Frightening Strikes

Christmas has always been fertile ground for horror. Beneath the decorations, rituals, and goodwill lies a holiday steeped in darkness and uneasy folkloric tradition. Filmmakers take advantage of that contrast, using festive familiarity to heighten unease rather than offer comfort. The films below span decades and subgenres, from slashers and folklore to bleak psychological slow burns, each finding its own way to corrupt seasonal cheer. Whether cynical, brutal, or quietly unsettling, these are horror films (in no particular order) that understand the power of turning reassurance into threat — and why Christmas can feel more frightening than joyful. 1. Black Christmas (1974) During the Christmas break, a group of sorority sisters begin receiving obscene phone calls that slowly escalate into something far more dangerous. As police investigate a missing student, the house becomes the centre of an unseen and increasingly menacing threat. Black Christmas lays it on the line with chilling a...

Good Boy begins with a quietly unsettling image: Indy, the titular good boy, watching over his owner Todd, who lies unconscious with blood trickling from his mouth. Flickering lights and static from the TV unsettle Indy, who senses that something isn’t quite right. Todd’s sister, Vera, arrives just in time to call an ambulance, but the strangeness of the moment lingers. The Foundation of the Film The film then shifts into a montage of Indy growing up alongside Todd—a warm glimpse into their bond that lays the foundation for everything that follows. It’s this connection, communicated almost entirely through behaviour rather than dialogue, that becomes the emotional core of the film. Once Todd is discharged from hospital, he insists on retreating to their late grandfather’s isolated countryside home, hoping the change of scenery will restore some sense of normality. Vera warns him against it, worried about his health and uneasy about the house, which she describes as “creepy” and possib...

December’s horror slate is a bit thin this year, but there are still a couple of standouts worth keeping an eye on. As the festive season kicks in, audiences can expect a mix of yuletide terror and chilling thrills — from blood‑soaked holiday mayhem to tense, atmospheric scares. While the selection isn’t as packed as other months, these releases (including t wo sequels and a re-make)  promise to inject a little seasonal fear into your Christmas celebrations, proving that even the most cheerful time of year isn’t safe from horror. Wishing you a joyful Christmas and a happy New Year. Troll 2   When a massive new troll awakens in the depths of the Norwegian wilderness, it triggers a wave of destruction that plunges the country into crisis. Paleontologist Nora Tidemann is pulled back into the fray, joining seasoned troll-hunter Kristoffer “Kris” Holm to uncover what sparked the awakening — and how to stop this force of nature. As it grows more dangerous, the team must confront ...

Strange Harvest is a mockumentary-style found-footage film that follows a police investigation into a series of brutal murders in a San Bernardino suburb. The story is presented through interviews, recovered footage and TV news clips, beginning with the discovery of a local family killed and arranged in a manner that confounds the police and horrifies the community. As detectives look into the case, they uncover links to earlier murders carried out by an unidentified killer known as “Mr Shiny.” Mr Shiny Returns Progress is slow and the police hit a series of frustrating dead-ends, while Mr Shiny continues his reign of terror and taunts them with cryptic notes filled with obscure phrases and references to “Kaliban” and other cult-like curiosities. Interviews with two former detective partners — Lexi Taylor and Joe Kirby — help shape the film’s account of how the investigation unfolded. Their perspectives gradually introduce hints of something more ritualistic beneath the surface and su...

Before I Wake opens with a tense, unsettling scene that immediately establishes the stakes. A distraught man enters a child’s bedroom with a gun, seemingly moments away from shooting the sleeping boy, only to be interrupted at the last moment. It’s an arresting start that sets up the film’s blend of mystery and emotional unease. Rebuilding Lives We then shift to Jess and Mark, a married couple dealing with unimaginable grief after the accidental death of their young son. Hoping to rebuild their lives, they decide to foster a child. Their first placement is Cody, an eight-year-old boy whose background is patchy at best: his mother died when he was three, and both of his previous foster placements ended with the unexplained disappearance of one or both guardians. Jess attends a support group in an effort to work through her grief, while Mark prefers to manage his privately, but the couple seem united in their desire to provide Cody with stability and regain a sense of normality for all ...

