People love supernatural movies because they are a form of escapism – to escape from the reality that we live in.
They are also a form of wish fulfillment, where we see the protagonist getting what they want and overcoming all odds.
And lastly, it is a way to explore our deepest fears and anxieties.
The best supernatural movies are those that leave you with a sense of mystery and an unanswered question.
They are the ones where you have to think about what it all means and what it all could mean.
Supernatural movies have been popular since the beginning of cinema. They are often used to explore the unknown and the fantastic, focusing on horror or the struggle between good.
The Devil’s Backbone (2001)
The Devil’s Backbone is a Mexican horror film directed by Guillermo del Toro. Guillermo del Toro and Antonio Trashorras wrote it.
The film stars Eduardo Noriega, Marisa Paredes, Federico Luppi, and newcomer Ivana Baquero as the young protagonist Carlos.
The story follows Carlos, who is sent away to live with his grandfather in a remote part of Spain following his father’s death during the Spanish Civil War.
Carlos arrives at an old, dilapidated mansion that is home to a host of ghostly children called “Los niños,” who have been killed by Franco’s forces during the war.
It is believed that this movie has influenced many other horror movies, such as The Orphanage (2007) and Mama (2013).
Director – Guillermo del Toro
Where to watch – HBO Max, Netflix, Hotstar, Hooq
The Orphanage (2017)
The orphanage is one of the most inspirational movies we have seen.
The story is based on real-life events, and it’s about a group of orphans who are given a chance to have a better life by living in an orphanage.
The movie is not just about the children but also about their caretakers, who are fighting to ensure they can provide the best life possible for these children.
This movie has been nominated for the renown Golden Globe Award for the category of the Best Foreign Language Film.
Director – J.A. Bayona
Where to watch – Tubi – Free Movies & TV, Prime Video, Vudu or Apple TV
Ju-On: The Grudge (2003)
Ju-on: The Grudge is a horror film written by Stephen Susco.This movie is about a curse created by a little girl murdered in the house.
The curse affects anyone who enters the house and also anyone who comes into contact with someone under the curse.
It’s not just an issue of ghosts returning to haunt you; it’s an issue of how they haunt you.
The movie starts with a group of Americans arriving at a Tokyo housing complex to look at properties for their new company headquarters.
They soon find themselves caught in the middle of one family’s tragedy from which there seems no escape.
Director – Takashi Shimizu
Where to watch – Google Play Movies, iTunes, Amazon Video, AMC on Demand, Vudu
The Babadook Is 2014
This is an Australian psychological horror film starring Essie Davis as a single mother whose son encounters a monster from a children’s story he has read, the Babadook.
The creature begins to haunt their lives, causing them to become increasingly unstable.
The Babadook is a critically-acclaimed Australian psychological horror movie written and directed by Jennifer Kent.
The film stars Essie Davis as Amelia, a single mother who lives in the suburbs of Melbourne with her six-year-old son Sam (Noah Wiseman), who has been traumatized by his father’s death in a car accident three years earlier.
Amelia’s life becomes increasingly difficult when Sam’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic after he finds and reads from a mysterious book titled “Mister Babadook.”
Director – Jennifer Kent.
Where to watch – Pluto TV – It’s Free TV, The Roku Channel, The Roku Channel, Prime Video, Vudu, Vimeo, or Apple TV.
The Others (2001)
The Others is an American horror film written, directed, and edited by Alejandro Amenábar.
The movie starts with Grace Stewart, who has moved with her two children to an old house in the English countryside during World War II because of her husband’s work.
One night she wakes up to find that one of her children has disappeared from their room.
She searches the house but finds nothing. The next day she sees a woman dressed in black walking around in the garden and calls out to her but gets no response.
She then sees another woman, who is also dressed in black, standing at the window and trying to talk to her, but she also walks away when Grace approaches her.
Grace’s daughter falls ill after being bitten by an animal, and Grace decides to take both children back home where they live before returning to England on a boat trip with one of them while leaving the other behind because it was too dangerous for them both to travel together for such a long time!
Director – Alejandro Amenábar.
Where to watch – Google Play, Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, and Vudu
Drag Me To Hell (2009)
The plot revolves around a loan officer who is tasked with evaluating an application for a home mortgage from Mrs. Ganush, an older woman who believes herself to be the incarnation of Satan.
Drag Me To Hell is a horror movie that can be described as “old school” in its approach.
It has all the ingredients that make up for an excellent horror film- suspenseful moments, jump scares, and eerie music.
