Arthouse horror movies and TV shows
The list contains the best, new and most relevant arthouse horror movies ordered by relevance. The recommendation service has sorted out surreal, weird, disturbing, atmospheric, cult film and psychological films and TV shows about / with arthouse horror, surrealism, macabre, suspense, insanity, nightmare, danger, obsession, trippy and cult plots mostly in Horror, Drama and Thriller genres shot in Japan, France, USA and other countries.
arthouse horror
TOP 10 movies tagged as arthouse horror: Devil Woman (1964), Repulsion (1965), Hour of the Wolf (1968), The Wicker Man (1973), In the Realm of the Senses (1976), Eraserhead (1977), House (1977), Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977), Altered States (1980), Zigeunerweisen (1980).
Best films
List of arthouse horror movies
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min.
Story:
In medieval times, on a remote plain, a widow and her mother-in-law kill wandering samurai, put their bodies in a hole in the ground and sell their armour and valuables, until the daughter-in-law falls in love with one of their intended victims.
Style:
atmospheric, scary, surreal, art house, psychological ...
Plot:
samurai, murder, swamp, macabre, demon, sex, witch, vengeance, survival, suspense, tokugawa shogunate, pagan ...
Time:
14th century, middle ages
Place:
japan, tokyo, asia
Is relevant ?
54K
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 105 min.
Story:
In Roman Polanski's first English-language film, beautiful young manicurist Carole suffers from androphobia (the pathological fear of interaction with men). When her sister and roommate, Helen, leaves their London flat to go on an Italian ...
Style:
atmospheric, surreal, disturbing, scary, psychological ...
Plot:
mental illness, rape, surrealism, insanity, hallucination, murder, schizophrenia, delusion, isolation, repression, female protagonist, nightmare ...
Time:
60s, 20th century
Place:
england, london, europe
Is relevant ?
Genre: Drama, Horror
Country: Sweden
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
An artist in crisis is haunted by nightmares from the past in Ingmar Bergman's only horror film, which takes place on a windy island. During "the hour of the wolf" - between midnight and dawn - he tells his wife about his most painful ...
Style:
surreal, atmospheric, bleak, disturbing, gothic ...
Plot:
surrealism, insanity, artist, isolation, suspense, existentialism, obsession, mental illness, island, diary, nightmare, macabre ...
Time:
60s, 20th century
Place:
scandinavia, sweden, eastern europe
Is relevant ?
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 77 min.
Story:
Valerie, a Czechoslovakian teenager living with her grandmother, is blossoming into womanhood, but that transformation proves secondary to the effects she experiences when she puts on a pair of magic earrings. Now seeing the world around her in a ...
Style:
fairy tale, surreal, suspenseful, disturbing, experimental ...
Audience:
teens, pre-teens
Plot:
innocence, teenage girl, sexual awakening, coming of age, grandmother granddaughter relationship, surrealism, supernatural, menstruation, seductive behavior, older man younger woman relationship, wedding night, occult ...
Time:
19th century
Place:
central europe
Is relevant ?
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Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
Police sergeant Neil Howie is called to an island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed. Stranger still, however, are the rituals that take place there.
Style:
atmospheric, psychological, twist ending, scary, controversial ...
Plot:
cult, religion, ritual, disappearance, paganism, investigation, sacrifice, female nudity, secret society, human sacrifice, temptation, police ...
Time:
70s, 20th century, year 1973
Place:
scotland, europe, united kingdom, scottish highlands, fictional island
Is relevant ?
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 117 min.
Story:
Four corrupted fascist libertines round up 9 teenage boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of sadistic physical, mental and sexual torture.
Style:
controversial, erotic, disturbing, psychological, sexual ...
Audience:
chick flick
Plot:
torture, sex, rape, obsession, libertine, sexual perversion, sexual abuse, sexual torture, brutality, kidnapping, fascism, atrocity ...
Time:
1940s, 20th century, 18th century
Place:
italy, europe, latin america
Is relevant ?
