Film

Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural

Name: Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural
Genre: Horror
Released: 1974
Cast: Lesley Gilb Taplin, Cheryl Smith, William Whitton, Hy Pyke, Maxine Ballantyne

A 1974 Gothic horror film about a young girl lured into a supernatural town by a letter from her dying father. It's a fever dream of atmosphere—creeping dread, gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, and the slow dawning of something deeply wrong. Cult favorite for those who love slow-burn horror that trusts its mood over jump scares.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love fairy-tale horror that plays like a fever dream, where dreamlike logic, odd folk rituals and a child's stubborn courage matter more than jump scares or a tidy plot.

Skip it if you need brisk pacing and sharp characterization, since the 1974 low-budget craft shows its seams and much of the runtime drifts through strange, slow encounters.

What it asks of you: It runs about an hour and a half and moves at a dreamy, unhurried clip, asking you to sink into its eerie atmosphere and accept its rules without much explanation.

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

If you liked this

The Night of the Hunter1955

Equally Gothic and deeply unsettling, with a charismatic villain and a child in genuine danger. Robert Mitchum's preacher is menace incarnate, and the visual storytelling is masterful.

But Paced deliberately, sometimes stagey. If you need constant plot momentum, this will feel glacial.

Suspiria1977

Italian Gothic horror at its most operatic—vivid color, a haunted ballet academy, and pure atmospheric dread. Deeply stylized and utterly hypnotic if you surrender to it.

But The plot is intentionally thin and sometimes nonsensical. Also very violent toward women, which isn't decorative.

The Innocents1961

Ghosts or madness? A governess and two children in an English manor where something is profoundly, quietly wrong. Jack Clayton wrings maximum unease from suggestion and shadow.

But Ambiguous ending that refuses to confirm what you've seen. Some find that frustrating rather than chilling.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Carnival of Souls1962

Both are small-budget films that prioritize fever-dream atmosphere over plot coherence, with heroines gradually realizing the rules of reality have changed beneath their feet.

A woman survives a car accident and discovers she's becoming invisible to the living. This indie horror predates most of what you think made the 1970s weird, shot on a shoestring but visionary.

But The acting is wooden and the budget shows everywhere. But that naïveté is part of why it's haunting—no cynicism, pure nightmare logic.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death1971

A woman recovering from a breakdown moves to an old house where reality fractures. Low-budget but genuinely eerie, with an unreliable narrator and a folk-horror atmosphere.

But Shot on a shoestring and it shows. Patience required; nothing happens quickly.

The Wailing2016

A South Korean mystery-horror that slowly reveals layers of dread and moral ambiguity. Gorgeous cinematography and a narrative that keeps recontextualizing everything you thought you knew.

But Two-and-a-half hours and deliberately opaque. Demands active attention and tolerates no distraction.

The Haunting1963

Shirley Jackson's novel brought to screen with restraint and intelligence. A house that seems to be alive, felt through uncertainty and psychological fraying rather than effects.

But 1960s pacing and zero gore. For viewers who believe a creeping sense of wrongness is scarier than anything explicit.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari1920

The DNA of German Expressionism and early horror cinema. Distorted sets, deep shadows, and a narrative twist that recontextualizes everything—visually stunning and genuinely disturbing.

But Silent film from 1920. If subtitles and a century-old aesthetic feel like work rather than discovery, skip it.

Daughters of Darkness1971

A lesbian vampire film of extraordinary style and eroticism. Arthouse sensuality meets horror; gorgeous cinematography and a slowly tightening trap.

But Very slow and deliberately erotic. The plot is thin; mood is everything, and some will find that indulgent.

Deep Red1975

Dario Argento's giallo masterpiece—stylish, gory, operatic murder mystery with a killer aesthetic and a relentless narrative engine.

But Graphic violence and a plot that sometimes prioritizes spectacle over coherence. Also dubbed in a way that can feel disorienting.

The Reflecting Skin1990

Both use a child's descent into a supernatural world as a frame, blending innocence with creeping horror. Both trust visual storytelling over exposition.

A boy in rural Canada during the 1950s mistakes a widowed woman for a vampire. Gorgeous, poetic, and deeply strange—it's a horror film told from a child's perspective where childhood logic warps everything.

But Slow, painterly, often unbearably sad. And it goes to genuinely dark places involving children that some will find unwatchable.

The Witch2016

Both are period horror films about moral corruption and darkness invading a closed world through a figure of transgression. Both trade on silence and implication.

A Puritan family slowly fractured by paranoia and the possibility of actual witchcraft. Shot like a period piece but feels like a fever dream. Genuinely original and deeply unnerving.

But Heavy dialect, almost no plot momentum, and it argues that sometimes the horror isn't resolved. Also genuinely disturbing imagery involving children.