Head-scratching, but also fantastic.
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00:00While most films make it obvious who the villain is supposed to be, the distinction between
00:03who's good and who's evil isn't always made clear to viewers. Rather than being cut
00:07and dry tales of good versus evil, certain films, like those we're covering today,
00:11tend to be more nuanced in their terror. So let's take a look at them as I'm Jules,
00:15this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 Horror Movies With No Obvious Villain.
00:2010. Devil
00:22Claustrophobic thriller Devil is the perfect premise for a whodunit-style horror where
00:26anybody could be the killer. This flick sees a group of strangers find themselves trapped
00:30together when the lift that they're in mysteriously breaks down. Being stuck in a lift is enough
00:34to ruin anybody's day, but things are made a lot worse when one of these strangers is
00:38the literal devil. Whenever the lights go out, one of the trapped is killed. Meanwhile,
00:42a small team of security guards and investigating police officers work together to try and figure
00:46out what's going on and discover who the killer is before everybody is killed. It's
00:50a race against the clock to find answers while the bodies start piling up. Executed with
00:54an endearing B-movie charm that has all the idiosyncrasies M. Night Shyamalan is famous
00:58for, there are enough red herrings thrown in throughout its snappy 80-minute runtime
01:02to keep viewers second-guessing themselves to who the devil in disguise is. And coming
01:06from the mind of Shyamalan, nobody will see the reveal coming when it's time to unmask
01:09the true villain.
01:119. Bug
01:13An underrated psychological horror helmed by The Exorcist's William Friedkin, Bug
01:17is one flick that will definitely get under your skin. The film centers around alcoholic
01:21waitress Agnes, who's been left reeling from the death of her son and an escape from
01:25an abusive relationship. One day, she's introduced to Peter, an ex-soldier, and the
01:29pair strike up a close relationship. However, events take an insane turn when Peter confesses
01:34that he believes the government has infected him with microscopic bugs. And despite Agnes
01:38being understandably skeptical to the claim, she soon becomes swept up in the conspiracy.
01:42The pair shut themselves away in Agnes' motel room and covered the wall in tinfoil.
01:46As their speculation grows increasingly outlandish, their behavior likewise becomes more extreme
01:51until the tension explodes into a violent finale. No matter how ridiculous Peter's
01:55claims may seem, the script leaves a tiny shred of doubt that he could be telling the
01:59truth. This ambiguity is only reinforced further in the closing shots, which suggests that
02:03everything may have actually been one big delusion. While Peter is the instigator of
02:07the carnage, he's simply just another victim to his own probable paranoia and mental illness.
02:128. Raw
02:14Before shocking audiences with car-based body horror titan, French filmmaker Julia Ducourneau
02:19traumatized moviegoers with cannibal coming-of-age film Raw. Focusing on a vegetarian veterinary
02:24student Justine, who also makes a cameo appearance in Titan, Raw sees her life descend into bloody
02:29carnage when, at a hazing ritual, she's forced to eat raw meat. Doing so, however,
02:34awakens an uncontrollable desire in her to consume more meat. It doesn't take long
02:38for this new craving to take a sinister turn. With no way to quell her newfound hunger,
02:42Justine finds herself drawn to human flesh. Though Justine is seen committing stomach-churning
02:47acts of gratuity, with eating her sister's severed fingers being one of the most unpleasant
02:51scenes to endure ever, she's never actually framed as a villainous character. Unlike other
02:55on-screen cannibals, she's much more of a sympathetic character. College is a whole
02:59new situation for her in which she's experiencing many things for the first time, and in discovering
03:03her new pleasures, these manifest symbolically through her devious appetites. Raw is a fierce
03:08feminist horror film that's about a young woman coming to terms with and learning to
03:12control her urge for pleasure.
03:147. Relic
03:16In a similar vein to how the titular monster of the Babadook was a manifestation of an
03:20exhausted mother's grief, under-seen Aussie horror gem Relic uses the horror genre to
03:24explore abstract concepts to heartbreaking effect. After receiving word that her elderly
03:29mother Edna has gone missing, Kay, alongside her own daughter Sam, rush to her tired-looking
03:33country home. But when Edna mysteriously reappears with no memory of what happened, events take
03:38a rather malevolent turn. Edna's erratic behaviour grows increasingly dangerous while
03:42the house itself begins to shift into a labyrinth of moulded corridors and dead ends.
