Everyone is afraid of watching a certain movie for whatever reason; perhaps of a phobia of something, or it could be that you live in the area where the true story originated, or you tried to watch the film before and couldn’t make it through the first five to 10 minutes of it. There could be any number of reasons. Here is a list of 10 films you may have wanted to watch but were too afraid, all about ghosts in Purgatory and true events.
1. The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
Based on the true story of Anneliese Michel of West Germany.
A 17 year old German woman who’s Roman Catholic upbringing ended up with her being demonically possessed by quite a few Demons. Roman Catholicism is a favorite of the Underworld for unknown reasons. Really. Not even joking.
According to documents, Bishop Josef Stangl oversaw the exorcisms, permitting every one of them. In total there were 67 exorcisms lasting up to 4 hours. Anneliese went through so much hell, no pun intended, that the film based on her story, was not permitted by her mother and she would not acknowledge the film’s existence.
Jennifer Carpenter plays 18 year old Emily Rose (Annelise). The film gets spookier the more it goes on because the more possessed she gets, the more contorted her body gets. These positions were so unsettling to viewers and even the director, that nobody would dare watch it.
Oh, by the way, Jennifer Carpenter was extremely flexible and performed the contortions herself. Did you know that?
2. Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)
The film stars one William Shatner playing the lead role of Dr. Rack Hansen, a veterinarian. The film is about the natural consequence of using pesticide – rendering the spider’s food supply poisonous. So just like in real life, they had to move to find more food. By the end of the film, the spiders had taken over the entire town, killing people, cocooning them in their webbing despite their cannibalistic nature.
Ending with the survivors trying to find out if the world ended from the spiders, the twist there is that it was only THEIR town that was infested. The rest of the world has no idea that it even happened. Which makes total sense.
Roughly 5,000 live tarantulas were used but not harmed in the making of the film. The sweet little spiders were well taken care of, the crew kept their safety in check, and they all had to be kept individually warm in separate tanks because of their aforementioned cannibalistic nature.
For every arachnophobe who read that last line about the 5,000 live cannibal spiders, think of it this way: they had to be kept individually warm, so imagine them all curled up sleeping, each wearing a teeny tiny hoodie.
3. Arachnophobia (1990)
Another film using real spiders, close-ups and all, it stars Jeff Daniels as Dr. Ross Jennings, the cliched arachnophobic doctor of a small town. After a series of deaths all caused by spider venom, A nest of spiders are in his barn – the offspring of the General and the Queen.
The second nest of spiders is in Dr. Ross’ wine cellar, through which he promptly falls through the floor – another cliche but still creepy. The Queen and the General are there guarding it. It’s a happy ending for all the humans.
John Goodman plays the badass exterminator, Delbert, in a somewhat serious role. The film is not for an arachnophobe’s viewing considering there are two types of live spiders and one animatronic, but it’s still a good film if you want a good scare. A little tidbit: Mythbusters’ own Jamie Hyneman built the General.
4. The Fourth Kind (2009)
Despite not actually stating in the end credits whether or not this film is false or based on true events, alien abductions have been all too real since the beginning. While most people brush it off as just some hoax, evidence has been uncovered about weird occurrences that suggest we are not alone in the universe – bright lights and metal shrapnel found around Area 51 – and now everyone wants to storm that place to see if it’s true.
“The Fourth Kind” is about residents of Nome, Alaska, centering around their hypnotherapy sessions with Dr. Abigail Tyler, played by Milla Jovovich. Her patients all go under hypnosis, seemingly all describing close encounters, with an owl being a huge symbol in the whole thing. A very freaky looking owl.
Abductions aren’t new but are still something that humans believe in, both on screen and off screen. And whether or not Dr. Tyler remembers – she was abducted as well in what is a twist of sorts in the film.
5. A Serbian Film (2010)
A film within a film.
Banned outside of Serbia for very obvious reasons, Milos, a struggling porn star, is trying to provide for his family. A friend of his tells him of a job offer from a man making an artistic porn film, with a high price given to Milos for letting him rent his… “unique talent” for his art film.
The word “banned” strikes fear in everyone because of how vague the word is. A film could be banned for an infinite number of reasons.
When it comes to this film, it was banned outside of Serbia, in 46 countries, for the themes of pornographic nature, pedophelia, and all that other gross jazz. When it comes down to it, “A Serbian Film” has such realism and “art” from the opening scene right down to the ending.