C. M. Rosens

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#100HorrorMoviesIn92Days 2026: The Complete List

The complete list of all films watched for the 100 Horror Movies challenge 2026. Check out my Top 10, all the countries A-Z, and more.

cmrosens
57–86 minutes
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Top 10

The Top 10/100 Horror movies this year were hard to narrow down, but I only gave out a very low number of 5 star ratings this year! My Top 10 is a mix of those 5 star rated films and 4.5 star rated films.

  1. Rabbit Trap
  2. The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
  3. Kraken
  4. SG̲aawaay Ḵ’uuna/Edge of the Knife
  5. Tiger Stripes
  6. The Serpent’s Skin
  7. ８番出口/Exit 8
  8. The Cat and the Canary (1979)
  9. The Descent
  10. Wer

Directed/Written by Women

The following horror movies were directed and/or written by women, and are A-Z by English language title. There are 18/100 this year. Of these, 8/100 are directed by women and 17/100 are written by women, or are based on an original story/novel written by a woman.

[I’m including original material where known, because I think it’s worth highlighting that novels and stories by women make good adaptations and are also adapted for screen less than novels/stories by men.]

Queer Rep/Queer Horror

The following horror movies had queer rep, or fall under the definition of queer horror, ordered A-Z by English language title:

  • Rituals (1977) dir. Peter Carter, written by Ian Sutherland. {Canada} . casual mention/description of an ex-boyfriend from one of the main characters – he is not defined by his queerness, and his sexuality is a non-issue with his friends & has no bearing on the plot or outcome.

A number of the giallos also have sapphic rep, but they are not queer horror, and often the rep isn’t great. I haven’t included them, but they are around in the lists if you want to check them out.

Country List – A-Z

Here’s the full list of countries, A-Z, and how many horror movies I watched from each one.

Aotearoa/New Zealand: 3
Austria: 1
Australia: 2
Cambodia: 1
Canada: 3
Chile: 2
China: 2
Denmark: 1
{Europe Collaboration}: 1
India: 3
Indonesia: 3
Ireland: 2
Italy: 11
Japan: 4
Korea, Republic of / South: 4
Malaysia: 2
Mexico: 2
The Netherlands: 1
Nigeria: 5
Norway: 2
Philippines: 2
South Africa: 1
Spain: 1
Sweden: 2
Turkiye: 11
United Kingdom: 15
Uruguay: 2
United States of America: 10
Vietnam: 1

The Complete 100 Horror Movies List

I’ve ordered them A-Z by country, as I have done in each month’s Media Round-Up. This time, I’ve ordered them by their release year within these country headings.

