A girl strolling down the road alone at evening realizes she’s being adopted. As her stalker attracts nearer, the press of excessive heels on town road builds the strain to a breaking level, till out of the blue… a startling hiss comes from simply off-screen. Nevertheless it’s solely a bus, which pulls up subsequent to her, and the girl steps inside to security.
In that scene from 1942’s Cat Folks, director Jacques Tourneur invented the “bounce scare” by means of intelligent modifying. The scene was on the reducing fringe of horror cinema, terrifying the audiences of its period, and perplexing critics who responded with combined critiques. Nearly a century later, nevertheless, it doesn’t precisely maintain up as scary, not to mention the form of factor that may make you bounce again in your AMC recliner.
Fortunately, there have been loads of bounce scares since, and probably the greatest examples in latest reminiscence is out there to stream proper now, making it the right watch this Halloween.
Launched in 2024 (first at SXSW, then on Shudder), Oddity begins with a homicide. Dani is alone in her remoted home when a person reveals up on the door warning her that she’s in peril. She’s violently murdered quickly afterward.
A yr later, her widowed husband Ted has a brand new girlfriend, they usually’re residing collectively in that very same home. (Bizarre, proper?) However when Dani’s twin sister Darcy reveals up and begins to research the homicide utilizing her clairvoyant talents, the reality comes out in disturbing and lethal methods.
Oddity’s overly difficult premise is backed up by a dedication to scaring the viewers with out resorting to low cost tips. The film is a 98-minute-long string of tense, quiet scenes and leap-off-the-couch bounce scares. One notably unnerving second, which I nonetheless take into consideration frequently, makes use of previous camcorder footage to interrupt the principles of time, house, and cinema.
However the scares right here additionally transcend the leaping selection. There’s the weird, human-sized golem Darcy brings together with her, which is one way or the other nowhere close to essentially the most terrifying a part of the film regardless of its eye-catchingly eldritch design. Finally, Oddity is concerning the depth of evil on the coronary heart of man, solely matched by the unknowable supernatural powers that information Darcy, which give the movie a stage of depth many popcorn horror flicks by no means even attain for.
Together, these components make for probably the most genuinely horrifying films launched lately — not in a buckets-of-blood sort of manner, however in a blood-curdling manner — with probably the greatest bounce scares round. Jacques Tourneur could be proud.
The place to observe: Streaming on Shudder, Hulu, and Disney Plus.
Polygon’s annual Halloween Countdown is a 31-day run of brief suggestions of the very best horror films, reveals, TV episodes, and on-line specials to stream for the Halloween season. You’ll be able to discover your entire calendar right here.
