20 Terrifying Horror Movies That Perfectly Explore Trauma

Content Warning: The following article contains discussions of abuse and suicide. It’s been over 130 years since the birth of the horror genre in motion pictures. Ever since the release of Georges Méliès‘ feature The House of the Devil (original title: Le Manoir du Diable) in the late 1890s, the beloved category has become one of the most popular in the film industry. Today, the treasured genre features many unique sub-genres that appeal to different viewers, often reflecting the cultural fears of a collective psyche.

Although the films that fit into the horror category explore many different themes, trauma seems to be a very recurring one, especially in recent times, which says a lot about today’s societal frights. From recent hits like Hereditary to older classics like Rosemary’s Baby, these are some of the best horror movies about trauma that delve into the subject flawlessly as they terrify audiences.

20 ‘Mother!’ (2017)

Director: Darren Aronofsky

In this deeply bizarre and disturbing Darren Aronofsky film, the bond between a couple (Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem) is put to the test when uninvited strangers come to their house unannounced and disturb their peace. This results in a chaotic descent into a nightmare that won’t leave anyone indifferent.

Depicting a different kind of trauma with the protagonist representing Earth and the eradication of the couple’s home reflecting the damage caused by human exploitation, Mother! is undoubtedly an interesting allegory of environmentalism and the irreversible damage that humanity actively causes on the planet. Furthermore, in addition to its great execution, Aronofsky’s visually alluring horror movie is elevated by its chilling, strong central performances.

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19 ‘Lake Mungo’ (2008)

Director: Joel Anderson

In Joel Anderson‘s Lake Mungo, viewers are invited to delve deep into the haunting story of Alice Palmer (Talia Zucker), a 16-year-old who perishes while swimming in the neighborhood dam. After the verdict of accidental death, the grieving family buries her body but later comes across a series of bizarre occurrences.

Grief and trauma are, of course, two major elements in Anderson’s 2008 horror film; it is evident that it sends a strong message about the fear and despair of loving someone, raising questions about life’s logic, as Collider’s Vinnie Mancuso argued. Furthermore, it’s its terrifying and realistic found-footage narrative – with sad and moving undertones – that makes these themes stand out, undoubtedly putting the film up against the most devastating horror movies to date.

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18 ‘Carnival of Souls’ (1962)

Director: Herk Harvey

Herk Harvey‘s black-and-white horror classic Carnival of Souls follows Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss), who undergoes a major car accident with her two friends but somehow ends up making it alive. After recovering, Mary eventually accepts a job in a new town as a church organist. That’s when she starts being pursued by a peculiar phantom figure and is forced to come face to face with her own demons.

The impressive surreal 1962 budget horror is often said to be ahead of its time. Featuring a huge uneasy atmosphere, Carnival of Souls offers its audience an intriguingly haunting, layered character study that makes for a very entertaining — even if equally creepy — viewing, shedding light on the horrors of post-traumatic stress after a devastating accident.

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17 ‘The Night House’ (2021)

Director: David Bruckner

Starring Rebecca Hall as the emotionally scarred Beth, The Night House follows the character as she returns to a lake house her now-deceased husband has built for her in a beautiful forest. Beth finds herself slowly descending into madness after unpacking her late husband’s belongings and uncovering his disturbing secrets in the night house.

David Bruckner’s well-crafted supernatural whodunit horror movie depicts tremendous emotional loss, depression, and trauma to perfection through its creepy atmosphere and storytelling. While the 2021 horror may not appeal to everyone, it is still worth checking, as it delivers a great performance by Hall and introduces some interesting concepts. Still, The Night House‘s strongest aspect is the way it deals with the universal themes it has at its heart, including the inescapable burden of grief.

