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The first year of Hulu’s “Into the Dark”—which was recently renewed, by the way—ends with a film that could be a perfect example to show someone the overall quality of the series. There have been extreme lows (“Down”) and highs (“Culture Shock”), but most of the entries have been somewhere in the middle. Like a lot of these, “Into the Dark: Pure” has some interesting ideas and strong performances, but it fails to bring it all together into a complete package. And a ridiculous reliance on jump scares really destroys what should have been the most claustrophobic, intense “Into the Dark” so far.

In many ways, “ Pure ” is one of the timeliest films under this banner. As women’s rights and the #MeToo movement dominate the headlines, a film that deconstructs the controlling patriarchy embedded in the very concept of a “Purity Ring” fits the current national conversation. While its origins date back to ancient times of chastity belts and excommunication, the purity ring and associated pledge for young women to remain virgins until their wedding day is actually a relatively new phenomenon, gaining prominence in the ‘90s. The first official “purity ball” wasn’t until about 20 years ago. It’s time for a great horror movie to completely dismantle this sexist garbage that basically says fathers control their daughters’ bodies, although “Pure” isn’t exactly that movie.

The entirety of “Pure” takes the place on the weekend of a purity ball, a twisted ceremony in which young ladies have to hear sermons about their chastity, wear pure white dresses, and promise to their fathers that their bodies will remain untouched. Shay ( Jahkara Smith ) has accompanied her half-sister Jo ( McKaley Miller ) to this annual event with her newfound father Kyle ( Jim Klock ). Kyle had an affair with Shay’s mother and didn’t recognize the existence of his daughter until he had to, but now he gets to determine what she does with her body.

The event is run by a shady character named Pastor Seth (an effective Scott Porter ), someone who has a mysterious box in his office, used to punish girls who get out of line. Seth utilizes horrible analogies to make his points, such as the one in which he compares unchaste women to used chewing gum, but casting a charismatic actor like Porter makes him feel even more insidiously awful. It’s easy to see why people fall under Seth’s spell as he preaches what is basically just a form of control to Shay, Jo and friends Kellyann ( Annalisa Cochrane ) and Lacey ( Ciara Bravo ). On the first day there, Seth tells the story of Lilith, one that has various forms across religions but is basically used here to tell the tale of a sinful woman who was created with Adam and then replaced by God with Eve and cast away to Hell. Don’t be Lilith, young ladies.

The theme of Lilith as an embodiment of vengeful sinner weaves its way through “Pure” as Shay starts to think she’s literally seeing visions of her after the girls conduct a ceremony, and here’s where Hannah Macpherson ’s story loses much of its power. It’s much more harrowing and psychologically devastating to watch the story of Lacey, a young lady so well-played by Bravo that she essentially steals the movie. With Lacey, Bravo and Macpherson take their concept the most emotionally seriously, telling the story of a young woman who wants to believe and fears so badly that she won’t be able to remain pure. That's much more resonant than jump scares of Shay seeing figures in the dark. Honestly, “Pure” would have worked better with no supernatural angle at all, but then we would have been denied the catharsis of a pretty powerful ending when the Purity Ball becomes, well, very unpure.   

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Jahkara Smith as Shay

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Hulu Sets Female Coming-of-Age Horror Story ‘Pure’ as September’s ‘Into the Dark’ Movie (Exclusive)

Jahkara Smith and McKaley Miller will star on installment about teen girls who “perform a secret ritual at a purity retreat”

Hulu and Blumhouse Television have set a female coming-of-age story titled “Pure” as the September installment for their horror anthology “Into the Dark,” TheWrap has learned exclusively.

Here’s the official description for the movie: In this female coming-of-age horror story, several teen girls perform a secret ritual at a purity retreat and, when one of them begins to see a supernatural entity, the terrifying question emerges, what is more dangerous: the demon they’ve unleashed, or the pressure to conform to their fathers’ expectations .

The installment, premiering September 6, stars “NOS4A2” actress Jahkara Smith, as well as McKaley Miller (“MA,” “Hart of Dixie”), Scott Porter (“Friday Night Lights,” “The Good Wife”), Annalisa Cochrane (“Cobra Kai,” “Heathers”), Ciara Bravo (“Wayne,” “The Long Dumb Road,” “To the Bone”), Jim Klock (“Wounds,” “Son of the South”) and T.C. Carter (“Blocks,” “Assassination Nation”).

Hannah Macpherson will direct “Pure” and also wrote the teleplay for the movie from a story by Paul Fischer and Paul Davis.

“Into The Dark” is a horror event series from Hulu and Blumhouse TV, which includes 12 feature-length installments, released each month and inspired by a holiday, featuring the “Blumhouse signature genre/thriller spin on the story.”

This month’s movie, “Culture Shock,” was released July 4 and focused on Independence Day. August’s film is “School Spirit,” which celebrates the first day of school and launches Aug. 2. “Pure” is inspired by the holiday Daughter’s Day.

Smith is repped by Artists First. Miller is repped by Industry Entertainment and The Gersh Agency. Porter is repped by The Gersh Agency, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Viewpoint. Cochrane is repped by 3 Arts Entertainment, Momentum Talent and Literary Agency and Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light LLP. Bravo is repped by United Talent Agency, The Savage Agency and Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light LLP. Klock is repped by Nick Terry and Molly Horowitz at Zero Gravity. Carter is repped by J Pervis Talent Agency, Activity Talent Agency and Myrna Lieberman Management.

“Into the Dark” movie “Pure” premieres September 6 on Hulu.

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Teen girls perform a secret ritual at a Purity Retreat and, when one of them begins to see a supernatural entity, the terrifying question becomes what is more dangerous: the demon they’ve unleashed, or the pressure of their controlling fathers.

Jahkara Smith McKaley Miller Scott Porter Annalisa Cochrane Ciara Bravo Jim Klock T.C. Carter Madeleine Gardella Monroe Cline Tara Parker

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Hannah Macpherson

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Story story.

Paul Davis Paul Fisher

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Blumhouse Television

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The 200 Best Horror Movies of All Time

New year, new boo! We’ve re-vamped, fangs and all, our guide to the 200 best horror movies of all time, with critics and audiences now coming together in hellacious harmony to pick the freakiest, frightiest, and Freshest from horror movie history!

To assist in scheduling your film fright night, we guide you through German expressionism ( Nosferatu , The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ) and Universal monsters ( Dracula , The Wolf Man ). Creature features ( King Kong , The Fly ) nestle with Best Picture nominees ( The Exorcist , Get Out ). Slashers ( Scream ), zombies ( Dawn of the Dead ), vampires ( Let the Right One In ) abound with terror of the more psychological persuasion ( Don’t Look Now , The Innocents ). Plus, we honor the recent stabs and strides made by female horror directors ( A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night , The Babadook , The Invitation ) and directors abroad ( Under the Shadow , The Wailing ).

To sort the list, we’re using our recommendation formula, which calculates a movie’s Tomatometer rating AND its Audience Score , along with the film’s number of reviews and year of release. And how did we pick what to initially throw into our bubbling recommendation cauldrong? We hand-picked only Certified Fresh movies with a positive Audience Score, with recent movies needing at least 100 critics reviews. What’s recent? Anything after 2016, which is when we expanded our critics pool and criteria.

Ready to settle in for dark nights of Fresh fear? Then flip the switch on the 200 best horror movies of all time. It’s alive! It’s alive!!

Alien (1979) 93%

Let the Right One In (2008) 98%

Aliens (1986) 94%

Jaws (1975) 97%

The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 95%

Get Out (2017) 98%

Psycho (1960) 97%

One Cut of the Dead (2017) 100%

King Kong (1933) 97%

A Quiet Place (2018) 96%

Halloween (1978) 96%

Shaun of the Dead (2004) 92%

What We Do in the Shadows (2014) 96%

Diabolique (1955) 95%

The Invisible Man (2020) 92%

Nosferatu (1922) 97%

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) 97%

Rosemary's Baby (1968) 96%

The Wailing (2016) 99%

Bride of Frankenstein (1935) 98%

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) 96%

The Devil's Backbone (2001) 93%

Eyes Without a Face (1960) 97%

A Quiet Place Part II (2021) 91%

The Babadook (2014) 98%

Train to Busan (2016) 95%

The Ring (1998) 98%

His House (2020) 100%

Night of the Living Dead (1968) 95%

Talk to Me (2023) 94%

Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017) 97%

Repulsion (1965) 96%

Frankenstein (1931) 94%

Vampyr (1932) 98%

Freaks (1932) 95%

The Night of the Hunter (1955) 93%

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) 95%

The Innocents (1961) 95%

Prey (2022) 94%

Under the Shadow (2016) 99%

Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) 95%

Border (2018) 97%

M3GAN (2022) 93%

Dawn of the Dead (1978) 91%

Godzilla (1954) 94%

Peeping Tom (1960) 95%

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) 96%

Re-Animator (1985) 94%

The Fly (1986) 93%

Suspiria (1977) 94%

Pearl (2022) 92%

Zombieland (2009) 89%

The Birds (1963) 94%

The Innocents (2021) 97%

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) 91%

X (2022) 94%

Misery (1990) 91%

The Cabin in the Woods (2011) 92%

The Amusement Park (1973) 96%

It Follows (2014) 95%

Raw (2016) 93%

Dead of Night (1945) 93%

Dracula (1931) 94%

Carrie (1976) 93%

The Host (2006) 93%

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) 90%

Kwaidan (1964) 91%

28 Days Later (2002) 87%

Don't Look Now (1973) 93%

Thelma (2017) 92%

Attack the Block (2011) 91%

The Orphanage (2007) 87%

Barbarian (2022) 92%

Werewolf by Night (2022) 89%

Us (2019) 93%

Upgrade (2018) 88%

Evil Dead 2 (1987) 88%

An American Werewolf in London (1981) 89%

Ready or Not (2019) 89%

The Lighthouse (2019) 90%

It (2017) 85%

Eraserhead (1977) 89%

Green Room (2015) 90%

Beast (2017) 92%

Hereditary (2018) 90%

Drag Me to Hell (2009) 92%

The Return of the Living Dead (1985) 91%

The Wicker Man (1973) 91%

Dead Alive (1992) 89%

You Won't Be Alone (2022) 93%

The Fly (1958) 95%

Let Me In (2010) 88%

Village of the Damned (1960) 93%

Don't Breathe (2016) 88%

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) 89%

The Phantom of the Opera (1925) 90%

The Conjuring (2013) 86%

Cat People (1942) 92%

Horror of Dracula (1958) 91%

The Blackening (2022) 87%

Grindhouse (2007) 84%

The Thing (1982) 84%

House of Wax (1953) 93%

The Shining (1980) 83%

The Love Witch (2016) 95%

Bone Tomahawk (2015) 91%

The Descent (2005) 87%

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) 91%

Mandy (2018) 90%

Duel (1971) 89%

The Cat and the Canary (1927) 93%

The Wolf Man (1941) 91%

Saint Maud (2019) 92%

Poltergeist (1982) 88%

House (1977) 91%

The Endless (2017) 92%

The Evil Dead (1981) 86%

Violation (2020) 88%

Martin (1978) 90%

Tucker & Dale vs Evil (2010) 85%

Nanny (2022) 90%

A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) 86%

The Witch (2015) 91%

Annihilation (2018) 88%

The Dead Zone (1983) 89%

Fear Street Part Two: 1978 (2021) 87%

Island of Lost Souls (1933) 88%

The Others (2001) 84%

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010) 89%

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) 86%

Hatching (2022) 93%

Santa Sangre (1989) 87%

Theater of Blood (1973) 88%

Gremlins (1984) 86%

The Haunting (1963) 87%

Fear Street Part Three: 1666 (2021) 88%

The Night House (2020) 88%

Sputnik (2020) 88%

The Black Phone (2021) 82%

Cronos (1993) 90%

The Dark and the Wicked (2020) 91%

The Invitation (2015) 90%

Freaky (2020) 83%

Tremors (1990) 88%

The Exorcist (1973) 78%

Evil Dead Rise (2023) 84%

The Mummy (1932) 89%

Carnival of Souls (1962) 87%

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) 88%

Candyman (2021) 84%

Hounds of Love (2016) 88%

Audition (1999) 83%

Piggy (2022) 91%

Dead Ringers (1988) 85%

Nope (2022) 83%

Slither (2006) 87%

Crawl (2019) 84%

Doctor Sleep (2019) 78%

Day of the Dead (1985) 87%

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (1970) 85%

The Omen (1976) 85%

The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) 86%

Scream VI (2023) 76%

Fresh (2022) 81%

Color Out of Space (2019) 86%

The Conjuring 2 (2016) 80%

Better Watch Out (2016) 89%

Scream (1996) 81%

Saw X (2023) 80%

The Girl With All the Gifts (2016) 85%

Predator (1987) 80%

Goodnight Mommy (2014) 85%

Fright Night (1985) 83%

Midsommar (2019) 83%

Warm Bodies (2013) 81%

Sisters (1973) 85%

Shadow of the Vampire (2000) 82%

I Walked With a Zombie (1943) 85%

Near Dark (1987) 83%

House of Usher (1960) 84%

Thirst (2009) 81%

Split (2016) 78%

The House of the Devil (2009) 85%

Smile (2022) 79%

Werewolves Within (2021) 86%

Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) 79%

Halloween (2018) 79%

Videodrome (1983) 83%

Overlord (2018) 82%

Scream (2022) 76%

Come to Daddy (2019) 88%

Bones and All (2022) 82%

The Lost Boys (1987) 77%

Dawn of the Dead (2004) 76%

Fear Street Part One: 1994 (2021) 84%

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) 74%

Frailty (2002) 75%

1408 (2007) 80%

Little Monsters (2019) 79%

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) 78%

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‘Pure’ Director: If You’re Not “Pissed Off”, You Might Be A “Lost Cause”

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When Blumhouse TV approached Hannah Macpherson with the notion of a horror film set in the subculture of purity balls the young filmmaker was more intrigued than informed. “First of all, I had to Google what that was,” the New Mexico native admits. “And then I went down the rabbit hole.”

That rabbit hole led Macpherson into the world of the prom-like purity events where daughters vow to save their virginity for their future husbands and a marriage that’s often arranged by their fathers. For Macpherson, the exploration was instantly inspiring on a creative level but routinely infuriating on a cultural and social level. The result is Pure , the new horror film with themes of gruesome group-think (think of a high school  Handmaid’s Tale or a church-camp redux of Midsommar ) as well as supernatural menace (Carrie  would have been an ideal peer counselor).

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Watch on Deadline

Blumhouse TV produced Pure , which has just made its world premiere on  In the Dark, the Hulu anthology series that has a once-a-month schedule for new releases. With  Pure , the anthology brand closed out its first full-year release calendar with a movie that that puts its teen characters (the cast includes Jahkara J. Smith, McKaley Miller, Ciara Bravo, and Annalisa Cochrane) squarely between a demon presence and the controlling fathers who staged the vow-taking ritual. Guess which side the film depicts as true evil?

Macpherson knows her movie will infuriate some and she’s okay with that. “If people aren’t pissed off after watching this movie,” she says, “they’re a lost cause.”

Deadline caught up with Macpherson (who studied Film Production at Loyola Marymount before attending the UCLA Professional Program in Writing for Television in 2014) to talk about the politics of possession and the price of purity. The young filmmaker (who is repped by CAA and Anonymous Content) is one of the four female directors who contributed a film to the Into the Dark  anthology’s first year of releases (the others were Sophia Takai , Chelsea Stardust, and Gigi Saul Guerrero ).

For Blumhouse Productions, the infusion of female directors is delivering on last year’s promise by founder Jason Blum to “do better” on the gender representation front by working with more female directors. Blumhouse Productions is renowned for high-return horror fare (like  Get Out, Insidious, Purge, Paranormal Activity, and last year’s  Halloween)  but last October the company’s leader was torched on social media after saying female directors are hard to find. Blum apologized for the comment and punctuated it with a pledge to do better. To his credit: This December, Universal will release the Blumhouse remake of Black Christmas , directed by Sophia Takal working off a slasher script she co-wrote with April Wolfe that has sorority girls battling back against a bloodthirsty stalker. For Blum, who has produced about 90 movies since 2000, it will be just the third directed by a woman.

DEADLINE: Horror films have become a robust forum for social commentary like no other in contemporary Hollywood. What is it about the genre right now that makes it so ripe for message movies?

HANNAH MACPHERSON:  People don’t like to be preached at, pun intended. They want to be entertained, they want to be made to feel something. Horror movies disguise social commentary like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. When you scare someone or distract them with tension, fear, excitement, you can shove a message down their throats. It becomes more palatable.

DEADLINE: The clock seems to be turning back on social and gender issues. Does that raise the stakes for a project like this one? Does it raise the level of  difficulty? 

