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Daughter – Movie Review (3/5)

Posted by Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard | Feb 10, 2023 | 3 minutes

DAUGHTER is a new mystery-thriller with a very small cast and a truly brutal story. A fascinating tragedy that evolves in creepy ways from start to finish. Read our full Daughter movie review here!

DAUGHTER is a mystery thriller that plays out like a psychological horror story. What begins with a kidnapping quickly escalates to a fake and forced Stockholm syndrome situation. When I say “fake and forced” it’s because it never actually happens, but the man in charge seems to believe he can build his own family.

It’s an absolute tragedy that keeps evolving with new story elements that continue to shock and disgust. The entire tiny cast is fantastic, but Casper Van Dien as “Father” is particularly memorable.

Continue reading our Daughter movie review below. Find the film in theaters and On-Demand from February 10, 2023.

A chosen family

You know the saying “you can’t choose your family, but you can choose your friends”? Well, in Daughter , we meet a man who challenges this statement. He very much believes he can choose his own family. As in he goes out and kidnaps a young woman and tells her that she now goes by “Daughter”, but can also respond to “Sister” when appropriate.

He tries to assure her by saying that nobody will touch her in a sexual way or be violent towards her. However, when this is followed up with the information that she just needs to stay with her new “family” for a couple of years, it does little to calm her.

Also, there is no leaving the house. Everyone outside is sick and the people inside the house – the family – need to stay safe and healthy so they can save the world. This is what the son of the family is taught. He has clearly been raised in a household where everything is rigorous, so playing board games or anything else indoors is a real treat.

Daughter (2022) – Review | Mystery-Thriller

A wonderful small cast

In Daughter , we meet a total of six people, so the cast only has six actors. The core family that we follow in this part of the story – which only spans a few weeks – consists of Father (Casper Van Dien), Mother ( Elyse Dinh ), Brother (Ian Alexander), and Sister (Vivien Ngô). The latter also plays the title role of Daughter , but her character name is “Sister” in the family tree.

Mother and Sister are both of Vietnamese origin and some Vietnamese is actually spoken. Not too much though, since Father doesn’t understand this and loathes secrets. Which is ironic when you hear what he’s teaching his son.

Ian Alexander is scary good as Brother. He can go from being the sweetest boy to looking absolutely demonic for a split second if someone suggests going against Father’s teachings. He plays a huge part in how it all plays out in the end – and I did love the ending of Daughter . Ian Alexander was “Lev” in The Last of Us: Part II video game, so maybe he’ll be in the HBO adaptation later as well?

Watch Daughter in theaters, on Digital or On-Demand now!

Corey Deshon is the writer and director of Daughter which really did work remarkably well in most ways. This is his feature film debut as a director and his third feature film as a screenplay writer. He also wrote the script for the horror movie Trespassers (2018) , which has Fairuza Balk in the cast. The iconic The Craft star is often enough to make most horror fans curious.

While Daughter is a slow-burn movie in terms of storytelling, this is also what makes it so creepy. You’re trapped in this very strange home and from the opening scene, you know how brutal the father of this self-made family can be.

With a runtime of 95 minutes, it manages to keep a good pace throughout. If you tend to like horror movies or psychological thrillers with a religious antagonist, then this is definitely worth checking out. Especially since there’s nothing supernatural to the story – just a human being acting in a cruel and brutal way.

Daughter is out in theaters and On-Demand from February 10, 2023. It will also be out on DVD from May 9, 2023.

Director: Corey Deshon Writer: Corey Deshon Cast: Casper Van Dien, Elyse Dinh, Vivien Ngô and Ian Alexander

A young woman is kidnapped and inducted into a bizarre family as their new surrogate daughter. As she navigates through this twisted dynamic, awful secrets about the past are revealed, leading to even darker implications about the future.

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About The Author

Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard

I write reviews and recaps on Heaven of Horror. And yes, it does happen that I find myself screaming, when watching a good horror movie. I love psychological horror, survival horror and kick-ass women. Also, I have a huge soft spot for a good horror-comedy. Oh yeah, and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies, so I will immediately think less of any movie, where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors). Fortunately, horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy. And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones. Go figure!

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‘Not violent people’ … Casper Van Dien and Ian Alexander in Daughter.

Daughter review – kidnap horror keeps it in the creepy family

Corey Deshon’s debut feature has echoes of horrific cases of basement imprisonment, but doesn’t quite coalesce into a clear vision

T here are echoes of the Turpin case and Josef Fritzl ’s basement in this tense arthouse horror shot in grainy 16mm with auteurish confidence by first-time film-maker Corey Deshon. It opens with a claim to be “more based on fact than fiction”, but actually tells an entirely fictional story about the kidnapping of a young woman (Vivien Ngô) who wakes up shackled to the floor in a garage. In front of her stands a man known only as Father (Casper Van Dien). You can tell instantly from his plaid checked shirt, beige slacks and straight-backed posture that he’s the type of Christian you don’t mess with in a horror movie: wholesome looking, but unhinged.

“We’re not violent people,” Father tells the chained-up woman, sounding almost reasonable. It’s not true. In a disturbing, disorientating scene over the opening credits we’ve just watched him in a gas mask chase down another young woman and bludgeon her to death. This new woman is her replacement, kidnapped by Father to be a big sister to his son, Brother (Ian Alexander), a frail boy of about 11. Brother has been raised in isolation, taught that air in the outside world is toxic. Rounding off the creepy family is Mother played with brilliant slyness by Elyse Dinh: is she a quietly submissive wife, or just giving a good performance?

At points I wondered if this is a film that tells us anything about anything. Some of its ideas feel a bit thrown together. There are no firm clues as to Father’s motives: he comes across as a man who’d like to have been an authoritarian cult leader if only he had the necessary charisma. But other characters feel a bit under-written – particularly Brother, who we sense is eager to please his dad, and possibly his successor.

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Daughter Reviews

The concept may come across as too simple, but the execution is nothing short of complex and perceptive.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 21, 2023

It's depressing quite frankly, but it moves quickly, it's short, and there's a cleverness to the concept.

Full Review | Mar 3, 2023

The film’s dark, grainy aesthetic further speaks to Deshon’s comfort in expressing his horror temperament, revelling in a nature that’s more psychological than visually brutal.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 23, 2023

A film that has much to say about the perversion of authority and the stunting effect of the loss of self-determination.

Full Review | Feb 16, 2023

There are echoes of the Turpin case and Josef Fritzl’s basement in this tense arthouse horror shot in grainy 16mm with auteurish confidence by first-time film-maker Corey Deshon.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 13, 2023

… hinges on an atmosphere of confusion and anxiety.

Full Review | Original Score: 11.5/20 | Feb 12, 2023

While this drama within the drama recalls “Dogtooth,” an acknowledged influence, nothing else about “Daughter” feels so distinctive.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 10, 2023

Sadly, the film is all build-up. While this fact ensures the end will be unsatisfying in its ambiguity, it also means that everything coming before the letdown is quite effective.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Feb 10, 2023

The symbolism remains heavy, but it’s all in service of a powerful prisoner’s story, about the small ways people find freedom.

Full Review | Feb 10, 2023

'Daughter' movie is a rare achievement, turning a small budget and a simple story into a cinematic experience we can unravel to find new things over multiple viewings.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Feb 9, 2023

This film, written and directed by Corey Deshon (making his feature debut), presents itself as a thriller but becomes about the limitations of knowledge.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 9, 2023

A technical marvel, in Daughter first-time director Corey Deshon has crafted an exceptionally intricate film that flips conventions and expectations on their head.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 9, 2023

Daughter is not scary, and I don’t think it was intended to be. I just wanted to see what was going to happen next while enjoying the slow-paced ride all the way to the finish line.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 8, 2023

Daughter is a timely horror movie that explores gender roles and authority. The drab setting highlights the hopelessness of it all and by the film’s end everyone will be unsure of what will happen going forward.

Full Review | Feb 8, 2023

Immerses the viewer in an eerie world within the house's beige interiors, making Father and his warped ideas scary and mesmerizing, right up to the chilling final shot.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Feb 8, 2023

[It] uses the emotional legacy of Casper Van Dien to fill in an impressionist, authoritarian portrait of domestic life and community structure.

Full Review | Oct 28, 2022

Corey Deshon’s feature debut is a claustrophobic kidnapping thriller set in an abstract, allegorical prison-house of patriarchy

Full Review | Sep 21, 2022

Movie Reviews

“families rely on trust” – ‘daughter’ film review..

Corey Deshon’s directorial debut, Daughter , delivers a tense yet clever way of looking at family dynamics, using social and cultural structures, keeping the characters at bay, and punishing disobedience.

The film Daughter celebrated its first glimpse of life at the Frightfest film festival in 2022, marking the feature directorial debut of Writer/Producer/Director Corey Deshon. What a perfect film to celebrate such an occasion.

The film follows a young woman kidnapped and brought into a very bizarre family setting and is expected to be a surrogate daughter. The Daughter (Vivien Ngô) will likely navigate through this twisted situation, experiencing terrible secrets from the past that are revealed, leading everyone onto a dark, sinister path of destruction.

Shot on 16 mm, Daughter delivers a grainy yet beautiful esthetic from the past that is fitting for this picture, leaving the audience not knowing exactly when the film was taking place. Father (Casper Van Dien) is outright bonkers using the outside environment as a tactic, making the family believe that going out will leave them all acceptable to contracting a deadly virus.

If someone does go out, they must be wearing a gas mask. For a brief moment, I was getting Stepfather (1987) vibes, a father wanting a specific order for his family and manipulating everyone to achieve it, which I didn’t think was terrible.

I went into this film practically blind, not watching a trailer, and I kept my distance from any buzz that might have been floating on the web; I wanted the most authentic experience possible, free of distraction and opinion.

Daughter delivered and most certainly did not disappoint. Not only did we have a fitting story, and wonderful cinematography, I felt we had good storytelling and acting to support it. There is no doubt that the viewer will quickly plunge into this petrifying world set within this house’s odd interior while listening to the father’s twisted ideas, consuming us until the end.

Sometimes the simple stories are the most terrifying, and I am sure new things can be discovered over multiple viewings of this film. The house is a prison and brings new light to kidnapping thrillers.