After waking up in the basement of an unfamiliar apartment building, Joni begins searching for her missing sister, Emily. Along the way, various tenants warn her that she isn’t supposed to be there, and she’s pursued by a menacing, shadowy figure. Her curious arrival — and the search that follows — takes her through the building floor by floor, with each level introducing a new tenant and a new horror. As she ascends, she’s exposed to the frailties, fears, and insecurities of its inhabitants . A Wraparound Journey Tenants is a horror anthology that uses Joni’s journey as a wraparound narrative, linking seven stories about people undone by their personal demons. The segments vary in tone, mixing emotional drama, dark comedy, and supernatural elements. Among them are “Acting Rash,” in which a struggling actress’s vanity takes a grotesque turn; “Hoarder,” centred on grief and self-imprisonment; “Do You Need Something,” a twisted, funny tale of domestic irritation between roommates tha...

Part mockumentary, part found footage, and part traditional horror, Shelby Oaks follows Mia, whose sister Riley went missing twelve years earlier while investigating an alleged haunting with her vlogging team. The film opens with clips from Riley’s YouTube channel, The Paranormal Paranoids, where she and her team explore derelict locations, including the now-infamous town of Shelby Oaks. When they vanish during one of their investigations, the footage sets off a disturbing and increasingly frantic search for the truth. A Shocking Event Mia has never stopped searching for her sister, and when she’s interviewed for a new documentary on the subject, the renewed attention reignites her determination to get to the root of the mystery once and for all. After a stranger arrives at her home, a shocking incident leads to the discovery of a Shelby Oaks tape, featuring the last recordings of the Paranormal Paranoids. Mia decides to withhold this from the police (plausibly, in my view) and starts...

Directed and co-written by real-life content creator Kris Collins (KallMeKris) and co-starring her frequent collaborator Celina Myers (CelinaSpookyBoo), House on Eden follows a group of paranormal vloggers chasing the next big scare — only to find themselves in the middle of one. Mixing humour, tension, and creeping dread, the film uses its found-footage format to explore that uneasy space between performance and genuine fear. An Unexpected Detour We meet the team en route to film new content at a cemetery. Unknown to Celina and Jay, Kris has discovered a supposedly haunted house nearby and, since she’s behind the wheel, they realise too late that she’s made a detour. The property’s allure lies in its obscurity — few have heard of it, let alone visited. A quick call to real-life paranormal investigators Sam and Colby confirms that even they don’t know the place, which seals the group’s decision to explore. When they arrive, the house is immaculate yet inexplicably unlocked. They begin...

Until Dawn (2025) brings the popular horror game to the big screen, and like most game-to-film adaptations, it arrives with plenty of expectations. The story follows a group of friends trapped in a remote mountain lodge, where bad decisions and buried secrets turn deadly. It’s a mix of slasher tension and supernatural chills that tries to recreate the sense of unease and consequence that made the original game so memorable. The question is whether it succeeds — or if something gets lost in translation along the way. A Promising Setup Clover and her four friends set off on a road trip to retrace the steps of Clover’s sister, Mel, who disappeared a year earlier. Along the way, they learn of a remote area where several people have gone missing over the years, and curiosity drives them to investigate. Caught in a brutal storm, they stumble upon an abandoned house and begin to explore. Evidence suggests Mel had been there before — and it’s not long before a masked killer strikes, murdering ...

