If you’re looking for something to watch this Valentine’s Day these heart-stopping horror films will get your significant other snuggled up close for a killer date night. According to Michael Kelso fromThat ’70s Show, a horror movie equals make-out city. While Kelso is referring to how their dates will hold them tight out of fear, this is true for a real scientific reason. The hormone oxytocin, commonly known as “the Love Hormone”, not only causes the warm and fuzzy feeling of affection but also fear and anxiety, none of which will be in short supply when you watch these tales of tenderness and terror. Perhaps if you’re single this holiday of love, then forgo the cliché courtship festivities with a nightmarish night in and dare to watch these fear-inducing films alone. Whether you are snuggled up with a sweetheart or with a bag of sweets, these passionate and perturbing tales will be sure to get your blood and oxytocin pumping.
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My Bloody Valentine (2009)
The Valentine’s Day Massacre was carried out by the sole survivor of the tragic mining collapse of 1997. After leaving the heart of one of his victims in a box of chocolates the masked assailant, Harry Warden, disappears into the mine. Ten years later another bloody heart-shaped box is delivered, and rumors spread that the killer has returned. This 3D horror film has everything a date night slasher flick needs to get your heart pumping, including a messy love triangle, startlingly gory Valentine-themed murders, beautiful women running from the killer in lingerie, and a twist ending that will leave you wondering what happens next. Based on the1981 filmof the same name,My Bloody Valentine 3Dreceived positive critical reviews for its production as well as performances byJensen Ackles(Supernatural) andJaime King(Sin City).
Five women are looking for a relationship and love is in the air as Valentine’s Day approaches. But thirteen years after their junior high’s Valentine’s Day dance Kate, Paige, Dorothy, Lily, and Shelly start to receive strange and obscene Valentine’s Day cards signed by the awkward loser of the class. When one of the women is murdered, police begin to question what happened all those years ago and why the rejected outcast would seek revenge on the ladies after all this time. When the remaining women attend a Valentine’s Day party they are attacked by the cupid mask-wearing assailant. They start to wonder who they can trust as the house party becomes a house of horrors, and the broken-hearted stop at nothing to get even. The slasher films' star-studded cast includesDenise Richards(Starship Troopers),David Boreanaz(Buffy The Vampire Slayer),Marley Shelton(Sin City), andKatherine Heigl(Grey’s Anatomy). Loosely based on the novelValentinebyTom Savage, theJamie Blanks(Urban Legend) directed film deals with themes of childhood trauma and revenge.
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Let the Right One In
Okar, a bullied twelve-year-old boy, strikes up a friendship with his new neighbor, a mysterious, pale child around his age named Eli. Friendship turns to romance as the world outside their apartment building is busy with a string of gruesome murders. A body is found in the lake, and the town’s cat-loving recluse believes he’s seen something otherworldly. Eli shares a dark secret with Oskar, who does what he can to save his beau. This story of romance and horror is based on the novel of the same name by authorJohn Ajvide Lindqvist, who wrote the screenplay adaptation as well.Let The Right One Inreceived widespread critical acclaim, with critics calling the film a beautiful masterpiece and a genuine work of art that is actually frightening. The Swedish film inspired an English-language version,Let Me In, with some changes to the story made to the film, including changing the name and gender of the character Eli.Let The Right OneIn is a beautiful, gory story of what ends one will go to protect true love, making it a perfect film to watch with the one you love, till death do you part.
Into The Dark: Down
A segment of Hulu’sInto the Darkhorror anthology,Downfollows Guy and Jennifer on the eve of Valentine’s Day as they take the same elevator down their office building having both finished late workdays. When the building is struck by lightning the elevator stops moving and the two worry that they will be stuck inside the small metal box over the long holiday weekend of Presidents' Day. After hours of being trapped the two hit it off, sharing wine and chocolates and eventually becoming intimate. But when the pair really get to know each other things become dangerous and the apparent star-crossed lovers find themselves truly trapped and fighting for their lives. Critics noted the film’s enticing mix of violence and romance while some criticized the film’s use of the horror trope in which sexually active characters suffer. Regardless of climatic clichés,Downis equal parts steamy and suspenseful, making this twisted tale a film to watch with someone who you know inside and out… as far as you know.