03:47Anyone going into this film without knowing what it was about would assume they're in
03:50for a creepy supernatural affair in which the house and its aged owner have become possessed
03:54by an evil entity. However, it soon becomes apparent that the affliction haunting this
03:57family isn't supernatural at all. Edna has Alzheimer's disease. She's unable to recognise
04:02her own family, which is as terrifying for them as it is for her. The instant viewers
04:06realise this, Edna is no longer the threat that she once was. As the final, heart-aching
04:10shot highlights, she's a vulnerable woman terrified of losing her family.
04:146. Bodies, Bodies, Bodies
04:17Part devilish horror-comedy, part tort-whodunit-style thriller, this feature debut sees a group
04:22of wealthy 20-somethings get together for a hurricane party at one of their parents'
04:27house, to take the festivities up a notch, they decide to play the titular party game.
04:30The rules are simple, whoever gets a piece of paper with the X on it is the killer, with
04:35it being down to the others to try and figure out who they are. However, the game becomes
04:38real when the players start to turn up dead. With tensions running high between the group,
04:42uncertainty about newcomer B, and talk about another party-goer who nobody's seen since
04:46the night before, anybody could be the killer. As the numbers begin to dwindle, the paranoia
04:51amongst the survivors only escalates.
04:53Like John Carpenter's The Thing, part of the horror comes from second-guessing every
04:57character. Unlike that genre-defining classic, though, there's an extra twist here in this
05:00flick that reframes the nerve-shredding murder mystery in a hilariously new light. Without
05:04spoiling the surprise, the finale of Bodies, Bodies, Bodies is the perfect punchline to
05:08a film that revels in satirizing the social media generation.
05:125. Midsummer
05:15After losing her family in a horrific tragedy, Dani is invited to the Swedish countryside
05:19to witness a rural community's midsummer festivities alongside her boyfriend Christian,
05:23and his group of friends, who also aim to study their traditions. While the idyllic
05:26summer setting initially promises a welcoming environment, events soon take a dark turn
05:30when the group witnesses the cult's brutal rituals before they find themselves at the
05:34centre of this escalating horror. While it's easy to label the cult as the obvious villains
05:38here for the murderous actions they commit, writer-director Ari Aster's Midsummer is
05:42much more nuanced than its wicker-man premise suggests. As cruel as the cult appear to be,
05:46they're never as cold or as heartless as Christian. His strained relationship with
05:50Dani is the centre of most of the conflict, and the core of Dani's character art throughout
05:54much of her ordeal. Whereas Christian is constantly neglectful and antagonistic towards her, the
05:59cult actually welcomes her with open arms and give her the much-needed empathy and emotional
06:03support she needs. It's only through this newfound acceptance that Dani has the strength
06:07to break up with Christian during the film's finale, even if it is in the most extreme
06:10way.
06:114. The Lighthouse
06:13After terrifying moviegoers with his feature debut, The Witch, writer-director Robert Eggers
06:18shifted his attention from the forest in 17th century New England to a desolate 19th century
06:22lighthouse for The Lighthouse. Whereas The Witch's themes of religious superstition
06:26and paranoia were manifested in the form of the titular witch, The Lighthouse has no such
06:30physical villain. The film follows newly-employed lighthouse keeper Winslow as he takes a job
06:35at a run-down lighthouse on a barren island under the supervision of veteran sailor Wake.
06:39The pair's relationship soon becomes strained thanks to a combination of Wake's cruelty
06:42and the poor working conditions. And when a storm rolls in and strands them on the island,
06:47it doesn't take long for alcohol-induced chaos to break loose. With both men driven
06:51to the brink of madness, all sense of time and reality hit breaking point by the time
06:55the events reach their climax. It becomes impossible to tell if the men have simply
06:58lost their minds or if something more supernatural is underfoot. Perhaps the light which Wake
07:02forbids Winslow to see really does have otherworldly properties. Or maybe it was Winslow's disregard
07:07for the maritime superstition that doomed them both.
