Children of the Night

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Children of the Night

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By Ben Elliott

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Is there anything more divisive than a horror movie? There will always be an audience that loves settling in for a series of inventive kills, as well as people who can’t think of a worse way to spend two hours.

And while the visceral thrills of slasher films with masked killers might not be for everyone, the horror genre offers so much more than blood and gore. For those who find joy in psychological tension and existential anguish, horror of the mind provides a different kind of thrill — one that resonates on a deeper, more emotional level.

Dracula, 1931

Movies like Carnival of Souls, Night of the Living Dead, and The Shining build dread instead of relying on gore. They take the inevitability of death and transform it into a suffocating atmosphere. It’s a kind of psychological horror that flourished during the isolation of the digital age with movies like The Babadook, It Follows, and Hereditary using the supernatural to explore deeply human traumas.

And when it comes to personifying the horror of the mind, there’s no better fit than a vampire. Ever since Bela Lugosi welcomed us into his castle in Tod Browning’s Dracula, vampire movies have explored human weakness — whether through stories of people ensnared by their allure (The Lost Boys, Let the Right One In) or through the vampire’s own tortured perspective (Only Lovers Left Alive, The Addiction).

Nosferatu, 2024

This tradition continues in Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, a stunning adaptation of F.W. Murnau’s unofficial Dracula adaptation from 1922. The enduring relevance of Nosferatu after more than a century speaks to the role horror plays in our lives. The story of losing someone still living, whether to addiction, abuse, or cult-like influences, remains universally relatable. These stories, much like their protagonists, remain eternal.

And horror-lovers get it: when we watch a horror movie, it lets us confront our fears head-on. Ignoring the boogeymen allows their shadows to grow, but by forcing our monsters into the light, these movies give us a sense of control — if only for two hours.

Showtimes

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