12 Great Movies Like A House On The Bayou Every Horror Fan Must See

Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining is a psychologically tight film about a family hired as winter managers of the sprawling Overlook Hotel in snowy Colorado. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a recovering alcoholic and child molester, travels to the hotel with his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and their son Danny (Danny Lloyd). During his interview, Jack learned that the former caretaker lost his mind and murdered his wife and two daughters before taking his own life, but Jack assured the hiring manager that his family would be fine living in isolation.

Although Jack plans to write a novel at the Overlook, the haunted hotel invades the family’s mind and distorts their reality. Jack hallucinates ballroom parties, complete with cocktails, bartenders, and music. Danny, who has psychic abilities, experiences visions from the hotel’s bloody past. Wendy’s life is shaped by the tedium of cooking, cleaning, playing with Danny and watching TV. She teeters on the brink of insanity as Jack pursues her and Danny through the hallways with an axe.

“A House on the Bayou” and “The Shining” both seethe with eerie supernatural energy. In Kubrick’s film, the family wrestles with the hotel’s malevolent energy, while in “AHOTB” the family grapples with two neighbors with supernatural powers. Both films revolve around a family struggling to stay together despite their troubled past, a husband turning against his wife, and two mothers struggling to save themselves and their children’s lives. “The Shining” has fresh ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and is a must for horror fans.

If you or someone you know needs mental health help, please contact the crisis text line by texting HOME to 741741 call National Alliance on Mental Illness Helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.