Supernatural Thriller Movies

A writer renowned for debunking infamous paranormal events is confronted by a force that he cannot explain upon checking into room 1408 of the notoriously haunted Dolphin Hotel. Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is an author who specializes in horror, but who only believes in what he can see with his eyes and touch with his hands. Having constructed an entire career on his ability to dispel superstitious "haunted house" rumors, Mike is convinced that the afterlife is a manmade construct designed to offer false comfort to the weak minded. Mike's latest project is a book entitled "Ten Nights in Haunted Hotel Rooms," and it seems that in room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel, this skeptical scribe may finally find proof of the supernatural. Implored by the hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson) not to enter room 1408, Mike defiantly procures the key and prepares to dispel yet another spectral sham. Now, as is the case with many of life's most profound epiphanies, the writer who thought he knew it all is caught entirely off guard at the precise moment he least expected it. Subsequently faced with undeniable proof of an afterlife, Mike may have a best-seller on his hands if he can simply survive until sunrise. Mary McCormack and Jasmine Jessica Anthony co-star in director Mikael Håfström's (Derailed) adaptation of an original short story by horror icon Stephen King. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

An ex-con looking to start life anew with his loving fiancée resorts to extreme measures as a means of funding his lifelong dream in director Stewart Hendler's dark supernatural thriller. Max Truemont (Josh Holloway) has served his debt to society, and now he is ready to make a fresh start alongside his faithful fiancée, Roxanne (Sarah Wayne Callies). When the bank takes umbrage to Max's manslaughter conviction and refuses to approve his loan application, the desperate recidivist soon joins forces with a pair of shady associates to carry out what promises to be a lucrative kidnapping. Upon abducting the eight-year-old son of the richest woman in the state, Max, Roxanne, and their criminal collaborators travel to a secluded and abandoned summer camp to await further instruction. Now, as loyalties begin to shift, suspicions arise, and the deteriorating situation appears to go into a menacing downward spiral, Max gradually begins to suspect that their young hostage may not be quite as innocent as outward appearances suggest. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Ghost of Mae Nak is an updating of one of the most popular ghost stories in Thailand, which has been the basis for over 20 movies from the silent era to the present. The original story concerns a 19th century rural villager, Mak, who returns home from war not knowing that his wife, Nak, is a now a ghost. She died during childbirth while he was away. When the villagers try to warn Mak that the woman he came home to is a ghost, Nak kills and harasses anybody who threatens to separate the two until Buddhist monks finally exorcise her unnatural spirit. Though Mak and Nak are victims of dire circumstances, the village must exert control in order to keep their tenuous society intact. The tale is related in this film through the grandmother, suitably wrinkled and foreboding, of a modern-day girl named Nak (Pataratida Pacharawirapong), who is not dead. She is engaged to her own Mak (Siwat Chotchaicharin). After this cute idealistic couple gets married and moves into a decrepit house, the original ghost Nak (Porntip Papanai), now named Mae Nak for clarity, starts haunting Mak to try and get him to save her still-tortured soul. Apparently the Buddhist monks who originally exorcised her cut out a portion of her skull, which Mak unknowingly bought in a shop, and which needs to be placed back in the corpse's head before she can really rest in peace. While they try to figure what it is that Mae Nak wants, the ghost helps Mak and Nak by threatening sleazy city types (a shady real estate dealer, a couple of thieves, a geeky crush who won't take no for answer) taking advantage of their precocious naïveté. After Mak is hit by a car and goes into a coma, it's up to Nak to return the bone and save her marriage. ~ Michael Buening, Rovi

Shannyn Sossamon and Ed Burns star in director Eric Valette's remake of Takashi Miike's frightful tale about a cell-phone call from the future that foreshadows one's own death. Beth Raymond (Sossamon) is a college student whose friends have all been dying in droves, and the one connecting factor between all of the incidents is that just before their deaths, each of the victims received a message in which they heard themselves being murdered. Upon receiving her own frightening phone call, Beth has only three days to solve the mystery and cheat death. Burns co-stars as a detective who is deeply troubled by the recent spate of deaths. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A murderous figure in a demonic mask stalks a woman from her dreams before materializing in the real world to do some bloody damage in director Rolfe Kanefsky's nocturnal tale of night terror. Unsuccessful despite multiple attempts to conceive, Ellen (Blythe Metz) and her husband, Bill (Luciano Szafir), order a mask said to represent the God of Fertility. Unfortunately, their hope for a child is soon snuffed out when a demonic figure sporting the very same mask begins to pursue Ellen in her dreams. Increasingly disturbed by his wife's hysterical paranoia, Bill secures a room for his troubled wife at a nearby mental health facility. When Ellen and Bill's car breaks down in the woods en route to the hospital and the menacing figure from Ellen's nightmares emerges from the darkened trees, a retreat to a nearby cabin where Mia (Tiffany Shepis) is hosting a party with a collection of close friends sets the stage for a blood-soaked murder rampage that may or may not be the doing of a supernaturally charged killer. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A talented tattoo artist (Jason Behr) discovers that his attempt to master the Samoan tatau tradition has awakened a vengeful supernatural force in a first-time feature filmmaker Peter Burger's New Zealand-based horror film. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