Daughter is now in limited release and on VOD/Digital HD.

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‘Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2’ is Packed with Cryptid Tales [Movie Review]

As a longtime werewolf enthusiast, I’m immediately drawn to anything featuring the word “werewolf”. Adding Skinwalkers into the mix? Now, you’ve truly captured my interest. Needless to say, I was thrilled to check out Small Town Monsters’ new documentary ‘Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2’ . Below is the synopsis:

“Across the four corners of the American Southwest, there is said to exist an ancient, supernatural evil that preys on the fear of its victims to gain greater power. Now, witnesses lift the veil on the most terrifying encounters with modern-day werewolves ever heard. These stories intertwine legends of upright canids with hellhounds, poltergeists, and even the mythical Skinwalker, promising true terror.”

Centered around shapeshifting and told through firsthand accounts from the Southwest, the film brims with chilling stories. (Note: iHorror has not independently verified any claims made in the film.) These narratives are the heart of the film’s entertainment value. Despite the mostly basic backdrops and transitions—notably lacking in special effects—the film maintains a steady pace, thanks largely to its focus on witness accounts.

While the documentary lacks concrete evidence to support the tales, it remains a captivating watch, especially for cryptid enthusiasts. Skeptics may not be converted, but the stories are intriguing.

After watching, am I convinced? Not entirely. Did it make me question my reality for a while? Absolutely. And isn’t that, after all, part of the fun?

‘Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2’ is now available on VOD and Digital HD, with Blu-ray and DVD formats offered exclusively by Small Town Monsters .

‘Slay’ is Wonderful, It’s Like if ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ Met ‘Too Wong Foo’

Before you dismiss Slay as a gimmick, we can tell you, it is. But it’s a damn good one.

Four drag queens are mistakenly booked at a stereotypical biker bar in the desert where they have to combat bigots…and vampires. You read that right. Think, Too Wong Foo at the Titty Twister . Even if you don’t get those references, you will still have a good time.

Before you sashay away from this Tubi offering, here is why you shouldn’t. It’s surprisingly funny and manages to have a few scary moments along the way. It’s a midnight movie at its core and if those bookings were still a thing, Slay would probably have a successful run.

The premise is simple, again, four drag queens played by Trinity the Tuck , Heidi N Closet , Crystal Methyd , and Cara Mell find themselves at a biker bar unaware that an alpha vampire is on the loose in the woods and has already bitten one of the townsfolk. The turned man makes his way to the old roadside saloon and begins turning the patrons into the undead right in the middle of the drag show. The queens, along with the local barflies, barricade themselves inside the bar and must defend themselves against the growing hoard outside.

The contrast between the denim and leather of the bikers, and the ball gowns and Swarovski crystals of the queens, is a sight gag I can appreciate. During the whole ordeal, none of the queens gets out of costume or sheds their drag personas except at the beginning. You forget they have other lives outside of their costumes.

All four of the leading ladies have had their time on Ru Paul’s Drag Race , But Slay is a lot more polished than a Drag Race acting challenge, and the leads elevate the camp when called for and tone it down when necessary. It is a well-balanced scale of comedy and horror.

Trinity the Tuck is primed with one-liners and double entendres which rat-a-tat from her mouth in gleeful succession. It’s not a cringy screenplay so every joke lands naturally with a required beat and professional timing.

There is one questionable joke made by a biker about who comes from Transylvania and it isn’t the highest brow but it doesn’t feel like punching down either.

This might be the guiltiest pleasure of the year! It’s hilarious!

Heidi N Closet is surprisingly well cast. It’s not that it’s surprising to see she can act, it’s just most people know her from Drag Race which doesn’t allow much range. Comically she’s on fire. In one scene she flips her hair behind her ear with a large baguette and then uses it as a weapon. The garlic, you see. It’s surprises like that that make this film so charming.

The weaker actor here is Methyd who plays the dimwitted Bella Da Boys . Her creaky performance shaves a little off the rhythm but the other ladies take up her slack so it just becomes part of the chemistry.

Slay has some great special effects too. Despite using CGI blood, none of them take you out of the element. Some great work went into this movie from everyone involved.

The vampire rules are the same, stake through the heart, sunlight., etc. But what’s really neat is when the monsters are killed, they explode into a glitter-tinted dust cloud.

It’s just as fun and silly as any Robert Rodriguez movie with probably a quarter of his budget.

Director Jem Garrard keeps everything going at a rapid pace. She even throws in a dramatic twist which is played with as much seriousness as a soap opera, but it does pack a punch thanks to Trinity and Cara Melle . Oh, and they manage to squeeze in a message about hate during it all. Not a smooth transition but even the lumps in this film are made of buttercream.

Another twist, handled much more delicately is better thanks to veteran actor Neil Sandilands . I’m not going to spoil anything but let’s just say there are plenty of twists and, ahem, turns , which all add to the fun.

Robyn Scott who plays barmaid Shiela is the standout comedian here. Her lines and gusto provide the most belly laughs. There should be a special award for her performance alone.

Slay is a delicious recipe with just the right amount of camp, gore, action, and originality. It’s the best horror comedy to come along in a while.

It’s no secret that independent films have to do a lot more for less. When they are this good it’s a reminder that big studios could be doing better.

With movies like Slay , every penny counts and just because the paychecks might be smaller it doesn’t mean the final product has to be. When the talent puts this much effort into a film, they deserve more, even if that recognition comes in the form of a review. Sometimes smaller movies like Slay have hearts too big for an IMAX screen.

And that’s the tea.

You can stream Slay on Tubi right now .

Review: Is There ‘No Way Up’ For This Shark Film?

A flock of birds flies into the jet engine of a commercial airliner making it crash into the ocean with only a handful of survivors tasked with escaping the sinking plane while also enduring depleting oxygen and nasty sharks in No Way Up . But does this low-budget film rise above its shopworn monster trope or sink beneath the weight of its shoestring budget?

First, this film obviously isn’t on the level of another popular survival film, Society of the Snow , but surprisingly it isn’t Sharknado either. You can tell a lot of good direction went into making it and its stars are up for the task. The histrionics are kept at a bare minimum and unfortunately the same can be said about the suspense. That isn’t to say that No Way Up is a limp noodle, there is plenty here to keep you watching until the end, even if the last two minutes is offensive to your suspension of disbelief.

Let’s start with the good . No Way Up has plenty of good acting, especially from its lead S ophie McIntosh who plays Ava, a rich governor’s daughter with a heart of gold. Inside, she is struggling with the memory of her mother’s drowning and is never far from her overprotective older bodyguard Brandon played with nannyish diligence by Colm Meaney . McIntosh doesn’t reduce herself to the size of a B-movie, she is fully committed and gives a strong performance even if the material is trodden.

Another standout is Grace Nettle playing the 12-year-old Rosa who is traveling with her grandparents Hank ( James Caroll Jordan ) and Mardy ( Phyllis Logan ). Nettle doesn’t reduce her character to a delicate tween. She’s scared yes, but she also has some input and pretty good advice about surviving the situation.

Will Attenborough plays the unfiltered Kyle who I imagine was there for comic relief, but the young actor never successfully tempers his meanness with nuance, therefore he just comes across as a die-cut archetypical asshole inserted to complete the diverse ensemble.

Rounding out the cast is Manuel Pacific who plays Danilo the flight attendant who is the mark of Kyle’s homophobic aggressions. That whole interaction feels a bit outdated, but again Attenborough hasn’t fleshed out his character well enough to warrant any.

Continuing on with what is good in the film are the special effects. The plane crash scene, as they always are, is terrifying and realistic. Director Claudio Fäh has spared no expense in that department. You have seen it all before, but here, since you know they are crashing into the Pacific it’s more tense and when the plane hits the water you’ll wonder how they did it.

As for the sharks they are equally impressive. It’s hard to tell if they used live ones. There are no hints of CGI, no uncanny valley to speak of and the fish are genuinely threatening, although they don’t get the screentime you might be expecting.

Now with the bad. No Way Up is a great idea on paper, but the reality is something like this couldn’t happen in real life, especially with a jumbo jet crashing into the Pacific Ocean at such a fast speed. And even though the director has successfully made it seem like it could happen, there are so many factors that just don’t make sense when you think about it. Underwater air pressure is the first to come to mind.

It also lacks a cinematic polish. It has this straight-to-video feel, but the effects are so good that you can’t help but feel the cinematography, especially inside the plane should have been slightly elevated. But I’m being pedantic, No Way Up is a good time.

The ending doesn’t quite live up to the film’s potential and you will be questioning the limits of the human respiratory system, but again, that’s nitpicking.

Overall, No Way Up is a great way to spend an evening watching a survival horror movie with the family. There are some bloody images, but nothing too bad, and the shark scenes can be mildly intense. It is rated R on the low end.

No Way Up might not be the “next great shark” movie, but it is a thrilling drama that rises above the other chum so easily thrown into the waters of Hollywood thanks to the dedication of its stars and believable special effects.

No Way Up is now available to rent on digital platforms.

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A Celebration of Horror: Unveiling the 2024 iHorror Award Winners

Delroy Lindo Cast in Supernatural Horror Movie Set for 2025

Watch the trailer for ‘Under Paris,’ the movie people are calling ‘French Jaws’ [Trailer]

Paramount and Miramax Team Up to Reboot the “Scary Movie” Franchise

James McAvoy Captivates in the New Trailer for ‘Speak No Evil’ [Trailer]

HBO’s “The Jinx – Part Two” Unveils Unseen Footage and Insights Into Robert Durst Case [Trailer]

Blumhouse & Lionsgate to Create New ‘The Blair Witch Project’

Sam Raimi Produced Horror Film ‘Don’t Move’ Is Headed To Netflix

“The Contestant” Trailer: A Glimpse into the Unsettling World of Reality TV

“The Crow” Reboot Delayed to August & “Saw XI” Postponed to 2025

‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Official Teaser Trailer Releases And Showcases Joker Madness

Tara Lee Talks About New VR Horror “The Faceless Lady” [Interview]

Weekend Box Office Report: “Godzilla x Kong” Dominates Amidst Mixed Performances from New Releases

Daughter is an Attractive But Leaden Debut [Review]

There’s a certain type of party anyone who’s lived or frequented a coastal city- like Los Angeles, New York, Boston etc.- has at least some tangential familiarity with. The kind that smells like a mixture of American Spirits, mango Juul, and Le Labo Santal 33. If one has a high threshold for irony, stick and poke tattoos, and vague stabs at anti-capitalist pontification, they can even be pretty enjoyable as far as social functions go.

