I’ve never been the person who’s afraid of monsters. Call me weird, but demons, ghosts, zombies, and all things scary are more interests than enemies to me. Out of the (probably) hundreds of horror films I’ve seen, only few managed to make me keep my lights on at night. These are those few, in no particular order.

The Babadook

Having to even think about this one to write about it made me watch my back for the rest of the night. Googling a picture was even worse, but let’s just get it over with. In short, it’s about a little boy who gets haunted by a monster out of a book (Babadook), who once called upon, will never go away no matter what you do. Like, there is absolutely no way to get un-haunted. How can you call him you might ask? By simply thinking his name, just like you already just did. Yeah…no thanks. Hey Siri, how do you undo thoughts?

Insidious

This is probably the only one where the look of the monster is what shook me. In the first installment of this movie series, a young boy is possessed by a malevolent spirit while in a coma. The spirit takes over and the boy’s parents have to call in a team of exorcists to not only save their child, but their home too. The red-faced, yellow-eyed demon gets me so bad that I can’t even look at the screen while he’s on or I’ll toss and turn for days after and maybe even cry. Who comes up with these things? And why?

Lights Out

If you weren’t already scared of the dark, you will be after seeing this. To sum it up, it’s about an evil, skeletal-looking entity of a woman that dwells in the dark of a sister and young brother’s home. The catch is, she comes whenever there is any pitch-black darkness at all. And you can’t see her either because, ya know, it’s dark. It’s hard to explain, so you’ll just have to watch it. If you don’t have a nightlight, I suggest getting one. Or two. Three to be safe.

The Exorcist

Yeah, yeah, I know it’s old and has been the pioneer of nearly every horror movie ever, but it’s still scary. Just hear me out. I don’t think I have to explain, but just as a reminder, it’s about a girl that gets possessed by a demon and some priests have to save her (of course). The girl herself isn’t scary, well, okay maybe a little, but it’s mostly just that it’s believed this sort of thing has and can happen in real life to anybody. That’s insane, dude! I’m not particularly religious, but do I have some crosses on hand just in case? You betcha. Try me, demons.

IT

It’s something about clowns, man. Based off the best-selling book by Stephen King, a little boy gets taken into the sewers by a killer clown and it’s up to his brother and a team of small-town kids to get him back. The monster himself isn’t what scared me, it’s how he acts. Running into the camera all freaky, transforming, smiling weird, and what not. I couldn’t walk out of the theater without scoping my route for murderous clowns first. Turns out, the only clown there was myself.

All pictures are from imdb.