Director: Andy Muschietti
Actors: Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Isabelle Nélisse, Daniel Kash, Morgan McGarry, Jane Moffat, Megan Charpentier
Five years after vanishing in the woods, two young girls are returned to their uncle and his girlfriend, who try to give the now-feral girls a loving home. However, after tragedy strikes, it becomes apparent that the girls did not return alone.
Director: Roman Polanski
Actors: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Ralph Bellamy, Maurice Evans
Based on the Ira Levin novel of the same name, a young wife and her actor husband move into an apartment building with a reputation. As time goes on, the wife, Rosemary, starts to suspect that their kindly old neighbours are not quite what they seem.
Directors: Jovanka Vuckovic, Annie Clark, Roxanne Benjamin, Karyn Kusama
Actors: Melanie Lynskey, Natalie Brown, Christina Kirk, Kyle Allen, Breeda Wool, Peyton Kennedy
An anthology of four short stories, all directed by women. In The Box, a child suddenly and completely loses his appetite. In The Birthday Party, a woman struggles to prepare for her daughter’s party after a disturbing discovery. In Don’t Fall, a group of four friends camp in the wrong place. In Her Only Living Son, we see an alternate future to a classic horror story.
Director: Fede Álvarez
Actors: Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto, Stephen Lang
Three young thieves break into the house of a blind man, hoping to get their hands on money he won in a lawsuit. They soon find things won’t go as easily as they hoped.
Director: Trey Edward Shults
Actors: Joel Edgarton, Carmen Ejogo, Riley Keough, Christopher Abbott, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Griffin Faulkner, David Pendleton
A small family faces personal tragedy in a post-apocalyptic world, and soon after must decide how to live with the strangers who have found their home.
Director: David F. Sandberg
Actors: Teresa Palmer, Maria Bello, Gabriel Bateman, Alexander DiPersia
Rebecca thought a shadowy figure from her childhood wasn’t real until her younger brother asks for her help in dealing with it and their troubled mother.
Director: Andy Muschietti
Actors: Bill Skarsgård, Finn Wolfhard, Sophia Lillis, Jaeden Lieberher, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Nicholas Hamilton, Jeremy Ray Taylor
Based on Stephen King’s 1986 novel of the same name, IT is the story of the Losers, seven children in Derry who face an ancient horror of many faces.
Director: David F. Sandberg
Actors: Anthony LaPaglia, Miranda Otto, Stephanie Sigman, Lulu Wilson, Talitha Bateman
Annabelle: Creation is a prequel to Annabelle, though it can be enjoyed without seeing the latter.
12 years after a terrible personal tragedy, the Mullins couple opens their home to a group of orphans. A strange place becomes even stranger after one of the girls enters a forbidden room and rouses an evil that’s been locked away.
Director: James Wan
Actors: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey, Lin Shaye
Insidious is the first movie in the film franchise of the same name. It makes good use of atmosphere, music, jump scares, and a plot that doesn’t make the truth of what’s happening immediately clear. The film centres on a family dealing with personal tragedy as well as supernatural goings-on, and also brings in some interesting outside characters later on.
This movie can and does stand on its own very well, but watching the sequels adds depths to the story and warrants at least one rewatch.
Chocolate Box of Horror 