MACPHERSON:  There is nothing more horrifying to me than the way men feel it necessary to tell women how to behave. We’ve gone backwards in time regarding our reproductive rights. This movie didn’t need a supernatural angle. The documentaries were scary enough. So I wanted to create an entity that the girls are afraid of at first but who is actually there to protect them. And all the tension and actual fear in the movie is actually surrounding the fathers, who are far more sinister than Lilith could ever be.

DEADLINE: There were plenty of potential pitfalls in the film’s portrayal of the fathers, too. Was that something you identified early on?

MACPHERSON:  I wanted to stay far away from any mustache-twirling villains for the fathers, and I knew we needed a Pastor that everyone could like. I wanted the fathers to feel real, to maybe even be relatable. But most importantly, I wanted the Pastor to feel cool and charismatic and good-natured and passionate about his message. He would tell you he cares deeply, and even though I believe strongly that he is very wrong, he is a complicated human. Scott Porter brought this character to life in ways I couldn’t have imagined, and I was so fortunate to get to work with him. You immediately understand why people would drink his Kool-Aid.

DEADLINE: The film presents demonic possession as a upgrade for any young woman otherwise facing an unnatural parental possession. That’s going to stir up some people.

MACPHERSON:  I call it a “reverse possession” movie, because Shay wants to become possessed at the end, begs Lilith to enter her, so she can punish those who have taken the girls’ power away. It’s absolutely imperative that people talk about this subject. It’s not about religion, although most religions should look at their approach to gender equality, but it’s about power and control and oppression. This is not “parents taking care of their children” – this is a man (because mothers are not allowed to participate) telling a young woman that if she were left to her own devices she would make bad choices. He will keep her safe, and not just until she’s 18, but until she’s given to another man, her future husband. If people aren’t pissed off after watching this movie, they’re a lost cause.

DEADLINE: If your film was screening in two adjacent theaters, one filled with daughters and the other filled with their fathers, which one do you want to attend and why?

MACPHERSON:  What a great question! I would have to sit with the daughters because that is the energy I want to be around and celebrate. I didn’t make this movie for women only, I made it for men, too. I want everyone to feel uncomfortable.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Into the Dark: Pure’ on Hulu, A Righteously Feminist Horror Story that Banishes the Patriarchy to Hell

Where to stream:.

• Into The Dark (2018)

The first season of Hulu’s Blumhouse-produced, loosely holiday-themed horror anthology Into the Dark closes with a doozy of a movie. The series sometimes trades in heady social commentary, and sometimes episodes simply indulge in the usual manipulative horror tropes — and Pure , a “daughter’s day” tale, is quite clearly the former, with a dash of the latter.

INTO THE DARK : PURE : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Shay (Jahkra Smith) has only known her father, Kyle (Jim Klock), for two months, and he’s already forcing her to attend a weekend-long function climaxing with a purity ball, where she and many other young women will pledge to keep themselves “clean” for their future husbands. Her half-sister is Jo (McKaley Miller), and they’re roughly the same age; Jo is rightfully rebellious in the face of all this purity nonsense, what with the phony-ass dances and dumb rituals and fathers-picking-out-their-daughters’-all-white-wardrobe and other assorted bullshit. It might also have something to do with Kyle having cheated on Jo’s mother with Shay’s recently deceased mother, and he now lords over both of his daughters with THE KINDNESS OF GAWWWD.

The weekend festivities are overseen by the aforementioned deity, and he’s definitely without a doubt absolutely male of course, but his voice is a literal open-carry pastor, Seth (Scott Porter), whose daughter, Lacey (Ciara Bravo), has run the purity gauntlet since she was roughly a zygote. She bunks with Shay and Jo, and another ball veteran, Kellyann (Annalisa Cochrane). When Pastor Seth delivers his smiley, uptempo sermons loaded with vile sexist trash messages, Shay’s wide eyes betray her feelings: she’s terrified. SAME HERE.

The first night at the quasi-camp, Shay, Jo, Kellyann and a reluctant Lacey sneak out to party with a few stray males of the species, as teenagers are wont to do. Shay and Jo get a few of their pals to form a five-point star, light some candles and summon Lilith, the vengeful red-haired woman of lost-stories-of-the-bible fame, who was banished to Hell for allegedly schtupping an angel, and isn’t so happy about it, and just might be a demon now. Does the chanting work? I won’t answer that directly. But when Shay isn’t having creepy dreams about Lilith, she keeps seeing her in the periphery, usually in the dark, through a crop of foliage or in the mirror — something that doesn’t bode well for a bunch of Promise Keepers-times-a-billion cretinous men gaslighting the living crap out of their daughters.

I know what you’re thinking: This is a horror series, and wouldn’t it be nice if Lilith arrived to righteously disembowel some fake-righteous, hypocritical, bible-thumping males in the name of all these angry and/or confused young women who have long faced their fathers’ quiet, cruel oppression? I’m not saying that happens, but I’m not not saying that either.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: As soon as Shay arrives at Camp Double Standard, you’ll want to vehemently whisper at her: Get Out ! And as the plot progresses, you’ll wonder if this is how The Handmaid’s Tale happened.

Performance Worth Watching: Smith anchors the film with a complex performance: Shay is a little bit naive, and a little bit worldly. Not much is said about her mother’s passing, although you get the sense that she’s seen some shit. But she also hasn’t seen this particular shit — you know, the full, ugly, dictatorial brunt of the Very Christian patriarchy. Oh, and the weird supernatural shit. That’s also new. But it isn’t necessarily scary — for her.

Memorable Dialogue: “You’re so much prettier when you smile,” says Kellyann’s dad when they pose for a photo session. Can he be first in line for disembowelment, please?

Sex and Skin: Some PG-13-ish Lilith-made-me-do-it teenage rutting, almost exclusively in shadow.

Our Take: In an early scene, director Hannah Macpherson veers the camera toward Pastor Seth’s omnipresent holstered pistol with enough ominousness to make even Ted Nugent uneasy. It’s the movie’s most political shot. Or the gun might also just be making note of a plot device to be employed later. Can it be both? Yes, but it’s emblematic of how Pure sometimes uneasily wavers between being a typical horror movie and a highly charged hot-button social critique.

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Stream it or skip it: ‘the visitor’ on amazon prime video, another small budget blumhouse production aiming for big scares, woman crush wednesday: we're psyched about rebecca rittenhouse in 'maggie', stream it or skip it: 'bingo hell' on amazon prime, which shows you why you don't want to get between this old lady and her bingo balls.

The movie does build some tangible suspense, leading us to the purity ball, where all hell just has to break loose. Although we pretty much know what’s going to happen — if not exactly how — it’s a reasonably engaging build-up to inevitable catharsis, even if it’s not quite as satisfying as it could be. Smith is very good — good enough to engage our concern and elicit our sympathy and maybe even quite convincingly spiritually subpoena a fiery revenge-goddess.

And let’s face it, Pure takes aim at a big, dumb target — because few things are bigger and dumber and more deserving of a pseudo-metaphorical revenge-fantasy skewering than the ancient, idiotic idea that men can use the power of religion to hold dominion over women. That type of garbage can go right to hell.

Our Call: STREAM IT. I’m not sure Pure truly fulfills its potential. But it has enough rousing, potent feminism to make it worth a watch.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba .</em)

Stream Into the Dark: Pure on Hulu

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'Into the Dark: Pure' delves into the weird world of purity pledges and patriarchal control of young women in this camp horror

This article contains spoilers for 'Into the Dark: Pure'.

Hulu's anthology horror 'Into the Dark' wrapped its debut season with the twelfth feature-length episode - 'Pure.' Revolving around Daughter's Day and all the love, protection, and security that every dad wants to promise his precious little girl, what 'Pure' also addressed is society's absolute need to reinforce the practice of abstinence on its young growing women. But perhaps the most satisfying aspect of the episode, is its signature satirical spin on elements of horror that the Blumhouse masterpiece has incorporated in each episode of the show. Tiptoeing on the fine line that separates television and cinema, 'Pure' also has a hard time choosing whether it wants to be a running satirical commentary on all things preposterous about purity, or a horrifying tale of a woman fighting back to reclaim her body. In the end, as the sinister triumphs over the biblical good, the tale sees a far bigger force of evil however succumbing to its downfall, and that is the toxic expectations of fathers and religion that are imposed on impressionable young girls. 

The story follows Shay played by Jahkara Smith - a young teenager of mixed-race who has just learned about her father, after the passing of her mom. Shay's father, Kyle, has taken her in much to the frustration of his other daughter, Jo (McKaley Miller) whom he shares with his wife, presumably, but the topic never gets addressed in the almost 90-minute episode. Jo and Shay are polar opposites, and the distaste the rebellious Jo feels for the docile Shay is understandable. What isn't understandable is why their father - a reasonably well to do man - feels the need to drag his daughter every year for a Purity Retreat to celebrate Daughters Day, and this retreat is one of the main elements of horror on the episode.

The plot opens with what looks like a dream, a bad one, that Shay has on her way to the retreat. She sees herself in a white gown, fronting a negative entity clad in black, face covered in a veil. When the veil lifts, Shay sees herself, smiling ear to ear in the creepiest manner ever. Serious, the smiling Man or even Pennywise doesn't come close to this dark manifestation of Shay, and for that we have Blumhouse, and director Hannah Macpherson to thank. Macpherson's choice to portray the same smile in every negative manifestation throughout the episode is also an excellent decision, but we'll get to that later. Let's address the real horror in the episode: the purity pact.

The retreat is your regular retreat, where people are forced to snap off ties from the rest of the world, and bond with each other. Designed to bring fathers and daughters closer, and reigned over by a suspicious evil reincarnate called Pastor Seth, the retreat is everything that would boil your blood if you have an iota of feminism or even the basic idea of gender equality in you. Pastor Seth is your textbook definition of men comparing women and their virginity to inanimate objects. Garbage, trash, a chewing gum - nothing gets left behind as Pastor Seth continues with his preposterous sermons about women saving themselves for marriage. What's sicker is that Pastor Seth has a daughter himself, and of course, she has been attending the retreat since she learned to speak, probably. But what's also equally abnormal is families like Jo's and Kellyann (Annalisa Cochrane) have been participating in this as a tradition for over a decade now. 

The eerie undertone of dangers and impending doom upon the retreat is persistent throughout the episode, and not just at the beginning when Jo is able to round up her housemates - Shay, Kellyann, and Pastor Seth's daughter, Lacey (Ciara Bravo) to invoke the spirit of the condemned Lilith - the Queen of Hell. After a very preachy first day sermon by the Pastor, Jo - the rebellious blonde ready to fight back - motivates the other three girls to sneak out at night and invoke Lilith to unleash her hell on the retreat. And that is our second element of horror: the girls soon find that their little summoning reaped fruits bigger than they had bargained for. Soon Shay starts seeing the black-veiled spirit with flaming red hair at odd places, but of course, the white girls don't think it's serious enough. Classic horror.

Moving on, Jo finds some boys. Yes, in the plural, and thereon begins her sneaking around. She and the girls indulge and it's shocking to see that even the pastor's daughter, Lacey, doesn't hold back. But what normalizes the scenario is the way Lacey breaks down after kissing a boy. Her father's toxicity has been rooted so deep in her that the young adult actually believes she is 'trash' for kissing a boy. And this, right there, is the horror. It's infuriating when the fathers use their creepy ways to convince their daughters this is right: Kyle tells Shay that if her mother had a stronger male role model in her life, this illegitimate pregnancy is not something she would've had to deal with; Keeellyann's considerably young but extremely predatory father asks her to smile more because it makes her look prettier.

When Jo interrupts Lacey in the middle of her speech, countering why purity isn't imposed upon men, the pastor answers that young men aren't foolish enough to need this monitoring. But it is when Lacey explains Jo's doubt saying it is harder for young men to stay pure, that's when the real horror hits. This is how the idea of purity is programming young women - to make them feel subordinate yet accountable for any inconvenient consequence of sex. Sadly, this is just the top layer of the problem whose roots lie deep enough to punish Jo and several other girls throughout the episode, all because they challenge the patriarchal standards of purity.

The writers have done an excellent job at riling viewers with their take on all things vile and regressive that Purity enthusiasts spew out. But if you can't sit through all that, the narration also includes a layered blooming of Jo as the girl who just wants answers, and of course - the manifestation of all things evil that comes towards the end of the episode. 

'Into the Dark: Pure' premieres on Friday, September 6, only on Hulu.

‘Lamb’ Review: Noomi Rapace Adopts a Uniquely Strange Baby in Striking Motherhood Horror

A slow-burn contemporary folk horror that beds a ludicrous central twist so deep in damp Icelandic austerity you can almost believe it.

By Jessica Kiang

Jessica Kiang

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Splicing the dark heart of a folk-horror movie into the fluffy body of a rural Icelandic relationship drama yields unexpectedly fertile and darkly comic effects in Valdimir Jóhannsson ‘s creepy-funny-weird-sad “Lamb,” a film that proves just how far disbelief can be suspended if you’re in the hands of a director — and a cast, and an SFX/puppetry department — who really commit to the bit. Abetted by a performance of unwaveringly invested, freckled seriousness from Noomi Rapace (whose Icelandic certainly sounds convincing to a non-Nordic ear), “Lamb” is as curious a cross-breed as its central little miracle-monster, and just as much a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Way out here on this isolated hillside, something is spooking the horses. In a majestic beginning, featuring some quite brilliant animal acting (“Lamb” won a Cannes Palm Dog Grand Prix for its canine performer, but were there equivalents for equine, feline and of course ovine actors, it would surely have swept the board), the camera prowls and plods its point-of-view way through misty fields. Finally this unseen, not-human-but-not-wholly-animal entity, whose unheimlich nature we understand through the huffing and snorting of Ingvar Lunderg and Björn Viktorsson’s endlessly inventive sound design, and through the panicked fleeing of livestock at its approach, arrives at the sheep barn. Docile ewes huddle together, but one is singled out and something is done to her. The radio plays a Christmas song.

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This eerie opening is a fantastic showcase for DP Eli Arenson’s starkly beautiful photography, which plays to the opposite end of the horror spectrum from the jump scare or the sudden wobble; it finds steadiness to be much more scary, and calmness much more uncanny (here, perhaps, we most see the influence of Béla Tarr, Jóhannsson’s erstwhile mentor, whose name pops up as executive producer). The farm belongs to Maria (Rapace) and her partner, Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Gudnason), a hardworking, taciturn couple who, it transpires, are still grieving the loss of a child. Who knows if the silence that exists between them — not a hostile one but a silence nonetheless — only started after that tragedy, or if that’s just who they are. But certainly, the quiet of these misty, mountainous surroundings is unbroken by chatter, and that emptiness, carefully circumnavigated by the couple, becomes a perfect breeding ground for some arcane, perhaps pagan mythology to take root. When the ewe gives birth to a strange hybrid, the immediately lovestruck Maria and Ingvar adopt her as their own. They call her Ada.

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Jóhannsson is hesitant to the point of coy about showing Ada — it  happens at about the 40-minute mark, long after we’ve guessed what she actually is. And the teasing of so much artful framing, so many awestruck reaction shots, so many close-ups of Rapace’s sharp features softening into fuzzy maternal fondness, can get frustrating — just show us the thing already . But once Ada is shown (an excellent combination of practical and special effects) — and it’s a novelty image that never loses its inherent ridiculousness especially after she gets big enough to wear cute waders and dungarees — the decision to delay makes more sense. By that point, we’re so embedded in the heavy, absolutely straight-faced mood that Jóhannsson summons that even the absurdity of Ada’s little person cannot dispel the atmosphere of unease.

For a time, things go well. The new parents are contented, even if Maria does display the ruthless side of her maternal instincts toward Ada’s pining birth mother. But then Ingvar’s ne’er-do-well brother Pétur (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson), with whom Maria has some torrid romantic history, shows up in need of a place to stay, and suddenly this little “Iceland of Dr. Moreau” setup is under threat from a witness from the outside.

Pétur’s slow-blink reaction on being introduced to Ada is another masterstroke of delayed timing, here deployed for overtly humorous effect, giving the otherwise quite prodigiously unsmiling film a nice, cathartic belly laugh. But soon Pétur, too, is won over by the little tyke — the screenplay, tersely co-written by Jóhannsson and Icelandic writer, poet and lyricist Sjón (who also co-wrote Robert Eggers’ upcoming “The Northman”), hints at but never quite develops the idea of Ada’s slightly supernatural ability to make the adult humans around her fall for her. Similarly undercooked is a vaguely emergent religious analogy, with the film’s nativity-like opening — near a manger at Christmas — and Maria’s own name and occasional Madonna-like framing never really adding up to a real thesis.

