While some may bemoan the lack of variety when it comes to action blockbusters of late, the horror genre has been thriving in recent years. Though the 2020s is still a relatively young decade, the years spanning 2020 to 2023 have already seen many great horror movies get released, with filmmakers exploring the genre in new and creative ways, finding interesting approaches to scaring, unsettling, and thrilling viewers.
What follows can only be viewed as a work in progress, given the decade won’t be over until 2029, but nonetheless, these movies represent the best of the horror genre in the 2020s so far. Those who want modern films that are horrifying and disturbing might find the following titles worth exploring, with these contemporary horror films (and potential future classics) being ranked below from good to great.
25 ‘Infinity Pool’ (2023)
While David Cronenberg remains a noteworthy filmmaker within the horror genre, his son, Brandon Cronenberg, has also risen to prominence as a director in recent years. His latest film, Infinity Pool, is a truly alarming piece of horror, centering on a vacation at an island resort that takes a dark, twisted, and unpredictable turn.
It’s got stomach-churning horror mixed in with some very unsettling science fiction themes, which ensures Infinity Pool ends up as a disturbing and memorable film. It also features one of Mia Goth’s best (and most committed) performances to date, with this being far from the only great horror movie she’s appeared in recently.
24 ‘You Won’t Be Alone’ (2022)
Set in Macedonia during the 1800s, You Won’t Be Alone is an effectively unsettling blend of fantasy and horror. Its story revolves around witchcraft and shape-shifting, with the basic premise involving a young girl who’s transformed into a witch, and then what happens when this young girl tries to integrate into life in a nearby village.
It goes a good deal deeper than that, though, offering things that you might not expect to see in a horror movie based around witchcraft. It succeeds largely because of its strange and unpredictable story, and its very bold visuals, the latter of which makes You Won’t Be Alone as entrancing as it is scary.
23 ‘M3GAN’ (2022)
Unsettling dolls will always be a reliable source of horror, and this is a fact that M3GAN understands well. Its title character is a doll powered by AI to make her more realistic and able to bond with her owner, yet things become complicated when the doll becomes too protective of the young girl she’s paired with.
As a horror movie, it’s probably on the goofier side of things, and isn’t too traumatic as a result, thanks to having some self-aware humor and a somewhat comedic tone. It might not offer too many surprises, but it certainly provides enough of a spin on doll-related horror to provide some decent entertainment value.
22 ‘Men’ (2022)
Men was a movie that unsurprisingly divided audiences upon release, largely thanks to its slow pace, unusual creative decisions, and bizarre ending. It starts off steadily enough, centering on a young woman who goes and stays in the countryside to emotionally recover after a personal tragedy, only to experience some truly strange things while on her own in an unfamiliar locale.
Alex Garland’s a director probably best known for his science fiction works, but 2018’s Annihilation took on sci-fi themes and horror elements in equal measure, and then 2022’s Men sees a further step into the horror genre. It’s an uneasy and unusual film, unlikely to be for everyone, though it’s bold enough to make it recommendable to horror fans.
21 ‘Censor’ (2021)
The set-up for Censor is already disturbing enough, as it follows a protagonist named Enid whose job at the British Board of Film Classification involves looking over alarming films and footage. But this is a horror movie, so things naturally get worse at a point, with Enid coming across one film that feels reminiscent of an unsettling childhood memory.
It’s a psychological horror film that sees its protagonist’s mind unravel as she revisits a dark chapter in her past, with things revolving around her disappeared sister. Censor’s a very direct movie, clocking in at just 84 minutes, but proves to be effectively scary and undeniably unnerving throughout.
20 ‘The Black Phone’ (2021)
Scott Derrickson’s a filmmaker best known for his horror movies, though directing 2016’s Doctor Strange did mix things up a bit for the director. He returned to horror in a big way with The Black Phone, which is a frightening and tense thriller about a young boy who’s kidnapped, and then finds himself able to communicate with his kidnapper’s past (now deceased) victims.
It uses a confined setting well, The Black Phone’s simplicity also ends up being one of its greatest strengths, with it ultimately being a film about a desperate fight to stay alive. It’s also notable for giving Ethan Hawke what might be his most strikingly villainous performance yet, as he plays the kidnapper here scarily well.
