Pregnancy horror movies explore a unsettling side of a fragile and life-changing experience. Though many see pregnancy as a time to celebrate, it also serves as an ideal setting to bring terrifying stories to life.
Motherhood and horror connect so well because pregnancy in real life carries its own kind of body horror. Movies such as “When Evil Lurks” grabbed attention with a strong 9.6/10 on Rotten Tomatoes and 6.9/10 on IMDB, backed by more than 51,545 votes. In the same way, “Huesera” scored an impressive 9.7/10 on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.1/10 Metascore. These examples show how stories about pregnancy horror resonate with audiences.
I put together this list of unsettling pregnancy horror movies that will creep into viewers’ minds well into 2025. It includes classics like “Inside” from 2007, which tells the story of a pregnant woman hunted in her third trimester by someone who wants to harm her unborn child, along with fresh body horror films about pregnancy that are shaking the genre in 2024 and after. These movies dig into a basic fact about pregnancy—it makes people exposed while giving them the responsibility of guarding another life creating a mix of fear and tension that’s ripe for horror.
When Evil Lurks (2023)
Demián Rugna’s Argentine horror movie pushes brutality to the extreme. When Evil Lurks snagged an eye-catching 97% on Rotten Tomatoes cementing its place as a powerful piece of pregnancy horror.
When Evil Lurks Plot Overview
Pedro (Ezequiel Rodriguez) and his brother Jimmy (Demián Salomón) stumble upon a horrifying truth in their secluded village. They find out that a neighbor has turned into a “rotten,” a person taken over by an unborn demon waiting to be born. When the authorities refuse to intervene, the brothers try to deal with the possessed man themselves. Their decision backfires and sets off a chain of evil that spreads to animals and people. As the demon’s birth gets closer, Pedro struggles to keep his children safe leading to a heartbreaking finale.
Dark and Haunting Stories in When Evil Lurks
The film uses body horror in a direct and unsettling way making it hit harder. The possessed look swollen and covered in boils filled with pus. It shows them decaying from the inside. On top of that, the way the evil spreads makes everything more tense, since anyone can turn possessed without warning.
One scene that’s hard to forget shows a dog attacking a child in a disturbingly close view. The movie drives home the idea that no one is safe. Pregnant women, kids, and even animals become victims of extreme violence.
What Makes When Evil Lurks Different
When Evil Lurks defies typical horror norms by using a rural backdrop that highlights places left behind by the law. The film tackles the fear parents feel showing the helplessness of failing to shield children from unimaginable horrors.
Huesera (2022)
Michelle Garza Cervera’s debut from Mexico, Huesera: The Bone Woman, pushes pregnancy horror into intense and chilling territory. It earned an impressive 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Summary of Huesera’s Plot
Valeria Hernandez, a talented woodworker, prays at a shrine honoring the Virgin Mary and later becomes pregnant with her husband Raúl. As the pregnancy advances, a faceless figure with cracking bones begins to torment her. These unsettling experiences grow worse when she transforms her cherished carpentry workshop into a room for her baby. Meeting her ex-girlfriend Octavia again stirs memories of her wild rebellious younger days. After giving birth, Valeria struggles to connect with motherhood and puts her child in danger. This leads her to take part in a ritual with curanderas, or folk healers, which forces her to make a life-changing decision.
Dark Elements in Huesera
The movie brings fear to life with its images of bones snapping and sounds that make your skin crawl. It also dives into Valeria’s growing anxiety as she struggles with what society wants from her versus what she wants. Her family keeps questioning her ability to be a mother, which builds an intense overwhelming pressure. The film views pregnancy as a kind of trap showing gruesome moments like Valeria’s fingers snapping “like crab legs” or haunting dreams of twisted bodies.
What Makes Huesera Unique
Huesera stands out by weaving in Mexican folklore about La Huesera. She is a figure who gathers bones to revive creatures. While the film includes supernatural themes, it takes a deep and unsettling look at the fears tied to motherhood. Its cinematography uses “slats and windows” to frame Valeria reflecting her fractured sense of self. Through this lens, it dives into the complexities of maternal doubt earning comparisons to classics like Rosemary’s Baby and The Babadook.
