10 Scariest Haunted House Movies Ever Made

Spanish auteur Alejandro Amenábar made the move into English language cinema with The Others, which is one of the most celebrated ghost stories of the new millennium. The film became the first movie ever to win the top prize at the Goya Awards for Spanish cinema without featuring a single word of the Spanish language.

Nicole Kidman plays a paranoid mother whose husband is off fighting in the Second World War. She keeps her house constantly dark as a result of her children suffering from potentially fatal sensitivity to light. The children are increasingly terrified by apparent ghostly visitors and it isn't long before Kidman's character starts to see them too.

The Others is remembered most fondly for its stunning twist ending, but it's also a patient and consistently intriguing haunted house tale. There are very few glimpses of whatever is terrorising the house throughout this movie, but that only serves to amplify the moments where the threat is more palpable, such as the infamous 'I am your daughter' scene.

It's the twist that lingers in the mind when the credits roll, but it's the performances and the carefully measured atmosphere that hold it all together.