There’s nothing quite like a chilly October night—curtains drawn, lights low, and a good old-fashioned scary movie flickering on the screen. It’s the perfect season to tingle the senses and raise a few goosebumps. But what to watch, I hear you ask? Fear not. I’ve put together a specially curated list of ten Halloween-themed films guaranteed to quicken your pulse and make your night go off with a scream. You won’t find Halloween itself here—its place on any October watchlist goes without saying. Expect a mix of the bizarre, absurd, comedic, thought-provoking, and downright terrifying. No rankings, no rules—just pure Halloween viewing pleasure. 1.  Trick 'r Treat A fantastic anthology built around the warning: never disrespect the rules of Halloween. Pumpkin boy Sam is both sinister and strangely endearing, presiding over a series of interlinked stories where characters cross paths in clever ways. Well written, sharply shot, and perfectly cast, the film balances dark humour ...

’Tis the season for horror anthologies, and this year the long-running  V/H/S  franchise grabs the blood-drenched Halloween baton with relish and and sprints screaming toward the finish line. The wrap-around story centres on the testing of a sinister new soda, “Diet Phantasma,” which quickly sets a dangerous tone before we’re plunged into a selection of Halloween-themed shorts. From haunted houses and urban legends to trick-or-treating gone horribly wrong, the anthology blends grotesque imagery, gallows humour, and a particularly disturbing entry involving disappearing children.  Tape by Tape “Coochie Coochie Coo” follows two high-school girls who go trick-or-treating one last time and experience increasingly bizarre and grotesque horrors when lured into a house by a local urban-legend figure. “Ut Supra Sic Infra” delivers a Spanish take steeped in Iberian horror atmosphere, centring on the sole survivor of a massacre at a Halloween party in an abandoned mansion...

Trick ’r Treat is a 2007 Halloween horror anthology that interlinks four ghoulish tales, each carrying the same moral at its heart: never disrespect the rules of Halloween . Didn’t know there were any? You will by the time the credits roll. On Halloween night, young couple Emma and Henry return home from the festivities. Emma, clearly not a fan of the season, can’t wait to pack it all away. Ignoring her husband’s half-hearted warning, she extinguishes the jack-o’-lantern and starts dismantling their decorations. Unbeknownst to them, someone—or something—is watching. Emma soon learns that cutting Halloween short comes with dire consequences. The Warren Valley Carnival The action then switches to earlier that evening, during the Warren Valley Halloween carnival, following the town’s residents as their stories intertwine. There’s the local school principal whose lesson in gluttony takes a nasty, darkly comic turn; a surly neighbour whose disdain for Halloween doesn’t go unpunished...

Night of the Reaper is an ’80s-style slasher from director Brandon Christensen that pays homage to the horror staples of that decade, lovingly recreating the era’s look and feel. The retro-styled opening titles only heighten the anticipation but does it work? The Unsolved Murder The film opens in familiar territory: Emily Golding, a babysitter on Halloween night, is alone in the house, being increasingly threatened by an unseen intruder. At first, she assumes it’s the kids playing around, until the tension goes through the gears and the game turns deadly. It's an eerie, unsettling opener that delivers genuine menace. A few years later, Emily's murder remains unsolved, casting a pall over the town. The house where the killing occurred stands empty and unsellable. Rodney Arnold is the local sheriff who is still grieving the loss of his wife in a car crash and struggling to raise his young son, Max — consumed by guilt and obsession with finding the killer. Deena Comes Home Enter...

As summer fades and the nights grow longer, horror fans know it’s the perfect season to settle in with something chilling. The weather is cooling down but the movies are hotting up, with October bringing a fresh slate of nightmares to the screen. From haunted lakes and cursed rituals to survival stories and sly satires, 2025’s autumn horror releases offer plenty of reasons to keep the lights on and pulses racing well past Halloween. With a ton on offer, here’s the pick of the releases for this month so dive in and enjoy. Bone Lake    Sage and Diego book a secluded lakeside mansion for a romantic getaway, expecting privacy and a chance to reconnect. But their plans are upended when they arrive to find another couple already claiming the same rental. Polite introductions quickly give way to suspicion, attraction, and a dangerous battle of wills that spirals into a night of escalating mind games, buried secrets, and shocking violence. A blend of psychological thriller and u...