10 Horror Movies That Break The Genre
3. We Need to Talk About Kevin
The 2011 psychological thriller We Need to Talk About Kevin is the third feature from Lynne Ramsey. Based on the novel by Lionel Shriver, the film stars a terrific Tilda Swinton as a put-upon and stressed mother, Eva.
The film centres on how Eva struggles to cope with her psychopathic son, Kevin (played to perfection by Ezra Miller), who throughout his childhood and early teens is incredibly difficult, insulting, and ultimately, very violent. With no help from her negligent husband, Franklin (John C. Reilly), Kevin’s behaviour only gets worse, to the point where he commits an awful and unforgivable act.
What starts off as a fairly standard family drama, We Need to Talk About Kevin gets darker and darker over it’s run-time. Ramsey doesn’t direct the film like a standard horror film - she doesn’t give us a lot of jump-scares, and instead, lets us sit with all the disturbing things that Kevin does.
Ramsey terrifies the audience not with over-the-top scares, but instead, with the notion of just how evil mankind can be.