5150 Elm's Way(2009)
2009 · Éric Tessier · 110 min
Yannick moves to a small, quiet town to study cinema. One day when he fell off his bike, he knocked at the door of the Beaulieu residence so he could clean the blood off his hands. But Jacques Beaulieu and his family had other plans for Yannick. Beaulieu is a righteous psychopath and fanatic chess player who wants to rid the world of evil. And even though Ian has done nothing wrong, he is beaten, tortured and tormented before Beaulieu makes him an offer: win at chess and he is free to go. And so Ian is now a pawn in Beaulieu 's game. A game in which he will either lose his mind or his life.
Drama · Horror · Thriller
6.5133 votes
TMDB score
4/5
Intensity
3/5
Gore
4/5
Stays with you
How 5150 Elm's Way scares
It starts small and almost ordinary, a chance knock on a stranger's door, before slowly tightening into a long, grueling captivity that doesn't let up once it locks in. The back half plays out mostly in one house, with the tension building through control, cruelty, and a twisted sense of 'fairness' rather than sudden scares. This is a grounded, human kind of horror, no ghosts or monsters, just a very calm, very dangerous person and someone trapped with him. It's heavy and upsetting more than fun, made for viewers who can handle sustained dread and real physical cruelty rather than jump-scare thrills.
On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, 5150 Elm's Way rates psychological 4/5, visceral 4/5, gore 3/5, lingering effect 4/5, and overall intensity 4/5.
- Psychological: 4 of 5
- Visceral: 4 of 5
- Gore: 3 of 5
- Lingering: 4 of 5
- Intensity: 4 of 5
Slow burn vs Jump scares: 15 of 100 — leans Slow burn
Supernatural vs Real-world: 92 of 100 — leans Real-world
Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 80 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 deceptively calm start gives way to a slow tightening of the screws that turns into a sustained, punishing psychological ordeal with only brief pockets of relief before its heavy final stretch.
Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 5, 3.
How scary is 5150 Elm's Way?
On The Horror Database's 0–5 intensity scale, 5150 Elm's Way rates 4/5 — one of the more punishing watches in the catalog, building its fear through slow-burn dread rather than shocks. It works on both fronts, unsettling the mind while going for the body. Expect it to be moderately gory and genuinely disturbing. Expect it to stay with you for days.
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