Sam Raimi’s direction is commendable and does not disappoint with his vision of this classic horror story.
The movie starts with Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) being introduced as a young loan officer recently promoted from her position as assistant due to her hard work in the company over the years.
Director – Samuel M. Raimi
Where to watch – Lionsgate Play
A Tale Of Two Sisters (2003)
A Tale of Two Sisters is a South Korean horror movie penned and directed by Kim Jee-Woon. It is a retelling of the Japanese folktale The Ghost Story of Yotsuya.
Kim Jee-Woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters is an exciting movie in many ways.
It has a great story and some outstanding acting performances by the actors. But it also has some nasty CGI effects that make it hard to believe that this movie was created in 2003.
The film starts with the two sisters Su-mi (Lim Soo-Jung) and Su-Yeon (Moon Geun-young), returning to their family home after being away for years at a girls’ boarding school in Switzerland.
They are welcomed back by their parents, grandmother, and younger sister, Eun-Joo (Jeon Ji-Hyun). The sisters seem to be happy to be reunited with each other.
Director – Kim Jee-woon
Where to watch – Netflix, Hotstar, Voot
The Conjuring (2013)
The Conjuring is a horror movie features a family who lived in the seventies and was terrorized by paranormal events. Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators, work to assist a family terrorized by a murky presence in their ranch house.
The Conjuring is an American supernatural horror masterpiece based on a true story. It stars Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators called to help a family getting haunted by a evil presence at their farmhouse.
This movie was nominated for many awards and has been praised for its incredible sound design, cinematography, editing, and production values.
Director – James Wan
Where to watch – Netflix, Youtube, Apple TV
The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist (2016)
This is the second installment of The Conjuring franchise, and it continues to explore the life of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.
The movie starts with a brief introduction to the past information of the house, where they are then sent by their client Peggy Hodgson who has been experiencing paranormal activity in her home for almost two years.
They are sent to investigate these occurrences and find out if it’s really an entity or just some other natural reason for these happenings.
This movie is a horror thriller that will keep you on your toes throughout its duration.
It does not have any comedic relief moments, so try not to watch it if you’re looking for comedy relief after a hard day at work because this one will give you nightmares!
Director – James Wan
Where to Watch – Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video.
The Witch (2015)
The Witch is a 2015 American horror movie written and directed by Robert Eggers, making his directorial debut. The story follows the Puritan family witness forces of evil in the forests beyond the New England farm.
The witch is a horror movie that revolves around a 17th-century Puritan family who is banished from their community.
The movie starts with the family coming to the new land and establishing themselves in an old house.
They are not welcomed and are blamed for everything that goes wrong.
Something evil lurks in the woods, with an unknown presence that terrorizes them one by one.
We enjoyed this movie, it was beautifully filmed, and the story was fascinating too.
It had some jump scares but it wasn’t too scary, which I liked because I don’t like horror movies that much, to be honest!
Director – Robert Eggers
Where to Watch – Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+
It Follows (2014)
A group of friends who are about to graduate from college rent a house for the summer to avoid adult responsibilities.
However, when one of them is mysteriously killed, they begin to suspect that something isn’t quite right with their surroundings.
It Follows (2014) is an American supernatural horror film that follows a young woman named Jay who is haunted by an unknown supernatural entity after having sex with her boyfriend and breaking her promise not to sleep with anyone else.
The movie was written and directed by David Robert Mitchell and starred Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, and Olivia Luccardi.
This movie follows Jay (Maika Monroe), a 19-year-old girl who’s been haunted by an unknown supernatural entity after having sex with her boyfriend (Keir Gilchrist) and breaking her promise not to sleep with anyone else.
The entity takes different forms, but it always looks like someone or something she knows.
Director – David Robert Mitchell
Where to Watch – Netflix.
1408 (2007)
The story of 1408 revolves around Mike Enslin, a skeptical writer specializing in the occult and paranormal.
He visits hotel room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel to investigate it.1408 was inspired by a collection of true-life media articles about world-renowned psychometrician Christopher Chacon’s research of the world’s most notoriously spooky hotel rooms.
The room is rumored to be haunted and is not rented for many years after an incident that happened there.
Mike does not believe in ghosts, but he gets trapped in room 1408 for hours until he eventually manages to escape by going through a door that appears out of nowhere.
