5. The Fly (1986)
David Cronenberg’s The Fly had the director pushing the limits of the body horror genre. Jeff Goldblum stars as a scientist named Seth Brundle who meets Veronica (Geena Davis) a reporter at a press event. The two go back to Seth’s home and lab where he shows her his teleportation device that he has built.
Seth explains the intricacies of the machine and tells Veronica that he hasn’t figured out how to teleport living tissue. They start to develop a relationship all the while Veronica is documenting Seth’s findings. One night, Seth in a fit of excitement successfully teleports a baboon. When Veronica leaves the lab, Seth decides to teleport himself, however, a fly gets into the machine with him and they both teleport together.
Seth begins to develop superhuman strength and abilities. Veronica starts to worry and Seth tries to force her to teleport herself, but she refuses. Seth starts to notice various changes to his body as strange hair begins to spout out of his skin. When his fingernails start to fall off, Seth runs to the machine to figure out what occurred during his teleportation and discovers that a fly was in the machine with him.
Seth’s body begins to rapidly change and he is afraid that he is going to die. Veronica discovers that she is pregnant and is afraid the baby might be a combination of a fly and human. When she goes to get an abortion, Seth kidnaps her back to his lab and tells her that he wants to fuse her, himself, and the baby to create one being.
The Fly does a cringe-worthy and awesome job of showing Seth’s transformation into the fly. His body completely changes as he loses his ears and fingernails. He finds himself in constant pain and when his last metamorphosis into the fly occurs, Seth’s true self is gone.
4. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
Jim Jarmusch’s 2013 film Only Lovers Left Alive has the director venturing into the vampire world. The movie stars Tom Hiddleston as Adam, a vampire living in Detroit. Adam has lived for centuries and is beginning to lose interest in the world and life. He is a reclusive musician that has one friend named Ian, who is a human that doesn’t know what Adam is.
When his wife Eve (Tilda Swinton) calls Adam and hears how depressed he is, she flies to Detroit to be with him. Eve tries to raise Adam’s spirits by listening to music and traveling around Detroit. However, when Eve’s sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska) arrives, the couple’s lives are put in turmoil from her rash actions.
The film does a great job of capturing the deterioration of both Detroit and Adam’s will to live. Adam is feeling uninspired and doesn’t have anything to keep him interested in living, however, Eve’s love for him helps to keep him afloat. He unwittingly accepts her efforts to break him out of his funk.
3. Near Dark (1987)
Near Dark is a vampire western film that follows Caleb (Adrian Pasdar), a young man living in a small town. One night, he meets a beautiful and enigmatic woman named Mae (Jenny Wright) and finds himself drawn to her. As they are making out, Mae bites Caleb on the neck then runs off as the sun is beginning to come up.
Caleb walks back home, but when the sun fully rises in the sky, his skin starts to burn. He is rescued by Mae as she and her group of vampires pull him out of the sun and into a dark van. Calen is introduced to the leader Jesse, the psychotic Severen (Bill Paxton), and the other members. The group decides to teach Caleb how to hunt, but Caleb refuses to kill anyone which alienates him from the pack. Mae helps him by giving him some of her blood to survive.
Things start to heat up when the vampires go to a bar and kill everyone in it and set the bar on fire. Meanwhile, Caleb’s father is trying to find him and when one of the vampires sees Caleb’s younger sister Sarah, he wants to transform her too. Caleb refuses which has him pitted against the group again. An altercation with Caleb’s father and the group results in Caleb escaping with his dad and sister.
Caleb is able to get a blood transfusion that returns him to normal. However, the vampires are in hot pursuit. Mae tries to keep Sarah safe and not allow her to be turned into a vampire. Caleb does battle with several of the vampires to keep his family safe.
Near Dark is an original and genre-bending film that spun the vampire genre on its head. The blood transfusion cure saves Caleb and Mae from a life of thirsting for blood and allows them to be together as normal humans at the end of the film.
2. Let the Right One In (2008)
The Swedish horror film Let the Right One In, which was based on the novel of the same name, turned out to be a huge success for director Tomas Alfredson. The film is about Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) a lonely 12-year-old living with his single mom. Oskar is bullied and tormented by his classmates which has him acting out revenge fantasies when alone.
One night while Oskar is playing with his knife and fantasizing about stabbing one of his bullies, he meets Eli (Lina Leandersson) a pale girl that is about his age. Eli is curious about what Oskar is doing and Oskar learns that she has just moved in with an older man. At first, Eli tells Oskar that they won’t be friends, but they slowly begin a relationship. Oskar is curious about Eli’s lack of response to the cold snow when she walks around barefoot. He lets her borrow his Rubik’s cube to which she quickly solves it and returns it to him.
Oskar is happy to finally have a friend and especially one that is a girl. He starts to develop feelings for her. Unbeknownst to Oscar, Eli is a vampire-like creature that relies on blood to survive. The old man that she lives with goes out to kill people in order to drain their blood. He unsuccessfully returns without blood one night that causes Eli to go out and get some herself. She attacks an older man who is the close friend of a group of drunks.
Eli and Oskar start communicating in Morse code through the wall in their room. One night, Eli notices that Oskar has a scar on his face and learns that he is being bullied at school. She tells him to stand up for himself. Oskar finally does and injures his tormentor by hitting him with a stick. Meanwhile, the old man who is Eli’s caretaker is unsuccessful again at getting blood and results in burning in his face with acid in order to hide his identity from the police.
Eli is now alone and begins to see more of Oskar, which causes Oskar to discover what Eli truly is when she drinks his spilled blood from the floor. Oskar is both frightened and curious of Eli and begins to learn more about her. He even protects her when one of the local drunks tries to attack her while she slept. Eli decides that she must leave in order to evade the authorities who might be looking for her. Oskar is devastated by this.
Let the Right One In ends with a gruesome scene that is also what the audience was hoping to see. Oskar is saved by Eli from his bullies and embarks on a new life with her.
1. Spring (2014)
When Spring was released in 2014, it completely flew under the radar. It gained some traction through word of mouth, but was mostly ignored. The movie is about Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) a young man who loses his mother to cancer and his job within a matter of days. Feeling dejected and lost, Evan is told by his friend to travel in order to bring about a change in his life.
Evan heads out to Italy and meets a mysterious woman named Louise (Nadia Hilker) and starts a relationship with her. He also gets a job working on a farm in order to remain in Italy. Evan and Louise have sex without a condom and start seeing each other more often. Louise reveals to Evan that her eyes are two different colors when she takes out a contact lense. Evan also begins to notice that there are various paintings of women who have the same condition as Louise.
One day, Louise and Evan are having dinner when her skin starts to change. She rushes out of the restaurant and kills a man in her true form. Evan goes to her apartment and finds a creature on the floor crawling towards a syringe. He picks it up and injects it into the creature that turns back to Louise in her human state.
Louise then tells Evan that she is more than 2,000 years old and that each spring she gets pregnant in order to recreate herself. She also tells him the women in the paintings are her.
Evan is horrified by this but also still has feelings for Louise. She tells him that the only way for her to be truly mortal is fall in love. They spend the day getting to know each other as Louise has 24 hours before she transforms again.
Spring ends on a positive note as Louise remains mortal after the 24 hour period which means that she has fallen in love with Evan.
Author Bio: Zane Castillo is a writer who enjoys writing about movies. He is a film noir buff and sci-fi enthusiast.