10 Hidden Gem Supernatural Horror Movies

5. Dead End

House 4
Toutle Cine/Lions Gate Entertainment

Christmas Eve. The dead of night. A quiet countryside back lane. What could possibly go wrong?

This is the setup for Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa's Dead End, with the Harringtons deciding to take a shortcut as they head off to visit family for the festive season. After patriarch Frank (Ray Wise) has a near-miss after falling asleep at the wheel, the film starts to venture into the supernatural - not least in how our protagonists are stalked by a dead baby-carrying woman dressed in white, while a hearse also keeps turning up.

Putting it bluntly, sh*t then gets proper weird as the Harringtons' drive round in circles and all have extremely odd encounters with something.

Dead End does goes a little cheesy with its twists and turns at times, but that works in its favour and adds to its charm. And in genre faves Ray Wise and Lin Shaye, this 2003 picture has two ideal leads to balance the scares with the more humourous or outright odd moments of the film.

Making Dead End further worth horror fans' time, there's a pretty neat ending that leaves you second guessing - in a good way - what you've actually just spent 80 minutes watching.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.