Best Horror of the 2020s (So Far)

The 2020s have already cemented themselves as one of horror’s most adventurous decades. Filmmakers are bending the genre into new shapes, merging social realism with the supernatural, turning trauma into literal monsters, and reviving classic subgenres with modern anxieties baked in. Halfway through the decade, it’s striking how many films already feel definitive, not just memorable.

Below are some of the standout horror films of the 2020s so far, each one pushing fear in a different direction, and each absolutely worth your time.

The Substance (2024)

Runtime: 141 minutes

Director: Coralie Fargeat

Writer: Coralie Fargeat

Stars: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid

Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading television icon, is offered a miracle: a mysterious substance that creates a younger, more perfect version of herself named Sue. The catch is brutal in its simplicity: the two must share one body, alternating control every seven days. At first, the arrangement seems manageable, even empowering, but the rigid rules soon begin to fracture under human desire and insecurity.

As Elisabeth and Sue start bending the system, the film descends into grotesque, confrontational body horror. Flesh mutates, identities blur, and the promise of eternal youth becomes a violent curse. Fargeat blends surreal visuals, pitch-black satire, and visceral physical horror to expose how society commodifies beauty and discards women the moment they age out of relevance.

Personal Take: This is one of the most fearless body-horror films of the century, confrontational, funny, and genuinely disturbing. Demi Moore’s performance feels like a career reckoning, while Margaret Qualley embodies the seductive horror of “perfection.” The Substance doesn’t just shock; it accuses, daring the audience to sit with its ugliness and recognize the systems that create it.

His House (2020)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Director: Remi Weekes

Writers: Remi Weekes, Felicity Evans, Toby Venables

Stars: Wunmi Mosaku, Sope Dirisu, Matt Smith

Bol and Rial, refugees from South Sudan, are resettled in a dilapidated house in England after surviving a harrowing journey. As they struggle to adapt to their new environment, facing hostility, isolation, and cultural displacement, strange occurrences begin to plague their home. What initially appears to be a classic haunted-house scenario slowly reveals deeper, more personal horrors.

The film’s supernatural elements are inseparable from the couple’s trauma and guilt. The haunting isn’t just external; it’s rooted in memories of war, survival, and impossible moral choices. The house becomes a physical manifestation of unresolved pain, where ghosts are inseparable from the past they’re trying to escape.

Personal Take: His House is devastating in the best way. It’s a rare horror film where the emotional weight hits harder than the scares, and yet the scares still land. By the end, the film reframes the entire genre, proving that ghosts don’t need to come from folklore; sometimes they come from history, memory, and survival itself.

The Invisible Man (2020)

Runtime: 124 minutes

Director: Leigh Whannell

Writer: Leigh Whannell

Stars: Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid

Cecilia escapes an abusive relationship with a wealthy scientist, only to learn that he has allegedly taken his own life. Soon after, she becomes convinced that he’s still alive stalking her while completely invisible. As unexplained events escalate, Cecilia’s warnings are dismissed, reinforcing her isolation and fear.

Whannell reimagines the classic Universal monster as a modern psychological nightmare. The invisibility isn’t just a gimmick; it’s a metaphor for gaslighting, control, and how victims are systematically disbelieved. Carefully framed empty spaces and long, quiet takes create unbearable tension, making the unseen presence feel omnipresent.

Personal Take: This is one of the smartest mainstream horror films of the decade. Elisabeth Moss gives a raw, exhausting performance that grounds the high-concept premise in emotional reality. The Invisible Man understands that the scariest monsters are often the ones society refuses to see.

X (2022)

Runtime: 105 minutes

Director: Ti West

Writer: Ti West

Stars: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson

In 1979, a group of young filmmakers travels to rural Texas to secretly shoot an adult film on a secluded property. Their elderly hosts seem harmless at first, but as night falls, desire, repression, and resentment boil over into brutal violence. What begins as a retro-styled slasher quickly reveals sharper thematic edges.

X uses sex, aging, and voyeurism as its thematic backbone, flipping moral judgments back onto the audience. West’s direction lovingly recreates grindhouse aesthetics while letting dread creep in gradually, turning the familiar slasher setup into something meaner and more reflective.