Perhaps that’s because the storytelling most evoked here is pre-Christian, mythological, folkloric, the kind of discomfiting stories that were not designed to soothe children at bedtime but to threaten people — often mothers — with horrible punishments for upsetting the natural balance and grabbing more than their share of happiness from fate’s cruel, capricious claws. No matter how pure your intentions nor how real your pain, these ancient myths all teach us, debts always come due, and the chilling denouement of Jóhannsson’s dark, deliberate debut suggests that is what “Lamb” is: a modern-day take on some ancient, pre-Disneyfication fairy tale. Or, perhaps, a nursery rhyme with a sinister history encoded into its simple, spartan, sing-song melody: Maria had a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow …

Reviewed in Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard), July 13, 2021. Running time: 106 MIN. (Original title: "Dýrið")

• Production: (Iceland-Sweden-Poland) An A24 presentation of a Go to Sheep, Spark Film & TV and Madants production, in co-production with Film I Väst, Chimney Sweden, Chimney Poland, Rabbithole Prods., Helgi Jóhannsson. (World sales: New Europe Film Sales, Warsaw). Producers: Hrönn Kristinsdóttir, Sara Nassim, Piodor Gustafsson, Erik Rydell, Klaudia Smieja-Rostworowska, Jan Naszewski. Executive producers: Noomi Rapace, Béla Tarr, Håkan Petterson, Jon Mankell, Marcin Drabinski, Peter Possne, Zuzanna Hencz.
• Crew: Director: Valdimar Jóhannsson. Screenplay: Sjón, Jóhannsson. Camera: Eli Arenson. Editor: Agnieszka Glinska. Music: Thórarinn Gudnason.
• With: Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Gudnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Ingvar Sigurdsson. (Icelandic dialogue)

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• What Is Cinema?

The 32 Best Horror Movies to Keep You Up at Night

The best horror movies tend to be trendsetters, whether by launching a subgenre, introducing new visual techniques, reinventing familiar tropes, or employing clever marketing schemes. Everyone has a different favorite, but it's the rare genre where people—even those who prefer their Halloween films on the cozy side—tend to agree on a handful of paragons. You'll find grisly slasher flicks, eerie ghost stories, creature features, and psychological freakouts in equal measure here, making this a guide to the best horror movies of all time for beginners and repeat viewers alike.

32. The Wicker Man (1973)

Long before Midsommar came about, The Wicker Man supplied pitch-black horror set in broad daylight. A religious police sergeant (Edward Woodward) travels to a rural Scottish island to investigate a young girl's disappearance, but the locals' culty Pagan practices prove equally concerning. His eerie interactions play like fish-out-of-water social comedy, but any sense of security disappears in the lead-up to an electrifying finale that involves a folk hymn, a human sacrifice, and a lot of eccentric Scandinavian dancing.

31. The Others (2001)

The Sixth Sense is often hailed as horror's greatest twist ending, but what if The Others ' is even better? A Gothic ghost story starring an immaculate Nicole Kidman as a pious mother who moves her two strange children to a remote mansion they quickly suspect is haunted, this is a chilling exercise in atmospheric tension. Like so many horror film narratives, it's about grief—but the titanic payoff is what sticks with you. Two decades later, it's worthy of canonization.

30. Cat People (1942)

It may be mellow by today's standards, but Cat People has ascended from popular B-movie to respected classic. A Serbian fashion illustrator (Simone Simon) engaged to a thoughtful engineer (Kent Smith) believes an ancient curse will turn her into a panther upon arousal, which is a pretty solid metaphor for the shame that accompanied sex in the censhorship-heavy '40s. Using noirish shades and a couple of well-placed jump scares that influenced future horror editors, Cat People is a relic rich enough to earn a bloated Paul Schrader remake in 1982.

29. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Wes Craven began his career as a gonzo provocateur (see: The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes ) and eventually became a master of commercial crowd-pleasers. A Nightmare on Elm Street brought much-needed humor to the slasher craze, establishing Freddy Kruger as a fedora-wearing jokester who doubles as literal nightmare fuel.

28. The Omen (1976)

Hollywood spent the '70s trying to replicate the success of The Exorcist . Nothing came as close as The Omen , which summoned a demon by way of a 5-year-old Antichrist named Damien ( Harvey Spencer Stephens ). This was 1976's biggest summer hit, withstanding the critics who unjustly dismissed it.

27. Misery (1990)

Before there were stans, there was Annie Wilkes (a disconcertingly sweet Kathy Bates ). She's one of those villains you know by name, shorthand for an overzealous admirer who'll stop at nothing to get what she wants from her favorite entertainer, romance novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan). When Annie learns Paul has killed off her favorite literary protagonist, she wages warfare in an icy remote cabin where no captive's ankles are safe.

26. Eraserhead (1977)

Many of David Lynch 's films borrow horror elements, namely Blue Velvet , Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me , Lost Highway , and Mulholland Drive. But his debut, Eraserhead , is the director's most straightforward genre piece, which is a weird thing to say about a surreal freakout that rose to prominence as a go-to midnight movie. The highlight is the unnerving sound design, a fizzy collection of static, mewling, and urban oddities that heighten the story of a misfit (Jack Nance) caring for an unseemly baby in a dank apartment.

25. Don't Look Now (1973)

Grief and the passage of time are two of horror's consistent preoccupations, and Don't Look Now turns them into a spectral saga about a couple ( Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland ) who travel to Venice while mourning the death of their daughter. There, they see apparitions of a young girl in a striking red coat who evokes the child they've lost, leading them down an occult rabbit hole.

24. Wait Until Dark (1967)

Audrey Hepburn weaponized her sweet persona in this terrifying home-invasion thriller, playing a blind housewife who has to ward off criminals inside her Manhattan apartment. You're not sure she'll pull it off, which turns Wait Until Dark into a pins-and-needles wallop that uses dim, angular corners to sustain suspense.

23. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

Call it hagsploitation if you want, but What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? remains one of the most delicious psychodramas ever made. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford milked their on-and-off rivalry to play sisters living out their troubled history as bitter adults. One is an unbalanced alcoholic (Davis) obsessed with her past as vaudeville's "Baby Jane" Hudson, the other a paraplegic (Crawford) whose own success came to a halt after a mysterious car accident. Together, they trudge through middle age in a mansion where Jane enacts various forms of phsychological terrorism. The pacing is a bit inconsistent, but the movie's demented kicks haven't dissipated.

22. The Fly (1986)

Several David Cronenberg movies could grace this list: Videodrome is his smartest, The Brood his most visceral, and Dead Ringers his most chilling. But The Fly is the ideal sweet spot between Cronenberg's potentially alienating outlandishness and his ability to craft a mainstream horror movie. The director's biggest hit brought what the schlocky 1958 original was missing: sophisticated effects and a giddy Jeff Goldblum . Chronicling an unconventional scientist whose teleportation experiment accidentally infuses him with the DNA of a housefly, the movie poignantly explores disease while never losing its verve.

21. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

No one would fault you for censuring the found-footage fever The Blair Witch Project induced. Most of the movie's imitators are mere gimmicks, whereas the OG was an ingenious feat of both filmmaking and marketing. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez took a Hi8 camcorder into the woods of Maryland, gave their actors limited instructions, and made off with an all-timer. It's also one of the most profitable movies in history: Shot and edited for less than $1 million, Myrick and Sánchez recouped their budget on a Sundance acquisition deal alone. Then came the gargantuan worldwide grosses ($248.6 million), buoyed by a PR campaign that left the public unsure whether what they were seeing was real or fictional. No found footage will top this once-in-a-lifetime achievement or its chilling final scene.

20. Carrie (1976)

The pig's blood. The hand popping up from the gravesite. "Breasts, Mama. They're called breasts." Carrie is famous for its enduring imagery, so it's easy to forget how both profound and humorous the Stephen King movie adaptation can be. Sissy Spacek earned her first Oscar nomination for the title role, playing a lonesome high schooler whose physical awakening sparks further extremism from her hyper-religious mother ( Piper Laurie , also Oscar-nommed). Beneath the mayhem is a story about a girl coming into her own and the terror that inspires in others. Brian de Palma has flirted with horror on other occasions ( Sisters , Blow Out , Body Double ), but this is the director's purest genre exercise.

19. Candyman (1992)

A precursor to Get Out , this supernatural slasher showpiece dared to tackle race in America mere months after Los Angeles erupted into riots over the brutality police inflicted on an unarmed Rodney King. Candyman links inner-city racism to 1800s slavery, following a graduate student ( Virginia Madsen ) as she investigates an urban legend about a Black ghoul ( Tony Todd ) who stalks the Chicago housing project where he was killed by a savage lynch mob. It's a tour de force that peppers its entertaining menace with a dose of intellectualism.

18. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

George Romero established the zombie-movie template with this scrappy black-and-white independent sleeper that's often considered an allegory about the atrocities of the Vietnam War. Influenced by the novel I Am Legend , Romero and co-writer John Russo made Night of the Living Dead for approximately $880,000 in today's money. The grainy aesthetics make it feel unsettlingly real. Even without sophisticated special effects, some spectators likened Living Dead 's violence to pornography, proving the film had hit a nerve.

17. Frankenstein (1931)

In the 1930s and '40s, Universal Pictures was Hollywood's signature horror house. Starting with 1931's Dracula and spanning The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Black Cat , and The Wolf Man , the studio invented creature features as we know them. The best of the bunch is Frankenstein , a Gothic adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel that cemented how we would forever imagine the titular scientist's laboratory monster (Boris Karloff). Many sequels, spin-offs, remakes, and parodies have followed, but none would shock like the sight of Dr. Frankenstein's ogre chucking a trusting young girl into a lake .

16. Peeping Tom (1960)

By the late '70s, everyone knew what a slasher movie was. But when Peeping Tom arrived in 1960, audiences weren't yet conditioned to expect the bloodthirst that would define the subgenre. People were shocked to see a movie told from the perspective of a voyeuristic serial killer (Carl Boehm) who records his murders with a hidden camera so he can watch them in the comfort of his London apartment. He's as much protagonist as he is antagonist, if only because he's such a detailed character, elevated by the gorgeous Eastmancolor—a single-strip alternative to laborious Technicolor—that director Michael Powell used.

15. Audition (1999)

Japanese horror traveled westward in the '90s and early 2000s, prompting American diehards to look beyond their own country for the genre's gutsiest work. Cure, Ringu, and Kairu are great, but Audition is the J-horror pinnacle, a deceptive slow burn with one of the most disturbing final acts committed to film. What starts as a simple premise about entitlement—with the help of his producer friend ( Jun Kunimura ), a widower ( Ryo Ishibashi ) stages mock movie-casting trials to find a new wife—turns into a revenge saga as meaningful as it is gnarly. When his chosen sweetheart ( Eihi Shiina ) flips the script using a syringe and a wire saw, Takashi Miike 's film becomes a disquisition on wounds of all kinds.

14. Suspiria (1977)

Four decades before Luca Guadagnino turned it into a slice of art-house philosophizing , Suspiria was a phantasmagoric caffeine drip. It's part slasher movie, part supernatural thriller, part body-horror whatsit about witches at a German dance academy. Directed by the outré Dario Argento , the unclassifiable gem is suffused in blood-red palettes and a pulsating score that prog-rock band Goblin recorded before cameras even rolled. Argento's original 35mm print was lost for many years before being mysteriously discovered at an abandoned Italian cinema in 2017, at which point the cult favorite enjoyed a renaissance, right in time for Gudagnino's update.

13. Jaws (1975)

Jaws has a lot of firsts to its name: the first proper summer blockbuster, Steven Spielberg 's first big hit, the first major movie shot on the ocean, and the first movie to cross $100 million at the box office. The ostinato that begins John Williams ' score—a long, ominous *daaaaah-dah—*still strikes fear into hearts everywhere, and sharks have been in desperate need of a rebranding ever since.

12. Get Out (2017)

Jordan Peele has grown more ambitious with his later features, Us and Nope , but Get Out remains his crowning achievement. The sketch writer capitalized on his intuitive understanding of comedy to make a horror movie that's as funny as it is scary and as exciting as it is socially resonant. Few directors balance those poles seamlessly, and few in recent memory have added so much to our cultural vernacular (the Sunken Place, "I would have voted for Obama for a third term if I could"). In Daniel Kaluuya , Peele found a pitch-perfect proxy for his twisty tale about a Brooklyn photographer who tries to ignore many, many red flags while accompanying his white girlfriend ( Allison Williams ) on a trip to visit her wealthy family. Everybody wants to make their own Get Out , but no one has come close.

11. Poltergeist (1982)

Two years after Jack Torrance's " heeeere's Johnny ," little Carol Anne Freeling (Heather O'Rourke) turned away from her staticky television set and gave her own spring-chilling warning: "They're here." But who? Uncertainty made it frightening. The "who" turned out to be phantoms that move objects and bring trees to life, sucking Carol Anne into a portal requiring paranormal intervention. Directed by Tobe Hooper (with a crucial assist from Steven Spielberg ), Poltergeist —with its Oscar-nominated visual effects and affecting performances from JoBeth Williams , Craig T. Nelson , and Zelda Rubinstein—is an exemplar about the demons of suburbia.

10. Diabolique (1955)

This master class in suspense isn't based on a true story, but you can feel its DNA all over today's crime obsession, true and otherwise: the domestic discord, the vengeance scheme gone wrong, the what-did-they-get-themselves-into fallout. Hitchcock desperately wanted to make Diabolique , which is based on a novel by the French duo Boileau-Narcejac. Henri-Georges Clouzot got there first, casting his wife, Véra Clouzot, as a boarding-school proprietor who plots to kill her domineering husband (Paul Meurisse) with the help of his mistress (Simone Signoret). The movie's ghostly interiors foster a dread that builds toward a thrilling, unpredictable climax.

9. Scream (1996)

After a glorious run in the '70s and '80s, horror hit something of a downward slope in the '90s. Tropes had grown too shopworn, and narrative preoccupations too familiar for an era that let all sorts of mid-budget adult genres thrive. Leave it to Wes Craven to resuscitate what we'd lost. In Scream , he and writer Kevin Williamson dissected slasher clichés while serving them up wholesale. They created another indelible protagonist in Sidney Prescott ( Neve Campbell ), who took the reins after Drew Barrymore ’s bravura "do you like scary movies?" opening and—until a recent pay discrepancy —long ruled the still-effective Scream franchise.

8. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre transcended the exploitation at its core by being about something: a family whose working-class slaughterhouse jobs were rendered obsolete by industrialization. They just so happen to be murderous cannibals who gleefully hack away at a group of teenagers who stumble upon their remote farmhouse. Tobe Hooper ’s visceral movie, partly inspired by real-life serial killer Ed Gein, captured the chaotic ethos of the mid-'70s, all the way to the unforgettable image of bloody Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) hysterically laughing as she flees Leatherface’s rampage.

7. Psycho (1960)

Both the slasher genre and the crime-thriller genre are indebted to Psycho , the defining work of Alfred Hitchcock’s career. In committing Robert Bloch’s 1959 novel to film, Hitch made the villain his film’s most complex figure. Norman Bates (the ever-underrated Anthony Perkins) is a dissociative loner with mommy issues that are every bit as shocking as the early muder of marquee star Janet Leigh. Psycho changed moviegoing forever: Breaking with the era’s norms, audiences had to arrive on time, lest they miss crucial details. Beyond that, the movie mainlined violence and sexuality in ways that would influence Hollywood for decades.

6. Alien (1979)

Whether Ridley Scott ’s Alien should be classified as science fiction or horror feels irrelevant when the movie is so damn scary. Long hallways and clinical white interiors turn the Nostromo spacecraft into a haunted house, substituting ghosts for H.R. Giger-designed xenomorphs. The genre wasn’t known for fearless heroines before Sigourney Weaver showed up as Ellen Ripley, a generation-defining lion who outlived all the fussy men around her.

5. The Shining (1980)

The lore surrounding The Shining is as memorable as the movie itself. Stephen King didn’t think Stanley Kubrick successfully adapted his novel, nor did many critics when it first opened. Kubrick asked so much of Shelley Duvall on the set that she became overwhelmed and physically ill. And the plot itself prompted enough interpretations to merit an entire documentary that interpreted the interpretations. Altogether, that mythology only amplifies the film’s impact, making it even more layered. A hair-raising masterpiece about a hotel caretaker ( Jack Nicholson ) losing his mind over the course of one frigid winter, The Shining is a Rorschach test in horror form.

4. Halloween (1978)

Halloween ’s opening scene alone makes it immortal. In five resourceful minutes, John Carpenter crafts what could be a standalone short, using a seemingly unbroken first-person perspective shot filtered through the eyes of a 6-year-old boy who puts on a mask and kills his teenage sister. That boy, of course, was Michael Myers. Carpenter never intended for him to become a decades-spanning franchise baddie laden with overblown mythology. Halloween was a shoestring independent project: Everything feels and looks organic, creeping through fictional Haddonfield, Illinois, in ways that startled viewers anew. Horror continues to strive for the same unbridled pleasure—and for scores as influential—but few boogeymen live up. 

3. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The Silence of the Lambs is the only horror movie that has won the Oscar for Best Picture, in part because it can't be confined to one label. In a sense, cannibalistic serial killers Hannibal Lecter ( Anthony Hopkins) and Buffalo Bill ( Ted Levine ) are window dressing for a psychological drama about an FBI trainee ( Jodie Foster ) wrestling with the demons of her childhood. But the artful complexities don't make those slithery scoundrels any less scary. In Jonathan Demme’s gifted hands, every character is a fully-formed human being—something that can’t be said of many horror villains. Everything builds toward the harrowing night-vision climax in which a breathy Clarice Starling confronts her fears in pitch black.

2. The Exorcist (1973)

Often hailed as the scariest movie ever made, The Exorcist is the rare auteur-driven hit whose datedness hasn’t dulled its shock. Part of that is owed to William Friedkin ’s chilly atmospherics, and part is because, at its core, this is a sympathetic story about a mother ( Ellen Burstyn ) fighting desperately to protect her daughter ( Linda Blair ). In addition to inspiring umpteen copycats that couldn’t measure up, The Exorcist prefigured the so-called Satanic panic that gripped America in the 1980s and '90s.

1. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

A landmark of feminist horror was made by a man who later confessed to raping a 13-year-old girl. Somehow, that contradiction doesn't dampen Rosemary’s Baby , a movie that continues to influence droves of horror filmmakers. Its story comes from an Ira Levin novel, and its effectiveness is owed as much to Mia Farrow ’s stirring performance as it is to Roman Polanski ’s slick direction. This is arty horror at its most mainstream, a studio movie full of odd idiosyncrasies unlikely to see a wide release today. But it’s every bit as perfect as it was in 1968, turning the story of a chic Manhattinite who rightfully suspects her neighbors (Sidney Blackmer and the great Ruth Gordon) are running a Satanic cult with the help of her husband (John Cassavetes) into a deep statement on womanhood.

Next up, browse our guide to the best Halloween movies on Netflix .

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You have to admire a commitment to a bit, especially if you’re a film like Smile and in the possession of a simple, genius, creepier-than-thou conceit. Let’s cut to the chase: Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) is a therapist working in the psychiatric wing of a hospital. A patient comes in and says that, even since she witnessed her college professor take his own life, she’s been seeing…something only she can see. “It’s not a person,” the young woman says, though whatever “it” is, the entity seems to take the appearance of both strangers and loved ones. “It’s like it wears people’s faces like masks.” She hears voices, too — and these voices have been telling her that she’s going to die very soon.

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The one thing that truly is surprising in Parker’s impressive first movie — here’s hoping that there are many more to come — is the studio logo that opens it. He’s made a scary movie that balances psychological shock therapy with old-fashioned fright, shadowy dread with blunt splatterfest FX, an artsy-fartsy sense of stylistics slapped on to a twisty B-movie scenario. It may open with Paramount name slapped on the beginning, but this is textbook A24 horror by any other name. A cynic might think this is another example of a corporate behemoth trying to suck the life blood out of a successful formula concocted in an indie-boutique lab, but we prefer to think of it as spreading the arthouse-spookiness gospel via different avenues. Curses get passed on like viruses. So do blessings.

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Alien: Romulus Video Reveals New Footage, Fede Álvarez Teases ‘Pure Horror Movie’

• Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below

A featurette video for Alien: Romulus reveals new footage from the upcoming Fede Álvarez horror movie.

20th Century Studios has shared a featurette video for Alien: Romulus, which features new footage from the forthcoming video that will be released this August. In the video, Álvarez discusses making a “pure horror movie” and how they “built every creature for real” in order to make it “gritty and grounded.”

Check out the Alien: Romulus video below:

You can also check out a new IMAX poster for Alien: Romulus below:

What is Alien: Romulus about?

“While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe,” the synopsis for the movie reads.

Alien: Romulus is set between the events of 1979’s Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, and 1986’s Aliens, directed by James Cameron . Other entries in the franchise include 1992’s Alien 3, 1997’s Alien Resurrection , 2004’s Alien vs. Predator, 2007’s Aliens vs Predator: Requiem, 2012’s Prometheus, and 2017’s Alien Covenant.

The cast includes Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu.

Álvarez — who previously made 2013’s Evil Dead, 2016’s Don’t Breathe, and 2018’s The Girl in the Spider’s Web — co-wrote the screenplay with Rodo Sayagues. He also serves as an executive producer alongside Elizabeth Cantillon, Brent O’Connor, and Tom Moran, while Ridley Scott, Michael Pruss, and Walter Hill serve as producers.

In addition to Álvarez’s movie, Noah Hawley is currently working on an Alien series for FX on Hulu. It is expected to premiere in 2025 and stars Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, and Timothy Olyphant, among others.

Alien: Romulus releases in United States theaters on August 16, 2024, from 20th Century Studios.

The post Alien: Romulus Video Reveals New Footage, Fede Álvarez Teases ‘Pure Horror Movie’ appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More .

The 30 best horror movies that will haunt you long after the credits roll

From monsters and slashers to haunted hotels, here are the best horror movies to watch right now

The best horror movies of all time push boundaries and innovate within the genre to deliver something new to audiences, challenging viewers to stretch beyond what they thought previously possible in cinema. 

Horror movies like F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, and Ari Aster’s Hereditary brought scares to the screen unlike people had seen before, as did Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez’s The Blair Witch Project, along with its genre-bending found footage stylings and innovative online marketing. Tobe Hooper blew people’s minds with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre - one of the most visceral movies of all time, creating a relentlessly terrifying atmosphere with a micro-budget and surprisingly little blood and gore. Alfred Hitchcock set audiences a-flutter with the first ever toilet to be shown in cinema, not to mention the ultimate rug-pull with Janet Leigh’s early exit. Wes Craven then smashed expectations again over 35 years later when he reinvigorated the slasher sub-genre overnight with Scream. An American Werewolf in London, The Thing, and Alien all broke new ground with their eye-popping practical effects and creature designs. Female directors and Black stories took center stage with Near Dark, Candyman, and Get Out, giving screen-time to lesser-heard voices. Ringu catapulted J-Horror onto the international scene, The Silence of the Lambs took ‘the big 5’ at the Oscars, and Jaws became the first ever summer blockbuster.

With all these classics and more, the best horror movies of all time continue to revolutionise the genre and cinema as a whole. Below is our pick of the groundbreaking films that have shaped horror and beyond.

Read more: New horror movies | Best Netflix horror movies | Best witch movies | Best haunted house movies | Best horror movie remakes | Best horror movie sequels | Best vampire movies | Best horror comedies | Best horror movies for scaredy cats | Best zombie movies | Cheap tricks horror movies use to scare you | Best Shudder movies | The best movie drinking games

• Want more horror movies? Try a free trial at Shudder today

30. The Orphanage (2007)

The movie:  J.A. Bayona’s 2007 Spanish-language spookfest The Orphanage is one of those brilliant horror movies that scares the life out of you and breaks your heart in one ghost-child-filled go. Produced by Guillermo Del Toro, it received a rapturous reception when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to delight horror fans and critics alike, becoming one of the 21st century’s most universally loved ghost stories. Belén Rueda turns in a spectacular and affecting performance as Laura, a woman who brings her family back to her childhood home, only for her young son to start communicating with an invisible friend before disappearing under tragic circumstances. 

Why it’s scary: It’s got all the gothic atmosphere you could hope for from a ghost story set in an old Spanish orphanage: big spooky house, stormy weather, bleak landscapes, familial trauma. On top of that, the film features one of the most eerie children in horror history in the form of little sack-headed Tomas. Throw in some truly terrifying ghostly kids games, mysterious disappearances, and a now legendary twist ending, and this is one dark and deadly nail-biter you won’t forget in a hurry.

29. Near Dark (1987)

The movie: Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow’s Southern Gothic vampire flick follows Caleb (Adrian Pasdar), a young man forced to join a travelling band of bloodsuckers after he’s bitten by one of their crew - his beautiful and brutal love interest, Mae (Jenny Wright). Bill Paxton, Lance Henrickson, and Jenette Goldstein add to the fray, with stellar performances across the board bringing the neck-tearing terror to life. It’s a tale of vampires as family, told in a neo-Western style that breathes fresh life (or death) into the ubiquitous subgenre and which has garnered a cult following over the years thanks to its striking visuals and set pieces.

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Why it’s scary: The unpredictability and savagery of the vampires in Near Dark leaves a lasting impression. These are blood-soaked killers on the rampage, killing to feed but also apparently for fun, and the group includes not only unhinged immortals as you’d expect them but also an unsettling vampire child in Joshua Miller’s Homer. It’s made very, terrifyingly clear that once the sun goes down there’s no escape, so you had better pray for daylight. 

28. The Descent (2005)

The movie: If there was a dip in caving and bouldering trip attendance back in the mid-noughties, it’s probably the fault of Neil Marshall’s truly terrifying claustrophobic creature feature. Sarah’s friends want to make her feel better after the tragic death of her family so, instead of y’know, buying her some gin , they take her on a caving trip. Unfortunately, the movie wouldn’t be on this list if the six women were there to have a heartwarming, gently comedic adventure where they all grow as people. From the moment this lot lower themselves into the darkness below the Appalachian mountains, it’s very clear that getting back out into the light again isn’t going to be likely. 

Why it’s scary: The claustrophobia of The Descent is horribly real. Before you even discover what’s lurking down there - with a night vision reveal so spectacular that it goes down in jump scare history - this cave system is stone horror. The women are experienced explorers but every shot of squeezing through tiny spaces as rubble gently falls, every huge cavern only lit in one tiny corner by their flares, and every step they take further into the abyss is heart-racing stuff. And this isn’t an unlikable crew of barely fleshed out American teens, pun intended, these characters and their complex relationships truly matter. This is beautifully grueling, not to mention empowering, filmmaking. Witness the UK ending of this cult classic and you’ll need more than a cheeky G&T to cheer you up afterward. 

27. 28 Days Later (2002)

The movie: Let’s get the undead elephant out of the room first. Danny Boyle’s horror is a zombie movie. Yes, they can run, but it’s important to think of this horrible lot as part of the same family tree as Romero’s finest. Maybe they wouldn’t have Christmas dinner together but they’d at least send cards and maybe some gift cards for the necrotic kids. The important thing is, regardless of their speed, these zombies are still the destroyers of worlds. When Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up in a hospital bed - a lot like our friend Rick in The Walking Dead - he staggers out into an apocalyptic London that will never be the same again. 

Why it’s scary: 28 Days Later feels like a nightmare. Complete with a quite often heartbreaking as well as heart-pounding soundtrack, this feels like the truest glimpse at the modern British apocalypse as Jim and his fellow survivors quest for safety in Scotland. The Infected are truly horrifying, survivors are suspicious, and the fallen British landscape is an impressive feat of cinematography. Throw in excellent performances from everyone involved and 28 Days Later is a gory feast for the eyes and the heart. 

26. The Witch (2015)

The movie: Self-described as a 'New England folk tale' – although it’s more like a fairy tale from hell - Robert Eggers’ terrifying period drama follows a Puritan family after they are ejected from their colony. Screaming 'don’t do it' at the screen just doesn’t work as William (Ralph Ineson) takes his wife Katherine (Kate Dickie) and his five children into the deep, dark woods to survive alone on a farm. It’s not spoiling anything to say that it doesn’t go particularly well. Following Thomasin, the eldest daughter of the family played by Anya Taylor-Joy in her first credited role, we witness the tense unraveling of a dysfunctional family faced with the horrific prospect of an outside force staring out at them from the trees. 

Why it’s scary: It’s love or hate time with this divisive movie, but lose yourself to The Witch and suddenly everything is scary and you can’t put your shaking finger on exactly why. Every perfectly constructed shot of the family attempting to survive in the wilderness is cranked into fear-ville with a constantly surprising hellish score of strings and vocals. This means that when true horror eventually does hit after a torturous slow burn of tension, it’s like Eggers has masterfully wired you in for shocks and you didn’t notice. From the unnerving skip and shrill voices of the young twins to the monstrous goat known only as Black Phillip, there is unique horror lurking in The Witch that just doesn't go away. 

25. Evil Dead 2 (1987)

The movie: So many Evil Dead 2 questions, so little time. Is it a remake? Is it a sequel? Would it actually be physically possible to switch out your missing (presumed possessed) hand for a chainsaw with relative ease? Well, thankfully, Bruce Campbell himself has answered the first two and explained that Sam Raimi’s cabin-based comedy horror is, in fact, a 'requel.' Whereas the original Evil Dead followed a group of twenty-somethings to a holiday house from hell, the sequel revolves exclusively around Campbell’s Ash and his girlfriend Linda as they attempt to survive after playing a reading of the Necronomicon aloud. I'd be remiss if I didn't warn you about someone being beheaded with a garden tool post-reading.

Why it’s scary: Evil Dead 2 is perfect comedy horror. While it might not send you shrieking away from your screen, there’s a delightfully depraved viscerality to proceedings. Eyes in mouths, wall to wall gore, chainsaws feeling like the only option. It’s worth noting here, too, that if you do want something a little less punctuated with the word ‘groovy,’ then the Evil Dead remake from Fede Alvarez is truly something that can get under your skin. Where Evil Dead 2’s grim is played for much-appreciated laughs and you’ll embrace the physical effects, Alvarez’s reboot errs distinctly on the unnerving side, making them a perfect double bill. 

24. An American Werewolf in London (1981)

The movie: Comedy horror is nothing new. The best horror movies have been walking that bloodied tightrope between making us laugh and making us scream for decades. An American Werewolf in London, from legendary comedy director John Landis, is a masterclass in this particular circus trick. David and Jack, two American backpackers - don’t worry, it’ll be one in a minute - find themselves wandering the Yorkshire moors after dark, and instead of staying safe in The Slaughtered Lamb pub, decide to continue their journey. The locals even tell them they’ll be fine if they just stick to the path… 

Why it’s scary: When two become one and Jack brutally falls to a mysterious lupine predator on the moors, a bitten David is taken to hospital in London. Regardless of what this says about the NHS’s ability to deal with werewolf wounds, it means that when David sheds his human skin to become a creature of the night, there are plenty of iconic places for him to gorily slaughter his way through. Once you get over the first transformation sequence - a true CGI-free agonizing marvel of lengthening bones, hewing muscle, and popping joints - this human canine’s tensely directed jaunt through the London Underground will absolutely ruin your late-night travel plans. And, while you’ll get to stop to laugh at Jack’s zombified ghost repeatedly rocking up to tell David to end his own life, the horror here is very real as his relationship with his nurse girlfriend threatens to have the heart, quite literally, ripped out of it. A masterwork.

23. Carrie (1976)

The movie: It’s only right that the master of horror literature Stephen King should feature on this list (not once but twice) with an incredible back catalogue of big screen versions of his books. In 1976, director Brian De Palma adapted King’s first published novel Carrie, and in the process created one of the greatest horror movies of all time. With an impressive cast including Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Nancy Allen, Betty Buckley, William Katt and John Travolta, this story of a painfully shy teenage girl who is sheltered by her hyper-religious mother and violently unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by classmates at her senior prom, is a seminal look at female adolescence, repression and revenge. 

Why it’s scary: Aside from the horrific acts of King-esque bullying undertaken by her peers, and an explosive final act that sees Carrie claim her power at long last to stand up against her tormentors in blood-soaked, fire-scorched fury, much of the true terror of the film comes from Piper Laurie’s performance as Carrie’s mother, Margaret White. She’s a religious zealot who cruelly keeps her daughter from the real world with rabid fervour, mercilessly shaming her and locking her in cupboards, and creating an environment in which Carrie has no choice but to detonate. The film also has one of the most surprising final moments in horror, in true just-before-the-credits jump scare brilliance. High school can be a killer.

22. Suspiria (1977)

The movie: Less a movie and more an assault on your senses, not to mention your stomach, Dario Argento’s Suspiria follows young dancer Suzy as she arrives at a famous ballet school. Unfortunately, she doesn’t heed the girl running in the other direction and finds herself surrounded by horrific murder as young women are picked off artfully one by one. Still a gory cut above the remake, Argento’s original faced multiple cuts around violence on release and was one of the films at the bloody center of the 1980s video nasty panic. It doesn’t take long to see why.    

Why it’s scary: Nothing about Suspiria is easy to experience. Every color forcing its way into your eyeballs like technicolor violence, every murder intent on you watching each moment in agonizing detail from angles only a madman would select, and a soundtrack so disturbing that you’ll feel like you might have accidentally found Hell’s playlist on Spotify. Depraved, stylish, and beautiful, Suspiria is an experience not to be missed. You don’t have to like it, but even after all these years, this is a true nightmare of a horror movie waiting patiently to sneak into your brain.  

