Summary
- Horror films set in broad daylight subvert expectations, building suspense in unexpected contexts.
- Daylit terror scenes reveal our fear of what could be hiding in plain sight, not just the dark.
- The starkness of daylight horror scenes, from beaches to playgrounds, leaves viewers on edge.
While the horror genre is almost universally associated with things that go bump in the night, many directors have flipped this particular script on its head, subverting expectations with the starkness of the horrors they offer–– and in these cases, more is usually more. These scenes of day lit terror provide directors with room to play, building suspense through a particular context rather than a lack thereof.
This way, through gory or shocking scenes on beautiful beaches, lush meadows, or children’s playgrounds, the best horror films set during business hours remind us that what we really fear in the genre isn’t the dark, but what could be hiding in it. Keeping the lights on won’t help.
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The 2023 Frogman movie is one of the better recent found footage horror movies and a signal that we might be in a good era for the subgenre.
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10 Melanie Visits The Playground – The Birds (1963)
You Can’t Turn Your Back For A Second
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The Birds has become something of a meme since its smashing success in 1963 (up to and including an SNL sketch about birds committing arson), but Hitchcock wasn’t called “The Master of Suspense” for nothing. In one particularly memorable scene from this tale of the natural order gone awry in small-town California, a group of crows earns the name “murder.” Melanie Daniels (Tipi Hedron) sits outside a school building on a bench, her back to the small playground, with a jungle gym in the periphery.
As she passes the time before her friend Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette) finishes her class, Melanie lights a cigarette. She sighs. She shifts her weight. Schoolchildren sing an ominous tune in chorus. It’s eerily silent otherwise, except for the slowly growing whisper of wings as corvids settle on the play structure, one by one. This scene is notable for its stillness, curdling a deeply mundane, passive moment of waiting for the protagonist, into its opposite for the audience, waiting with bated breath for Melanie to notice.
The Birds PG-13HorrorRomanceMysteryDrama Where to Watch
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The Birds is a 1963 horror film from director Alfred Hitchcock, telling the tale of a small town in Northern California that is plagued by hundreds of violent birds. Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, and Jessica Tandy star in the film, which has since become one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most iconic movies.
Director Alfred Hitchcock Release Date March 29, 1963 Distributor(s) Universal Pictures Writers Evan Hunter Cast Tippi Hedren , Suzanne Pleshette , Jessica Tandy , Veronica Cartwright , Rod Taylor Runtime 119 minutes Expand
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9 Brody’s Son Goes Boating – Jaws (1975)
“Get out of the water!”
Even after police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) has gotten everyone out of the water for the second time in Stephen Spielberg’s subgenre-inspiring, shark horror classic, Jaws, his son, Michael, still wants to enjoy his summer.
Of all the shark attacks on sunny days in this film, this scene, with its combination of personal stakes and “will-he-make-it-in-time” suspense–– right on the heels of another highly tense encounter with the shark that Spielberg’s team not-so-affectionately called “Bruce”–– is perhaps the most frightening. After the death of another young boy, Alex Kitner, Brody is on high alert, but his focus on the town’s safety at this moment distracts him from his family with dramatic consequences. By the scene’s end, there’s more than blood in the water after a friendly boater comes to check in on the excitable young boys.
Jaws PG-13AdventureHorrorThriller Where to Watch
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Steven Spielberg’s legendary tale of one man’s desperate battle with a killer Great White shark on his small seaside community. Faced with a mounting list of victims and a local authority dead-set against causing panic or destroying the tourist economy, he assembles a team to tackle the shark head-on.
Director Steven Spielberg Release Date June 18, 1975 Writers Peter Benchley , Carl Gottlieb , John Milius , Howard Sackler , Robert Shaw Cast Roy Scheider , Robert Shaw , Richard Dreyfuss , Lorraine Gary , Murray Hamilton , Carl Gottlieb Runtime 124 minutes Main Genre Adventure Expand
8 Dinnertime – What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
“What’s For Dinner?”
Robert Aldrich’s classic domestic nightmare, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? turns sunny bedrooms and cheerful sitting rooms into prisons for wheelchair-using actress Blanche Hudson (Joan Crawford,) whose former vaudeville child star “Baby” Jane Hudson (Bette Davis) torments her for her greater success. Over the course of the film, Blanche becomes progressively more desperate to escape as Jane isolates, attacks, cajoles, and flatters her. In one particularly harrowing scene, after days of starvation, Jane brings Blanche her dinner, and it’s not particularly appetizing.
In this classic, whose psychological minefield was made all the more potent by its two stars’ well-documented loathing for each other, sisterly love, curdled by thwarted ambition, is felt in every act of service gone awry. At its melodramatic and stark heights, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a challenge to watch.
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) ApprovedThrillerDramaHorror
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a psychological thriller directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The film follows the eerie and tense relationship between two aging sisters, one a former child star and the other a paraplegic ex-movie star. The narrative delves into themes of jealousy, ambition, and the complexities of sibling rivalry, set within an old Hollywood mansion.