Aotearoan/New Zealand Horror
  • Loop Track (2023) dir. Tom Sainsbury, written by Tom Sainsbury. Hiking horror where the horror is other people, but also the dangers lurking in the New Zealand bush. I either vibe with NZ humour or I don’t, it’s a lot drier and sometimes more cringe-humour than I can take, while Aussie humour is dark as fuck and brutal, but I really got on with this. I was invested in Ian’s anxiety and need to be alone, as I strongly relate, but also the way that horror ramps up as we get into the forest is really well done. I really enjoyed the tension, and the character dynamics were great. Nicky was such a massive dick but I kind of liked him. It turns into a creature-feature using some very NZ prehistoric wildlife. A four-day journey turns into a fight for survival. This is a psychological thriller about Ian, who wants to get as far away from humanity as possible, into the New Zealand bush. Some other individuals get attached to him. And he has the feeling that they are being followed. Is that real though?
  • Jack Be Nimble (1993) dir. Garth Maxwell, written by Garth Maxwell. New Zealand Gothic Horror. Twins, a boy and a girl, are separated by the adoption system and then go and find one another. It’s a gritty start and gets worse. I had no idea where any of it was going at any point, and it just kept getting worse. I had an inkling we’d get twincest, but we didn’t (exactly). It gets so weird, and I was here for it. RIP Alexis Arquette (who plays Jack). Jack and Dora, abandoned by their parents as babies, are desperate to find each other after years of adoption. Jack’s young life has been spent with a sadistic family. Dora, whose life has been somewhat better, has developed extra-sensory powers which tell her that Jack’s in danger and drives her to search for him.
  • The Devil’s Rock (2011) dir. Paul Campion, written by Paul Campion, Paul Finch, and Brett Ihaka. What a ride. I love how tight the cast is – the drama, the tension, the sexy devil lady. Set in the Channel Islands on the eve of D-Day, two Kiwi commandos, sent to destroy German gun emplacements to distract Hitler’s forces away from Normandy, discover a Nazi occult plot to unleash demonic forces to win the war.
Austrian Horror
  • Blutgletscher/Blood Glacier (2013) dir. Marvin Kren, written by Benjamin Hessler and Marvin Kren. A really fun eco-horror that is basically an Austrian tribute to The Thing, Bats, Frogs, Slugs, and every other mutant animal movie you can imagine. Incredible scenes. The dog does not do well in this, though, so beware. At a climate research station in the Alps, the scientists are stunned as the nearby melting glacier is leaking a red liquid. It quickly turns to be very special juice — with unexpected genetic effects on the local wildlife.
Australian Horror
  • The Pack (2015) dir. Nick Robertson, written by Evan Randall Green. I genuinely found this a tense one because I can suspend disbelief for days, and I’m already running at peak anxiety as baseline, so I was on the edge of my seat for this family. An extra star goes for the dog actors. They were real dogs, having the time of their lives. I respect that sort of film making. Man’s best friend becomes his worst nightmare when a horde of bloodthirsty wild dogs descends upon a family’s farmhouse in a fang-bearing fight for survival.
  • The Serpent’s Skin (2025) dir. Alice Maio Mackay, written by Alice Maio Mackay and Ben Pahl Robinson. Alice Maio Mackay is an Australian filmmaker, and I think this is a US-Australian collab, putting it under Australia as that’s where Mackay is from, and also a lot of the cast. This is basically queer Scanners but with a punk trans feel, and that’s pretty cool. Two young women form a romantic bond after discovering they have supernatural powers. Their insecurities unknowingly release a demon, which possesses one of their exes and begins feeding on their friends. As the bodies pile up, it becomes up to the women to face their pasts and stop the growing evil.
Cambodian Horror
  • The Hand (2025) dir. Mak Pichjuli, written by Ngoeuy Bunrath. This one is on Letterboxd but with the bare minimum of detail, so the link is to IMDb which has a summary of the film. This is a Khmer film with some really good moments. Really liked the hand-severing obsession of the ghost when she possessed multiple people. Bopha, a beautiful and talented dancer, is found dead in an eerie manner with one of her hands missing. Her death becomes the center of a chilling mystery, believed to be connected to a jilted lover. As strange events unfold around her death, including eerie ghostly sightings and inexplicable occurrences, Nara, a police officer, begins investigating. Mr. Chak, a wealthy man who collects ancient artifacts, unknowingly brings home a statue with Bopha’s missing hand trapped inside. After the statue is placed in his home, the haunting intensifies, and suspicions arise. As the haunting escalates, Nara must uncover the truth behind Bopha’s tragic death before it’s too late. But the truth may be more terrifying than anyone could imagine. Watched on YouTube.
Canadian Horror
  • Rituals (1977) dir. Peter Carter, written by Ian Sutherland. A classic Canadian wilderness survival horror. I enjoyed the set up, and getting to know the doctors in question, the slow build up of the character dynamics and personalities, and then the descent into the unravelling and drama. Really liking the era of proto-slashers; A Bay of Blood (1971), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), and now this one (1977)… I feel like I’ve now seen a proto-slasher seminal trio. This one is a character-focused piece. Five doctors go camping in the remote woods of Northern Ontario. When their boots are stolen they begin to suspect they are being stalked. casual mention/description of an ex-boyfriend from one of the main characters – he is not defined by his queerness, and his sexuality is a non-issue with his friends & has no bearing on the plot or outcome.
  • SG̲aawaay Ḵ’uuna/Edge of the Knife (2018) dirs. Helen Haig-Brown  and Gwaai Edenshaw, written by Gwaai Edenshaw, Jaalen Edenshaw, Graham Richard, and Leonie Sandercock. This is my first time hearing Inupiaq spoken, so that’s really cool. I loved the community-centred narrative, and the slice-of-life feel of the village and its dynamics. The Haida language was nearly extinct, was hearing this whole film from native speakers is a real privilege. This was incredibly visceral in places, especially the descent into madness and grief of Adiits’ii. Island of Haida Gwaii, northern Canada, 19th century. During a fishing gathering, Adiits’ii commits an unfortunate act. Tormented, he runs away to the wilderness as his mind embraces madness.
  • undertone (2025) dir. Ian Tuason, written by Ian Tuason. This is a Canadian-US collab, written and directed by a Filipino-Canadian director. I’m counting it as Canadian for this reason, and also because Black Fawn Films funding this are also Canadian, alongside US studio Spooky Pictures and a US-based distributor. I really appreciated the concept here and the slowburn of the script. I think it would have been better with headphones for a first watch… The motherhood themes here are fairly standard horror fare – the mother vs the anti-mother, the nurturer vs the destroyer, and I can see why these themes are so relevant for today in North America. This is also very Catholic, which I’m guessing is Tuason’s religious background, so the stark contrast of mother/anti-mother makes more sense in that context. The host of a popular paranormal podcast becomes haunted by terrifying recordings mysteriously sent her way.
Chilean Horror
  • Wekufe: El origen del mal/Wekufe: The Origin of Evil (2016) dir. Javier Attridge, written by Javier Attridge. Loved this, honestly. I really enjoyed the discussion of the folklore, and whose it was, where it came from, and the prevalence of its belief regardless. A student travels with her boyfriend to Chiloé, remote Patagonia island in southern Chile, to investigate the link that exists between the high number of sexual related crimes and the myths and legends that surround this mysterious place.
  • La casa lobo/Wolf House (2018) dirs. Cristóbal León, Joaquín Cociña, written by Cristóbal León, Alejandra Moffat, and Joaquín Cociña. Framed as a propaganda film to promote The Colony (La Colonia Dignidad) founded by paedophile Paul Shafer, with former Nazis and trafficked children, this is a stopmotion animated nightmare of a girl who escapes, is chased by a wolf, and finds shelter in a strange house that changes and distorts along with the two little pigs she finds there. It’s a disturbing origin story for the colony which is also an amazing piece of art.
Chinese Horror
  • 三更客栈/Midnight Inn (2024) dir. Chen Jiaolong, written by Cui Zouzhao. An anthology of strange and macabre tales with a framed narrative that is also a mystery, in Mandarin. Listed as horror on IMDb, but not on Letterboxd. The Midnight Inn, a place that operates around midnight, serving as both a mortuary and a rest stop, reopens after ten years, drawing in unexpected guests. Each one claims a strange connection to a corpse that’s been dead for years, giving rise to a complex weave of enigmas.
  • 白雲齋怪話 /Baiyun Ghost House/Weird Stories of Baiyun Zhai (2025) dir. Li Zhiwen, written by Li Zhiwen. A fun horror-action plot, Taoist exorcisms and rituals, and lots going on! TW: domestic abuse. Rumour has it that calamity befalls anyone associated to the coffin shop called Baiyun Ghost House. First, Liu Mazi is killed by a water ghost in the well, and then the butcher is possessed by a ghost and his whole family is killed. As bizarre things happen one after another in the town, Mr. Ma, who wanders the mountains, decides that it is necessary to visit Baiyun Ghost House to exorcise evil.
Danish Horror
  • Yndige Mennesker/Adorable Humans (2025) dirs. Anders Jon, Kasper Juhl, Michael Kunov, and Michael Panduro, an anthology film with each segment written by each director. (The Snow Queen segment is sapphic).
    …
    The first tale is a psychosexual spin on Dødningen, [The Dead Man], first published in 1830. Gnarly body horror in this one, and a lot of stuff about power over helpless bodies, necromancy, and an unfortunate care worker, Jonas.
    …