At some point- probably a few ticks past the moment where everyone’s had a smidge too much to drink- one of the partygoers starts to break down the plot of their in-progress screenplay. Sure, it sounds half-baked, but they seem smart enough. They’ve clearly got taste, but maybe don’t yet possess the faculty to translate that well-curated appreciation of other filmmakers into something unique or purposeful. And maybe it’s the beer or the second-hand vapor from the nearby Carhartt enthusiast’s weed pen, but something about the idea makes it difficult to completely ignore. It’s not enjoyable to listen to, necessarily, but it has (annoyingly) got promise. Such is the experience of watching Daughter .

Also See: Huesera: The Bone Woman is Visually Impressive, but Difficult to Follow [Review]

Writer/director/producer Cory Deshon’s feature film debut has all the hallmarks of someone who’s practical acuity hasn’t caught up with their well-honed aesthetic proclivities. Shot on 16mm film in a collection of long takes, with the kind of artfully askew camera placement and portent stillness borne of hours spent worshiping at the altar of one Yorgos Lanthimos, Daughter certainly looks the part of an arthouse cinephile favorite.

Unfortunately, that very real pictorial beauty is undercut by Deshon’s script. Daughter centers around a family of doomsday conspiracists, headed by Casper Van Dien’s Father. Father is obsessed with the apparent world-saving potential of his son, who’s blood may hold the key to an invented apocalyptic rot infecting the outside world. In order to keep Son happy, Father kidnaps a young woman (Vivian Ngô), and forces her to assume the role of Daughter.

Also See: Doomed Domiciles: Horror Houses to Avoid at All Costs

She’s just the latest in a long line of kidnapped women made to join the bizarro familial unit. Under threat of violence, Daughter agrees to follow Father’s instructions and keeps Son/Brother company. She plays board games and watches him paint. They share a room, and eventually share secrets. Daughter begins to quietly press against the boundaries of Father’s rules by insinuating elements of the outside world to her “sibling”. The battle of wills culminates in a self-written play for Father and Mother on the adolescent boy’s birthday, that careens into a loose cliffhanger of an ending.

It’s an intriguing premise- if not dissimilar to the one in aforementioned filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’ picture Dogtooth . The inherent mystery is enough to carry interest for the movie’s first third. But all of that evaporates under the weight of Deshon’s clunky, sermonizing dialogue and a proliferance of turns that occur because the plot dictates they must. It doesn’t help that the film seems to mistake quietude for tension. The two can often inform one another, sure. But instead of creating an atmosphere of impending doom, scenes feel slack and enervating.

There’s a quick burst of energy in the surreal and impressionistic, synth-powered birthday play Daughter and Son enact for their “adoptive” parents. It’s a quick glimmer of unique directorial voice, one so clearly desperate to break out of the confines of self-imposed import that smothers Daughter from start to finish. Deshon is undeniably talented. He knows he wants to say something. He knows the grammar, the syntax of a meaningful cinematic statement. But with Daughter, he hasn’t found exactly what that statement is.

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‘Daughter’ Trailer Brings the Family Together for the Apocalypse [Exclusive]

Things get weird in Corey Deshon ’s debut feature Daughter , a new thriller heading to limited theaters and VOD platforms on February 10, 2023 , from Dark Star Pictures.

Casper Van Dien, Elyse Dinh, Ian Alexander and Vivien Ngô star in the pic about a young woman inducted into a bizarre family as their new surrogate daughter.

“As she navigates through this twisted dynamic, awful secrets about the past are revealed, leading to even darker implications about the future. ”

Van Dien ( Starship Troopers ) plays Father, Dinh (HBO’s “Watchmen”) is Mother. Alexander (“The Last of Us Part II”, “Star Trek: Discovery”, “The OA”) plays Brother and Ngô (“Queen Sugar”) marks her first feature lead turn as the titular Daughter.

Daughter will also arrive on DVD May 9th.

Here’s our exclusive look at the trailer.

Horror movie fanatic who co-founded Bloody Disgusting in 2001. Producer on Southbound, V/H/S/2/3/94, SiREN, Under the Bed, and A Horrible Way to Die. Chicago-based. Horror, pizza and basketball connoisseur. Taco Bell daily. Franchise favs: Hellraiser, Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Horror 365 days a year.

Daniel Roebuck Has Joined the Cast of ‘Terrifier 3’! [Exclusive]

Daniel Roebuck has been cast as Santa Claus in Terrifier 3 , Bloody Disgusting can exclusively report.

Writer-director Damien Leone is currently wrapping production on the highly-anticipated sequel, in which Art the Clown unleashes chaos on the unsuspecting residents of Miles County as they peacefully drift off to sleep on Christmas Eve.

“I’ve been holding this secret for a long time!” Roebuck tells Bloody Disgusting. “I’ve been really excited about it. I’m actually entering into the movies that I watch. It’s extraordinary. This is Terrifier bigger, badder, best.”

Roebuck appears in Terrifier 3 alongside returning cast members David Howard Thornton, Lauren LaVera, Samantha Scaffidi, Elliot Fullam , and AEW superstar Chris Jericho .

No stranger to iconic horror properties, Roebuck has squared off against Michael Myers in Rob Zombie’s Halloween II , played The Count in Zombie’s The Munsters , succumbed to The Tall Man’s sphere in Phantasm: Ravager , and investigated death in Final Destination .

A distinguished character actor with over 250 credits, Roebuck has also appeared in The Devil’s Rejects, 3 from Hell, Bubba Ho-Tep, John Dies at the End, The Fugitive, Lost, Agent Cody Banks, and The Man in the High Castle . Incidentally, he’s also playing Santa in the family drama Saint Nick of Bethlehem , due out later this year.

Terrifier 3 will be released in theaters nationwide later this year via Cineverse and Bloody Disgusting in conjunction with our partner on Terrifier 2 , Iconic Events Releasing.

Terrifier 3 comes courtesy of Dark Age Cinema Productions . Phil Falcone Produces with Lisa Falcone acting as Executive Producer. Co-producers include Mike Leavy, Jason Leavy, George Steuber, and Steve Della Salla. Brad Miska, Brandon Hill, and Erick Opeka Executive Produce for Cineverse. Matthew Helderman and Luke Taylor Executive Produce for Bondit Media Capital.

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Dark Star Pictures

In English, Vietnamese w/English subtitles, DVD: $24.99

by J. Zimmerman

June 5, 2023

Rating: 4.5 of 5

Director Corey Deshon

Production Company Dark Star Pictures

Genre Mystery , Horror

Cast Casper Van Dien , Vivien Ngô , Elyse Dinh

Rating Not Rated

Release Date May 9, 2023

Duration 95 minutes

Somewhere in the hills, a woman runs. She is desperate, pushing herself well past her limits to escape something. An antique pickup truck revs as it pushes over the crest of a hill. Inside sit two people wearing full-face respirators. The truck comes to a halt as the woman seems to tire out and her pursuers leave the vehicle. One pushes her to the ground and bludgeons her with a hammer. Sometime later, a woman kneels in a garage chained to the floor. A man uncovers her face and promises her she will come to no harm so long as she behaves.

Before he leaves, he tells her she will answer to ‘Daughter’ or ‘Sister.’ As the days pass, Daughter earns the privilege of leaving the garage and meeting the rest of the family. She learns their bizarre secret: Father has convinced his son that the air outside is filled with disease and anyone who goes outside is infected and must die. Will Daughter escape, or will the tiny cult spell her doom?

Daughter is a highly ambitious and surprisingly small undertaking. Each shot oozes beauty in its composition, the musical score does wonders to create an aesthetic of dread, and each actor’s performance is fantastic. The film’s overambition is perhaps its only flaw. The thriller elements are obvious but don’t go anywhere as multiple sub-plots come up but remain underexplored or unresolved.

Father’s unclear motivations make for some excellent horror, but we never learn why he does what he does. This lack of resolution will leave some viewers frustrated while others will be intrigued, trying to come up with their own explanations.

The cinematography is stunning. Shot on 16mm film with minimal artificial lighting, there is a simple beauty in every shot, and the use of darkness is as surprising as it is satisfying. Those looking for a creepy art film or realistic psych-horror will be very pleased with Daughter . Highly Recommended.

Where does this title belong on public library shelves?

Daughter is an obvious choice for horror shelves, but may also fit into some thriller or drama collections.

What would interest patrons most about this title?

The cinematography and eerie mood of Daughter are the film’s biggest draw.

Star Ratings

As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.

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Daughter: Chilling New Horror Movie Available Digitally & In Theaters February 10

February 3, 2023

Daughter is a new horror movie from Corey Deshon. The film arrives in theaters and on digital on February 10, 2022.

The idea of family has never been so frightening. From Darkstar Pictures, Yellow Veil Pictures, Thirteenth Floor Pictures & One World Entertainment comes a terrifying exploration of a very twisted “family”.

Starring Casper Van Dien, Ian Alexander, Elyse Dinh and Vivien Ngo, this movie appears to explore homegrown, American religious radicalism. The story revolves around the kidnapping of a young Vietnamese woman. She is intended to serve as the replacement “Daughter” for her disturbed new family.

DAUGHTER IS A NEW PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR MOVIE FROM DARKSTAR PICTURES

Writer/Director Corey Deshon explains their fascinating new project in an official statement .

“From the wars we fight over our conflicting worldviews, the insane mental gymnastics we conjure in order to justify them, and the insignificance of truth in the absence of freedom, comes Daughter. Shot on 16mm film with a predominantly Vietnamese cast, Daughter is a uniquely diverse and genre-bending tale in the vein of Dogtooth meets 10 Cloverfield Lane. Inspired by feminist existentialist philosopher Simone De Beauvoir’s “The Ethics of Ambiguity,” this film is a meditation on the morality and ethics of freedom and creative expression within an oppressed system. Through this surrealist psychodrama, we seek to explore the questions, “Can one truly be free if they do not will the freedom of others? “and, “If that freedom must come at a moral cost, who is going to pay?”

