Never Watch These 8 Horror Movies if You Want to Fall Asleep at Night

The horror genre is quite diverse. There are slashers, monsters, found footage, and even comedies among many other subgenres. No matter if you're drawn to blood splatter, supernatural elements, or anything else, there's a type of horror for everyone.

But what if horror movies don't scare you that much? Then this is the list for you! There are 8 horror films from different subgenres that scared me so much I couldn't sleep.

1. ‘Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum’ (2018)

Director: Jung Bum-shik. Duration: 1h 35m.

• On Rotten Tomatoes, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum has 92% from critics and 75% from the audience.
• On IMDb, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum is rated 6.5/10.

If abandoned psychiatric hospitals weren't already the stuff of nightmares, this gem raises the bar even higher. Gonjiam follows a group of people who decide it would be fun to make a broadcast from a haunted asylum to boost their viewership. The rest is history and an absolutely terrifying one at best.

Available on Hoopla and Plex for free.

2. ‘Lake Mungo’ (2008)

Director: Joel Anderson. Duration: 1h 27m.

• On Rotten Tomatoes, Lake Mungo has 95% from critics and 62% from the audience.
• On IMDb, Lake Mungo is rated 6.2/10.

Shot like a documentary, this Australian horror film follows a family who lost their daughter Alice to drowning. While grieving, they experience strange events that lead them to believe Alice's ghost is trying to communicate. The film taps into our deepest fears: death and the crushing loneliness that follows those who lost a loved one.

Available on Plex and Fawesome for free.

3. ‘Hagazussa’ (2017)

Director: Lukas Feigelfeld. Duration: 1h 42m.

• On Rotten Tomatoes, Hagazussa has 93% from critics and 52% from the audience.
• On IMDb, Hagazussa is rated 5.8/10.

Hagazussa will get you with its crushing weight of isolation and paranoia. It takes place in a village where superstition and fear rule all. After losing her mother, a young woman's increasingly odd behavior threatens not only herself but her infant child as well.

Available on JustWatchTV, Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex and Fawesome for free.

4. ‘Paranormal Activity’ (2007)

Director: Oren Peli. Duration: 1h 26m.

• On Rotten Tomatoes, Paranormal Activity has 83% from critics and 57% from the audience.
• On IMDb, Paranormal Activity is rated 6.3/10.

You may think of the original Paranormal Activity as a bit outdated, but it proved that simple found-footage horror can be terrifying. The film follows a couple who set up cameras to document strange occurrences in their home.

Available on Hoopla for free.

5. ‘The Fog’ (1980)

Director: John Carpenter. Duration: 1h 29m.

• On Rotten Tomatoes, The Fog has 76% from critics and 65% from the audience.
• On IMDb, The Fog is rated 6.8/10.

When a mysterious fog rolls into a small town, the residents must fight for their lives. The foggy setting of the film further amplifies the horror elements and creates a claustrophobic feeling.

Available on Kanopy and Fawesome for free.

6. ‘The Autopsy of Jane Doe’ (2016)

Director: André Øvredal. Duration: 1h 26m.

• On Rotten Tomatoes, The Autopsy of Jane Doe has 86% from critics and 72% from the audience.
• On IMDb, The Autopsy of Jane Doe is rated 6.8/10.

This film will make your skin crawl as you follow a father-son duo of coroners who work on the body of an unidentified woman. As they perform the autopsy, they uncover increasingly bizarre and impossible findings.

Available on The CW and kanopy for free.

7. ‘Skinamarink’ (2022)

Director: Kyle Edward Ball. Duration: 1h 40m.

• On Rotten Tomatoes, Skinamarink has 74% from critics and 44% from the audience.
• On IMDb, Skinamarink is rated 4.7/10.

Skinamarink is an experimental horror film about two children who wake up to find their father missing and all the windows and doors gone. Its minimal visuals and disorienting audio build a tension that can haunt you far beyond the film itself.

Available on Hulu.

8. ‘The Fourth Kind’ (2009)

Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi. Duration: 1h 38m.

• On Rotten Tomatoes, The Fourth Kind has 18% from critics and 41% from the audience.
• On IMDb, The Fourth Kind is rated 5.9/10.

The Fourth Kind tells the story of an alien abduction. The film follows a psychologist investigating a pattern of disappearances and sleep disturbances. The film presents itself as based on actual events, leaving you to question what's real and what's fiction.

Available on: Fandango At Home, Microsoft Store, Amazon Video, Apple TV.