    The second story, The Story of a Mother is bad enough as it is thanks Hans, but the retelling forefronts the depression of an overworked widow confronting Death for the life of her suicidal child, refusing to give him up even when he is rotting away (literally), and is a tough watch.
    …
    The Snow Queen is the most fucked up story anyway, but they made it brutal, sapphic, psychosexual, and religious horror. I thought it was an interesting take on shame and the desire to become the monster you see yourself as – also sapphic shame, specifically, in a Lutheran context. There’s a lot of very visceral body horror here, a lot of internal and external reversals, and ways of seeing yourself.
    …
    The final story, Aunty Toothache, sees a return of Sofie, the love interest in the first segment, as a character in this one, to tie the end to the beginning. This story is basically HCA deciding that toothache is the most powerful thing in the world (as most children in his audience might agree) and uses it to prevent the world from gaining yet another poet. It’s a funny story, but this take on it is really dark. Don’t worry though, the humour is there, and returns at the end when he learns to work with and power through his imposter syndrome, which I think is what Aunty Toothache represents in this one. I hate tooth stuff. The whole using pain/messed up sex/drugs etc to open up has a much more positive ending than the story does – and indeed, veers off in the opposite direction to HCA’s story!
    …
    As supernatural forces slip through the cracks, four destinies are intertwined, and four souls are forced to confront their demons. A young woman’s hope for a fresh start is derailed by a mysterious enchanted mirror, while her psychiatrist is struck by visions of a terrifying accident. In the nearby city, a care worker uncovers dark and perverted secrets as he tends to a dying man, and writer’s block turns demonic for an ambitious musician.
Dutch Horror
  • Amsterdamned (1988) dir. Dick Maas, written by Dick Maas. After watching Sint/Saint dir. Dick Maas, I should have been prepared. This was much better. And also, a fun 1980s Dutch giallo! An aquatic menace! High speed canal boat chases! Plus: ECO HORROR. I really liked it. A mysterious diver hiding in Amsterdam’s canal system embarks on a rampage of gruesome murders, terrifying city officials and leaving few clues for the city’s best detective, who doesn’t suspect that both his new girlfriend and twelve-year-old daughter may be closer than he is to finding the killer.
European Horror
  • The Other Lamb (2019) dir. Małgorzata Szumowska, written by Catherine Smyth-McMullen. This is collaboration between Belgium, Ireland, USA, and UK, with a Polish director and a British writer, performed in English. This is a forest cult of women serving one man, Shepherd, and his daughter Selah, who begins to question her life there. A lot of weird period stuff, as people are indeed very weird about periods, coming-of-age in a repressed religious commune. This is the most fucked up family I’ve seen in a while, and I love the good-for-her at the end. I did also like that the explosion of violence was only in her mind, and the external thing was much quieter and more in-keeping with her character. I think I would have liked to have seen a bit more at the end, but I also really liked that ending as it was. For her entire life, the cult she was born into has been all that teenage Selah has known. Along with a band of similarly cloistered young women she lives seemingly unstuck in time, cut off from modern society in a remote forest commune presided over by a man called Shepherd, a controlling, messiah-like figure with a frightening dark side. But when her insular world is rocked by a series of nightmarish visions and disturbing revelations, Selah begins to question everything about her existence—including her allegiance to the increasingly dangerous Shepherd.
Filipino Horror
  • Nightshift (2020) dir. Yam Laranas, written by Yam Laranas. Part undead horror, part meditation on the nature of death and the afterlife. A lovely bit of Roman Catholic guilt and resurrection anxiety, as a suicidal nurse slowly unravels during a night shift that never ends. I love the framing of a person’s death as their own apocalypse. This is my second Laranas film! I watched Aurora for a previous challenge and very much enjoyed that. I’d like to see more by this director. A young woman is stuck in the morgue – on her first day – working as an assistant to a pathologist when the dead begin to manifest signs of resurrection.
  • Posthouse (2025) dir. Nikolas Red, written by Nikolas Red, Kenneth Dagatan, Jericho Aguado. This is a good one. I liked Lilim, directed by Mikhail Red and written by Nikolas Red, and I loved In My Mother’s Skin directed and written by Kenneth Dagatan, so I was really intrigued by this film for its director and writers. It’s the first film directed by Nikolas Red that I’ve seen. An editor and his daughter work to restore a family heirloom — an old silent horror film — unaware that each frame inches them closer to a dark spirit.
Indian Horror
  • भूत बंगला / Bhooth Bangla (2026) dir. Priyadarshan, written by Rohan Shankar, Priyadarshan, and Abhilash Nair. Hindi horror-comedy, 2hrs45min runtime, in two parts with a musical interlude. I wasn’t bored. The set up is also a fun drama with some romantic overtures, and then we get into the demon action. A man inherits a palace in rural Mangalpur and plans his sister’s wedding there, but strange supernatural events and panicked locals force him to investigate the property’s mysterious past.
  • Junglemahal: The Awakening (2023) dir. Arunava Chowdhury, written by Arunava Chowdhury. I really wanted to like it, but it didn’t hold my attention well enough. The effects are not the best but also not the worst. It is interspersed with footage but it’s not a found footage film. Loosely based on real incidents in the monsoon of the mid-1980s during the uprising of Naxalites in eastern Ghat range. A group of travellers head through the deep forests to reach the rescue camps. A series of mysterious incidents starts taking place around them, as the place is not what it seems.
  • মনিহার/The Lost Jewels (1961) dir. Satyajit Ray, written by Satyajit Ray, based on the short story by Rabindranath Tagore (the English translation, 1917, was a #AScareADay story!) I like how Mani is played really sympathetically, and you see how her mental health is deteriorating as she gets more and more fixated on the jewels that give her self-worth. The story revolves around a woman, who stays in a large mansion with her husband. She develops an obsession for her ornaments and refrains giving them to her husband as they face financial crisis. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V. in 2007.
Indonesian Horror
  • Sundel Bolong (1981) dir. Sisworo Gautama Putra, written by Darto Joned. I’m not really into rape-revenge, but this has some humorous scenes and some great moments – including good old ’80s action sequences. I loved the bit where she killed a guy with her tombstone. A newly-married woman and former prostitute whose husband, a ship’s captain, has gone to sea, is pressured into returning to her old profession. When she refuses, she is violently gang-raped and left pregnant and despondent. She kills herself while attempting to abort the fetus but returns as a vengeful Sundel Bolong, a ghost with a putrid, rotting hole in her back. When the rapists and conspirers start turning up dead, her husband and the police try to put a stop to the violence, once and for all.
  • Primbon (2023) dir. Rudi Soedjarwo, written by Lele Laila. I enjoyed this – a lot of dark family drama, loss, people grieving in incompatible ways, rituals, and a bit of tragedy. It starts with Rana and his best friend Janu who are climbing a mountain in bad weather. In the middle of a dense forest, they got separated and lost. Janu is lucky to be back home at last. But not with Rana. An extensive search was carried out. Rana not found. A week has passed. Rana’s extended family decided to hold a tahlilan. Rana is considered unlikely to have survived and will surely die there. Dini can’t accept that. As a mother, Dini doesn’t want to just give up and still believes that her daughter Rana is still alive. Sure enough. After the tahlilan, Rana came home in the pouring rain.
  • Shutter (2025) dir. Herwin Novianto, written by Alim Sudio, based on the 2004 original Thai film written by Sophon Sakdaphisit, Banjong Pisanthanakun, and Parkpoom Wongpoom. God, poor Lilies. Men ain’t shit, babe. Kill them all. This is the second remake of the Thai 2004 original, after the Japanese 2005 remake. I haven’t seen these, so I started with the most recent one. I was curious to see what they’ve done with this 20 years later! Indonesia has also remade the Turkish Siccin films so I’m on the lookout for these too. After a senior analog photographer discovers the spectral image of a former college student haunting his photos and coming to life, his girlfriend investigates the phantom, uncovering a horrific past crime that is now claiming his friends’ lives one by one.
Irish Horror
  • The Canal (2014) dir. Ivan Kavanagh, written by Ivan Kavanagh. A UK/Ireland collaboration. This had a good premise. Domestic violence horror that makes the perpetrator sympathetic, and uses vaginal birth as a body horror shock moment. I’m a bit over that. It’s a good creepy story, but I had some issues with it, so it’s not a highlight. A man who suspects his wife is cheating on him begins having nightmarish visions of an evil presence that he believes inhabits his house.
  • An Taibhse/The Ghost (2024) dir. John Farrelly, written by John Farrelly. This was apparently the first Horror movie to be released in Irish, but Fréamhacha/Frewaka had its wide release the same year. An Taibshe didn’t get a wider release of its own until 2026, when it was picked up by Prime. This is a rough watch – not perfect, but very atmospheric, claustrophobic, and disturbing. Child abuse & alcoholism alert. Amid the barren landscape of post-famine Ireland, a father and daughter struggle to survive the brutal winter as caretakers of a remote mansion, only to be driven to the edge of sanity by the horrors lurking within.
Italian Horror
