10 Films That Could Easily Be Converted into Horrors

2. A Serious Man

More like a SERIAL KILLER MAN! In the Coen€™s dark comedy, before we witness Larry Gopnik getting emotionally, physically and financially pummelled from all corners, a fable is shown in the prologue. In this fable, a couple are visited by a dybbuk, a Jewish demon. After being stabbed with an ice pick, the dybbuk wanders into the snowy night, never to be seen again. Well, that€™s until Larry summons it to kill his antagonists. Because in the horror version, Larry€™s not just a mild-mannered physics professor. He also a psychotic that practices the dark arts. Sy€™s car accident? Yeah, that wasn€™t an accident. The lawyer€™s heart attack? Ditto. Whether it€™s his nagging wife, his bratty kids, his disgruntled students or his mooching older brother, all of those who give Larry grief tend to end up dying in a most grievous manner. Drownings, getting mutilated with a lawnmower, getting fried with a hairdryer, it€™s all happening around Larry even as he insists, smirking, that he doesn€™t know what€™s going on, and that he €˜hasn€™t done anything€™. His son in particular suddenly realises how sinister the lyrics, €˜when the truth has turned into lies and all the hope within you dies€™ are when the dybbuk strangles him with the tape ribbon from his Jefferson Airplane cassette. After a decadent, carnal orgy with his hot neighbour, Larry drives off into the sunset, contentedly listening to Santana€™s Abraxas as a hurricane heads towards his former town. The town folk can only hope that they are killed by the natural disaster before the dybbuk comes for them.
 
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Amy Maynard is a PhD candidate by day, and a pop culture pundit by night. She enjoys drinking red wine, and reeks of Burberry perfume and cigar smoke.