It’s time to get spooky for Halloween, but you won’t need to get into a costume to celebrate. Grab some popcorn and Halloween candy, and use your streaming device of choice to watch these spooky movies.
Hereditary (2018, now on Showmax)
Features themes of demons and evil supernatural forces. Gory and disturbing.
Delve into the mind of writer-director Ari Aster as he brings something fresh to the horror genre. The film is reminiscent of Rosemary’s Baby, one of the best horror films of all time, and features a similar psychological deterioration that the audience gets to witness. Aster is quickly becoming one of the most prolific writers in horror.
The film focuses on Annie Graham (Toni Collette), who tries to separate her family from dark forces that try to break her family apart. These supernatural forces follow her and her two children as it causes them to encounter tragic and disturbing occurrences. True fans of psychological horror would be doing themselves a disservice not watching this film.
It won 43 awards, including Best Film at the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards in 2018, and Best Kill at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards in 2019.
Click here to read about Terrifier, Siembamba, and Hush.
Terrifier (2016, now on Netflix)
Features themes of clowns and being trapped in a building. It’s a slasher – expect gratuitous gore.
For fans of ’80s horror slashers, Terrifier offers a similar B-grade slasher experience. The film is presented purely for its horror-shock value and lacks a solid plot, but makes up for this with amazing actors and a terrifying clown (that could exist in real life). That said, it shows other potential film-makers in the genre that the ’80s horror slasher style can still work in the 21st century.
The film follows Tara Heyes (Jenna Kanell) on the night of Halloween, as she finds herself becoming the latest obsession of a murderer clown called Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton). Tara needs to escape from the clown’s captivity, but endangers those she calls.
At the Fright Meter Awards, Thornton won Best Actor for his performance.
Click here to read about Siembamba and Hush.
Siembamba (2017, now on Showmax)
Features themes of evil supernatural forces and psychological deterioration. It’s “proudly South African” horror.
Expect to be disturbed by the harrowing story by Darrell Roodt, Samuel Frauenstein, and Tarryn-Tanille Prinsloo. Siembamba, which means Lullaby in Afrikaans, follows Chloe van Heerden (Reine Swart) as she returns to her home town after the birth of her first child. She struggles to come to terms with being a mother and the non-stop crying of her baby.
These factors send Chloe into a deep depression and she becomes extremely vulnerable, which causes her to see her child in danger in every situation. She then begins to hear someone (or something) humming a childhood lullaby around her child. When she sees a supernatural entity near her child, she begins to wonder: is it the depression playing tricks on her mind or is she being haunted?
The film was shot in Pretoria and won Best Cinematography at the Milan International Filmmaker Festival in 2018.
Click here to read about Hush.
Hush (2016, now on Netflix)
Features themes of random murders, with a deaf victim. It’s a nail-biting story with a solid plotline.
A deaf and mute writer, Maddie (Kate Siegal), retreats into the woods to live a solitary life and to focus on her writing. When a masked killer appears at her window, she must fight for her life, while her killer has the upper hand: the ability to hear.
This film is a prime example of a realised vision, where Siegal wrote the story and starred in the film. Behind the scenes, director and writer Mike Flanagan ensured the production value was top-notch for the movie. As a result, the film won two awards: Best Direct Release Horror at the iHorror Awards in 2017, and Best Independent Film at the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards in 2016.