19 ‘Possessor’ (2020)
Three years before Infinity Pool, Brandon Cronenberg shocked and alarmed horror fans with the queasy Possessor. If it’s not the most shocking horror movie of the 2020s so far, then it has to be right up there, pulling no punches content-wise while telling a story about identity, assassinations, and mind control.
It’s uncompromising in a way that feels as though Brandon Cronenberg is trying to outdo his father, David Cronenberg. He might well be successful here, because Possessor goes to places with its violent and sexual content that very few other movies lately, making it one of the most daring works of horror in recent memory.
18 ‘Swallow’ (2020)
Swallow technically premiered in 2019 at the Tribeca Film Festival, but wasn’t widely distributed until early 2020. Put simply, it’s a psychological horror/thriller movie about a pregnant woman who finds herself strangely compelled to eat various inedible objects, with this putting her in danger and placing a strain on her family life.
It uses this strange premise to explore serious themes around trauma and mental illness, all of which makes it constantly tense throughout. It’s a difficult and despairing movie at times, but those qualities apply to a good many effective horror movies, so depending on what you’re looking for, it’s arguably more of a blessing than a curse when it comes to Swallow.
17 ‘Titane’ (2021)
Not only was Titane a horror movie that debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, it also won the top prize at the festival in 2021: the Palme d’Or. It’s about a woman who has a very strange connection to cars (to put it one way), and what happens to her after she goes on the run following an alarming crime spree.
It’s a movie that takes all sorts of strange twists and turns as it goes along, feeling like the sort of movie that could end up at any strange destination it feels like. This makes the experience of watching Titane as thrilling as it is nauseating, with this being an overall extreme horror movie that takes no prisoners while showing viewers things they may not exactly want to witness.
16 ‘Smile’ (2022)
After building anticipation thanks to some inventive marketing, Smile released to fairly strong reviews and success at the box office. It’s about a therapist who’s haunted by the death of one of her patients, and finds herself experiencing increasingly unsettling things in the wake of this tragedy.
It manages to combine psychological horror with supernatural elements to great effect, making for an engaging horror movie that builds well over its runtime. Though it might not reinvent the genre by any means, it offers a good amount of scares and, like many horror films lately, also effectively explores themes surrounding trauma and mental illness.
15 ‘The Invisible Man’ (2020)
2020’s The Invisible Man is quite different from the classic Universal series with which it shares a name. Older movies based around The Invisible Man were goofier and often functioned as comedies, but this modern take on the premise of a man who – to no one’s surprise – is invisible proves to be much more intense.
It’s about an abusive man who fakes his death and then uses powers of invisibility to stalk and torment his ex-partner. The idea of someone being out to get you while remaining unseen is inherently frightening, and even if this is the main source of horror found in The Invisible Man, it does thankfully function as something that sustains an entire film.
14 ‘Prey’ (2022)
Continuing the iconic and action-packed Predator series in a novel way, Prey takes a familiar foe back to the distant past in a very successful way. It sees a member of the Predator species appear in the early 1700s, and centers on a Comanche warrior named Naru who encounters the alien, leading to an intense and extended one-on-one battle/fight for survival.
Thanks to having a new setting and approach to the series, Prey inevitably breathes new life into the Predatorfranchise and stands as easily the best film within it since the 1987 original. It might be more of an action/thriller film than a horror film, but it still manages to be tense and exciting in parts, and is overall very entertaining.
13 ‘The Empty Man’ (2020)
The titular Empty Man is an urban legend within the world of The Empty Man, and a figure who’s said to be behind the disappearances of various teenagers in a small town. The film becomes about a cop trying to solve this series of disappearances, with things becoming more unsettling once it seems likely that something supernatural is indeed involved.
It’s ambitious with its blend of mystery, horror, and thriller elements, and ends up being surprisingly long, at 137 minutes. But it largely stays compelling throughout, and is atmospheric and eerie enough to make it qualify as one of the more underrated horror movies in recent years.
