The 175+ Greatest Horror Films of the 2020s (So Far)

It’s possible for two things to be true at once. One: rankings are largely arbitrary and reductive, fodder for clicks and debate, and so steeped in the subjectivity of a particular moment that they’re easy to dismiss as anything resembling objective truth. Two: they get a lot of clicks, I like reading them, and I like making them. Which brings me to this decade’s edition of the best horror movies. I ranked the 2010s years back, and though we’re not all the way through the 2020s’ run, there are more than enough worthy inclusions here to warrant a full article – one that evolves and grows until the clock strikes 2030. As of this writing, more than 150 films have already earned a spot, and I expect that number to keep growing. I’ll update the list a few times each year so it stays a true reflection of where I land on the best horror of the decade.

I’ll be honest: the last time I did this, it became my most-read article ever, an evergreen rundown of my favorites and what I called the best of the 2010s. I would probably go through and reorder them on a daily basis if the mood struck me but hey, that’s part of the whole exercise of putting proverbial pen to paper (keystrokes to blog posts?): having it etched in ink (online posts) forever. This 2020s edition seeks to carry that thread of certainty (and eventual regret) forward.

In a time of great uncertainty at the cineplexes, horror remains one of the most reliable bets in the business, and one that critics and audiences keep showing up for, which means we horror fans are living through a new golden era filled with an embarrassment of riches. Prestige “elevated horror” sits alongside shlock and camp. Vampires, zombies, werewolves, and every other classic monster share the stage with fresh reinventions that reflect our modern anxities. Some are fun. Some are feel bad. Many are disgusting. There are remakes, reinterpretations, and reimaginings, plus a bevy of voices old and new all trying on the horror genre for size. This list tries to capture every element of horror from this decade, in all its various glory. 

179. UNTIL DAWN (2025)

A perfectly serviceable kitchen sink horror video game movie that never truly takes full advantage of its own live-die-repeat format. A bodega Cabin in the Woods boasting some solid nastiness nevertheless.

178. KNOCK AT THE CABIN (2023)

Four strangers with garden-tool weapons give a vacationing family a choice: kill one of your own or the world ends.

177. SICK (2022)

Kevin Williamson writes a slasher set in April 2020, where the masks and isolation is mandated. And then a killer enters the equation. 

176. SPEAK NO EVIL (2024)

The Danish original was about victims of their own politeness. This is less biting but James McAvoy performance in undeniable. Inferior but nevertheless worthwhile. 

175. THE LAST THING MARY SAW (2021)

Two women in a devout 1840s household are punished for loving each other in this folk slow burn horror, and that punishment summons something not so nice.

174. MĀRAMA (2025)

A Māori woman takes a servant’s post in a remote English manor and finds the house feeding on her culture. Here there be ghosts. 

173. SPONTANEOUS (2020)

High school seniors start exploding, wetly and without warning, in what is a weird mashup of horror and romantic comedy.

172. INFESTED (2023)

A venomous nest of spiders gets loose in a Paris tower block and the building gets quarantined with the tenants inside. Arachnophobics need not apply.

171. MUM, I’M ALIEN PREGNANT (2026)

A Kiwi teen gets knocked up by something extraterrestrial and has to tell her mother. Doesn’t stick every landing, but oozes enough charm, filth, and DIY spirit to earn its midnight slot. Troma and early Peter Jackson fans will delight. 

170. MEN (2022)

Alex Garland’s Kafkaesque gender horror favors allegory and mood over plot, and it’s dense with WTF moments. Rory Kinnear is memorable as a grinning Cheshire Cat of a caretaker.

169. THE MONKEY (2025)

A wind-up toy monkey kills someone at random every time its drum gets struck, which Oz Perkins plays entirely for grisly slapstick. Not Longlegs eerie, but a full-tilt grindhouse descent with its own deranged drum.

168. LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL (2023)

A 1977 late night talk show host books a possessed girl for sweeps week and refuses to cut to commercial. A unique framing device and worthy lead turn from David Dastmalchian.

167. FEAR STREET: 1994, 1978, 1666 (2021)

A Shadyside teen slasher trilogy stitched from every ’90s needle drop and Ghostface riff available, followed by a middle chapter that does Camp Nightwing as straight Friday the 13th pastiche, and a throwback prequel. Basic shlock that would be a tick worse without the admittedly solid gore but a fun enough R.L. Stine ride. 

