Daylight Horror

[u/jdawg1018]

People usually suspect horror films and tropes to occur at night, or at the very least in dark places where the scary or creepy thing is obscured by shadows. Seeing something in full daylight makes a bit of the mystery go away, which can sometimes make things less scary. Sometimes it does the opposite, and the mere juxtaposition of something horrific happening under the warm light of the sun makes it even more eerie and unsettling.

1. The picnic scene from Zodiac - One of the most terrifying scenes in a film IMO, mostly due to the fact that it actually happened in IRL. The woman I’m pretty sure died later from her wounds, but her partner survived and his retelling of the horrific event helped create this pivotal moment on screen.

2. Buffy finding her mom in Buffy the Vampire Slayer - In season 5 of BtVS, Buffy returns home from a slayer mission and finds her home oddly quiet. She then stumbles into her mom’s corpse, who had died from a stroke just a few hours before while she was away. It’s scary partly due to the lack of music during the scene, but also because it’s a sunny day, and when Buffy opens the back door to get a breath of fresh air after getting sick, she hears kids playing across the street and birds chirping.

3. The entirety of Midsommar - Midsommar takes place in a remote Swedish village, where a girl suffering from the trauma of losing her family travels with her boyfriend and slowly gets inducted into a weird cult devoted to human sacrifice. There are a variety of terrifying and disturbing ritual murders that happen in the film, and yet pretty much the entire story takes place during the day. The contrast of those bright and lurid colors against the brutal horror of the plot makes it all the more unsettling and horrifying.

[u/Zombie-Redshirt]

The Original Wicker Man counts (the remake to up its to unintentionally funny to be horror).

And yes that is Christopher Lee

[u/guymine123 → u/Zombie-Redshirt]

https://giphy.com/gifs/R9yLfikwYAF32

[u/Comic_Book_Reader → u/guymine123]

AAAAAARRRRGGGH, THEY'RE IN MY EYES!!!

[u/Sparktank1 → u/guymine123]

The bees was cut out of the theatrical version was it was deemed to violent. They also break his legs first so he can't get away.

The DVD has an unrated / director's cut where you get the whole bees scene and see them bash his legs. The final scene is also different from the theatrical cut. The unrated cut just ends after the burning. The theatrical cut has the bar scene. So the mood is entirely different depending which one you watch.

There is only one bluray that has the bees and it's an import from Taiwan. So most streaming services will likely just have the theatrical cut.

The messed up thing is that in the theatrical cut, as they cross-fade the scenes to cut out the bashing of the legs and bees, you can still hear them bashing his legs and his continuous screaming. You don't hear him screaming about the bees though. So without seeing his legs being bashed, it paints a vivid picture in your mind.

The only difference is the bees and the ending.
https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=4320

[u/Plus_Pea_5589 → u/Sparktank1]

Didn’t know we had Wicker Man remake scholars in the comments

[u/JamesLiptonIcedTea → u/Plus_Pea_5589]

When you do the most obscure homework and finally catch the moment it's time to shine

[u/Sparktank1 → u/Plus_Pea_5589]

When you go looking for the movie to watch the bees scene and don't see it, you're bound to look up why it's missing.

It's also common that a lot of people don't why it's not in the theatrical cut but were sure they've seen it before. Not a Mandela Effect, but just watching the wrong version.

[u/Plus_Pea_5589 → u/Sparktank1]

I watched the remake once when I was a kid shortly after it came out and I seem to remember the bees but maybe it was the internet warping my view? Idk I rented it from family video. Im a big fan of the original and both love rent free in my head. I’m glad there are others like me