Read more: The Suspiria remake is beautiful, brutal, and shocking

21. Candyman (1992)

The movie: The original Candyman film, based on horror writer Clive Barker’s short story The Forbidden, was a success upon release and subsequently gained a loyal following throughout the '90s thanks to its regular appearance at teen sleepovers as a VHS rental. Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) and her study buddy Bernadette Walsh (Kasi Lemmons) are researching folk tales and urban myths in Chicago, and land themselves in the midst of the Candyman legend - the only-too-real tale of a murdered enslaved man who haunts and terrorises the residents of a housing project with his hooked hand. Helen’s tenacity, slight white-saviour complex and likeness to Candyman’s old love see her become his new obsession… and then his victim.

Why it’s scary: Tony Todd’s titular Candyman lurks in the shadows and the subconscious of the project Cabrini-Green, and his imposing stature and deep lyrical voice catapulted him into modern horror monster cult status. The film is renowned for its beauty and its brutality, with evocative direction from Bernard Rose, a stunning score from Philip Glass, and visceral kills from its central character. Candyman is scary in all the best ways: it delivers gore and jump scares to test the most seasoned of horror fans, and the kind of tension that comes from a feeling of grim relentlessness and inevitability. In short, dare to say his name five times into a mirror and you and the people you love are doomed to die a horrible hooky death.

20. Halloween (1978)

The movie: Who'd have thought an old Star Trek mask could be so terrifying? Director John Carpenter created a modern classic when he gave his villain a blank William Shatner mask to wear while he stalks babysitters around the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois. The movie created another icon, too, in Jamie-Leigh Curtis, who'd become both a scream queen in her own right, and the template for all final girls to follow. Who cares if the first scene makes no sense? This is a movie that starts with a child-murdering his sister while wearing a clown mask and if that's not scary, you need your horror fan status revoked immediately.

Why it's scary: Pretty much the original stalk-and-slash, Halloween set standards that have rarely been matched. Carpenter composes his shots to keep you constantly guessing, blending both claustrophobia and fearful exposure, often at the same time, to create a deeply uneasy sense of vulnerability wherever you are and whatever is happening. Also, that soundtrack. Composed by Carpenter himself. There is a reason that pounding doom-synth is still the soundtrack for oppressive horror. As a great follow up too, get the 2018 sequel into your eyes. The new Halloween removes all those messy other sequels and does a perfect job of showing the real trauma of growing up as a victim of The Shape himself. 

Read more: The best Halloween movies rewatched, reviewed, and ranked

19. Get Out (2017)

The movie:  Mid-20's photographer Chris is driving out to rural New York to meet his girlfriend's parents for the first time, but he's a little nervous. "Do they know I'm Black?" he tentatively asks Rose, but she's having none of it: "My Dad would have voted for Obama a third time if he could have!". Phew! What could possibly go wrong? Everything. Everything can go wrong, Chris. Turn back now. This isn't just going to be slightly socially awkward. 

Why it's scary: Bubbling with resonant social commentary, layered with hard-hitting goosebumps, and sprinkled with uncompromising humor, Get Out is a modern horror masterpiece in every sense of the word. Not content with scaring you just for its 90-minute run-time, director Jordan Peele wants to draw your attention to the real frightening truths rooted deep in the identity politics of contemporary America, and his grand reveal is more horrific than any jump scare could ever hope to be. 

18. Don’t Look Now (1973)

The movie: Based on Daphne Du Maurier’s short story of the same name, Nicholas Roeg’s dreamy 1973 masterpiece is a tale of grief, psychic connection and faith. The wonderful Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland play a married couple living in Venice after the accidental death of their young daughter, and who encounter two elderly sisters bringing a warning from beyond. Roeg’s subtle film plays with time and reality through innovative editing and montage, and is visually striking as only the very best horror movies can be. It’s a quintessentially '70s horror that has aged gracefully to become a classic of the genre.

Why it’s scary: There are certain images that permeate throughout and beyond the horror genre, and surely Don’t Look Now’s little figure in its little red coat has to be one of them. Flashes and glimpses, whether within visions or amongst Venice’s winding, claustrophobic streets and canals, create a sense of visceral tension and outright terror. Add to that disturbing imagery shown in disorienting visuals, an ever present suffusion of death and a general feeling of mortal peril, and this is one horror movie that will be haunting you long after it’s ended.

17. Nosferatu (1922)

The movie: The earliest horror movie on our list by far, F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent vampire film Nosferatu remains one of the most influential and most spine-chilling in the genre. An unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, this film from the German Expressionist school sees Max Schreck play Count Orlok, who journeys from his homeland to settle in a small town and becomes obsessed with his real estate agent's wife as a ‘plague’ ravages the local community. Weird how the symptoms seem to include bite marks on people’s necks, but who are we to make assumptions? Widely agreed to be the first depiction of a vampire in cinema, Nosferatu is the film that started it all and it could be argued is still to be surpassed.

Why it’s scary: Before vampires were sexy, they were scary. Max Shreck’s makeup in Nosferatu, including a now-iconic bald head, batlike ears and rodent-like pointed teeth, creates a genuinely nightmarish image of a monster who is out to drink you dry. The German Expressionist style of the film compounds the frights, with angular designs discombobulating the audience, uncanny movement from Shreck adding to his repugnance, and deep shadows stretching out to consume all in their path. Nosferatu might be over 100 years old, but its subtitle ‘A Symphony of Horror’ holds true to this day.

16. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

The movie: In 1968, George A. Romero directed, filmed and edited one of the most celebrated and influential zombie movies in horror history, and made a name for himself for years to come as the go-to guy for movies about the marauding undead. Starring Duane Jones, Karl Hardman and Judith O’Dea, the simple and confined story sees a ragtag group barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to hide from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls. Through its vision of slow-walking corpses stalking small-town America for their prey, and classic lines like “They’re coming to get you, Barbara”, Night of the Living Dead informed the zombie subgenre and became a perfect example of how an independent filmmaker with a camera and a dream - and some animal entrails - can change the game forever.

Why it’s scary: Like many of the best horror movies of all time, Night of the Living dead isn’t just about what it appears to be on the surface. Sure, it’s a zombie movie and the ghouls are out to kill and munch on your flesh, but it’s often the subtext of Romero’s movie that causes the real goosebumps. It’s a film more deeply about people under siege, claustrophobia and paranoia, power struggles and American civil rights, and over 50 years later the closing moments still pack a punch that will leave audiences reeling.

15. The Wicker Man (1973)

The movie: If the above image doesn’t strike a sense of menace into your heart, it’s time to mainline Robin Hardy’s folk horror directly into your eyes. No, The Wicker Man isn’t just about reaction gifs and mocking the bee-packed Nicolas Cage remake. If nothing else, watching Edward Woodward’s journey to Summerisle is essential background reading for the 21st Century spate of rural scary movies. The ideal accompaniment for the modern nastiness of Ari Aster’s Midsommar or Ben Wheatley’s Kill List, The Wickerman’s appeal is in its sheer terrifying simplicity. Policeman goes to island on the hunt for a missing girl. Policeman discovers all is not what it seems. Oh, and indeed, dear.  

Why it’s scary: It’s a horror message that we’re all quite used to by now but humans being the real monsters never seems to get old. The inhabitants of Summerisle might seem somewhat comedic and there are more than a few moments of genuine humor in here, but The Wicker Man is fuel for your trust issues. Why should you truly believe what anyone says?  How can you actually go to sleep in a world full of human beings? The fear of the unknown is potent as Woodward’s Neil Howie blunders into a world with its own set of rules and beliefs. And, if you have managed to somehow not know how it ends, the reveal is still absolutely devastating.  

14. Psycho (1960)

The movie: Alfred Hitchcock’s proto-slasher classic is now over 60 years old and still packs the sort of punch that elevates horror films into the realms of cinematic legend. In case you don’t know, Psycho follows Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) as she goes on the run after stealing a shedload of money from her boss, ending up at a motel run by the unassuming Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) and his domineering mother. What unfolds is a shocking story of identity and murder, with some of the most iconic sequences in film history playing out in beautiful black and white under Hitchcock’s inspired watchful eye.

Why it’s scary: Well… there’s that shower scene for starters. Not to mention the sort of tension only Alfred Hitchcock - the Master of Suspense - can conjure in that certain way he did, making it look so easy but which was actually the kind of illusive genius that made him a household name. Scenes of voyeurism are characteristically played out for both Norman and the audience, creating an atmosphere of impending doom, and genuinely chilling moments of frenzied stabbing from the movie’s killer (no spoilers here, no matter how long it’s been around) make the blood run cold... especially down a certain famous plughole. Set all this to Bernard Herrmann’s sublime score of screeching strings, and you’ve got something truly special that’s not to be missed by any fan of horror or cinema. 

13. Alien (1979)

The movie: Arguably one of the greatest science fiction movies ever made also just happens to be one of the greatest horror movies too. It doesn't seem fair, does it? The original Alien from Ridley Scott sends the crew of the Nostromo to investigate a distress call from an abandoned alien spaceship as innocently as any gang of hormonal teenagers headed off to a remote cabin in the woods. And, just like those teenagers, not many of them are going to survive to tell the tale. Sigourney Weaver makes for the ultimate Final Girl here. 

Why it's scary: There's nowhere more horribly isolated than a spaceship light years away from home and Giger's alien is as terrifying a monster as you could wish for. The dread goes much deeper than teeth and claws though. This creature represents a multilayered, bottomless pit of psychosexual horror, its very form praying on a raft of primal terrors. Plus, the visual ambiguity of Scott's direction during the final act is an absolute masterclass in 'What's that in the shadows?' tension. Ignore the recent xenomorph-packed movies, turn off the lights and watch this and Aliens to reignite your passion for the true horror of Scott's vision. 

12. The Omen (1976)

The movie: At the sixth hour of the sixth day of the sixth month (get it?), a certain baby was born who would change the world forever. And not just within the world of The Omen. Damian is the ultimate evil kid - the spawn of Satan himself - and he’s here to wreak havoc on the lives of his ‘adoptive’ parents, the Thorns (played masterfully by Gregory Peck and Lee Remick) and everyone around them, including David Warner’s photographer-cum-buddy-cop Jennings. So exemplary is this creepy child that he has become the go-to reference for all little “Damians” going forward. 

Why it’s scary: Richard Donner’s The Omen is a masterclass in quality horror filmmaking but don’t let that put you off, horror fans - there’s plenty of shock and schlock to be had here too. As Damian unleashes his dastardly plans on the world around him, people are hanged, shot, decapitated, defenestrated, impaled, savaged by rottweilers and a sinister nanny - the lot. But perhaps what is most scary about this occult offering is the sense of inescapability that runs through the frightening deaths that pepper the film - if Damian has you in his sights, there’s very little you can do to outrun your fate.

11. Hereditary (2018)

The movie: Home is where the heart is. It’s also where the worst horror lives, hiding just beneath the surface of the perfect family life. A harrowed Toni Collette leads Ari Aster’s very first (!) feature film as the mother of a grieving family. The death of her own mother has sent shockwaves through their home and, to keep this review spoiler-free, the future isn’t looking exactly, errr, bright either. 

Why it’s scary: It’s fair to say that at no point does Hereditary feel safe. Nowhere during its two-hour run time do you feel like you can stop and take a breath, or even make a guess as to what’s coming next. Is this a supernatural movie? Is this an exercise in grief, similar to the Babadook? Is there even a difference between these two ideas? Every shot of Collette’s artist painstakingly creating miniature dioramas feels like a threat and every awkward conversation between the two teenagers of the family leaves a sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach. Why? There's no putting your finger on the exact reason. It might have split cinema audiences but Hereditary is a tour de force of modern horror that will leave you reeling long after its grueling third act. We’re just not going to tell you why .

Read more: Intelligent, emotional, and terrifying, Hereditary is near-perfect horror.

10. Scream (1996)

The movie: By the late '90s, horror was looking a little tired. The masked slasher trope was staggering along in a dire need of a cup of very strong espresso. What it got instead was Wes Craven’s Scream which, despite being parodied into Inception levels of postmodern irony since, reinvigorated the genre with its perfect blend of knowing comedy and scares. Neve Campbell, Rose McGowan, and Drew Barrymore as teenagers talking fluent horror movie while being picked off by a genre-obsessed serial killer? Oh, go on… Add in Courtney Cox - at the giddy heights of Friends fame - as intrepid news reporter Gale Weathers and Scream is a modern horror classic.

Why it’s scary: Just because something is self-referential doesn’t mean it can’t be truly terrifying. The Scream mask, based on Munch’s painting, might have been twisted into stoned bliss by Scary Movie , but it still manages to unsettle and thrill. Scream’s scares remain unpredictable too. Victims fall to this slasher’s knife with disturbing regularity and as we grow attached to our genuinely likable quipping heroes, the end game becomes all the more stressful as we wonder who will survive to the credits. Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street scare talents guarantee terror all the way to the end. Why don't you, liver alone , eh?

9. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

The movie: Just like a certain dungaree-clad possessed doll, Freddy Krueger fell firmly into killer clown territory as the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise evolved over the years. Sure, he’ll spray your organs all over the walls but you’ll die laughing, right? Look back at Wes Craven’s original movie, though, and Freddy isn’t to be trifled with. Our selective memories mean we often forget that this serial child killer’s burns come from him being incinerated by an angry mob of parents. Living eternally through their fear and guilt, Freddy becomes the ultimate boogeyman when he dons his favorite murder glove and goes after a whole new generation of Springwood spawn while they slumber.    

Why it’s scary: Bed is meant to be safe. Secure. Free of razor-sharp blades ready to plunge through your chest at any given moment... Robert Englund’s Freddy might be horrible to look at but it’s the very idea of falling asleep and never waking up again that’s the true terrifying kicker here. The desperation of Heather Langenkamp’s Nancy and her friends as they strive to stay awake to stay alive. No amount of caffeine or loud music can save you now, dreams are waiting and that’s where a maniac lurks menacingly in the dark to end your life. Yes, the whole movie is worth it alone for Johnny Depp’s spectacularly splattery death scene, but A Nightmare on Elm Street isn’t one to press the snooze button on. 

8. Jaws (1975)

The movie: Before Jurassic Park , before ET , and an eternity before the majority of the cast of Ready Player One were brought screaming into existence, there was Jaws, Steven Spielberg’s toothy horror. And yes, this is a horror movie. Jaws, one of the original blockbusters on account of the number of people literally queuing round the block only to flee the cinema in terror, is horrifying. It doesn’t matter that the shark looks a little ropey now when he gets up close and personal, the story of Amity Island’s gory summer season as Chief Brody desperately tries to keep swimmers out of the water is the stuff of horror legend. And, let’s face it, you’re already humming the score.    

Why it’s scary: The reason that Jaws haunts you long after the credits roll is simple. One viewing and this particularly vindictive shark can potentially ruin every trip to the seaside. Every gentle paddle as waves lap at your toes. Every skinny dip. Every precarious trip out onto the ocean wave on anything smaller than the Titanic. Spielberg doesn’t pull any punches either. Dogs die, children die, heads float out of sunken boats. No one is guaranteed to see the credits here, especially not the three men who head out to sea to slay the beast. With legendary performances and a monster that will never leave you, Jaws is the ultimate creature feature. 

Read more: 11 big dumb shark movies to guarantee you'll never go swimming again

7. Ringu (1998)

The movie: In the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, a rash of J-horror films came out of Japan to scare the bejeezus out of audiences, and perhaps none so notable or influential as Hideo Nakata’s Ringu. Journalist Reiko Asakawa and her ex-husband Ryuji investigate the mysterious death of Reiko’s niece, a highschooler who died one week after watching a notorious video tape linked to an urban legend that appears to be petrifyingly true and now threatens the couple’s son. They uncover the story of Sadako, a young girl with deadly psychic powers and her unfortunate demise, and seek to bring peace to her memory before it’s too late. The VHS technology may seem a little dated in the age of digital streaming, but there’s nothing out-of-touch about the fear generated by Nakata’s incendiary horror filmmaking.

Why it’s scary: Oh we don’t know. Maybe there’s nothing scary about the relentless ringing of a telephone that means you’ve only got seven days to live, haunted video tapes showing surreal footage that leads to people being literally terrified to death, the idea that you have to pass on the curse to someone else or die, or lank black haired ghost girls crawling their way out of deserted wells… maybe it’s just us.  

6. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The movie: Ever wondered why no one’s out camping in the woods these days? It’s not that millennials really need to be within one hundred feet of a charging point at all times, it’s just the fact that a full generation of us saw The Blair Witch Project in our early teens and we just really like to sleep inside now. This now almost mythical, found footage horror follows three young documentary makers as they journey to Burkittsville in Maryland. Heather, Mike, and Josh start off interviewing the locals about the local legend of The Blair Witch, a particularly nasty tale you’d hope was just to keep children eating their veggies, before heading into the woods where the witch apparently resides. Given that all that’s ever been found are these tapes, there's not exactly a happy ending. 

