Top Horror Movies for You…Based on your Major

ART HISTORY: The Cabinet of Dr Cagliari(1920)

Let’s start off with the most pretentious and oldest horror film from this list. The Cabinet of Dr. Cagliari is a German silent film directed by the great Robert Wiene. The movie follows a young man named Francis (Friedrich Feher), who at a Carnival, meets the strange Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) and his creepy, somnambulist performer Cesare (Conrad Veidt).

The film was made during the German Expressionism art movement which highly influenced the German film world during the 1920s. The film looks like a painting with its jagged backgrounds and exaggerated landscapes. Its production design and expressive use of lights and darks would make any art history nerd lose their mind.

BIOLOGY: Raw(2016)

If you were thinking about pursuing veterinary school after getting your biology degree, this film might convince you to change your career path. The movie follows an introverted, vegetarian student named Justine (Garance Marillier) who enrolls in veterinary school to follow the path of her parents. There, she encounters the horrors of hazing and suffers from all the academic and social pressures thrust upon her. How does she cope?

Why with cannibalism of course! We witness Justine’s descent into madness as she tries raw meat for the first time in a hazing event: setting off her taste for human flesh. The film has incredibly disturbing scenes set in creepy biology labs and college parties: two places well-known by my fellow biology major students.

CHEMISTRY: The Fly(1986)

David Cronenberg's The Fly is the classic “experiment gone wrong” horror flick: a concept that many chemistry majors can relate to! This sci-fi horror movie stars the iconic Jeff Goldblum as Seth: a brilliant scientist set on a quest to create a teleportation machine. To test out whether the machine works, he goes inside the machine to test its abilities.

The experiment goes wrong because poor Seth did not realize there was a fly inside the machine! The movie delves into his transformation into a grotesque, fly creature. Despite the film’s age, it’s the grossest movie I have ever seen by far! To this day it’s praised for its incredible practical effects which continue to hold up—hence, the grossness.

COMPUTER SCIENCE: The Ring(2002)

Surprisingly, there haven’t been a lot of great modern horror movies that tackle the horrors of technology quite like 2002’s The Ring, a movie which came out over 20 years ago. I could have recommended the hilarious Unfriended but I can’t bring myself to even jokingly recommend that film. Anyways, The Ring is an American remake of the 1998 Japanese horror film of the same name. The movie follows journalist Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) who finds a haunted videotape.

If you watch this videotape, you get a phone call that decrees that you have three days to live. You’ll likely recognize the iconically terrifying scenes featuring the creature of Samantha Morgan crawling out of a TV screen. The Ring is famous for being one of the first horror movies to incorporate technology in a ghost story.

It perfectly blends the spread of technology, TV, and the internet with a creepy folk tale. And who knows, maybe in the future we’ll see a retelling with some computer software or app bearing a similar curse.

DANCE: Climax(2019)

Ready to be traumatized by dancing? Get ready for Gasper Noe’s psychological thriller Climax. A group of French dancers get together for a small house party and drink some sangria. What can possibly go wrong?

Well, someone secretly puts LSD into the drinks sending all the dancers into a descent into madness and hallucinations. The cast is made up of professional dancers and it shows; a collective psychedelic breakdown is conveyed through dance.

As the group breaks further and further away from reality, their dance becomes wilder, crazier—and even violent. Any dance major would be engrossed by the hypnotic sequences throughout the film. Each has incredible choreography and cinematography that will leave you thinking about this movie for days.

ECONOMICS: American Psycho(2000)

I am sorry I could not control myself. I obviously had to recommend one of the most iconic film-bro flicks for my fellow economics majors. American Psycho stars Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman: a wealthy New York investment banking executive who also happens to be a self-diagnosed psychopath.

We follow Bateman’s obsession with power: both in his work and his late-night killings. The movie, although gory and disturbing, is also a dark comedy: poking fun at the world of Wall Street business executives. The film’s iconic twist ending will also leave you in awe and leave you wondering whether you should take that job in investment banking after college.

