Odd Couples: Uncommon Double Features

Make it a themed movie night with these double features that perfectly complement each other — including films you may have missed.

Double features make life more fun. What’s better than sitting down, picking out a couple of movies, and relaxing? It’s a perfect antidote to the stressful bustle of life that keeps us all skittering about like exhausted little lab mice. Sometimes, I’ll pick out a theme and build my movie night offerings around that. It makes viewing interesting whether you’re alone or in groups. It can also be a good way to ease your friends into some seriously terrifying content or completely mentally eviscerate them outright.

Here are ten double features you might not have considered yet that you’ll definitely want to add to your fall horror rotation. No obvious choices are to be found here. Only weirdness and some underrated favorites.

1. Horror Express (1972) + The Thing (1982)

Made within ten years of one another, Horror Express and The Thing make for a shape-shifting alien extravaganza.

Horror Express is the more light-hearted offering, but it is an absolutely bonkers fun romp that takes place entirely on a train. Not to mention it stars horror mainstays, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Chances are you’ve probably already seen The Thing, so why not pair it with this more obscure 70s film?

Juxtaposed with each other, they make for a fun and interesting combination, proving that there really is more than one way to make alien horror.

2. The Whip and the Body (1963) + Crimson Peak (2015)

Gothic horror is a vastly underrated and criminally sexy subgenre.

The Whip and the Body is Maro Bava’s sensual technicolor Italian offering that pairs nicely with Guillermo del Toro’s darkly hypnotic homage to the gothic horror Crimson Peak. Dysfunctional families, murder, sexuality, and repression abound in these delightfully horny films. Both are ghost stories that take place in large mansions with British heartthrobs making viewers swoon — those heartthrobs being Christopher Lee and Tom Hiddleston, respectively.

If you like your horror creepy with a side of chaotic romance, these two films were made for you.

3. The Hamiltons (2006) + My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To (2020)

Off-beat vampire movies are always a good choice for viewing.

The Hamiltons and My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To provides a one-two punch of indie vampires with a heaping helping of dysfunctional family units. While The Hamiltons is a bit campy, it serves as a wildly entertaining watch. My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To is the more serious piece of the two.

Their shared themes of vampirism as a disease and decaying family units make for a philosophical film experience to mull over.

4. Sweetheart (2019) + Nope (2022)

Sweetheart and Nope contain two of the best Black final girls ever.

These subversive creature features are both helmed by exceptional Black creatives, J.D. Dillard and Jordan Peele. Jenn (Kiersey Clemons) and Emerald (KeKe Palmer) are magnetic characters that are bold and interesting. Palmer and Clemons duly show their acting chops and show naysayers that Black women in horror reach far beyond tokenism and tired tropes.

These two films make for one anxiety-ridden double feature that might make you more than a little scared of both air and sea.

5. The Brood (1979) + Hatching (2022)

The dynamics of motherhood often leave daughters as collateral damage.

Before Cronenberg explored surgery as the new sex, he explored monstrous motherhood in the body horror classic The Brood. This year, Finnish director Hanna Bergholm looked at the relationship between a mother and daughter through the lens of some pretty gnarly body in her film Hatching. These two films are compulsively interesting and don’t shy away from difficult themes and concepts.

They’re both goopy and affecting. If you’re a body horror aficionado, this is a double feature for you.

6. The Devil’s Doorway (2018) + The Power (2021)

Horror doubling as period pieces is fascinating.

There’s nothing like looking at the bygone era through the haze of pure terror. The Devil’s Doorway and The Power are set in similar time frames, one in the early 1960s, and the other in the early 1970s. They are films by two extremely talented female filmmakers from Northern Ireland and England — Aislinn Clarke and Corinna Faith. The ideas and systemic abuses of power are explored in these haunting films.

They are firmly grounded in real-world events and issues and are undeniably heavy yet important.

7. Boys From County Hell (2020) + Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020)

Vampires and comedy are always a good mix, so these overlooked horror comedies might be perfect for you.

Boys From County Hell is a uniquely Irish take on vampiric beings, whereas Vampires vs. the Bronx is a love letter to the titular New York borough. The films have a lot of heart, and lovable characters abound. In fact, this might be one of the more feel-good options on this list.

So, if you’re looking for horror films that present vampires in unique variations and settings, I’ve got you covered.

8. The Mist (2007) + We Need to Do Something (2021)

Confined horror can make for a uniquely tense viewing experience.

However, The Mist and We Need to Do Something take those concepts to another level. It takes real talent to make something like a grocery store or a bathroom look and feel like utter hell, but these filmmakers do it with ease. These movies are adrenaline-spiked nightmares that are tied up with little downer ending bows. Creepy monsters, kids in peril, being trapped, and mysterious storms are all plot points that these two nail-biters share.

Prepare to be grossed out by some otherworldly monster madness.

9. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971) + The Invisible Man (2020)

Horror, where women are gaslit and question their perceptions of reality, isn’t exactly a new concept.

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death is a journey into one woman’s psyche as she struggles to discern what is real and what is a fabrication. Leigh Whannell’s newest iteration of The Invisible Man deals with a woman who is fighting to be believed. Jessica and Cecilia’s fights are similar and echo problems in our own reality. These eerie tales were made to unnerve yet provoke the viewers to think about deeper issues.

While vampires and invisible suits might not be real, gaslighting men are sure to be found everywhere.

10. The Woods (2006) + The Manor (2021)

Creepy vibes and atmosphere galore can be found in Lucky McKee’s The Woods and Axelle Carolyn’s The Manor.

Both are woodsy terrors set in secluded locales that give way to their supernatural premises. McKee and Carolyn are both unsung masters of horror, and their works deserve more recognition. Here there be witches and all sorts of gothic-tinged delights to partake in.

Have a little fun with these underseen beauties and bask in the moody, creepy settings.