35 Horror Movies About Curses

Crossing the wrong person. Invoking a deadly incantation. Playing with a cursed object. Entering the wrong place. Witnessing something extremely traumatic and horrific. Being bitten by a ferocious creature. In horror films, curses come in endless forms, impacting characters in various, horrifying ways. Some curses are deadly. There are curses that can be passed on, and that require spreading to thrive and survive. Demonic entities can be unleashed by certain curses. All curses have the power to ruin lives. 

Curses in horror movies intrigue audiences with entrancing narratives that explore the dark uncharted world of the mystical and the supernatural. They put characters in perilous situations that often require them to act quickly to save themselves. Oftentimes, the curses in these tales are unbeatable, or ridding oneself of them comes with a high price.  

This list catalogs horror movies involving curses:

The Wolf Man (1941)

The Wolf Man is one of the best Universal Classic Monsters movies, and a powerful horror film that still holds up extraordinarily well today. Lon Chaney Jr. delivers an impassioned performance as Larry Talbot, who returns to his ancestral home in Wales to bury his recently deceased brother and reconcile with his estranged father. While trying to rescue his love interest’s friend from a wolf attack, Larry is bitten and afflicted with the curse of the werewolf. The movie is often credited with setting the blueprint for cinematic werewolf lore and influencing many well-known lycanthropic films.

Cat People (1942)

Simone Simon stars as Irena Dubrovna, a Serbian immigrant and fashion designer living in New York City, who is descended from a medieval tribe of metamorphosed women—Cat People who turn into panthers when aroused, impassioned, or enraged. Her ancestors were cursed as a result of turning to witchcraft and abandoning God. The newlywed’s husband, Oliver Reed (Kent Smith), dismisses her fears as urban legends and fables from her homeland. Problems soon arise in their unconsummated marriage, and when Oliver gets closer to his co-worker Alice (Jane Randolph), jealousy stirs something in Irena. Cat People is one of the first openly feminist horror films, extremely surprisingly so for its era. It explores themes of repression, female sexuality, and xenophobia. Irena’s curse can also be easily read as a stand-in for queerness. 

The Evil Dead (1981)

Sam Raimi’s cult classic “cabin in the woods” horror movie features one of the most infamous cursed objects in the genre, the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, or the “Book of the Dead,” bound in human flesh and inked in blood. When a group of friends vacation in an old, abandoned cabin they find the strange book along with audio tapes that translate its ancient text. Upon playing the incantations, they unleash a powerful demonic entity. What follows is a bloody, unhinged battle with evil. And so, one of horror’s most beloved franchises was born.

Ringu (1998)

The 2002 American version is a competent remake, and a great film overall, but some might argue that the Japanese original is better. While both films follow an almost identical premise involving a cursed videotape, The Ring discards many supernatural elements and oversimplifies much of its predecessor’s more complex and nuanced plot, removing many of the twists and turns that make Ringu intriguing. Additionally, Sadako’s (Rie Ino’o) backstory is more compelling than Samara’s, and her character is arguably more terrifying. Ringu’s unique Japanese roots (the 1991 book it’s based on is inspired by the Japanese ghost story of Banchō Sarayashiki) lend themselves to a special, distinctive eeriness. While it takes its time, Ringu outshines The Ring in capturing dread and melancholy. 

The Grudge (2004)

The Grudge is another American movie that borrows from Japan. Takashi Shimizu, who wrote and directed the 2002 original, Ju-On: The Grudge, the third installment in the Ju-On film series, got the opportunity to remake and direct his own movie from an adapted screenplay by Stephen Suscoi. Sarah Michelle Gellar stars as Karen, an American nursing student living in Tokyo. When she’s tasked with her first in-home patient, she discovers something dark lurking in the ailing woman’s house. After digging deeper into the home’s history, Karen discovers it’s inhabited by a deadly curse that haunts anyone who enters, known as The Grudge—a “stain” created in a place where someone died while experiencing extreme violence, rage, pain, or sorrow.

Sukob (2006)

Sukob, or The Wedding Curse, is a Filipino supernatural horror movie about getting married. It’s based on a superstition in the country that says one is not to get wedded within a year of a relative’s death. Sandy (Kris Aquino) and Dale (Wendell Ramos), a couple working overseas, return to their hometown in the Philippines to get married. As the wife and husband-to-be prepare for their wedding, they’re haunted by visions of a ghostly flower girl, and those around them begin to disappear one by one. 