  • La settima tomba/The Seventh Grave (1965) dir. Garibaldi Serra Caracciolo, written by Alessandro Santini, Antonio Casale, and Garibaldi Serra Caracciolo. When the English title card appeared as “Old Scotland” at the start, I knew I was in for a treat with this Italian Gothic. Set in the 1800s, an American family travels to Scotland for the reading of Sir Reginald Thorne’s last will and testament—not expecting that the trip will lead them to black magic séances, mad doctors, escaped lepers, and giallo-style killings! Missing for a half-century, Garibaldi Serra Caracciolo’s THE SEVENTH GRAVE is a fascinating twist on THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1927 USA-made silent Horror, remade under that title in 1939 [USA] and 1978 [UK]) that ranks as one of the rarest and strangest Italian Gothic films ever made. Watched on YouTube.
  • Il mostro dell’opera/The Monster of the Opera (1964) dir. Renato Polselli, written by Giuseppe Pellegrini, Ernesto Gastaldi, and Renato Polselli. If you love weird dream sequences, extended dance numbers, and jaded musical theatre performers winding each other up and getting off with each other, this is the one. There’s also a vampire. A theatre troupe’s young, energetic leader has secured an old theatre in which to produce his new production. The theatre’s elderly caretaker urges the group to leave at once. A vampire is awakened and discovers that one of the troupe is the reincarnation of the woman who he once loved. Watched on YouTube.
  • Demonia (1990) dir. Lucio Fulci, written by Piero Regnoli and Lucio Fulci. Professor Malcolm Evans leads his archaeological expedition into the Valley of Temples in southeast Sicily. His companion and former student, Liza Harris, is looking forward to her very first dig. But Liza feels a strange sympathy with the valley and her recurring nightmares seem strongly tied to the nearby ruins. She is drawn to the remains of a 16th Century convent and its grisly legend of crucifixion. The local villagers rise to protect the entombed secrets of their ancestors, as Liza’s obsession with uncovering the truth takes her deeper into the forbidden ruins and further from sanity!
  • Ecologia del delitto / A Bay of Blood (1971) dir. Mario Bava, written by Filippo Ottoni, Mario Bava, Giuseppe Zaccariello, and Gene Luotto, from a story by Gianfranco Barberi and Dardano Sacchetti. I cannot believe I’ve never seen this before. It’s a seminal work!! I have to say, the opening is a banger of a scene, and I do prefer the Italian title (trans. Ecology of Crime) to the English one. I love the insect vs squid-killing conversation. Such good dialogue in this. All the characters are shady, and it’s a real ’70s joy. An elderly heiress is killed by her husband who wants control of her fortunes. What ensues is an all-out murder spree as relatives and friends attempt to reduce the inheritance playing field, complicated by some teenagers who decide to camp out in a dilapidated building on the estate.
  • La notte dei diavoli/The Night of the Devils (1972) dir. Giorgio Ferroni written by Eduardo Manzanos, Romano Migliorini, and Gianbattista Mussetto, based on the short story ‘The Family of the Vourdalak’ originally written in French by Aleksey Tolstoy (not to be confused with his famous second cousin Leo Tolstoy, who wrote War and Peace). I loved the recent French adaptation of this story, La Vourdalak (2023), and the 13min animated version from the series Red Iron Road. I haven’t seen this version, which sets it in the contemporary 1970s, but the English dub is atrocious. I couldn’t change it. The French subtitles were wildly different to what they were saying in the dub, and probably much closer to the actual lines (in Italian), so I switched to the original audio with French subtitles so I could read them, and auto-translated to English. In this adaptation of Tolstoy’s story the Wurdulak, a mentally ill patient known as Nicola flashes back to horrifying experiences that he encountered while driving through the country. Upon damaging his car, Nicola sets out for help, only to meet a mysterious family that lives in total fear of someone or something. This evil force slowly penetrates the household and thrusts each of its members into a frenzy of absolute terror.
  • Lycanthropus/Werewolf In A Girl’s Dormitory (1961) dir. Paolo Heusch, written by Ernesto Gastaldi. This is an interesting early Italian Gothic take on werewolves, and follows in the tradition of equating them with sexual assault (possibly popularised in the 20thC by Guy Endor’s 1933 novel, adapted several times for the screen). It’s also a blunt take on sexual politics, touching on double standards and other topics at the forefront of conversations around feminism in the early 1960s, and the female body as a site of male achievement and contestation. The new science teacher Dr. Julian Olcott with a mysterious past arrives in an institutional boarding school for troublemaker girls. Along the night, the intern Mary Smith, who is blackmailing another teacher – Sir Alfred Whiteman – with some love letters, is slaughtered by a werewolf. The detective in charge of the investigation attributes the crime to a wolf, while her mate Priscilla believes she was killed by Sir Alfred. On the next days, other deaths happen in the school, reducing the list of suspects.
  • Schreie in der Nacht/The Unnaturals (1969) dir. Antonio Margheriti, written by Antonio Margheriti. German-Italian collaboration, but I’m putting it under Italian for the director. Gothic melodrama, where it’s all about cheating lovers, murder, and documents proving corruption or something. Evil lesbians ahoy. It’s part of the predatory lesbian trope, and definitely written by a man. Hence the title. During a thunderstorm, a group of members of London’s high society seek refuge in a remote mansion in the countryside. They are received by Uriat and his mother, who appears to be able to communicate with the dead. The guests engage in a séance, but it will reveal each and everyone’s darkest secrets.
  • Lo strano vizio della Signora Wardh/The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh (1971) dir. Sergio Martino, written by Vittorio Caronia, Ernesto Gastaldi, and Eduardo Manzanos. This one felt very Men Writing Women in a lot of places, and it hasn’t really aged well. I’m sure some women do see others as competition, but that’s not my scene. This is a well-shot giallo, though, with a plot that kept me engaged. The ending was fantastic, genuinely. Good for her. When socialite and heiress Julie Wardh begins receiving blackmail letters attributed to a mysterious serial killer, she suspects her cruel and sadistic former lover Jean is behind them. With her husband Neil frequently out of town, she falls into the arms of her friend’s cousin George, and as the unknown assassin begins to make his move, she fears that one of the three men in her life may be the killer.
Japanese Horror
  • ８番出口/Exit 8 (2026) dir. Genki Kawamura, written by Kentaro Hirase and Genki Kawamura. Never-ending spaces creep me out, so I really had to fight my fears to watch this one!! This is so eerie, weird, and bizarre. The guy having asthma also was a good touch because it was really awful to hear him wheezing and not know if he would get out before his pump ran out. Also, I hate subways and being trapped underground, so this was just extra grim. Really well made. A man trapped in an endless sterile subway passageway sets out to find Exit 8. The rules of his quest are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don’t, carry on. Then leave from Exit 8. But even a single oversight will send him back to the beginning. Will he ever reach his goal and escape this infinite corridor?
  • 婆/Onibaba (1964) dir. Kaneto Shindō, written by Kaneto Shindō. This is a great film – I can’t believe I haven’t seen it before. It’s such a good premise and I love the elements of it, the grim reality of warfare set against questions of what it is to be human. I liked the pacing too, although I was surprised how late in the film the mask shows up (due to the poster and the things I knew about it beforehand). While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can’t steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.
  • ミンナのウタ/Sana (2023) dir. Takashi Shimizu, written by Rumi Kakuta and Takashi Shimizu. Japanese ghost girl who likes killing kittens gets freaky with some pop stars in this creepy tale from Shimizu, director of Tomie: Rebirth and a whole load of Ju-On films. I really liked the ending. I need to rewatch this when I’m not distracted by waiting for a package that then gets delivered to my neighbour with a nice pic of their front door. Added to my Music Horror list. Takashi Shimizu’s newest film is about a mysterious cassette tape containing a melody. People who hear this melody gradually begin to hum it themselves and become involved in a mysterious incident. What is the mystery behind this melody?
  • 編集霊 deleted/Henshurei: deleted (2023) dir. Seiji Chiba, written by Seiji Chiba. I don’t enjoy using facial differences or use of disability as a scare, but this is a competent indie horror movie aside from that. And I did like the ending for the ghost but the very last scene was a bit abrupt. An assistant editor and assistant producer discover a mysterious ghost in the footage of a movie project they are working on. As they work on the project a series of strange deaths begin to occur.
Malaysian Horror
  • Mikael: Pemburu Dua Alam/Mikael: Hunter of Two Realms (2026) dir. Zahir Omar, written by June Tan . So, I liked this for the action sequences mixed with horror-comedy, which is the first local Malay film to have these elements in combination. It has fun characters and a decent plot, which could have been a little more fleshed out in places. The few seconds of very brief animation flashback looked similar to the AI animations I’ve seen. Some reviewers say this is an AI sequence – it does look like that, and it’s a shame.
  • Tiger Stripes (2023) dir. Amanda Nell Eu, written by Amanda Nell Eu . This is Eu’s first feature film. In her work, she explores the female body and identity within the cultural context of Southeast Asia, and Tiger Stripes is an exploration of puberty and transformative rage in a Malaysian school girl as she finds herself changing in strange ways. A carefree student at an all-girls school shows unusual symptoms when she begins puberty, forcing her to grapple with a mysterious and visceral power.
