There’s plenty of room for chainsaws and chase scenes in horror, but sometimes the more subtle approach packs more scares for the audience. Classics like The Exorcist build a story slowly through tension with frightening moments throughout, but then there are the scary movies that don’t truly escalate the horror until the final scenes of the film.
From classic haunted house stories to dinner parties from hell, the following movies aren’t in a rush to deliver the goods; rather, they prolong the tension until the exact right moment for the best impact. These are the best horror films that slowly build their stories, only to unleash nightmare fuel at the end.
10
‘We Are Still Here’ (2015)
Directed by Ted Geoghegan
A grieving couple moves to a new home after the death of their son, but malevolent spirits refuse to leave them in peace in We Are Still Here. For Anne and Paul (Barbara Crampton and Andrew Sensenig), a change of scenery was designed to give them a fresh start after losing their son, but their house, once a funeral home with a history going back to the 1800s, leaves them in a state of perpetual fear. The couple will need to figure out what the evil ghosts want before they are claimed as the next in a long line of victims.
The perpetually burning ghosts take a few victims throughout the film, but the final moments of We Are Still Here go into a bloody overdrive. As the townspeople storm the house for some good old-fashioned mob violence, the ghosts are waiting to take their pound of flesh from the unfriendly new neighbors. The variety and multitude of kills happen so quickly that it’s difficult to remember the film’s slow build leading up to the massacre.
- Release Date
-
June 5, 2015
- Runtime
-
83 minutes
- Director
-
Ted Geoghegan
- Producers
-
Greg Newman, Malik B. Ali, Travis Stevens, Badie Ali
9
‘Split’ (2016)
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
When three teenage girls are abducted by a man (James McAvoy) with multiple personalities, they’ll have to hope one of those identities has mercy in Split. The abductor continues to cycle through 23 uniquely different personalities while keeping the women locked in a hidden holding cell, preparing them for the 24th emerging identity known as “The Beast.” Running out of time, the girls look for ways to escape before their fates are left up to the Beast’s judgment.
McAvoy does such a brilliant job playing the many personalities his character is torn between that it’s hard to determine if the Beast is an actual threat or another fractured fantasy. The debate is settled when the Beast arrives, because the physical transformation includes skin that deflects knives and an ability to climb up walls. The introduction of the supernatural element takes the film to a different level and opens the door to a surprising reveal of an old superpowered character.
8
‘Pearl’ (2022)
Directed by Ti West
The prequel to director Ti West’s slasher throwback X focuses on the early years of the violently unstable Pearl (Mia Goth) in Pearl. Trapped in her parents’ home while her husband is away at war, Pearl dreams of a life of stardom as a matinée idol. When Pearl learns about an audition for a traveling dance troupe, she fixates on the potential ticket to leave town, developing a murderous rage for anything or anyone who ruins the fantasy she’s constructed.
The crushing rejection of an audition that doesn’t go as planned forces Pearl to return to the home she hates, leaving her to reassemble what she’s broken into a macabre display of family unity. When her husband finally returns from war, he’s treated to a disturbing sight of the emotionally shattered Pearl living in a new fantasy of a homemaker to the dead. Her forced, painful-looking smile as she welcomes him home is chilling.
7
‘Longlegs’ (2024)
Directed by Osgood Perkins
The hunt is on for a serial killer who manages to kill entire families without being in the room in Longlegs. Young FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) is assigned to the Longlegs case, where entire families are found slain with the same calling card left behind. As Lee follows the clues, she begins receiving direct warnings from the mastermind of the murders, hinting he knows intimate details about the FBI agent, implying a close connection she’s unaware of.
The shift from a taut crime thriller into a full-blown supernatural-driven plot was too abrupt a shift for some, but the eerie finale is still effectively stomach-churning. Lee arrives too late to prevent the evil doll from arriving at Agent Carter’s (Blair Underwood) house, but makes it in time to see the family under the spell, moments from all dying due to its influence. It’s an unforgettable scene of surreal brutality that leaves any remaining survivors forever broken.
6
‘House of the Devil’ (2009)
Directed by Ti West
A college student takes a babysitting gig from hell in The House of the Devil. Strapped for cash, Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) takes a babysitting job at a strange house, but upon arrival learns she won’t be watching a small child, but instead an elderly mother. Samantha reluctantly agrees to do the job, but as the night only leads to strange occurrences and the feeling that there is more to the situation than she was told, Samantha will wish she had never stayed.