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 109 min.
Story:
Based on a true story set in pre-war Japan, a man and one of his servants begin a torrid affair. Their desire becomes a sexual obsession so strong that to intensify their ardor, they forsake all, even life itself.
Style:
sexy, controversial, erotic, sexual, disturbing ...
Plot:
obsession, erotica, sexuality, sex scene, sex, love, bdsm, jealousy, lust, explicit sex, sexual relations, unsimulated sex ...
Time:
1930s, pre world war two, 20th century, year 1936
Place:
japan, asia, india, paris france, tokyo
Is relevant ?
120K
Genre: Fantasy, Horror
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min.
Story:
Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.
Style:
surreal, art house, experimental, psychological, avant garde ...
Plot:
surrealism, nightmare, insanity, existentialism, baby, cult, psychology, art, loneliness, eccentricity, psychosis, factory ...
Time:
70s, 20th century
Is relevant ?
29K
Genre: Comedy, Horror
Country: Japan
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
A girl invites her six friends to spend summer vacation with her at her aunt’s house in the countryside. However, the girls don’t know the aunt’s secret......
Style:
surreal, experimental, psychedelic, slasher, disturbing ...
Plot:
ghost, cat, surrealism, haunted house, house, possession, skeleton, coming of age, absurd humor, white cat, characters murdered one by one, evil wins ...
Time:
70s, 20th century, 1940s
Place:
japan, asia
Is relevant ?
Genre: Horror
Country: Italy
Duration: 92 min.
Story:
From the moment she arrives in Freiberg, Germany, to attend the prestigious Tans Academy, American ballet-dancer Suzy Bannion senses that something horribly evil lurks within the walls of the age-old institution.
Style:
scary, surreal, gothic, satanic, atmospheric ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
murder, coven, suspense, witch, supernatural, ballet school, macabre, boarding school, cult, witchcraft, conspiracy, dancer's life ...
Time:
20th century, 70s, year 1977
Place:
germany, italy, europe
Is relevant ?
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min.
Story:
A research scientist (William Hurt) explores the boundaries and frontiers of consciousness. Using sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic mixtures from native American shamans, he explores these altered states of consciousness and finds that memory, ...
Style:
psychedelic, atmospheric, psychological, scary, surreal ...
Plot:
drugs, science, hallucination, experiment gone awry, surrealism, obsession, suspense, transformation, isolation, macabre, university, psychology ...
Time:
20th century, future, 70s, year 1967, 60s
Place:
harvard university, new york, africa, california, boston ...
Is relevant ?
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Country: Japan
Duration: 144 min.
Story:
A surreal period film following an university professor and his eerie nomad friend as they go through loose romantic triangles and face death in peculiar ways.
Style:
surreal, mind bending, enigmatic, psychedelic, erotic ...
Plot:
nightmare, arthouse horror, rage, sexual content, love and romance, love triangle, destructive relationship, human nature, couples, sexual relations, insanity, death ...
Time:
20th century, 1920s, 1910s
Place:
japan, asia
Is relevant ?
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Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: Mexico, Italy
Duration: 123 min.
Story:
A young man is confined in a mental hospital. Through a flashback we see that he was traumatized as a child, when he and his family were circus performers: he saw his father cut off the arms of his mother, a religious fanatic and leader of the ...
Style:
surreal, disturbing, psychedelic, atmospheric, psychological ...
Plot:
surrealism, circus, serial killer, revenge, cult, psychology, art, magic realism, insanity, macabre, funeral, clown ...
Time:
80s
Place:
mexico city, latin america
Is relevant ?
11K
Genre: Fantasy, Horror
Country: USA
Duration: 72 min.
Story:
Begotten is the creation myth brought to life, the story of no less than the violent death of God and the (re)birth of nature on a barren earth.
Style:
avant garde, surreal, disturbing, experimental, atmospheric ...
Plot:
surrealism, macabre, self mutilation, necrophilia, nihilism, torture, violence, chaos, brutality, postmodernism, obsession, supernatural ...
