Film
The Babadook
A widow and her son are already fraying at the edges of grief when a sinister pop-up book insists a creature called the Babadook is coming for them. It's less a monster movie than a portrait of exhaustion and denial curdling into something monstrous, shot in shadowy, claustrophobic domestic space. For horror fans who want dread with real emotional weight underneath it — patient, upsetting, and quietly devastating rather than jump-scare fast.
If you liked this
Hereditary2018
Grief as an inheritance you can't refuse, filtered through a family unraveling in real time. Same slow-building dread, same sense that the horror is emotional before it's supernatural.
But It's punishing and bleak, with a tonal swerve partway through that some viewers find alienating rather than terrifying.

Relic2020
An Australian chiller about three generations of women and a house that seems to be forgetting itself along with its owner. Dementia as haunted-house metaphor, aching rather than shocking.
But Very slow, very quiet, and more interested in sorrow than scares — patience required.

Under the Shadow2016
A mother and daughter trapped in Tehran during bombing raids while something else stalks their apartment. The domestic-monster template done with real political teeth.
But Farsi-language and unhurried; if you want fast frights this will feel more like a siege drama.

The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Dick Johnson Is Dead2020
Both are about using invented imagery — a monster, a staged death — to make an unbearable grief small enough to survive. One does it through fear, the other through something closer to love.
A documentary filmmaker stages her father's death over and over — falls, accidents, a mocked-up heaven — as a way of rehearsing for real loss. Funny, tender, and strange.
But It's a documentary, not horror, and its warmth is the opposite of the Babadook's dread — some will find the tonal gap too wide.

More like this (8)
The Orphanage2007
A Spanish ghost story steeped in maternal loss, gorgeously shot and genuinely eerie without leaning on gore. Del Toro produced it and it shows.
But Subtitled and melancholic — the scares are atmospheric, not visceral.

Goodnight Mommy2015no page yet
An Austrian film about twin boys convinced their bandaged mother isn't really their mother. Unsettling, clinical, and builds a similar sense that the home has turned hostile.
But Cold and clammy by design — some find it more distressing than scary, with a twist that divides audiences.
A Tale of Two Sisters2003
Korean horror at its most operatic: grief, family secrets, and a house that seems to remember trauma better than the people in it.
But Structurally tricky and best watched without spoilers — a second viewing rewards more than the first confuses.

The Others2001
Nicole Kidman as a mother guarding her photosensitive children in a fog-bound house full of wrong noises. Old-fashioned gothic dread, elegantly constructed.
But Gentle by modern horror standards and its big reveal is now fairly well known.

The Witch2016
A Puritan family isolated on the edge of the woods comes apart from within, paranoia and faith curdling into something monstrous. Same slow dread, different century.
But Archaic dialogue and a glacial pace test some viewers' patience before the payoff.

We Need to Talk About Kevin2011
Not horror exactly, but Tilda Swinton's portrait of a mother dreading her own child carries the same queasy, guilty dread about maternal ambivalence.
But No supernatural release valve here — it's a drama, and a genuinely harrowing one, with no monster to blame.

Repulsion1965
Same architecture: a mind fraying inside a domestic space until the apartment itself seems to turn hostile. The Babadook modernises this exact idea — isolation made literal — but Polanski got there first, minus the monster costume.
Polanski's black-and-white study of a young woman's mind collapsing inside her own flat, decades before 'trauma horror' had a name. Suffocating, claustrophobic, genuinely disturbing.
But Slow, dialogue-light, and shot in a style that will feel dated to viewers used to modern pacing.

Paperhouse1988no page yet
Both hinge on a child's private grief conjuring something that crosses from imagination into reality. Paperhouse plays the same premise as wistful fantasy instead of horror, showing how thin that line really is.
A lonely, feverish English girl draws a house — and a boy — that start bleeding into her waking life. A gentler, fantastical cousin to the Babadook's imagination-made-flesh idea.
But It's a children's fantasy at heart, dreamlike rather than frightening — don't expect anything like real horror.
People
Cast
Essie DavisAmelia Vanek
Noah WisemanSamuel Vanek
Hayley McElhinneyClaire
Daniel HenshallRobbie
Barbara WestGracie Roach
Ben WinspearOskar Vanek- Cathy AdamekPrue
Craig BehennaWarren- HachiBugsy
- Tim PurcellThe Babadook
- Chloe HurnRuby
- Jacquy PhillipsBeverly
Directing
- Jennifer KentDirector
- Brad LanyonFirst Assistant Director
- Dimitri ElleringtonFirst Assistant Director
- Taera ShroffScript Supervisor
Writing
- Jennifer KentWriter
Production
- Pete BestAssociate Producer
- Nikki BarrettCasting
- Natalie WallCasting Associate
- Julie ByrneLine Producer
- Scott McDonaldLocation Manager
- Kristian MoliereProducer
- Kristina CeytonProducer
- Mark KrausProduction Accountant
- Judi OehmeProduction Coordinator
- Michael PhilippouProduction Runner
- Gemma SalomonProduction Secretary
Recommended by
The Others, The Woman in Black, It, A Quiet Place, Hereditary, Repulsion, The Conjuring, Dead Silence, The Orphanage, Manchester by the Sea, Demon Slayer, Forbidden Planet, It Follows, A Monster Calls, Relic, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Servant, Talk to Me, Cargo, The Exorcist, Sinister, Under the Shadow, Dark Water, The Nightmare, Tully, Lake Mungo, A Tale of Two Sisters, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Antichrist, The Brood, Caché, Ghost Stories