hey everybody it's Chase with AV pop culture again and today I am here on a dark and stormy rainy day in Georgia to bring you one of my favorite genres of horror my top 10 favorite creepy atmospheric small town horror movies this is my absolute favorite genre of horror so pop that tape in I got you let's go do this all right so I am here the mood is right this is a video that I've been working on for a little bit because like I said this is probably really is my favorite genre of horror
I like those horror films that that are eerie and a lot of times they're set in like quaint or quintessential small towns uh but it's like one of those things where the whole town just something doesn't feel right like you contrast this idic idic setting of this small town with just this underlying creep factor of things that are wrong and um I love that Vibe not so much it doesn't necessarily be have to be gory it doesn't have to be like super jump out and scary but I like horror movies that you can throw on
for an hour and 45 minutes 2 hours or longer on a creepy fall day and just like settle in and let that atmosphere descend over you and you kind of get immersed in it it's kind of hard to get immersed in like a fast-paced slasher or something like that but these are the kind of movies that are just genuinely to me unsettling and you know sometimes a sometime afterwards when you've turned off the video and you're done watching that movie later on that that that atmosphere that creep Factor just settles back into you and you're
still kind of creeped out about it that is what I like things that can kind of get into you and mess with you and often times for whatever reason these typ type of films are set in small towns and uh to that end I'm going to have a few honorable mentions before we get to the top 10 but uh it it is just something that seems like it goes hand and glove I mean just perfect together and there are definitely some writers and directors who capture that really well and you'll probably see one or two
featured here but I think I got some surprises for you on this list and in my honorable mentions so we're going to get to do it but hey before I even get started if you guys checked out I have this awesome pumpkin this was a gift from my wife uh Risha and this is Ian's pumpkin carvings and he does awesome work you can find him on Instagram and uh he he got me this pumpkin out super quick and sent it to me uh to help represent AV pop culture all the time bringing in getting ready
for spooky season it could not be more perfect to have with this particular video and I really hope you enjoy it so let's go ahead and get to this uh list and like I said I'm going to start with honorable mentions rather than saving them to the end uh there is a film from 2013 that is called uh we are what we are and it's on this list uh I don't have it on physical media it's on this list because it has that that Vibe where like everybody in the town just sort of knows something's
wrong it's just unsettling but it's not all the way up on my list in my top 10 uh because I don't like the Twist and and the type of horror this turns out to be is not necessarily my thing but it does have those atmospheric Vibes to it another one is fulie uh city of the the Living Dead definitely has those atmospheric Vibes FY always tends to go over though like with the gore and like it and sometimes it can kind of take me out of it because I'm looking for like the feeling that that
atmosphere like something like realistic that something is underlying that's wrong that could really happen that you just can't put your finger on and so when you go over the top it kind of maybe takes me out of that feeling a little bit but it is definitely worth a mention another one that is uh worth a mention is uh Rose Red by Stephen King now this is A Haunted House movie and it's a minseries made for TV but it definitely just I love this movie I wish that one of the boutiques would pick this up and
some of the other King movies that were miniseries and do them right because rose rose red is something that probably could be remade into something very very very scary but it just has that atmosphere and just keeps settling in on you and the Mystery goes deeper and deeper and deeper and the creep Factor goes deeper and deeper I love it there's another one that I want to mention before we get to the list that I actually do not agree with I heard over and over and over again that 2009's House of the Devil by Tai
West the IT director of right now um that it was atmospheric and it had that atmosphere Vibe and it captured it was like watching an 80s film and not to me it wasn't uh it was like somebody make trying to make an 80s film now it felt a little more like 70s the way it looked it really felt like and I think I'm only a couple years older than him but it looked it felt like a movie that uh I don't know like somebody who only has a approximation uh memory of the 80s um made
it and I do love the fact that he shot on film I love the look of it but I don't get the atmosphere to be honest with you I don't know if I get the hype I am debating on tackling this film uh for another video but uh I did like some of the things I just don't get the atmosphere from it that everyone else I just don't um it it just doesn't hit that for me but I know a lot of people kept telling me about this movie when I was researching this and thinking