Is relevant ?
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: France, USA
Duration: 134 min.
Story:
In the questionable town of Deer Meadow, Washington, FBI Agent Desmond inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who murdered a teen girl. The killer is never apprehended, and, after experiencing dark visions and supernatural encounters, ...
Style:
surreal, psychological, atmospheric, mind bending, psychedelic ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
surrealism, investigation, serial killer, murder, small town life, small town, incest, mental illness, hallucination, supernatural, rape, double life ...
Time:
20th century, 90s, year 1988, 80s, year 1989
Place:
washington state, canada, philadelphia, portland oregon
Is relevant ?
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 86 min.
Story:
A young couple out for a walk decide to take a stroll through a large cemetery. As darkness begins to fall they realize they can't find their way out, and soon their fears begin to overtake them.
Style:
surreal, atmospheric, gothic, sad, scary ...
Plot:
cemetery, surrealism, magic realism, cult, macabre, nightmare, arthouse horror, erotica, mental disorder, skull, skeleton, tomb ...
Time:
70s, 20th century
Place:
new york, france
Is relevant ?
181K
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min.
Story:
The debut film from Darren Aronofsky in which a mathematical genius Maximilian Cohen discovers a link in the connection between numbers and reality and thus believes he can predict the future.
Style:
surreal, psychological, mind bending, atmospheric, cerebral ...
Plot:
mathematics, insanity, conspiracy, paranoia, obsession, computer, surrealism, cyberpunk, rabbi, torah, psychology, mental illness ...
Time:
future, 90s, 20th century
Place:
new york, usa, coney island brooklyn new york city, manhattan new york city, brooklyn new york city
Is relevant ?
Genre: Animation, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Duration: 71 min.
Story:
A mysterious young girl wanders a desolate, otherworldly landscape, carrying a large egg.
Style:
anime, gothic, avant garde, adult animation, dark fantasy ...
Plot:
surrealism, egg, girl, little girl, religion, flood, angel, minimal dialogue, arthouse horror, life & death, mental disorder, nightmare ...
Place:
europe, japan
Is relevant ?
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105K
Genre: Crime, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 107 min.
Story:
A psychotherapist journeys inside a comatose serial killer in the hopes of saving his latest victim.
Style:
psychological, surreal, psychedelic, scary, mind bending ...
Plot:
serial killer, surrealism, race against time, coma, psychiatrist, virtual reality, psychopath, macabre, mind game, fbi, suspense, investigation ...
Time:
90s
Place:
california
Is relevant ?
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
Pinocchio 964 is a memory-wiped sex slave who is thrown out by his owners for failure to maintain an erection. It is unclear in what ways he has been modified beyond having no memory and being unable to communicate. He is discovered by Himiko while ...
Style:
futuristic, disturbing, surreal, experimental, clever ...
Plot:
apocalypse, exploitation, body horror, memory loss, arthouse horror, nightmare, bdsm, distopia, fetish, trippy, macabre, robot ...
Time:
future
Place:
japan
Is relevant ?
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
Country: Czech Republic, UK, Japan
Duration: 132 min.
Story:
When a childless couple learn that they cannot have children, it causes great distress. To ease his wife's pain, the man finds a piece of root in the backyard and chops it and varnishes it into the shape of a child. However the woman takes the ...
Style:
surreal, disturbing, psychological, atmospheric, art house ...
Audience:
kids
Plot:
surrealism, absurdism, killer child, baby, monster, dark humor, obsession, couple relations, parents and children, fantasy world, macabre, suspense ...
Time:
90s
Place:
central europe
Is relevant ?
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Country: Japan
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
In a small town in Japan, Kirie comes upon her boyfriend's father silently videotaping a snail. Later, the mans obsession with spirals becomes more and more bizarre, ending in his suicide in a washing machine which turn his body into a spiral. ...
Style:
atmospheric, psychological, surreal, disturbing, suspenseful ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
supernatural, obsession, small town, surrealism, insanity, transformation, curse, curses spells and rituals, body horror, macabre, cult, cosmic horror ...
