The 12 scariest horror movies of the 2020s

Featuring missing children and people-eating aliens, here's the best of the genre in the decade to date

Weapons is the second feature by director Zach Cregger after Barbarians. Photo: Warner Bros

Want to see the future of film? Look to the horror genre. While some corners of Hollywood feel stuck in the past, with the same old directors making the same sorts of movies year after year, scary movies are experiencing a genuinely thrilling moment. Young filmmakers worldwide are turning in bold and inventive work, and even with small budgets and little marketing, audiences are turning out in droves.

And with Halloween just more than two months away and many of us searching for a good scare towards the end of summer, here are 12 of the best and most frightening films that have come out this decade, from underrated chillers to terrifying blockbuster hits.

Weapons (2025)

One night in a small town, at 2.17am, 17 children run away from their homes and are never seen again. Weapons, the second film from Zach Cregger, is the story of what happens next – blending elements of Stephen King's It, Hirokazu Kore-eda's Monster and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure.

Operating in a mystery-box format as we jump between character perspectives to figure out what really happened, Weapons executes its scares first through our fear of the unknown, punctuated with the unnerving creepiness with the security footage of the children running from their home. It then pays off that unease with shocking, violent moments when the danger gets closer, and the answers begin to unfold.

The film is a big box office hit so far – and while Jordan Peele may not have fired his team after they lost the bidding war, its success virtually guarantees that the story will become myth.

While it may not be wholly original, what makes this different from its influences, of course, is Cregger's sense of humour, and while it may be a funnier film than Barbarian, it may not be a scarier one.

Oddity (2024)

Oddity, an Irish horror film, is a ghost story murder mystery and monster movie all at once. Photo: Keeper Pictures

It's not just that Oddity is scary – it's how many different ways that the film finds to terrify you that's most impressive. The tension begins with a knock at the door. A young woman awaiting her husband's return is greeted by a strange man who has come to warn her that she is not alone. He's a patient of her husband's, he says, and while he may have been stalking her, he now only has her safety in mind. Is there danger lurking behind her? Or is the man the danger?

You don't immediately find out. The film cuts forward in time months after the woman's death, introducing you to her sister who runs a shop that sells supernatural oddities, herself determined to figure out what happened. It's a ghost story, a murder mystery and a monster movie all in one, with the duelling tones leaving you unsure where it may go next from beginning to end.

Longlegs (2024)

Longlegs, which stars Maika Monroe as Agent Lee Harker, is a police procedural that becomes a supernatural thriller. Photo: Neon

Early on, Longlegs feels like it will coast along as a riff on Silence of the Lambs. In it, a young detective pursues a serial killer in a case that slowly starts consuming her life. But while it starts more eerie than scary, Nicolas Cage's unforgettable turn as the titular killer brings the film to another level, delivering goosebumps in the truckload, and adding an unexpected supernatural element as well.

The film's outsized success has cemented Osgood Perkins, son of the late Psycho star Anthony Perkins, as one of the genre's new pillars, and his next film The Monkey is already one of next year's most anticipated.

Barbarian (2022)

Georgina Campbell in Barbarian. Photo: 20th Century Studios

Horror comedies have been around since the early days of film, but in almost every case, the moment humour is introduced, the horror dissipates entirely. Barbarian, the directorial debut of former sketch comedian Cregger, somehow manages both.

It begins with two strangers forced to share an Airbnb, and just when their night couldn't get any worse, the film cuts to actor Justin Long singing like a fool, and a new thread begins. Fiendishly clever in twists and turns through both plot and tone, this is a singular film that lingers long after it ends.

Host (2020)

Hayley Bishop in Rob Savage's Host. Photo: Shudder

When global lockdowns began during the pandemic in 2020, people worldwide pledged that they would use that time to create their masterpiece. Director Rob Savage may have been the first person to achieve that goal.

Host, his screenlife film documenting a video call among friends who decide to hold a virtual ceremony to contact the dead, is simple in concept, but terrifyingly effective in execution. A product of its time, sure, but one that is worth revisiting even as lockdown memories begin to fade.

Anything for Jackson (2020)

A still from the film Anything for Jackson. Photo: Shudder

Of all of the films on this list, Anything for Jackson is the one that has flown most deeply under the radar, moving straight to the boutique horror streaming service Shudder after a small festival tour. But if you give it a shot, you'll most likely be hooked from the opening scene.