Daughter has a distinct visual style, reminiscent of films from an earlier era. The use of 16mm film will surely add to the immersive feel of the picture. Thematically, the creator of the film says it’s about true freedom. It will be fascinating to discover just how this horror movie approaches that topic.

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The trailer for the film is intense, shocking and upsetting. Potentially triggering acts of physical abuse are featured. Viewer discretion is advised.

DAUGHTER : THE TERRIFYING OFFICIAL TRAILER

The trailer for Daughter begins with Father declaring that “family is the most important thing in this life”. He then burns a picture of a young woman in her late teens or early 20’s. A terrified, kidnapped woman is shown captive in a garage. Father tells her that he doesn’t want to hurt her, that he needs her help. The patriarch talks to his son about the diseases of the lawless outside world. We see the pair chasing down an escaped woman while wearing gas masks.

Father appears to murder the poor woman while his Brother watches. Cut back to the garage, where Father tells his prisoner that his sole purpose is to protect his son. He photographs her. Mother tries to feed the girl, promising her that she need not be afraid.

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The trailer begins to ramp up and get very intense. The new “daughter” is hit with a book and hosed down with a bag over her head. Her abuse is intercut with moments of simple family life, board games, dinnertime, etc. Before coming to a close, we see flashes of an 80’s dance number and mysterious bags of blood.

DAUGHTER BRINGS THE GRIM & MACABRE TO THE DINNER TABLE

Daughter has one of the scariest, most visceral trailers of any horror movie releasing in 2023. The entire sequence is captivating and deeply unsettling. What dark secrets created this sick family, and how will “Daughter” escape her nightmarish new home?

According to Bloodydisgusting.com , Daughter is “described as a collaborative effort by Deshon and Ngô to challenge the confines of what creators of color are expected to produce within the limits of stereotypical genres and narrative arcs, Daughter features a diverse cast made up predominantly of Vietnamese American actors, and was filmed with an overall cast and crew consisting of 60% women and 80% people of color.”

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Not only is Daughter one of the creepiest new horror movies on the market, it’s also very inclusive. With Corey Deshon’s new film, you’ll experience a frightening journey of family and freedom created by a diverse cast and crew.

Daughter stars Casper Van Dien, Elyse Dinh, Vivien Ngô, and Ian Alexander. The film is written and directed by Corey Deshon. Daughter is produced by Deshon and executive produced by Matt Bradley, Daniel Goroshko,Sharunya Varriale, Ron Bradley, Laurent Fumeron and Rodolphe Sanzé. What did you think of the official trailer for Daughter? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or on our social media !

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Daughter Trailer Previews Kidnapping Thriller Out Next Month

Daughter Trailer Previews Next Month’s Abduction Thriller

By Anthony Nash

The first official Daughter trailer for the upcoming horror film has been released, highlighting a woman as she tries and escape from a twisted situation.

Daughter stars Casper Van Dien, Elyse Dinh, Vivien Ngô and Ian Alexander, and is written and directed by Corey Deshon. The film tells the story of a young woman who gets kidnapped and brought into a strange family as their new, surrogate daughter. However, as she continues to navigate the situation, darker secrets begin unfolding.

Check out the trailer for Daughter below:

“A young woman is kidnapped and inducted into a bizarre family as their new surrogate daughter,” reads the official synopsis for the film. “As she navigates through this twisted dynamic, awful secrets about the past are revealed, leading to even darker implications about the future.”

Daughter is set to release in select theaters, on digital storefronts, and on-demand on February 10, 2023. It is also planned for a DVD release on May 9, 2023.

Anthony Nash has been writing about games and the gaming industry for nearly a decade. When he’s not writing about games, he’s usually playing them. You can find him on Twitter talking about games or sports at @_anthonynash.

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Screen Rant

Kevin costner's the new daughter's ending explained.

Kevin Costner's The New Daughter is a 2009 horror movie and here's how the movie ends, who survives and what the final scene really means.

Here's the ending to Kevin Costner horror movie The New Daughter explained. Costner had an extraordinary run during the late '80s and most of the '90s, with movies like The Untouchables , JFK and Dances With Wolves , which he also directed. His career hit a bump with Waterworld , however, a costly adventure that became well known for its messy production, and it received largely negative reviews. This is a shame, as the movie has been reappraised in recent years as an ambitious and unique blockbuster.

Costner's star has risen again thanks to drama series Yellowstone - which has many upcoming spinoffs - a show that's been running since 2018. While the star has appeared in everything from romantic comedies to post-apocalyptic epics, he's not closely tied to the horror genre. That said, he's made a handful of genre outings, including the forgotten '80s slasher Shadows Run Black and the underrated serial killer drama Mr. Brooks . Probably his most overt outing in the horror genre to date is 2009's The New Daughter , where he plays the father of a teenage girl undergoing a terrifying transformation.

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In The New Daughter , Costner plays a divorced novelist who moves to a new home with his daughter Louisa (played by Pan's Labyrinth's Ofelia actor Ivana Baquero ) and son Sam. Costner's John is struggling to deal with the stress of being a sole parent, which isn't helped when Louisa starts exhibiting odd behavior. This appears to be tied to a huge mound near their house, and John learns the house's previous owner disappeared years before and he starts investigating his new home's dark history. Jumping ahead to the finale, The New Daughter reveals a race of mysterious beings dubbed "mound-walkers" live within the ground, and have selected Louisa as their new queen.

Things come to head in The New Daughter's ending, where the mound-walkers - which somewhat resemble the Molded that Resident Evil 7 hero Ethan Winters fights - lay siege to the house. Louisa is fully under the sway of the creatures too and seemingly killed Sam's teacher Cassandra (Samantha Mathis). John kills several of the creatures and descends into the mound with his shotgun to rescue Louisa. He finds her inside and pulls her out as the monsters give chase, but as he plans to burn the mound, he sees her transforming into one of the mound-walkers.

Recalling an earlier scene in The New Daughter where John promised not to leave his daughter as their mother did, he tearfully tosses a flare at the fuel can, blowing up the mound. This causes an explosion, but while this almost certainly destroyed the mound-walkers nest, it's not clear if either John or Louisa survived. The New Daughter concludes with a very ambiguous ending , as Sam watches the fire from a distance and a figure is seen reflected, walking towards him. Sam says " Daddy? " as the figure approaches, but the signature growl of the creatures is also heard, and a mound walker appears behind Sam as The New Daughter cuts to credits. It's up to viewers to decide what happened, but it does feel unlikely John would knowingly take his own life while Sam was still in danger, so maybe that figure really is Kevin Costner's character coming to the rescue.

Next: Kevin Costner Interview: Let Him Go

'Daughters' Review: This Film Will Crack Your Heart Wide Open | Sundance 2024

The film explores the Date with Dad program, which culminates in a father-daughter dance hosted in jail.

The Big Picture

Daughters shines a light on the powerful impact of father-daughter dances in jail, helping girls and their incarcerated fathers bond.
The documentary humanizes incarcerated men and reveals shocking facts about the prison system in a subtle yet powerful way.
Though the pacing could be improved, it's gorgeously shot, and Daughters successfully handles sensitive topics with compassion and care.

Father-daughter dances are a staple in many young girls’ lives — a special chance to connect with their dads one-on-one. Unfortunately, not every little girl is lucky enough to have the chance to attend one. Whether their fathers have passed away, are absent, or are incarcerated, it can be a painful experience to miss out. Angela Patton, who started the Date With Dad program and co-directs Daughters with Natalie Rae, is helping fewer girls miss out by hosting father-daughter dances in jail. It may seem small, but this event has the power to change the lives of both the girls and their fathers alike.

What Is 'Daughters' About?

Patton can’t take full credit for the idea, as one of the young girls she worked with actually came up with it. “They already know what they need,” Patton says confidently of the kids. The fact that the concept came from the mind of a child makes this event even more special. Many of the men fear that their daughters won’t want anything to do with them due to their actions, but Patton reiterates that this is evidence their children do want to be with them. They do want a connection despite their mistakes.

The Date With Date program is more than just a dance. Rather, it’s a 10-week program about fatherhood that culminates in the event at the end. Throughout those 10 weeks, the men learn how to be better parents and, perhaps even more crucially, get the chance to open up about their past and feelings in a safe and supportive environment — sometimes for the first time in their lives . The documentary is slightly thin in this area, as we don’t get to see as many deep conversations as one would hope, perhaps to respect the men’s privacy. Still, I found myself drawn to them and wanting to know more about their backgrounds and emotions.

As far as how successful this program is, the proof is in the pudding. Though many of the men initially sign up simply for an additional chance to get to see their kids, the vast majority claim they learn a lot from the classes and group discussions. A whopping 95% of dads in the program have never returned to jail in the more than a decade it’s been running.

'Daughters' Spotlights Four Children and Their Fathers

Daughters focuses on four main girls: 5-year-old Aubrey , 10-year-old Santana , 11-year-old Ja’Ana , and 15-year-old Raziah . Each has different emotions surrounding their fathers and, therefore, a range of reactions when they see them again at the dance. However, they do all have one thing in common, which is that they’ll make you bawl like a baby.

The film smartly introduces us to the youngest subject first. At five, Aubrey is extremely intelligent for her age — and isn’t afraid to let you know she’s well aware of that fact. Confident and bubbly, she has a passion for fish, rap, and math — the latter of the two especially helpful as she navigates her father being away. She and her dad, Keith , used to make music together, with Keith sharing that he knew one of his songs wasn’t good if Aubrey wouldn’t dance to it. Aubrey’s obsession with numbers — including trying to make sense of the time her father will be away — is devastating. “Seven’s a very close number to one,” she says hopefully when she hears her father will likely be imprisoned for seven years. “But it’s gonna take a long time because it’s years,” she adds, deflating a little. Aubrey is the embodiment of childhood innocence, but there’s an undercurrent of maturity, too, that’s been necessary for her to cope , like when she tries to help herself and Keith pull it together when it’s time for her to leave the dance. “Take three deep breaths and then say, ‘See you later,’” she orders. The love and amazement Keith has for his daughter is clear, stating that she is everything he ever wanted to be.

