Good Manners
MA15+
France, Brazil, 2017
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Language: Portuguese
Director: Marco Dutra, Juliana Rojas
Starring: Isabél Zuaa, Marjorie Estiano, Miguel Lobo, Cida Moreira, Andréa Marquee, Felipe Kenji
What's it about?
Clara, a lonely nurse from the outskirts of São Paulo, is hired by mysterious and wealthy Ana as the nanny for her unborn child. The two women develop a strong bond, but a fateful night changes their plans. When a full moon brings about the birth of a werewolf, Clara makes it her mission to care for the baby werewolf and protect it from others. This one is a monster movie with heart.
[link title="'Good Manners': A Genre-Busting, Class-Conscious Monster Movie" url="node/150317"]
The Wind
M
USA, 2018
Genre: Horror
Language: English
Director: Emma Tammi
Starring: Caitlin Gerard, Julia Goldani Telles, Ashley Zukerman
What's it about?
Lizzy is a tough, resourceful frontierswoman settling a remote stretch of land on the 19th-century American frontier. Isolated from civilisation in a desolate wilderness where the wind never stops howling, she begins to sense a sinister presence that seems to be borne of the land itself, an overwhelming dread that her husband dismisses as superstition. When a newlywed couple arrives on a nearby homestead, their presence amplifies Lizzy’s fears, setting in motion a shocking chain of events. A great indie film that skilfully blends the supernatural, western and horror genres.
Rampant
MA15+
South Korea, 2018
Genre: Action, Horror, Drama, Fantasy
Language: Korean, Chinese, Dutch
Director: Kim Sung-hoon
Starring: Hyun Bin, Jang Dong-gun, Jo Woo-jin, Jeong Man-sik, Lee Sun-bin, Kim Eui-sung
What's it about?
Ancient Korea, 17th century. While the paranoid King Lee Jo of Joseon, vassal of the Qing dynasty, feels surrounded by conspirators and rebels, a dark evil emerges from the bowels of a merchant ship and the exiled Prince Lee Cheung returns to the royal court, ignoring that he will have to lead the few capable of defeating the ambitious humans and the bloody monsters who threaten to destroy the kingdom. A historical horror mash-up full of epic action and gore.
Willow Creek
MA15+
USA, 2013
Genre: Adventure, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Language: English
Director: Bobcat Goldthwait
Starring: Alexie Gilmore, Bryce Johnson, Peter Jason
What's it about?
This is a found-footage horror film (ala Blair Witch Project but with Bigfoot) so prepare for the shaky cam. Jim and his girlfriend Kelly are visiting the infamous Willow Creek, the alleged home of the original Bigfoot legend – the tale of huge ape-like creatures that roam the forests of North America. It was there that in 1967, the legendary beast was captured on film and has terrified and mystified generations since. Keen to explore more than 50 years of truth, folklore, misidentifications and hoaxes, Kelly goes along for the ride to keep Jim happy, while he is determined to prove the story is real by capturing the beast on camera. Deep in the dark and silent woods, isolated and hours from human contact, neither Kelly nor Jim are prepared for what is hidden between the trees, and what happens when the cameras start rolling...
Suspiria
MA15+
Germany, Italy, United States of America, 2018
Genre: Horror, Fantasy
Language: English, French, German
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth, Angela Winkler, Ingrid Caven, Elena Fokina, Sylvie Testud, Renée Soutendijk, Christine Leboutte, Małgorzata Bela, Fabrizia Sacchi, Jessica Harper, Chloë Grace Moretz, Jessica Batut, Alek Wek, Vincenza Modica, Vanda Capriolo, Brigitte Cuvelier, Gala Moody, Anne-Lise Brevers, Sara Sguotti, Halla Thordardottir, Olivia Ancona, Marjolaine Uscotti, Sharon Campbell, Elfriede Hock, Iaia Ferri, Clémentine Houdart, Charo Calvo, Stephanie McMann, Majon van der Schot, Maria Bregianni, Josepha Madoki, Navala Chaudhari, Karina El Amrani, Doris Hick, Mikael Olsson, Fred Kelemen, Greta Bohacek, Joel-Dennis Bienstock, Toby Ashraf
What's it about?
A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the troupe's artistic director, an ambitious young dancer and a grieving psychotherapist. Some will succumb to the nightmare, others will finally wake up.
[link title="Chloe Moretz joins Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton in Luca Guadagnino's 'Suspiria' remake" url="node/90128"]
Rosemary's Baby
M
USA, 1968
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
Language: English
Director: Roman Polanski
Starring: John Cassavetes, Mia Farrow, Ruth Gordon
What's it about?
