The Haunting of Helena(2013)
2013 · Ascanio Malgarini & Christian Bisceglia · 87 min
After a divorce, Sophia moves to the south of Italy with her daughter, Helena. Their new home, an apartment within an austere building of the fascist age, is a chance for them to start a new life. But inside an old storage room hides a mysterious closet and a buried secret. After the loss of Helena’s first baby tooth, a chilling obsession begins and an apparition haunts her sleep...
Horror · Thriller
5.7166 votes
TMDB score
3/5
Intensity
1/5
Gore
2/5
Stays with you
How scary is The Haunting of Helena?
It starts slow, easing you into a mother-and-daughter drama before letting the haunting creep in bit by bit. The scares build gradually through unsettling dreams and strange happenings rather than constant jolts, with the dread thickening as the story moves toward its buried secret. It leans more into quiet unease and a sad, heavy mood than gore or action, so it's better suited to viewers who like slow-moving ghost stories with an emotional weight to them than those looking for a fast scare ride.
On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, The Haunting of Helena rates psychological 4/5, visceral 2/5, gore 1/5, lingering effect 2/5, and overall intensity 3/5.
- Psychological: 4 of 5
- Visceral: 2 of 5
- Gore: 1 of 5
- Lingering: 2 of 5
- Intensity: 3 of 5
Slow burn vs Jump scares: 30 of 100 — leans Slow burn
Supernatural vs Real-world: 15 of 100 — leans Supernatural
Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 55 of 100 — balanced
Intensity over runtime
Shape only — no eventsReveal pacing shapeHide pacing shapeHidden by default — shows where the tension peaks and lets up.
A slow, quiet build of unease that gradually tightens into a much more frightening and relentless final stretch.
Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5.
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