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There are only so many quality rom-coms, which presents a unique challenge while browsing streaming services. Cue 2019’s release of Ari Aster’s Midsommar, which brought a new audience to the strange, messy world of “horro-mance,” and provided both “toxic relationship analysis” and “genre mash-up masterpiece” in equal parts. While many viewers were disturbed by the sheer real-ness of the scripting, many more left their screens wanting more, but maybe not knowing exactly where to find it. What are some great horror movies fit for Valentine’s Day?
Updated February 14, 2022 by Mark Sammut: It is Valentine’s Day, but not everyone’s idea of a fun evening involves a rom-com. Sometimes, nothing is more romantic than a bowl of popcorn, a warm blanket, and a slasher movie that replaces chocolate hearts with the real thing. It is not unusual for horror movies to take a stab at holidays other than Halloween, however, the genre does not turn to Valentine’s Day all that frequently. Still, there are a couple of exceptions, and this article has been expanded to include a few more Valentine’s Day horror movies.
13 Valentine
More than a decade after rejecting a schoolmate, a group of women find themselves targeted by a killer who sends out disturbing Valentine’s Day cards and loves to cosplay as Cupid. 2001’s Valentine feels ripped right out of the ’80s, delivering no-frills thrills driven by blood and fake outs.
This film is not a terrible recreation of that era’s style, however, its Valentine’s Day premise might conjure up visions of My Bloody Valentine, and comparisons to that classic do the 2001 movie no favors. Still, Valentine is a serviceable slasher flick that has been mostly forgotten, so it might be worth throwing on if someone is looking for a film they have not seen yet.
12 Hospital Massacre
Sometimes, simplicity works in a movie’s favor, and that definitely extends to Hospital Massacre. Also known as Be My Valentine, Or Else or X-Ray, Hospital Massacre delivers exactly what its title advertises: a lot of gruesome kills in a creepy setting. Taking place on Valentine’s Day, Hospital Massacre lets its gore and environment do all the heavy lifting, limiting the story to an introductory flashback and a predictable final act reveal.
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This 1981 movie is purely for slasher fans, and it is a pretty decent entry in that subgenre of horror. Considering the early ’80s were overflowing with stories about fictional killers and the people they stab, Hospital Massacre got a bit lost in the shuffle.
11 Life After Beth
Life After Beth (2014) is a wonderfully charming rom-com starring Aubrey Plaza and Dane DeHaan as they deal with the biggest challenge their relationship has seen yet, death.
Critically, the film didn’t receive fantastic reviews on release, but the A24 production brought in quite a few viewers who found a lot to love in this indie gem. For anyone looking for a fresh take on the zombie genre, with a fun humorous twist, this might be the one.
10 Mandy
One of the most under-appreciated films of 2018, Mandy sounds like the type of corny B-movie to fall immediately in the discount bin at the local grocery store, forever lost and forgotten to mediocre-at-best ratings. Mandy, however, is a pariah.
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Experimental director Panos Cosmatos’ second movie brings Nicolas Cage and Andrea Riseborough into one of the most visually and audibly striking films to ever hit the small screen. The movie plays out a revenge fantasy through a trippy modern take on classic sword-and-sandal fantasy epics.
9 Carrie
Brian De Palma’s Carrie is a wonderfully imagined classic, and easily one of the best horror films of the ’70s, regardless of its seemingly inconspicuous scale and subject matter.
Carrie pulls a fast one on the genre, appearing on the outside to be a much more tame, universal story with a romantic outcome and a solid line-up of hot songs to really bump it into blockbuster territory. What lies in wait, however, is a much more troubled story of a girl so terribly abused that she unleashes something dark into the world when her final string is cut.
8 Ready Or Not
A wonderful addition to the “good for her” cinematic universe, Ready or Not (2019) is a great little callback to the old days of horror-for-the-fun-of-it.
When a bride’s wedding night goes a little too off-the-rails due to the groom’s eccentric family, she has to take things into her own hands or else face an embarrassing fate that won’t go without repercussions. Not only is the film a good representation of how it feels to meet the in-laws, but a wonderful lighthearted exercise in tension.
7 Audition
In one of Takashi Miike’s best works, the ever-prolific director takes a romantic turn from his classically campy filmmaking.
Audition looks into the world of industry exploitation and sexual misconduct, as a well-meaning director holds auditions to find himself a healthy relationship while recovering from the death of his wife several years ago. Not for the faint of heart, Audition creeps in with some of the most unsettling torture scenes in film history.
6 Creep 2
Sequels, while they rarely get it right across any media, can often exceed expectations and become fan-favorites in the franchise. Creep 2, from indie director Patrick Brice, is one of those sequels.
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Creep 2 sidewinds away from the first film in an interesting way, almost flipping the roles on their backs as the main antagonist of the original becomes a near-romantic companion to Brice’s new protagonist. Viewers of the original should know exactly what happens next, but how it plays out through the film is extremely fun to watch and comes with a handful of fun surprises and genuinely heartfelt moments.
5 Raising Cain
Brian De Palma features again, this time with one of his less-celebrated outings. Raising Cain is all over the place, and while that would be a criticism in most cases, it actually works in the movie’s favor. Centering around a child psychologist and his various personalities, Raising Cain is bewilderingly excessive, unsettlingly imaginative, and visually gorgeous.
A significant section of Raising Cain takes place on Valentine’s Day, a decision that is about as baffling as the rest of the movie. Just to be clear, everything written about the movie in this entry is meant to be taken as praise.
4 The Bride Of Frankenstein
Another great sequel, James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein picks up directly after the retconned ending of the first film.
Frankenstein finally gets what’s been coming to him, as his creation takes his rightful revenge on the mad doctor. After the monster kidnaps his wife, Frankenstein is forced to create a bride to quell the loneliness of his original creation. Not everything goes as planned, however, and it soon becomes obvious that both parties got more than they signed up for.
3 Possession
One of the most surreal representations of Lovecraftian media, 1981’s Possession from Polish director Andrzej Zulawski is not only a horrific descent into madness, but a disturbing look into love and heartbreak on-par with Midsommar.
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The film follows a couple as they gradually fall deeper into depression over their imminent divorce and affairs. Through the duration, the slow-burn atmosphere becomes more and more deranged as reality bleeds into fantasy, emotion blurs, and the terrifying heartbreak blends with an ever-growing eldritch evil.
2 My Bloody Valentine
Another genre classic, George Mihalka and Steve Miller’s My Bloody Valentine (1981) is one of the better slasher films of the older-years.
As a small mining town prepares for its annual Valentine’s Day celebration, an ugly evil rears its head from a tragedy twenty years past. The sole survivor of a horrific mining accident seems to be back and wreaks havoc upon the youth who assumed him to be nothing more than an urban legend.
1 Colossal
Colossal was one of the most intriguing concepts from 2016’s film roster, but was inevitably slept on when several more big-budget movies took the spotlight.
While the year boasted quite a few fantastic releases, Colossal remains a standout in concept and execution. As a woman suffers a mental breakdown, a catastrophic event across the world takes precedent, but she soon discovers strange connections between her predicament and this unidentified giant creature destroying Seoul. Colossal can only be explained as a fantastically original combination of “Godzilla meets Lost in Translation.”
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