Drag Me to Hell (2009)

Co-written and directed by Sam Raimi, Drag Me to Hell stars Alison Lohman as Christine Brown, a young woman working as a loan officer at a Los Angeles bank. While vying for a promotion at work, her boss advises her to demonstrate that she’s capable of hard decision-making. This prompts her to reject a loan extension to an elderly woman who’s at risk of having her house repossessed. Christine is cursed in retaliation by the crone. After three days of torment by a powerful demon, her soul will be dragged to hell, unless she passes the curse on to someone else. If there’s any lesson to be learned from this movie, it’s this: Always check the contents of every envelope, especially when trying to enact the ultimate act of revenge. 

It Follows (2014)

It Follows is one of the greatest horror movies to have come out of the 2010s. Maika Monroe stars as Jay Height, a 19-year-old who becomes the victim of a fatal curse that’s passed down through sex, after a date with Hugh (Jake Leary). A nameless entity will stalk her, moving closer and closer, until it kills her, unless she passes it on to someone else. On the surface, the curse reads as a clever STD metaphor, but that’s not entirely the case. Looking deeper, the shapeshifting monster stalking Jay can be seen as the trauma of a sexual assault survivor personified. The film also explores other various themes, like the inevitability of death, fear of aging, and humanity’s attempts to outrun both.  

Impetigore (2019)

Written and directed by Joko Anwar, Impetigore is top tier folk horror. After a mysterious attack in which her would-be murdererer seemed to know more about her than she knows about herself, Maya (Tara Masro) looks through the possessions of the deceased aunt who raised her and discovers that her late parents were wealthy. Accompanied by her friend Dini (Marissa Anita), Maya travels to her ancestral village, hoping to inherit the massive house her parents left behind. There, they make some unsettling discoveries—there are barely any children around, a lot of local headstones belong to newborns, and there’s constant child funerals in the village. To investigate the strange mysteries, the two decide to pose as student researchers. Maya winds up uncovering an unsettling personal connection to the curse that plagues the town. 

Smile (2022)

Sosie Bacon stars in Parker Finn’s debut, which features a malevolent entity. Bacon plays Dr. Rose Cotter, a psychiatrist who has a painful past. After witnessing one of her patients carve a smile into her face and subsequently slit her own throat, Dr. Cotter is haunted by visions that alienate her from those around her. Upon embarking on an investigation, she discovers a terrible curse has latched on to her. Rose is fated to die a violent death by her own hand in front of a witness, passing the curse on to them. The only way she can save herself is by murdering someone in front of another person, ridding herself of the curse that way. Smile tackles themes of trauma, repression, and mental health. 

Fear Street Part One: 1994 (2021)

Each film in the Fear Street trilogy provides unexpectedly great period horror. Set in 1994, Part One introduces the towns of Shadyside and Sunnyvale. Shadyside, dubbed the murder capital of America, has been plagued with death, poverty, and misfortune for centuries. The neighboring cookie-cutter Sunnyvale is one of the most prosperous and safe towns in the country. Legend has it that the witch Sarah Frier put a curse on Shadyside before being executed for witchcraft in 1666. When Deena (Kiana Madeira) and her friends find themselves in the middle of a new wave of slayings, they become convinced there’s some truth to the legend, and become determined to beat it.

Saloum (2021)

Saloum is a Senegalese-French crime horror-thriller set in 2003. It follows a trio of semi-mythical mercenaries, reverently referred to as Bangui’s Hyenas in narration, who are forced to lie low in the mystical region of Saloum, Senegal after kidnapping a Mexican drug lord from Bissau, Guinea-Bissau amid the 2003 coup d’état. There, malevolent supernatural forces await them. Steeped in folk horror, the film explores the horrors of colonialism, environmental deterioration, exploitation of children, and revenge. The movie is inspired by the curse of Gana Sira Bana, a tyrant Bainuk king who cursed his people and the region after they rebelled and conspired against him. 

Nocebo (2022)

This Filipino-Irish co-production is a psychological horror that does a wonderful job of highlighting the immigrant experience. Diana (Chai Fonacier), a Filipina domestic helper, arrives at the home of Christine (Eva Green) one day, claiming to be the help the fashion designer has requested. Christine doesn’t remember hiring anyone, but goes with it, as lately life has been difficult. In addition to a work fiasco, she’s been suffering from a strange, mysterious illness that doctors haven’t been able to unravel. Using traditional folk magic and faith healing, Diana treats Christine, whose family remains wary of the caregiver and her practices. While their suspicions may be founded, Diana isn’t the true villain in this story. 

