06/03/2026
Ooh one of my favourite genres! It's hard to do anything original these days, and even harder to do horror well. There are exceptions, but I do like conventional stuff as well as left-field. Lots of people have made great suggestions, so I'll try to make some that are more recent. With a lot of horror, I find it's best not to watch the trailer, or to watch as little as possible as many give things away that are more fun to discover for yourself.
* The Babadook (2014) - Austrailian. An intelligent, atmospheric 'monster' film collides with a single mother's struggles with grief, guilt, and the demands of her young son.
* Dark Water (2002) - the Japanese one, not the US remake. Similar style to the Ring trilogy.
* Apostle (2018) - Visceral British period film, where a man goes searching for his sister in an isolated religious cult.
* Weapons (2025) - a class of children all go missing on the same night & one of the parents works to solve the mystery, but it's not a simple kidnapping.
* Barbarian (2022) - same director as Weapons. A woman arrives at her Air BnB to find a man's already staying there, so they agree to share, but that's a decision she'll come to regret.
* Relic (2020) - a woman goes to visit her elderly mother, finding her dementia has progressed but there's also an insidious presence in the house.
* Get Out (2017) - a young couple go to visit her parents, but there's something strange about their social circle.
* Choose Or Die (2023) - a retro video game is much more than it appears to be, and once you're in it you have to keep playing.
* Smile (2022) - after witnessing a smiling patient's suicide, a young doctor starts to feel she's being pursued by whatever was influencing her patient.
* Triangle (2009) - a mind-bending tale about a woman who goes on an ill-fated yacht trip that ends up taking her somewhere she couldn't have foreseen.
* Circle (2015) - 50 strangers awake to find themselves trapped in a circle that demands someone must die every two minutes, and they must choose who.
* Eli (2019) - a boy goes to a private clinic to receive ground-breaking treatment for his life-limiting condition, but he suspects that something sinister may be afoot.
* In The Tall Grass (2019) - a brother & sister rush to help a young boy in a huge field, but the maze of tall grass soon becomes disorientating & they realise they're not the only ones in there.
* Sister Death (2023) - Spanish film about a young nun who goes to teach at a convent school but soon finds it's haunted by dark secrets.
* The Orphanage (2007) - Spanish film about a couple renovating an old orphanage, who soon become concerned by their young son's invisible new friend, then the boy goes missing.
* Baghead (2023) - a woman inherits a run-down pub with an intriguing secret in the cellar.
* Heretic (2024) - two Mormon woman visit the house of a man who is interested in discussing their religion, but his motives aren't as straightforward as they first appear.
* Hereditary (2018) - Ari Aster's breakout film before Midsommar (also great but others have already suggested). Family trauma & supernatural happenings torment a grieving family.
* A Cure For Wellness (2016) - a young executive is sent to a mysterious Swiss clinic to retrieve his company's CEO, but no patient ever wants to leave, and the charismatic Doctor in charge claims the water on the historic site has extraordinary healing properties.
* The Monkey (2025) - gruesome deaths seem to surround the toy monkey inherited from their father by twin sons. The film has a darkly comedic edge and is based on a Stephen King story.
* Together (2025) - a couple struggling with their relationship move to a new place in the hope of a fresh start, but the previous occupants of their house mysteriously disappeared in the ominous forest behind the house, and their closest neighbour seems a bit too friendly.
* Men (2022) - an unusual film from Alex Garland, about a woman who goes to the countryside for a much-needed break, only to be oppressed by her state of mind and some unsettling happenings.
* The Ritual (2017) - a group of friends go hiking in the Swedish countryside, but one of them gets injured & they're forced to take refuge from a storm in a creepy old cabin that tests their sanity and revives old tensions.
I could probably come up with loads more but these are a few I've seen recently. I've given you a bit of a mixture of the usual and the more unusual as I don't know what your taste in horror is like, but hopefully there's some stuff in there you'll like.
Happy watching xx
