If you’ve ever felt like you don’t fit in and for some reason want to be reminded of that in a horror setting, boy do I have some movies for you.
1. The Plague (2025)
After moving to a new area, twelve-year-old Ben is dropped off at water polo camp for the summer. Desperate to fit in and make friends, he reluctantly joins in with his teammates to mock Eli, a boy with severe eczema. They all claim Eli has the ‘plague’, and that if anyone dares to touch him, they’ll catch it too.
I haven’t stopped thinking about this movie since I watched it. The script is so good; I usually find it difficult to sympathise with characters who feel pressured into becoming bullies, but I was so immersed in Ben’s story that I was unable to tap into my adult brain to remind myself that he had other options, and that the pain of childhood is temporary (sort of). The young actors were very convincing as both bullies and victims. A deeply uncomfortable watch with an immense soundtrack.
2. All My Friends Hate Me (2021)
All My Friends Hate Me begins with the main character, Pete, reluctantly saying goodbye to his girlfriend to celebrate his birthday with old university friends at a country estate, which is owned by one of them. He hasn’t seen these friends for years and believes he no longer has anything in common with them. What ensues is an suffocatingly awkward and dark movie about class divide, competitiveness, and arrogance disguised by politeness.
This movie is aimed at a particular generation of university goers. I’m thinking early 2000s, the apathetic millennials who drank too much and did party drugs and were probably the last truly naïve generation to enjoy university as an experience – basically before loans fucked young people over. Pete seems to look back on his university days with embarrassment and regards his old friends with an element of pity, yet he’s also desperate to impress them and be accepted by them. While the ending had one too many plot twists, this is a very funny (and very cringy) reunion-gone-wrong movie.
3. Rent-A-Pal (2020)
Set in the 90s, a lonely man named David, isolated from the world because he has to care for his mother, visits a video dating service. While there he discovers a video in the bargain bin called ‘Rent-A-Pal’, and on impulse he purchases it. On the tape a man named Andy talks to him as if he were a friend, and when Andy asks questions he pauses to allow David to speak. Soon, it’s hard to know whether David is actually able to talk to Andy, or whether he’s gone mad with loneliness.
As we are now hurtling towards a reality in which AI relationships are the norm, the concept of Rent-A-Pal doesn’t seem half as crazy as it did when I first watched it a couple of years ago. David is ferociously lonely and quickly losing his patience with life, and if you’ve ever been even remotely close to that feeling, you will find this movie a painful watch – actually, it’s still pretty painful even if you don’t find it relatable. Full of dark twists and turns, as well as a deeply complex main character, this low-budget movie is a relatively unknown gem.
4. Sissy (2022)
A social media influencer named Cecilia reunites with her best friend from school, Emma. As they reconnect, Emma wants Cecilia to be a bigger part of her life and invites her to her engagement party. Little does Cecilia know that her school bully will be there. What starts as the sharing of memories turns into a painful reminder of the past, and slowly evolves into Cecilia’s worst nightmare.
Ever falsely believed you’ve moved on from your childhood trauma, only for someone from your past to make you feel just as small as you did when you were a kid? It’s weird how being the victim of bullying is like a reflex, and how you can be thrown back into that exact headspace when in the wrong environment. Sissy does an incredible job of showing the nuances of female bullying, even the seemingly intangible and inexplainable bits. Low-budget, great performances and lots of gore.
5. Piggy (2022)
Sara is bullied for being overweight by some girls who call her ‘Piggy’. One day at a swimming pool they steal her clothes and force her to walk home in her bathing suit. She is then spotted by a group of men, who chase her. When she hides from them, she discovers her bullies have been kidnapped by another man. Will she help them after everything they’ve done to her, or will she leave them?
Now that I look back at this list in its entirety, I’ve noticed that many of the movies I’ve chosen are about bullying victims being given the opportunity to become bullies themselves (and very aggressively taking it). Piggy demonstrates how tormented people can be just as brutal and immoral as their tormentors, but is it due to vengeance, learned behaviour or are humans just naturally vicious if they get the chance? And is it right and natural to lash out after being a victim for so long? That’s what Piggy explores. A bleak and cruel film, but an important one.
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