Personal Take: This is slasher horror done right stylish, self-aware, and deeply uncomfortable. Mia Goth steals the show in dual roles, and the film’s subtext about aging and desire gives it a surprising emotional bite. It’s both a love letter to exploitation cinema and a critique of it.

Pearl (2022)

Runtime: 102 minutes

Director: Ti West

Writers: Ti West, Mia Goth

Stars: Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright

Set in 1918, Pearl follows a young woman trapped on a rural Texas farm, suffocating under responsibility, isolation, and unfulfilled dreams of stardom. As the world reels from war and influenza, Pearl’s longing for recognition curdles into obsession, jealousy, and violence.

Unlike X, this prequel leans heavily into character study rather than body count. Shot in vibrant, almost Technicolor-inspired hues, the film contrasts its bright visuals with a growing psychological rot. Pearl’s descent is slow, intimate, and tragically human.

Personal Take: Mia Goth’s performance here is astonishing, unhinged, vulnerable, and unforgettable. Pearl feels less like a slasher and more like a warped character drama, showing how ambition, repression, and loneliness can be just as monstrous as any killer. That final monologue alone earns its place in horror history.

Prey (2022)

Runtime: 100 minutes

Director: Dan Trachtenberg

Writers: Patrick Aison (story by Patrick Aison & Dan Trachtenberg)

Stars: Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Dane DiLiegro

Set in 1719 on the Northern Great Plains, Prey follows Naru, a young Comanche woman determined to prove herself as a capable hunter and protector of her people. When an unknown threat begins stalking the land, she realizes the danger is far beyond anything she has faced, an alien predator using advanced technology to hunt the most dangerous prey it can find.

Stripping the franchise back to its primal roots, the film emphasizes survival, intelligence, and endurance over spectacle. By grounding the story in historical context and Indigenous perspective, Prey reframes the Predator mythos as a brutal test of skill rather than muscle. Every encounter feels tense, methodical, and earned.

Personal Take: This is the strongest Predator film since the original. Amber Midthunder delivers a phenomenal lead performance, and the stripped-down survival approach makes every moment crackle with tension. It’s proof that franchise horror works best when it goes backward instead of bigger back to fear, ingenuity, and raw survival.

Talk to Me (2022)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directors: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou

Writers: Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman

Stars: Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird

A group of teenagers discovers that holding an embalmed hand and saying “Talk to me” allows them to communicate with the dead. What begins as a dangerous party trick quickly spirals into obsession as the line between thrill-seeking and possession blurs. The rules are simple and devastating when broken.

Rather than leaning on mythology-heavy exposition, Talk to Me treats possession like a social contagion. Spirits latch onto vulnerability, grief, and peer pressure, turning moments of connection into horrifying loss of control. The film’s relentless pacing and unflinching violence make the supernatural feel immediate and invasive.

Personal Take: I saw this in theaters multiple times and it hit every time. It’s raw, mean, and emotionally devastating in ways possession films rarely are. The Philippou brothers understand how horror spreads through people, not places, making Talk to Me one of the defining horror films of the decade.

Speak No Evil (2022)

Runtime: 97 minutes

Director: Christian Tafdrup

Writers: Christian Tafdrup, Mads Tafdrup

Stars: Morten Burian, Sidsel Siem Koch, Fedja van Huêt

Two families meet while vacationing and later reunite for a weekend getaway that slowly becomes suffocating and wrong. What starts as mild discomfort, passive-aggressive comments, boundary violations, awkward politeness, escalates into something far darker as social niceties prevent confrontation.

The horror here isn’t sudden or supernatural; it’s procedural and excruciating. Every moment builds on the last, showing how cruelty can hide behind manners and how silence becomes complicity. By the time the film reaches its conclusion, the tension has transformed into pure dread.

Personal Take: This is one of the most upsetting horror films I’ve seen, not because of gore, but because of recognition. It weaponizes politeness and social conditioning in a way that feels brutally honest. The American remake is solid, but the original cuts deeper and lingers longer.

Sinners (2025)

Runtime: 134 minutes

Director: Ryan Coogler

Writer: Ryan Coogler

Stars: Michael B. Jordan (dual role), Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo

Twin brothers return to their Southern hometown, only to find it steeped in ancient myth and supernatural corruption. As their past resurfaces, so does a vampire legend intertwined with history, faith, music, and generational trauma. The film blends folklore with period atmosphere, building toward something epic and operatic.