The House of the Devil uses the majority of its runtime to build tension, so when Samantha is confronted by the evil within the house, the sudden shift in pacing is a jolt to the senses. Slow and quiet becomes violent and frantic within minutes, and every action Samantha takes to survive feels risky, but necessary. However, The House of the Devil is one of the cases where survival doesn’t mean the good guys win, as the audience learns at the foot of Samantha’s hospital bed.
5
‘The Shining’ (1980)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
What begins as a unique opportunity for a small family of three turns into a deadly case of supernatural cabin fever in The Shining. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) moves his family into the massive Overlook Hotel to work as the building’s caretaker during its closed winter off-season. Jack plans to work on his novel during his downtime, but the ghosts of the hotel urge Jack to do other things instead, such as killing his family.
For as creepy as the early stretches of The Shining can be, the pacing is deliberate, capturing the slow crawl of time the family experiences day to day in the empty Overlook. The heartbeat of the movie speeds up as Jack falls deeper into madness, going into overdrive as he swings his axe at the people who trust him most. Only when Jack succumbs to the freezing conditions does The Shining slow down, hinting in its final moments that the events are doomed to repeat themselves again and again.
4
‘The Vanishing’ (1988)
Directed by George Sluizer
A relaxing holiday is cut short for a young couple when one of them disappears in The Vanishing. A quick pit stop at a gas station turns into a nightmare when Rex’s (Gene Bervoets) girlfriend, Saskia (Johanna ter Steege), goes missing. Rex becomes obsessed with finding her, but after years of finding nothing, Rex is given a chance to learn her fate by the man who is responsible for her disappearance.
Rex’s need to know what happened to Saskia overrides anything else, including the concern for his own safety. Determined to learn the truth, Rex allows himself to be drugged so that he can finally learn the ultimate fate of the girlfriend he lost so long before. In his broken heart, he always knew the truth, but the facts are grimly confirmed when he wakes in a coffin buried underground. As his air slowly runs out, Rex is comforted by the mystery solved at the ultimate price.
3
‘The Babadook’ (2014)
Directed by Jennifer Kent
A widowed mother struggles to defend her troubled son from a mysterious presence, and herself, in the powerful horror movie The Babadook. Amelia (Essie Davis) is slowly crumbling under the pressure of taking care of her son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman), while still recovering from the death of her husband and Samuel’s father. When a mysterious children’s book titled Mister Babadook appears in their house, it marks the arrival of a dark entity set on destroying the mother and son.
Amelia is clearly struggling to contain her grief and stress at the beginning of the film, so as the Babadook chips away at her remaining will, each scene feels like a step toward irrevocable madness. The build toward the climax is masterful in setting the stage for an emotionally charged conflict between Samuel and Amelia that sees her gain control to defend her home. Even when the monster is subdued, there’s a calm, unsettling tone to the new rituals of the mother and son, a reminder that happy endings come with a price.
2
‘The Invitation’ (2015)
Directed by Karyn Kusama
In The Invitation, Will (Logan Marshall-Green) accepts a dinner party invitation from his ex-wife that soon begins to look like a mistake. Will’s relationship with his ex, Eden (Tammy Blanchard), has been fractured since the death of their young son, but at first glance, it seems Eden is on the road to mental recovery. However, Will begins to understand that Eden has gotten herself involved in a strange cult, and the night might have dark ulterior motives.
The Invitation guarantees you will never look at a red lantern the same way ever again. The Invitation walks the line between two genres, first establishing itself as a drama exploring the lasting impact of grief before it slowly pulls the rug to reveal a horror movie hiding in plain sight. John Carroll Lynch as the intense guest Pruitt is frightening without his pulse ever seeming to spike, even when he moves the master plan along like a grim reaper in vacation clothes.
1
‘Hereditary’ (2018)
Directed by Ari Aster
You can’t choose your family, but you can choose which one of your family members to possess with an evil spirit in Hereditary. Artist Annie (Toni Collette) is still coping with the recent loss of the mother she was never close to when an incident involving her son Peter (Alex Wolff) and her daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro) casts a darker shadow on the household. When Annie tries to make contact with the soul of the lost, she unknowingly starts a devastating chain of events.
Director Ari Aster delivers enough mentally scarring visuals leading up to the conclusion of his first feature, but the finale still manages to get comfortable under the viewer’s skin. As a possessed Annie stalks a petrified Peter through their darkened house, the chances of a happy ending seem impossible. Hereditary takes the personal tragedies of a grieving family and spins them into supernatural terror to create one of the most memorable horror movie endings in years.
