I love a good spook, and I have a very particular taste in movies and shows. So, if you’ve already watched all the recent releases (how good was Widow’s Bay? Can we please have more shows with writing that good?), here is a list of movies and shows that aren’t nearly as well-known as they should be, but that I absolutely adore.
Ghosts & haunting
A French horror movie. A young woman comes to an orphanage that seems haunted, but she carries ghosts of her own. It’s sad and very tragic, and if you love a good gothic ghost story, this one is for you.
An amazing British show about a psychic. It’s so freaking good, and it doesn’t get remotely enough hype. This is my favorite show of all time; I can watch it nonstop. This show revolves around a psychic and a psychologist who writes a book about her, trying to prove that what she is experiencing is psychosis.
This one is fun and sad. Well, people die, but Bryan Fuller’s earlier works feel like the projects he had the most fun making. Very millennial-coded: a girl who was lost in life is equally lost in death, trying to figure it all out. Here you have your black humor, grim reapers, and millennial anxiety about the world. I miss old Bryan Fuller. (Also, if you watched Hannibal, you’ll notice familiar actors from his earlier shows and plenty of little Easter eggs for fans!)
Living with the Dead (TV Mini Series, 2002)
My personal favorite, and I don’t think enough people know about it. First of all, our main medium character is a middle-aged man trying to run his dying business and take care of his elderly father. This show really explores Ted Danson’s acting range, and I absolutely loved him in it. I think he was perfect. It’s a supernatural thriller about a series of murders that might reach back into the past much deeper than everyone thought.
The Blair Witch Project and Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
The sequel is made more like a narrative fiction film if you’re not into the found footage format. They really step out of your standard movie cadence and do something of their own - and you get haunted woods, too. My book Into the Dark, We Go has a similar vibe, and if you liked it, you will definitely like both movies.
Vampires
I will never stop screaming about this movie. It’s so severely underhyped. A black comedy about a millennial music band nobody knows or cares about that trades their lives in exchange for fame.
Trust me, this is good. Also, Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop made appearances in it.
Dark academia, all-girls boarding school, a mysterious new student, sapphic vampires, and tragic friendships. Sold, sold, sold.
A vampire couple in the 80s live their best life: they party and drink blood. Only, she carries a secret, and that secret is that nothing is forever - not even immortality. With David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve, this is my number one vampire movie of all time. And if you liked this one, you will love my vampire novella, Loud as Bones.
A vampire mother and daughter run from the vampire clan of men who are after them. Saoirse Ronan as a vampire is so haunting. Wonderful casting.
I am a sucker for this type of vampire movie! A traveling circus comes into a village and young children begin to disappear.
I am also on the hunt for great “these woods are haunted” movies and shows to watch while I’m working on the sequel to Into the Dark, We Go, so please share your recommendations!