I Am Legend

A virus intended as a cancer treatment has devastated humanity. Robert Neville, an immune virologist, is left in New York City trying to find a cure while defending himself from hostile mutants. They are nocturnal, which gives every approaching night an unpleasant sense of urgency. I can think of friendlier ways to finish a working day.

The fear comes from two directions. There is the immediate danger of the mutants, then the slower, stranger thought of having nobody to turn to. Neville has work he believes matters, but he must stay alive to carry on with it. That makes this more than a series of threats to survive. The isolation sits with you even when you are thinking about the next night.

I would choose this for an evening when you want your horror tense and lonely rather than cosy in the usual sense. It suits someone who likes a survival story with a question underneath it: what keeps a person going when they may be the last human in the city? Perhaps keep the chatty film companion for another night. Neville has enough interruptions.