Rather than playing vampires as sleek predators, Sinners roots its horror in cultural memory and bloodline curses. Music, dance, and ritual become conduits for both joy and terror, creating a film that feels alive with history and spiritual unease.

Personal Take: This is genre filmmaking at its most ambitious. Sinners doesn’t just tell a horror story it sings it. The fusion of myth, music, and supernatural menace makes it feel timeless, and Michael B. Jordan’s dual performance anchors the spectacle with emotional weight.

Bring Her Back (2025)

Runtime: 104 minutes

Directors: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou

Writers: Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman

Stars: Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, Sally Hawkins

Two orphaned step-siblings are placed in a foster home that appears safe and nurturing on the surface. Beneath that warmth, however, lie occult practices rooted in grief, control, and resurrection. As the children uncover the truth, they realize they are not guests, they are instruments.

The film leans heavily into ritualistic horror and emotional damage, allowing dread to accumulate slowly. Rather than shock-driven scares, the Philippous focus on unease, silence, and moral horror, asking how far someone might go to undo loss.

Personal Take: This is deeply unsettling horror that sits with you long after it ends. It’s quieter than Talk to Me, but arguably more disturbing. The emotional cruelty hits just as hard as the supernatural elements, proving the Philippou brothers are among the most exciting horror voices working today.

Host (2020)

Runtime: 57 minutes

Director: Rob Savage

Writer: Gemma Hurley

Stars: Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb

During lockdown, six friends host a séance over Zoom, mostly as a joke. When the ritual goes wrong, something unseen enters their homes, turning familiar video-call windows into spaces of mounting terror. Each character is isolated, helpless, and watched.

Filmed entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic, Host embraces its limitations and transforms them into strengths. Glitches, freezes, and muted microphones become tools of suspense, while real-time pacing keeps the tension unbearable.

Personal Take: This film had no right to work as well as it does and that’s why it’s brilliant. Lean, inventive, and genuinely scary, Hostcaptures the fear of isolation better than almost any horror film of the era. Proof that creativity matters more than budget.

Oddity (2024)

Runtime: 98 minutes

Director: Damian McCarthy

Writer: Damian McCarthy

Stars: Carolyn Bracken, Gwilym Lee, Tadhg Murphy

After her sister is murdered, a blind medium inherits a disturbing antique mirror believed to hold supernatural power. As she investigates the circumstances surrounding the death, she uncovers connections between the object, the killer, and something far more malevolent lurking beneath the surface.

Premiering at SXSW, Oddity leans into gothic atmosphere, tactile practical effects, and sound-driven terror. The film builds dread patiently, using silence and darkness as weapons while unraveling its mystery piece by piece.

Personal Take: Stylish, creepy, and impeccably controlled, Oddity confirms Damian McCarthy as a master of slow-burn horror. Carolyn Bracken’s performance is incredible, and the film’s confidence in restraint makes its scares hit harder. One of the quiet gems of the decade.

Slaxx (2020)

Runtime: 77 minutes

Director: Elza Kephart

Writers: Elza Kephart, Patricia Gomez

Stars: Romane Denis, Brett Donahue, Sehar Bhojani

At a trendy clothing store preparing for a major launch, a cursed pair of designer jeans comes to life and begins slaughtering employees one by one. As staff scramble to meet corporate demands and influencer expectations, the jeans move through the store with lethal intent, crushing, strangling, and mutilating anyone in their path.

Beneath its absurd premise, Slaxx is a sharp satire of fast fashion, exploitative labor, and performative corporate ethics. The film gleefully blends slapstick gore with pointed social commentary, using its ridiculous killer to expose very real systems of abuse and hypocrisy within capitalist culture.

Personal Take: This movie knows exactly what it is and commits 100%. It’s campy, mean, and surprisingly smart like early Evil Deadfiltered through modern outrage culture. If you like your horror bloody, funny, and politically sharp, Slaxx is a blast.