ENGLISH: The Shining(1980)

One of the most famous horror movies, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining adapted from Stephen King’s novel of the same name, is the perfect horror flick for my fellow English majors.

The Shining stars Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrence: a hotel caretaker that moves in with his family to an isolated hotel with a haunted past. Jack Torrence is also a troubled writer who decides to enjoy this time of solitude to begin writing his novel.

He has a bit of writer’s block and also slowly starts to lose his mind as he becomes tormented by the horrors of the hotel. The Shining has some of the most famous scenes in cinematic history with the creepy room 237 scene and Jack Nicholson's iconic “Here’s Johnny!”. You guys can relate to Jack’s frustration in writing his novel but not much else hopefully…

Environmental Studies: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre(1974)

Okay, hear me out because I know this is a stretch. What does this 1974 slasher film have to do with environmental studies? Let’s take a step back for a second. The film follows Sally (Marilyn Burns) and her friends on a road trip to visit her grandfather’s house. On their way there, they stumble upon a murderous family of cannibals. The most iconic member of the family, Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), hunts the friend group down one by one leading to some of the best gory, slasher scenes in horror film history.

What most people neglect when watching this—albeit gory and traumatizing movie—is the environmental themes nested in the film. The movie was described by film critic Rob Ager as the “ultimate vegetarian film.” The victims in the film are slaughtered like farm animals, showcasing the horrors of the meat industry.

Fun fact, famous director Guillermo del Toro became vegetarian after watching this film. So if you’re down to watch a fun slasher while also questioning the ethical implications of the meat industry give The Texas Chainsaw Massacre a watch—but please watch the original and not the horrible 2022 remake.

Gender Studies: Jennifers’ Body(2009)

This film is feminism at its peak. Jennifer’s Body follows Anita on her quest to help her friend Jennifer who seems to have been possessed by a demonic being. The movie has become a cult classic in recent years and has been praised by feminist scholars.

The horror genre has not been very kind to female representation—shocking, I know. Jennifer’s Body subverts the horror movie trope of women consistently cast as the helpless victim role. The narrative focuses on the friendship between Jenniger and Anita and contains feminist and queer understones.

HISTORY: The Witch(2015)

Set in 17th century New England, Robert Eggers’s The Witch follows a Puritan family that is terrorized by supernatural forces. This historical drama-horror flick has been widely praised for its historical accuracy. Fans have also pointed out the film’s excellent depiction of the mass hysteria surrounding witchcraft during the 1600s in colonial America.

Eggers spent four years conducting research for the film, consulting with colonial American historians, and engaging with primary documents. His finished work looks spectacular, with its muted colors and impeccable use of lightning—all done with candlelight to evoke further realism.

LINGUISTICS:  Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (2022)

This is another stretch but give me a chance to explain. This horror comedy starring Pete Davidson actually has a lot to say about the current state of the English language. The movie starts with a group of rich twenty-year-olds playing a fun murder mystery game.

As the game ensues, however, fiction becomes reality when the group discovers that there is a killer among them. Critics have praised the movie as a hilarious slasher flick that targets young viewers. Its narrative is inherently satirical, poking fun at Generation Z.

It’s evident from the  many “Gen Z'' words constantly spoken by our characters from “triggered” to “gaslight.” Interestingly, as the film's characters become more paranoid, their diction grows more and more stereotypical. The movie also incorporates the characters’ social media obsession as part of its horror element, portraying how social media dictates everyone's language. Twenty years down the line, I’ll bet linguists could use this film to study the language of young adults during the 2020s.

MATHEMATICS: Pi(1998)

Darren Aronofsky’s directorial debut Pi is the perfect psychological horror thriller for all the math nerds out there! The film follows a paranoid mathematician played by Sean Gullette who is obsessed with understanding reality through the use of numbers. We see this obsession become debilitating as he suffers from hallucinations and begins to discover a magical number that can seemingly predict the future.