Director – Mikael Håfström
Where to Watch – The Roku Channel, Pluto TV
Sinister (2012)
Sinister is an American-found footage horror film. It is the first installment in the Sinister franchise and was directed by Scott Derrickson, who also co-wrote the screenplay with C. Robert Cargill.
The film tells the story of a true crime novelist who discovers a box of home movies that suggest his family may be involved in the murder of several young children.
The film stars Ethan Hawke as Ellison Oswalt, a true crime novelist who shifts into an old house with his wife and two children on the outskirts of the small town.
And that’s where he discovers a box containing Super 8 mm films that suggest his family may be responsible for murdering several people, including some children.
Director — Scott Derrickson
Where to Watch – Peacock, Amazon prime, Vudu
Lake Mungo (2008)
The movie Lake Mungo is a film about a family that moves to the country. The parents are struggling with their son’s death and their daughter’s illness.
They move to the country so that their daughter can have better access to medical care, but they are still struggling with her death.
The movie starts by showing the parents’ relationship and how they deal with their daughter’s death.
The film then switches over to show the daughter’s point of view, which is when it becomes clear that she is not dead at all, but rather still alive and living in an old house near her childhood home.
It becomes clear that she has been living there for years and has been watching her family grieve for her all this time.
She decides to come back home after realizing how much pain she has caused them by disappearing.
This film deals with some heavy topics like grief, loss, and mental illness- but it does so in a way that will make you laugh!
Director — Joel Anderson
Where to Watch – Tubi – Free Movies & TV, Prime Video, Vudu or Apple TV
We Are Still Here (2015)
We are still here in a horror movie that does not disappoint. It has a great storyline, and it is full of suspense.
The movie is about a group of people who are coming together to survive the zombie apocalypse.
This is rated 5/5 stars because it was one of the best zombie movies we have ever seen.
This movie is a must-watch for anyone who has lost a loved one. It tells the story of two sisters, Jenna and Courtney, trying to find their way in life after their father’s death. The movie starts with Jenna looking back on her life through photographs and videos she had taken with her father.
She remembers their good times together and how much she misses him.
The film is an emotional rollercoaster as you feel the very highs and lows of life with these two sisters. You see them grow up, get married, have their own children, and then face tragedy as they lose their father to cancer.
Director – Ted Geoghegan
Where to watch – peacock, Vudu
Paranormal Activity ( 2009)
Paranormal Activity is a movie that is based on the story of a young couple who are terrorized by an evil spirit in their home.
The movie starts with Katie and Micah, two 20-somethings living together in a Los Angeles suburb.
They have been dating for three years, and they are completely in love with each other.
One night, Micah wakes up to find Katie missing from the bed next to him, and he goes out looking for her.
He finds her outside of their house, standing naked in the rain, and he brings her back inside.
As they went back to bed, Katie told Micah that she had been dreaming about someone following her, so she went outside to look if anyone was there but couldn’t find anything or anyone after looking around for a while.
The following day when they wake up, they find strange noises coming from!
Director – Oren Peli.
Where to watch – Amazon Prime or Netflix
The House Of The Devil (2018)
It Starred Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan And Mary Woronov.
The story follows a young woman who goes to visit her brother, who stays in an old house in the woods.
She soon realizes that she has made a mistake when she discovers that her brother is not there and instead finds herself surrounded by some strange people who are trying to get inside the house.
Director – Ti West
Where to watch – AMC+ Amazon Channel, AMC+ Roku Premium Channel, Criterion Channel, Shudder
The Cabin In The Woods (2012)
The Cabin in the Woods is one of those horror movies that was released in 2012 and became iconic. The plot revolves around a group of undergraduate students who flee to a wooded cabin and become prey to a diverse array of beasts while techs try to influence happenings from an underground complex.
The film follows five friends who travel to a remote cabin secluded in the woods, where they mistakenly release these flesh-controlling spirits that kill them one by one.
This movie follows five friends who travel to a remote cabin amidst of woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing spirits that kill them one by one.
Director – Drew Goddard
Where to watch – Vudu, iTunes, and Google Play.
Absentia (2011)
In Absentia, a woman is kidnapped by a group of people who have been targeting her family. It is up to her husband, who is also targeted by the group, to save his wife and kids.
Daniel, Tricia’s husband, has mysteriously vanished for seven years.
As the pressure mounts to proclaim him ‘dead in absentia,’ her younger sister Callie moves in with her. Callie is drawn to an unsettling tunnel near the house as Tricia sifts through the wrecks and tries to continue her life.
