10 Best Horror Movies With No Supernatural Elements

This low budget, squirm-inducingly uncomfortable 2019 release is already well on its way to cult status, thanks in no small part to a superb performance from Octavia Spencer in the lead role.

Spencer plays the titular motherly figure, a warm but lonely woman with little to fill her days. When some teenagers ask her to buy booze for them, she agrees, on the proviso they do their drinking in her basement, where she can be sure they’re safe. What seems like an incredible stroke of luck for the gang turns out to be a trap, as the cuddly Ma bares her fangs.

While the film doesn’t take too many genuinely unpredictable turns, it’s worth watching for Spencer’s performance alone. The part was tailored for her by director and frequent collaborator Tate Taylor, and the role is toned exactly right, with Ma never too sympathetic, never too detestable.

Ma rides the line between drama and full-on horror schlock, not always entirely confidently, but Ma herself is one of the best realised bittersweet horror characters since Misery’s Annie Wilkes.