8 Mysterious Horror Movies That Give Nothing Away

What most of these mysterious horror movies have at their heart is an ulterior motive played out by their antagonists, never quite revealing the whats and whys of their actions in a parallel to their clueless central characters. Midsommar thrives with this subjective viewpoint in particular from Dani, who travels to Sweden for a midsummer celebration with her boyfriend and his pals to learn about the Harga commune's customs as the group spend time with the locals.

Director Ari Aster has created his own iteration of what this celebration would be, throwing in ritual sacrifice, a whole load of hallucinogenics, and a dead bear in for good measure. Just as he previously did with his work on Hereditary, Aster slowly ekes out a larger plan for his characters that isn't clear to much anyone until the very end - in both cases revealing cult shenanigans enveloping ignorant bystanders who don't catch on until it's far too late.

Aster is an expert at keeping his cards close to his chest, crafting a dark underbelly to a story that unravels slowly but surely, as an experience rather than it does a fully formed narrative for unwitting audeinces.