Alisha Weir as Abigail.
Universal Studios
Though she appears to be a child, we soon learn Abigail is centuries old, and has developed a habit for ‘playing with [her] food’
Maslow Entertainment
With its occult themes, ’70s nostalgia and some AI controversy thrown into the mix, it’s easy to see why the film was a US box-office success.
Skinamarink/Shudder © 2022
A wave of horror content is popping up across TikTok, carrying on a legacy that began on YouTube.
Janet Leigh in Psycho (1960).
Photo 12/Alamy Stock Photo
Horror films incorporate varied musical influences, but there are some things many scary soundtracks have in common.
Taissa Farmiga as Sister Irene.
Warner Bros/Bruno Calvo
The Nun II brings a refreshingly feminist gloss to well-worn tropes within exorcism fiction, shattering assumptions about who should be the victim and who should be the rescuer.
Antoinette Robertson as Lisa in The Blackening.
Glen Wilson
The Blackening excels at subverting the very stereotypes it plays upon for its humour.
In ‘Scream 6,’ interior private spaces like apartments offer only the illusion of safety.
(Philippe Bossé/Paramount Pictures via AP)
Horror filmmakers are wrestling with space in cities and what it means to share it.
Jordan Peele’s latest horror film challenges viewers to consider technology, surveillance, other worldly life and the making of spectacle through different lenses — including the eyes of animals.
(Universal Pictures)
When it comes to our ethical duties to animals, representation and respect should go hand in hoof.
Alien vs. Predator/IMDB
In fiction and popular culture, parasitic characters appear as a metaphor for the threat and spread of disease. But they’ve also played for laughs.
John Heffernan as Jonathan Harker in Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat’s Dracula.
BBC/Hartswood Films/Netflix/Robert Viglasky
Ever since Dracula was born in the late 19th century, every age gets the vampire it deserves.
Rural settings are often painted as scary in British folklore.
Travis Fultz via Shutterstock
The British countryside is supposed to be peaceful and idyllic. Don’t be fooled.
Octavia Spencer is one of the few black women to have a lead role in a horror film.
Universal Pictures/YouTube
For decades, black characters in horror movies were objects of ridicule, died first or played evil Voodoo practitioners. But now we’re seeing a wave of films created by blacks and starring blacks.
bbernard via Shutterstock
Four spine chillers and a slapstick zombie comedy film to get you back out from behind the sofa.
The original Halloween movie has been remade for 2018.
Dimension Films
We love to be scared by creepy movies. But fear has other uses too. It can be used negatively by politicians to control us, but can also be a tool to harness internal change.
The Premature Burial.
Antoine Wiertz (1854)
New research is uncovering medieval legends about the undead in Britain.
Visiting an extreme haunted house can be delightfully terrifying.
AP Photo/John Minchillo
Visiting a haunted house or watching a horror movie can be terrifying and enjoyable at the same time. A sociologist explains the psychological benefits of being safely scared.
A still from the film The Devil’s Doorway (2018).
Aislinn Clarke
Proper horror should be more than just monsters and suspense.
In Cargo, Martin Freeman plays Andy, a man who has to kill his wife after she turns into a zombie and travels across country with baby daughter Rosie on his back.
Addictive Pictures, Causeway Films, Head Gear Films
In Cargo, zombies roam Australia and Aboriginal people living off the land are best equipped to repel them. The first half hour is brilliant but the film becomes far less satisfying.
Cut.
Kiselev Andrey Valerevich
From Dundee to Dublin, horror spectaculars are springing up like zombies from the dead.
frankenstein.
Mary Shelley’s novel asked questions about the human condition that are more relevant today than ever.