07:103. Pulse
07:12Kyoshi Kurosawa's haunting ghost story Pulse remains a chilling meditation on online culture
07:17over two decades after its release. When spirits start to use the internet as a gateway into
07:22the world of the living, people begin to mysteriously vanish while forbidden rooms start to crop
07:26up around Tokyo. Sealed with red tape, these rooms are said to be where the ghosts can
07:30be found. Anyone who encounters one of these spirits becomes overwhelmed with an immense
07:33sense of loneliness until they disappear leaving only a shadow of themselves behind. While
07:38they don't appear often, the ghosts are immensely unsettling presences whenever they
07:42show up. Anyone familiar with the spine-chilling forbidden room scene will know how creepy
07:46Pulse can be. Other J-horror ghosts from The Ring or The Grudge, those in Pulse aren't
07:50inherently evil. Rather, they're simply immeasurably lonely and lacking in any sense
07:54of purpose. This feeling of sadness is what haunts the streets of Tokyo as it slowly turns
07:59the bustling city into a literal ghost town. The eerie atmosphere and deliberate slow pace
08:03only heighten the ominous sense of dread as Kurosawa weaves a poignant meditation of the
08:08internet and society much more chilling than any traditional ghost story.
08:122. Let the Right One In
08:15Vampires are one of the most iconic movie monsters to have graced our screens. From
08:19the likes of Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee's legendary performances in classic monster
08:23movies to cult classics like Daughters of the Darkness or From Dusk Till Dawn, these
08:27blood-sucking terrors of the night are instantly recognisable horror villains. But not all
08:31vampires are as obviously evil as Dracula, and for proof of that, look no further than
08:35adored Swedish horror Let the Right One In. Based on the novel of the same name, the film
08:39centres around a timid 12-year-old boy named Oscar, who fantasises about enacting revenge
08:44on his high school bullies. But his life changes when he meets his mysterious next-door neighbour,
08:48and the pair spark up a close relationship. Despite her murderous antics to quench her
08:53thirst for blood, she is Oscar's only source of support. She teaches him to stand up for
08:57himself and, in one gruesome scene, dispatches his bullies. But Oscar is no angel either.
09:02He expresses a desire to kill from the very start and ultimately gives in to his violent
09:05cravings with some encouragement from his neighbour. In short, this is a love story
09:09that is as beautiful as it is bleak.
09:121. Lake Mungo
09:14Presented as an intimate documentary, writer-director Joel Anderson's Lake Mungo sees the Palmer
09:19family talking about the death of their 16-year-old daughter, Alice, who drowned near the family
09:23home. They express the immense grief they feel about her loss alongside the difficult
09:27memories of the tragedy and discovery of her corpse. However, the sombre events then take
09:31a more supernatural turn when Alice's brother Matthew discovers what he believes to be apparitions
09:36of Alice within the video footage. From here, Lake Mungo delves deeper into its themes of
09:40loss as the family members ponder on Alice's ghostly presence and what it could mean. To
09:44them, there's nothing malicious about this haunting, rather it's just a profoundly
09:48personal experience. But there's something far more unnerving lurking just below the
09:52surface of this Aussie mockumentary horror. Astonishing twists that will not be spoiled
09:56here reveal a darker secret behind the teenager's death. And these shocking revelations tap
10:00into a chilling existential dread that serves to make the tragic circumstances all the more
10:04harrowing. With no real antagonist presence to speak of, Lake Mungo's horror is rooted
10:09in its existential terror and poignant explorations of grief.
10:12And there we go my friends, those were 10 horror movies with no obvious villain. I hope
10:16that you enjoyed that and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comment
10:19section below. As always, I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Instagram at
10:23RetroJ but the O is a zero. Hope to see you over there and you can check out all the Warhammer
10:27miniatures that I've been painting. Yes, I'm a nerd. But before I go, I just want
10:30to say one thing. Today we spoke about horror movies with no obvious villain and you know
10:33what my friends, you listening to this video, you're not a villain either. So stop beating
10:37yourself up for mistakes that you've made in the past. Nobody is perfect and you deserve
10:41to live a healthy and happy life. I know you're a good person and I want nothing but the best
10:45for you. I want you to go out there and achieve happiness, love and success because you deserve
10:49those things and do not let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise, alright? You're
10:53a massive ledge, now go out there and smash it today. I believe in you. As always, I've
10:56been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that and I'll speak to you soon.