often brings viewers back to familiar horror franchises such as The Conjuring, Annabelle and Halloween. Indian cinema also has a range of unsettling stories that offer a different kind of fright, drawing on local folklore, unexplained events, family secrets and psychological horror.
Here are eight horror films to add to a Halloween watchlist, along with the platforms where they are watched.
John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) introduced audiences to Michael Myers, a masked killer who escapes from a psychiatric institution and returns to his hometown of Haddonfield on Halloween night. The film, starring as Laurie Strode, became a landmark in the slasher genre and established several conventions that influenced horror films for decades.
Its success led to multiple sequels, reboots and a new trilogy, with Halloween Ends (2022) serving as the final instalment in the most recent run of films.
Directed by Vikram K Kumar, this psychological horror film stars as Manohar, a man who moves into a new flat with his family. Things take a disturbing turn when he discovers that a television serial, which can only be viewed on his television, appears to show events from his family’s future.
The film builds its horror around an everyday object rather than relying only on ghosts or sudden scares. Its unusual premise and slow rise in tension have helped it develop a following among horror fans. The film was made in Hindi and Tamil, with the Tamil version titled Yavarum Nalam.
Karthik Subbaraj made his directorial debut with this Tamil horror thriller starring and Remya Nambeesan. Sethupathi plays Michael, a pizza delivery worker whose routine assignment takes a frightening turn when he enters a customer’s house.
The story uses a familiar setting but keeps changing the audience’s understanding of what is happening. Its twists are central to the experience, making it a good choice for viewers who prefer horror with mystery and suspense. The film’s success also led to remakes in other Indian languages.
This Malayalam supernatural horror film, directed by Jay K, stars and Priya Anand. The story begins when a couple brings an antique box into their home. The object carries a disturbing history linked to a Jewish boy and a Christian girl in 1941.
Set in Kochi, Ezra draws on the idea of a dybbuk, a spirit from Jewish folklore believed to possess a living person. The film uses this cultural background to build its supernatural story, giving it a setting and mythology that are different from many familiar Hollywood possession films. Tovino Thomas also appears in the film.
Starring and Shane Nigam, this Malayalam film follows a mother and son living together in a house where strange incidents begin to disturb their daily lives.
Directed by Rahul Sadasivan, Bhoothakaalam is a slow-burning horror film that gives as much attention to grief, isolation and emotional strain as it does to events. It avoids depending heavily on jump scares, instead building an uncomfortable atmosphere through the characters’ experiences inside the house.
For viewers who prefer psychological tension over constant action, this is one of the more unusual choices on the list.
This Telugu horror film, directed by Sai Kiran, centres on a single mother and her daughter. The girl’s life takes a frightening turn after she comes across a bracelet and begins experiencing disturbing events.
Sangeetha plays the mother, while the story moves between different periods to uncover the history behind the haunting. Masooda takes a more traditional supernatural horror route, with its story built around possession, family concerns and a mystery that gradually comes into focus.
Mammootty leads this Malayalam horror film directed by Rahul Sadasivan. Set in 17th-century Malabar, it follows a folk singer who seeks shelter in an old mansion. He soon finds himself trapped in a place controlled by a powerful master and his cook.
Shot entirely in black and white, uses its setting, sound and visual style to create a sense of dread. The film has a small central cast and draws on folklore rather than the familiar haunted-house formula. Mammootty’s performance is central to the film’s unsettling atmosphere.
2013’s The Conjuring, directed by James Wan, gave birth to the massive Conjuring franchise. It is led by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren.
The story follows the couple as they investigate a haunting at a farmhouse in . Its success expanded the series into several films, including The Conjuring 2, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and The Conjuring: Last Rites. The franchise also spawned spin-offs such as Annabelle and The Nun, building an interconnected horror universe around haunted objects, demonic entities and alleged paranormal cases.