This '68 classic starring Mia Farrow is an adaptation of Ira Levin's best-selling novel about a loving young New York City couple who are expecting their first child. Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse move to an apartment building with an ominous reputation and odd neighbours, who have a great interest in Rosemary's pregnancy. Like most first-time mothers, Rosemary experiences confusion and fear. Her husband, an ambitious but unsuccessful actor, makes a pact with the devil that promises to send his career skyward. The diabolical truth of Rosemary's pregnancy is revealed only after she gives birth. A frightening tale of Satanism and pregnancy that is even more disturbing than it sounds thanks to convincing and committed performances by Mia Farrow and Ruth Gordon.
Dead Ringers
M
Canada, USA, 1988
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Language: English
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Jeremy Irons
What's it about?
Body horror master David Cronenberg explores transformation and mutation in this disturbing classic. Inspired by true events, it tells the story of identical twin gynaecologists – both played brilliantly by Jeremy Irons – whose relationship deteriorates when Beverly, the most sensitive of the twins, starts falling for a patient with whom they'd both been sleeping.
[link title="Dead Ringers review: Cool, clinical and confrontational" url="node/45651"]
The Host
M
South Korea, 2006
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Language: Korean
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Starring: Song Kang-ho
What's it about?
In Bong Joon-ho's riveting monster movie, a mutant creature emerges from the river that runs through Seoul and creates a path of destruction on the local residents. Gang-du, who operates a snack bar on the riverbank, witnesses his only daughter, Hyun-seo, taken away by the creature right before his eyes. Faced with the government's powerlessness, Gang-du and his family have no choice but to fight the monster themselves in a desperate attempt to rescue Hyun-seo.
Bedevil
PG
Australia, 1993
Genre: Horror
Language: English
Director: Tracey Moffatt
Starring: Lex Marinos, Tracey Moffatt, Mawuyul Yanthalawuy, Jack Charles
What's it about?
Three Australian stories of the supernatural are recounted in this anthology. Rick, an Aboriginal boy living near a swamp on Bribie Island, is haunted by an American soldier who drowned in quicksand. Ruby and her family live in a house near long-abandoned train tracks, which still carry ghostly apparitions. A landlord has trouble evicting the tenants of an old warehouse: a couple who’ve been dead for years. These contemporary tales travel from the sparseness of the outback, through the murky, rotting swamps of the islands, to the Brisbane docks in a stylish vision from writer/director Tracey Moffatt.
[link title="Bedevilled Review" url="node/5621"]
[link title="BeDevil review: A strange, exciting film" url="node/50685"]
Bone Tomahawk
MA15+
USA, 2015
Genre: Drama, Horror, Adventure, Western
Language: English
Director: S. Craig Zahler
Starring: Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Kurt Russell
What's it about?
When a group of cannibal savages kidnaps settlers from the small town of Bright Hope, an unlikely team of gunslingers, led by Sheriff Franklin Hunt, sets out to bring them home. But their enemy is more ruthless than anyone could have imagined, putting their mission – and survival itself – in serious jeopardy. This is a gritty action-packed thriller chronicling a terrifying rescue mission in the Old West (with added gore).
The Shout
M
United Kingdom, 1978
Genre: Horror, Drama
Language: English
Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
Starring: Alan Bates, Susannah York, John Hurt, Robert Stephens, Tim Curry
What's it about?
When a wandering man named Crossley insinuates himself into the lives of British composer Anthony Fielding (John Hurt) and his wife, Rachel, the couple is cautiously hospitable. Isolated out in rural Devon, where Anthony works on his music, the Fieldings find that their enigmatic guest has some strange preoccupations, most notably an obsession with Aboriginal magic. Crossley claims that he can kill a person with a mystical shout, but is he telling the truth? Based on a short mythical story by Robert Graves, the film was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival and received the Grand Prize of the Jury, in a tie with Bye Bye Monkey.
Red Nights
[classification]
Hong Kong, France, Belgium, 2009
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Language: French, Chinese, English
Director:
Starring:
What's it about?
A Cantonese Opera tells the tragedy of the Jade Executioner who had created a poison that killed by giving the ultimate pleasure. A French woman escapes to Hong Kong after having killed her lover to take an antique holding the potion. She becomes the hand of fate that pits a Taiwanese gangster against an epicurean woman murderer who sees herself as a new incarnation of the Jade Executioner.
Discover more films in the Horror collection at SBS On Demand.
Or explore a different side to Bollywood in
Bollywood for Beginners: Horror
In a genre that is best known for its big, bright love stories, Bollywood has a surprisingly rich history of horror movies.