12 ‘Host’ (2020)
When the COVID-19 Pandemic was underway, plenty of movies were put on hold due to lockdown restrictions and quarantine measures. It was during these early days of COVID that filmmakers had to find novel ways to make films, if they didn’t want to wait for restrictions to end, which helped give birth to inventive movies like Host.
The entire movie takes place on a computer screen, with various friends holding a séance over Zoom, and then realizing that doing so has put them all in danger. It turns limitations into strengths, and while its presentation and premise might be limited, it’s creative and novel enough to make for an engaging watch (the brief runtime of just 57 minutes also helps).
11 ‘Freaky’ (2020)
Freaky Friday was originally a children’s novel about a mother and daughter who find themselves having switched bodies one day, with this story having several film adaptations (arguably the most well-known was from 2003). Freaky takes some inspiration from this story, given it’s about a serial killer and a teenage girl switching bodies.
It’s obviously a lot more violent as a result, but it balances all the bloodshed and murder with a good amount of comedy quite successfully. It takes the whole body-swap genre (if it can be called a genre) to some new, interesting places, and overall executes its somewhat ridiculous premise with an admirable level of confidence.
10 ‘Beau Is Afraid’ (2023)
Ari Aster broke out in a big way in 2018, thanks to the release of the traumatic family drama/demonic possession movie that was Hereditary. 2019’s Midsommar might also rank among the best horror movies of the 2010s, but come 2023, Aster directed a completely different kind of film heavy on trauma and general unpleasantness: Beau Is Afraid.
It’s hard to summarize Beau Is Afraid succinctly, given it’s three hours long and indulges in being unpredictable and all over the place. It is effective at feeling like one extended nightmare or fever dream alongside also being darkly funny and something of an adventure film. For better or worse, there’s not really much else out there like it.
9 ‘Talk to Me’ (2022)
Talk to Me is another modern horror movie that understands how grief and trauma can be just as scary – or perhaps even scarier – than anything supernatural. It follows a group of young people who take part in a party game that apparently lets people communicate with the dead, but given this is a horror movie, certain rules are disobeyed, and anarchy follows.
It’s got an incredibly fast pace and a premise that’s able to instantly hook you as a viewer, refusing to let go until the end credits roll. It’s genuinely creepy and balances the supernatural horror with the more grounded, dramatic side of things well, all adding up to make Talk to Me one of the better horror films in recent memory.
8 ‘Crimes of the Future’ (2022)
The title for Crimes of the Future is particularly accurate, as it does indeed take place in the future, and narratively, it unfolds a bit like a film noir/old crime movie, too. It’s overwhelming and also subdued in equal measure, taking place in a world filled with so many mutations and transformations that human behavior now seems largely unrecognizable from how things are today.
The plot takes several strange turns throughout, with things sort of revolving around art, the proposed next stage of human evolution, and some larger conspiracy. It’s all very weird and filled with the body horror you’d expect from a David Cronenberg horror movie, showing he still has what it takes to compete with his son’s recent movies, like Possessor and Infinity Pool.
7 ‘Pearl’ (2022)
Though Pearl is a prequel to another Ti West-directed and Mia Goth-starring 2022 horror movie, it’s able to be enjoyed with or without that context. It’s set during 1918, and more or less centers on its titular character’s troubled family life and struggles with repressed feelings, as well as her deep desire to one day be a star.
When things don’t necessarily go the way Pearl hoped they would go, bad things start happening and the film eventually becomes a horror movie. Earlier in the film, it’s more of a character study/drama, with the title character’s downfall being quite tragic and upsetting while also serving to explain why she is the way she is in the previously-released X.
6 ‘Barbarian’ (2022)
With a story that begins one way, shifts dramatically into something else after the first act, and then does another dramatic shift later on, Barbarian feels like the kind of movie where the less that’s described plot-wise, the better. It involves a double-booked Airbnb, a house that contains some unusual secrets, and various people who might not be what they initially seem.
As a horror movie, it’s not quite one of the scariest out there, but it might well be up there with the most fun. It emphasizes thrilling entertainment and some pitch-black humor over copious scares, but it can certainly be unsettling and eerie when it needs to be. Barbarian’s just overall a very good time, and movies with plenty of sharp twists and turns pulled off successfully should always be celebrated.