In one of the film’s several puzzling pacing choices (more on that later), the documentary fast-forwards several years toward the end of the film, showing us Aubrey once again. She’s become more jaded and distant, not having seen her father since the dance. It’s heartbreaking to see much of the light and optimism gone from her eyes, but who can blame her? Who can blame any of them for their hurt?

Santana’s abandonment issues manifest in frustration and rage, stating that the next time her father goes to jail, she’s “not shedding one single tear.” At 10, she’s already decided that she’s not having kids — understandable since she feels she’s been stuck being a co-parent to her younger siblings due to her dad not being around. Santana is bold and fearless, determined to speak her mind and hold her father, Mark, accountable for his choices affecting her and her family. She bluntly tells him that jail is no place to be almost immediately upon being reunited with him at the dance. But underneath her tough, protective exterior, it’s obvious that Santana is just a kid — one who loves to dance, one who gets embarrassed by corny jokes, and one who craves love and connection with her father. It’s impossible not to root for her and Mark to repair their relationship.

The same goes for Ja’Ana and Frank , who have had limited contact due to Ja’Ana’s mother’s distrust of Frank. Not only does she not want Ja’Ana to have to see him behind bars, but she also doesn’t understand why Frank is suddenly interested in bonding with her while he’s in jail — he didn’t seem to care about her when he was out, after all. It’s a sad reality but one we can empathize with. It’s an impossible situation to be in as a mother wanting to shield your child. This lack of connection going into the dance weighs on Ja’Ana, lending itself to some awkward moments, though there is a note of hope that, with work, trust can eventually be rebuilt.

The oldest subject, Raziah, is the quietest of the group, but her story is just as painful and inspiring. She struggles with school and suicidal thoughts — two things she works hard to overcome after the dance. Her father confides that he’s counting on her, which motivates her to graduate high school and make him proud.

'Daughters' Takes Risks — Some of Which Pay off in Spades

Daughters’ greatest strength is its ability to humanize a population that is often looked down upon, and it subtly reveals shocking facts. For example, the information it gives about the lack of “touch visits” and how key physical contact is becomes eye-opening. It’s also impossible not to notice the disproportionate amount of Black men who are locked up, making it clear race is a factor even without having onscreen conversations about it. It’s hard to imagine anyone coming away from this movie without being radicalized in some way about our need for prison reform.

The stylistic choices set the documentary apart, making it even more effective . There are few talking-head moments, favoring naturally captured footage, and the interviews we do get are in the moment and conducted in places like a car rather than a sterile studio set-up. It results in the documentary feeling more authentic and intimate.

The cinematography is simply stunning , with the credits accompanied by gorgeous black-and-white clips. Moments featuring the girls are reminiscent of The Florida Project at times, showing the world through a child’s eyes — ones filled with wonder and possibility even in bleak situations. The soft, nostalgic, and occasionally melancholic score pairs wonderfully with the visuals.

Unfortunately, the biggest detraction from the film is its structure and pacing. We start by counting down the 10-week program week-by-week but skip the second half of the program almost entirely, going from five weeks straight to the day of the dance. The dance itself is extremely moving — it’s the climax of the film, after all — but it’s finished with over half an hour to go. The instinct to update the audience about where the subjects are a year, two years, even three years after the big event is understandable. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work, as the documentary loses steam with its prolonged epilogue.

Despite not ending on its strongest note, Daughters is still a highly effective documentary overall. Working with subjects this young and topics this sensitive can be challenging, and you always run the risk of feeling exploitative, but Daughters handles both with compassion and care. Though its themes can be dark, Daughters is focused on showing the small cracks of light — of hope — in a sad situation, gently encouraging its audience to fight for change by showing how the prison-industrial complex oppresses more than just those in jail and how those behind bars have a whole, rich life outside of them. They’re human beings, and they deserve to be seen and treated as such — they deserve better than what our system gives them.

'Daughters' is a stunning documentary exploring fatherhood and the prison system

The documentary has compelling subjects in its four father-daughter duos.
The film handles a sensitive topic with compassion and care, spreading important awareness.
The score and cinematography beautifully set the film apart from other documentaries.
Odd pacing choices make the ending fall a bit flat.
We don't get to dive into the men's stories as deeply as we might hope.

Daughters had its World Premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the lost daughter.

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It's hard to figure out at first what is going on with Leda. The woman with the symbolic Yeatsian name is a professor and translator, taking a brief vacation in Greece, and looking forward to relaxation in the sun. However, almost immediately upon her arrival in the small seaside town, things start to go strange. Leda is the center of the strangeness. Is she generating the strangeness, or is it the world that's strange? Why are her reactions to things so intense? Why is she so paranoid and awkward? What is going on with her? "The Lost Daughter," an adaptation of Elena Farrante's 2006 novel of the same name, is Maggie Gyllenhaal's directorial debut, and what a debut it is. Harrowing, unpredictable, painful, confrontational, this is a movie for grown-ups.

One of the most extraordinary things about "The Lost Daughter" is Gyllenhaal's dogged resistance to explaining the mystery of Leda. Why does Leda do what she does? Well, you learn a lot of the backstory, but any one answer given would be incomplete. On the second page of Ferrante's book, Leda states: "The hardest things to talk about are the ones we ourselves can't understand." Notice that it's not "don't" understand. It's "can't," which is very different. Leda does not know why she does half the things she does. She is obsessive. She is compulsive. She is at war with her own impulses. "The Lost Daughter" traverses extremely rocky terrain, and Gyllenhaal's close focus on her lead actress, hewing to the close first-person of the novel, makes for an unnerving and at times even frightening experience. You get the uneasy sense that Leda may not be the most reliable of narrators.

Leda ( Olivia Colman ) settles into her vacation, reading on the beach, swimming, and trying to sleep at night even though the beam from the nearby lighthouse swoops through her room like a searchlight. The caretaker Lyle ( Ed Harris ) is kind and helpful, but there's something strained in Leda's responses. She's polite, yet seems unable to bear social interactions. She endures conversation, waiting for it to end. A couple days into her vacation, a boisterous loud family arrives on the beach. Men, women, children, talking loudly, splashing, setting up blankets and chairs and food. Leda can no longer concentrate on her reading, so she watches them, trying to put together who is who. Leda is drawn in particular to a young woman in a bikini ( Dakota Johnson ), playing with her small daughter. There's something way too intense in Leda's focus on this mother-daughter. Her eyes follow them. There's a hugely pregnant matriarch named Callie ( Dagmara Dominczyk ), who asks Leda if she wouldn't mind switching to another beach chair so the whole family can sit together. Leda refuses. Callie cannot believe it. Leda endures hostile glances from the entire family for the rest of the day, and everything is ruined so she flees the beach. The next day, though, she's drawn back in.

These mysterious and tense present-day sequences are interspersed with scenes from Leda's life twenty years prior. These scenes don't function as flashbacks. They run on a parallel track, creating a confusing melee of sensations and parallels, as well as filling in Leda's story. Younger Leda is played by Jessie Buckley (so believable as the younger Colman), and younger Leda is frazzled, irritated, overwhelmed trying to balance her career ambitions with parenting two small clingy daughters. When a hot-shot celebrity scholar ( Peter Sarsgaard ) shows an interest in Leda's work, it's catnip to the downtrodden woman. She wants to be free, she is sick of responsibilities, sick of all of it.

Meanwhile, Leda befriends the young woman in the bikini, whose name is Nina. Leda takes on a motherly role, but there's something "off" about the whole thing. Her interest is too intense. Johnson plays Nina with a fascinating mix of languid pleasure and taut desperation. Nina is "acting," and with good reason. Callie, her sharp-eyed sister-in-law, sees all. You do not want to mess with Callie.

In the book, Leda says at one point, "The unspoken says more than the spoken." While this is undoubtedly true for the most part, it's not true when you're dealing with an unreliable narrator like Leda, someone so consumed with self that every interaction shivers with threat, desire, insecurity, and all the unresolved issues Leda projects onto the other person. Because she is so consumed with her self, she misinterprets the "unspoken" all the time. She misinterprets gestures, body language, pauses. She perceives threats where there may very well be none. She seems to misinterpret Lyle's kindness, which brings out strange wild responses in her. She misinterprets the young guy working at the beach club. She "can't understand." If Nina is "acting," then so is Leda. We do eventually learn what Leda did back in the day, but that still can't fully explain her choices—one in particular—on this fateful vacation.

Films are sometimes rejected by audiences because the characters aren't "relatable." Yes, some characters reflect back to you your own experience, and that's very validating. But some of the greatest characters in literature show us things we don't want to look at, show us the ugly parts of humanity, the dark petty parts, the parts where we don't do our best. These things are as true, if not more true, than what is deemed "relatable." "The Lost Daughter" accepts ugliness, giving it space to express itself, allowing it to exist without careening back into safe territory.

Capturing all of this swirling "unspoken" subtext was Gyllenhaal's challenge. There's a lot of emotional chaos ricocheting around that beach, among all of those daughters, daughters lost and otherwise. Gyllenhaal allows for the chaos. She doesn't try to nail it all down. She doesn't race for clarity. Her approach is turbulent, subjective, and so close to Leda's point of view it's almost claustrophobic. Leda is watchful and distressed, sometimes impulsive and sloppy, always lying and pretending, and increasingly unable to hide her eerie inner world, from other people and from herself. Colman’s is one of the best performances of the year.

Now playing in select theaters and available on Netflix on December 31.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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The Lost Daughter (2021)

Rated R for sexual content/nudity and language.

122 minutes

Olivia Colman as Leda

Jessie Buckley as Young Leda

Dakota Johnson as Nina

Ed Harris as Lyle

Peter Sarsgaard as Professor Hardy

Paul Mescal as Will

Dagmara Domińczyk as Callie

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Writer (based on the novel by)

Elena Ferrante

Cinematographer

Hélène Louvart
Affonso Gonçalves
Dickon Hinchliffe

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Best Horror Movies of 2024 Ranked – New Scary Movies to Watch

Welcome to the best horror movies of 2024, ranking every dark and dreary delight coming out this year by Tomatometer! We start the list with Certified Fresh films (these movies have maintained a high Tomatometer score after enough critics reviews), followed by the pulp-pounding Fresh movies (these are rated at least 60%), and then concluding with the morbidly Rotten.

