The Babadook, coming to DVD, Blu-ray and Digital on February 16th, tells the story of Amelia (Essie Davis) and her son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) who are haunted by a strange supernatural presence in their home. As Samuel’s behaviour begins to worsen he becomes fixated on an imaginary creature, The Babadook, and after Amelia finds a children’s story book with the same name in Samuel’s room, the demonic creature begins to become more prominent in their home. Expect a new twist on the ancient children’s bogeyman tale in this frighteningly childhood destroying picture.
Instead of playing in the usual musical-sting-and-shock scenario featured in many of today’s horror films, The Babadook offers a face behind the evil that’ll keep you awake for days to come. The film joins a legion of new generation horror films that deliver strong storylines and skin crawling scares, and are also a guaranteed frightening guilty pleasure.
In anticipation of The Babadook’s release we’ve compiled a list of the horror films you didn’t know you’d love:
Orphan
Children are scary at the best of times, so you can imagine a couple adopting a murderous and crazed child from a Russian orphanage are feeling the stresses and strains of parenthood. Orphan follows the lives of a couple who have recently lost their child and decide to adopt; however, their new daughter isn’t exactly the little charming girl they had imagined.
Isabelle Fuhrman’s acclaimed terrifying performance as Esther shreds any image of a sweet little girl cliché and instead give its audience a new found fear of child commitment. Orphan is one of those guilty pleasure films where the storyline is so obvious but you still feel the need to watch a murderous rampaging kid.
The Conjuring
The widely successful, The Conjuring, has been hailed as the new Exorcist by many critics and has revived the modern horror genre. The Conjuring delivers guaranteed scares and a (very rare) strong horror storyline that’ll keep you wide awake in the nights that follow. The film follows paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren and their investigation of the Perron family haunting, based on the allegedly true Harrisville Haunting. The hair-raising poltergeist scenes are reminiscent of Paranormal Activity, and the documentary-style extra features that feature the original Perron family add little more chilling horror to the story. If you’re a believer or not, it’s always a little creepier when a film is said to be based on a true story.
The film has spawned the equally terrifying spin-off Annabelle and also has a sequel coming out in cinemas next year.
Sinister
Sinister follows the story of crime writer Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) and his family. After moving to a new house to focus on his writing work, Oswalt soon discovers a strange box full of family videos depicting gruesome murders and a strange otherworldly figure that is present in each one. After further research of the videos the apparition becomes more and more prevalent in the house and begins to possess each of the family members. Expect jumpy musical stings and a bad-ass ghost-woman-bog-monster to be haunting your nightmares.
After the success of Sinister in cinemas, its sequel, Sinister 2, is also slated to be released later this year.
You’re Next
The horror/black-comedy You’re Next follows the story of a family reunion in a large vacation home in Missouri, and the squabbles between rich siblings which ultimately turns into a grisly blood bath. Similar to Funny Games (2007) and The Strangers (2008), You’re Next features a gang of unnamed assailants who kill using a variety of weapons and inventive booby-traps. Watching a bunch of rich trust-fund kids hack each other to death for greed is fun all round, and the exaggerated weaponry and deaths provide a barrel of laughs for film gore-seekers.
Cabin in the Woods
Cabin in the Woods is one of those films you start watching and then think that you’ve played the wrong film by accident. The opening is not something you’d expect from a horror, especially if you’ve seen some of the trailers beforehand that don’t give a strong impression of what the film is actually about. A cross-over between the horror and fantasy genres, Cabin in the Woods creates a new spin on the worn-out horror genre and is highly entertaining throughout, even with numerous bizarre twists and turns in the storyline. Still not a horror for the family all round, Cabin in the Woods brings a fresh approach to Hollywood horrors.
Shaun of the Dead
Shaun of the Dead is an iconic British horror comedy and has spawned household phrases such as “There’s a girl in the garden” and “Take the car. Go to Mum’s. Kill Phil, grab Liz, go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over.” Putting a comedic spin on the zombie apocalypse narrative, Shaun of the Dead is a definite film that’ll put a smile on your face or even a go-to hangover film to put you in better spirits (physically speaking). It follows Shaun (Simon Pegg) and his repulsive housemate Ed (Nick Frost) during a zombie apocalypse in their London house share and how they deal with what should be an emotionally catastrophic event and try to survive.
Part of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End) written by Pegg and Edgar Wright, they explore silly humour and very British, black book comedy that keep you repeating the lines for years to come.
The Babadook is released on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital on February 16th.
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