Culture & Living
8 chilling movies that will tap into your worst fears and phobias, on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and more
From the fear of snakes to confined spaces, these movies that explore phobias are not for the faint-hearted
What is your biggest fear? Snakes? Height? Water? Do you experience extreme frights and aversions to an object or a situation, exposure to which can cause panic and paranoia. If you resonate with this, you’re not alone. Millions of people across the world harbour phobias of various kinds. And as it turns out, many Hollywood and Bollywood films have tapped into this fear. Up ahead are eight movies to avoid if you're identify with one of these phobias, and watch if you would like to face them head-on.
Phobia (2016)
This Indian psychological thriller sees Radhika Apte playing the protagonist Mehak, an artist suffering from severe agoraphobia, a condition where the sufferer is scared of entering open or crowded places or leaving one's own home. Mehak develops the fear after being molested by a cab driver. While she tries her best to curb her severe anxiety, she eventually gets convinced that a demonic spirit has taken over her home.
Streaming on Eros Now
Trapped (2017)
The story revolves around the protagonist Shaurya (Rajkummar Rao), a call centre employee who accidentally locks himself up in his apartment in a desolate Mumbai high-rise building for a week. With no water, food and electricity, he must find his way out. On the face of it, Trapped appears to be a simple point A to B kind of thriller, where an ordinary person finds himself thrust into an extraordinary situation and then discovers the strength to overcome the odds. But Rao allows the audience to feel his character’s despair, while also dealing with cleithrophobia (the fear of being locked in) as well as monophobia (fear of being alone).
Streaming on ZEE5
The Birds (1963)
Dubbed as the last great Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds’ plot centres around a bucolic Californian town and explores ornithophobia (fear of birds). A rich socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) and lawyer Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) hit it off after a chance meeting in a pet shop in San Francisco. Melanie decides to hand deliver Mitch’s gift (a pair of lovebirds) for his younger sister all the way to Bodega Bay, California. As she takes a boat to Mitch’s home, a seagull swoops down and wounds her forehead. This is the first in a series of escalating deadly attacks by thousands of birds on the town.
Available to buy on Amazon Prime Video
Arachnophobia (1990)
This dark comedy-horror film opens in the rain forests of South America. An entomologist discovers a formidable new species of arachnids on a Venezuelan tepui. The spider kills one of the expedition members, and then hitches a lift to California inside his coffin. On its arrival, the arachnid crossbreeds with a domestic spider. It then starts lurching everywhere, from shoes to toilet bowls, before killing local residents one after the other. Besides the creepy-crawly shocks, the movie maintains a humorous edge. Arachnophobia was the first film released by The Walt Disney Studios' Hollywood Pictures label.
Available to buy on Amazon Prime Video
The Descent (2005)
This British horror film about six women on a cave expedition will prick your deepest terrors of claustrophobic confinement. It is in a cabin in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina where Sarah, Juno and Beth meet other cavers for a spelunking adventure. The next day the group takes a hike up to the cave and descend. After the women move through a narrow passage, it collapses behind them, trapping them. What follows is escalating struggles to survive against the humanoid creatures inside.
Available to buy on Amazon Prime Video
Snakes on a Plane (2006)
No brownie points for guessing that this American thriller owes much of its plot to ophidiophobia (fear of snakes). Although bordering on gimmicky, Snakes on a Plane gained much traction for its title and cast which includes names like Samuel L Jackson and Julianna Margulies. The story starts with Jackson, an FBI agent boarding a flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles to escort a witness, slated for trial against a mobster. An onboard assassin deliberately releases a crate of venomous serpents in an attempt to kill the witness. Chaos reigns from top to tail as he, the crew and some passengers get together to survive the slithery threat. Interestingly, more than 450 snakes were used for filming to represent 30 different species, and almost every possible way someone could die from an encounter with a snake was essayed in the movie.
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video
Buried (2010)
Buried is another psychological thriller that carves out an increasingly unsettling and claustrophobic world, endured by Paul Conroy. He is an American, nonmilitary truck driver working in Iraq, who, after being attacked by a group of insurgents, awakens buried inside a coffin for a ransom. After freeing himself from his restraints, he finds a cigarette lighter, a pen and a cell phone. Ryan Reynolds drives this one-man show.
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video
Contagion (2011)
At the get-go, we’re introduced to Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow), a Minneapolis businesswoman, who returns home from a work trip to Hong Kong with mild cough. By the time she gets home to her husband (Matt Damon), her health deteriorates. Before doctors can figure out what’s hit her, she’s dead. The film, which also features Kate Winslet and Jude Law, is pivoted around a fictional virus MEV-1 that goes on to kill 26 million people globally. Contagion smartly plays on fears ranging from mysophobia (fear of germs), mass hysteria, contamination OCD, vaccine fear, social phobia, anxiety disorder, and eerily enough, our current pandemic-induced situation.
Streaming on Netflix
Also read:
7 gripping mystery movies to watch on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar and more
