The Lodge (2019)
If you want a film that feels like a spiritual successor to The Shining's wintry doom, this is it. A soon-to-be stepmother is stranded in a remote cabin with her two skeptical future stepchildren. As a blizzard traps them, a series of disturbing events
blurs the line between a malicious haunting and a complete psychological collapse rooted in past trauma. The sense of place is oppressive, turning the cozy cabin into a pressure cooker of paranoia and grief, much like the Overlook Hotel.
Session 9 (2001)
An asbestos removal crew takes a job at an abandoned mental asylum, and the building itself seems to work on their psyches. This cult classic is a masterclass in atmospheric dread. Instead of a hotel, it's a sprawling, decaying hospital filled with the echoes of misery. The film expertly parallels the asylum's grim history with the protagonist's crumbling mental state, creating a terrifying ambiguity over whether the horror is supernatural or born from real-world stress and guilt.
The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015)
Atmosphere is everything in this slow-burn horror film from director Oz Perkins. Two girls are left behind at their Catholic boarding school during winter break, and a palpable sense of evil begins to permeate the empty, snowbound campus. The film prioritizes mood and a deep, unsettling loneliness over jump scares. Its ambiguous narrative and focus on quiet, creeping dread make it a perfect companion piece for those who appreciate The Shining's more subtle horrors.
Berberian Sound Studio (2012)
This film proves that what you hear can be more terrifying than what you see. A timid British sound engineer, played by Toby Jones, travels to Italy to work on a gruesome 1970s horror film. Trapped in the claustrophobic studio, his reality begins to fray as the violent sounds he’s creating bleed into his own mind. It’s a brilliant exploration of psychological collapse where the workplace becomes a labyrinth, perfectly capturing the theme of a man losing his grip in an isolated, alien environment.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Director Yorgos Lanthimos is often compared to Kubrick for his cold, precise, and unsettling style, and this film is a prime example. A successful surgeon's life is thrown into chaos by a sinister teenager who delivers a curse upon his family. The horror is detached and deeply disturbing, with stilted dialogue and a pervasive sense of dread that mirrors Kubrick's inhuman touch. It explores a family's disintegration under an inexplicable, supernatural-seeming threat, echoing the Torrance family's fate.
Bug (2006)
For a pure, uncut dose of claustrophobic paranoia, look no further than this masterpiece from 'The Exorcist' director William Friedkin. Set almost entirely within a single, seedy motel room, the film follows a lonely woman and a paranoid drifter who become convinced their room is infested with government-planted insects. It’s a harrowing depiction of shared psychosis, where the confined space becomes an incubator for madness, much like the Overlook did for Jack Torrance.
Possession (1981)
If Jack Torrance’s breakdown was a slow burn, Possession is a full-blown explosion. The film uses the dissolution of a marriage in Cold War-era Berlin as a catalyst for a surreal, shrieking descent into madness. Featuring an infamously unhinged performance from Isabelle Adjani, it blends domestic horror with grotesque body horror and doppelgängers. It trades The Shining's isolation for a more internal, operatic insanity, but the core theme of a family unit self-destructing in horrifying fashion remains.
The Night House (2020)
After her husband's unexpected suicide, a grieving widow begins to experience strange phenomena in the lakeside home he built for them. The film brilliantly uses architecture and negative space to create a sense of unease, as she uncovers a disturbing parallel reality he may have been involved in. It’s a compelling blend of ghost story and psychological thriller that, like The Shining, ties a building’s strange properties directly to a character's sanity and grief.
Kill List (2011)
This British thriller starts as a gritty crime story about a hitman struggling with PTSD and spirals into something far more sinister and strange. The protagonist’s mental state is already fragile, and as he takes on a bizarre new contract, his paranoia and violence escalate until the film plunges into full-blown folk horror. The descent from domestic tension into inexplicable, ritualistic madness feels very much in tune with Jack's journey from frustrated writer to axe-wielding servant of the Overlook.
Frailty (2001)
Bill Paxton directed and starred in this criminally underrated Southern Gothic tale. A man walks into an FBI office claiming his brother is a serial killer, and that the murders were commanded by God. The film flashes back to his childhood, where his loving father (Paxton) begins receiving divine visions instructing him and his sons to “destroy” demons disguised as people. It masterfully balances on the edge of ambiguity: is the father a prophet or a psychopath? This central question about the nature of reality and sanity puts it squarely in Shining territory.
