Film

The Good Son

Name: The Good Son
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Horror
Released: 1993
Cast: Macaulay Culkin, Elijah Wood, Wendy Crewson, David Morse, Daniel Hugh Kelly

Psychological horror
Very dark

A psychological thriller about a boy who discovers his charming cousin is a remorseless psychopath. It's unsettling and carefully paced, built on Macaulay Culkin's genuinely disturbing performance. For viewers who want horror that works through character and dread rather than jump scares—and who can handle a child as the villain.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like slow-building domestic unease, where the scariest thing is a polite child who seems to know exactly which buttons to press, in the vein of The Omen or The Bad Seed.

Skip it if you want the menace to arrive quickly, since it takes a long time to set up and some of the performances and set-pieces feel broad and theatrical by modern standards.

What it asks of you: About ninety minutes of patient attention, with a steady, unhurried build and a dark, cold tone that stays with you rather than easing off for relief.

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

If you liked this

Orphan2009

A girl adopted into a family harbors a terrible secret. Like *The Good Son*, it uses our need to trust children against us, with an electric third-act reveal and Vera Farmiga's slow-dawning horror carrying the weight.

But The premise is engineered and the plot requires you to accept a significant physical implausibility at its core.

We Need to Talk About Kevin2011

A mother confronts her role in raising a son who committed an act of mass violence. It's far more serious and fractured than *The Good Son*, told in fragments, but shares the unbearable question: how much is nature, how much is parenting?

But It's bleak and deliberately difficult to watch. The fractured timeline requires attention and the subject matter is profoundly heavy.

The Omen1976

A couple slowly realizes their adopted son might be the Antichrist. It has the same architecture—a child at the center of creeping dread—but wraps it in supernatural horror and 1970s craft that's genuinely masterful.

But If you need scares rather than atmosphere, it will feel slow. The pacing trusts you to find it terrifying on your own.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Good Son

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer1986

Both are unflinching portraits of a person incapable of conscience. *The Good Son* is the origin story; *Henry* is what that child becomes—the horror of understanding that some people are simply broken in ways that cannot be fixed.

A man and his accomplice document casual acts of violence without motive or remorse. It's the full-grown version of the psychopath in *The Good Son*—not interested in hiding what he is. A masterwork of horror that treats evil as banal and ordinary.

But It's genuinely disturbing, unglamorous, and made with no exploitation in mind, which somehow makes it harder to watch. Not for casual viewing.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer poster

It Comes at Night2017

A family isolated in a house grows paranoid about an infected stranger outside. The real horror is interpersonal and psychological—paranoia eating away at bonds—rather than external threat, with a suffocating sense of dread.

But It's deliberately vague. If you want clear answers about what's happening, you'll leave frustrated and possibly angry.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer2017

A surgeon's family is stalked by a boy with a mysterious hold over them. It shares *The Good Son*'s uncanny wrongness and the way a child can be a force of inexplicable menace. Yorgos Lanthimos makes it hypnotic and deeply strange.

But The dialogue is formal and stilted by design, which some find pretentious. The pacing is slow and the logic is dreamlike rather than rational.

Goodnight Mommy2015

Two boys become convinced their mother—returned from facial surgery, face bandaged—isn't their mother. Austrian horror that leans into the twisted bond between parent and child, with a reveal that reshapes everything you've watched.

But It's genuinely disturbing and contains violence toward children. The twist, while effective, asks you to rewatch with that knowledge in mind.

Hush2016

A deaf woman is terrorized in her home by an intruder who knows her vulnerability. Tension built on communication breakdown and the violation of one's own space—a different kind of psychological siege than *The Good Son*, but equally merciless.

But It's a home invasion film, so it's claustrophobic and relentless. If that subgenre triggers you, skip it entirely.

Come True2020

A homeless girl joins a sleep study that becomes nightmarish. It's hypnotic sci-fi horror with an impossible atmosphere and a protagonist you need to protect. Unsettling in ways that linger.

But The plot is intentionally opaque and the ending is deliberately ambiguous. If you need narrative closure, you won't find it.

Joshua2007

A nine-year-old boy becomes convinced his newborn sister is evil. It's a smaller film than *The Good Son* but shares the premise of a child's perspective as the lens for something dark and possibly delusional—is he right or unraveling?

But It's low-budget and quieter than you might expect. The absence of big set pieces feels like restraint to some and tedium to others.

Badlands1973

Both films are haunted by young people who view morality as negotiable—charming, intelligent, and untroubled by the suffering they cause. *The Good Son* is the nightmare; *Badlands* is the tragedy of the same blankness wrapped in romance.

Two teenagers fall in love and become fugitives, narrated by the girl in a dreamy, lyrical voice. Terrence Malick's debut is about youth, beauty, violence, and the distance between how killers see themselves and what they actually are. It's a poem about amoral charm.

But It's deliberately poetic and impressionistic rather than plot-driven. The violence is not graphic, so if you're seeking that, it will feel restrained.

Come and See1985

Where *The Good Son* asks if a child can be evil, *Come and See* asks if evil can be created. Both use a child's presence to make horror absolute—but this one does so by showing what the world does to a child, rather than what a child might do to the world.

A Soviet film following a boy conscripted into WWII as he witnesses atrocity escalate. It's a masterpiece of unspeakable power—the destruction of innocence in real time, shot with a fury that has no equal in cinema.

But It is profoundly traumatic. This is not entertainment; it is an endurance test. It contains graphic violence including toward children and animals. Watch only if you are prepared to be shaken.