The first half of the decade has already proven to be a fascinating and profitable era for horror movies, proving to anyone who still needed convincing that our genre is more alive than ever. Horror has been carrying the weight of the rest of cinema on its back, with independent, low-budget fare revitalizing the sluggish box office and making studios excited about investing in new talent. The suits could never have foreseen the dull axe of Art the Clown and his Santa sack full of cold, hard cash. The vision, as it’s always been, lies with the independent filmmaker—and we’re proud to support as many as we can here at Dread.
Despite the social and political chaos of the past five years, horror adapted and thrived, offering audiences a healthy mix of thought-provoking scares and fun, crowd-pleasing thrills. Big-budget movies like Jordan Peele’s Nope blew us away with originality, while Skinamarink and Terrifier 2 turned DIY visions into gigantic box-office wins. Streaming platforms brought gems like Host and Prey right into our living rooms. At the same time, theatrical releases reminded us how great it feels to scream (and occasionally puke) together in a packed theater. With all this in mind, here’s a look at the 20 best horror films of the 2020s.
20. Evil Dead Rise, 2023 (dir Lee Cronin)
The creators of Evil Dead Rise and Warner Brothers, for that matter, fundamentally understand why this series is so infectious. Simply put, it’s because the Deadites actually take pleasure in being the evilest presence on the face of the Earth. The soul-thirsty elation they feel is strangely liberating to watch. The new book of the dead is ecstatic to be out on the city streets instead of screaming through the woods for fresh souls to take over. Some of the images on the pages of flesh haven’t been seen before, and the Necronomicon itself is more than happy to introduce a few new surprises. —Drew Tinnin
19. Host, 2020 (dir. Rob Savage)
It’s rare for a film to not only live up to its reputation and hype but also proudly and confidently leave its mark on both the genre and filmmaking in general, with its ability to tell innovative and captivating stories. The Blair Witch Project, though not the very first found footage film ever created, showed what thinking outside the box can do for the genre, and Host is another film that takes a fresh way of storytelling and gives horror fans the scariest film of the past decade. What a great time to be a horror fan. —Harper Smith
The Menu should tickle the average horror lover’s palette. Each new course/chapter is more bitter and brutal than the next. It will also satisfy anyone who considers themselves a “foodie” in that most of the dark humor peppered through Seth Reiss and Will Tracy’s screenplay comes from playful ribbing of those who hunger for haute cuisine. Nicholas Hoult’s character Tyler, for example, is a hilarious stand-in for every person who has ever privileged the presentation of a plate over the actual food on it. —Emily Gagne
17. Piggy, 2022 (dir. Carlota Pereda)
Carlota Pereda’s brutally beautiful Piggy is like a choice cut wrapped up in blood-stained newspaper. It’s raw, fresh, and dripping with bright, hot red potential. While the middle act of the film feels indecisive and inactive, this satisfying slasher still has a firm grip on the handle of its shovel. Piggy is breaking ground at a rapid pace, and the way this film frames a fat body is both bold and delightful. This visibility warms my heart nearly as much as watching its bullies and bystanders butchered for parts. — Josh Korngut
16. Watcher, 2022 (dir. Chloe Okuno)
Violence and gore are calculated, and Okuno’s less-is-more approach is almost cinema-verité. At times, it feels not like a movie but sequences culled from real-life crime. There are images in Watcher that made me wince, so shocking and sudden in appearance, they were almost nauseating. That is Watcher’s greatest strength. The deliberate pacing and escalating tension will make it difficult for Watcher to be the next breakout horror hit. But I can say with confidence that it is one of Sundance’s scariest premieres. Watcher is coldly, mutedly terrifying. Expertly crafted and chillingly conceived, it’s bound to scare the hell out of its audience. —Chad Collins
15. The Dark and the Wicked, 2o2o (dir. Bryan Bertino)
Playing with the ideas of possession, astral projection, and demonism, the manifestation of the Wicked enjoys toying with those tortured by the past, but it’s never a trickster. Whatever it is, it has no intention of playing around with its subjects, and Bertino doesn’t either. While left somewhat open-ended, it’s done for effect and doesn’t feel underdeveloped. That’s mainly why The Dark and the Wicked lingers; you’re left with tragedy instead of answers. As their father’s nurse says, as she pleads with Michael to believe in the unexplainable, there are so many different kinds of evil, and they all desperately want to come in. —Drew Tinnin