Why it’s scary: What’s waiting for Heather and co in the woods is terrifying enough, as strange noises drift through the trees and they descend into a directionless spiral of madness and anger, but what’s equally scary about The Blair Witch Project is the perfect blurring of reality and fiction. This is Heather Donahue, Michael Williams, and Joshua Leonard. These actors were sent out into the woods and their horrifying ordeal is thanks to the filmmaker's insistence on mentally torturing them every night. Released in 1999 and reigniting the popularity of the now horror staple found footage genre, the movie’s marketing even touted it as real. Every wobbly shot, every scream, and every stick figure that the three find are there to tell your brain that these people really went into the woods and never came back. Oh, and the ending is like being punched in the gut by nightmares. 

5. The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)

The movie: Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins star in this horror - yes horror - film about a young FBI agent hunting serial killer Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) and the incarcerated cannibal brought on to assist her. Jonathan Demme’s film won ‘the big five’ prizes at that year’s Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay, and gave licence to an audience who wouldn’t normally gravitate towards horror movies to delve into the scary underbelly of cinema’s darker side. In turn, novelist Robert Harris’ character of Hannibal Lector became one of film’s most recognisable villains under the assured - and deliciously camp - steer of Hopkins’ teeth-gnashing performance, and we were given one of our strongest and most compelling female leads with Foster’s Clarice Starling.

Why it’s scary: Moments of sickening violence intersperse with strong procedural storytelling to create a truly nail biting experience. Lector is a man beyond us - a genius who can outthink, outfight and outrun those entrusted with keeping us safe. Add in Levine’s Buffalo Bill, a beast of a man intent on making himself a human suit, and characters we care about not becoming bloated corpses with their skin flayed off, and you’ve got a serial killer shocker for the ages. Not to mention that to this day, a denouement in a pitch black basement, soundtracked by the desperate cries of a kidnapped woman, is one of the most terror-stricken - and cathartic - sequences in horror cinema. 

4. The Shining (1980)

The movie: Even if you haven’t watched Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, you’ll know of The Shining. You’ll know Jack Nicholson’s (apparently ad-libbed) "Heeeeeeeere’s Johnny" and you might even be aware that if you’re handed the keys to room 237 in a hotel, you might want to switch it for another suite. But what if you haven’t? What if you have been snowed up in a mysterious hotel with only hedge animals for company? Well, The Shining follows a man and his family as he takes on the role of winter caretaker at a resort hotel known as The Overlook. Given that this is a Stephen King adaptation (albeit one that that horror author hates so much that he made his own movie), the winter months don’t go well. The Overlook Hotel, it turns out, doesn’t really like people.

Why it’s scary: There's a reason that this is the top of this veritable pile of screams. The Shining feels evil. From Jack Nicholson’s deranged performance as a man descending into murderous insanity to Kubrick’s relentless direction as we hypnotically follow Danny navigating the hotel corridors on his trike, this is a movie that never lets you feel safe. Like Hereditary earlier in this list, The Shining is like being driven by a drunk mad man. What’s coming next? Lifts of blood? Chopped up little girls? The terror that lurks in the bath of room 237? This is not a horror movie made of boo scares or cheap tricks, Kubrick’s film is a lurking, dangerous beast that stays with you long after your TV has gone dark. 

3. The Thing (1982)

The movie: Perhaps you’ve been buried in snow and have missed John Carpenter’s ultimate creature feature. Entirely understandable. Why don’t you come closer to the fire and defrost? The title might sound hokey but The Thing remains one of the most gloriously splattery and tense horrors of all time as a group of Americans at an Antarctic research station - including Kurt Russell’s R.J MacReady - take on an alien, well, thing that infects blood . It might start off taking out the canine companions,  but it really doesn’t stop there.

Why it’s scary: The Thing is a movie of physicality. There’s intense paranoia and horror sprinkled in as the party begins to fall apart as the infection spreads but it’s the very real, oh-so-touchable nature of the nasties at work here that’s so disturbing. The practical effects - the responsibility of a young Rob Bottin and uncredited Stan Winston - are the true stars as arms are eaten by chests, decapitated heads sprout legs, and bodies are elongated and stretched. The macabre vision of these murderous monsters at work is never anything less than true nightmare fuel.

2. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

The movie: Some movie titles are vague, letting you gradually work out their meaning as the narrative slowly unfurls in front of your eyes like a delicate flower in tea. Then there’s Tobe Hooper’s grim, sweaty horror movie. There is nothing delicate here. Its titular weapon needs to be sharp but The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a blunt instrument of horror. This is a tour de force of violence as five young people leave the safety of the world behind and journey into dusty Americana. What they find in one house when they innocently enter looking for gas is such death and depravity that the movie is still, decades on, a disturbing endurance test. 

Why it’s scary: The funny - and there is humor here, it’s just not there on the first watch - thing about the Texas Chain Saw Massacre is that there’s actually very little blood. There’s the iconic Leatherface, inspired by Ed Gein in his fleshy face covering, and a death scene involving a hook that will make you look down and check your body is still there, but very little viscera. Gore is something that your brain mentally splashes everywhere to try and deal with the horror on screen here, to cope with the screams of pure terror and iconic disturbing soundtrack. It’s suffered plenty of clones over the years, not to mention a Michael Bay-produced glossy cash cow remake, but nothing can replicate the sheer desperation and violent honesty of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It would almost be dangerous to try.  

Read more: The real Texas Chain Saw Massacre – how a '50s grave-robber inspired a horror classic

1. The Exorcist (1973)

The movie: And here we are. It almost feels predictable that William Friedkin’s masterpiece, now in its 50th year, is still looming near the top of so many horror features. But watch The Exorcist and you’ll understand why. This is the tale of Regan, the daughter of a successful movie actress who one day occupies herself in the basement by playing with an ouija board. If you have ever wondered why your parents don’t want you playing with this innocuous-looking toy, a young Linda Blair probably has something to do with it. Using the ouija board as gateway, an unwelcome guest takes root in the little girl and the rest, as the titular exorcist arrives, is cinema history. 

Why it’s scary: Much like The Shining, The Exorcist is not safe. Unpredictable, visceral, and primeval, this is a movie based on the simplest of premises but even in its happiest moments, is absolutely anxiety-inducing. With a now near-mythical production, William Friedkin’s relentlessness for ‘authenticity’ meant his actors were frozen in a refrigerated bedroom, physically pulled across sets to replicate the demon’s physical prowess, and, of course, splattered with warm pea soup. The result is a horror movie that you’ll probably never say you actively enjoy, but will find yourself rewatching, just to feel the sheer terror of Friedkin’s battle of good vs evil in all its disturbing glory once again.

Becky Darke is a London-based podcaster and writer, with her sights on film, horror and 90s pop-culture. She is a regular contributor to Arrow Video, Empire, The Evolution of Horror and The Final Girls.

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SCREAMBOX Hidden Gems: 5 Horror Movies to Stream Including ‘Possum’

The Bloody Disgusting-powered SCREAMBOX is home to a variety of unique horror content, from originals and exclusives to cult classics and documentaries. With such a rapidly-growing library, there are many hidden gems waiting to be discovered.

Here are five recommendations you can stream on SCREAMBOX right now.

Like Jordan Peele, John Krasinski, and Zach Cregger, Matthew Holness made a name for himself in the comedy space — most notably, creating and starring in Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace — before delivering one hell of a horror movie right out the gate. 2018’s Possum is a psychological slow-burner that follows a disgraced children’s puppeteer (Sean Harris, Prometheus ) back to his childhood home, where the trauma of his past comes back to haunt him.

A lifelike human head tethered to spindly spider legs, the titular puppet would be creepy in any context, but Holness turns it into pure nightmare fuel. Combined with an oppressive tone, unnerving performances by Harris and co-star Alun Armstrong ( The Mummy Returns ) as his callous uncle, stark 35mm cinematography, and a harrowing score, Possum amounts to 85 minutes of creeping dread.

The Devil’s Honey

If MaXXXine put you in the mood for ’80s sleaze, it doesn’t get much sleazier than The Devil’s Honey . Also known as Dangerous Obsession , the 1986 oddity finds Italian master of horror Lucio Fulci ( The Beyond, Zombie ) trying his hand at an S&M-fueled erotic thriller.

Immediately following the opening titles, viewers are treated to musician Johnny (Stefano Madia, Body Count ) pleasuring his girlfriend Jessica (Blanca Marsillach, Flesh and Blood ) with a seductive saxophone solo played into her womanhood. An injury lands Johnny in the care of womanizing Dr. Wendell Simpson (Brett Halsey, Return of the Fly ), whose marital troubles with his wife (Corinne Cléry, Moonraker ) inadvertently cost Johnny his life.

The soapy plot serves as a tenuous thread to connect scenes of softcore salaciousness in the first half before pivoting to an ill-conceived revenge scheme in which Jessica gets vengeance on Simpson in the form of sexual dominance. Not to kink shame, but the torrid titillation is unconventional, to say the least; while sax sex is the most outlandish, other fetishistic sequences involve a motorcycle, nail polish, and blood.

Prepare for the recently announced sequel with 2014’s original Coherence . If it’s a first-time watch, you’re in for a treat. If you’ve seen it before, repeat viewings help to make sense of the mind-bending plot in which a group of friends’ realities are upended when a comet passes the Earth.

Before multiverses became superhero movie fodder, writer-director James Ward Byrkit resourcefully tackled the concept with his feature debut. Similar to Primer, Upstream Color , and Time Crimes , it delivers high-concept sci-fi thrills on a modest indie budget. The improvisational dialogue and handheld camerawork give the film a sense of immediacy, with edge-of-your-seat intrigue starting early and never letting up. But be warned: the existential dread may follow you after the credits roll.

The Love Witch

While countless nostalgic filmmakers were making ’80s horror throwbacks, Anna Biller — writer, director, producer, editor, composer, production designer, art director, set decorator, and costume designer (!) — crafted a spellbinding tribute to ‘60s cinema. The Love Witch channels the era not only in its vibrant visuals and 35mm texture but also tonally; evoking Gothic horror, pulp crime, melodrama, and a hint of camp, all while addressing contemporary feminist themes.

Still reeling from a nervous breakdown after the mysterious death of her ex-husband, femme fatale Elaine (Samantha Robinson) turns to witchcraft to mend her broken heart. Her love spells prove to be too strong, as her suitors literally love her to death. With a trail of bodies in her wake, Elaine sets her sights on the hard-boiled detective (Gian Keys) investigating her.

A lesser attempt would have been all style and no substance, but Biller offers ample subversion within the 2016 effort’s charming opulence. It may be overindulgent at two hours, but its rich aesthetic is enchanting enough to overlook any bloat.

Occult Bolshevism

Written and directed by The Ring scribe Hiroshi Takahashi, Occult Bolshevism ‘s setup could be mistaken for an anthology wraparound: a group of communists gather to recount the details of their respective brushes with death in an effort to summon the other side. Rather than cutting to footage of their stories, however, their accounts are delivered as Mike Flanagan-esque monologues in largely unbroken takes.

In an efficient 71 minutes, the Japanese film affords a handful of actors the unique opportunity to create atmosphere and build tension exclusively through performance. The dialogue-driven minimalism certainly won’t work for all, but those with the patience to engage will be rewarded with an earnest and effective chamber piece.

Visit the SCREAMBOX Hidden Gems archives for more recommendations.

Start screaming now with SCREAMBOX on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Prime Video, Roku, Fire TV, YouTube TV, Samsung, Comcast, Cox, and SCREAMBOX.com !

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Lifetime’s ‘Stepmom from Hell’ Spoils the Reveal [Review]

Spoilers are an odd beast for most Lifetime films . Few, if any, titles actually try to surprise audience with a killer reveal. More often than not there are twists, but the joy of watching these made-for-TV films is the journey to the big showdown.

It’s frustrating then, that Stepmom from Hell fully spoils its own ending with a completely on the nose title. As written by Hamish Briggs, Daniel Kautz, Nathanael Lirio and Elizabeth Snoderly , the embezzling-turned-murder mystery film definitely features a number of red herrings and twists en route to its climax, so the dead obvious title betrays the writers’ intentions (my screener featured a different title, Shattered Ties , which is bland and non-specific, but at least it doesn’t spoil anything).

As directed by Corbin Timbrook , the film follows Izzy Thompson ( Lexi Giovagnoli ), a hyper competent businesswoman struggling to launch a dog-related app in the shadow of her famous businessman. Jack Thompson ( Lorenzo Lamas ) has a thirty year legacy and he would much prefer that Izzy inherit his realty business rather than his harried step-daughter Dana ( Bri Ana Wagner ) or financial officer Terry ( Milli M ).

Dana is the daughter of Catherine ( Shelby Janes ), Jack’s second wife, who insists on monitoring Jack’s health with a near-religious devotion. But his memory appears to be slipping, a fact that starts rather innocuously at a company party before getting so severe that Jack struggles to remember when his first wife died or what school Izzy went to.

This health scare occurs at the same time that Izzy discovers a damning document in the Archive room: a receipt confirming that $700K has been moved from the company’s account to a credence account. That’s information worth killing for, as evidenced by the fact that nearly everyone who sees or knows about the receipt is attacked or killed by an intruder in black.

Much like When Mom Becomes A Murderer , the film clearly intends to surprise the audience with the details of the mystery. Dana is abrasive to Izzy, but is she responsible for moving the money? Perhaps she’s just a compulsive workaholic trying to modernize the company. Or what about Terry, the woman who spends her Sunday shredding documents (a significant red flag)? And considering the alarming decline in Jack’s facilities, shouldn’t he be seeing someone other than family doctor Jeffrey Nichols ( Boz Wells ), who doesn’t seem overly worried?

Ordinarily audiences would be well within their rights to ask these questions, but the identity behind the culprit is quite literally in the title. By the time Catherine’s nefarious intentions are revealed in the last act, Stepmom from Hell feels overly drawn out, though in hindsight it’s only because we know she’s the villain from the jump.

Thankfully by this time the writers and performers have begun to lean into the silly. It’s unclear if certain lines and narrative developments are intentionally comedic, but it’s hard not to chuckle when Izzy and Catherine share an outrageous verbal exchange at the hospital after Izzy is served a restraining order. When Catherine insists she can’t be there, Izzy angrily retorts “Just shut up! I doubt that restraining order carries any weight” to which Catherine coldly clarifies that she has power of attorney because “Wife trumps daughter.”

It’s a great line and as soon as she’s unmasked Janes really bites into Catherine’s villainy. The climax, set at the Thompson’s palatial house, is a surprisingly sustained chase/fight sequence involving knives and multiple punches (several people get dropped and one even flops over a couch in delightful fashion).

Giovagnoli is the MVP here. Izzy is incredibly resourceful and, in true Lifetime fashion, forced to do most of the investigative grunt work because the police are completely ineffectual. Giovagnoli is especially watchable when Izzy is cut out of her father’s life; one scene of her screaming/crying in the car is surprisingly affecting.

Giovagnoli also has really solid chemistry with childhood friend-turned-Detective, Brian Roman ( Andrew Fultz ) – although Fultz is a much more believable as a romantic lead than as an officer of the law. At one point he reminds Izzy that her accusations are baseless without evidence, encouraging her to obtain a recorded confession, when that a) should be his job and b) ignores that doing so requires her to break the restraining order.

Good thing Detective Roman has a great smile and makes a mean pancake because otherwise he’d be useless!

Technically Stepmom from Hell also benefits from several well shot, tense sequences. In addition to the action-heavy climax, there’s a startling moment when a lightning strike illuminates an intruder waiting for Izzy at home. Later, while planting a recording device in Catherine’s house, Izzy is forced to hide in a closet and Timbrook shoots her in profile in the dark with only a sliver of light shining across her terrified eyes.

Alas there are other areas where the polish isn’t quite there. Several key conversations in the Thompson house have a distracting audio echo, the lighting and/or make-up on Janes in the climax makes her face look a garish mustard yellow, and – in true cheap Lifetime fashion – several of the locations have a bland, undecorated visual aesthetic (where is all of the art?!).

Overall, however, there are some surprisingly emotional beats (courtesy of Giovagnoli), at least two tense sequences, and a touch of comedy (intended or not) that make Stepmom from Hell a pleasant distraction.

If only someone had paused to rethink that title!

‘MaXXXine’ Is Now Available to Watch At Home

‘Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit’ Launches Tomorrow on Steam [Trailer]

‘Cuckoo’ Review – High-Concept Horror Movie Gets Weird, Quirky, and Playful

Spirit Halloween Celebrates Its 41st Year with Art the Clown and More! [Grand Opening Event Report]

HBO Shares Bloody New Teaser Footage for “Welcome to Derry”

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[sxsw ‘23] ‘pure o’ review: personal and moving story of mental illness.

