What you're seeking is raw horror. A movie that isn't fucking around! It's very hard to find these kinds of movies, because a good thing can always be ruined by too many unneeded jokes (not specific to horror). I think the need to add humor to a film to cater to that demographic is absolutely ridiculous.

I'm a big fan of The Terminator, and I think that's a great example of unrelenting horror. Yet T3 and beyond had some very forced humor that makes me facepalm. I think levity is the enemy of horror films, if it's not natural to the story.

Another movie I would describe as "unrelenting" is The Omen (1976). There's NO comedy in that movie, and it doesn't aim to be light-hearted. The fucking devil is your son, and everything is falling into place for him. That movie scared the hell out of me when I first saw it.

I really ought to rewatch The Terminator, I've not seen it in nearly 20 years. Remember thinking very highly of it though. Arnie is just perfect. The Omen is a good call. There's some extent to which it's "fun" I think, with the ingenious deaths, but the essential concept and the actor playing Damien are spine chilling.

Come to think of it In The Mouth of Madness is nearly there. On rewatches I've found a bit of hokiness in the effects, but first time around I was really creeped out and it still does get me. Death and madness to the entire world, inescapable, its not nice to consider.

August Underground.

That one and Mordum didn't really work for me (never saw the third) but I can't deny their unrelenting deep wrongness. And a sense of trepidation about what the gang were going to get up to next.

Yeah. I haven't come across many people who are down with the August Underground. Not exactly my thing, but I've always had an appreciation for these movies for some reason.

Have you seen Crazy Murder? That might fit in the category you're going for.

I've not heard of this before but it looks like its really quite something. Shall try to check it out. Cheers!

Hope you like it. I've wanted to do a review in the past, but it's a tough one to put in enough words.

Probably seen some of them but if I remember these films were a bit like that...

Kill List
Outpost
Southbound
Last Shift
The Den
Session 9
The Void

Session 9 is a good example! Very creepy film, not seen it for years but it really gave me the wim wams. I've not seen several of those so shall investigate. Cheers!

I know the feeling that you seek, but can't right now put it into words or think of a film that provokes that feeling...

In a Glass Cage was fairly grim, but not sure it has the sense of gradual, impending doom.
Requiem for a Dream sure left me with a sense of utter despair and the movie was an unrelenting downward spiral as far as I'm concernced, but it's not horror.

edit: actually, I thought of one Sommarens Tolv Manader. It's not grim or depressing really, (maybe the finale a bit), but I def got that sense that something wasn't quite right and it left me with an eerie vibe. The whole film is mysterious and unsettling imho.

Would you say In a Glass Cage is a legit good film? I never got around to watching it back when I was really into extreme cinema and I've become a lot more of a softy nowadays, but I still go for grim stuff if it is actually worthwhile.

Interestingly, a review quote on the back of the UK VHS of Requiem for a Dream likens it to Evil Dead 2 in terms of thrills. Not an apt comparison I would say, but a somewhat amusing one.

I really need to get on Sommarens Tolv Manader. Feels like its getting on a decade since I first recall Abbot raving about it on the Horror board.

I enjoyed In a Glass Cage and I would say it's a legit good film imho. I think I rated it ~7.5/10 when I saw it several years back.
Def get on Sommarens... it's every bit as good as Abbot plugged it for and it does have some of the qualities that you're looking for (I think).

30 Days of Night comes to mind, for me. There might be a few very minor jokes in the first few minutes, but once the vamps show up things just get more and more grim, more and more bleak.

I think you could argue that 28 Weeks Later does this too, especially the soundtrack. If you listen to it, it is always foreboding and ominous, always dark... you know things will not turn out well.

I agree about The Omen. There's one moment of very dry humor, when Gregory Peck says "sounds like a bit of a stretch" when David Warner tries to link biblical prophecy to some 1970's economic thing, but other than that the whole movie is pure non-stop dread.

Also, The Shining.

I wasn't overkeen on 28 Weeks Later, some of its plotting and direction put me off. But 28 Days Later is a good example I think. Seeing it for the first time not too long after its release, before anything it did had become cliche, was a seriously intense experience. I had hit the age where "zombie" apocalypse related things had mostly become goofy fun, but it made them scary again.

I've not seen 30 Days of Night yet. For some reason I had always assumed it to be some sort of a comic book action film. But if that's not how it goes then I'm intrigued, it has quite an enticing plot and setting. Cheers!

Darn and I was hoping it was going to be about nekkid gals with big natural boobs

You need to get yer dick wet.

I do that every morning by taking a shower...

I'll only be impressed if your shower came with built-in pussy.

You really think I'm going to torture cats?

sfpx said, 13 hours ago:

You need to get yer dick wet.

^this