IT is finally that perfect time of the year, where we get to sit in our living room on Halloween night with the lights switched off and our legs tucked under the blanket while we binge on horror films.
While spooky decorations and festive candies contribute to an unforgettable trick-or-treat season, horror films will certainly elevate the occasion to the next level.
We have compiled a list of films from Western and Asian countries – as well as our own – that are guaranteed to send shivers down your spine.
Orphan
This psychological horror movie is supposedly based on a true event. Heartbroken by the death of their unborn baby, a couple, Kate and John, decide to adopt a child. Upon arriving at the orphanage, the couple are drawn to a nine-year-old girl named Esther and decide to bring her home. Soon, a dangerous and mysterious series of events start to unfold.
Lights Out
Rebecca lives in an apartment by herself, away from her mother Sophie, and brother Martin, hoping to leave her childhood fears behind. Until the day her mother’s mental illness and depression resurfaces, and her mother begins talking to an imaginary “friend”.
Her brother begins experiencing similar mysterious and frightening events, including seeing a woman in the shadows every time he switches off the lights. Rebecca is forced to confront her fears to protect Martin from a vengeful supernatural creature that has a mysteriously attachment to their mother.
Hereditary
When her mentally ill mother passes away, miniature artist Annie, her husband and their two children all turn to different means to handle their grief, including Annie and her daughter both flirting with the supernatural. They each begin to have disturbing, otherworldly experiences linked to the sinister secrets and emotional trauma that have been passed through the generations of their family.
Coming Soon
This Thai horror film follows a young projectionist, Chen, who promises to illegally record a highly-anticipated horror movie that tells the story of a vengeful spirit of a woman who was hanged after she kidnapped and blinded her own children.
When Chen’s friend who was recording the movie with his DV-cam mysteriously disappeares, Chen recovers the footage and witnesses his friend cowering in fear at something he had seen. As Chen reruns the film, he finds his friend inside the movie with his eyes gouged out. Chen soon discovers the dark secret behind the horror film.
Satan’s Slaves
Get ready to hide under the covers with this Indonesian horror film.
After the death of a family’s beloved matriarch, a struggling widower with four children begins to discover that she might not be completely gone after all.
As the family begins to experience strange sights and incidents, these experiences quickly become dangerous, and they find themselves in peril.
May the Devil Take You
After the death of her estranged father, a young woman decides to visit her father’s old villa in search of answers about his mysterious illness. As she spends the night there with her step-family, they began to uncover terrifying and dark truths from the past. The family is then forced to pay for their father’s horrible mistakes.
Pusaka
A veteran detective, Inspector Nuar Ishak, stumbles upon a daunting case involving twins, Balqis and Qistina. Nuar finds the twins locked up in an abandoned house, with one found dead and the other alive. After the incident, Nuar begins to experience a series of weird events. He realises the mysterious case needs to be solved immediately, as those who are related to the twins begin to die one by one.
Histeria
What starts off as a prank for a group of young highschoolers, where one of the girls pretends to be possessed, turns into a nightmare.
When their teachers and local shaman find out they are lying, the shaman tells them off that bad things will befall them. The girls are then punished by being forced to stay in the old wing dormitory of the school doing chores while the rest of the students go on a long school break.
One of the girls sees the school gardener planting an object in a secluded area in the school and decides to dig it up, without realising that it is a demon.
Jangan Pandang Belakang
Traumatised by the mysterious suicide of his fiancé, Rose, Darma decides to investigate the reasons for her death with the help of her twin sister, Seri. As they go deeper into their investigation, Darma is left in a disturbed state of mind which affects his life and career. As he gets closer to solving his fiancé’s suicide, Darma finds out Rose was being haunted by a malicious spirit.
