The Harvest

In his first film in nearly 15 years, the director of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer harks back to the depravity that made his 1986 debut a horror milestone. Equally terrifying, but less based in reality, The Harvest is closer to a fairy tale from Grimm's darkest nightmares.

Maryann (an impressive Natasha Calis, The Possession) moves in with her grandparents after she's orphaned. Desperately lonely, the preteen sets out to befriend a deathly ill, bed-ridden boy (Charlie Tahan, Gotham), despite the outright disapproval of his mother (Samantha Morton, Minority Report, Sweet and Lowdown). Maryann's persistence pays off, however, and during a series of secret visits she gradually uncovers some seriously sinister goings-on in the house...

Morton's performance as the boy's overprotective surgeon mom is the stuff of great screen villainy — at once utterly monstrous and tragically desperate — so much so that she makes even frequent heavy Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire, Man of Steel), as the more subdued dad, pale in comparison.