The 10 scariest horror movies of the last 5 years, ranked [updated]
The 10 scariest horror movies of the last 5 years, ranked [updated]
From Smile to Talk to Me, these are the scariest horror movies of the last 5 years that will leave audiences sleeping with the lights on.
There's a common consensus that horror movies aren't scary anymore, but that's not necessarily true. A lot of the time, many horror movies are either missed, fly under the radar or (thankfully) do end up getting the recognition they deserve. Whether they're acknowledged or not, there do happen to be many horror movies of the modern era that are incredibly scary and leave those who believe that modern horror movies aren't scary eating their words.
Horror comes in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes a film has an abundance of horrific gore, is psychologically bending or just downright disturbing in its visuals and ideas. Regardless of how, a horror film has many ways to be terrifying and all styles and forms of doing so are still utilized today. The last five years of horror have been quite good, and it needs to be acknowledged.
- When Evil Lurks (2023)
- Talk to Me (2023)
- Incantation (2022)
- Roh'/'Soul (2019)
- New Religion (2022)
- Smile (2022)
- The Sadness (2021)
- V/H/S/99 (2022)
- The Dark and the Wicked (2020)
- Good Boy (2022)
edit: since posting they've expanded the list, presumably when someone pointed out some serious omissions:
- Late Night With the Devil (2024)
- Longlegs (2024)
- Relic (2020)
Please note the original link is NOT spoiler free. I was really disappointed since the movie descriptions were great and I was collecting these to watch, but I got to "Good Boy" and it literally has the "big twist" of the movie written out in bold.
Scary is very subjective and I've seen too many horror films to get scared but Longlegs unnerved me, which was quite impressive.
I didn't enjoy Smile and would probably replace it with Barbarian. I'd also probably throw Malignant in - I went in blind and was rather impressed. Train to Busan wouldn't be out of place here either.
Going more mainstream, A Quiet Place (and sequels/prequels) are effective at ratcheting up the tension. So did It.
I've always been too nervous to ask this, but what do people like so much about Malignant? I probably watched it through the wrong lens, but like you, I went in blind.
Without spoilers, I mostly felt bored watching the movie or annoyed by the characters, other parts felt jarring or confusing rather than scary. When the movie reached the end, I was mostly confused and completely taken out of the moment, but then when I realized how everything ties in, my reaction was "well that makes no sense without context or at least stronger allusions!" Maybe I was supposed to think it was clever?
It's completely possible that I just missed something and didn't clue in when I was supposed to or couldn't relate to the characters well enough. With all the praise I hear for Hereditary, I want to be able to enjoy the movie the way everyone else did. I really appreciate any input or opinions.
Scary is subjective. That's why I like to include my benchmark "scary movie," to give others some context.
Event Horizon is my high-water mark.
Barbarian was pretty fucking good, too
I haven't heard of a single one of those movies
Talk To Me and Smile were both pretty big films with quite a lot of publicity and buzz about them.
Some of the others are pretty obscure and more likely reflect the taste of the writer (but, as I said in another post, what makes something scary is subjective).