Midsommar

This 2019 folk horror by modern horror maestro Ari Aster represents summer in the most visually striking way possible. As we follow a dysfunctional couple who visit Sweden to attend a midsummer festival, the lush green scenery, with hyper-saturated colours, becomes quite the treat for one’s senses.

However, the horror that follows has a different kind of impact on the senses. As the dysfunctional couple gets entangled in a strange Pagan ritual that apparently takes place only once in 90 years, they realise they are trapped and are forced to go through horrific rituals. They witness and experience all kinds of extremities, ranging from being force-fed hallucinogenic drugs to human sacrifice. Midsommar is a perfect example of so-called elevated horror, a recent sub-genre which explores and experiments with the artistic uses of horror.

This film plays out like a fairy tale and is rather low on typical horror elements, like jump scares or monsters. Rather, it is a statement on more realistic horrors that we face in day-to-day life. The protagonist, Dani, has just lost her family and has become an orphan. Yet, she is not being able to mourn her loss freely in fear of her partner, Christian, not being able to share her emotional burden. Dani fears that if she expresses her grief too much, Christian will leave her.

Throughout the journey of this film, Dani finds a new family in a faraway land, and through different violent rituals, she finally lets go of the worst aspects of her life. She accepts her grief and finds herself in the Pagan community. Midsommar highlights the gaslighting and repression that women face in their regular lives and ensures that the audiences feel the pain and trauma the lead character goes through. The character’s suffocated grief and repressed emotions are the biggest horrors of the film.

Jaws

Arguably the mother of all creature features, this 1975 Steven Spielberg directorial has aged rather well and can still shock the hell out of you. As an island town prepares for the summer festivities and inflow of tourists, a man-eating great white shark starts to stalk the beaches and hunt the beachgoers. Jaws plays out like a serial killer movie, and the Hitchcockian suspense leads to a nail-biting movie-watching experience. While the film has quite a few memorable jump-scare moments, the use of tension and suspense makes the film truly special.

While hundreds of cheerful beachgoers are seen having a great time in the water, the hint that something deadly can be hiding underwater is enough to make one be at the edge of one’s seat.

The antagonist of the film, a great white shark, is like the devil personified — an emotionless, relentless killing machine that just can’t be stopped. As the summer vacation turns into a bloodbath in the beach town, a police chief, a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter join hands to hunt the beast down and save the summer for the resort town, whose economy is strongly dependent on tourism.

Jaws highlights the fact that the lesser you see the monster, the scarier it is. In this film, the shark is seen for only around four minutes. However, the terror its ominous presence creates is palpable. Spielberg effectively created an air of dread by making audiences constantly fear that the killer shark may be lurking just around the corner. It is believed that Jaws made an entire generation of audiences terrified of sharks. It installed the fear of what might be hiding underwater. The fact that the film is still terrifying after almost 50 years of release, makes it the ultimate summer horror blockbuster.

Cabin in the Woods

This 2012 film, directed by Drew Goddard, ticks all the boxes when it comes to the tropes of a summer-themed horror film — horny teenagers going for a weekend trip at a remote location? Check. Something dangerous stalking said teenagers? Check. A couple of gratuitous sex scenes? Check. The characters are trapped and start dying one by one, till the so-called ‘final girl’ is the only one alive? Check.

Cabin in the Woods uses all the tropes for sure, but its uniqueness is in the fact that it subverts all the tropes and gives them an innovative perspective. I will not give away any spoilers, but the third act of the film is a joyful tribute to the horror genre itself and invokes nostalgia in a highly effective way.

The twist in the tale is really surprising and you won’t see it coming. Also, the use of humour in the film is excellent and makes this one stand out from countless other films which practically have the same story. Despite all the tongue-in-cheek humour and subversion, Cabin in the Woods does not betray its genre and respectfully satisfies the horror buds of audiences.

The film has enough jump scares, atmospheric scary moments and stylised, yet brutal kills, which make sure that any horror fan will be highly satisfied. Unlike other innovative films which are too smart for their own good, this film is like a love letter to the summer horror sub-genre. Watch out for a completely bonkers climax which will not only flip the narrative but will also highlight the fact that in horror films, the creature/monster is the real protagonist and the true blue star.

(Clockwise) Friday the 13th; I Know What You Did Last Summer;

Friday the 13th

This horror classic is arguably the king of slasher films. Released in 1980, this film kicked off a massive franchise of 12 films that mainly focus on the masked, machete-wielding Jason Voorhees.

Jason is a bad guy for the ages and has become a cult character over the years. Friday the 13th and its primary antagonist Jason have become a strong part of global pop culture. The film has a pretty straightforward story and follows all the classic horror tropes.

Some young people travel to a summer camp with a troubled history. They ignore warnings and soon, all hell breaks loose. The film depicts the perfect summer camp atmosphere and provides the sense of taking the audience on a trip.

This sense of travel, combined with the scenic lakeside locations, makes the film embody the summer season perfectly. As the characters start getting killed off by Jason, you will be in for some rather gruesome violence. Compared to other films on this list, this movie is a true blue low-budget feature as well. However, rather than shy away from its budget, Friday the 13th wears its budget constraints like a badge of honour and has a blast in delivering what it promises — 95 minutes of thrills. This is the perfect film to watch with your friends on a simmering summer afternoon. It is also the kind of film people make drinking games on — every time a character does something downright stupid, you take a shot!

I Know What You Did Last Summer

I Know What You Did Last Summer is the ultimate teen horror summer blockbuster. Released in the golden age of this genre, this film became a huge box-office success. I Know What You Did Last Summer tells the story of a group of teens who share a terrible secret. While driving down late at night, they had accidentally ran over and killed a pedestrian.

In order to save themselves from the law, the group had dumped the man’s body into the water and fled the scene. They had made a pact to never bring up the incident again. However, one year after this incident, in the next summer, each group member gets a letter stating “I know what you did last summer”. And the horror begins.

The film starts to play out like a whodunit, as the different characters try to figure out who has sent the letter. Soon, things go haywire as the group members start getting killed off, one by one, by a mysterious killer sporting a meat hook. This 1997 film is fast-paced and edge-of-the-seat. Its strength is its realistic characters and setting, which make the horror quotient more effective as anyone can easily relate to the characters. One can’t help but feel, that ‘this can happen to me as well’.

Piranha 3D

This 2010 horror comedy, directed by Alexandre Aja, is the perfect example of a film which is ‘so bad that it’s good’. The wafer-thin plot follows a swarm of prehistoric, man-eating piranhas which get unleashed upon a small town. The said town is bursting with tourists who have come over to party during spring break. As the hedonistic tourists ramp up the partying, and the different characters of the film focus on having a good time, the piranhas start a non-stop killing spree, which makes the film quite the party for audiences. Let’s face it, this film is not one to give you an intellectual high. But, it delivers the bang for your buck on grounds of what it promises — piranhas killing people in the most imaginative ways possible, that too, in rather ‘in your face 3D’. The film is utter nonsense, but mindless fun. Sprinkled with gratuitous sex and nudity, and hyper-violent kill scenes, the film is definitely not a family watch. The humour is on point and there are some really hilarious moments. This is a perfect film to watch when you just want to chill a bit and have a good time.