and rebellion!
A true triple-threat in the world of sci-fi.
You've likely heard of this Alex Garland-helmed film, or at least seen Oscar Isaac donning
a full beard and tearing up the dance floor.
Don't be fooled by that unexpected moment of humor, though.
Ex Machina weaves sleek sci-fi with scathing psychological horror, warning of the possible
dangers of sentient artificial intelligence and what can happen when you give humans more
power than they deserve.
Garland makes his directorial debut with this film — which also stars Isaac's Star Wars:
The Force Awakens costar Domhnall Gleeson, as well as the newest Lara Croft, Alicia Vikander.
But you wouldn't know that a movie this good could be anyone's first.
Ex Machina is sinister and spooky speculative fiction that feels uncomfortably close to
reality.
You'll likely never look at a piece of technology the same way again after giving it a watch,
so it's best to have someone by your side to remind you that yes, humans do still exist.
And no, you don't have to fear the toaster.
"Ahhhh!
Ahhhhh!
Ugh, get it off!"
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Movies You Should Never Watch Alone

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