Monsters, Viruses, and Cursed Tapes: A Personal Look at the Horror Films That Stick
Posted on August 28, 2025
Greetings and salutations!
Okay, so here’s the thing: I love horror. But not in the "I only watch flawless, terrifying masterpieces" kind of way. Nope. I love the messy ones — the films that make you gasp and laugh because of how weird they get. Stuff like The Platform, the 28 Days Later trilogy (and now 28 Years Later finally happening), The Ring, Train to Busan, and yes, even Chernobyl Diaries. Some of them scared the shit out of me. Some of them were more like "accidental comedy night." Either way, I loved them.
The Platform
This one is brutal. Like, claustrophobic, skin-crawling brutal. A prison tower where food gets sent down level by level, and the folks on the bottom basically starve while the top floors feast? Yeah. It’s gross, it’s violent, but the real horror is how real it feels. You’re watching it like, “Oh wow, this is literally society, just more obvious.” 10/10 existential dread.
28 Days Later / 28 Weeks Later / 28 Years Later
These films changed zombies for me. No slow shuffling corpses here — just rage-infected humans sprinting like Olympic athletes. 28 Days Later has one of the eeriest openings ever: an empty London. Creepy silence, pure nightmare fuel.
Then 28 Weeks Later shows what happens when governments and armies try to “manage” horror. Spoiler: badly. It’s more action-heavy, but still terrifying in its own way.
And now that we’re actually getting 28 Years Later - part one and two? I’m ready. I want to see how that virus messed up not just people, but entire generations.
The Ring (and The Ring Two)
Look, there’s a reason The Ring became iconic. That VHS tape? The cursed imagery? Samara crawling out of the TV? I swear after watching it, I stared at my television like it was about to kill me. It’s such a good mix of ghost story and modern tech paranoia.
The Ring Two is… a little silly. More melodrama than horror. But honestly, I still enjoyed it. It adds to the mythos, even if it’s not as pants-wetting scary as the first one.
Train to Busan / Train to Busan II: Peninsula
Now this is how you do zombies. A moving train, nowhere to run, and monsters pouring in at every stop. Train to Busan is intense and genuinely heartbreaking—I was crying at the end, not even ashamed. It nails both the action and the emotional gut-punch.
Then there’s Peninsula. Okay. This one is bonkers. It feels less like horror and more like Fast & Furious: Zombie Drift Edition. It’s flashy, ridiculous, and honestly? Kind of hilarious. But I had fun with it, even if it didn’t hit me the way the first one did. Especially since we started calling the main character "Leon Kennedy" (a Resident Evil character) about ten minutes into the movie.
Chernobyl Diaries
Listen. I know this movie isn’t technically good. But hear me out—it’s fun. Creepy abandoned Pripyat setting, dark corridors, mutant-whatever-things… and yet, it ends up feeling like a weird comedy at times. It’s cliché after cliché, but that’s what makes it entertaining. Like horror comfort food. And it made me "discover" the Chernobyl disaster — my special interest. So it was good for something *winky-face*.
Why I Love Them All
Here’s the thing: I don’t need horror to be perfect. I just want it to stick with me, whether that’s because it made me think (The Platform), made me cry (Train to Busan), or made me laugh at how over-the-top it was (Chernobyl Diaries, Peninsula). These movies stay in my head long after the credits roll—and that’s what makes them special.
Because in the end, horror doesn’t always have to terrify you. Sometimes it just has to make you feel something.
And now, to quote M*A*S*H: Goodbye, Farewell and Amen