Pure O is the story of a man’s struggle with a rare form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – Pure Obsessional. Pure Obsessional Disorder is also commonly referred to as Primarily Obsessional Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. People who experience this form of OCD are mainly affected by their obsessive thought patterns, with less of an outwardly visible compulsion. While you might think of OCD as being hallmarked by compulsive hand-washing, tapping, counting, or things like that, those who are Primarily Obsessional will have mental compulsions and rituals that are not as obvious to most observers. 

OCD, like most mental disorders, is largely misrepresented in television and film. Writer/director Dillon Tucker was diagnosed with Pure O himself, and it’s a personal, semi-autobiographical story for him. In his directorial feature debut, Tucker wanted to address the often misunderstood disorder and the stigma surrounding it. Not only did Tucker write and direct Pure O , but he also produced, edited, and wrote the music for the film. It’s clear that Tucker’s heart and soul was poured into Pure O.

Daniel Dorr stars as Cooper, a man who works at an addiction treatment center in Malibu and believes himself to be suffering from some situational depression. When his therapist first suggests to him that he may have OCD, he exclaims that he does not have a mental illness. Clearly, there’s some internalized ableism and stigma happening here that Cooper will need to work though. He scours the internet for more information on the disorder, and finds it all rings too true for him to deny. 

Cooper begins to attend group therapy, led by a therapist named Nora (Candice Renee). The scenes of the therapy group feel natural and realistic, especially the performance from Clint James as Rodney, a man who has been coping with OCD for his whole life. There’s a scene where Rodney is describing a particularly bad day, where his obsessions and compulsions really got the best of him, and he’s laughing while he tells the story, knowing how ridiculous it is. He starts to cry through his laughter, so tired of his mental illness getting the best of him. It’s an emotional scene, and these group scenes are among Pure O ’s most striking and heart-rending.

Daniel Dorr’s real life girlfriend, Hope Lauren , co-stars as Cooper’s girlfriend Emily. The two have just gotten engaged, and much of Cooper’s OCD revolves around his worry about hurting Emily. Despite this, at times Dorr’s performance falls very flat and he seems bored at times when this doesn’t make sense for Cooper. It’s the largest downfall of what is otherwise a very emotional and moving film. Other than these few uninterested and moments — mostly at the beginning of the film — Dorr’s performance seems strong and sincere. 

Dillon Tucker/SXSW

While Tucker wanted to make this film a more realistic depiction of mental illness, there is also a realistic portrayal of addiction at play in Pure O . The portrayal of addiction treatment though, at the rehab center Cooper works at in Malibu, seems pretty unrealistic. Most people who go to rehab don’t get to go to fancy sprawling campuses in beautiful locations for their rehabilitation , but the people that Cooper counsels at the facility do seem true to life. It’s a refreshing take on both mental illness and addiction, with both subjects addressed with an honesty and unashamed attitude that is inspiring and effective.

Ultimately, Cooper’s mental illness and treatment for it end up changing his life in ways he never could have expected — and the lives of those around him, too. If you’ve been a fan of films like  Sound of Metal , another deeply personal tale of a man working through a challenging illness, you will appreciate  Pure O. Pure O is ultimately very poignant and genuine. If you’ve struggled with a mental illness of any sort, or if you’ve loved someone who has, this film is for you. 

Pure O  has it’s world premiere at this years SXSW. 

Join the aipt patreon, sign up for our newsletter, [sxsw ’23] ‘brooklyn 45’ review: horror movie about the greatest generation keeps audiences guessing, [sxsw ‘23] ‘with love and a major organ’ review: sentimental satire about love and longing, in case you missed it, comic books, pro wrestling.

The 13 Worst Horror Movies of All Time, According to Roger Ebert

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In a genre where it's arguably easier to earn a bad review, horror movies face a different level of criticism, especially from respected critic Roger Ebert . A fan of the genre, Ebert appreciated good horror movies, saying, "They can exorcise our demons." However, Ebert was a vocal opponent of horror movies that inflicted violence and gore without reason , often writing about the reactions of fellow audience members and what it said about their relationship to the acts carried out onscreen. In his lengthy list "Ebert's Most Hated," many of those films include horror movies that earned higher than a one-star rating.

Many of Ebert's low-rated or worst horror picks like Hellraiser , Resident Evil , I Know What You Did Last Summer , and Lake Placid have become cult classics and beloved among the genre's fanbase. Even spooky season picks like Hocus Pocus earned a one-star rating but are now staples in the Halloween streaming season. The worst horror movies according to Roger Ebert are a combination of remakes, sequels, and originals that lack creative originality, execution, and just plain purpose to deserve a rating higher than Ebert awarded, with one film getting no stars or even the dismal thumbs down.

13 'Halloween III: Season of the Witch' (1982)

Directed by tommy lee wallace.

For earning a spot on Ebert's most hated movie lists, Halloween III: Season of the Witch earned a 1.5-star review from Ebert; however, it still landed as one of the worst horror movies. The "low-rent thriller from the first frame" picks up right where the second movie ended as Dr. Dan Challis ( Tom Atkins ) and a young daughter or a murder victim, Ellie ( Stacey Nelkin ) uncover the murderous scheme of a mask maker who seeks to invoke a Celtic ritual to mass murder millions of children by convincing them to buy and wear a Halloween mask.

"There are a lot of problems with 'Halloween III,' but the most basic one is that I could never figure out what the villain wanted to accomplish if he got his way."

Halloween III continues the fall from the greatness of the original John Carpenter film, this time an even further departure, forgetting the movie monster that made it so iconic. Ebert decides the film is "assembled out of familiar parts from other, better movies" that include obligatory shots and scenes standard and expected with bad horror movies. The seemingly only silver lining of the third franchise installment for Ebert was Nelkin, "She has one of those rich voices that makes you wish she had more to say and in a better role."

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Not available

Kids all over America want Silver Shamrock masks for Halloween. Doctor Daniel Challis seeks to uncover a plot by Silver Shamrock owner Conal Cochran.

12 'Constantine' (2005)

Directed by francis lawrence.

Ebert never shied away from outwardly disliking a movie audiences loved. Constantine earned a one-and-a-half-star review from the critic while also winding up on his most hated list. Keanu Reeves stars as the titular character, John Constantine, a demon hunter destined for hell who is trying to better his chances of getting into heaven by helping a policewoman investigate her sister's alleged suicide. The pair are sucked into the world of the supernatural and a war between heaven and hell. Constantine co-stars Rachel Weisz , Tilda Swinton , Peter Stormare , Djimon Hounsou , Shia LaBeouf , and Max Baker .

"You wonder what kind of an L.A. cop would allow herself to be experimentally drowned in a bathtub by a guy who lives over a bowling alley."

Unwilling to give the film a pass for its technical struggles like the depiction of hell he called a "post-nuclear Los Angeles created by animators with a hangover," Ebert was skeptical of the rough-around-the-edges premise based on the popular DC Comics character. His divisive, sarcastic review made it clear this R-rated horror movie was only a winner with the genre fans able to accept the strange logic of the smattering of fantastical elements produced onscreen.

Constantine

Supernatural exorcist and demonologist John Constantine helps a policewoman prove her sister's death was not a suicide, but something more.

11 'The Grudge' (2004)

Directed by takashi shimizu.

In director Takashi Shimizu 's attempt to remake his acclaimed Japanese film into a full-fledged American version, Ebert "lost all patience." The movie stars Sarah Michelle Gellar as she battles a supernatural curse stemming from a malevolent home in Tokoyo that terrorizes anyone who comes in contact with it. The Grudge is a formulaic haunted house horror film that managed to secure a one-star rating from Ebert .

"The movie may have some subterranean level on which the story strands connect and make sense, but it eluded me. The fragmented time structure is a nuisance, not a style."

Its dependency on standard horror applications, like investigating eerie sounds that lead to jump scares revealing it's only a cat, didn't do much to elevate the film or indulge audiences in something they hadn't seen before. Adding to his disappointment, Ebert points out a missed opportunity by making the film entirely English-speaking instead of emphasizing dynamic cultural differences set against a horror movie. Despite being one of the worst horror movies according to Ebert, The Grudge became a franchise that keeps getting attention from horror fans.

The Grudge (2004)

Watch on Prime

10 'Thir13en Ghosts' (2001)

Directed by steve beck.

A film that earned a spot on Ebert's most hated movies list, Thir13en Ghosts was "literally painful" for him to watch. It's a remake of a classic horror film that follows the supernatural experiences of a family as they inherit their wealthy uncle's old house haunted by vengeful spirits. It stars Tony Shalhoub , Shannon Elizabeth , Embeth Davidtz , scream king Matthew Lillard , and F. Murray Abraham . In the small moments of praise, Ebert acknowledges the film's well-constructed set, special effects, costumes and makeup, and the film's overall art direction, earning the film a one-star rating .

"The physical look of the picture is splendid. The screenplay is dead on arrival. The noise level is torture."

For Ebert, the screenplay and post-production are where the Thir13een Ghosts failed . The inescapable sound design was an attack on the ears while the fumbling dialogue and poor editing targeted weary eyes. Compared to some of Ebert's other worst-rated horror flicks, this remake lacks the violence and scare tactics of its counterparts, earning it a higher rating than most.

Thirteen Ghosts

9 'friday the 13th part 2' (1981), directed by steve miner.

For Ebert, this dismal sequel felt personal as he screened it in his hometown theater on a Friday night surrounded by teens and college students. His half-star review details how the first two minutes of the experience made him nostalgic of his youth and the onscreen memories of "teenagers who fell in love, made out with each other, customized their cars, listened to rock and roll, and were rebels without causes." The short-lived sentimentality was crushed by the violent slasher deaths of a new set of terrorized camp counselors and the inevitable final girl in Friday the 13th Part 2 .

"This movie is a cross between the Mad Slasher and Dead teenager genres; about two dozen movies a year feature a mad killer going berserk, and they're all about as bad as this one."

His interest in the sequel stopped as soon as the surviving heroine from the first film was killed within the first few minutes . While his fellow moviegoers were rather vocal and found enjoyment in the slasher flick, Ebert took issue with the deeper meaning movies like this unconsciously portrayed, "the primary function of teenagers is to be hacked to death." It was a sentiment he declared was applicable and could be interchanged with any of the franchise films, making Friday the 13th Part 2 one of the worst horror movies in Ebert's opinion.

Friday the 13th Part 2

8 'friday the 13th: the final chapter' (1984), directed by joseph zito.

In a heated review session with the iconic Gene Siskel , Ebert tears this franchise installment to shreds, calling it "mindless bloody violence." Miraculously revived, the masked maniac Jason Voorhees escapes the morgue and returns to Crystal Lake to terrorize a group of teens renting a house. Making his disappointment with Paramount Pictures known, Ebert calls out that Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter would not be the final movie, given that Paramount had "taken the bucket to the cesspool four times" and knew the title was a marketing ploy.

"'Friday the 13th The Final Chapter' is 90 minutes of teenagers being strangled, stabbed, impaled, chopped up, and mutilated. That's all this movie is."

Ebert departed from Siskel in his opinion that the fourth installment sent a bleak message to teenagers that the world is hopeless and will kill you no matter what your hopes, dreams, or aspirations may be. Siskel disagreed, telling Ebert he was sounding "a little soap boxy," arguing that the generation's youth wouldn't see the film as a worldview. The pair were in final agreement on a sickening realization that with this franchise, audiences seek out and are entertained by young women being stabbed over and over again.

Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter

Jason Voorhees returns to continue his killing spree, targeting a new group of teens and the Jarvis family. As the body count rises, young Tommy Jarvis discovers a way to potentially end Jason’s reign of terror once and for all in what is meant to be the series' final installment.

7 'Hellraiser' (1987)

Directed by clive barker.

A hot take then and certainly one that still irritates fans of the franchise, Ebert awarded Hellraiser a half-star rating as one of the worst horror movies, in his opinion, of all time. With a premise seemingly fitting for a what-did-I-just-watch type of movie , the movie follows Frank ( Sean Chapman ) after he meets a violent end at the hands of supernatural creatures called Cenobites. When Frank's brother and wife, Julia ( Clare Higgins ), move into his former home, they unintentionally resurrect what's left of Frank. He convinces Julia to kill for him so he can consume the victim's flesh to revitalize his body and escape the underworld.

"Who goes to see movies like this? What do they get out of them? I like good horror movies because I enjoy being surprised (and sometimes even moved), but there are no surprises in 'Hellraiser,' only a dreary series of scenes that repeat each other. What fun is it watching the movie mark time until the characters discover the obvious?"

Calling it "a movie without wit, style or reason," Ebert chastised Stephen King for praising writer and director Clive Barker. He expressed deep disappointment when he realized it was a full-length feature film, saying it was a movie "you sit through with mounting dread." While Ebert couldn't wrap his mind around the appeal of Barker's body horror film , viewers and critics are staunch defenders of Hellraiser for its unique and imaginative entry into the genre that evolved into a full-fledged franchise.

Hellraiser (1987)

6 'the hitcher' (1986), directed by robert harmon.

While it's a zero-star horror movie for Ebert , The Hitcher earned a positive consensus from critics and audiences. The movie stars C. Thomas Howell as a young driver named Jim Halsey who unknowingly picks up a serial killer hitchhiker John Ryder ( Rutger Hauer ). After Jim makes a harrowing escape, he enlists the help of a waitress, Nash ( Jennifer Jason Leigh ), to hunt down John after he frames Jim for a string of murders. To Ebert, The Hitcher touts a showdown of good and evil, but with deeper inspection, it is anything but as it depicts an unhealthy bond.

"What is particularly sick about 'The Hitcher' is that the killer is not given a viewpoint, a grudge, or indeed even a motive."

Ebert spends a lot of time assessing the cyclical fashion of the film from its opening and closing sequences to the character arc and the questionable shared bond between the heroic antihero and the villain . In his divisive review, he calls The Hitcher "diseased and corrupt," saying "It prefers to disguise itself as a violent thriller, and on that level it is reprehensible." While Ebert hated the horror flick, it earned middle-of-the-road reviews from his critical counterparts who praised the menacing performance of Rutger Hauer.

The Hitcher

5 'the texas chainsaw massacre' (2003), directed by marcus nispel.

A remake sticking to the formulaic principles of picking off victims one by one, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is "vile, ugly, and brutal" according to Ebert's zero-star review . The 2003 version follows a group of friends as they travel across the rural roads of Texas, happening upon a seemingly abandoned home. They soon become the target of a chainsaw-wielding deformed brute and his deranged family of killers. One of its many faults, as Ebert points out, is its lack of exposition and set-up , making it almost necessary to have seen or heard of the 1974 original to understand what is playing out onscreen.

"It is not a commentary on anything, except the marriage of slick technology with the materials of a geek show."

While formulaic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre blandly reintroduces the same horror tropes without originality or skillful execution, many of which Ebert dutifully examples in his review. It's a grim, gore-fueled 98 minutes that the acclaimed critic believed "was made by and for those with no attention span."

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

After picking up a traumatized young hitchhiker, five friends find themselves stalked and hunted by a deformed chainsaw-wielding loon and his family of equally psychopathic killers.

Buy on Prime

4 'Wolf Creek' (2005)

Directed by greg mclean.

A horror movie that almost drove Ebert from the theater, Wolf Creek is a violent, misogynistic display of torture and mutilation of its women characters. The slasher flick follows a trio of stranded tourists in the Australian outback who misplace their trust in a local man offering to fix their car. Their overnight outback stay turns into a nightmare when he kidnaps and brutalizes the group. The film's sadistic antagonist, Mick Taylor ( John Jarratt ), and his gruesome acts are based on those of real-life Australian serial killers .

"If anyone you know says this is the one they want to see, my advice is: Don't know that person no more."

In his review (and many others pertaining to horror movies), Ebert prefaces with his appreciation for horror films while acknowledging that when done skillfully, they are driven by purposeful violence and scare tactics. With Wolf Creek , Ebert writes, "There is a line and this movie crosses it...There is a role for violence in film, but what the hell is the purpose of this sadistic celebration of pain and cruelty?" Securing a zero-star review and a thumbs down , Wolf Creek is one of the worst horror movies according to Ebert.

3 'Jaws: The Revenge' (1987)

Directed by joseph sargent.

Calling the film "a rip-off," Jaws: The Revenge is one of Ebert's most notoriously hated movies . The fourth installment in the iconic shark franchise features Ellen Brody ( Lorraine Gary ), the widow of Chief Brody, as she flees to the Bahamas to plead with her now-only son, marine biologist Michael ( Lance Guest ), to stay out of the water. Once there, she begins a relationship with the charming Hoagie ( Michael Caine ), but the shark who killed her son appears in the waters, causing a reign of terror. Jaws: The Revenge earned a zero-star rating from the acclaimed reviewer and an overall 2% rotten critic consensus .

"Since we see so much of the shark in the movie, you’d think they would have built some good ones."

