Persona is a film that features one character who is mute and another who is trying to communicate with her and that's really the majority of the narrative. To say much more would spoil an incredible film where the phrase "the less you know, the better" could not be more true. While I won't go into detail about the plot I can describe why the film works as effectively as it does. At its core, Persona has two very personal lead performances that the audience can become heavily invested in then it pulls the rug out from under the whole proceeding guaranteeing the movie will stick with you. Ingmar Bergmann's typically sublime and ethereal direction is on full display here but it's in a much darker tone than usual, which really helps Persona to stick out in his filmography. The Seventh Seal may be Bergmann's most well known film but Persona is his best.
4. Rosemary's Baby
Like Alien, Rosemary's Baby is another film that plays on the fears of birth. The plight of Rosemary Woodhouse is simultaneously creepy yet enthralling at the same time due to the way Roman Polanski blends the surreal with the mundane. While Alien deals with the fear of birth on a subliminal level here it is dealt with out right as the basis of the story but there are still subliminal undertones to be found. The film was made around the height of the feminist movement so, even if Polanski didn't mean for it to have feminist undertones it still does. This helps the narrative become even more creepy than it already is because it works as a social statement through showing Rosemary's plight with the occult and birth related trauma.