Talk to Me (2022)

Australian twin filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou offer a bold, unique spin on possession in their feature directorial debut. Grief is at the center of the story, which follows Mia (Sophie Wilde), who’s still struggling with the death of her mother two years prior. When she attends an exclusive party with her best friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen) to check out the latest craze, she’s introduced to the cursed embalmed hand of a medium that conjures up spirits and offers the thrill of possession. There’s only one rule: Do not go past 60 seconds. Believing to be speaking to her mom, Mia breaks that rule, putting her best friend’s little brother in harm’s way and unleashing horrifying supernatural forces. Interestingly enough, the now iconic hand was so terrifying that it scared its own creator. The Philippou twins shared in an interview with Yahoo that the craftsperson quit after delivering the prop, having been creeped out by “an uncomfortable experience with it the night before.” 

More horror movies about curses…

Hellraiser (1987) The iconic Lament Configuration puzzle box—a curse for some and pleasure for others—is imbued with dark magic that unlocks the gates of a Hellish realm and unleashes the Cenobites to claim the flesh of the person who solves its puzzle and opens it. Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996) provides more background on the origins of the cursed object and how its creator’s bloodline came to be cursed. 

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1998) Explores the Druid Curse of Thorn, the curse Michael Myers is under, which drives a person to kill their family on All Hallows’ Eve. 

The Ring (2002) The American remake of Ringu follows Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts), a Seattle-based journalist who comes across a cursed tape while investigating her niece’s death. Anyone who hits play has seven days to live after watching it. Rachel must unravel the mystery and figure out how to save herself in only one week.

Darkness Falls (2003) A town in Maine is haunted by a vengeful spirit who has taken the form of the Tooth Fairy after being murdered by a mob 150 years prior. 

Cursed (2005) After an accident on Mulholland Drive, two siblings are attacked by a beastly animal, which they later learn was a werewolf. If they want to avoid their transformation on the coming full moon, they must end the bloodline of the lycanthrope who attacked them. This Y2K gem was directed by Wes Craven and stars Christina Ricci. 

The Wolfman (2010) This loose remake of the 1941 classic stars Benicio del Toro, Emily Blunt, and Anthony Hopkins. Upon his return to his ancestral home, an American man is bitten and cursed by a werewolf. The premise might sound the same, but The Wolfman vastly differs from its predecessor. 

Evil Dead (2013) This reimagining of The Evil Dead follows Mia (Jane Levy), her brother, and their friends, as they travel to their remote family cabin in the woods, where Mia plans to detox and kick her drug addiction. When one of them finds the cursed Book of the Dead, dubbed as the Naturom Demonto in this version, they awaken a demonic entity that requires five souls to unleash The Abomination from hell. 

The Bye Bye Man (2017) “Don’t think it. Don’t say it.” After a group of college students move in together in a house near their school, they unwittingly invoke a deadly curse involving an entity who causes hallucinations and takes over the minds of those who say and hear his name. 

The Lodgers (2017) A gothic horror about twins who are confined to their ancestral home and bound to the rules of a childhood lullaby by a curse that punishes them for the sins of those who came before them. 

In Fabric (2018) This surreal horror by Peter Strickland follows the life of a cursed dress as it passes from person to person in a cult-like London department store, leaving a trail of destruction as it unleashes its evil. 

Antrum (2018) begins as a mockumentary about an obscure cursed horror film. The “documentary” warns the viewers to proceed with caution before watching, and then shows the supposedly cursed film, which follows two siblings who venture into the forest to dig a hole to hell to rescue their dead dog. 

La Llorona (2019) A Guatemalan horror film that depicts the final cursed days of a genocidaire, as he finally pays for his atrocities against the Kaqchikel people.

The Queen of Black Magic (2019) An Indonesian horror film about a group of men, who along with their families, return to the orphanage where they were raised and fall prey to a vengeful curse

Fear Street Part Two: 1978 (2021) Deena and her friends visit a survivor of the 1978 Camp Nightwing massacre, and the movie goes back in time to the previous series of slayings.

Fear Street Part Three: 1666 (2021) Deena has a vision, and through the perspective of Sarah Frier, learns the true origin of the curse put on Shadyside, and what she must do to stop it in 1994.

His House (2020) A Sudanese refugee couple struggle to adapt to their new English town and soon discover their house may be cursed with a sinister entity. 

Incantation (2022) A terrifying Taiwanese supernatural folk horror about a woman who seeks to break a curse that was placed on her daughter when she broke religious taboo six years prior.  

The Cursed (2022) A curse is placed on a town after greedy British landowners massacre a Romani caravan, dooming their town to be terrorized by a ferocious creature. 

Choose or Die (2022) Explores a curse in an obscure 1980s survival computer game that a broke student comes across in pursuit of a $125,000 cash prize. 

Tarot (2024) After a group of friends uses a cursed deck of tarot cards, they unleash an evil force that hunts them one by one.

Further reading:

• 30+ Movies Based on Urban Legends
• 11+ Horror Films That Will Make You Fear Mirrors
• The Best Haunted House Movies Ever