Any romcom where the handsome guy is trying to get the girl: make the guy unattractive.
Or just add scary music when the guy is onscreen.
Mostly? Soundtrack. Put a creepy soundtrack on the Truman Show and it is a horror movie.
The Boo-man show
Nerdwriter once made a video about how Passengers could have been a horror/thriller (and a better movie) if it had been told through the point of view of Jennifer Lawrence instead of Chris Pratt’s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gksxu-yeWcU
One of the comments there says this would be similar to Moon and countless other movies. But a big Blockbuster Moon/TwilightZone-style flick sounds good to me. I’ve been dying for a Star Trek movie that’s more weird Twilight Zone scifi plot and a lot less save the universe/Federation from being wiped out.
You’ve got a few episodes of Love Death and Robots that really have that twilight Zone feel (and some are set in space!). That’s also the case for the pacman episode of Secret Level. This one gave me chills down my spine. 😅
The field of dreams attracts zombies
Field of Screams
Jack Ryan doesn’t figure out Marko Ramius is wanting to defect. (Hunt for Red October)
Sonic the hedgehog by using the old sonic design
Someone recast Elf as a thriller: https://youtube.com/watch?v=EkwdYSn3Uws
Not quite what you’re asking, but similar energy I think!
I think a lot of wholesome movies would become horrifying if you gave the characters massive, hairy dongs really flopping about in every scene. I’m thinking the likes of:
- Paddington
- My Neighbor Totoro
- Monsters Inc
- ET
- The Wizard of Oz
Really most movies, the more I think of it.
You and I have different definitions of “horrifying”
Cats?
Arguably there is quite a lot of horror at the centre of My Neighbour Totoro (also Spirited Away but you didn’t mention that one).
The floating red shoes are a reference to a real life event in Japan that was in the news at the time where a girl had drowned.
Additionally, you could view the events of the film as taking place in the protagonist’s mind as a coping mechanism for extreme grief.
Edit: Missed a few things. Apparently the destination on the cat bus says “grave” on it and there is a fan theory that Totoro is a shinigami.
And romcom with a male lead finding love, but the manic pixie is fat and unattractive. She’ll go from quirky to annoying stalker real quick.
Baby Reindeer is kinda that.
Jack in the movie Titanic is actually a serial killer. Rose is his accomplice. Dead bodies keep showing up throughout the ship, people start to panic before the iceberg. The ship still hits the iceberg and still sinks. His final kill is kathy bates’s character. She was the lady in the actual movie that was actually nice to him and helped him get a nice suit. (If my memory is correct). Don’t even need to go full gore.