It Follows
Knowingly playing on the horror trope that those who are sexually active suffer,It Followstells the story of Jay, a college student looking for romance who finds something else… or rather, it finds her. Jay goes on a date with her new beau Hugh and things get steamy in the back seat of his car. But when Jay awakes she finds that things aren’t as rosy as they seemed. Like a supernatural STD, Hugh transferred a curse onto Jay through their intercourse. Now death is haunting Jay wherever she goes, constantly creeping closer. Hugh tells her that the only way to get rid of it is to pass the curse to someone else, but Jay and her friends have a plan.It Followsreceived critical acclaim with critics calling the stylish, lo-fi horror film a creepy indie dream come true and a thought-provoking exploration of sex in horror.It Followsis the perfect prelude to a steamy date night, just verify you use paranormal protection.
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A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Nightis a Persian-language horror western that follows The Girl, a shy, lonely vampire residing in an Iranian town preying upon men who disrespect women. The Girl encounters Arash, a young man who works hard to take care of his heroin-addicted father while undergoing harassment by the cruel, drug-dealing pimp Saeed. To what ends will this very bad girl go for the first man whose neck she’s ever spared? Directed byAna Lily Amirpour, who refers to vampires as serial killing romantics,A Girl Walks Home Alone At Nightis a piece of feminist film that features a female anti-hero who is able to roam the streets at night, unafraid for her safety, as well as featuring a queer background character as a political statement on the laws on homosexuality in Iran. The film,shot in black and white, pays homage to the 1922 vampire filmNosferatu. It received positive reviews from critics who noted the originality and mix of emotions in the dramatic vampire romance. Watch this film with the one you would kill for, or perhaps with the friend who just ended their own brutal relationship with a disrespectful man.
Warm Bodies
A plague has overtaken the world leaving the remaining humans to fight for their lives against the infectious, flesh-hungry zombies. R, a curiously different zombie, comes to the rescue of a living person named Julie. Julie’s beauty is heart-stopping, or in R’s case, heart-starting, as the pair begin a relationship that could be life-changing for the lifeless world. The zombie comedy takes inspiration from Shakespeare’sRomeo and Juliet, creating a living-dead dead-pan comedy take on the timeless romance.Nicholas Hoult(Skins) stars as the brain-dead heartthrob R, alongsideTeresa Palmer(The Sorcerer’s Apprentice),Rob Corddry(Hot Tub Time Machine), andDave Franco(21 Jump Street).Warm Bodieswill leave you feeling warm inside as you snuggle up with your own undead betrothed.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Following the suicide of his wife Elisabeta, Vlad Dracula renounces God and vows to use the powers of darkness to avenge the death of his lost love. After over 400 years have passed, the Count believes that a woman he sees in a photograph is the reincarnation of his beloved Elisabeta and sets off to London to find her. The woman, Mina, admits that she remembers her past life as Elisabeta but with Van Helsing on his trail, Dracula must use his dark powers to try and win over his long-lost paramour.Gary Oldmanstars as Count Dracula alongsideWinona Ryder,Anthony Hopkins, andKeanu Reeves. Directed and produced byFrancis Ford Coppola, the film shows that even bloodthirsty Dracula has a heart.Bram Stoker’s Draculahas become a horror classic, with critics praising the gothic horror’s fascinating energy and stunning visuals. Pull up a coffin with the one you’ve searched lifetimes for and enjoy this romance for the ages.
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Crimson Peak
Young and beautiful Edith is visited by the ghost of her deceased mother who warns her to “Beware Crimson Peak.” When she marries the charming Sir Thomas Sharpe and is whisked away to his remote, dilapidated Gothic mansion she begins to grow weak and experience disturbing nightmares. Edith learns she is able to communicate with the dead and tries to decipher the dark secrets that the ghosts of the mansion are trying to tell her while learning who the true monster is residing within her new home. Directed byGuillermo del Toroand written by del Toro along withMatthew Robins(Close Encounters of the Third Kind), the gothic romance story was praised by critics for its terrifying story and blood-soaked beauty.Crimson Peakis an ideal film to view with the horror fan you secretly love.
Lovers Lane
The cliché horror story of a man with a hook hand escaping a mental institution to prey on the thrill-seekers at the teen-famed hook-up spot comes to life inLovers Lane. On Valentine’s Day, Chloe’s mom was murdered in the car of the man she was having an affair with. Thirteen years later, Chloe makes the mistake of returning to the site of the killings, the fabled Lovers Lane, with a boy from her high school class. Little does she know the man who obsessed over and ruthlessly slaughtered her mother has escaped his cell.Anna Faris(Scary Movie) makes her acting debut as a supporting character in this quintessential teen-scream slasher film. A perfect date night flick for the couple who loves a cheesy horror movie and are looking to have a killer time.
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