Nigerian Horror
  • Clout (2021) dir. Bobby Emmanuel Okoye, written by Bobby Emmanuel Okoye and Promise Okoli. No-budget found-footage horror. Suffers from shaky handheld cam in parts and a plot that’s not always cohesive, but they clearly enjoyed making it and give it 110%, so that’s a full extra star. Six friends embark on a journey to investigate the mysteries of the Ozalia Forest in Nigeria. Watch on YouTube.
  • Araromire / The Figurine: Araromire (2009) dir. Kunle Afolayan, written by Kemi Adesoye. This one is a bit long for me. I didn’t know what to expect, but it’s more of a slice of life soap opera drama that goes slowly downhill with a twist at the end, and I’m into that. This one actually plays with the ideas in Obsession (not quite the same) – what happens when you realise you’re only the pregnant wife of the love of you life because he has an idol that made it so? Or is that even what’s happening at all? Two buddies and a girl, down on their luck, have their lives changed when one of them discovers a mysterious figurine in an abandoned shrine which, according to legend, bestows seven years of good luck. But no one told them about the next seven years… Watched on YouTube.
  • Haunted (1998) dir. Chico Ejiro (can’t find writer information). This one wasn’t really for me, I liked the drama of it, and the dynamics, but the audio quality of the version I saw really spoiled it for me. I don’t think it’s a bad film – there’s a lot of nostalgia and love for this one, which I totally appreciate! Bobby, a man who has it all, is suddenly diagnosed with leukaemia and told he has only 3 months left to live. While he deals with this news, dark secrets become uncovered as several supernatural forces begin to appear in his life. Watched on YouTube.
  • Igodo: The Land of the Living Dead (1999) dirs. Andy Amenechi and Don Pedro Obaseki, written by Don Pedro Obaseki and Kabat Esosa Egbon. I can see why this is a classic, and so highly regarded. The drama is up to 11 right out of the gate. It has a good storyline, and it’s got such a lot of passion and drama in it. I found it on YouTube split by disc. This tale that takes place in a village where people are dying randomly. The Igwe calls a meeting of the elders and the witch doctor. One elder has a story to tell: The story of Amadioha. The secrets of the story hold the key their misfortune. On YouTube: [Part 1][Part 2] – another version of Part 2, similar quality, is here.
Norwegian Horror
  • Vikingulven/Viking Wolf (2022) dir. Stig Svendsen, written by Stig Svendsen and Espen Aukan. Espen Aukan is the writer of the Troll films, which I also really enjoy. I discovered this one while looking for she-wolves among the werewolf films for the Werewolf Women sub-series of blog posts. This one is a coming-of-rage story about a teen girl who moves from Oslo to a rural town after the death of her father. She’s adjusting to all the changes in her life, as well as her mum’s new husband, and witnesses a classmate being killed in the woods. She gets scratched, and starts changing. I actually really liked this, as it doesn’t do the ‘magical periods’ thing that some werewolf films do, and it focuses on the psychological element of Thale’s character. After witnessing a grotesque murder at a party in her new town, a teenager starts having strange visions and bizarre desires.
  • Kraken (2026) dir. Pål Øie, written by Vilde Eide, Kjersti Helen Rasmussen, and Natasha Arthur. The CGI on this is fairly decent for the budget. And genuinely, I get really freaked out by massive sea creatures and the shots from above built tension so well. Reminded me of the shot of Maxine Minx swimming just ahead of the gator she didn’t know was behind her in X. I also really fucking hate parasites. The soundtrack was really good as well. Really liked it. A marine biologist is doing research on a fish farm when she encounters several strange occurrences. Along with the brutal deaths of two teenagers, all signs point to the deep fjord; can there be more to the depths than the eye can see?
South African Horror
  • Pou/Peacock (2023) dir. Jaco Minnaar, written by Jaco Minnaar and David Cornwell. Queer Afrikaans Gothic, in conversation with apartheid, racism, and the spectre of colonialism. Not an easy watch if you struggle with depictions of dementia, either. POU is a South African gothic horror following the journey of a young woman into the dark recesses of the Afrikaner psyche and its compromised past.
South Korean Horror
  • 곤지암/Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018) dir. Jung Bum-shik, written by Park Sang-min and Jung Bum-shik. It’s a pretty good use of the “found footage” genre, taking into live footage, and it plays with different ratios and frames on screen, so it feels more immersive. There are some good moments and a lot of young people screaming, and the ending is suitably bleak. The crew of a horror web series travels to an abandoned asylum for a live broadcast, but they encounter much more than expected as they move deeper inside the nightmarish old building.
  • 경성학교: 사라진 소녀들/The Silenced (2015) dir. Lee Hae-young, written by Lee Hae-young and Lee Yong-ju. Set during the Japanese occupation of Korea, sinister goings-on are afoot at an all-girls boarding school. The violation of the girls is insidious, in the form of medical experiments to create supersoldiers, and there’s a good scene that shows what rewards await collaborators… A sickly girl Ju-ran transfers to a new sanitorium boarding school to regain health. But she discovers that students are disappearing and notices abnormal changes happening to her body. She suspects the school for what’s happening and tries to discover what secret is hidden.
  • 늑대사냥/Project Wolf Hunting (2022) dir. Kim Hong-sun, written by Kim Hong-sun. I’ve wanted to watch this one for a while now, as it’s one I found in for my Crime Doesn’t Pay list. I have to say, I really am enjoying whatever is wrong with Kim Hong-sun. It’s a great film. I do like a good action thriller-horror. One character who isn’t a main character does have a guy suck his dick, but that’s incidental, and I wouldn’t give it a rainbow for that. While under heavily armed guard, the dangerous convicts aboard a cargo ship unite in a coordinated escape attempt that soon escalates into a bloody, all-out riot. But as the fugitives continue their brutal campaign of terror, they soon discover that not even the most vicious among them is safe from the horror they unknowingly unleashed from the darkness below deck.
  • 이어도/ Ioeh Island (1977) dir. Kim Ki-young, written by Ha Yu-Sang, based on the novel by Yi Cheong-jun. This is an eco-folk horror from Korea, which swings around themes of infertility, addiction, loss, and climate change. It’s about so many things, and I wonder how well it has adapted the novel? Some laud this as a masterpiece, so I think there is a lot to get out of this film and its narrative structure, which doesn’t come from a single viewing. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to watch this, and I should really have watched something else and saved this for another time. I think it’s one I will have to return to properly, but for now – not a highlight. A company hopes to open a spa hotel named after Ieodo, a mythical island inhabited by the souls of drowned sailors. During a study trip to the proposed location of the hotel, a journalist disappears under mysterious circumstances. One of the contractors goes to Ieodo’s neighboring island, populated by widows of the dead sailors, to unravel the mystery.
Mexican Horror
  • El fantasma de la casa roja/The Phantom of the Red House (1956) dir. Miguel M. Delgado, written by Miguel M. Delgado. A very fun horror-comedy, complete with cute devil costumes and musical numbers. I watched a YouTube version, with English dubbing you can’t remove, but the voice acting is pretty good. It has The Cat and the Canary vibes, and a brilliant housekeeper. A millionaire’s ghost watches while his heirs murder each other over his fortune.
  • The Bees (1978) dir. Alfredo Zacarías, written by Alfredo Zacarías. Mexican-US collab, eco-horror. I wasn’t sure where to put this – under US or Mexico. I’ve put it under Mexico for now. I really like 1970s eco-horrors for their messaging and their exploitation cinema vibezzzzz. This one is great. Corporate smuggling of South American killer bees into the United States results in huge swarms terrorizing the northern hemisphere. A small team of scientists work desperately to destroy the threat, but the bees soon mutate into a super-intelligent species that threatens the world.
Spanish Horror
  • El celo/Presence of Mind (1999) dir. Antonio Aloy, written by Barbara Gogny, Mitch Brian, and Antonio Aloy. Original writer: Henry James. A Turn of the Screw adaptation that leans into the very weird, inappropriate sensuousness of it, and is one of the better versions. Nice to see Sadie Frost in a role that isn’t Lucy (I recognised her from Coppola’s Dracula). A governess, caring for two children at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted and the children are under an evil influence.
Swedish Horror
  • Draug (2018) dirs. Karin Engman, Klas Persson, written by Klas Persson. This should have been an easy 4 stars, but apparently I’m not into blue ladies looking like they stepped out of Ancient Aliens, and that’s on me. However – it was very funny in places, there was some great line delivery and I really enjoyed it. Also some really creepy moments. The scenery does a lot of the heavy-lifting in terms of atmosphere, and I really appreciated that. The cinematographer (also Klas Persson) knew how to use it. Very decent low budget indie folk horror. In the 11th century a missionary goes missing somewhere in the huge forests bordering the northern parts of Sweden. Among the rescue party chosen to find him is Nanna, a young woman on her first real mission and her first return to the part of the country where she was born. But what they will find deep inside those woods is something else entirely. Something dark. Something ancient. Something evil.