March additions: Larry Fessenden’s back with his werewolf-take Blackout . Night Shift . Imaginary (see Blumhouse horror productions ranked ). Indian Hindi-language Shaitaan. Late Night with the Devil . Sydney Sweeney’s Immaculate . You’ll Never Find Me . Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 .

In February , terror reared its head in the stop-motion animation medium (don’t forget about Phil Tippett’s Mad God in 2021) with the literal titled Stopmotion .

In 2023 , horror kicked off in a big way with M3GAN . There wasn’t a breakout hit in January 2024, with the major genre releases being the COVID-shot Paleolithic thriller Out of Darkness , and the Diablo Cody-penned Lisa Frankenstein , set in the same world as her cult comedy Jennifer’s Body .

New horror movies for 2024 on the horizon include They Follow (sequel to It Follows , with Maika Monroe and writer/director David Robert Mitchell returning), MaXXXine (Ti West’s closing his trilogy after X and Pearl ), Terrifier 3 (Art the Clown expands his spree into Christmas ), Nosferatu (from director Robert Eggers), Alien: Romulus (due in August), A Quiet Place: Day One (June), Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (September), Return to Silent Hill (original director Christophe Gans returns as well), The Conjuring: Last Rites (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise their Warren roles).

Late Night with the Devil (2023) 97%

Stopmotion (2023) 90%

Out of Darkness (2022) 86%

You'll Never Find Me (2023) 79%

The First Omen (2024) 81%

T-Blockers (2023) 100%

Double Blind (2023) 100%

Summoners (2022) 100%

Midnight Peepshow (2022) 100%

Somewhere Quiet (2023) 92%

I Saw the TV Glow (2024) 91%

Lovely, Dark, and Deep (2023) 89%

Here for Blood (2022) 88%

Blackout (2023) 81%

Cuckoo (2024) 77%

Immaculate (2024) 71%

Departing Seniors (2023) 61%

The Seeding (2023) 57%

Lisa Frankenstein (2024) 51%

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 (2024) 50%

Founders Day (2023) 47%

Shaitaan (2024) 43%

The Prank (2022) 38%

Amelia's Children (2023) 46%

Night Shift (2023) 45%

Imaginary (2024) 25%

Night Swim (2024) 21%

Camp Pleasant Lake (2024) 11%

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Horror Movie Review

Daughter in disguise (sinister switch) (2021) movie review – made for tv thriller fun.

Director: Christopher Redmond
Actors: Emily Alatalo, Steve Belford, Natalie Jane, Nicole Volossetski, Jas Dhanda
Writers: Ryan Cavan, Christopher Redmond, Jared Young
Producers: Alexandra Waring
Country: Canada
Language: English
Parental: Mild Peril, Language

Daughter in Disguise follows the story of parents Kristen and Justin. As they are finally reunited with their daughter who went missing 6 years ago. Delighted to have Olivia back. Kristen and Justin begin the long process of adapting to life as parents of a teenage girl. Despite their joy at having Olivia home with them. They can't help but notice that something seems different about her. Could it be simple changes from the time they spent apart or is there a more sinister explanation?

Welcome to Knockout Horror and to another horror movie review. Before I get started, I need to ask a quick question. Has anybody else fired up Prime Video and flicked through their movies, only to stumble across a horror/thriller called Daughter in Disguise from 2023? Because I know I did.

Imagine my surprise when I come to find out that it is titled Sinister Switch everywhere else and actually came out in 2021. I feel as though Prime Video does this a lot. Throwing movies into their library and changing the dates around a bit. Anyways, today we will be reviewing Daughter in Disguise, or, as it is more commonly known, Sinister Switch, from 2021.

I guess this might be one of those weird naming quirks we seem to have here in the UK. I’m not really sure and it doesn’t help that its working title was “Not My Child”. With all of that being said, if you found your way to this review. You probably saw the movie on Prime and wanted to know what it was like. Let’s take a look.

Missing Child Drama

Daughter in Disguise follows the story of parents, Kristen and Justin. As they are finally reunited with their daughter who went missing 6 years ago. Delighted to have Olivia back. Kristen and Justin begin the long process of adapting to life as parents of a teenage girl. Despite their joy at having Olivia home with them. They can’t help but notice that something seems different about her. Could it be simple changes from the time they spent apart or is there a more sinister explanation?

The bulk of the story here follows Kristen and Justin as they relearn how to be parents. Kristen feels, almost, awkward while attempting to relate to Olivia while Justin is instantly suspicious. Olivia seems different and is acting rather strange. Her memories of her childhood seem vague and she is distant.

Conflicting Opinions

While Kristen puts these complications down to the process of re-acclimating after years of living with her kidnapper and being away from home. Olivia’s reluctance in helping the police to find the location of her kidnapper. Along with the four girls who are still being held captive with him. And her refusal to talk about what happened arouse suspicion in both the police and the family. Justin wants to get to the bottom of the problem but Kristen desperately doesn’t want to lose her daughter all over again.

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I suppose the best way to describe Daughter in Disguise is as a Wednesday afternoon, daytime television movie version of Orphan but with a rather significant twist. It’s like if you took the blood and gore from Orphan and replaced it with a mid-afternoon mimosa and a 40 minute nap that you describe to everyone around you as you “resting your eyes”.

Interesting but Very Slow Moving

There is a fairly deep dive here into the natural feelings and emotions surrounding the return of a missing child. Daughter in Disguise does a good job of relating some of the insecurities and guilt that a parent would have when confronted with this scenario. And also goes into some degree of detail on how a child in this situation may feel. Returning to a household and family that is very different from the one they were taken away from years before.

It all feels pretty well done and fairly authentic. With Kristen’s difficulties and awkwardness with Olivia being particularly well done. And the way their relationship begins to develop coming across as pretty organic. It’s interesting stuff but, suffice to say, much of the earlier stages of the movie are extremely slow moving.

It is packed with familial drama and teen angst that hampers the pacing of the movie somewhat. It’s difficult to not wonder when things are going to start getting moving. The movie is very content to play out like a Lifetime drama movie for much of its length. Meaning when the plot really begins to open up. It can all feel a bit rushed, a bit forced and slightly underdeveloped. It doesn’t help that it is entirely predictable, as well. Almost never managing to surprise the viewer and projecting its plot points way in advance.

Far More of a Drama Heavy Thriller

Daughter in Disguise is, really, far more of a thriller than a horror. It appears in Prime’s horror section and comes up recommended as a horror movie. But there isn’t a tremendous amount in the way of scares. That’s not to say that the movie won’t appeal to horror fans, though. There is a lot of cross over between thrillers and horrors. There is some decent tension towards the end of the movie. And there are a few moments, during the middle, that hint at some possible suspense.

I can’t shake the feeling, however, that the movie just didn’t know what it wanted to be. It gets very tied up in its drama elements and forgets that it is supposed to be suspenseful. Something which will likely lead some people to feel like the movie is poorly targeted. It’s something of a shame because the reality of Daughter in Disguise is an all too real one. The events portrayed in this movie have happened in real life. Making it feel like a lot of thriller meat was left on the bone here. Movies like Orphan manage to extract a ton of scares out of a similar formula. But this is a movie that doesn’t do things in the same way. The drama element comes before everything. It’s a bit underwhelming to be honest.

Really Silly In Parts

It’s impossible not to point out some of the farcical leaps of logic that this movie forces the viewer to take. The entire situation here raises a lot of questions. Many of which you will find yourself asking time and time again. In fact, I would go as far as to say this movie requires more suspension of disbelief than most fantasy movies. With some of the things that happen making virtually no sense at all. It might be worth me remembering, though, that this type of thing has happened multiple times in real life.

It’s when the movie attempts to aim for some genuine tension and suspense that it really falls apart. The last 15 minutes ramp up the thrills considerably. But to do that they demand that the characters act in ways that are completely without sense or logic. It’s a bit frustrating, to be fair, and will likely have you cursing at your TV. This wouldn’t be such a problem if you hadn’t already been questioning nearly everything for the first hour or so of the movie. But, when you have, it feels like the ending is just another stretch too far. Daughter in Disguise is really tied up by its PG rating, as well. Meaning there are only so many directions the thrills and scares can go in. It ends up being a little bit self limiting.

Acting is Fine

Acting is about what you would expect from a made for TV movie. It’s a bit hokey in parts and the dialogue is, frequently, pretty damn awful. Making character conversations feel rather inorganic and a bit forced. Emily Alatalo , as Kristen, has some real high points. She is very good when it comes to more emotional scenes but a bit flat in others. She has a tendency to resort to smiling too much when a scene doesn’t require a certain emotion. Steve Belford , as Justin, is pretty even throughout and does a good job.

Natalie Jane , as Olivia, does a nice job for the most part. Feeling very genuine when reflecting her character’s troubled past and doing a good job of showing a decent range of emotion. I’m not sure anyone would buy that she is supposed to be 15 or 16, though. I am guessing she is well into her twenties. Adrian Falconer has a short role later on in the movie and it is beyond bad. He manages to be more wooden than the logs piled up all around him.

Cinematography is okay. There is still that trademark Lifetime movie style cheapness to everything. Making the movie feel a bit low budget and lacking in polish but it is generally fine. This movie was, obviously, filmed during winter in Ottawa, Canada so every scene is bathed in snow. Something which I actually really liked. It makes for a nice aesthetic.

Final Thoughts and Score

Daughter in Disguise is a very drama heavy thriller that is quite watchable. It’s not going to blow you away and is very much lacking in suspense and tension. But, for a made for TV movie, it isn’t too bad. There are a lot of tremendous leaps of logic here and the ending is a bit farcical. It remains predictable and obvious throughout. But there is also a pretty interesting story at the heart of the movie. Making it fairly easy to stay engaged despite the extremely slow pace. This probably won’t appeal to a lot of horror fans. It is just too slow and lacking in scares. But if you fancy something story and character driven and don’t want to invest too much energy in a story. Daughter in Disguise is okay.