As preparation gets under way for the construction of an environmentally devastating oil well in a remote Alaskan base just outside the Arctic Circle, a series of unexplainable occurrences leads a team of adventurers to believe that something supernatural may be afoot in director Larry Fessenden's chilly snowbound thriller. Pollack (Ron Perlman) is the ultra-macho leader of a team of adventurers that includes his former lover Abby (Connie Britton), pot-smoking mechanic Motor (Kevin Corrigan), and inexperienced newcomer-cum-fortunate son Maxwell (Zach Gilford). When research scientists Hoffman (James LeGros) and Elliot (Jamie Harrold) arrive to assess the environmental impact of the proposed project, Pollack's unmasked contempt for the pair's stalling of the project immediately creates dissent among the group. As emotions boil to the breaking point and cabin fever begins to take hold, Maxwell's increasingly strange behavior is initially attributed to the blinding white barrenness of the region, which has been known to quickly wear thin the fortitude of even experienced men. There's more to Maxwell's midnight wanderings and incoherent mumblings than meets the eye, though, because as the outside temperature begins to rise during the dead of winter and the team members begin to experience fleeting visions out of the corner of their eyes, it starts to seem as if mother nature may be voicing her opposition to the proposed pillaging of her luminous white landscape. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A ride on the subway takes a woman to an unexpected and very dangerous place in this independent horror thriller from Canadian filmmaker Maurice Devereaux. Karen (Ilona Elkin) works as a nurse at a psychiatric hospital and has had a very trying day dealing with new patients, made all the more stressful by the news that a close friend and former patient has killed herself. Wanting nothing more than a quiet evening at home, Karen is waiting on a subway platform when she's approached by a religious zealot who wishes to talk to her. She isn't interested, but the stranger soon gets her attention when he demonstrates that the cross around his neck hides a switchblade. Mike (Nicolas Wright), another commuter waiting for his ride home, comes to Karen's rescue and they board the train together. However, before they can reach their stops, a power failure brings the subway to a halt and Karen and Mike find they're trapped with a handful of fanatics belonging to the same sect; they are convinced the Apocalypse is on the way, and before the Rapture can take place, they must sacrifice the non-believers, which means Karen and Mike must fight for their lives. End of the Line received its world premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A girl with the power to communicate with the dead helps a small-time car thief seek revenge against the gangsters who killed his nephew. As a young girl, Sarah watched helplessly while her mother was murdered. The trauma of witnessing that horrible event shocked the young girl so badly that she developed an acute sensitivity to the spirit realm. Now, when someone dies leaving unfinished business, they use Sarah as a vessel to set things straight from beyond the grave. Cal is a car thief looking to turn over a new leaf. He's had enough of life on the streets, and he's ready to go straight. But just as Cal is about to kiss his life of crime goodbye, his murderous business partners accuse him of a crime he didn't commit. Now, in order to prove his innocence, Cal will need his nephew's help. Guided to Cal by the ghost of his deceased nephew, Sarah prepares to clear the repentant criminal's name once and for all. But she'll have to act fast, because a dark force from her past is back, and trigger-happy gangsters are about to become the least of her worries. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A desperate woman in search of her missing sister stumbles upon a terrifying secret in director Franklin Guerrero, Jr.'s atmospheric tale of impending doom. Laura's sister Nikki has gone missing, and upon tracing Nikki to an abandoned prison nestled deep in the forests of an isolated mountain town, Laura sets out to discover the truth behind her sister's inexplicable disappearance. The Halcyon Ridge Correctional Facility is no normal prison though, because deep within the crumbling walls of stone and steel lies an ancient evil just waiting to be revived. Now, as a plague of ultimate darkness prepares to descend upon the world once again, Laura finds that there is much more at stake than she could ever have imagined. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director Robby Henson's psychological thriller House concerns a husband and wife who, attempting to patch up their marriage after the death of their child, decide on a spur of the moment to ignore their regularly scheduled therapy session and set off on a trip. After a car accident incapacitates their vehicle, the duo ends up at the title dwelling, where they meet another couple as well as the off-putting people who own the establishment. Soon, the two couples realize they must rely on each other in order to survive. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

A tormented rock star being stalked by a malevolent killer receives valuable advice from the master of macabre in director Ulli Lommel's cinematic tribute to legendary horror author Edgar Allan Poe. As a child, Lenore was surrounded by darkness. It was during those grim and frightening days that the terrified girl became acquainted with the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. These days, Lenore has achieved fame as the singer in a Los Angeles-based rock band, but unfortunately her high-profile status has made her the target of a supernatural killer. After seeing her friends and colleagues fall one by one to a murderous force from beyond the mortal realm, the terrified singer is horrified to discover that she is to become the next victim of the seemingly omnipotent murderer. Though at first Lenore feels as if all hope is lost, a nighttime visit from the author whose works helped her survive some of the darkest days of her childhood offers a fighting chance of cheating death. Meanwhile, in the mountaintop lair of the Raven, where the bloodied bodies of his victims lie desecrated, a ghostly killer prepares to claim his most prized victim. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi