Alright guys--it’s time for a re-up with a healthy dose of everyone’s favourite mind
altering substance.
Cosmic Horror.
And thankfully for all of us involved, I’ll be politing this strange, comically bound
vessel through the vast and incomprehensible vistas of horror cinema.
The thing is, whilst this may be familiar--this list is going to be a little bit difficult,
considering the fact that--it’s no well kept secret that we’re massive fans of Cosmic
Horror over here at Top 5 Scary Videos--so much so, that there’s not a lot left for
us to cover--be it Lovecraft, or just genuinely underrated horror movies.
BUT.
We like a challenge, so let’s see what we can do.
Hello horror fans, what’s going on, and once again welcome back to the scariest channel
on YouTube--Top 5 Scary Videos.
As per usual, I’ll be your horror host Jack Finch--as today, we curiously take a look
at the Top 5 Scariest Cosmic Horror Movies.
Roll the clip.
My word.
That scene gets me every time.
But for the curious amongst you, of course--that clip was from 1997’s Event Horizon--which
in many ways, whilst being a Fan Fiction precursor to the Warhammer 40K Universe, as well as
being a hypothetical kick start of the Hellraiser Franchise--Event Horizon is the very definition
of Cosmic Horror.
But, this list is long, and endless--and we’re only going to be able to do this by featuring
the best of the best.
Hey, listen--this one isn’t going to be easy--so honorable mentions go to Event Horizon,
The Mist, The Prince of Darkness, Coherence, Spiral, John Dies At The End, The Cabin In
The Woods, Black Mountain Side--yeah.
The list really does go on and on.
Kicking off at Number 5--The Void
We cannot make this list without featuring 2016’s The Void somewhere on it--and still,
strangely enough, I don’t know why--but this film gets brushed off as a terrible example
of dialogue, set design, characterisation and just screenwriting in general--that I’m
starting to think that someone, somewhere, has a massive grudge against this movie and
they’re leading some bizarre slandering campaign.
Also, as a side note--because I’m not trying to defend the plot of this movie because truthfully,
I don’t think it needs defending because it’s awesome--but one of my favourite new
tidbits of information is to look at this movie as a sequel to a movie that never got
made.
Really, because if you play along with that--this is like watching Halloween 2, without knowing
what Halloween one is or what even happened.
And, if that’s the case--for me anyway, it makes the whole incomprehensible cosmic
horror scope even greater.
Really, the whole point of cosmic horror is to orchestrate a fear of the unknown--and
yeah, guys, that’s The Void.
Also, this film is gorgeous and has some of the greatest physical effects of this decade.
Just saying!
Written and directed by Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie, The Void is essentially
a horror movie under siege from a malign cosmic horror death cult--in the only place where
such a movie like that could ever plausibly take place.
A hospital.
It begins with local deputy Daniel Carter finding James, a character that has just fled
the supposed imprisonment of the aforementioned cosmic cult--who is covered in blood and crawling
on the road side.
Obviously, as you do, Deputy Carter takes him to the local hospital, where his estranged
wife, Alison works.
There they’re joined by Dr. Powell, nurse Beverly, Kim the Internet--a pregnant patient
named Maggie, her grandfather Ben--and a pretty bum-out of luck patient, Cliff.
And, well, that’s all the components that we would ever need--should any of those previously
mentioned characters suddenly develop an urge to burst at the seams and start flaying peoples
faces off, presumably under the cosmic influence of a terrifying, triangular Black Pyramid
Empire.
Honestly, I don’t want to say any more in fear of ruining this gem of a movie--but start
to finish, this is one of the finest examples of cosmic horror captured on film.
If someone ever tells you that this film sucked--then-------tell them to be quiet.
They’re wrong.
Swinging in at Number 4--Banshee Chapter, 2013
Okay.
Two things that go together better than an awkward handshake and a strangely limbed cultist
are the two particular narrative devices in question.
Cosmic Horror--and Mind Altering Chemical Substances.
Particularly, dimethyltryptamine--and maybe like, the Hyades Star Cluster--but that’s
just my best guess.
The thing is--you may have been aware of this movie, 2013’s Banshee Chapter, and been
bogged down by it’s gung-ho use of jump-scares.
But that’s not why this movie is here--this movie is here because it’s one of the most
successful horror movies of recent times to accurately portray the *mind altering* gravitas
of the Cosmic Horror genre.
It’s difficult to pin this down, because you could argue--why aren’t Jacob’s Ladder
or Altered States part of that niche?
And well, I’d say that’s a good question--but whilst those films skirt around the edges
of truth and non-truth--Banshee Chapter gives no such ambiguity.
The mind is a terrifying place--particularly if it’s in lieu of a species from another
dimension.
But I’ve said too much already...
Written and directed by Blair Erickson, and produced by Zachary Quinto--yes, that Zachary
Quinto--Banshee Chapter is a found footage piece, that tells the tale of James Hirsch,
played by Michael McMillian--a young amateur sleuth who is in investigate pursuit of Project
MkUltra.
As part of that research, he decides to take the same drug used in the MkUltra experiments,
DMT-19--and whilst his friend films his reaction--soon a bizarre musical hum and strange voices begin
to broadcast themselves from a nearby radio--announcing that something--or someone, is coming towards
the house and that it wants to *Wear Them*.
Yes.
I did just say Wear Them.
We’ll probably stop there in fear of spoilers--because seriously, when this movie gets going--it
really goes the distance, and you’ll have to certainly hold onto your own mind in fear
of crumbling into the dark pit of infinity--AKA the pineal gland.
Yes, you’re correct--this film is based on Lovecraft’s 1920 short story, From Beyond--and
also pretty much a recombobulation of the 1986 Stuart Gordon film of the same name--but
that doesn’t make it any less awesome.
This one hit the nail on the head.
Next up at Number 3--In The Mouth of Madness, 1995
Do you read Sutter Cane?
And listen guys, I could stand here all day with a smile on my face and that could probably
suffice for this particular Number 3 entry--but really, I’m sure that we can all hold this
film up in the highest of regard--as one of the finest examples of, not only cosmic horror--but
meta-fictional-physical(?)--maybe.
Horror.
You see, John Carpenter is a genuinely sublime filmmaker--and he took all of the key components
laid out by Lovecraft, and decided to retroactively fit his own form of Cosmic Horror.
In many ways, I like to think of In The Mouth of Madness as a greatest hits version of everything
that makes the strange and the bizarre tick--and so you may be thinking, why the hell is it
only Number 3 then?
And well, whilst my response to that is--our final two entries are as close to cosmic horror
perfection as it can come--this one--is perhaps the gatekeeper.
It will just take a moment of folding your own existence upon itself--and then being
chased down a corridor of unspeakable horror--but that would be spoilers, wouldn’t it?
Written by Michael De Luca, and forming the third and final installment of John Carpenter’s
Apocalypse Trilogy--In The Mouth Of Madness tells the tale of John Trent--played by the
brilliant Sam Neill--a freelance insurance investigator who is tasked with investigating
a claim by a New York based literary giant, Arcane Publishing.
Eventually, after being attacked at lunch by an agent with an axe--Trent is informed
of the disappearance of Arcane Publishing’s biggest assets.
Sutter Cane, a horror novelist who has taken the world by storm--and has seemingly slipped
off the face of the earth after writing his final manuscript for his final novel.
And, as the case gradually unravels itself, Trent laughs off the claims that Sutter Cane’s
novels can cause disorientation, memory loss--and even hysteria in less stable readers.
Do you read Sutter Cane?
Of course he doesn’t.
Not yet, anyway.
Listen, we’ll stop there in fear of spoilers--but really guys, if you haven’t been able to
decipher by now, In The Mouth Of Madness is one of the finest cosmic horror movies ever
made--and I’m not entirely sure whether it even knows it.
Coming in at Number 2--Annihilation, 2018
There is something about Oscar Isaac’s demeanor in that scene that truly, truly disturbs me--and
believe me guys, that isn’t even the half of it.
In fact, that’s just the beginning.
Now, you may be scratching your head a little bit, and questioning as to how 2018’s Annihilation
can reach such lofty heights so quickly--but guys, I’m fairly certain that, when it comes
to Cosmic Horror, this movie is near perfection.
Perhaps it’s down to the framing of the movie itself--or perhaps it’s the absolutely
brilliant source material that it’s based upon, Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy.
Maybe it’s the physical effects--maybe it’s the genuinely awesome use of CGI in this movie.
I don’t know guys--but Annihilation strikes a chord somewhere.
It’s a puzzle of a movie--and every single frame offers something uniquely disturbing--that
one feeling that chimes louder than any other emotion when facing down cosmic horror.
Confusion.
But not in the contrived sense--because really, narratively and visually, this film is incredibly
straightforward to follow--but the small, strange pit stops in between.
I haven’t got a clue.
Annihilation scares me in a way that few horror movies do--it’s the incomprehension of it--that
somehow wraps it’s tentacles around your mind.
And also, it’s such a pretty picture--that it’s damn near impossible to look away.
Take note, eldritch overlords.
Written and directed by Alex Garland, and based upon the 2014 novel of the same name
by Jeff VanderMeer, Annihilation tells the tale of a strange landscape at the edge of
the Southern United States--an anomalous zone known as The Shimmer--that after a strange
meteor landed off the coast of a lighthouse three years prior to the event of the movie,
began to cause some increasingly perplexing biological occurrences.
It starts Natalie Portman as Lena, a member of one of the exploratory expeditions tasked
with investigating the zone--and after her husband’s group goes missing--she heads
on in alongside her crew.
A psychologist, Dr. Ventress--a physicist, Josie, a geomorphologist, Cass, and a paramedic--Anya.
And believe me, they’re going to need all of the expertise that they can muster.
I don’t want to say any more about the plot, because once you’re in, you’re in--and
watching this movie for the first time is the closest that you’ll come to unbridled
cosmic horror.
Pure, untapped--unexplainable.
I don’t even know.
You’ll be thinking about this film long after you’ve finished watching it.
It certainly takes a hold of you.
And finally, coming in at our Number 1 spot--The Thing, 1982
And this is the part of the episode where I talk about how you wouldn’t be expecting
this movie, and then trying to justify why it’s here--yadda yadda yadda--but listen
guys, I know that in the past of deliberately left off The Thing down to the credit that
it has already garnered--because--let’s face it, The Thing is one of the finest movies
ever made--but when we hold it up to this list in particular, there *is* *no* *other*
*movie* that could take the Number 1 spot.
The Thing is the definition of Cosmic Horror.
It checks all the boxes--every anomalous detail, every extra tendril and elongated spine--every
strange, horrifying, otherworldly scream from the begotten corners of space-hell and damnation
and all of the creatures that it has consumed along the way.
And then some.
It goes the distance, through time and space--and yet, John Carpenter’s The Thing never shows
us all of the cosmic significance that this movie suggests.
We never once take our eye off the fact that we literally know nothing about the creature
in question.
In fact, we know more about Azathoth and Cthulhu than we do about The Thing--and that sole
reason is why this is the greatest cosmic horror movie ever made.
I mean, also--there are a thousand other reasons--but hey, we’ve gotta talk about the Bennings
in the room first--because frankly, I don’t trust any one in this room….
Yeah, I’m looking at you.
You see, The Thing isn’t *just* about a horrifying, unknown entity that has crash
landed in the Antarctic and begins to feast on a remote waystation.
It’s far more than that.
It could’ve been that, and it probably would’ve still been a different movie--but The Thing
is deeper than that.
It’s psychological.
It’s a story about paranoia, and mistrust--and it’s about how quickly the bonds of loyalty
and trust can be frayed by an outside source.
Admittedly, none of us would ever really stand a chance when facing down The Thing--but yeah,
that’s by the by.
I don’t need to tell you anything about this movie from a narrative perspective, because
if you haven’t yet seen it--stop what you’re doing and go and watch the greatest Cosmic
Horror movie ever made--if not the greatest horror movie ever made.
Yeah, that’s all there is too it.
Well, there we have it horror fans--our list for the Top 5 Scariest Cosmic Horror Movies.
What do you guys think?
Do you agree?
Disagree?
Have any more to add?
Then let us know your thoughts down in the comment section below.
Before we depart from todays video, lets first take a quick look at some of your more creative
comments from over the past few days.
First up, the son of dormammu says--
I’ve found some really good movies from watching this series.
Love your channel!
-- Hey!
Thank you very much--and tell your old man Dormammu I said hello.
And finally, Demon Phoenix says--
Thanks to this channel, I have an expert level degree in monster hunting.
-- And rightfully so, you’ve earned it.
Your diplomas will be in the mail.
Well, there we have it--unfortunately that's all we’ve got time for in today's video,
cheers for sticking around all the way until the end…