Director Robert Aldrich Release Date October 12, 1962 Studio(s) The Associates & Aldrich Company , Seven Arts Productions , Warner Bros. Pictures Writers Lukas Heller , Henry Farrell Cast Bette Davis , Joan Crawford , Victor Buono , Wesley Addy , Julie Allred Runtime 134 Minutes Main Genre Thriller Expand
7 A Trip to the Cemetery – Night of the Living Dead (1968)
“They’re Coming To Get You, Barbara!”
The opening scene of George Romero’s enduring classic, Night of the Living Dead, sets the tone for the rest of the film. A macabre combination of black humor and suspense, the scene follows siblings on a picnic to the cemetery where their parents are buried. They hector each other, trade barbs, and chat until the sister, Barbara (Judith O’Dea), starts to get a creepy feeling when her brother begins to reminisce about her fear of graveyards.
Ever the tease, Barbara’s brother won’t lay off of the joke–– “They’re coming for you!” he insists. Meanwhile, a tall, pale figure in a suit approaches slowly in the background. Soon, he’s on them, and it’s not just Barbara who’s afraid. Many of the film’s subsequent passages follow this chillingly mundane pattern, made more visceral by the daylight that blandly illuminates the shambling figures who pursue our tragic band of survivors.
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George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead did more than just invent the modern zombie, it revolutionized the horror genre. Following a small group of humans who hide in a secluded farmhouse when the dead begin to rise and crave human flesh, Night of the Living Dead examines the relationship between humanity and paranoia in times of crisis.
Director George A. Romero Release Date October 4, 1968 Distributor(s) Walter Reade Writers George A. Romero , John A. Russo Cast Judith O’Dea , Kyra Schon , Duane Jones , Marilyn Eastman , Karl Hardman Runtime 96 minutes Expand
6 The Final Scene – Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
“You’re Next!”
Like Night of the Living Dead, Jaws, or The Birds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1979) relies on the blandest kinds of normalcy to elicit its scares. A San Francisco doctor, Matthew (Donald Sutherland), struggles to diagnose a rash of strange paranoia spreading through his community: People who believe their closest friends have been replaced by impostors. By the time he’s finally convinced these people aren’t crazy and aliens have invaded Earth, it’s too late to save many of his friends and neighbors.
The film’s closing scene takes this anxiety to its logical conclusion with a stomach-dropping finality. His friend (Veronica Cartwright), who has successfully evaded capture by impersonating the alien impersonators’ cold demeanor, approaches Matthew looking for help. Matthew turns around and stares implacably at her before his mouth yawns open into an eerie scream, alerting the aliens to her presence and sentencing her to undeath.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers PG Sci-FiHorror Where to Watch
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1978’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers was directed by Philip Kaufman and is an adaptation of the popular 1955 Sci-Fi novel, The Body Snatchers. The Horror and Sci-Fi release features a race of mysterious alien creatures that travel to Earth and begin taking over the bodies of unsuspecting humans.
Director Philip Kaufman Release Date December 22, 1978 Studio(s) United Artists Writers W.D. Richter Cast Jeff Goldblum , Donald Sutherland , Art Hindle , Veronica Cartwright , Brooke Adams , Leonard Nimoy Runtime 115 minutes Expand
5 The Trap Door – The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
“Don’t Go In There!”
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Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is probably the most famously sunny horror film of all time, made up almost exclusively of daytime scares in which cannibalistic butchers stalk unsuspecting hippies through fields and down dusty highways.
Leatherface’s first kill brings this dynamic home through contrast and surprise. Kirk, one of the men on the cross-country road trip, is searching for his girlfriend. Walking through the dry, sun-baked yard, he enters the old house that hides this monstrous family from the outside world. With daylight filling the frame at his back through the screen door, he hesitates, calling into the darkened space, safety still easily attainable. Lured in by strange sounds, he enters, daylight still taunting the viewer, before suddenly a secret door swings open and Leatherface bludgeons the unsuspecting victim and drags him into the darkness.
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Five friends traveling through rural Texas encounter a family of cannibals led by the terrifying Leatherface. As they fall victim one by one to the gruesome horrors, they must fight for survival against relentless and unimaginable terror in a macabre and chilling fight for their lives.
Director Tobe Hooper Release Date October 11, 1974 Writers Kim Henkel , Tobe Hooper Cast Marilyn Burns , Allen Danziger , Paul A. Partain , William Vail , Teri McMinn , Edwin Neal Runtime 83 minutes Main Genre Horror Expand
Related The True Story That Inspired The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
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4 Sacrificing the Elders – Midsommar (2019)
It Was Their Time
Another infamously sunny horror movie, all the deaths in Midsommar are rendered in cheerful pastels and lit by soft, milky sunlight. Perhaps the starkest of these scenes of carnage is near the film’s opening, after Dani (Florence Pugh) arrives with her boyfriend and his graduate school cohort to the Swedish commune where they plan to study for their anthropology thesis.
This trip into cultural relativism, it immediately becomes clear, won’t end well. The first custom this community introduces the tourists to is especially gruesome: the sacrifice of a couple in their 70s, who have aged past what the leaders deem appropriate. First one, and then the other, jump to their demise off of a cliff in the middle of the afternoon (not that time matters in this trippy, Northern tale). It gives us plenty of light to view their wounds in detail, even before the giant hammer comes in.