14. I Saw the TV Glow, 2024 (dir. Jane Schoebrun)
When I caught Schoenbrun’s sophomore feature a second time, not only did it resonate more profoundly than before, I was more certain than ever that it is the definitive evocation of nineties nostalgia and latent queer grief. Decidedly trans and wholly unique, I Saw the TV Glow may not follow a traditional narrative structure, and it certainly isn’t conventionally scary, but Schoenbrun imbues so much heart into the beating core of TV Glow, every tragedy, every melting man of ice cream, is dialed up to eleven, impossible to shake. I Saw the TV Glow will have you cheering and reeling, gripping your own heart to combat a kind of nascent, nebulous ache. I’ll never forget it. —
Chad Collins
13. Terrifier 2, 2022 (dir. Damien Leone)
Most viewers will be desperate for more by the time the end credits roll, because most of us simply cannot get enough of Art the Clown. Although the extended mid-credits sequence is hugely enjoyable in its own right, so don’t skip it. FrightFest director Paul McEvoy called Terrifier 2 the “War and Peace of slasher movies” in the intro before the world premiere because of its long runtime, and it could also be described as the ‘Citizen Kane of killer clown movies.” With its strong performances, brutal kills, and laugh-out-loud moments, horror fans simply cannot afford to miss this Art the Clown cinematic outing. —David Gelmini
12. Mad God, 2022 (dir. Phil Tippett)
Everyone who worked on Mad God deserves recognition. Although Tippett Studio is a relatively small team, the puppeteers, compositors, animators, and set builders worked feverishly on this for years. The stagecraft is awe-inspiring and Tippett would be the first one to champion their efforts. This may come solely from the dark crevices of his imagination but bringing this vision into reality took a staggering amount of human hours with very tired but steady hands. —Drew Tinnin
11. Candyman, 2021 (dir. Nia DaCosta)
DaCosta makes some bold stylistic choices. Her use of shadow puppetry to convey the backstory of the Candyman legend, both creepy and surprising, renders the film reminiscent of a dark fairy tale. When she does show the Candyman, it’s usually in reflections and in fleeting glances. That she’s sparing in how and when she chooses to reveal the character adds an effective air of mystery. That’s what a great work of art should do: It should get under your skin and stick with you. And like its predecessor, DaCosta’s sequel does just that. The results are frightening and are sure to keep me thinking in the days to come. —Tyler Doupé
10. Relic, 2020 (dir. Natalie Erika James)
The way Relic takes such deep and heartbreakingly real afflictions and injects them into a horror-based story is such a wonderful thing to watch. The tension grows with every moment and you never quite know where the film is going, in the best of ways. To call Relic a slow-burn horror film feels wrong because it’s not going up a ramp of intensity, little by little; instead, it lives and breathes under your skin, until you’re uncomfortable, not at where the story is going, but with the fact that you know there is no going back from the direction all three women are facing. —Harper Smith
9. His House, 2020 (dir. Remi Weekes)
His House was a sleeper hit that snuck under the radar on Netflix during the pandemic. It is an incredible tale of loss, guilt, and desperation. The film follows a Sudanese couple seeking asylum in the UK. The viewer follows their struggle to assimilate while trying to solve the mystery of what the couple brought with them from home. I HIGHLY recommend this supernatural flick. It is well-paced and well-acted. There’s also a great twist. —Jazzmin Crawley
8. The Sadness, 2021 (dir. Rob Jabbaz)
The infected masses of this nightmare ride become the background for an inevitable showdown. Unleashing pure id onto an unsuspecting population, Rob Jabbaz’s first feature film isn’t afraid to show how everyday conflicts can turn into your worst nightmare. Even the most hardcore horror fans may take issue with some of the abuse on display here. But there’s a sense of release watching this kind of explosive gore. It’s strangely cathartic and reminds us why we’re horror fans in the first place. Depending on what kind of horror fan you are, The Sadness could become your favorite zombie film. —Drew Tinnin
7. Sick, 2022 (dir. John Hyams)
A COVID-19-age slasher might prove a hard sell for modern audiences who seem eager to pretend nothing has changed in the past few years. But part of the scariness of Williamson and Crabb’s script comes from its unflinching approach to the shitstorm we’re all still facing. We’re more isolated and alone than ever. This has the red-hot potential to leave us not only vulnerable to a deadly virus but to potential human killers lurking in the shadow.