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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) Horror Movie Review

Release Date: 26 Nov, 2021
Genre: Horror, Paranormal, Supernatural, Found Footage

20 Horror Movies That Are Appropriate for Tweens

F inding age-appropriate films for kids who are in that in-between age group can be difficult for many parents. They want to grow up way faster than necessary, but the parents wish they could stay their little darlings forever.

Overall, much of the conflict comes from what kids in the tween stage, ages eight to 12, as classified by the Child Mind Institute , should be watching. So, to help out those parents with tweens who love the spookier side of things, we've compiled a detailed list of the best horror movies minors in this age range will enjoy.

Coraline (2009)

Written and directed by Henry Selick, and based on the novella of the same name by Neil Gaiman, Coraline is a stop-motion animated film about a girl named Coraline, who discovers a world behind a secret door in her new house that is similar to her own, which holds secrets that could change her life.

The film utilizes the voices of actors Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Keith David, John Hodgman, Robert Bailey Jr., and Ian McShane. Some of the scenes in the film are rather intense, making it a great addition to this list for tweens who enjoy the scarier side of films.

The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)

The legendary Jack Black, portraying the warlock Jonathan Barnavelt, brings both the comedy and the spin-chilling drama to life in The House with a Clock in Its Walls , which tells the story of Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro), Jonathan's 10-year-old orphaned nephew, who stumbles upon a bit of mystery within the house itself. Working alongside his uncle Jonathan, and the neighbor, a witch named Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett), Lewis discovers what is worth fighting for.

Directed by Eli Roth and based on John Bellairs' 1973 novel of the same name, The House with a Clock in Its Walls , was called "An entertaining PG detour for gore maestro Eli Roth" and "is a family-friendly blend of humor and horror with an infectious sense of fun," by review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes .

Monster House (2006)

The computer animated horror film, Monster House , was the first movie directed by Gil Kenan and written by Dan Harmon, Rob Schrab, and Pamela Pettler. When a haunted house begins tormenting a neighborhood during Halloween, DJ Walters (Mitchel Musso) and his friends, along with some of the townspeople, must find a way to fight back.

Taking on the classic trope of the house on the street that looks like it holds frightening secrets, Monster House , brings many people's childhood imaginations to life. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and has since spawned both a video game and comic book companion story.

ParaNorman (2012)

ParaNorman tells the story of Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee), an 11-year-old boy in a small town who can communicate with the dead, including his grandma and other ghosts from his city. Norman faces speculation when no one believes in his abilities, allowing for the film to confront the common struggles children face about fitting in.

Written by Chris Butler and directed by Butler and Sam Fell, the film shows that sometimes we all need to be a bit weird to learn how to survive in life. Taking on a curse, ghosts, skeptics, making friends, and much more, Norman becomes the hero of his hometown and changes the course of many lives in the process. ParaNorman is a horror film kids in the tween age group will gravitate towards, making it perfect for this list.

The Witches (1990)

Based on the book of the same name by Roald Dahl , The Witches combines dark fantasy, horror, and comedy for a unique story unlike any other. The Witches tells the story of a group of witches who pose as normal humans who hunt children and a young boy named Luke (Jasen Fisher), who must thwart their plans. With help from his grandmother Helga (Mai Zetterling), Luke goes on a magical journey to stop the nefarious plans of the Grand High Witch, Eva (Anjelica Huston), and save his life and the lives of other children.

Directed by Nicolas Roeg and produced by the legendary Jim Henson, The Witches is a great choice for tweens wanting a spooky story. And for those looking for more The Witches content, another adaptation of the book was released in 2020 as Roald Dahl's The Witches .

The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)

Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi wrote the book series of the same name the film The Spiderwick Chronicles is based on. This mysterious fantasy film about three kids — twins, Jared and Simon (both played by Freddie Highmore), and their sister Mallory (played by Sarah Bolger) — who discover a guide book about fairies and embark on a journey to discover the secrets it holds, was directed by Mark Waters.

When a shifting ogre named, Mulgarath (Nick Nolte) wants to use the book for evil, the children must protect it and along the way they encounter a series of magical and mythical creatures. With a few minor scarier scenes and fantasy aspects, this film is perfect for the tweens in your life.

Goosebumps (2015)

Another epic tween comedy horror movie moment from Jack Black is the film, Goosebumps . Directed by Rob Letterman and written by Darren Lemke, and based on the epically talented R.L. Stine's Goosebumps book series, Goosebumps tells the story of a fictional version of Stine himself (Black), his daughter Hannah (Odeya Rush), and a new teen in the neighborhood, Zach (Dylan Minnette), as well as the monsters from Stine's books when they are accidently released and come to life.

Slappy the Dummy (also voiced by Jack Black) from the Night of the Living Dummy book series within the Goosebumps series is the main villain and antagonist, adding another creepy layer to the story.

Related: Why Turning Red Is a Must Watch for Tween Girls

Gremlins (1984)

One of the greatest comedy horror films to ever be produced is Gremlins , which depicts the story of what happens when Billy's father, Randall (Hoyt Axton), buys Billy (Zach Galligan) a strange creature as a pet called a mogwai . This odd pet is named Gizmo (voiced by Howie Mandel), and he, along with his friends, creates tons of havoc, especially if they feed them after midnight.

Directed by Joe Dante and written by Chris Columbus, Gremlins is a hilarious, yet scary time for all, but may contain more frightening scene not suitable for younger children, putting it firmly in the tween-and-up age range. A sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, was released in 1990, and the original film has also spawned an animated prequel show, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, stuffed characters, games, books and much more.

The Haunted Mansion (2003)

The supernatural horror comedy film, The Haunted Mansion was directed by Rob Minkoff and written by David Barrenbaum. It is heavily based on the Walt Disney theme park ride and attraction of the same name. The film, however, tells the story of a realtor named Jim Evers (Eddie Murphy) and his family — wife Sara (Marsha Thomason), and children Michael and Megan (Marc John Jefferies and Aree Davis) — who become trapped in a — you guessed it — haunted mansion, while on vacation.

A series of ghosts and other spooky bits form the basis of the antagonists who are trying to overcome a curse that keeps them trapped within the mansions grounds. While not necessarily the most horror-like film on this list, it's certainly scary enough for those in the tween age group. Loyal, almost cult-like, fans, will be happy to know a second adaptation also titled The Haunted Mansion was released July 28, 2023, per Deadline .

Monster Squad (1987)

Upon its release in the late-80s, Monster Squad was one of those movies people either loved or hated. Written by Fred Dekker and Shane Black, and directed by just Dekker, the film tells the story of all the classic Universal Studios monsters who must thwart a bunch of kids and try to take over the world. Led by the legendary Count Dracula (Duncan Regehr), the monsters stage a coup, but are stopped by the "Monster Squad," a group of pre-teens who idolized the monsters from classic horror films.

The movie was actually unsuccessful financially and with critics and was actually pulled from theaters, only making $696 per screen after its opening weekend (per Box Office Mojo). Monster Squad did not gain popularity until later, when it began receiving what amounts to cult status from audiences who appreciated its unique take on the monsters we all know and love.

The Addams Family (1991)

One of the original families of horror comedy are The Addams Family , a strange and sometimes macabre family who hold the belief that being dark, spooky, and weird is a good thing. In this film, the characters are based on the cartoon by Charles Addams and the 1964 television series of the same name. Mother Morticia Addams (Anjelica Huston, who received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance), father Gomez Addams (Raul Julia), Uncle Fester Addams (Christopher Llyod), Grandmama Addams (Judith Malina), children Wednesday and Pugsley Addams (Christina Ricci and Jimmy Workman), and their butler/driver Lurch (Carel Struycken), make up this odd group.

While not for everyone, The Addams Family definitely deserves a place on this list for tweens who love the horror genre. A sequel, Addams Family Values, was released in 1993, then came the merchandise, video games, pinball games, dolls, clothing, books, and even more. And in 2022, Wednesday got her own spooky mystery series, aptly titled Wednesday on Netflix .

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

If you're in the mood for creepy, eerie storytelling, look no further than the iconic Tim Burton. Known for his work on films like The Nightmare Before Christmas , an animated stop-motion dark fantasy, Burton has a way of just getting the horror movie feels onscreen. This movie in particular is one of his best works and tells the story of Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon and Danny Elfman), the "King of Halloweentown," who is bored with his life in the Halloween-themed city and wants something more in life.

When Jack stumbles upon Christmastown, he hatches a plot to kidnap Santa Claus (Ed Ivory) and become the new man in red, while also having to deal with his arch-nemesis, Oogie Boogie (Ken Page). Alongside Sally (Catherine O'Hara), the Mayor (Glenn Shadix), and his faithful dog Zero (Frank Welker), Jack learns what it means to have family and the true meaning of Christmas. While not terrifying, some scenes are a bit more spooky than other films on this list, so viewers should be aware of the possibility of being a bit creeped out.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

Based on the children's book series of the same name by Alvin Schwartz, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark , shows what happened on a fateful evening in Pennsylvania in 1986 when three teens — Stella, Auggie, and Chuck — prank their school bully, Tommy. The problem: Tommy tries to get revenge by locking them in a supposedly haunted house. There, the teens find a book that tells scary stories, but the stories actually end up having some truth to them, leading to a mystery and an investigation like no other.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is one of the more sinister films on this list and would probably be best for the older tweens within that age range to avoid scaring the younger ones. A sequel was announced in 2020, but no other news has since been confirmed, so the next film seems to be stuck in the COVID-19-related limbo many other movies being planned during that time are suffering from.

Corpse Bride (2005)

Another stop-motion offering from the epic Tim Burton, Corpse Bride tells the story of a young man named Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp) and a young woman named Victoria (voiced by Emily Watson) who are about to be married in an arranged marriage to help one family become wealthy and help the other gain status in society. While the two do fall in love, the issue is that Victor gets nervous, causing a panic and runs away into the forest.

There, he practices his vows, placing the wedding band he should have given Victoria on what he thinks is a tree branch, but turns out to be the finger of a corpse, Emily (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter), who he has just married, leading to a slew of shenanigans. While not terrifying, the film definitely fits into the horror genre and does a great job of being both fun and creepy at the same time.

