Alpha(2025)
2025 · Julia Ducournau · 128 min
Alpha, a troubled 13-year-old lives with her single mom. Their world collapses the day she returns from school with a tattoo on her arm.
Horror · Drama · Science Fiction
6.2136 votes
TMDB score
4/5
Intensity
3/5
Gore
5/5
Stays with you
How Alpha scares
It sits heavy on your chest rather than making you jump, building a slow, aching dread around a body falling apart and a family falling apart with it. The pace is patient and often quiet, more like a sad art film than a horror ride, letting discomfort creep in through small, disturbing details instead of shocks. This is grounded, human horror about illness and love, not monsters or ghosts, and it leans hard into sorrow and unease rather than fun scares. Go in ready for something that sticks with you and unsettles you long after, not something you watch for a thrill.
On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, Alpha rates psychological 5/5, visceral 3/5, gore 3/5, lingering effect 5/5, and overall intensity 4/5.
- Psychological: 5 of 5
- Visceral: 3 of 5
- Gore: 3 of 5
- Lingering: 5 of 5
- Intensity: 4 of 5
Slow burn vs Jump scares: 10 of 100 — leans Slow burn
Supernatural vs Real-world: 85 of 100 — leans Real-world
Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 85 of 100 — leans Disturbing
Intensity over runtime
Shape only — no eventsReveal pacing shapeHide pacing shapeHidden by default — shows where the tension peaks and lets up.
A slow, aching build of unease with body-horror jolts scattered throughout, thickening into a heavier, more intense final stretch rather than one big climax.
Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3.
How scary is Alpha?
On The Horror Database's 0–5 intensity scale, Alpha rates 4/5 — one of the more punishing watches in the catalog, building its fear through slow-burn dread rather than shocks. The fear is mostly in your head — it unsettles far more than it assaults. Expect it to be moderately gory and genuinely disturbing. Expect it to stay with you for days.
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