Film

Charlotte

Name: Charlotte
Genre: Horror
Released: 2017
Cast: Sarah Agor, Kimberly Atkinson, Ari Bavel, Stephen Blackehart, Mike Brabender

Other titles called Charlotte: the 2015 series (Tokyo MX).

Charlotte is an 83-minute anthology horror film framed around a possessed doll terrorizing a babysitter. It's a feature-length riff on the creepy-doll subgenre that leans hard into pulp fun rather than sustained dread. Built for people who love practical effects, weird B-movie energy, and don't need their horror to make sense as long as it makes an impression.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love anthology horror built like a campfire of separate short stories, where a sinister frame keeps tightening around each tale and the dread builds one segment at a time.

Skip it if you want one sustained story with momentum, since this hops between separate vignettes, so the stakes reset every time a new tale begins.

What it asks of you: Roughly eighty-three minutes, so it's a short sit, but you have to keep switching your attention from the babysitter's cramped predicament to each tale on the screen.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Creepshow1982

Anthology horror with an impish spirit and genuine scares. Romero and King made episodic horror feel urgent and darkly funny, with practical gore that still astounds. The framing device is wildly inventive.

But Pacing is uneven—some stories sing while others drag. It's also very 1980s, which counts as a drawback if you hate that.

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie1990

Another anthology where a sinister figure forces victims to listen to horror stories—same skeleton as Charlotte, but more elegantly constructed. The three tales hit different registers and genuine talent's involved.

But It's slower, more deliberate. If you want quick scares and chaos, this refinement might feel mannered and bloodless.

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie poster

V/H/S2012

Found-footage anthology that captures the same anything-can-happen energy. Wildly uneven by design, but the best segments are genuinely unsettling and it never takes itself seriously enough to collapse under its own silliness.

But Half of it doesn't work, and the wraparound story is aggressively dumb. Found footage also means shaky camera and artificial 'realism' that some find exhausting.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Charlotte

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Tusk2014

Both films embrace surreal, B-movie absurdism and don't apologize for asking the audience to sit through increasingly unhinged anthology scenarios presented without winking.

A 102-minute horror-comedy about a man turned into a walrus. Directed by Kevin Smith, acted by Justin Long, Johnny Depp, and Michael Parks with complete commitment. It's obscene and audacious and utterly insane in ways that feel liberating.

But It's intentionally disgusting and revolting in every direction. If your tolerance for body horror and genuine depravity is low, this will not move you—it will repel you.

Night Gallery1969

Serling's follow-up to Twilight Zone; each episode is a miniature horror story with real atmosphere and wit. Practical in its scares, literary in its sensibility. Pure comfort for people who love smart anthology television.

But It's slow television from 1970—very slow. And the horror is suggestive rather than explicit; if you're craving gore and jump scares, this will feel quaint.

Evil Dead II1987

Raimi understood that horror works best when the filmmakers are having a blast. Possessed objects, gleeful violence, practical effects that commit to the bit. It's chaos that's been rehearsed until it sings.

But The tone is campy horror-comedy, which can feel archaic. If you want dread or psychological depth, you're in the wrong film.

Puppetmaster1989

Low-budget 1989 horror built entirely on the premise of killer puppets with personality. It's earnest, weird, and committed to its premise in ways only a B-movie can be. Practical puppetry and genuine oddness.

But The script is thin, the acting is... there, and the budget constraints show everywhere. It's a slog if you need production values or coherent storytelling.

Hellraiser1987

Clive Barker's debut feature is uncompromising practical horror that still feels dangerous. It invents its own mythology and commits to genuine body horror. Absolutely singular in what it's trying to do.

But It's genuinely bleak and graphic in ways that feel punitive. If you like horror that lets you breathe or find moments of levity, this suffocates deliberately.

Suspiria1977

Dario Argento's masterpiece is pure sensory assault—vivid colors, a hypnotic score, sequences that don't follow narrative logic but follow dream logic perfectly. Horror as aesthetic experience rather than plot device.

But It's deliberately strange and the narrative is threadbare. If you need your horror grounded in reality or character, this abstraction will frustrate you.

Poltergeist1982

A genuine classic about a house haunted by something worse than ghosts. Spielberg's touch makes the domestic uncanny, and the climax builds to something genuinely overwhelming. Smart blockbuster horror.

But The pacing occasionally stumbles and some of the '80s tech feels cutesy now rather than eerie. The ending also softens what came before it.

Teeth2008

Both films weaponize the uncanny and the grotesque without apology, using practical effects to create something that sticks in the mind precisely because it shouldn't exist.

A deadpan body-horror film about a teenage girl discovering she has teeth in her vagina. It's feminist horror with real wit, not exploitative despite what the premise suggests. Sharp, strange, and defiantly its own thing.

But The premise is designed to make you uncomfortable and the violence is graphic. It's also deliberately slow and the humor is very dry. Many will find it more alienating than entertaining.