Eraserhead (1977)
David Lynch’s first film Eraserhead drags audiences into a horrifying industrial world where the idea of becoming a parent turns into a bizarre nightmare. Made in 1977, this cult favorite still stands as one of the most disturbing horror films about pregnancy.
Eraserhead Plot Summary
Henry Spencer, a printer on a break from work, finds out his girlfriend Mary X has had a deformed baby. The baby looks like a peeled alien with no proper limbs, a snout for a nose, and its body wrapped tight in bandages. Henry has an uncomfortable dinner with Mary’s odd family, and they end up getting married. They bring the crying baby back home, but Mary struggles to deal with it and leaves Henry alone with the child. Left to fend for himself, Henry begins to have strange visions.
A puff-cheeked woman known as the Lady in the Radiator appears in his mind dancing on a stage while stepping on weird creatures that resemble sperm. After sleeping with a neighbor, Henry makes a shocking decision. He slices open the baby’s bandages revealing its organs, and then stabs them.The movie concludes when Henry hugs the Lady in the Radiator as they are surrounded by white light. Sure! Please share the text you’d like me to paraphrase, and I’ll work on it.
Troubling Ideas in Eraserhead
Eraserhead tackles the fright of becoming a parent by diving deep into disturbing and strange body horror. Lynch highlights parenting as a suffocating nightmare. The baby’s constant wailing unsettling looks, and unexplained health problems show the fear tied to taking on responsibility. The factory-like background filled with mechanical hums adds to the heavy oppressive mood. The movie works as both a mental and physical horror. It shows fake chickens leaking strange liquids and scenes with detailed shots of exposed organs.
What Makes Eraserhead Unique
Eraserhead holds a spot in the National Film Registry because of its cultural importance. Unlike regular horror films that offer quick scares or loud screams to give some relief, Lynch keeps the tension going without letting up. Alan Splet’s eerie sound design mixes industrial noises, radiator hisses, and Fats Waller’s organ tunes. This combo builds an atmosphere that feels heavy and inescapable. What stands out most is that Lynch managed to craft this “dream of dark and troubling things” over many years with very little money, yet it still holds its disturbing energy from start to finish.
Inside (2007)
French filmmakers Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo shocked audiences with their 2007 debut Inside, which brought a chilling take on pregnancy horror. Many consider it a key work in the New French Extremity movement. This intense thriller is often described as “one of the most violent, realistic and bloody slasher films ever assembled“.
Inside’s Story Summary
Inside takes place on Christmas Eve and centers on Sarah (Alysson Paradis), a pregnant widow whose husband passed away in a car crash four months earlier. She prepares herself for her planned delivery the next day when a strange woman (Béatrice Dalle) shows up at her house asking to come in. This unknown visitor has a single mission: to take Sarah’s unborn child, no matter the cost. What unfolds is a terrifying night filled with growing violence. The intruder kills anyone who tries to help Sarah—this includes her mom, her boss, and the police. The story leads to a chilling ending where the real link between the two women comes to light.
Upsetting Moments in Inside
Inside turns pregnancy into a weapon aimed at the audience. Its title has two layers of meaning. It points to the baby growing in Sarah’s womb and the psychological descent viewers take into the lives of two scarred women. The film makes the idea of pregnancy isolation real. Sarah’s house shifts from a safe place to one filled with blood and chaos. The directors show motherhood through the lens of pain and loss. They reveal Sarah’s emotional void after her husband dies, along with her attacker’s obsessive desperation. Some of the most unsettling moments in the movie focus on threats to Sarah’s unborn child. One scene includes scissors piercing Sarah’s stomach leaving a horrific image.
