The 18 scariest movies to watch in 2016

1. The Babadook
You won’t find many horror movies
with a rating of 98 per cent on Rotten
Tomatoes but The Babadook is no
ordinary horror movie. It tells the
story of a mother struggling to
control her young son who is plagued
by visions of a monster he thinks is
coming to kill them. He may be right.
Genuinely terrifying.
2. Scream
The one that re-started it all, the
effect of late Wes Craven’s 1996 teen
slasher, itself satirising slashers a
decade earlier, continues to be felt 18
years on. Simple premise – masked
murderer targeting a group of
attractive high schoolers – and yet
it’ll still scare the hell out of you. Oft
copied never bettered.
3. Insidious
What is it with creepy kids and
cinema? We’re never not freaked out
every time a bowl-haired youngster
finds themselves possessed by
wrongdoing spirits. Hollywood just
gets it. And they’ve certainly not let
up for this riveting horror, which
sees a couple fight supernatural
forces when their son enters a
comatose state, finding himself
becoming the host for ghosts from an
astral dimension. Whatever you do,
don’t watch it alone.
4. Event Horizon
What if Hell was accessible via a
black hole? That, in short, is the
premise of Event Horizon, which sees
a space team sent to investigate a
vessel that disappeared into a black
hole only to come back with the
original crew all dead and mutilated.
Think Danny Boyle’s unnerving
Sunshine, just with much more gore –
seriously, this give The Shining a run
from its money in litres of blood. A
sci-fi horror of the highest order.
5. An American Werewolf
In London
John Landis’s hairy horror that
almost wasn’t. Financiers believed
that the script was too frightening to
be a comedy and too funny to be a
scary movie. This, the director
believed, was because he was only
known for T he Blues Brothers and
Animal House at that time – but make
no mistake, this cult
classic, charting the hijinks of two US
backpackers terrorised by a
werewolf on a trip to England, has
plenty of bite.
6. The Omen
If you’ve not seen it, you’ve heard of
it. The Omen, starring Gregory Peck
as the married diplomat who adopts
the antichrist which duly goes about
making the nanny hang herself and
killing anyone else in his way, stands
as one of most frightening stories
ever committed to celluloid, and it’s
also on Netflix should you have a big
enough sofa to hide behind.
7. Carrie
Remake. Reboot. Retelling. However
you phrase it, this update of 1976’s
horror based on Stephen King’s
classic story of the same name is
madly disturbing. Chloe Grace
Mortez plays the introvert teen with
hidden paranormal powers, Julianne
Moore plays her fervently religious
mother, and the rest of the town
watch in blood-splatted horror as
Carrie unleashes them when pushed
too far at senior prom.
8. The Blair Witch Project
In 1999, three student filmmakers
attempting to make a documentary
on a Maryland legend known as the
Blair Witch just disappeared. The trio
were never seen again, save for the
tapes that they left behind in those
dark woods which showed their
nerve-jangling final moments.
Spoiler alert: they don’t stumble on a
teddy bear’s picnic.
9. The Human Centipede:
Final Sequence
Though it will never be as revered as
The Godfather series, much like
Francis Ford Coppola’s classic, The
Human Centipede is a trilogy of films
now synonymous with animal
mutilation. Quite a lot of it in fact,
and arguably far too much. We’d go
into detail but the title and
photograph here pretty much gives it
away. Besides, we’re afraid we’d get
a bit of sick in our mouths just trying
to explain it.
10. The Devil Inside
20 years after a woman murdered
three people, her daughter Isabella
travels to a hospital for the
criminally insane to work out if her
mother is suffering from delusions or
actual demonic possession.
Unfortunately it’s the latter and it
isn’t long before she’s recruiting two
exorcists to help her fight back for
her mother’s soul. And if that doesn’t
grab your attention, just look at that
image.
11. Below
After breaking out with the excellent
Vin Diesel-launching sci-fi
horror Pitch Black , all eyes were on
David Twohy for his next move. But
fewer eyes were anywhere near the
resulting project: a 40s-set
supernatural thriller that takes place
on a submarine. Which is still a
shame as it’s a creepy, classically told
ghost story, full of suspense and jump
scares. It’s also co-written by Darren
Aronofksy and features a pre-fame
Zach Galifianakis, in case you’re
interested.
12. Grace
The process of pregnancy, giving
birth and then being a mother has
fuelled many classic horror films,
from Rosemary’s Baby to The Omen to
lesser seen French thriller Inside .
Grace takes a unique, and horrifying,
spin on the subgenre by taking a
mother’s fear over the health of her
son to extremes. After her baby is
stillborn, a woman is surprised when
she comes to life yet problems soon
arise, such as the baby’s desperate
need for blood…
13. The House of the Devil
A wonderfully realised tribute here
to ’70s and ’80s horror, this breakout
film from director Ti West
manages to be stylised but still scary,
It focuses on a college student who
accepts a babysitting job only to
discover that there isn’t a baby to
look after. Spoiling more would be a
crime but needless to say things get
very, very, VERY nasty. The reliance
on suspense and mood elevates this
from other films of its ilk, with the
slow-burn proving to be almost
unbearable as the frenzied climax
begins.
14. Stake Land
The increased popularity in vampire
movies has led to almost every
possible take on the genre being
shoved our way, most of which have
hoped to emulate Twilight’s
monstrous success. This gritty low
budget offering has no interest in
romanticising blood-suckers as it
shows us a brutal post-apocalyptic
wasteland overrun with feral vamps.
It’s bloody, tough and thrilling.
15. May
Victims of bullying make for powerful
horror movie characters, as shown
by Stephen King’s Carrie ,
and May makes for a well-matched
bedfellow. Our beleagured anti-
heroine is a lonely and emotionally
damaged woman who decides that
the best way to get a new friend is to
make one. Cue violence.
16. Patrick
A remake of a 1978 cult favourite,
this deliberately lurid shocker is a
gothic treat, full of mist and shadows,
knowingly ramping up the
atmosphere, without ever losing sight
of the story. The titular character is a
brain dead patient being
experimented on by an unhinged
scientist. But Patrick has some rather
nasty tricks up his sleeve…
17. Teeth
Just when you thought every possible
horror conceit had been tried, along
comes Teeth . Jess Weixler plays an
innocent teenage girl who during a
horrible sexual assault discovers that
her body possesses a unique defence
system: vagina dentata. Yes, that is
exactly what it sounds like. Some
people got their undies in a bit of a
knot about it when it was released
but there’s a deeper message to the
bathing-suit-area-horror.
18. Maniac
A particularly nasty horror film that
stars Elijah Wood as a psychopath
who stalks, murders and scalps young
women. What makes the film even
tougher to watch is that we see
virtually all of the gruesome events
through the killer’s eyes, making us
feel horribly complicit in the crimes.
It’s a beautifully shot slasher movie
that contains more artistry than your
typical horror remake but is
recommended only for those with a
very strong stomach.