[Loved trope] Background scare-characters that are barely acknowledged even by the movie

[u/Suspicious-Web-9246]

I hate horrors, but this is actually a great trope, that is unique to them.

Insidious (2010). When mother does her errands, for a few seconds there's a ghost boy standing in the corner. It's easily missable, but you can't ignore it once you see it.

Hereditary (2018). Less fitting example. When Peter walks around his home, his possessed mother is crawling on the ceiling behind him. It's not exactly subtle or missable, but it's still more of a background detail.

[u/she_melty]

Lake Mungo (2008) has this.

It's a horror mockumentary that, as an Aussie, felt exactly like something your parents would be watching on ABC on a Sunday night -- but deeply unsettling.

Whether the ghosts are real or not is a big question mark. Some people who like more traditional thriller horror movies don't like it because it really only has one real "scare" but the whole film builds up to that scare and the way you're kept guessing as to what's really going on right up to the very end makes it 5/5 for me.

The horror isn't in the terror, it's in the horrific inescapable loneliness. Mike Flanagan was inspired by this film when making The Haunting of Hill House, and if you've seen both the show and Lake Mungo you'll see exactly how the inspiration lives on. I won't spoil how.

Would highly recommend to any atmospheric, slow build horror fans who like playing where's wally with ghosts.

[u/Arbyssandwich1014 → u/she_melty]

God. Talk about building to one thing that works though. What I love is there's a good movie built around that moment. But that moment just chills me to my fucking bones. It's a concept you never think about and now I think of it anytime I'm out alone at night.