about it so I wanted to mention it here I just don't get that from it like when I think of 80s horror uh or even early 90s late 70s I talk these movies that I talk about with atmosphere I think of movies like these and then I think of like slashers I think of Nightmare on Elm Street I think of uh Friday the 13th I think of the Halloween sequels I think of all that kind of stuff like that that um you know killer clowns like all this stuff I don't this the type of film
that house of the devil is is not really one I remember being synonymous with the 80s but it's not like it's a horrible film or anything I just wanted to address it because I kept hearing it again and again and again about the atmosphere all right there's probably a ton that could be on this list The Shining has atmosphere doesn't have that small town but man does it ever have that atmosphere uh to it so there's definitely films that are going to be left off it's not that I don't think they have any atmosphere this
is just my top 10 that I go to and I think the first one up is going to surprise you a little bit and it's one of the I think only one or two that I don't have on physical media and uh that is two 2004 I think it's 2004's uh the village by Mite shamalan and uh I know that like a lot of his stuff kind of gets dumped on because you know he just sort of made a stick about the big twists in the endings and everything else but when you talk about a
creep creepy atmosphere and a creepy mystery that you're trying to unfold and that it involves kind of like a small Town Ina in this case a small village um and then you know the town's people are in on it are they not in on it is there evil out there like all these kind of things uh it definitely captures that Vibe for me so yes definitely uh the village by ight shamalan comes in here at number 10 for me well-acted great cast in It uh no matter how you feel about him and his twists I
think this movie belongs on that list so it comes in at number 10 for me now number nine is one that we all probably know really well and has been talked about a lot especially with the recent vinegar syndrome release and it might surprise you a little bit too but I am talking Amityville Horror now it takes the most idelic setting uh this beautiful town in in um what is it in New York or or wherever it is uh and uh Staten Island and um just turns it on its head with the murders the you
know Supernatural aspect this family falling apart the dad be being uh attacked like spiritually and all those kind of things and it just has an oppressive atmosphere that keeps going and going and it did not lose that when it got the 4K restoration uh the colors are more vibrant and and all of that kind of stuff but somehow it enhanced it instead of like making it feel brighter and more cheerful the the colors and the clarity just added to the the atmosphere of this thing and you could really see uh Josh Brolin's or James Brolin's
um character falling apart in this movie Margot K is great I this is one that still haunts me to this day people can say you know whatever this is one of the movies that scared me this movie gets into your bones and that's why all these years later it's still so popular Amityville hor sets an creepy atmosphere that is as good as anything out there the fact that they throw in based on a true story all that kind of stuff it just adds to it Amity bohar definitely makes my list I think this next one's
going to surprise some people too um and it's because it's probably not one that you think of and I'm going tell you the truth it's one that I did not like that much when I was younger uh but now I think that Halloween 3 season of The Witch I love that artwork there um screen Factory did a great job with these um I think Halloween 3 season of The Witch I mean it is isolated desolate you've got Tom Atkins running around there there whole scenes where it's just night foggy you don't know what the hell's
going on he goes through streets and towns and it's like you don't see anyone else even in the hospital like he's uh when he's chasing the guy at the beginning that kills that that comes in there and kills uh the other dude and then lights himself on fire he's running through the hospital and if you ever go back and pay attention he runs through door after door hallway after hallway it's empty all the way till he gets to like the very front of the hospital it's it's pretty much empty to me that's creepy uh and
the town is pretty much empty and then you have this weird Supernatural entity that's in town that's like bewitching these masks and it's got this whole plan and you're you're trying to solve this mystery and people people are dying and he's running around trying to to save you know everyone and figure out what's going on and there's just this hopeless isolation in the atmosphere and uh I think it is definitely very atmospheric film now of course when I was younger I didn't like it cuz I I you know we didn't have the internet and all
that kind of stuff and I went into it thinking that um you know Michael Myers was in it is a Halloween movie I think I think if they have called this anything else it would have been much more successful right out of the gate uh they could have called it um Season of the Witch a Halloween story or something like that and uh kind of like Rogue one a Star Wars story and it probably would have done better I freaking love Tom Atkins uh I will never get out of my head now the original fuzz