Place:
japan, tokyo
Is relevant ?
Genre: Horror
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min.
Story:
The sadistic tale of a lonely, mentally handicapped boy who befriends his reflection in an antique mirror. This demonic creature orders him to go on a murderous rampage to kill the people he loves most.
Style:
mystical, sadistic, scary, rough, disturbing ...
Audience:
boys' night
Plot:
mirror, demon, supernatural serial murderer, sadistic psychopath, psycho killer, mysticism, serial killer, psychopath, sadist, magical mirror, sadistic killer, murderer ...
Is relevant ?
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12K
Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 130 min.
Story:
Minami mistakenly kills a gangster associate of his named Brother. Almost as soon as the murder takes place, the body of the deceased man is gone, prompting Minami to conduct a search. While looking, he finds a mysterious isolated hotel where he ...
Style:
surreal, disturbing, atmospheric, enigmatic, psychedelic ...
Plot:
yakuza, gangsters, surrealism, obsession, murder, nightmare, hitman, mission of murder, mental illness, twists and turns, cult, violent ...
Place:
japan, tokyo, asia
Is relevant ?
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Horror
Country: Hungary, Austria, France
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
Three generations of men, including a pervert that constantly seeks for new kinds of satisfaction, an obese speed eater and a passionate embalmer.
Style:
disturbing, surreal, controversial, art house, humorous ...
Plot:
perversion, surrealism, misfit, parents and children, taxidermy, rejection, family relations, goofy hero, social misfits, body horror, violent, macabre ...
Place:
europe
Is relevant ?
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller
Country: France, Poland, USA
Duration: 180 min.
Story:
An actress's perception of reality becomes increasingly distorted as she finds herself falling for her co-star in a remake of an unfinished Polish production that was supposedly cursed.
Style:
surreal, psychological, disturbing, enigmatic, atmospheric ...
Plot:
macabre, insanity, surrealism, alternate reality, filmmaking, curse, murder, nightmare, mysticism, doppelganger, infidelity, brutality ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
poland, los angeles, usa, california, europe ...
Is relevant ?
Genre: Animation, Horror, Mystery
Country: France
Duration: 83 min.
Story:
Several scary black-and-white animated segments in different styles appeal to our fear(s) of the dark.
Style:
surreal, atmospheric, suspenseful, bleak, disturbing ...
Plot:
nightmare, ghost, monster, cowardice, dangerous animal, nightmare comes true, bestiality, couples, dangerous attraction, fear, suspense, death ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
japan
Is relevant ?
130K
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: Denmark, Germany, France, Sweden, Italy, Poland
Duration: 108 min.
Story:
A grieving couple retreats to their cabin 'Eden' in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.
Style:
disturbing, psychological, scary, atmospheric, sexy ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
insanity, depression, cruelty, guilt, violence, fear, masturbation, death, explicit sex, torture, male nudity, lust ...
Time:
21st century
Is relevant ?
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Horror
Country: Czech Republic
Duration: 76 min.
Story:
Jan Balej's animated film Night In A City / Jedné Noci V Jednom Meste (2007) from the Czech Republic. Very little dialogue throughout, but instead a rich world of sounds and music which more than match the detailed animation and curious ...
Style:
adult animation, enigmatic, entertaining, mysterious, suspenseful ...
Plot:
surrealism, absurd humor, absurdism, eccentricity, loneliness, alone, city life, satire, loner, christmas, arthouse horror, fish ...
Is relevant ?
98K
Genre: Horror
Country: France, Canada
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
A young woman's quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tormented her as a child leads her and a friend, who is also a victim of child abuse, on a terrifying journey into a living hell of depravity.
Style:
disturbing, scary, twist ending, brutal, splatter ...
Plot:
torture, cult, kidnapping, violence, child abuse, brutality, revenge, death, afterlife, torment, vengeance, torture chamber ...
Time:
year 1971
Is relevant ?
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