In it, a seemingly normal elderly couple are mourning the loss of their grandson. But while they may be easygoing in their demeanour, they secretly worship darker forces, determined to find a vessel that could bring their beloved progeny back from the dead. And while it could easily have veered into familiar and gory territory, the film has a restrained take that allows an unsettling feeling to take hold instead.

Nope (2022)

A still from Jordan Peele's Nope. Photo: Universal Pictures

Nope, Jordan Peele's third film, is perhaps both his best and most perplexing. It's about many things: aliens, paranoia, grief, poverty, all wrapped in the general anxiety in modern-day America. But most importantly, this is about the human obsession with spectacle and the subsequent exploitation of it for monetary gain. It's even a commentary on the history of cinema, and how everything can be sacrificed for the sake of that one perfect shot.

What makes Nope scary, apart from the obvious alien presence that literally looms large over the characters, is the fact that many of us are not much different. We as humans are drawn to darkness, no matter how gruesome. And facing that is a deeply unsettling truth.

Talk to Me (2022)

A still from the film Talk to Me by Danny and Michael Philippou. Photo: Sundance Institute.

Sometimes you never know where the best horror talent will get their start. In 2022, a giggling pair of YouTuber twin brothers from Australia named Danny and Michael Philippou somehow gave the world one of the scariest films in recent memory.

Following a group of young people who contact the dead by holding hands with a mysterious porcelain statue, it quickly becomes a moving exploration of grief. And while it often relies on jump scares, it uses them well, and the truly scary moments are psychological rather than simple shocks.

Bring Her Back (2025)

Jonah Wren Phillips as Oliver and Sally Hawkins as Laura in Bring Her Back. Photo: CTMG

The second film by the Philippou brothers may be better than the first. And while Bring Her Back is a deceptively kinder-hearted film than its predecessor Talk to Me – offering us characters who feel fresh, real and impossible not to root for – it's all the more terrifying for it, as our emotional investment makes every brutal twist and turn even harder to bear.

The film follows two siblings who are forced to enter foster care after the death of their father – and find themselves in the home of a woman who is thrilled at how much the younger sister resembles her own dead daughter. Not for the squeamish, this two-hour film will make you more anxious than any other film on this list, without ever feeling cheap or exploitative.

Late Night with the Devil (2023)

David Dastmalchian stars in Late Night with the Devil, a period film that is ostensibly a lost episode of an old television show. Photo: Image Nation

Starring David Dastmalchian, Late Night with the Devil shows the downfall of a late-night talk show host whose ratings drop so he must resort to cheap tactics such as a Halloween episode in which he hosts a cast of guests that attempt to communicate with the dead.

The whole film is presented like a lost episode, in which we see both the show and the behind-the-scenes happenings, with every passing segment building up to an incredible crescendo. The scariest thing about the film is how it lulls you into the sense that you’re watching a real true crime documentary, hoping you would forget that it’s a horror film at all. If it works on you, then you’re in for a thrill ride that will get under your skin.

The Empty Man (2020)

Directed by David Prior, a regular collaborator of filmmaker David Fincher, The Empty Man is unlike any other horror movie in recent years. It dances between genres and explores familiar themes – spooky cults, disappearances, murder and supernatural beings – but it does it all with a singular vibe that hooks it all together. Something feels off from the start, and that unease doesn't dissipate until the twist ending.

Speak No Evil (2022)

A still from the Danish film Speak No Evil. Photo: Nordisk Film

The 2024 remake of Speak No Evil starring James McAvoy received rave reviews upon release, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the Danish original from 2022. Some films are scary because of a lurking unknown force of evil like a ghost or monster, others are scary because of the prospect of being the victim of a serial killer.

Speak No Evil’s horror is found in social awkwardness. In it, a meek and polite family become prisoners of an abrasive and straight-talking couple. And it happens not by force or persuasion, but just merely to avoid an uncomfortable confrontation.

Even if you've seen the new version, give this one a shot. It may start the same, but the last 20 minutes, completely changed in the remake, will leave you cowering behind the sofa.

A version of this story was first published in October 2024