Why Inside Is So Unique
Inside shook up the home invasion genre by featuring women in the roles of the killers instead of men. Critics admired its “pitch-perfect balance of grinding tension and inventive gore.” Horror fans recognized its brutal style calling it “off the hook awesome” and “a entertaining experience.” The movie uses its tight, suffocating setting and the powerful performances of Paradis and Dalle to build constant unease. In the end, Inside isn’t just a straight-up horror film but also dives deep into emotions. It explores how grief can turn ordinary people into something monstrous.
Prevenge (2016)
Alice Lowe, a British actress, delivered a funny gem with Prevenge. She wrote, directed, and acted in this film while being pregnant herself. This rare take on pregnancy horror holds a solid 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
What Prevenge is About
Ruth, a widow and expecting mother, thinks her unborn child is urging her to kill the people she holds responsible for her husband’s death in a climbing accident. She hunts down her targets one by one, including a reptile shop owner and a sexist DJ carrying out violent attacks based on what she believes are her baby’s demands. The fetus “talks” to Ruth throughout giving unsettling orders such as “Don’t forget who’s really in charge!” As her delivery date gets closer, doctors perform an emergency C-section. Ruth then realizes her baby is ordinary and was never the sinister presence she believed it to be.
Dark Themes Explored in Prevenge
Prevenge takes a daring look at pregnancy, which Ruth sees as “a hostile takeover.” The movie questions how society often talks down to pregnant women showing this in Ruth’s exchanges with her dismissive midwife. More than anything, it twists the fears that come with motherhood into raw horror, as Ruth blames her unborn child for driving her to act out her pain and anger. The story doesn’t shy away from showing how pregnancy can seem like letting go of who you once were.
What Makes Prevenge Unique
Prevenge stands out as a mix of horror and dark comedy. Lowe managed to wrap up the filming in eleven days on a small budget of £80,000. The movie sets itself apart by showcasing a pregnant lead with agency instead of portraying pregnancy as a vulnerability. It adds something fresh to pregnancy horror and has been called “proof we need more horror movies about pregnancy.”
Anything for Jackson (2020)
Shudder’s Anything for Jackson turns the exorcism story upside down. It follows two elderly Satanists who try to perform a “reverse exorcism.” Justin G. Dyck, the director, creates a chilling story filled with grief and despair. The film received praise from critics for bringing new ideas to pregnancy-based horror.
Anything for Jackson: Plot Overview
Dr. Henry Walsh and his wife Audrey kidnap Shannon Becker one of Henry’s pregnant patients, to use her in a ritual. They hope to bring their dead grandson Jackson’s soul back by placing it inside her unborn baby. Heartbroken over Jackson’s death in a car accident, the couple turns to a Satanic cult and gets their hands on an old magical book called a grimoire. Things take a turn when their ritual calls forth Surgat, a demon who allows tortured souls to enter their home. The house soon fills with horrifying spirits—a ghost yanking floss through her teeth until they drop out, a twisted figure wearing a bag over his head, and a trick-or-treater who looks like their daughter, who had taken her own life after Jackson died.
Dark Ideas Explored in Anything for Jackson
The film shows how grief can lead to moral downfall. It turns grandparents who seem harmless into kidnappers and occult followers. Scary apparitions bring some creepy moments, like a woman pulling out her own teeth with floss. That scene reflects a fear of losing control. The violence grows worse as those possessed by evil end their lives in horrifying ways, like a handyman climbing into a snowplow. The movie doesn’t hold back on gory scenes or breaking religious boundaries, which makes it unsettling.
What Makes Anything for Jackson Unique
Anything for Jackson flips the usual horror story on its head by making elderly characters the villains. This switch feels fresh since most horror movies stick to younger leads. The movie blends chilling moments with bits of dark humor, like showing the couple’s ordinary home life alongside the terrible things they do. Even with a tight budget, the filmmakers managed to pull off some unforgettable scares using practical tricks instead of flashy CGI. In the end, it works as both an eerie ghost story and a moving look at how much people will risk to protect their family.
Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ psychological thriller Swallow takes a closer look at pregnancy by focusing on a rare eating disorder. With an 87% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it presents a unique take on the body horror pregnancy genre.
Plot Overview of Swallow
Hunter Conrad, a young woman with roots in a working-class family, marries into a wealthy lifestyle but feels trapped and unfulfilled in her new reality. After she finds out she is pregnant, Hunter starts struggling with pica, a mental health condition where people eat things that are not food. She swallows items like marbles, thumbtacks, batteries, and even a screwdriver. When the situation becomes severe, an ultrasound reveals the objects in her body, which leads to her being hospitalized. As she works with a therapist, Hunter uncovers that she was conceived through an act of rape. This painful truth shaped much of who she is. At first, her family supervises her at home, but she manages to escape. She confronts her biological father and decides to have an abortion.
The Disturbing Topics Explored in Swallow
The movie shows pregnancy as something invasive instead of a gift. Hunter’s obsessive behavior reflects her fight to gain control of her own body while struggling under heavy patriarchal pressures. Swallow uses graphic scenes of pulling objects and blood to make the audience feel uneasy. The visuals blend Hunter’s delicate fragility with the sharp edges of modernist architecture amplifying her feeling of being trapped.
Why Swallow Leaves an Impression
Haley Bennett carries Swallow with a layered performance—her calm exterior hides the storm inside. The film skips cheap jump scares instead opting to build long-lasting psychological suspense. By the end, it delivers a strong message about controlling one’s body and women’s rights.
The Fetus (2025)
Joe Lam’s first film, The Fetus, brings disturbing practical effects to the horror pregnancy genre in this 2025 release. Critics gave it a 7/10 score praising its mix of shocking moments and twisted humor.
Storyline of The Fetus
Chris played by Julian Curtis, and Alessa portrayed by Lauren LaVera, face a problem when Chris’s condom tears during intimacy. By the very next morning, something strange happens—Alessa gets a positive pregnancy test. She describes herself as “a freak” where “things happen faster,” so they decide to visit her father Maddox, a blind Vietnam War veteran played by Bill Moseley. While seeking answers, an unsettling reality comes to light. The fetus inside Alessa develops fast and bursts out of her body needing human blood to survive. Despite its violent nature, it manages not to harm her.
Dark Elements in The Fetus
The movie dives into the topic of unwanted pregnancy showing it as literal body horror. With skilled practical effects by a two-time Colombian Academy Award honoree, the creature scenes turn stomach-churning. One shocking moment even shows the fetus leaping out like a snake. Lam skips subtle chills and leans into wild gore using “gloopy fluids” to make the creatures look even more unsettling.
Why The Fetus Leaves a Mark
The Fetus stands out thanks to its practical effects that feel like a nod to 80s horror classics. The dedicated cast LaVera’s raw and realistic display of pain, pushes the movie beyond its small budget. Some viewers even joke it’s “the best ad to avoid having kids.”
Mother! (2017)
Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! is one of the most debated pregnancy horror movies ever made. It stunned viewers with its deep symbolism and intense visuals.
Storyline of Mother!
Mother! follows a young woman played by Jennifer Lawrence, who lives with her poet husband, Javier Bardem, in a remote house far from others. She spends her time fixing up the place bit by bit. When she touches the walls, she senses strange visions of a heart beating inside them. Their peaceful life breaks apart after uninvited visitors show up. First, a man with an odd injury on his rib played by Ed Harris, arrives. Not long after, his bold and meddlesome wife played by Michelle Pfeiffer, joins him. As time passes, their house starts filling with more and more strangers, and things spiral out of control.
The woman becomes pregnant, but even then, she finds herself unable to stop the house from turning into absolute chaos. , her baby is taken from her by fanatical worshippers who carry out a disturbing ritual killing the infant and consuming it.To get revenge, she sets the oil tank in the basement on fire destroying everything. Her husband untouched by the fire, takes out her heart and forms a crystal from it restarting the cycle once again. Hi there! It seems you’ve submitted a placeholder format instead of actual content to rephrase. Could you please provide the original text you’d like me to work on?
