10 Horror Movie Concepts That Should NEVER Work (But Do)

In horror more than other genres, there’s usually one or two films you really like that you never want to have to explain. Sitting down and trying to help your friends understand why, actually, a ninety minute silent film about a man with a hole in his stomach escaping a maze is far better than it sounds, is no easy feat.

We can’t help what we like! And as long as it’s not hurting anyone (anyone real at least), then there’s nothing wrong with having an oddball taste in movies. Sometimes the weirdest things work; some ideas that sound like they for sure should never have made it to a pitch meeting end up being cult classics.

Whether an idea doesn’t work because it’s too abstract, too cringe or just sounds boring on the surface, there are plenty of examples of it still making a great horror film. From eating little metal ornaments right down to covering yourself with grease and strangling your dad’s girlfriend, horror has everything imaginable on offer. Pick your poison - just don’t expect anyone to understand why you chose it.

In Swallow, Haley Bennett plays a bored and traumatised housewife who begins eating small, inedible objects. She suffers from a condition called Pica, in which the patient develops a compulsive need to consume non-food items, it’s very much a real thing!

Where the mind instantly goes when hearing this and linking it with horror tropes is perhaps that she eats gross things, like human teeth or maybe…babies (?) or something, but it’s not that kind of movie.

In the whole of the film, the biggest and most upsetting thing Hunter swallows is a small screwdriver, perhaps the length of a finger. Don’t get me wrong, it’s horrible to see someone choking on a screwdriver, or puncturing their tongue on a thumbtack (a tonguetack now, if you will), but it’s still fundamentally not that scary.

What makes the film work is the atmosphere it builds. It’s a constant air of repression; Hunter is stuck in her house like a prison and the world outside is hostile. You fear the blowback from her abusive husband and his family, the impact the world could have on Hunter - being as fragile as she is - and the truth of her past that casts it all in a miserable light.

Sure, ‘woman swallows marbles’ isn’t a great pitch for a horror movie, but hear me out and give it a go.