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16 ‘Titane’ (2021)

Director: Julia Ducournau

Julia Ducournau‘s fantastic Palm d’Or winner body horror Titane combines, in a transformative arc, dark humor with horror elements. The French 2021 film centers on a car accident survivor, Alexia (Agathe Rousselle), who has a medical-grade titanium alloy implant firmly fixed to her skull. Ten years after her cranioplasty, Alexia finds that she has developed a bizarre fetish with cars.

Tackling both generational and childhood trauma, Ducournau’s shockingly entertaining and deeply disturbing, gruesome film is guaranteed to leave a memorable mark on viewers. Through the horror movie’s metaphor for a sexual awakening, the beautifully shot Titane also shines a light on identity and the very human desire to feel connected to others and build meaningful bonds, on top of loss and grief.

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15 ‘Possum’ (2018)

Director: Matthew Holness

This 2018 psychological horror film by Matthew Holness is an adaption of Holness’ short story of the same name published in the horror anthology “The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease.” It centers around a children’s puppeteer (Sean Harris) who is forced to face the trauma he experienced as a child by his wicked stepfather (Alun Armstrong), as well as the hidden secrets that have tortured him throughout his entire life.

While Possum may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it surely delivers an intriguing plot — one that essentially resorts to a puppet with spider legs and uses it as a metaphor for the character’s trauma and a reflection of himself, which he often attempts to destroy. With great performances from those involved, Holness’ Possum is a nightmare-fueled film that is considered an underrated gem by many; one that flawlessly depicts what confronting long-buried wounds feels like.

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14 ‘Saint Maud’ (2019)

Director: Rose Glass

Centering around a deeply devoted nurse with a tumultuous past, Saint Maud depicts the titular character’s (Moryfydd Clark) journey to an English coastal town in order to look after a terminally ill former dancer, Amanda Köhl (Jennifer Ehle). Maud quickly develops an unhealthy obsession with freeing her helpless patient from herself and guiding her to the light.

While Rose Glass’ thought-provoking and slow-burn feature film debut obviously deals with religious fervor, it also tackles sensitive topics like trauma and PTSD, which is exactly what makes the character turn to a misguided religious zeal. This original study of faith and alienation assuredly makes for a peculiar psychological horror watch and is perhaps one of the most underrated gems of the horror genre.

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13 ‘The Descent’ (2005)

Director: Neil Marshall

This terrifying, claustrophobic thriller centers around a hiking expedition gone terribly wrong a year after a car accident kills the protagonist’s (Shauna Macdonald) husband and daughter – the explorers become trapped inside the cave without any supplies. To make things even worse, they eventually come across a bizarre breed of bloodthirsty predators.

The Descent by Neil Marshall is a terrifying British adventure horror movie that will have viewers on the edge of their seats throughout, whether that be because of the heavy emotion it carries or its intense, anxiety-inducing plot that will pull the heartstrings of those who don’t like confined spaces. A hard-to-forget type of watch, Marshall’s gore fest showcases tons of psychological tension and features well-written claustrophobic horror, highlighting themes of unsolved grief and the acceptance of death.

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12 ‘Don’t Look Now’ (1973)

Director: Nicolas Roeg

Directed by Nicolas Roeg and starring The Hunger Games‘ Donald Sutherland, Don’t Look Now centers on a married couple who is still processing the recent death of their young daughter. During their trip to Venice, the two encounter a psychic with a message from beyond.

In addition to its haunting premise, the masterful, suspenseful classic film Don’t Look Now is incredibly heartbreaking and downright scary because of the sensitive and disturbing topics it tackles – and the quiet, low-key way it does it. The devastating effect that the death of a child causes on one’s life and a relationship is shown in a well-executed manner, and Roeg perfectly highlights the harsh emotions that come with grief and loss.

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11 ‘Martyrs’ (2008)

Director: Pascal Laugier

This must-see but hardly recommendable psychological and body horror by Pascal Laugier depicts a young woman’s quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tormented her fifteen years prior. In Martyrs, viewers find Lucie (Mylène Jampanoï) and her childhood friend, Anna (Morjana Alaoui), slowly descending into madness and delusion.

