10 Greatest Horror Films That Don't Rely On Jump Scares

The feature debut from Australian filmmaker Jennifer Kent, The Babadook is a disquieting chiller that turns the conventional monster movie on its head.

Originally a short film of the same name, this flick revolves around Amelia (Essie Davis), a single mother struggling to cope with her troubled son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) as she still mourns the death of her husband.

After Amelia reads her son a storybook about a malevolent creature called Mister Babadook, strange things start to go bump in the night as Samuel is convinced that the monster is real. As the pressure wears Amelia down, it doesn’t take long for her to believe that something sinister is lurking in the many shadows that loom in their home.

Although there's a few jump scare scattered throughout, they're used sparingly with plenty of suspense to ensure that they remain effective.

But there’s a lot more depth to Kent’s debut. The real monster isn’t croaky-voiced Babadook, but what the creature represents. A metaphorical projection of Amelia's crippling grief and mental anguish, the terror from this film is rooted in an all-too human monster which makes The Babdook as tragic as it is creepy.