Macabre(1980)
1980 · Lamberto Bava · 91 min
A middle-aged woman, traumatized from the death of her adulterous lover, moves into a room at a New Orleans boarding house where the blind landlord becomes suspicious to her activities of continuing her affair with her dead lover.
Horror
5.7101 votes
TMDB score
4/5
Intensity
2/5
Gore
4/5
Stays with you
How scary is Macabre?
There's a heavy, uneasy feeling that builds slowly through quiet rooms and long silences rather than sudden shocks. The dread comes from watching a woman unravel from grief and obsession, and from the slow reveal of just how far that obsession goes. It leans more into unsettling implication than graphic violence, though what it does show is disturbing enough to sit with you afterward. This is for people who like their horror quiet, sad, and deeply uncomfortable rather than fast or fun.
On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, Macabre rates psychological 5/5, visceral 2/5, gore 2/5, lingering effect 4/5, and overall intensity 4/5.
- Psychological: 5 of 5
- Visceral: 2 of 5
- Gore: 2 of 5
- Lingering: 4 of 5
- Intensity: 4 of 5
Slow burn vs Jump scares: 10 of 100 — leans Slow burn
Supernatural vs Real-world: 90 of 100 — leans Real-world
Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 80 of 100 — leans Disturbing
Intensity over runtime
Shape only — no eventsReveal pacing shapeHide pacing shapeHidden by default — shows where the tension peaks and lets up.
A slow, quietly unsettling build that stays subdued for most of its runtime before tightening into a disturbing final stretch.
Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 0, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5.
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