10 Scariest Internet Horror Films
The best horror movies about the internet! Host, Unfriended & more.
Wherever social anxieties can be found, horror will always have a home. Social fears have been at the root of countless horror classics (as well as entire subgenres), spanning from Godzilla and nuclear fallout to the 'sexual deviancy' of American youth in 80s slashers.
Technology has likewise had a permanent home in horror for decades, with the arrival of television being a major catalyst for this. To some, television was seen as a portal into a ghostly world, which manifested into the likes of Poltergeist, Videodrome, Ghostwatch, and, most famously, Ringu.
As technology has evolved into the digital age, bringing with it its own anxieties such as cyberbullying, the internet has emerged as one of the biggest sources of these new fears.
Now instead of being limited to crawling out of our television screens, the rise of the internet has given ghosts the power to permeate every facet of our modern lives. Whether it’s our phones, laptops, or social media, these digital spirits can connect with us easier than ever.
These techno-savvy demons have already found their way into horror cinema. They’ve even given rise to a new subgenre dubbed "screenlife", but which internet horrors are the scariest of the bunch?
10. Chatroom (2010)
An English-language film directed by Ringu’s Hideo Nakata, Chatroom sees a group of five strangers (portrayed by the fabulous cast of Aaron Johnson, Imogen Poots, Daniel Kaluuya, Matthew Beard, and Hannah Murray) meet and forge connections on – you guessed it – a chatroom.
This entry blends the real and virtual world in an interesting fashion as each character goes about their solitary lives burdened with their own issues. It’s only in the titular chatroom, which is presented as a physical hotel room, where they happily interact with other people.
However, the chatroom’s creator, William (Johnson), suffers from severe depression and gets pleasure from negatively influencing others. He encourages each of his new online friends' deviant behaviour and begins to convince one to take their own life. The situation escalates, leaving it to the rest of the group to stop things before William can succeed.
Chatroom may not be as impactful or influential as Nakata’s more notable works, but the filmmaker nevertheless projects a sense of unease within his vision of the internet. Wet ghosts aren’t killing anyone who enters this chatroom; it's another kind of malicious presence infiltrating this online space.