Hotel Transylvania (2012)

Hotel Transylvania has to be one of the tamest "horror movies" on this list, taking a more comedic approach to Dracula's classic story. Count Dracula (Adam Sandler) owns the Hotel Transylvania, a monster destination retreat from the humans of the world for all the classic monsters to relax and take a break. On his daughter Mavis' (Selena Gomez) 118th birthday, a human named Johnny (Andy Samberg) accidently stumbles upon the hotel, leading to chaos from both the monsters and the human.

With help from Frankenstein (Kevin James), Wayne the werewolf (Steve Buscemi), Murray the mummy (CeeLo Green), and Griffin the invisible man (David Spade), Dracula must hide that a human is in the monsters' midst, leading to a hilarious film perfect for the younger tweens and kids alike. Hotel Transylvania 2 , Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation , and a Hotel Transylvania television series have all been released since the initial movie's conclusion.

Related: 20 Horror Movies That Raised Gen Z

The Boxtrolls (2014)

Very loosely based on the novel Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow, The Boxtrolls tells the story of a human boy named Eggs (Isaac Hempstead Wright) who is raised by a group of trash trolls being hunted by an exterminator named Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley). Eggs must make an attempt to save his surrogate family when Snatcher attacks, leading him on a quest to discover what one is willing to do to protect those they care about.

Three of the Boxtrolls, Fish, Wheels, and Bucket, are all voiced by the legendary Dee Bradley Baker, known for his work in Legends of the Hidden Temple , Avatar: The Last Airbender , several animated Star Wars shows, and more. Directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi, The Boxtrolls is a cute addition to the horror fantasy comedy genre and is not terrifying, but does have enough intense action to entertain the younger tweens looking for a monster movie.

The BFG (2016)

Directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg and written by the late Melissa Mathison, The BFG is based on Roald Dahl's book of the same name. The story is about Sophie (Ruby Barnhill), an orphan and 10-year-old little girl, who stands up to some men in an alley one night. She is then kidnapped by a Giant called "Runt" (Mark Rylance) who takes her to his home in the Giant Country and won't allow her to return to the human world, noting that if she tries to leave, other Giants will eat her. Sophie eventually embarks on a grand journey where she learns all about what it means to be human.

Sadly, The BFG is one of Spielberg's worst films revenue-wise in the USA, making only $54.4 million domestically (per The Hollywood Reporter ). While not really horror, this film does have some scarier bits and deals with death making it a great film for tweens who enjoy adventure stories.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

A classic creature feature, also from Steven Spielberg, is E.T. the Extra Terrestrial , most often shortened to just E.T. , and is a film all tweens need to see at least once in their lifetimes. Telling the tale of Elliot (Henry Thomas), a boy who makes friends with an alien he names E.T. (Pat Welsh, Kayden Green, and Spielberg himself), who gets left behind on Earth, E.T. is one of those movies that dominated the sci-fi genre. Eventually after hiding E.T.'s existence, Elliot finds a way to help his new friend get home.

Viewers of this movie can learn about what it means to have a true home and family, since the story showcased the power of friendship and love. And while E.T . is not strictly horror, for a younger tween, the minor jump scares and comedy moments will be just enough to keep them entertained throughout the story.

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018)

The Goosebumps sequel, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween , is another one of those films that has horror like elements, but isn't so scary that it will terrify your tweens and prevent them from sleeping that night. Picking up a few years after the previous film, Sarah (Madison Iseman) and her younger brother Sonny (Jeremy Ray Taylor), along with his friend Sam (Caleel Harris) stumble upon a locked book in an abandoned house in their hometown. Opening the book causes Slappy the Dummy (Mick Wingert as the voice and Avery Lee Jones as the puppeteer), the nemesis from the first Goosebumps film, to come to life again and terrorize the town, using magic to bring even ore Halloween horrors to life.

When the book is stolen by a bully named Tommy (Peyton Wich), the kids must fight to get it back and recapture Slappy before he destroys everything they know and love. With a brief appearance by Jack Black as a fictionalized version of R.L. Stine again, this film takes a slightly different direction and is worth a watch for the tweens who need a horror comedy appropriate for their age.

Ghostbusters (1984)

The original ghost story, Ghostbusters is about a team of parascychologists — Peter, Ray, and Egon (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis) — who form a ghost capturing business in the big apple, New York City, leading to a bunch of crazy moments. Written by Aykroyd and Ramis, and directed and produced by Ivan Reitman, Ghostbusters is an iconic introduction into the world of the supernatural.

As one of the staples of pop culture, Ghostbusters has become an entire franchise including an animated televsision series The Real Ghostbusters , its sequel Extreme Ghostbusters , a film Ghostbusters II , video games, board games, comic books, clothes, music, and even attractions based off the film. A full reboot in 2016 called Ghostbusters was released, but did not do as well in the box office. A second sequel to the original film called Ghostbusters: Afterlife was later released in 2021. While we anxiously wait to see if more Ghostbusters content is coming — if you see a ghost, "who you gonna call?"

20 Horror Movies That Are Appropriate for Tweens

Halle Berry Reveals Whether Her Kids Will Watch Her New Horror Movie ‘Never Let Go’

The 'Catwoman' actress revealed that one of her kids is a total thrillseeker, while the other isn't really on board with horror movies just yet.

Halle Berry is getting ready for her new horror flick Never Let Go to premiere in the fall, but one of her children may not be watching it. The Die Another Day actress, 57, discussed whether her two kids Nahla , 16, and Maceo-Robert , 10, would be watching the new scary movie in a new interview with Extra at CinemaCon on Wednesday, April 10.

When asked whether her kids would be watching Never Let Go, Halle said that her elder child is more of a horror fan. She said that Nahla is “going to like this” movie, but it may not be a good fit for Maceo-Robert. “My 16-year-old [daughter], yeah. My son would have nightmares for a very long time, so no,” she told Extra . “I mean, he saw a trailer of, like, a scary movie, and it took us a year to get him to go to bed by himself, so he won’t be seeing it.”

Even though her son may not be catching the movie, Halle admitted that making Never Let Go gave her a new appreciation for her two children. ” I learned that from this movie. My children are my most valued treasures,” she said.

Never Let Go is a psychological thriller about a family that’s haunted by a spirit for years, and one of the children wonders whether evil is real, according to IMDb . The movie is set to premiere on September 27.

While Maceo may not catch Never Let Go anytime soon, Halle has shown that she absolutely loves getting to enjoy movies with her kids! Back in August, the actress revealed that her daughter treated her to go see Barbie for her birthday, along with boyfriend Van Hunt . The Bond Girl looked like she had a fantastic time with her daughter and beau. “My mini me (but not so mini anymore) and my VanO took me to the World of Barbie for my B-day!” she wrote. “I got to let my inner Barbie soar!!!! I love you guys …thank you!”

Abigail - Official 'Melissa on Joey' Featurette

Melissa Barrera discusses her role as Joey in Abigail in this behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming vampire horror movie. Abigail also stars Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Alisha Weir, William Catlett, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud, and Giancarlo Esposito.

Children can be such monsters.

After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a £50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.

From Radio Silence—the directing team of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett behind the terrifying modern horror hits Ready or Not, 2022’s Scream and last year’s Scream VI—comes a brash, blood-thirsty new vision of the vampire flick, written by Stephen Shields (The Hole in the Ground, Zombie Bashers) and Guy Busick (Scream franchise, Ready or Not).

The film produced by William Sherak (Scream franchise, Ready or Not), Paul Neinstein (Scream franchise; executive producer, The Night Agent) and James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, Scream franchise) for Project X Entertainment, by Tripp Vinson (Ready or Not, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) and by Radio Silence’s Chad Vilella (executive producer Ready or Not and Scream franchise). The executive producers are Ron Lynch and Macdara Kelleher. Abigail opens in theaters on April 19, 2024.

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Chilling horror movie with 100% Rotten Tomatoes score is coming soon to Netflix – and it's being called Nightcrawler with witch doctors

Disappear Completely has received some high praise

A new horror movie with great reviews is heading to UK Netflix very soon. Mexican horror Disappear Completely is directed by Luis Javier Henaine and features a chilling premise.

It follows a tabloid photographer who makes his money profiting off death. After visiting a particularly creepy crime scene, he falls prey to a mysterious disease that makes him lose his five senses one by one.

Per Digital Spy , the film is arriving on Netflix on April 12, two years after it premiered at Fantastic Fest back in 2022. And the reviews it has so far are pretty impressive, leaving the movie with a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Leonardo Garcia Tsao from La Jornada writes that its "adherence to contemporary horror conventions and its open, pessimistic ending certainly places Disappear Completely among the most valid and interesting recent contributions to the genre".

Meanwhile, Father Son Holy Gore ’s C.H. Newell writes: "Disappear Completely is an unnerving supernatural horror story that brings the morality of our everyday world into question when it comes to the pop culture obsession with true crime."

One of the most intriguing reviews comes from The Hollywood News ’ Kat Hughes who calls it "a fusion of Nightcrawler with witch doctors," adding that "Disappear Completely straddles both the old and new world".

Nightcrawler is the Dan Gilroy-directed thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a photojournalist selling violent stories around Los Angeles. Based on the subject matter, it’s easy to see where the similarities come from, but it’s an impressive comparison nonetheless.

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I’m the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering TV and film for the Total Film and SFX sections online. I previously worked as a Senior Showbiz Reporter and SEO TV reporter at Express Online for three years. I've also written for The Resident magazines and Amateur Photographer, before specializing in entertainment.

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A father and teen daughter attend a pop concert, where they realize they're at the center of a dark and sinister event. A father and teen daughter attend a pop concert, where they realize they're at the center of a dark and sinister event. A father and teen daughter attend a pop concert, where they realize they're at the center of a dark and sinister event.

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Daughter – Movie Review (3/5)

DAUGHTER is a new mystery-thriller with a very small cast and a truly brutal story. A fascinating tragedy that evolves in creepy ways from start to finish. Read our full Daughter movie review here!

A chosen family

A wonderful small cast

Watch Daughter in theaters, on Digital or On-Demand now!

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Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard

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