10 More Great Horror Movies Under 90 Minutes
Short and sweet... and terrifying.
Since the early days of horror, movies like Dracula and Frankenstein could barely manage a run-time of 70 minutes.
In recent years, it looks like Hollywood is having the opposite problem, as it keeps cranking out horror flicks seemingly designed to test your patience. The Hellraiser reboot was the longest entry in the franchise. Midsommar was 150 minutes long. The Suspiria remake was nearly twice the length of its predecessor.
If you miss the days when you could watch a solid slasher or creature feature in under an hour-and-a-half, this list should have you covered. In a way, short-and-sweet horror is more effective, since it dumps you in the deep end, scaring the crap out of you from the get-go.
Because of how short these films are, it's likely you will be left hungry for more. However, there's no question that a brief frightfest is far better than one that outstays its welcome. (Seriously, why was It: Chapter Two nearly three hours??)
Even though we've covered this subject before, here are ten MORE horror movies under 90 minutes that are sure to give you the fright of your life.
10. Lights Out - 81 Minutes
In 2013, David F. Sandberg released a spooky short called Lights Out. Despite being under three minutes, it was scarier than almost any movie released that year.
Due to the short's positive reception, Sandberg was given funding to adapt Lights Out into a feature.
The film centres around a mentally ill woman called Sophie who discovers she and her children are being pursued by a spirit who can only be seen in shadow.
Although the effects in the short were very simple, this was due to budgetary concerns. Because this feature had a lot more money behind it, it would've been easy for Sandberg to rely on CGI for the supernatural sequences. Fortunately, the esteemed filmmaker focused more on practical effects and authentic lightning, to make the paranormal scenes more convincing.
What makes Lights Out scarier than the traditional horror film is how it highlights the drama with the family more than the metaphysical. If we saw a ghost every five minutes, we would desensitised to it.
Because Lights Out emphasises Sophie's struggle with her mental instability, you get invested in her plight, which makes far more unexpected when her family is suddenly attacked by a killer ghost.