referring to him in movies is slinging some dick around I will never get that out of my head because that is couldn't be more perfect for Tom Atkins uh particularly in this film but uh I mean he's with this girl and I mean it's like they're isolated they might as well be on the moon and that atmosphere and the the commercials that keep playing and all of that kind of stuff and you're unraveling this Supernatural mystery great atmosphere love Halloween 3 season of The Witch all right so the next one is one I think is
uh so I think I have three of these that I don't have on physical media one of them I actually did just order I just don't have it yet I was hoping I would have it uh but this one is a Stephen King movie and Stephen King May capture this feeling it may be king and Carpenter that are the very best at capturing This creepy atmospheric something's just lying underneath the surface that's wrong that there's an evil just under the surface that's affecting things trying to get things out and it's oppressive and it affects the
people and the people kind of become in on it and part of it uh those two might do that better than anyone and uh the next one I'm talking about here number seven is 1993's Needful Things um you have Ed Harris in this movie I believe it is is and believe literally what happens here is the Devil Himself comes to town and played beautifully by max van van side out I'm never gonna I like I say his name one way and then you hear other people say it another way the man plays the devil beautifully
now there's no big Gore in this movie there's some blood and everything else there's no big Gore but like you you kind of get in on the mystery and you're you're not sure it's like are they really going there is he really supposed to be the devil the whole time and he's twisting these people up so these towns people they come to his shop he has an antique shop and he has everyone's needful thing the thing that they want the most the thing that they can't live without and he makes it to where they can't
say no where they can't live without it because he connects it to their memories and their Nostalgia and all of this kind of stuff and uh no matter what it is he has it he's the damn devil but what does he do there is always a price and he doesn't make them pay in money okay he makes them pay by doing evil Deeds to other towns members and the other people in the town it's like this big circle so he knows everyone's weaknesses he knows everyone's fears he knows their little dirty secrets he knows who
doesn't like each other and he exploits it and they let it be exploited and it is so human and so terrifying at the same time that he doesn't need big monsters walking around or anything what could really happen here in really twist people up and what they can do to each other when they are twisted up we've seen it it's real it can happen and as the as of course one of these things that you always have in common a lot of times with these is a small town sheriff or you always have that group
that represents the light the good A lot of times it's a sheriff sometimes it's kids sometime but you always have a her a hero and they represent the light that can never be shut out by the darkness and in this case it's the small town sheriff and he begins to unravel this he doesn't take his needful thing he learns about what this is and there's little subtle hints as it goes along this is what I mean by the atmosphere uh every time he wraps up an antique that he actually sells it's old newspapers that are
covered with horrible disasters murders all kinds of evil stuff and and he's putting that out there constantly and you know uh Ed Harris figures it out and he figures out he's the devil and the town he he leads and the town fights back against the evil and they do defeat him to an extent he can't be defeated but he figure you know the sheriff figures it out and uh to me one of the most chilling line deliveries ever that will settle into my bones is uh when the sheriff says something about in the name of
Jesus Christ and um max van sidal says in his character as the devil he's like oh the carpenter from Nazareth I knew him well he died horribly the young Carpenter from Nazareth I knew him well promising young man but he died badly like it is that's all he needs to say like yes he's the dev he also refers to about keeping it hot in there with the fire and all this I could never in a million years deliver that line that way that line said yes I'm the devil yes I've always been here yes I'm
doing these things I've always done these things and I will always do these things and even blowing him up doesn't put an end to it he walks out the house is blown up and he still he tells them he basically tells them I'm the devil this is this is this is always the tough part of the job and then he leaves town like because he can't be killed and uh it is completely engrossing atmosphere love Needful Things in case you can't tell I've talked about it for a while now the next one I do have
coming in at number six is one I've talked about before if you have not seen this movie run don't walk to get a copy and watch it don't let the fact that this is a Disney movie fool you this son of a [ __ ] is one of the creepiest that you're ever going to see it's going to settle in from the moment at the beginning when an old man tells these boys that by the pricking of his thumb Something Wicked This Way Comes and this is a ray but it's Disney but it's Ray Bradberry