  • Koko-Di Koko-Da (2019) dir. Johannes Nyholm, written by Johannes Nyholm. A Danish-Swedish collab, which is a wild ride of trauma pouring out of a bereaved couple after the death of their little daughter. Surrealist time loop in the woods. As a couple goes on a trip to find their way back to each other, a sideshow artist and his shady entourage emerge from the woods, terrorizing them, luring them deeper into a maelstrom of psychological terror and humiliating slapstick.
Turkish Horror
  • Siccîn 5 (2018) dir. Alper Mestçi, written by Alper Mestçi. This one is a proper tangled family web of tragedy and deceit. Azra’s brother killed their father over a house sale and vanished 12 years ago, and Azra now lives with her mum, her sister-in-law, and her young niece Hale. Hale is a sickly albino girl possessed by djinn who are owed a sacrifice (Azra). Azra wants to marry Selim, and his friends with Selim’s sister Ebru. Selim starts seeing things, Ebru starts seeing things, all of the things are warnings for Selim not to marry Azra. Shit generally hits the fan. Hale’s father disappeared before she was born and was never seen again. Hale sees a nightmare of a terrible night; her father, whom she never saw, invites her to an old and uncanny home.
  • Siccîn 6 (2019) dir. Alper Mestçi, written by Alper Mestçi. This is the one where Orhan (Adnan Koç) comes back into the series properly. He was in Siccîn 4 as well, but I can’t remember what he did in that (I’m guessing he helped them out somehow). It’s been years since I’ve seen that one! Gönül Ürer also appears as the late Hacer, mostly a photo of her but also as a ghost, but she gets to shine in later entries to the franchise. Also: haunted soup. A girl is haunted by an evil spirit in her family home. Several bad things begin to happen around her house and to her family members. An old character rises back and tries to save the family from their doomed fate.
  • Siccîn 7 (2024) dir. Alper Mestçi, written by Alper Mestçi. Meral (played by Funda Eskioğlu, whom you’ll also find in Dabbe 6) literally had ONE job. Admittedly the job was to bury a kid alive, but you need to stand by your commitments. Gönül Ürer once more plays the unsettling elderly woman, knocking the role out of the park. Orhan is back, played by Adnan Koç. I think the only ones he isn’t in are 1, 2, and 5? A woman intent on fulfilling the conditions of a ritual insinuates herself into a family home.
  • Siccîn 8 (2025) dir. Alper Mestçi, written by Alper Mestçi. This franchise isn’t my favourite one, but I do enjoy it. I think I prefer the Dabbe films personally, but I really liked Siccin 3 and Siccin 2, and this one was domestic melodrama dialled up to 11. Lovely performance from Gönül Ürer as the grandmother. Fatih, who lives with his family in his mother Gönül’s house, cannot stand the pressure of his wife Berna and puts his beloved mother in a nursing home. However, the silence that descends on the house after this decision is a harbinger of an approaching storm rather than peace. The house is no longer under their control; a dark force has insidiously surrounded every corner. As the paranormal events become increasingly frightening, Fatih’s guilty conscience weighs heavily on his shoulders. Finally, he decides to bring his mother back from the nursing home. But it is no longer his mother who returns home…Every secret comes with a price. And secrets written in blood never go to the grave!
  • Siccîn 9 (2026) dir. Alper Mestçi, written by Alper Mestçi. Wake up babe, the Bloodline Curse just dropped! Here’s the latest in the franchise, it’s as batshit as the rest of them, Orhan is back, and we’re basically facing two plots at once with a lot of surrealism weaving the viewing experience together into whatever this is. This one has pregnancy horror, and the curse is kicked off thanks to a violent act perpetrated by an intellectually disabled man. Lots of warnings. I would put the description of the film here, but neither Letterboxd nor IMDb actually accurately describe what the film is about or who anyone is in relation to each other, so that would just make it more confusing.
  • Ölü Kontesin Laneti/Curse of the Dead Countess (2025) dir. Ahmet Arpacı, written by Ahmet Arpacı. An indie film with very low budget. Three stars for effort, the singer, and the Evil Dead rip off plot. Also love that this one is a cursed amulet and not jinn possession! (As we know from Dabbe: Cin Çarpması, one in EVERY FIVE people are possessed by jinn). This is a rare Turkish horror movie that is not about that one person. Tutku, a university student, is researching an old necklace for her thesis. Guided by her professor, she will visit another professor to hear about past events related to the necklace.
  • Dabbe (2006) dir. Hasan Karacadağ, written by Hasan Karacadağ. It’s time to catch up on the full Dabbe franchise! I’ve seen 4+5 and they are really good, still my favourites so far. Hasan Karacadağ is a big loss to the film industry – he fell foul of the political environment due to social media comments made around the coup, which meant he had to leave Türkiye for Japan (apparently). This has some good use of found footage, but isn’t a found footage film. It’s a vehicle for some philosophy and theological pontificating, but ultimately it’s a pretty good horror. The horror also originates in the USA and is imported to Türkiye, where it causes the destruction of Turkish youth, and I think that’s an inherently geopolitical statement from Karacadağ about the dangers of US cultural-imperialism and its insidious nature. A cruel suicide wave spreads from the United States to a small Turkish town, where a man kills himself after spending time on the computer. His friends are still getting disturbing emails from him.
  • Gudubet (Ölmek İstemiyorum) / Hideous Creature (I Don’t Want To Die) (2025) dir. Mehmet Tan, written by Yilmaz Suvaci. This film is on Letterboxd & logged there, but with it has the bare minimum of info, so I’ve linked to IMDb. It was a dark and stormy night, and Gran was found dead in her chair. Family rivalry and drama right off the bat. This is a Turkish slasher with a creepy girl and her doll, a killer on the loose on a dark and stormy night, and a dysfunctional family. Unfortunately, they give the game away too soon, but the twist is pretty good and nearly saves it. There is no plot description on Letterboxd or IMDb.
  • İfrit’in Diyeti: Cinnia (2016) dirs. Sahin Yigit and Özgür Özberk, written by Ibrahim Hakki Öztürk. Not the best, this one, but it’s a fun way to pass the time if you don’t mind Elif screaming every five seconds. I found it a bit choppy, but the twist did please me. Based on real events. What do you think will happen if three close friends decide to make a film, especially one about jinn, and ask for help from a Mühr-ü Vekil they don’t know? Murat and Yusuf are two good friends who share the same house and have a bond of destiny. Elif is Murat’s one and only love. These three young people decide to make a horror film centered on the theme of jinn. In search of a solid story, they seek the help of a Mühr-ü Vekil living in the area, unaware that they will become the main characters in the horror story they are seeking, and end up experiencing the horror of their own story.
  • Üç Harfliler: Nazar (2024) dir. Melodi Tözüm, written by Melodi Tözüm. (I’m going off her IG – I think the IMDb bio has mistranslated the Turkish neutral pronoun ‘o’ as ‘he’ when it also means ‘she’ or ‘it’.) This one tackles violence against women and girls, and the avenues open for their vengeance and reclamation of their agency. It’s worth noting that in the description of the film, the majority of what it describes happens with a broad brush in the first 10min. Zeliha makes a deal with the three-lettered ones in the hope of having a grandchild. However, she must give them her granddaughter Nazar when she reaches puberty and takes her first steps into womanhood. When the time comes, her son and daughter-in-law do not honor the agreement, so they are sacrificed by the three-lettered ones in exchange for Nazar. Facing a harsh fate, Zeliha renounces the spell and decides to dedicate her life to her granddaughter. That is, until Nazar is sexually abused and brutally murdered at the age of 17. The painful death of her granddaughter awakens a desire for revenge in Zeliha, but this time on a deeper and darker path.
  • Üç Harfliler 3: Karabüyü/Three Letters: Black Magic (2016) dir. Alper Mestçi, written by Alper Mestçi. Melodrama amped up to 11 with this one. I think I preferred Nazar, but this has Mestçi’s signature all over it and I enjoy that. I’m using the IMDb description as that makes more sense (edited by me). Kadir is a man victimized by his mother’s black magic to separate him from every woman, including his wife, that would ever think of approaching him But things go contrary to his mother’s expectations.
UK Horror
  • The Cat and the Canary (1978) dir. Radley Metzger, written by Radley Metzger and John Willard. The opening sequence culminates in a shot of a cat strung up from a tree, and then the plot happens. This is based on the play version by John Willard. I really love this one, it’s such a British banger. Cyrus West is played by Wilfrid Hyde-White, a fabulous character actor of film, stage, and TV, who does a fantastic job. I laughed out loud all the way through his speech. Really enjoyable. I much prefer this one to the Italian Gothic version! I choose to read certain characters as gay, but that’s implicit so I hesitate to give the rainbow symbol. A group of potential heirs gather in a forbidding old house to learn which of them will inherit a fortune. Later, they learn that a flesh-rending maniac is loose.
  • Tarry-Dan Tarry-Dan Scarey Old Spooky Man (1978) dir. John Reardon, written by Peter McDougall. I was really hesitant to watch this as I wasn’t sure which way it was going to go – I gave it a shot and I was really impressed. It’s a good bit of Cornish drama, with teen angst and the psychological unravelling of a boy convinced he’s some kind of mystical knight, obsessed with an old tramp whom the kids make fun of. He learns of a terrible burden his family line must bear, which he cannot outrun or avoid. This is a great one. It’s 47min, so it counts for the Challenge (films must have a minimum of 45min runtime). When he finds himself plagued with nightmares about a historic battle fought on the site of the village he lives in, delinquent Cornish teenager Jonah Grattan becomes obsessed with a potential link to a local homeless man.