166. ROCK SPRINGS (2026)

Vera Miao exhumes an 1885 massacre of Chinese miners as a haunting that still has an appetite. Thematically rich, goopy with practical effects, and not every element soars equally high.

165. OLD (2021)

A secluded beach ages everyone on it a year every half hour, so a family lives and dies across one afternoon. Like many late stage M. Night Shamalayan movies, some stuff is great while others aspects are baffling. 

164. MY ANIMAL (2023)

A closeted teenage goalie with a family werewolf curse falls for the new figure skater in a frozen Ontario town. The synth score and cheap production design lend the howling haunt a whiff of after-school special with a haunted twist. 

163. SISSY (2022)

A self-help influencer gets talked into a bachelorette weekend with the childhood friend she lost and the bully who made her lose her. Old wounds resurface, new ones take shape, bodies pile up. 

162. THE BOY BEHIND THE DOOR (2020)

Two kidnapped boys, one trunk, one house, and a rescue attempt that runs the length of the film. A sturdy, tense remix that tips its hat to plenty of greats.

161. LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY (2026)

An Evil Dead-ification of The Mummy story, it’s long but never dull and has enough nastiness to power its runtime. This one didn’t get a fair shake.

160. THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT (2021)

The Warrens take the franchise out of the haunted house and into a courtroom, arguing demonic possession as a murder defense. It forcibly tries to shake you even if Chaves isn’t as competent a director. 

159. ANTEBELLUM (2020)

A modern author wakes on a plantation, and the film spends its runtime holding the reason back. An effective social horror film timed for the Black Lives Matter movement. 

158. FACES OF DEATH (2026)

Goldhaber reboots the mondo shockumentary as a content-moderator thriller, dragging the is-it-real question into the vertical video age. Fun if forgettable, and Barbie Ferreira makes a solid scream queen debut.

157. MAXXXINE (2024)

Maxine survived the Texas farm and is now chasing a B-movie break through the 1985 Video Nasty panic, with the Night Stalker working the same streets. One thing remains certain: Mia Goth is a fucking star.

156. NANNY (2022)

A Senegalese nanny raising a rich couple’s child in Manhattan is visited by West African water spirits while saving to bring her own son over. Plenty going for it, too many balls in the air, and an ending that should hit harder.

155. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: NEXT OF KIN (2021)

A documentary crew visits an Amish-adjacent commune that the franchise’s demon got to first. Proof that you can make a Paranormal Activity movie that doesn’t look like total shit.

154. COMPANION (2025)

A weekend at a lake house where one guest turns out to be a rented robot girlfriend with an adjustable personality setting. Always thought the fembot movie would be hornier.

153. COBWEB (2023)

A boy hears tapping inside his bedroom wall and his parents insist there’s nothing there. Spoiler alert: there is. 

152. SHE DIES TOMORROW (2020)

The certainty that you will die tomorrow spreads from person to person like a mood you catch by standing too close.

151. SEE FOR ME (2021)

A blind former ski racer house-sitting a mansion fends off burglars through an app that puts a stranger’s eyes on her phone camera.

150. THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER (2023)

Dracula eats his way through a cargo ship’s crew across four weeks at sea in this creeper from André Øvredal.

149. MASTER (2022)

A Black dean and a Black freshman at a New England college inherit the same haunting, which may just be the institution itself. Atmospheric but never too scary but Regina Hall is as good as ever. 

148. YOU WON’T BE ALONE (2022)

A 19th century Macedonian shapeshifter kills her way through a village, wearing each body long enough to learn what being human costs. Bride of Frankenstein plus The VVitch by way of Malick, though could be too distant to really connect with for some. 

147. THE BLACK PHONE (2021)

A kidnapped boy takes calls from the killer’s previous victims on a disconnected basement phone. Ethan Hawke creeps in up in a smiley mask. 

146. HELLBENDER (2021)

A mother and daughter live alone on a mountain in a punk two-piece, and the daughter learns the family’s witchcraft runs on eating living things. The music rules and the sound design helps carry it.

145. ALPHA (2025)

Julia Ducournau’s third body horror is a concussive portrait of a family strained by the specter of a deadly virus, equal parts formally ambitious and puzzle-box cerebral. It continues her tradition of bold, esoteric art.

144. FALSE POSITIVE (2021)

A fertility clinic gives a woman the pregnancy she wanted and a doctor who keeps telling her she’s imagining things. Juicy performances (Glazer! Theroux! Brosnan!) and half-baked thoughts on patriarchy versus mommy brain. Half a star for that lasting final image.