The film is shot in grainy black and white giving it an eerie atmosphere. It illustrates the paranoia of our protagonist through unsettling imagery that showcases the horrors of going into a state of psychosis. The movie is a bit confusing and very experimental but it cleverly shows the danger of obsessing over an intellectual pursuit. Who knew math could be so terrifying?

POLITICAL SCIENCE: The Platform(2019)

Ready to watch a horror movie that’s also an allegory for capitalism? Look no further and watch The Platform: a 2019 Spanish thriller-horror directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia. The movie has a pretty simple, dystopian plot following an inmate in an unusual, futuristic prison.

The jail is a large tower with several levels with two inmates per floor; every day a floor filled with food goes down each floor starting with the first floor and ending with the last floor, hundreds of floors below which as expected end up with barely any food left. I think I know as a political science student you can see what this might symbolize. As expected, the top floors represent the elite and their hoarding of resources that leave nothing to those below them–which in the movie have to resort to drastic measures to survive.

PSYCHOLOGY: The Sixth Sense(1999)

M. Night Shyamalan’s mind-bending directorial debut delves into the life of troubled child psychologist Dr. Crowe (Bruce Willis) who starts treating a young boy named Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) who is haunted by his terrifying sixth sense: the ability to see “dead people.” Any psychology major would enjoy the many therapist-patient interactions between the two main characters.

The scenes make you question whether the boy is suffering from a psychological condition that is making him hallucinate or if he truly has this supernatural ability. Psychology majors will relate to Bruce Willis’ psychologist character as you follow him through this suspenseful journey. Plus, this movie also has one of the best twists of all time!

PUBLIC POLICY: Us(2019)

Honestly, I could have also recommended Jordan Peeles’ other two horror flicks—Get Out (2018) and this year’s Nope(2022)—but let’s stick with his most conventional, yet deeply profound, blockbuster hit. The movie follows the Wilson family on a fun, little family vacation. Their vacation is disrupted by a group of dangerous intruders that begin to terrorize them. In a terrifying twist, these intruders look exactly like them.

Lupita Yeong’s incredible performance has been endlessly praised—I still cannot believe she was not nominated for best actress for this role. The film also provides insightful commentary on American society. Its narrative works as a metaphor for current American politics: you have two groups of people who are “identical” yet one is seen as an intruder and is forced to live a worse life.

Many have pointed out that this can be read as a commentary about the way minorities and immigrants are treated in this country. Use this movie as a source for your next memo!

RELIGIOUS STUDIES: The Exorcist(1973)

This is a pretty obvious pick but it’s an obvious pick for a good reason. The Exorcist has been deemed one of the scariest movies of all time. Those who worked on the film often say its production was cursed due to the many creepy incidents that occurred on set. In the movie, we are introduced to a little girl named Reagan who begins to behave strangely after playing with an ouija board

 Her behavior becomes outright demonic, leading her mother to plead for the help of two priests. The movie has a lot of haunting Catholic imagery and depicts the early Catholic practice of exorcism. The movie also had a large cultural and religious impact in the United States that is interesting to analyze; it’s a stark depiction of the tension between science and religion at the time of its release.

THEATER: The Rocky Horror Picture Show(1975)

If you’re a theater major and you haven’t watched this movie, what are you doing? This musical/ horror-comedy has become a cult classic, culminating in countless live performances and annual midnight movie screenings.

The movie follows sweethearts Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) after their car breaks down. They step inside the creepy house of the so-called Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry) who turns their lives upside down. The movie has iconic songs that you’ve probably already heard of.

Take the iconic Science Fiction / Double Feature track that kicks off the story: a strange, hypnotic song that celebrates the magic of science fiction movies—sung through a pair of disembodied red lips. And what kind of theater kid hasn't danced to the classic Time Warp?! Dammit Janet, please watch this movie!