story and you have Mr dark in his Carnival uh pandemonium carnival coming to town with the it's either the Autumn or the October people I think it's one way in the book and one way in the movie um and what it is is he's like another representative of the Devil in a way he it's very similar he gives people they have their dream they have the thing they want the most this a recurring theme because it's a very human thing to play on uh they have the thing that they want the most and he gives
it to them but in exchange he takes their souls and his people all live on the power of these Souls that are collected and you have everything you want from an atmosphere you've got dead fall leaves blowing everywhere you've got this small town you've got a creepy carnival that's come to town you literally have the villain in a black hat I mean he's literally black hat coming to town um you've got all the fall and Halloween Vibes it's gray cold there's lots of storms and lightning and weather veins and pumpkins creepy carnival what do you
want it's loaded with atmosphere a creepy mystery that's unraveled and guess what it's only the Innocents the kids really that can fight back go figure great one Something Wicked This Way Comes all all right next up we are going to go back to Stephen King for 1999's Storm of the Century uh this movie I actually thought when I was looking at this this movie was older than 1999 so it's about 25 years old but uh if you haven't seen this movie it's a town I can't remember the T Town's name in Maine Stephen King sets
a lot of stuff in Maine um I like the Entertainment Weekly the triple deadbolt your door miniseries it's another miniseries and this town is facing the snowstorm of the century they're going to be completely isolated they're like out on a little Inlet or Island they're going to be completely isolated and this man comes to town and you have no idea what he wants or what he's doing or what he is but again people start dying he starts killing people and then he tells them if you give me what I want I will go away and
he's definitely some sort of Supernatural older than whatever being and he has powers you just don't know what it is and for a long time you don't know what he wants and it so that I think when you have an engrossing like Supernatural mystery and then you have the small town and you have it adds to that atmosphere and you know he wants one of their children it's never actually clear 100% like why it's like a protege that he is passing on in the movie I don't know if this this is actually I think this
is one that was never a book first so I think this was written for TV and I don't have a clear explanation of what he is but he's some type of Supernatural evil being and but the atmosphere the snow the gray the cold the isolation the murders the death the what the hell is going on the supernatural element it's all there atmosphere oozes everywhere from Storm of the Century all right we are going again back in time to 1979 to uh find some uh Stephen King but this time Toby Hooper uh is bringing you the
terror to the TV with Salem's Lot now this book this is maybe almost too faithful to the book there's maybe some things that could be left out that slow it down but all of that adds to the atmosphere because basically people in this town are slowly all being turned to vampires and the uh vampire in this I'm trying to see if you can see the um here we go the vampire in this is one of the creepiest vampires ever go reflection there but um you don't see him very much and that kind of makes it
more effective and you see other vampires and I'm going to tell you when you talk atmosphere the part where the little boy vampire floats outside the window and the fog and the window opens to this day Chase Smith thinks about that at night when he closes window blinds and window curtains because that was scary I mean it was just so simple and subtle and Toby Hooper is I mean you know Legend but um I don't know if a lot of people really think about him you know doing this movie they think this is Stephen King
the novel is really good the the there in the novel there is a writer that comes back to his small town and he's going to maybe write another novel and there's all these things that that happen and then this mystery unfolds and you have a creepy ass old haunted looking house you have this Rider seeing ghosts pretty quick off the bat you have weird things happening so again you have this mystery you have and all this fog and creepy and isolation of this small town it's almost like you can't get out it's like it's caught
in this other dimension where you can't leave and all these things are happening and the everybody knows it and and nobody's talking about it it's right there under the surface until it's too late Salem's Lot is really good I only have this Blu-ray and my the back of it is like cracked because it's these crappy old cases but I would love to have a better set of this somebody needs to do this in a much better way these boutiques there's a lot of stuff I hear people saying what would they release what were they released