  • The Descent (2005) dir. Neil Marshall, written by Neil Marshall. I had this logged as “Watched” and fancied it after The Cave (2005). It became apparent that I had not, in fact, watched this film at all. I think I saw the opening few scenes and for some reason stopped there and never finished it. Watching it AFTER The Cave was the right choice. This is much better, it’s Neil Marshall at his peak, and it’s got a load of really gnarly survival moments before we even get to the monsters. I think it’s much higher stakes than The Cave, because it’s not state of the art equipment and flashy gear. This film is just a bunch of experienced cavers with standard gear and their psychological traumas deep underground, and that makes for a really compelling, tense narrative. Now I’ve actually seen it, I would def put this on the rewatch pile. After a personal tragedy, Sarah joins her friends on a caving expedition in the Appalachian Mountains. But when a rockfall traps them deep underground, their adventure turns into a nightmare. As they search for a way out, the group discovers they are not alone—lurking in the darkness are savage, cave-dwelling creatures. With rising tension and dwindling trust, the women must fight to survive against both the predators and each other.
  • The Convent/Heretiks (2018) dir. Paul Hyett, written by Conal Palmer and Paul Hyett from a story by Gregory Blair. Paul Hyett directed one of my favourite werewolf films, Howl (2015), so I was really excited to come across this one. First off, we don’t have nuns butting in during the Witch Trials under the famously Protestant James VI of Scotland and I of England, because of the Reformation (under Henry VIII). We’re not letting that stand in the way. Aside from the faulty historical premise, which I’m choosing to believe is due to this being an Alternate Universe (AU) where the Reformation never happened, it’s a serviceable piece of Gothic supernatural drama with religious horror trappings. During the 17th century, a young woman is saved from execution and led to a priory to repent her sins but discovers a greater evil lies within.
  • To Fire You Come at Last (2023) dir. Sean Hogan, written by Sean Hogan. This is 45min, so counts towards the Challenge. Watched as part of All The Haunts Be Ours Box Set Vol 2, (Severin Films). I really enjoyed the tight focus on the 4 men throughout, and the script made a good stab at sounding period-accurate. It was very much like watching a stage play in some respects. I could see this working really well as a theatre piece with minimalistic staging, or as an immersive piece of theatre. What I would have liked in the dialogue is more hints of the Squire’s sins, and I think the dialogue at times sacrificed clarity to style. I did like the chapters, and the way this was shot. In rural 17th-century England, a group of men gather to carry a coffin on the long walk to the local graveyard for burial. Much ancient folklore and superstition surround the pathway to the church, and several of the party are afraid to walk it after dark. Squire Marlow, the grieving father of the dead man, promises to double their wages if they agree to make the mysterious journey full of unexpected revelations.
  • Robin Redbreast (1970) dir. James MacTaggart, written by John Bowen. I loved Bowen’s scripts for Ghost Stories for Christmas, so I was very curious about this one. It’s a classic for a reason. It reminded me a bit of Darklands (premise similarities) and Hammer Films’ The Witches (1966). After the break-up of a long-term relationship, urban sophisticate Norah seeks refuge in a remote house in the country.
  • The Asphyx (1972) dir. Peter Newbrook, written by Brian Comport. An enjoyable take on Mary Shelley’s short story The Mortal Immortal meets Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer, with a dash of the Russian folktale, The Soldier & Death. I don’t normally like doomed immortal stories but this was engaging and a really fun Gothic Horror, with a good family drama at the core… and an immortal guinea pig. Hugo is a brilliant turn-of-the-century scientist, loved and respected by his family and friends, admired by his colleagues. But he is a man quickly becoming obsessed with a curious and frightening question…What is the mysterious apparition found in the photographs of his dying subjects?
  • Asylum (1972) dir. Roy Ward Baker, written by Robert Bloch. An anthology of fairly predictable horror shorts with an interesting frame narrative, very 1970s British, and very Blochian at the same time. Decent. A young psychiatrist applies for a job at a mental asylum and must pass a test by interviewing four patients. He must figure out which of the patients, is in fact, the doctor that he would be replacing if hired.
  • The Innocents (1961) dir. Jack Clayton, written by William Archibald and Truman Capote. The classic tale of child abuse trauma in an isolated country house. Another The Turn of the Screw adaptation, and this one is an influential classic film version in its own right. In a mid-19th century Essex country house, a young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted by ghosts and that the children are being possessed.
  • Ghost Story (1974) dir. Stephen Weeks, written by Philip Norman, Stephen Weeks, and Rosemary Sutcliff . I really enjoyed this one. It has sibcest, well-observed class dynamics, and some great little moments. McFadyn’s Charleston was beautiful. Several old college friends converge at a mansion, ostensibly for a pleasant reunion. Larry Dann, the most easygoing of the bunch, comes to the conclusion that all is not well in the old dark house. For one thing, he’s run across several people whom he’s never met. For another, they all seem to be of a different time and place.
  • Rabbit Trap (2025) dir. Bryn Chainey, written by Bryn Chainey. Chainey is a British-Australian director, and this is a UK-USA collab, but I’m putting it under UK as it’s set in Wales, and has British actors, etc. It’s a really interesting one about the connection between the natural world, music, and magic, so Wales is the perfect place for that. I loved the connection between the Tylwyth Teg and water, which is preserved very subtly in the film, fairy rings, and all sorts of lovely call backs to folklore. When a musician and her husband move to a remote house in Wales, the music they make disturbs local ancient folk magic, bringing a nameless child to their door who is intent on infiltrating their lives.
  • The Shuttered Room (1967) dir. David Greene, written by D.B. Ledrov and Nat Tanchuck, from an original story/stories by H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth. Yeah, I’m sorry guys, but Cobweb (2023) did this whole thing much better. It’s a UK production filmed in Norfolk, with Oliver Reed playing a small town thug, and everyone pretending they are off the coast of New England. Accents vary. In a small island off the American coast, the Whateleys live in an old mill where a mysterious bloody being creates an atmosphere of horror. After her parents get killed by lightning, young Susannah is sent to New York by her aunt Agatha, who wants her to avoid the family curse. Years later Susannah, now married, persuades her husband to spend a holiday in the abandoned mill. Once on the island, Susannah and Mike soon find themselves exposed to the hostility of a gang of thugs led by Ethan, Susannah’s brutal cousin.
  • The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) dir. Alfred Hitchcock, written by Alfred Hitchcock and Eliot Stannard based on the 1913 novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes (expanded from a 1911 short story). What a banger. The story is really engaging and fun, the energy is maximum effort, the inventiveness of the shots to communicate all the elements of the story is top tier. “He might be a bit queer, but he’s a gentleman!” London. A mysterious serial killer brutally murders young blond women by stalking them in the night fog. One foggy, sinister night, a young man who claims his name is Jonathan Drew arrives at the guest house run by the Bunting family and rents a room.
  • Saint Maud (2019) dir. Rose Glass, written by Rose Glass. I knew this was going to be a rough watch, and it was. It’s a really interesting piece of Welsh Gothic though, and a very tense psychological horror. The deterioration of Katie/Maud is really disturbing, and it’s more about (I think) the consequences of untreated and unrecognised mental illness crossing into religious fanaticism, but leaning into the religious fervour and tension of Welsh Revivals as well. I liked this. Having recently found God, self-effacing young nurse Maud arrives at a plush home to care for Amanda, a hedonistic dancer left frail from a chronic illness. When a chance encounter with a former colleague throws up hints of a dark past, it becomes clear there is more to sweet Maud than meets the eye.
  • Schalcken the Painter (1979) dir. Leslie Megahey, written by Leslie Megahey, based on the story by Sheridan Le Fanu. A beautifully shot adaptation – TV Movie for the BBC. They don’t make ’em like this any more. Can Schalcken save his love, Rose, from the clutches of a ghastly suitor before it is too late?
  • The Night Comes Too Soon / The Ghost of Rashmon Hall (1948) dir. Denis Kavanagh, written by Pat Dixon, based on a story by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton. A charming little ghost story made on the cheap, with some radio personalities and some nice spooky atmosphere. When ghosts inhabit an Englishwoman’s home, Dyall, a ghost hunter of sorts, takes on the poltergeists. Developments reveal a trio of spirits that includes a sailor, the seaman’s late wife, and her lover, whom the sailor had shot. Watched on YouTube.
Uruguyan Horror
  • Plenilunio/Fullmoon (1993) dir. Ricardo Islas, written by Ricardo Islas. Honestly, the teens in this act their hearts out. You can tell people enjoyed making this film. What great fight scenes, as well. They gave it everything. The werewolf’s lines go so hard. I also love that it was edited by the director later to avoid the werewolf costume ruining the vibes. Bloody crimes shake a little village. A bunch of teenagers discover the cause of these killings is a werewolf that has arrived to stay. Things turn real wild when the werewolf discovers them. Watched on YouTube (revamped version).
