You might be wondering what a ‘slow burn’ movie is, but it’s really simple to figure out. A slow burn movie will keep a person watching since the acting is good enough, the story is fairly interesting, but it doesn’t have any huge action sequences that are there and gone within a matter of seconds or minutes, and it doesn’t go for flair, jump scares, or glamour of any kind since it keeps a person riveted by dint of just being THAT interesting. These movies usually have a ton of exposition and a great deal of story to them, enough that one might think it’s a little too much considering that a lot of people go to the movies to see action, to see drama, and of course to see it all unfold in the most intriguing way possible. But with a slow burn movie, you might sit there waiting for something to happen and then realize by the end that you’ve been drawn in for so long that you forgot to be upset that nothing did happen, only to realize that you were invested to such a degree in the movie that you can’t help but be a little impressed at least.
Here are just a few of the best slow burn movies ever made.
5. A Quiet Place
One might think a movie that can’t feature any talking since the main threat is sensitive to and hunts by sound, but this movie really made it happen in a stunningly effective way since trying to stay quiet isn’t exactly a trait that some humans are comfortable with since one way or another we tend to make noise in some manner. But from having to walk on sand to using sign language and fearing what might happen once a baby is born, that kind of stuff kept the tension high since it appears as though the creatures were never all that far from earshot, and could cover a great deal of ground in a short amount of time.
4. The Lighthouse
A lot of people will probably look at this movie as something that is kind of mundane in a way and that a lot of people made it into something more than what it was just as a gag. But when a person thinks of the isolation that can come from living on a hunk of rock to serve as a warning for sailors for so long just to make a living, then they might think twice about the imagery that went into this movie. It’s disturbing in so many ways that it’s hard to describe them all since the idea of being stuck on a hunk of rock out in the middle of the ocean with a crazy old man and limited provisions is definitely someone’s idea of hell.
3. Taxi Driver
The fun part of this movie is that to really understand any location, particularly a big city, roam around it at night since it will show a face that one doesn’t get to see in the daylight for a number of reasons. But the journey that Travis undertakes in this movie is one that a lot of people that have experienced even a fraction of it might understand since the madness that begins to grip him is enticing in its own strange, inviting way. Trying to understand this character takes the whole movie since he continues to evolve, devolve, whichever way a person wants to look at it. No matter how it appears the trip from sanity to the end is one that most won’t forget.
2. There Will Be Blood
Daniel Plainview is a cruel and capricious man looking for any and every way he can to get rich, and when he finds it, his transformation starts to occur, until by the end of the movie he’s a miserable old miser that can barely walk and has driven away just about anyone that can stand him just by being himself. This is the type of story that makes a lot of people look at the lead actor as someone they might want to emulate up to a certain point, but soon come to realize they don’t want to be anything like since the guy turns out to be one of the worst human beings ever put on film.
1. The Shining
For a horror movie, this one tends to move at kind of a glacial pace in some areas of the movie, though the brief flashes here and there of the horror that the Overlook can provide are terrifying enough to make up for the continual forward movement that appears to be building up to something even if it takes forever to get there. And just try to state that watching Jack Nicholson stare off into the distance as he goes slowly insane isn’t creepy.
A slow burn can be every bit as entertaining as a fast and furious pace.
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