there's a lot of stuff for boutiques to put out y'all you're not even thinking about it all right so we are now to our top three uh atmospheric films and uh well this one you knew this one had to be on the list we're going Carpenter and the fog uh awesome 4K steel book here by Scream Factory and this movie I'm talking you know the fog it is synonymous you have the small town in Oregon like these small Beach a lot of times it's like these beach towns kind of weird um but you have this
small town and um you know these monsters these ghosts come back for Revenge they come in the fog this town's very isolated you got Tom Atkins again slinging dick around uh in this one and uh running around trying to solve the mystery trying to see what's going on you have Adrien barau in here and uh love you Adrian um I did get this uh with the the other set there of the fog and U there's a long story there um but I this movie like it's like the king of atmosphere so you're going to be
thinking like what movies could beat this you know you got this is 1980 and um John Carpenter like I said Carpenter and King they may be the kings of doing this you cannot go wrong with the fog if you want throw something on and get some serious atmosphere the only reason it's not higher for me is it's somewhat short um you know like I want these atmospheric films I want them to play on and on and I can't remember how long it is but like even as I was watching it again here recently I'm like
man I kind of want this to play longer but when you talk about atmosphere one thing that sets these movies up for me that I absolutely love in horror movies is when you have the late night radio DJ kind of narrating things I actually wrote this into the next script that hopefully I do when I make a movie I love that aspect I believe it's in uh the tales of Halloween which has some great atmosphere too I I love that the old school you know DJ talking late at night I and Adrien barau does that
absolutely love it it adds to the atmosphere love the fog all right so number two is one that I actually just recently watched for the first time even though it came out in 1981 and this is one that I've ordered I do not have yet it didn't get here in time and some people are going to say that maybe it's somewhat of a copy of the fog it came out a year later it's involving the uh like writers and producers on alien and I'm talking about 1981's dead and buried holy crap y'all I just watched
this movie the other day when I was sick I had food poisoning and I was down on the couch and this movie the trailer is the trailer can scare you and it doesn't show anything to scare you but just the way it says here's the road into Potter's Bluff and you know it's narrating and it's showing this long Country Road into this small again like isolated Seaside Town um it shows this road going in and at the end of the trailer this is the road into Potter's Bluff there is no Road out like oh I
was in I was in already like the um this is the road to Potter's Bluff maybe you've been there this is the road to Potter's Bluff there is no Road out it had that from the beginning and when it had when like the fog the movie The Fog is famous for the fog it doesn't have as much fog in it as dead and buried and again you have a small town sheriff and he's trying to solve these murders this movie starts with a hell of a murder like crazy murder and um you're like from the
get-go there's like towns people who are in on it they're murdering this guy and they're taking pictures and you're like whoa whoa whoa what the hell just happened here and it launches you in to it but then it is a slow burn and murders keep happening and the sheriff is is trying to figure it out and you have this creepy uh Town Undertaker who's like obsessed with beautifying dead bodies and burying them and it is it is one of those things because it is a it's slow burn I mean it's probably a couple hours long
I don't remember seeing the runtime it's fairly long but it it needs to be I've heard people say it's slow it needs to be because it's trying to settle you in on something now I will say this I was disappointed with the very very last like 45 seconds of the movie and I'm not going to say what it is but if you've seen it you'll know you'll know why and then I found out I was watching I rewatched it on Joe Bob's drivein so that I could hear him talk about it when I was doing
the research and he said that the movie was sold three times during production and post-production and so they they did a screening of the original director's cut and audiences love loved it loved it and the person who the the company that bought it said um I didn't H I didn't buy this movie I bought a horror like a a fast-paced horror movie basically and so you need to get in there and recut it so there's like 17 minutes missing and like a half hour changed completely and the ending is completely changed and I would love
to see I don't even think I don't think it even exists uh for them to restore or to put on anything according to what Joe Bob was saying uh but I that's too bad because I would have loved to seen the original ending because the ending that they went with causes plot holes I'm going to admit it the size of the Grand Canyon the the ending that they have cannot exist with the rest of the movie it can't and I'm just talking about the last like 45 seconds cannot exist with the rest of the movie