Smile 2 (2024)

Runtime: 127 minutes

Director: Parker Finn

Writer: Parker Finn

Stars: Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage

A global pop star finds herself infected by the same supernatural curse that haunted the first film, an entity that spreads through trauma, guilt, and witnessing death. As her public life spirals under the weight of fame, expectation, and surveillance, the smiling horror begins to erode her grip on reality.

Expanding on the original's mythology, Smile 2 explores how trauma mutates under celebrity culture. The curse becomes inseparable from performance, image control, and self-destruction, blurring the line between breakdown and spectacle. The film escalates both scale and psychological intensity without losing its bite.

Personal Take: This had no right to be this good and yet it absolutely is. Naomi Scott is phenomenal, grounding the chaos with real vulnerability. It’s slicker, meaner, and more confident than the first Smile, turning viral horror into a sharp critique of fame and identity.

Barbarian (2022)

Runtime: 102 minutes

Director: Zach Cregger

Writer: Zach Cregger

Stars: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long

A woman arrives at her Airbnb late at night only to discover it has been double-booked by a stranger. What begins as an uncomfortable social situation slowly transforms into a nightmare when she discovers a hidden passage beneath the house and something far worse lurking below.

Barbarian thrives on unpredictability, repeatedly pulling the rug out from under the audience. Shifting tones, perspectives, and genres, the film examines entitlement, masculinity, and generational violence while never letting viewers get comfortable.

Personal Take: Go in blind. Seriously. This is one of the most exhilarating horror experiences of the decade, funny, shocking, and deeply unsettling. It’s a film that weaponizes surprise and proves that structure itself can be terrifying.

Piggy (2022)

Runtime: 90 minutes

Director: Carlota Pereda

Writer: Carlota Pereda

Stars: Laura Galán, Carmen Machi, Irene Ferreiro

Sara, a teenage girl relentlessly bullied for her weight, witnesses her tormentors being abducted by a mysterious stranger. Given the chance to intervene, she stays silent, setting off a chain of moral consequences that haunt her as much as the violence itself.

Expanding on Pereda’s acclaimed short film, Piggy uses horror to explore cruelty, complicity, and internalized shame. The violence is disturbing not because it’s sensational, but because of the choices surrounding it and the emotional cost of revenge.

Personal Take: This film is raw and uncomfortable in the best way. Laura Galán gives a heartbreaking, deeply human performance that makes every decision feel heavy. Piggy isn’t about monsters, it’s about what happens when pain goes unanswered.

Till Death (2021)

Runtime: 88 minutes

Director: S.K. Dale

Writers: Jason Carvey

Stars: Megan Fox, Eoin Macken, Callan Mulvey

After a seemingly romantic getaway turns fatal, a woman wakes to find herself handcuffed to her dead husband, part of a meticulously planned act of revenge. Trapped in a remote winter cabin, she must survive both the elements and the hired killers closing in.

The film keeps its focus tight, using a single location and escalating physical challenges to maintain relentless tension. Resourcefulness becomes survival as the protagonist adapts to impossible circumstances with ingenuity and grit.

Personal Take: This is lean, efficient survival horror that works far better than expected. Megan Fox gives a committed, physical performance that sells the ordeal completely. It’s proof that smart constraints and strong pacing still go a long way.

Lamb (2021)

Runtime: 106 minutes

Director: Valdimar Jóhannsson

Writers: Valdimar Jóhannsson, Sjón

Stars: Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Guðnason

An isolated Icelandic couple discovers a strange half-human, half-lamb infant born among their sheep. Naming the child Ada, they choose to raise it as their own, finding solace from grief in this impossible miracle, unaware that nature has not finished with them.

Lamb unfolds as a quiet meditation on loss, parenthood, and denial. Drawing from folklore and existential horror, the film builds dread slowly, using vast landscapes and silence to suggest something ancient watching from the margins.

Personal Take: This is haunting, weird, and unforgettable. It’s less about fear than inevitability, and when the film finally reveals the lamb baby’s dad, it lands with mythic weight. One of A24’s strangest and most beautiful films.

Closing Thoughts

The 2020s have already delivered some of horror’s richest creative highs. These films prove the genre isn’t just about jump scares it’s about metaphor, identity, trauma, and society reflected through fear. If the first five years are any indication, the next half of the decade is going to be something special.