Going to great lengths to illustrate painful themes of torture and child abuse, featuring a trauma-packed protagonist, Laugier’s extremely well-crafted but repulsive revenge story makes for an interesting watch that is extremely hard to sit through at times. This is mostly given all the violence it features, which make it an extremely gory film. On top of that, Martyr‘s ambiguous ending is one of the most compelling in the genre.

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10 ‘Us’ (2019)

Director: Jordan Peele

Like Get Out and his most recent feature Nope, Jordan Peele‘s Us is yet another example of the modern horror filmmaker’s brilliant vision. In this twisted horror thriller, a happy family’s peaceful beach vacation takes a wild turn of events when their doppelgängers suddenly show up out of nowhere and start terrorizing them.

Dealing with repressed feelings of guilt, blame, and oppression, the shocking Us deals with unresolved trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. Although it is ultimately not to everyone’s liking, Jordan Peele’s peculiar movie certainly provides audiences with food for thought by presenting them with an original story brimming with meaning. Additionally, a few unexpected twists near the film’s ending makes it even more memorable.

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9 ‘The Babadook’ (2014)

Director: Jennifer Kent

An astounding directorial debut by the gifted Jennifer Kent, the fan-favorite The Babadook is both a horrifying and impressive watch that even scared The Exorcist‘s director. Revolving around a single mother (Essie Davis) and her child (Noah Wiseman), the 2014 film depicts the two’s descent into paranoia when a bizarre character from a children’s book appears in their home.

With incredible acting and a well-executed narrative, which provides audiences with a refreshing and innovative take on deep depression and illustrates the toll grief takes on mental health after losing a loved one, The Babadook understands how different people of different ages deal with loss and highlights it in a very creative manner that will undoubtedly stick with viewers. What is so great about it is how it relies on real, horrifying themes instead of conventional jumpscares.

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8 ‘Smile’ (2022)

Director: Parker Finn

Directed by Parker Finn, Smile narrates the story of Sosie Bacon‘s therapist Rose who, after witnessing the strange suicide of a patient, begins to undergo progressively unsettling and downright frightening events that lead her to believe she is the victim of a terrifying curse.

While this huge box-office success (thanks to Smile‘s creative marketing) delivers a familiar premise, it executes it in a revitalizing way. What’s more, Smile highlights childhood trauma and showcases, through its freaky depiction of the bizarre creature that haunts the protagonist, what it is like to be a prisoner of your own mind. It is a poignant metaphor for fighting to get control over yourself again, and certainly well worth a look.

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7 ‘Pearl’ (2022)

Director: Ti West

This second installment for the X film series by Ti West stars the iconic scream queen Mia Goth as Pearl and provides audiences with a social commentary on the American dream. Set in 1918, X‘s terrifying sequel tells the tragic story of the old woman viewers get to see in the first film, illustrating how her isolated surroundings and small-minded family ultimately influenced the character to lose her mind.

Released just last year, Pearl is one of the most recent horror movies on trauma, tackling generational wounds and the feeling of being trapped and helpless. Ti West’s film, which is hilarious at times but also incredibly dark, also presents an interesting take on the character’s repressed sexuality. The good news is a new installment, MaXXXine, is coming out this year.

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6 ‘Men’ (2022)

Director: Alex Garland

2022’s Alex Garland‘s horror movie stars Jessie Buckley as the main lead, and it follows her on a solo vacation to the English countryside post the tragic death of her ex-husband. Harper seeks solace after everything she’s undergone and actively tries to escape from the memories that haunt her. While her initial getaway trip had everything to work out, she finds herself disturbed and tormented by the strange men in the village — and she’s got nowhere to hide.

Men is a folk horror film that mainly focuses on the guilt and trauma that the protagonist endures after an extremely toxic relationship comes to a shocking end. Apart from tackling extremely sensitive topics like suicide, the visual retelling of a traumatized woman’s pain also showcases disturbing body horror towards its end.

