10 Horror Movies Pregnant Women Should NEVER Watch

From body horror master David Cronenberg, The Brood explores the dark side of motherhood and how psychology can manifest physically. A man's wife is being treated by a controversial therapist, and as the treatment progresses, strange, deformed children begin to appear, linked to her fits of rage. Cronenberg, going through a difficult divorce himself, channeled his fears into this creepy tale of reproductive horror. The final reveal is one of the most shocking moments in the genre.

David Lynch's feature debut is as mysterious as it is disturbing. At its center is Henry, who struggles with his responsibilities as a new father. His baby, however, is anything but normal: a grotesque, reptilian creature that constantly screams and refuses to eat. Lynch's surreal vision of parenthood and its fears is both fascinating and nightmarish, and the images of the deformed baby are impossible to forget.

The French horror film Inside is nothing less than a total nightmare for expectant mothers. Pregnant Sarah is preparing to give birth the next day when a mysterious woman breaks into her house intending to cut the baby out of her belly. What follows is a relentless and extremely bloody struggle between the two women. The graphic violence and claustrophobic setting make it one of the most intense viewing experiences in horror.

For a film whose premise is a killer baby going on a murder spree right after birth, It's Alive has surprisingly many quiet, subtle moments. Director Larry Cohen was known for weaving social fears into his B-movies, and here he targets parents' fear of their own children. What if your child is born a monster? Would you protect it from the world, or the world from it? The birth scene, with doctors panicking in a dark operating room, is the film's highlight.

It's no surprise Roman Polanski's masterpiece makes this list, since its entire plot revolves around a pregnancy from hell. Mia Farrow shines as the naive Rosemary, who suspects her elderly neighbors are far too interested in her unborn baby. As her pregnancy progresses, she experiences increasing pain and paranormal events. The dream sequence in which she's assaulted by the devil while her neighbors and husband watch is still as disturbing today.

Pregnant women would do well to avoid body horror altogether, especially when David Cronenberg is directing. Most viewers remember the gruesome transformation of Jeff Goldblum's scientist Seth Brundle after he accidentally merges his DNA with a fly. But one of the most disturbing scenes shows his girlfriend Veronica (Geena Davis) dreaming that she gives birth to a giant, writhing maggot.

Best described as 'Rosemary's Baby meets Paranormal Activity', this found-footage film mostly covers familiar ground with its demonic events and shaky camera work. But one scene is genuinely terrifying: as expectant mother Samantha naps on the couch, the baby in her belly starts moving in ways that are anything but normal, grotesquely distorting her stomach as a conveniently placed camera captures it all.

Long before he went to Middle-earth, Peter Jackson made his name with absurd horror comedies in his native New Zealand. In Braindead (released in North America as Dead Alive), mama's boy Lionel tries to contain a zombie outbreak after his domineering mother is bitten by a 'rat monkey'. When a zombie priest and nurse get intimate, the result is a disturbing rubber zombie baby causing chaos. The film ends with Lionel being reabsorbed into the womb of his giant zombie mother before cutting his way out.

Ridley Scott's return to the Alien franchise wasn't the sequel fans had hoped for, but he proved he still had a talent for terrifying alien pregnancy moments. When Noomi Rapace's character discovers she's carrying something alien, she uses the ship's med-pod for an emergency procedure. The machine is calibrated for men, and what's growing inside her isn't human. The robotic caesarean that follows is one of the most intense scenes in the franchise.

After a horrific car accident kills her husband and the child she's carrying, young mother-to-be Madeline vows to carry the baby to term anyway. The stillbirth scene is hard to watch, but everything changes when the baby miraculously starts feeding. As you'd expect from a horror film, not everything is what it seems, and little Grace soon develops a hunger for more than milk. An effective, restrained horror film that will make any expectant mother shudder.