Film
Couple in a Hole
A British couple living deliberately off-grid in a forest cave are drawn into an unsettling friendship with a local farmer. This is a slow-burn psychological thriller that trusts you to sit with dread and ambiguity. It's patient, strange, and deeply committed to its premise—part folk horror, part character study of people for whom normal society simply doesn't compute.
If you liked this
Under the Skin2014
Scarlett Johansson as an alien hunting humans in Glasgow. A transcendent, hypnotic film that treats the uncanny as pure cinema. Landscapes become menace. Isolation breeds wrongness.
But Deliberately paced, minimal dialogue, and offering no conventional narrative satisfaction. Not remotely a thriller by traditional rules.

The Wailing2016
A Korean masterpiece that spirals from crime procedural into metaphysical chaos. Superbly acted, morally vertiginous, with a mystery that genuinely has no stable answer. Unforgettable.
But Nearly three hours, subtitled, and the ending will frustrate you if you need certainty. Deliberately constructed to resist interpretation.

Starry Eyes2014
A young actress makes a Faustian bargain in Hollywood. Body horror, genuine occultism, and a protagonist who evolves into someone unrecognizable. Darkly smart and visually audacious.
But Gratuitously graphic in places, and the moral stance is chilly. You won't find a character to root for by the end.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Couple in a Hole
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Naked Lunch1991
Both films treat estrangement from normal society not as plot but as ontology. In each, the margin isn't a temporary location—it's a permanent psychological state. They ask whether withdrawal can ever be innocent or whether choosing the margins means surrendering your grip on reality.
David Cronenberg's adaptation of William S. Burroughs: a non-narrative hallucinogenic fever dream about a typewriter-addicted insect exterminator hallucinating his own story. Pure cinema as psychological collapse. A masterpiece of body horror and absurdist dread.
But No plot, incomprehensible to most viewers, visually grotesque, and actively hostile to narrative closure. You may spend the film confused and alienated, which is entirely the point.

More like this (8)
A Dark Song2016
A woman hires an occultist for a séance to contact her dead son. Shot mostly in one room, it's a two-hander about grief, faith, and desperation that builds to something genuinely moving and strange.
But Confined, dialogue-heavy, and demands patience with both characters' trauma. The supernatural elements are subtle; if you want spectacle, this isn't it.

Thelma & Louise1991
Norwegian psychological thriller about a young woman discovering her telekinetic powers while trapped by religious repression and parental control. Visually gorgeous, genuinely tense, with a protagonist you wholly believe in.
But Slow to ignite, and heavy on atmosphere over plot mechanics. Some viewers find the religious elements didactic.

The Killing2011
Danish crime series that redefined TV drama in Europe. Methodical, character-driven, with a lead in Sarah Lund who's as compelling as they come. Each season is a masterclass in tension and mood.
But Sixty-minute episodes across multiple seasons is a commitment. The glacial Scandinavian pace won't suit anyone wanting quick resolutions.

Raw2017
A French-Belgian horror about a vegetarian teenager who tastes human flesh and develops an hunger she can't control. Shocking, funny, and genuinely smart about identity and desire beneath the body horror.
But Graphic cannibalism, sexual content, and sustained visceral unease. The grotesque is the entire point, which will repel the squeamish or prudish.

Goodnight Mommy2015
An Austrian horror that starts as a home-invasion thriller and pivots into something far stranger and sadder. Twin brothers, a mother with bandaged face, psychological dissolution. Visually striking and genuinely disorienting.
But The twist divides viewers sharply; some find it arbitrary. Bleak throughout, with a finale that offers no catharsis or relief.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer2017
Yorgos Lanthimos's cold, ritualistic tragedy about a surgeon, his family, and a boy demanding a blood debt. Formally audacious, darkly funny, hypnotic. A film that stays with you as unease.
But Artificial dialogue, oblique pacing, and a premise that feels like myth rather than reality. If you want naturalism or emotional catharsis, stay away.

The Taste of Things2023
Both are intimate stories about couples who've abandoned the world to create alternative lives. But where Couple in a Hole asks what you lose when you disappear, Taste of Things asks what you gain. One film's horror is the other's romance—same choice, opposite emotional register.
A 19th-century French chef and his housekeeper's love story, told in sensory, tactile language. Exquisitely shot, utterly absorbing, about two people who've built a complete world outside convention. Ravishing and romantic where Couple in a Hole is sinister.
But Slow, indulgent, and almost plotless. If you watch films for story momentum, this is luxurious wallowing in atmosphere. Not everyone wants to move that slowly through beauty.

Come True2020
Both films use isolation and spatial confinement—cave and sleep lab—as tools to unhinge psychological stability. They're both interested in what happens when a character is cut off from external reality-checking, and whether the interior world that emerges is delusion or revelation. Neither lets you settle into a comfortable answer.
A sleep-study horror film that's part sci-fi, part body horror, part fever dream. Deliberately vague about what's real, shot in neon-soaked digital video. A young actor (Landon Liboiron) undergoes a disturbing transformation. Visually singular and genuinely upsetting.
But Aggressively opaque ending; you're left with no framework for understanding what happened. Budgeted micro and it shows; some will read it as ineptitude rather than intention. The synthesizer score is intrusive.

People
Cast
Paul HigginsJohn
Kate DickieKaren
Jérôme KircherAndre
Corinne MasieroCeline
Directing
- Tom GeensDirector
- Ina LüdersFirst Assistant Director
Writing
- Tom GeensScreenplay