10 Best Horror Movies Told In Real Time

Admittedly, Mikael Hafstrom's haunted house horror ride 1408 does open with a pre-credits prologue which isn't included in the otherwise real time body of the film proper.

But the Derailed director made a wildly underrated classic when he adapted Stephen King’s short story of the same name from the collection Everything's Eventual, so let's make a minor exception for the slight discrepancy.

Starring John Cusack as a cynical debunker of paranormal phenomena who meets his match when he endeavours to spend a night in the titular haunted hotel room, the gruff anti-hero ’s interminable alarm clock ensures that the audience knows his rapidly worsening hotel stay is taking place in real time.

It's a necessary touch too, as whilst the haunting may begin with some minor ghost sightings and creepy hallucinations, the room is soon twisting space and time itself in impossible ways. As such, the clock's jarring outburst late in the film reminds viewers that only an hour has passed since he took up residence in the cursed room, despite how much longer the ordeal may feel.