What I love most about this movie is how scary it is. It wastes no time over-developing its characters or creating unnecessary misleads. Instead, the horrors of home invasion ramp up quickly and never settle back down until the closing credits. And while it might be hard to categorize it as “fun,” the pace is bullet-quick, and there’s absolutely no fucking around. There is no pretense to the horror here. It’s real and it’s relentless. Sick is a mean and scary slasher that transports you smack dab back into the worst early days of the pandemic, using the vulnerability of that era to isolate and butcher its ensemble cleverly. —Josh Korngut
6. Barbarian, 2022 (dir. Zach Cregger)
Barbarian is a movie made to decimate our expectations and preconceived notions about horror. Cregger shows us just how well he knows the genre and its fans. Come for the mystery; stay for the unpredictable twists and turns because we will be discussing this one for years to come. Perhaps the most unexpected twist of Barbarian is its searing indictment of men’s treatment of women. From the get-go, we occupy Tess’s POV as we stressfully wait for Skarsgard to get violent. Cregger never makes Tess look bad for that assumption but rather carefully follows her as she tries to keep herself safe in a scenario straight out of a lifetime movie. Tess and Keith orbit each other with suspicion, a nightmare plucked from any woman’s lived experience. Campbell shines here as she walks a line between acting badass while also being terrified. —Mary Beth McAndrews
5. Talk to Me, 2023 (dirs. Danny and Michael Philippou)
What I appreciate the most about Talk To Me is the effectiveness and relentlessness of its scares. It’s fun, mean-spirited (in more ways than one), and wholly unpretentious. In a horror landscape that often tries to outthink itself with bloated high concepts, this firecracker of a release is refreshingly straight to the point. The dead stares of malignant ghosts will surprise you with their chilling, lingering gazes. The scariest scene in the film has a vague resemblance to The Further, as seen in Insidious: a glimpse into a putrid, hopeless, and shockingly grotesque afterlife.
It’s a fast-paced, terrifying, and always fun vision of supernatural madness. There’s also a strong sense of confidence and identity in the filmmaking here; it never overthinks or pretends to be what it’s not. And why should it? A freshly grotesque ghost story that provides jaded horror fans with a slew of real scares is all I could ever ask for. —Josh Korngut
4. The Substance, 2024 (dir. Coralie Fargeat)
This is a bloody and bruised takedown of Hollywood’s brutal—and ultimately deadly—beauty standards and their enormous impact on women. But be warned, the ways Fargeat executes her point are absolutely not for the faint of heart. The final act of this film is one of the most shocking and downright stunning theatrical experiences I have ever had the pleasure of enduring. The Substance is a stone-cold classic that will never be forgotten. A putrid and nauseating takedown of Western society’s impossible-to-achieve beauty standards, Coralie Fargeat’s film emerged as the most essential horror movie of its year—an instant classic. —Josh Korngut
3. When Evil Lurks, 2023 (dir. Demián Rugna)
When Evil Lurks drives home a relentless feeling of hopelessness and existential dread. This is a film that is not afraid to kill children or animals, nor does it hide behind God or any religion as its savior. Its demons can appear completely unaffected by evil at times, and the government does not care or is not capable enough to stop the infection before it spreads. Sound familiar? This is a nightmarish reminder that our own professionals cannot shield the general public from Evil and, in the end, the dark forces will inevitably win. Demián Rugna’s When Evil Lurks is one of the most shocking films of the decade. It’s brutal, bleak, and finds joy in its rebuke of solace. It’s a movie that you absolutely need to experience. —Girl, That’s Scary
2. Titane, 2021 (dir. Julia Ducournau)
Writer-director Julia Ducournau’s moving follow-up to Raw is a bold, brash rumination on identity that might make you cry as much as it makes you cringe. Just as viewers were quick to draw parallels between David Cronenberg’s Rabid when Raw came out, there have been comparisons to his Crash after Titane was unleashed on movie-goers—especially given the overtly sexual scene between Rousselle and a show car. But belaboring these comparisons also does a disservice to Titane and to Ducournau’s bold and beautiful filmmaking. Ducournau is not the next Cronenberg… or “the next” whoever you think her work echoes. Titane makes clear that she’s the future of horror personified, crashing through genre norms and gendered expectations to enchant and disgust us in equal measure. —Emily Gagne
1. Nope, 2022 (dir. Jordan Peele)
As a kid, nothing scared me more than aliens. The idea that extraterrestrial beings could be lurking in our skies filled me with so much existential dread. While I’ve since grown out of the fear (mostly), Jordan Peele’s alien Western Nope brought me back to my adolescence, when I would anxiously cower under my covers, looking to the skies in search of UFOs. Nope is perhaps Peele’s most entertaining film. Where Get Out and Us were a bit more cerebral, Nope is Peele’s response to bigger budget science fiction with an emphasis on spectacle above all else. That doesn’t mean Nope is without its own complexities, especially when it comes to interspecies conflict. This is an entertaining, thrilling, and just plain fun Western alien movie that only further solidifies Peele as a modern master of the genre and its many forms. —Mary Beth McAndrews
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