As she connects it to other mysterious disappearances, it becomes clear that Daniel’s assumed death was not ‘natural.’ The antiquity force at work in the tunnel may have pinned its sights on Callie and Tricia… and Daniel may be in its clutches, facing a fate far worse than death.
Director – Mike Flanagan
Where to watch – Netflix, Hotstar, Hooq
Kairo (2001)
It is a supernatural horror film, and it is based on the original Japanese movie called Pulse.
The film is set in Japan and tells the story of a couple who become involved with people who are not what they seem to be.
The couple, Tomoko and Wataru, are looking for their son, who has gone missing from school. They get help from a detective, but they can’t find any clues about his whereabouts.
Tomoko starts experiencing strange visions of children being killed by someone wearing a white mask, and she starts to believe that her son’s disappearance is somehow related to these visions.
She also starts feeling like someone or something is following her wherever she goes, and this fear becomes more intense when she realizes that her husband Wataru may not be telling her everything about his past or where he goes at night while he’s out on “business trips.”
This tension builds up till the end.
Director – Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Where to watch – Kanopy, Freevee, Prime Video, Vudu, Redbox. or Apple TV
The Gravedancers (2006)
The Gravedancers is a horror film that recites the story of this group of friends who get lost in a forest and witness an older adult digging up a grave. After a memorial service, several college friends rejoin a cemetery to reminisce about the deceased’s former life.
After they get drunk and start dancing on graves, the celebration becomes out of hand, and each of them becomes haunted by vengeful ghosts.
They decide to go and investigate, but they are soon chased by the older woman, who is revealed to be one of the grave dangers, who is seeking revenge on those who desecrate graves.
The Gravedancers is not your typical horror film. It doesn’t rely on jump scares or gore to deliver its shocks.
Instead, it relies on atmosphere and tension to create an eerie mood.
The film has some jumpscares and some interesting deaths that may make you jump out of your seat, but it relies on atmosphere and tension to create an eerie mood.
Director – Mike Mendez
Where to watch – Netflix, Hotstar, Hooq.
The Evil Dead (1981)
It was produced by Bruce Campbell. The film stars Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Betsy Baker, and Richard DeManincor. In this review of the movie, I will discuss the movie’s plot and my opinion on it.
The plot of the movie revolves around five college students who decide to go to this cabin in the woods for to spend the weekend.
While there, they find an old book that has been bound with human skin and pages of text written in an ancient language that they cannot read.
They decide to read from it while playing an audio tape recording that they found in the cabin’s cellar, which leads them to believe it is just a bunch of crazy ramblings from some lunatic named Professor Raymond Knowby, who conducted experiments on himself while staying at this same cabin years ago.
They soon realize that these are not just ramblings but incantations for summoning demons.
Director: Sam Raimi
Where to watch: Apple iTunes, YouTube (Rent.Buy), Google Play Movies, Amazon Video
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Sixth Sense is a movie that was released in 1999. It is a thriller and horror film directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
The story revolves around a child psychologist, Dr. Malcolm Crowe, who can see and talk to the dead.
When he realizes he can’t help his patient, he starts to look for someone who can help him with the situation and finds out that the patient’s son, Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), is also able to see the dead and talk to them.
This movie is about a boy who sees dead people, but no one believes him. He meets a psychologist who does believe him and helps him solve the mystery of why he sees dead people.
Director – M. Night Shyamalan
Where to watch – Hotstar
A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
The film follows a group of teenagers and their parents as they are terrorized by a burnt man wearing a dirty red and green sweater and a brown fedora.
This man is Freddy Krueger, who can invade the dreams of his victims, using their worst nightmares to kill them in their sleep.
The movie starts with Tina Gray’s parents discussing her strange behavior before she goes to sleep.
She has been having nightmares about Freddy Krueger and is scared to go to sleep at night.
Tina’s parents decide to call her doctor, who tells them that she needs psychiatric help and that they should not let her stay up late at night watching scary movies or reading difficult books. They try to get Tina some help, but she refuses it because she thinks that they are just trying to get rid of her so they can go back out on dates again.
Director – Wes Craven
Where to watch – Apple TV
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a classic horror film that is still being enjoyed by many people today.
The movie is set in Transylvania in 1897 and tells you the saga of Count Dracula’ who tries to shift from Transylvania to England to find new blood. He wants to spread his undead curse, and there is also a battle going on between Dracula and a specific group of people to tackle vampires led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.
Director – Francis Ford Coppola,
Where to watch – Netflix, Hotstar, Hooq