Unsettling Themes in Mother!
The movie portrays pregnancy as the ultimate form of defenselessness. Throughout the story, Mother endures worse violations. Her house gets overrun, her boundaries vanish, and her body is taken advantage of. The scene involving the infant’s death stands out as horrifying, with the clear sound of a neck snapping adding to the shock. The symbolic layers make the terror even greater. Mother symbolizes Earth itself suffering under humanity’s endless greed. The last scenes of the film show her charred body in harrowing detail, with her skin tearing away as her beating heart is taken.
What Makes Mother! Unique
Mother! stands out thanks to Aronofsky’s detailed approach to sound and tight unsettling camerawork. He managed to finish writing the intense script in just five days. Lawrence gave a raw and emotional performance that pushed her so far she ended up hyperventilating during filming struggling to detach herself from the character. Reviewers called it “confrontational cinema,” with editing described as “rats gnawing on your nerves.” The movie’s growing surreal elements shift from quiet unease to a “full-on cinematic attack.”
The Brood (1979)
David Cronenberg’s The Brood is a unsettling dive into the themes of divorce and parental fears delivered through the lens of body horror. Cronenberg wrote it after going through a tough divorce turning a mother’s anger into terrifying monstrous children.
The Brood Plot Summary
Dr. Hal Raglan played by Oliver Reed, uses a therapy called “psychoplasmics” that turns mental trauma into physical symptoms. Nola Carveth, his main patient, is in the middle of intense sessions while her husband Frank, who she is separated from tries to win custody of their daughter Candice. Things escalate when Frank notices bruises on Candice and starts digging into Raglan’s methods. At the same time, people close to Nola, like her abusive mother, her drunk father, and Candice’s teacher, fall victim to shocking murders.
Frank uncovers a chilling reality—Nola’s anger creates deformed “children” who carry out her hidden emotions.In a surprising ending, Nola shows an external womb on her stomach that she uses to give birth to these creatures cleaning them off with a primal, animal instinct. Hi, it seems you’ve shared a placeholder template but not the actual text you’d like me to paraphrase. Please provide the content you’d like rewritten, and I’ll assist you by rephrasing it according to your specifications.
Dark Ideas in The Brood
The Brood dives into the horror of passing trauma through generations showing abuse as a pattern that may repeat with Candice. The movie twists pregnancy into an eerie and unnatural act. Nola’s strange, self-created births symbolize unchecked maternal dominance. When Frank sees Nola’s external birth sac, his disgust mirrors the discomfort society often feels about women’s reproductive biology.
What Makes The Brood Unique
Cronenberg himself saw this as his only true “classic horror film,” even though he worked on many movies in the genre. The movie’s shocking imagery sticks in your mind, like the scene where Nola bites into her external womb. It sparks disgust in a real way. But The Brood isn’t just about shock; it dives into themes of divorce and shows how parents’ fights can harm their kids.
The House on Pine Street (2015)
The House on Pine Street brings psychological fear to pregnancy horror without going overboard on blood. It swaps cheap gore for growing unease. This indie horror movie from 2015 supported through Kickstarter, was filmed in 19 days.
Plot Summary of The House on Pine Street
Jennifer Branagan, seven months into her pregnancy moves back to her hometown in Kansas after suffering a mental breakdown. She and her husband Luke settle into a suburban house, but strange and creepy things start happening. Doors open on their own, shadows appear under closed doors, and objects show up in new places without explanation. Jennifer’s claims are met with disbelief. Her husband shrugs them off, and her controlling mother Meredith dismisses her concerns . With no one on her side, Jennifer feels trapped in fear and begins questioning her grip on reality.
Unsettling Themes in The House on Pine Street
The movie dives into the fear of becoming a mother and the trapped feeling of an unwanted pregnancy. A lot of the terror comes from how little control Jennifer has—over her body, her home, and the strange threats she believes are supernatural. The mental strain increases when you see how her relationships play out with her husband, who shows “zero affection.”
