10 Cosmic Horror Films To Scare You Into Oblivion

Based on the Junji Ito manga by the same name, Uzumaki is the weirdest addition to this list.

Ito is known for his mind-bending ideas, and this film from the year 2000 is no exception.

The fear derived from cosmic horror is a threat that is completely different to anything we know. That threat could be an eldritch abomination, but at least we can comprehend it’s intentions – to a certain extent. Maybe the danger comes from the presence of another realm. However, a viewer will still be able to relate to this, as there are many inhospitable landscapes on Earth.

In Uzumaki, the threat isn’t a creature or a place, but a shape. A spiral.

Kirie, a high school student, begins to realise there is something wrong with her small town of Kurouzu-cho. It is being haunted by the spiral.

To imagine how geometry could pose a threat to human life, you have to think outside the box. And it’s this kind of thinking that gets the viewers stomach turning over as they watch the monstrosities the spiral causes with the townspeople: twisting bodies, bending minds, and transforming folk into snails.

If this all sounds bonkers to you, that’s the idea. There’s nothing that can make you feel quite so uneasy as something you don’t understand. And Uzumaki is hard to wrap your head around.