um but the story The Mystery that atmosphere the ride of the movie forget the ending sometimes it's about the journey and not the destination the the ride of this movie Just settles in on you it is oppressive it is engrossing you're trying to figure it out it is creepy and unsettling doesn't even begin to cover it uh it is evil lurking right at the surface that is dead and buried and that's why it comes in just above the fog and uh at number two on my list and I cannot wait to get it pissy ending
and all all right number one I'm probably going to get some blowback on on you uh for from some of you I do not care this film specifically says some of the stuff that I'm talking about I am going Stephen King again with 1990 it and why did I I have the other movies I have the remakes why did I pick this because the remakes do not capture the atmosphere they do not capture it the same way they just do not I don't care what you say they trade atmosphere for other stuff honestly feel like
if you could combine some of the stuff from the new movie and put it into this you'd have the perfect it movie but there is this the whole town of dairy is bad and when you read the book and you watch the movie it is an eternal evil being that was created at the the beginning of the universe and he has been literally just underneath the surface in Dairy for thousands and years or whatever thousands and thousands of years and he's eroding the fabric of our reality and the fabric of people's sanity and their goodness
it is literally said in this they figured out don't you understand the whole town is it in some way like they literally say the creepy small town atmospheric movie they they say that they say it in here they say the reason it is that way the whole town is it in some way the evil that is just under the surface has infiltrated everything everybody people that look the other way when thing bad things happen people that don't help their fellow you know neighbors people who uh murder people for no reason all of these things it's
because of it he's an eternal evil again almost like a devil type figure and if you if you go into the dark night or The Dark Tower series I mean you find out that maybe he's like part of a Holy Trinity or n Unholy Trinity of evil that makes up what we think of as hell and that is that is in just another dimension that is just slightly beside ours and they're con these evil things are constantly pushing through trying to get through to our side and there are thin places in those Dimensions where they
can push through to our side and that's why in some places you see demons you see these Supernatural things because they were able to get through in those specific areas this town this beautiful little small town nestled in Maine the the mythical Dairy Maine is one of those places and the central evil underneath the surface that creates this atmosphere this sense of unwell beinging this sense of evil and creepiness that that permeates the movie and affects the people to it is always there it is the perfect name the atmosphere that you try to put your
finger on like this creepy small town atmospheric what makes a a a a horror movie creepy and Atmospheric it does just it whatever it is that movie has it and this movie definitely has it in more ways than one it is my top atmospheric put it on and just get into those creepy Vibes it is all there like I said this is one of my favorite genres maybe my favorite genre I love to just get into that head space I'll watch these type of movies then I'll watch like creepy documentaries and just I get all
these ideas and it's just this overall feeling going and it's really great around like you know the fall and and all that when it's raining and storming and stuff like it is today and uh I don't know let me know what you guys think what are some of your favorite atmospheric especially specifically small town atmospheric horror movies I love these of course there's others that I love that I mentioned too and there's others that could be on this list but this is probably like my go-to when uh when it comes to these movies um like
this genre werewolf genre um you know and then vampires and haunted houses probably this and then haunted houses and werewolves and then vampires are probably like my favorite like so it's this and haunted houses like way up here and then like werewolves and then vampires uh but I absolutely love it I love the deep thought deep thinking because nothing is more scary than your imagination and what it can cook up so let me know in the comments what do you think of my list what are some movies you would add to this list please add
them because I always looking for this type of movie to buy and own on physical media and enjoy so please add anything that uh I didn't list or talk about I would love to hear your thoughts on it and please like And subscribe if you've enjoyed this I have a lot of this type of content and so much more for you and if that's something that you're into you can consider joining the uh pop culture friends and family you can join uh be a channel member join on patreon you're going to get like a lot
of the same perks you're going to get uh your name and lights on the videos all that kind of stuff shout outs special giveaways live streams all that but you don't have to do any of that to support me and hang out here just like subscribe share help spread the pop culture word and until next time this is Chase with AV pop culture saying Be Kind Rewind like always and I'll see you real [Laughter] soon I know [Music] ah