What Makes The House on Pine Street Different
The House on Pine Street breaks the mold by placing horror in a regular suburban house instead of an old, creepy mansion. The movie earned several awards, including Best Director at NOLA Horror Film Festival. It uses realistic lighting and leaves the ending wide open making people question if the haunting was all in Jennifer’s mind or something .
Shelley (2016)
The Danish horror movie Shelley explores the eerie side of pregnancy. The story unfolds in a remote forest cabin with no electricity where even the natural world seems sinister.
What Happens in Shelley?
Elena, a housekeeper from Romania, decides to become a surrogate for Louise and Kasper, a Danish couple living off the grid. They promise Elena enough money to afford an apartment in Bucharest for herself and her son. But the pregnancy takes a dark turn as Elena starts believing that something evil is growing inside her. Her health worsens while Louise begins to gain strength. When Elena tries to terminate the pregnancy herself, she dies in the process, but the baby—named Shelley—survives. As Shelley grows unsettling things happen: she screams when water touches her and animals react to her with intense fear.
Haunting Elements in Shelley
Shelley looks at the idea of surrogacy as exploitation using disturbing body horror visuals. Elena’s worsening health contrasts with Louise’s energy hinting at a troubling parasitic bond between mother and child. The remote woodland setting makes the characters feel more exposed while the dim candlelit spaces add a sense of dread. The movie also questions whether motherhood might feel unnatural through Leo’s uneasy feeling that something is wrong with the baby.
Why Shelley Grabs Attention
Ali Abbasi, the director keeps things subtle by avoiding obvious monsters but still creates tension. The deep performances of Cosmina Stratan and Ellen Dorrit Petersen bring emotional weight to the story. Shot choices turn everyday woods into creepy menacing places creating a haunting mood without needing grand effects.
Immaculate (2024)
Michael Mohan’s Immaculate received an R-rating due to intense violence and themes that challenge religious norms. The film delves into unsettling ideas about control over one’s body in the context of pregnancy-related horror.
Story Overview of Immaculate
Sister Cecilia played by Sydney Sweeney, is a religious young woman who moves to a secluded convent in Italy. After surviving a traumatic drowning as a child, she dedicates her life to faith. Not long after arriving, she discovers she is pregnant even though she has never been with a man. The convent leaders begin treating her as if she is a modern version of the Virgin Mary. However, she soon uncovers a chilling truth about Father Tedeschi. He has been using DNA taken from a relic called the “Holy Nail” to impregnate nuns, creating twisted and inhuman fetuses while trying to produce a new messiah. Realizing the horror, Cecilia fights back killing her captors as well as the unnatural child she gives birth to during her escape.
Disturbing Themes in Immaculate
The film examines forced pregnancy as the ultimate form of violation. Religious power turns into a weapon to take away control over women’s bodies. Cecilia dressed like the Virgin Mary, is refused even basic medical help. She suffers physical torment, including cross-shaped brands burned into her feet. While the violence is graphic, Immaculate shows how patriarchal systems disguise control over women under the excuse of sacred duty. The birth scene highlights Sweeney’s raw and blood-streaked screams filled with an overwhelming sense of anger.
What Makes Immaculate Unique
Sweeney’s acting called “her best yet,” shines in the last moments of the movie. She found the script years ago and decided to produce it herself, which led to a performance that critics praise as “incredible” and “believable.” The film uses practical effects to offer striking gore without leaning on CGI. In the end, Immaculate stands out as a gripping horror story and a bold statement on reproductive rights.
