This will not include the movie High Tension that was featured in last year’s Halloween 50, but delivers another 5 films in the same vein that ought to make up some of your binge-watching over the next few days. Entrapment, murder, secrets, deception, danger, outbreaks, twisted folk, that is all here at the very least. Take a look.
The Invisible Guest (2016)
The Greek and I welcome an abundance of Spanish suspense / thrillers / horrors. The first of two on this list is an edge-of-your-seat crime kaleidoscope, packing punches in intrigue, suspicion, as well as story-appropriate twists and turns. When a successful young businessman is the prime suspect of the murder of the woman he was having an affair with, he is forced to be interrogated by a hot-shot defense lawyer, unraveling the many bumps along to the way to the imminent truth. The film leaps back and forth, forming a puzzle so complex we fail to see the finale coming. To reveal details here would do your own viewing a injustice, so go see it now.
The Hidden Face (2011)
The second Spanish (well, Colombian) movie easily making the high tension list, The Hidden Face, is a riveting experience as a motion picture, but also a kind of warning about looking after the key to a secret, secure room should you wish to install one in your home. As a relationship ends, the woman seems to disappear, and while the man quickly finds himself in bed with a new flame, investigations begin. Through the sharp, intelligent script, and direction, the film reveals the origin of the bunker, as well as the events leading up the the missing woman. The chilling circumstances, and unveiled secrets, cause much tension, literally rippling the waters.
Wait Until Dark (1967)
Terence Young’s Wait Until Dark is good old-fashioned psychological thriller that were a common commodity during the 1950s and 60s. Pressing at the senses and nerves, the film portrays a blind woman (Audrey Hepburn) subject to some suspicious investigation from a band of men in search of missing drugs. Taking advantage of her blindness, in her own apartment, they pose as decent, law-abiding folk as a ploy. Alan Arkin dons multiple guises here, pulling off a kind over danger over comedy, and Hepburn is terrific, earning an Oscar nomination to boot.
Pontypool (2008)
Canadian quarantine horror Pontypool is a small town terror tale with a difference. Taking place in the local radio station where staff members tend not to get along, but all is forgotten when there’s an unknown viral outbreak during a heavy blizzard. A clever twist on the human self-destruction format, this is a super-tense and subtle chiller, not only having he carnage heard but not seen, but also traveling the infection through English language words and phrases (like terms of endearment for example). The world outside the four walls of the radio station is in utter chaos, but the suspense and fear from within is admirably captured.
A Cure for Wellness (2016)
A Cure for Wellness is hardly a recommended viewing for medicinal purpose, but there sure is plenty to get caught up in. Intriguing, disturbing, and a dark picture that’ll keep you guessing and squirming in your seat. A enigmatic care home of sorts is the primary setting as Dane DeHaan sets out to locate a fellow employee. Sinister Jason Isaacs and ethereal Mia Goth hold great support as, of course, a mere day out of the office is anything but straight forward. And leaving such a rehabilitation establishment proves, in classic horror discourse, to be near-impossible.
So high tension is an essential formula of the horror genre, please share your thoughts on the subject in the comments.