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5 ‘Hereditary’ (2018)

Director: Ari Aster

Ari Aster’s impressive directorial debut, Hereditary, counts on a highly talented cast with exceptional performances by Alex Wolff and the superbly talented Toni Collette (who many believe was snubbed for her efforts in the movie). The brilliant and twisted horror film features an enthralling plot focusing on a grieving family who is constantly undergoing devastating and quite disturbing occurrences.

Apart from its extremely realistic, unsettling atmosphere that’ll likely give anyone the creeps, the narrative of Aster’s slow-burn, thought-provoking masterpiece thickens as it explores sensitive themes surrounding a scarred family’s emotional generational trauma, abuse, and the characters’ grieving journey. Thanks to its intense and incredibly scarring narrative, Hereditary is one of those horror movies that will traumatize and stick with viewers long after the credits roll.

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4 ‘The Witch’ (2015)

Director: Robert Eggers

An admirable directorial debut by Robert Eggers, A24’s The Witch (originally titled The VVitch: A New-England Folktale) is set in 1630s New England, and it centers around a devoted Christian family torn apart by the dark forces of witchcraft and black magic after their son mysteriously disappears into thin air and a disastrous series of events start to unfold.

With lots of bizarre imagery and great performances, this atmospheric 2015 folklore horror movie starring Anya Taylor-Joy as the main lead turned out to be a pleasant addition to the genre. Although it doesn’t feature jumpscares (nor an actual depiction of the monster behind it all) and rather relies on its eerie atmosphere, The Witch is an undeniably terrifying movie that focuses on the religious extremism of the time, deep-rooted misogyny, and generational trauma.

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3 ‘Midsommar’ (2019)

Director: Ari Aster

Also directed by Aster, Midsommar follows Dani (the gifted Florence Pugh) as she travels to Sweden in order to visit a rural hometown’s fabled mid-summer festival with her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). Although on the verge of falling apart, the couple sticks together after Pugh’s character experiences a traumatic event, and this drives them to head on a trip with their friends. In the end, what started as a fun getaway voyage took a wild turn of events and became something incredibly sinister.

This disturbing horror movie set in broad daylight is not for everyone. Still, the piece of filmmaking features Aster doing what he seemingly does better — depicting traumatic events and dealing with haunted characters. The twisting Midsommar deeply focuses on Dani’s grief after the loss of her parents and explores fear and insecurities unlike any other.

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2 ‘The Invisible Man’ (2020)

Director: Leigh Whannell

Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss) has recently received the news about the suicide of her abusive husband with whom she was in a trapped relationship. As she tries to rebuild her traumatic life for the better, the protagonist starts to suspect that her deceased lover’s death was a hoax and attempts to prove that she is being hunted by someone that no one can see.

Exploring abuse and depression through vehicles of horror, The Invisible Man offers an intriguing yet terrifying narrative that’ll have audiences glued to their screens. Though it falls short of exploring small details and features some plot holes here and there, the 2020 movie effectively showcases Cecilia’s post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms after endless psychological and physical abuse, which is essentially what makes Leigh Whannell‘s film so scary and disturbing.

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1 ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ (1968)

Director: Roman Polanski

Focusing on a young couple trying for a baby, homemaker Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and her husband Guy (John Cassavetes), Rosemary’s Baby follows their journey as they settle into an aging apartment building on Central Park West and find themselves surrounded by strange neighbors and odd occurrences. When Rosemary falls pregnant, a sinister conspiracy starts to emerge.

Showcasing severe birth traumas and sexual assault, this macabre horror psycho-drama thriller, which is adapted from a novel of the same name, is likely to deeply disturb audiences. Despite Polanski being one of the most controversial and problematic personalities in the industry, this cinematic classic still captures the attention of many and arguably stands the test of time today. The thought-provoking classic Rosemary’s Baby explores the degradation and constraints forced on women.

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