  • La casa muda/The Silent House (2010) dir. Gustavo Hernández, written by Oscar Estévez, from an original story by Gustavo Hernández and Gustavo Rojo, allegedly based on a true event that happened in the 1940s in a Uruguayan village. I saw the remake of this with Elizabeth Olsen that came out the year after, and after traumatising myself with An Taibhse, thought I’d watch this as well for compounded fractures to my psyche. Laura and her father Wilson arrive at a cottage off the beaten path in order to repair it since its owner will soon put the house on sale. They will spend the night there in order to start the repairs the following morning. Everything seems to go on smoothly until Laura hears a sound that comes from outside and gets louder and louder in the upper floor of the house. Wilson goes up to see what is going on while she remains downstairs on her own waiting for her father to come down. The plot is based on a true story that occurred in the 1940s in a small village in Uruguay. La casa muda focuses on the last seventy eight minutes, second by second, as Laura tries to leave the house unharmed and discovers the dark secret it hides.
United States of America Horror
  • Never Let Go (2024) dir. Alexandre Aja, written by Ryan Grassby and Kevin Coughlin. I really appreciated the psychological aspect of this one, and the ambiguity of the situation. The kids were superb actors, definitely both are stars to watch out for. As an evil takes over the world beyond their front doorstep, the only protection for a mother and her twin sons is their house and their family’s protective bond.
  • Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026) dirs. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, written by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy. Been saving this one for the challenge so I knew I had something I’d (hopefully) enjoy, and I love Samara Weaving, and I love the first Ready or Not. So I was up for it. I went in as cold as possible (I saw part of one trailer and no discourse), so it was a real new-to-me treat. Watched in a watch party. Moments after surviving an all-out attack from the Le Domas family, Grace discovers she’s reached the next level of the nightmarish game — and this time with her estranged sister Faith at her side. Grace has one chance to survive, keep her sister alive, and claim the High Seat of the Council that controls the world. Four rival families are hunting her for the throne, and whoever wins rules it all.
  • They Will Kill You (2026) dir. Kirill Sokolov, written by Kirill Sokolov and Alex Litvak. Went in totally cold, had heard of the title but nothing else about it. This one is set in the USA but written and directed by a Russian filmmaker. It took me ages to recognise Tom Felton. It feels like part of the Ready or Not universe. A woman answers a help wanted ad to be a housekeeper in a mysterious New York City high-rise, unaware that she is entering a community that has seen a number of disappearances over the years and may be under the grip of a Satanic cult.
  • Wer (2013) dir. William Brent Bell, written by William Brent Bell and Matthew Peterman. This has A.J. Cook from Criminal Minds (in which she played Special Agent Jennifer “JJ” Jareau), paired with the director of The Boy, which was a good piece of Gothic drama. I was really curious to see how this would play out in a werewolf film, and the result is really good. Also, this is listed as a Romanian film on Letterboxd, but I’m not sure it actually is? It’s set in France with a mix of actors – a lot of them are British. The accused werewolf and his parents are Romanian. A defense attorney begins to suspect that her client, who is charged with the murders of a vacationing family, might be more than meets the eye.
  • The Cave (2005) dir. Bruce Hunt, written by Tegan West and Michael Steinberg. I watched this for Lena Headey. I never finished watching The Descent, but I get why that one was favoured over this. This is a USA-made film but it’s also in collaboration with Romania, Germany, and Denmark. I really liked the cave shots, I thought it had some good action moments, and the creature was a big amphibious monster that was pretty cool. I don’t really get the hate, to be honest. It’s fine. Not a five star watch either, but it’s a perfectly competent creature-feature for a night in. After a group of biologists discovers a huge network of unexplored caves in Romania and, believing it to be an undisturbed eco-system that has produced a new species, they hire the best American team of underwater cave explorers in the world. While exploring deeper into the underwater caves, a rockslide blocks their exit, and they soon discover a larger carnivorous creature has added them to its food chain.
  • Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (2026) dir. Lee Cronin, written by Lee Cronin. This is an Irish director whose short film, Foxes, appeared on my Media Round-Up one month as a highlight, but I’ve been put off his film Vivarium for the way that can be read as an allegory of autism. I wasn’t sure about this one, and I certainly see the critique that it’s more about the spectacle of the effects over the lore. It was a BIG shock coming in from some fairly tame 1990s Nollywood and 1960s stuff to THIS. It took me a while to adjust! It’s also really funny in the way the effects are staged, there are definite beats in there that feel like punchlines. I can see why everyone is making the Evil Dead comparisons. I think, though, that it is a Mummy film. Curses are very Ancient Egypt; the Mummy as a disruptive, destructive force when brought into the modern world, and the curse is unleashed. This is very much in that spirit of Mummy films, I feel – but it also feels much more like a Western demon possession film, even though it has Egyptian actors and Arabic-speaking sections. I think this doesn’t hit the right notes for me as it’s not an Egyptian story, it’s a Western demon possession flick with body horror wrapped up in the packaging of an Egyptian story, and I find that less interesting.
  • Bluebeard (1944) dir. Edgar G. Ulmer, written by Pierre Gendron. I did like this one as a background film, but not sure I’d rewatch it on purpose. It’s a fairly tame noir, set in Paris, with a bit of risqué-for-Forties-cinema goings-on, but essentially a fairly meh serial killer flick starring John Carradine. Young female models are being strangled. Will law enforcement be able to stop the crime wave before more women become victims?
  • The Love Witch (2018) dir. Anna Biller, written by Anna Biller. I can see why the modern setting but 1960s mash-up aesthetic doesn’t work for people, and I found it slightly jarring, but I got into it. I also didn’t especially like the BPD comment. I did, however, really enjoy the way it was shot, and I got into the whole thing. I really didn’t think I’d like it, but it did something for me, and it’s a highlighted watch. A modern-day witch uses spells and magic to get men to fall in love with her, with deadly consequences.
  • Mortuary (2005) dir. Tobe Hooper, written by Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch. Well this is a fun one! Tobe Hooper film 1 of 2 for #HoopTober5.0, and a new-to-me horror so it counts for #100HorrorMoviesIn92Days 2026. I really enjoyed this one – some kid protagonists I didn’t mind spending the runtime with, and a creepy concept. I loved the reanimation and the sneaky little tendrils doing a feed. A family moves to a small California town where they plan on starting a new life running a long-abandoned funeral home. The locals fear the place, suspected to be on haunted ground.
  • You Should Have Left (2020) dir. David Koepp, written by David Koepp, based on the novella by Daniel Kehlmann (origianlly in German, but translated into English). I really wish the film had gone more Weird Fiction with the impossible angles, or even made use of the Welsh setting in any way… I think that would have been a much better and more inventive story than what we ended up with. In Kehlmann’s novella, the house was built by a wizard, and Wales has a lot of wizard myth, and they went with something more prosaic by comparison. In an effort to repair their relationship, a couple books a vacation in the countryside for themselves and their daughter. What starts as a perfect retreat begins to fall apart as one loses their grip on reality, and a sinister force tries to tear them apart.
  • The Cat and the Canary (1927) dir. Paul Leni, written by Walter Anthony, Robert F. Hill, and Alfred A. Cohn, based on the stage play by John Willard. As I enjoyed the British version, the Italian version, and the Mexican version, I thought we’d go with the original Universal Studios version. I didn’t find this one as funny as the British one, and obviously it’s nowhere near as slapstick as the Mexican one, and it’s not as batshit unhinged as the Italian one. I think I regret seeing it last, as it’s a good piece of silent cinema, but it’s not quite as thrilling for me as the others. Still, really good! A group of potential heirs gather in a forbidding old house to learn which of them will inherit a fortune. Later, they learn that a flesh-rending maniac is loose.
Vietnamese Horror
  • Đoạt Hồn/Hollow (2014) dir. Ham Tran, written by Ham Tran. I wasn’t expecting this to be a freaky lucky plant type horror, but here we are. Basically, if it doesn’t get an egg every day, bad stuff happens. But also, I really enjoyed the concept here, and way family is bound together. This is more the anxieties of a pregnant teen and first-time mum than it is a possessed child story. I loved the way the family are bound together, and how the mum, teen daughter, (and her unborn child) and 6yo little sister are at the core of it, mirroring and foiling one another. It reminded me a bit of the Doll franchise (Indonesian) where the secrets of the man in the family lead to some vengeful hauntings. A young girl falls into a river and drowns. When her body is found in a remote village along the river, her uncle arrives to claim her body, only to find that she is very much alive. But when she returns to her family, unexplainable occurrences lead them to believe she is possessed.
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