Changing gears from the franchise direction of a creature feature where the characters are lulled into a false sense of security until the shark strikes, this movie turns itself into a slasher flick , stalking the continuity character until there's no place to hide. With multiple unbelievable (and confusing) sequences and filming fumbles, Ebert doesn't mince words when describing it as "not simply a bad movie, but also a stupid and incompetent one."

Jaws: The Revenge

In the fourth installment of the Jaws series, Ellen Brody believes a great white shark is seeking revenge on her family. When her son is killed, she heads to the Bahamas, where the shark follows, leading to a final, deadly confrontation.

2 'I Spit on Your Grave' (1978)

Directed by meir zarchai.

After a surprisingly filled showing on a Monday morning in Chicago, Ebert "walked out of the theater quickly, feeling unclean, ashamed and depressed," giving the disturbing film and its audience zero stars . The original I Spit on Your Grave features a young woman, Jennifer ( Camille Keaton ), who while on a remote solo getaway, is repeatedly brutalized by a group of local men. Weeks later, a somewhat recovered Jennifer returns to exact her violent revenge. The 2010 remake that spawned multiple sequels also earned a zero-star review from Ebert .

"There is no reason to see this movie except to be entertained by the sight of sadism and suffering."

I Spit on Your Grave is among Ebert's worst-rated horror movies of all-time. The depiction of demented acts of violence toward women was done so without "a shred of artistic direction" or "simple craftsmanship," for which Ebert condemned the film for its lack of purpose for portrayal. For him, this movie is largely defined by the movie-goers who identified with and seemingly enjoyed the sadistic acts onscreen.

I Spit On Your Grave (1978)

Watch on Tubi

1 'The Human Centipede' (2010)

Directed by tom six.

A movie Ebert acknowledges only caters to the most specific horror audiences who intentionally choose to direct their viewership toward such a graphic premise, The Human Centipede is a movie that Ebert refused to rate . In this body horror film, a mad scientist by the name of Dr. Heiter ( Dieter Laser ) kidnaps and mutilates three tourists by conjoining them into a creature with a single digestive tract. In his no-star (not zero-star, mind you) review , Ebert insinuates that both the viewing experience and the onscreen experience in The Human Centipede are worse than death.

"No horror film I've seen inflicts more terrible things on its victims than 'The Human Centipede.' You would have to be very brave to choose this ordeal..."

The movie is a nauseating 92-minute ordeal that Ebert points out director, Tom Six carefully crafted, Ebert acknowledging Six's treatment of the "material with utter seriousness." It's worth noting Ebert wrote that he considered his review of the infamous movie a "public service announcement," but it notably did not end up on his most hated movies list.

The Human Centipede (First Sequence)

A mad scientist kidnaps and mutilates a trio of tourists in order to reassemble them into a human centipede, created by stitching their mouths to each others' rectums.

Watch on Apple TV+

NEXT: 10 Unexpected 2000s Movies That Roger Ebert Loved

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How would you define a film as "pure horror"? What film epitomizes that definition?

I was going through a small book called "101 Horror Movies You Must See Before Your Die". There are number of films I have not seen and a number of films I questioned as to be "horror". For instance, "Scream (1996)" I have reservations calling it pure horror as it has a bit of wink throughout the film, that it knows what its doing - watching itself. And so you get a bit of comedy, although there are legitimately scary moments. David Lynch's "Eraserhead (1977)" is another film I have trouble putting into the horror genre. It is never scary and I dont think it is out to be scary. It is too dull to create shock or suspense. It is bizarre, demented and more so, curious and dream-like. But never have I thought it to be a horror film. I dont think any of his films falls into that category.

My definition of horror would go like this: "A film confronts the viewer by way of invoking their personal fears to the point where they have to check themselves of their own physical and psychological safety. And may experience a catharsis relating to those fears."

I think the film that epitomizes this is Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980). To me it has both physical and psychologically (even if it liberalized it). The sense of not knowing what is happening, to me, seems to really be the most frightening part. That some of the incidents are not explained leaves me wondering and questioning.

I tried to be as objective in my definition as possible, without being too generic, but it was trickier than I expected it to be.

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'Cuckoo' review: Intensely weird horror thriller ratchets up the crazy

Dan stevens and hunter schafer star in tilman singer's off-kilter creepfest..

There's something strangely, captivatingly off about "Cuckoo," the aptly named horror thriller that plunges deep into a well of madness and hysteria and takes viewers along with it for the ride.

Dan Stevens, at his best when embracing his inner weirdo, plays the proprietor of a resort in the German Alps which is mysteriously empty, save for the vomiting women who occasionally wander into the lobby. "Euphoria's" Hunter Schafer plays Gretchen, an angsty 17-year-old who is dragged to the resort when her father (Márton Csókás) is hired to build out the grounds, and she's none too stoked about spending the summer in the middle of nowhere. She's also put off by her father's new wife (Jessica Henwick) and her new 7-year-old stepsister (Mimi Lieu), who is mute, and she's frustrated when the calls she makes to her mother back home go unreturned.

But she can't pout forever, so she picks up a job working at the resort's front desk, where she flirts with a guest (Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey) who offers to whisk her away to Paris. Their trip to the City of Lights is sidelined when Gretchen is chased down by a strange woman in sunglasses and a trench coat, which is only about the 13th oddest thing afoot in this trippy, deranged, time-glitching mind-bender that doesn't always make sense but manages to keep viewers absorbed and guessing.

Writer-director Tilman Singer invokes bizarro vibes throughout, pulling from everywhere from "Rosemary's Baby's" reproductive horror to "A Cure for Wellness'" health spa from hell aesthetics. And it looks glorious, shot on 35mm film, which adds to its 1970s-style feel.

Stevens, wearing monochrome wardrobes and hamming up a German accent, is delightfully bonkers, and Schafer is a fiercely engaging presence. The "whos?" and "huhs?" of what's really going on may leave you scratching your head, but "Cuckoo's" itch is one that doesn't easily go away.

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Rated R: for violence, bloody images, language and brief teen drug use

Running time: 102 minutes

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The Best Horror Films on Prime Video to Watch Right Now

Here's some creepy fare you can watch with your subscription.

Prime Video has a lot to offer horror fans, from recent releases like Pearl to classic movies like Psycho. Ads are now a part of the streaming service , but if you'd prefer to watch your spooky content without commercial interruptions, you can pay an additional fee to remove them.

Here are some highly rated horror films to satisfy your cravings. Dim the lights, grab the popcorn and enjoy your creepy feature.

Pearl (2022)

The Mia Goth-starring slasher Pearl is a prequel to Ti West's film X, centering on a younger version of the elderly villain in that flick. Another addition to the series, the movie MaXXXine, also stars Goth and is currently in theaters.

Psycho (1960)

Prime Video currently offers Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, which is a pretty big deal -- the black-and-white flick frequently cracks the top five on lists of the best horror films ever. If you've never seen the film, starring Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, it's best to go straight in without looking up details.

Smile (2022)

An unnatural grin can be utterly terrifying. This recent release takes full advantage of that. Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon, actor and daughter of Kevin Bacon) goes on a horrific journey after she witnesses a traumatic incident involving a patient.

Totally Killer (2023)

Want to revisit the '80s? Kiernan Shipka time travels to the decade and takes on a killer in this new Prime Video slasher comedy. Randall Park and Julie Bowen also make appearances.

The Descent (2005)

In this British horror film from 2005, six young women go spelunking and rub up against terrifying humanoid cave dwellers. It's a race to evade the dark before becoming creature food. If you need another reason to descend, the flick's high user score on Metacritic suggests you'll be glad you went on this chilling expedition. 

Nanny (2022)

Nanny is an increasingly unnerving movie about a mother working in the US and separated from her son in Senegal, whom she hopes will soon join her. The powerful, chilling film -- led by a captivating Anna Diop -- takes viewers through her difficult, haunting wait.

Candyman (2021)

Jordan Peele and Nia DaCosta are at the helm of this gripping slasher. A sequel to the 1992 film of the same name, Candyman tackles issues such as gentrification and police brutality. Prepare for blood, swarming bees and people making the unfortunate decision to recite Candyman's name in front of a mirror. Candyman is available to watch for free with ads using Amazon Freevee.

Suspiria (2018)

If you like your horror films interspersed with a bit of contemporary dance (and who wouldn't!), then Suspiria is definitely the one for you. It tells the story of a supernatural dance academy run by a coven of witches and features themes like motherhood, guilt and abuse of power. An homage to the original 1977 film, Suspiria stars Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton. 

Coherence (2014)

Coherence is a huge favorite here at CNET  and it's a terrifying watch. Not necessarily in the traditional, gory, horrific sense but more in terms of the concepts. It's a multiverse movie released before multiverses were cool and not what you expect. Coherence is the kind of movie you'll finish and immediately rewatch to try to rewire your brain. It's a fantastic achievement. A must watch.

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• The Best Sci-Fi Movies on Prime Video
• The Best Horror Movies on HBO Max
• Best Horror Movie Streaming Services: Where to Watch the Ultimate Screams

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‘Trap’ Review: Pop Goes the Thriller

Josh Hartnett stars as a father with a secret in this M. Night Shyamalan film set at a concert.

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By Amy Nicholson

“Dad, this is the literally the best day of my life,” the teenager Riley (Ariel Donoghue) beams to her doting father, Cooper (Josh Hartnett), in the opening minutes of M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap.” That feeling won’t last — but for the first half of this mischievous thriller, we’re also having fun.

Riley is ecstatic to have stadium floor seats for her favorite pop icon, Lady Raven (Saleka). The child’s attention is on the stage. Ours is on her father who is having visible difficulty concentrating on the show. He’s clocking the cameras, the exits, the unusual number of cops, the no-nonsense F.B.I. profiler (Hayley Mills) muttering into her walkie-talkie. The police are hunting a serial killer named the Butcher, but all they’ve got to go on is that he’s a middle-aged man in this majority girl crowd. Underneath the thumping bass and the squeals, Shyamalan wordlessly clues us in that the unassuming Cooper is also a slayer desperate to escape.

Instead of telegraphing evil, Hartnett cranks up that gee-willikers likability that once trapped him as one of Hollywood’s factory-stamped generic leading men. At his most devilish, he’s all apple cheeks, grinning so amiably that a merch salesman (Jonathan Langdon) reveals that the Butcher has his own obsessives. When no one’s watching, Cooper’s eyes narrow at whatever is on his mind. Should he pull the fire alarm? Slip through the hydraulic lift in the floor? Can his daughter tell he’s acting weird?

It takes cleverness and control to pull off this unspoken tension. Shyamalan boasts the former and feigns the latter for a while before his hotdogging impulses take over. He’s like a guy who karaokes Hitchcock and then starts ad-libbing his own tune. We’re never onboard with the premise that a 20,000-plus crowd is the perfect place to arrest an unknown man. But we’re willing to play along until it starts to feel like Shyamalan so enjoys being inside Cooper’s head that he doesn’t want to leave. One fairly satisfying ending launches into encore after encore, with Shyamalan holding court past the time the audience is antsy to wrap up.

The plot is at its best when it’s simply a dad, a daughter and the puzzle he must solve to stay in her life. Hartnett and Donoghue have an affectionate, believable chemistry that’s boosted by the young actor’s natural charm — she doesn’t hit a phony note. To root for Riley’s happiness means rooting for Cooper’s, so every so often, particularly after we’ve cheered his latest brazen bit of genius, we’re reminded there’s a victim (Mark Bacolcol) handcuffed in his murder house. Worse, whenever Cooper needs a diversion, he’s willing to send a stranger’s daughter to the E.R.

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‘Cuckoo’ is bonkers

Tilman singer’s incoherent horror outing benefits from dan stevens’s creepy villain and hunter schafer as a final girl for the ages..

Writer-director Tilman Singer knew what he was doing when he christened his latest horror outing “Cuckoo.” This movie lives up to its name. Other accurate descriptions include bonkers, crazy, and a certain word beginning with “bat” that I cannot say in this paper.

The title actually refers to the cuckoo bird, whose real-life antics are far more sinister than popping out of the top of a clock every hour. Turns out the cuckoo is a brood parasite. It lay eggs in the nests of other birds, leaving them to deal with the surprise offspring.

Knowing this rather nasty bit of business makes Harry Lime’s famous speech about Switzerland in “The Third Man” play differently.

As usual, I digress. I’ll leave you to discover whether this information has anything to do with the goings-on in “Cuckoo.” What I can tell you is that Singer mixes body horror with a Final Girl narrative and has a game cast to help him succeed.

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Assisted by a consistently off-putting sound mix, and gloom-invoking cinematography by Paul Faltz, Singer creates a delectable sense of dread. “Cuckoo” leans into the reliable horror trope that powered such classics as “Rosemary’s Baby”; that is, the woman who knows something is amiss, but no one believes her.

This time, our hero is 17-year-old Gretchen, played by “Euphoria” star Hunter Schafer. She’s been dragged to a Bavarian Alps resort by her father, Luis (Marton Csokas), his new wife, Beth (Jessica Henwick), and their mute 7-year-old daughter, Alma (Mila Lieu). Gretchen can’t stand the location; there’s nothing to do, and her dad is so preoccupied with his new family that he’s cruel and neglectful.

Several times, Gretchen makes tearful calls to her mother back in the states, leaving desperate messages on her answering machine.

To keep her busy, the owner of the resort, Herr König (Dan Stevens), offers Gretchen a job at the reception desk. Herr König is one weird dude. He plays a flute like a deranged Pied Piper. Every pleasant line of dialogue has an ominous tinge. He is touchy-feely, and Singer’s camera makes sure we recoil whenever he reaches out for someone’s shoulder to pat.

Making matters worse, Herr König’s German accent has an aura of menace that extends beyond mere stereotype. The way he says “Gretchen” alone should earn Stevens’s performance a huge amount of praise; it sounds as if he’s being choked by the first syllable of her name.

Gretchen’s new job is a welcome distraction, but she chafes at some of the rules. She also keeps noticing that pregnant female guests occasionally wander into the lobby, throw up, and then leave. Nobody else finds this unusual, not even her more experienced co-worker, Trixie (Greta Fernández).

Since this is a horror movie, Gretchen will violate the one rule Herr König keeps repeating: Do not go into the surrounding forest after 10 p.m. The rule may have something to do with the scary, hood-wearing lady whose eyes glow red from behind her glasses and whose screams sound like a distorted take on the opening howls of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song.”

“Cuckoo” nods to the Brothers Grimm with its German location, creepy homeowner, and a potentially wicked stepparent. The film keeps the Grimm’s penchant for sadism and children-in-peril, but the disturbing developments here go well beyond the storytelling siblings’ most chilling plotlines.

As Gretchen become entrenched in the mystery of the resort, she’s aided by Henry Landau (Jan Bluthardt), a cop who says that spooky lady in the woods is wanted for murder. He seems trustworthy, but the film’s ability to keep us on edge arouses our suspicions.

I hesitate to tell you more, primarily because I am not quite sure what the hell is going on in this movie. What kept me riveted is Schafer’s fresh take on the Final Girl trope. Gretchen’s a tough cookie, as evidenced by her spending most of the film bruised, bloody, and in a shoulder sling. Schafer wears her face bandages with the same confidence Jack Nicholson displayed in “Chinatown” — it’s a feat of actorly defiance to cover so much of one’s face.

Gretchen is also always in possession of her trusty switchblade, which she’s unafraid to use. It’s as effective as the guns the sinister men in this movie wave around in “Cuckoo”’s go-for-broke climax.

Both Stevens and Schafer came to slay, which is why I wish “Cuckoo” had a lighter touch. The film alternates between being a self-aware put-on and a demand to be taken seriously. Messages about bodily autonomy and reproductive rights mesh uneasily with the more unrealistic plot elements.

Still, the audience I saw this with hissed at the bad guys and cheered for the latest incarnation of a badass switchblade sister. Schafer earns her place in the Final Girl Hall of Fame.

If you’re willing to just go with it, no questions asked, “Cuckoo” is an entertaining horror offering. But I must warn you that trying to make sense of the plot will drive you, well, cuckoo.

Written and directed by Tilman Singer. Starring Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Mila Lieu, Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Jessica Henwick, Greta Fernández. 102 min. At Coolidge Corner, AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, suburbs. R (bloody violence, gore, and scary accents)

Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.

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A 17-year-old girl is forced to move with her family to a resort where things are not what they seem. A 17-year-old girl is forced to move with her family to a resort where things are not what they seem. A 17-year-old girl is forced to move with her family to a resort where things are not what they seem.

• Tilman Singer
• Hunter Schafer
• Jan Bluthardt
• Marton Csokas
• 16 User reviews
• 76 Critic reviews
• 60 Metascore
• 1 win & 5 nominations

Top cast 26

• (as Márton Csókás)

• (as Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey)

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User reviews 16

• chenp-54708
• Aug 7, 2024
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• August 9, 2024 (United States)
• United States
• American Sign Language
• Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
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• Waypoint Entertainment
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• Runtime 1 hour 42 minutes

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