Three stylised horror movies you've probably never heard of for fans of Hereditary

So you've seen Hereditary, were scared silly, and are looking for your next dose of auteur horror. What other films (I hear you ask) have such a unique cinematic vision and are directed with such an attention to detail?

The truth is there's no shortage of filmmakers who see themselves as the David Lynch or Quentin Tarantino of horror. Few manage stylised horror with the panache of Ari Aster, yet dig deeper and there's a decent clutch of films where someone has clearly obsessed over their aesthetic.

From the artificial, dolls' house quality of Hereditary to 80's throwbacks like It Follows and The Guest, directors use cinematography and soundscapes to create an underlying sense of dread or to just make their films uber stylish and memorable.

Yet for those of you who (quite rightly) have already devoured the work of Adam Wingard and David Robert Mitchell, here are the stylised horror films you've yet to discover.

Replace

Where you should watch it: Amazon Prime Video
Why you should watch it: The purest distillation of the synth-heavy, neon-soaked 80's aesthetic
Avoid if: Naff character development is a deal-breaker for you in horror films

How's this for an icky set-up: you wake up one morning to find all your memories gone and your skin slowly starting to crumble away. Kira (Rebecca Forsythe) finds herself in this unenviable fix. Luckily for her there's a way out: skinning people alive and replacing her skin with theirs.

This is a gorgeous movie. Every shot looks like a fashion shoot and the synth-heavy score is beguiling. This one's for lovers of The Neon Demon, except this time you'll need a stronger stomach and the pretension is dialled down somewhat (but only very slightly).

Here's the catch: Replace is an interesting film, but not a well-made one. Writer-director Norbert Keil delivers on the visuals but bungles character and plot development. There's a humdinger of a third act twist, but it doesn't sit naturally with the rest of the movie. It tries to turn Kira from villain to victim after we see her go on a pretty impressive killing spree. I wasn't buying it.

Replace sits in the frustrating category of films that have bags of potential yet don't hold together. It's still worth a watch, but keep your expectations low.

The Similars

Where you should watch it: Netflix

Why you should watch it: A cocktail of retro stylings, absurdist humour and existential dread

Avoid if: A group of sketchily-drawn characters threatening to harm each other in an enclosed space for 90 mins doesn't sound appealling

The colour palate for Replace was full of bracing neons, yet for The Similars Mexican director Isaac Erzban has turned the colour saturation right down. Set in a bus depot in 1968, there's something appealingly not-quite-right about the cinematography. It's got a flickery, old-school cinema reel quality to it, yet the shots gliding through the building seem like it's torn straight from a picture book.

If you watch the trailer for The Similars, you're probably expecting something along the lines of The Thing. Actually what you're going to get is a slice of Latin American magical realism. Ulises (Gustavo Sánchez Parra) and a band of other disgruntled passengers take shelter from torrential rain in a bus station, only to learn that all of the buses are cancelled. One by one they strart experiencing seizures which leave them disturbingly altered.

The whole things seems to have been made partly as an extended joke (you'll see what I mean when the first man to be transformed takes the bandages off his face), but it's played deadpan throughout, with a wonderfully sinister performance from child actor Santiago Torres. There's something enjoyably old-school about the use of cross-cutting to create suspense and the complete absence of any visual effects, since the weird stuff mainly happens off-camera.

Both hilarious and low-key unnerving, The Similars is a shot of pure weirdness. I could take or leave the bizarre plot; it's the retro charm that sticks in the memory.

The Void

Where to watch it: Shudder

Why you should watch it: 80's practical effects come back from the dead in this hospital-set thriller

Avoid if: You have a low tolerance for schlocky horror/sci-fi tropes

There is a significant contingent of horror fans why think The Thing and An American Werewolf in London are, like, the best things ever, and horror movies stopped being scary around the time the demon CGI took over. If you fall into this category, then directors Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie have got you covered.

Weird things start going down when police deputy Daniel Carter (Aaaron Poole) finds himself trapped in a hospital surrounded by mysterious Klu Klux Klan style robed figures with triangles on their faces. But that's not nearly as bad as what's happening in the hospital basement.

Being a fan of The Thing myself, it's hard not to enjoy the horrific transformations and gruesome monsters the film conjures up. Yes, they are undoubtedly more visceral because of the use of practical effects, although they're bound to look dated to more critical viewers.

If you like the visuals, however, you have to sick around for the paper thin character development and schlocky plot. There are lots of appealingly scary elements at play in this movie, yet none of them quite seem to work together. The acting is abysmal and the characters are much more enjoyable when metamophosised into hulking monsters. The ending is also unequivocably awful. 

If all of this leaves you could, think about the naff bug monsters from A Quiet Place, just one example of the legions of bland CGI creatures terrorising our screens. The Void is having none of that. Time to pretend that everything after the 80's never happened. 

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