Comparison Table
| Movie Title | Year | Director | Critical Rating | Main Plot Focus | Notable Disturbing Elements | Key Themes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| When Evil Lurks | 2023 | Demián Rugna | 97% RT | Brothers discover a demon-possessed neighbor awaiting physical birth | Bloated bodies, boils, pus, brutal animal violence | Rural isolation, parental fear |
| Huesera | 2022 | Michelle Garza Cervera | 97% RT | Pregnant woman haunted by bone-breaking entity | Bone-breaking imagery, contorting bodies | Maternal anxiety, societal pressure |
| Eraserhead | 1977 | David Lynch | Not mentioned | Man struggles with caring for deformed infant | Deformed baby, organ exposure, surreal imagery | Fear of fatherhood, industrial horror |
| Inside | 2007 | Julien Maury & Alexandre Bustillo | Not mentioned | Pregnant widow stalked by woman wanting her baby | Extreme violence, scissors through navel | Pregnancy isolation, trauma |
| Prevenge | 2016 | Alice Lowe | 91% RT | Pregnant widow commits murders at unborn baby’s command | Serial killings, dark comedy | Pregnancy as invasion, grief |
| Anything for Jackson | 2020 | Justin G. Dyck | Not mentioned | Elderly couple attempts reverse exorcism on pregnant woman | Violent ghost appearances, ritual horror | Grief, familial desperation |
| Swallow | 2019 | Carlo Mirabella-Davis | 87% RT | Pregnant woman develops compulsion to eat dangerous objects | Object consumption, extraction scenes | Control, bodily autonomy |
| The Fetus | 2025 | Joe Lam | 7/10 | Rapidly growing fetus emerges to feed on human blood | Practical gore effects, creature emergence | Unwanted pregnancy |
| Mother! | 2017 | Darren Aronofsky | Not mentioned | Woman’s home invaded as pregnancy progresses | Infant cannibalism, extreme chaos | Environmental allegory, violation |
| The Brood | 1979 | David Cronenberg | Not mentioned | Woman’s rage manifests as murderous children | External womb, birthing scenes | Divorce trauma, maternal rage |
| The House on Pine Street | 2015 | Aaron and Austin Keeling | Not mentioned | Pregnant woman experiences haunting in new home | Psychological terror, paranormal activity | Maternal anxiety, isolation |
| Shelley | 2016 | Ali Abbasi | Not mentioned | Surrogate pregnancy turns supernatural | Physical deterioration, evil infant | Surrogate exploitation |
| Immaculate | 2024 | Michael Mohan | Not mentioned | Nun mysteriously pregnant in Italian convent | Religious torture, violent birth scene | Bodily autonomy, religious control |
Conclusion
Pregnancy horror movies tap into primal fears about losing control dealing with change, and facing vulnerability. This list has shown how directors turn the wonder of pregnancy into chilling tales, from twisted births to deep mental struggles. Movies like “When Evil Lurks” and “Huesera” show how much viewers are drawn to these unsettling stories backed by the praise they’ve earned from critics.
Why do these films work so well? They highlight something real. Pregnancy brings not just physical weakness but also a raw instinct to guard a new life. This mix lays the groundwork for both mental and physical horror. On top of that, a lot of these stories push back against the usual ideas of motherhood and explore dark concerns people often avoid mentioning.
Pregnancy horror has developed over decades starting with Cronenberg’s “The Brood” and continuing with newer titles like “Immaculate” and “The Fetus.” These movies may tell their stories , but they all understand how pregnancy can be a unique source of body horror. Some focus on paranormal dangers, while others tackle psychological fears or even actual physical changes.
Thirteen films demonstrate why stories about pregnancy and terror keep drawing in audiences. The feelings of vulnerability losing control, and the invasion of one’s own body connect with viewers even those who haven’t gone through pregnancy themselves. More , these films push us to face uncomfortable realities about how pregnant individuals are treated and the heavy expectations society places on them.
If you love the intense gore in “Inside,” the mental strain in “The House on Pine Street,” or the deeper symbolism in “Mother!,” this type of horror delivers unsettling experiences for all fans of the genre. These movies are set to stick with audiences well past 2025 showing that pregnancy-themed horror keeps its place as one of the most striking parts of cinema.