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Ari Aster’s Midsommar follows a group of American college students who travel to a friend’s isolated rural hometown in Sweden to experience their renowned midsummer festival. What starts out as idyllic quickly becomes a disconcertingly violent pagan ritual, with the friends engaged in a ruthless competition that will test more than just their friendship. Florence Pugh stars alongside Jack Reynor, Will Poulter, and William Jackson Harper.
Director Ari Aster Release Date July 3, 2019 Writers Ari Aster Cast Julia Ragnarsson , Rebecka Johnston , Henrik Norlén , William Jackson Harper , Gunnel Fred , Anna Åström , Will Poulter , Archie Madekwe , Louise Peterhoff , Björn Andrésen , Isabelle Grill , Jack Reynor , Florence Pugh , Liv Mjönes Runtime 147 minutes Expand
3 Running to the Lake House – It Follows (2014)
“It’s Trying To Come In…”
David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows. The film takes place across a range of suburban locales, from the mall to the high school to the public pool. This morally ambiguous tale of alienation, doppelgängers, and slow-moving doom, then, works best in the chipper light of day.
In one scene, the teenagers who have come together to help Jay (Maika Monroe) kill the formless creature who pursues her, flee to a lake house.
Soon, the visage of one of their friends appears, walking deliberately towards them, like a strangely sentient zombie. The teens flee inside, but to no avail. The one left behind tries to reassure them, only to be slain himself. Soon, it breaks through the old wooden boards of the cabin, taking on a new, uncanny shape to scuttle inside.
It Follows RHorror Where to Watch
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It Follows is a horror-thriller film released in 2014 and follows a college student named Jay who is terrorized by a specter of a woman that follows her everywhere she goes. When Jay has sex with her new boyfriend, he ties her up and reveals that this mysterious woman will now haunt her until she passes it on to another or is killed by her. Now haunted by a woman that only she and those once afflicted by her can see, Jay will attempt to survive and find away to break the curse.
Director David Robert Mitchell Release Date March 27, 2015 Studio(s) The Weinstein Company Writers David Robert Mitchell Cast Olivia Luccardi , Jake Weary , Keir Gilchrist , Daniel Zovatto , Maika Monroe , Lili Sepe Runtime 100minutes Expand
2 “All Work and No Play” – The Shining (1980)
“I’m Not Gonna Hurt You, Wendy…”
The family at the center of Stanley Kubrick’s tale of supernatural confinement horror is anything but perfect. As evil forces wheedle their way inside the mind of Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson,) using his thwarted ambition and alcoholism to stir up rage in the already-abusive father, Wendy (Shelly Duvall) is just trying to hold everything together.
One afternoon, she interrupts Jack when he’s working, wintry sunlight blaring through the big windows of the Overlook Hotel, only to find his novel is a stack of identical pages that read, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” When discovered, Jack chases Wendy with a baseball bat. While the entire climax of the film takes place in the middle, empty hours of a blizzard, this scene of sudden, shocking violence is the heart of the film, its chilling and poignant breaking point.
The Shining RHorrorDrama Where to Watch
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Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall tells the story of the Torrance family, who move to the isolated Overlook Hotel so that father Jack Torrance can act as its winter caretaker. Stuck at the hotel due to the winter storms, the malevolent supernatural forces inhabiting the building slowly begin to drive Jack insane, causing his wife and psychically gifted son to be caught up in a fight for their lives when Jack is pushed over the edge.
Director Stanley Kubrick Release Date June 13, 1980 Writers Diane Johnson , Stanley Kubrick Cast Danny Lloyd , Shelley Duvall , Jack Nicholson , Scatman Crothers
1 The Crucifix Scene – The Exorcist (1973)
“The Sow Is Mine!”
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When Regan MacNeill (Linda Blair) tells her mother Chris (Ellen Burstyn) that her bed is shaking, at first no one believes her. Things really get out of hand, though, in a scene that sent audiences screaming, fainting, and vomiting out of theaters. As objects go flying around the girl’s room in the middle of the afternoon, birds chirping outside, Regan mutilates herself with a crucifix, screaming blasphemies and obscenities blue enough for one critic to describe the film (which received an R-rating) as “the most obviously X-rated film” of all time.
This scene, like dinner at Baby Jane’s house, perverts the domestic sphere. The violent, abject, irreverence of this scene, though, takes daytime horror to another space entirely, and it remains as shocking today as it did when it first appeared 50 years ago.
The Exorcist RHorrorSupernatural Where to Watch
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The Exorcist is a supernatural horror film based on the novel released in 1971 and was directed by William Friedkin. When a young girl is passed by a powerful demon, two Catholic priests are brought to her home to attempt an exorcism to expunge the demon.
Director William Friedkin Release Date December 26, 1973 Studio(s) Hoya Productions Distributor(s) Warner Bros. Pictures Writers William Peter Blatty Cast Max Von Sydow , Linda Blair , Lee J. Cobb , Ellen Burstyn , Jason Miller , Kitty Winn , Jack MacGowran Runtime 122 minutes Main Genre Horror Expand