Film
Carrion
- Horror
- Very dark
A lean, paranoid rural horror film about a woman returning home after a decade away, only to find something sinister stalking her and her cousin. Shot on a shoestring with real dread, it trades jump scares for creeping unease and ambiguity. For viewers who prefer atmosphere and uncertainty to explanations.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like quiet, creeping dread built on family secrets and the sense of being watched from the trees, and you don't need every question answered.
Skip it if you need brisk plotting or big set pieces, since at seventy-two minutes it is lean and atmospheric and its momentum may feel thin.
What it asks of you: Short and patient, it spends most of its runtime in slow, shadowed stretches, so expect to sit with silence and unsettling stillness rather than be fed scares.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
It Comes at Night2017
Claustrophobic, slow-burn paranoia about family isolation and the threats—real and imagined—that gather outside. A masterclass in using absence and suggestion instead of spectacle.
But Deliberately vague about what's actually happening; some viewers find ambiguity frustrating rather than unsettling.
The Witch2016
Dread-soaked period horror where something wrong seeps into a family's world. Unflinching about folk horror and psychological dissolution, with a similar refusal to comfort the viewer.
But Slow, oblique, and deeply bleak. It prioritizes mood and folk-tale logic over plot momentum or resolution.
A Dark Song2016
Intimate two-hander about grief and the occult, building from quiet desperation into something transcendent. Character-driven and unsettling in ways that have nothing to do with gore.
But Meditative and austere. If you need action or clear narrative momentum, this will feel painfully slow.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Carrion
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Annihilation2018
Both use isolation and encroaching strangeness as their engine. Neither explains what's happening, trusting dread more than exposition.
Sci-fi horror where something unknowable encroaches on the familiar, transforming and corrupting it. Stunning, unnerving, and philosophical rather than jump-scare driven—a woman watching her world become alien.
But Visually and conceptually dense; the science-fiction terminology can feel like jargon, and the ending prioritizes mystery over satisfaction.
More like this (7)
Under the Skin2014
Hypnotic sci-fi horror that trusts the audience to piece things together. Jarring, sensory, and profoundly unsettling through atmosphere and music rather than plot reveals.
But Deliberately cryptic; long stretches without dialogue. The narrative stays intentionally obscure, which feels like art to some and like pretension to others.
Resolution2013
Meta-horror about a man trying to document his friend's addiction that spirals into something far stranger. Clever, unnerving, and genuinely original in how it plays with form.
But The self-aware structure might feel clever rather than scary. Low budget shows throughout, which works for mood but not for spectacle.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer2017
Methodical psychological horror about a family unraveling under an inexplicable curse. Formal, austere, and deeply uncomfortable—dread as precision.
But Ice-cold and abstract; the slow accumulation of wrongness is the point, which means it can feel glacial and detached.
Lake Mungo2009
Faux-documentary ghost story that builds from mundane grief into quiet, devastating horror. Restrained and genuinely haunting, with an emotional core that lingers.
But Presented as a documentary; if you hate found-footage aesthetics or slow pacing, this will feel like work rather than entertainment.
Await Further Instructions2018
Confined-space horror about family and control masquerading as safety. Claustrophobic and nasty, with real teeth and social commentary underneath the scares.
But The premise gets increasingly ridiculous as it escalates; some find that commitment to absurdity either brilliant or silly.
The Sacred Spirit2021
Both are low-budget rural horror films about homecoming as a threshold between past and present, where landscape itself becomes character and threat.
A debut feature from South Africa about a woman returning home, only to confront trauma and something genuinely wrong with the place itself. Gorgeously shot, linguistically rich, and deeply unsettling in its cultural specificity.
But Slow-paced and rooted in Zulu language and custom; Western horror audiences may find the pacing and narrative logic unfamiliar or frustrating.
The Fall of the House of Usher2023
Both treat a place as the true protagonist. Family history doesn't just haunt the present—it physically colonizes it.
Mike Flanagan's seven-part Gothic unraveling of Poe's story, with each episode a different family member's descent. Lush, cruel, entirely committed to psychological rot and architectural dread.
But Much longer and far more elaborate than Carrion; if you prefer constraint to baroque expansion, the sheer ornament might overwhelm the horror.
People
Cast
- Jenya ChaplinCarrie Anne
- Chloë CaroLaurie
- Nathan KnightKarne - present
- Marc VictorKarne - past
- Sierra GoddardRuth
- Erik Jorn SundquistGeneral Gregarin
Oliver CaspersenJonathan- Pasha NewmerzhitzkyThe Scientist
- Kay CoburnGuinevere
Directing
- Michael Zaiko HallDirector
Writing
- Michael Zaiko HallScreenplay
- Oliver CaspersenWriter
Production
- Oliver CaspersenProducer