If you love horror movies but have a sneaking suspicion that many of the best horror movies of all time were made decades ago, you might find yourself wondering if there’s anything more recent that has the same level of scare. While not every new horror movie is good, and many rely more on cheap jump scares than actual, frightening ideas, there are a few that are actually worth checking out.
For this list, we’ve put together some of the scariest horror movies of the last 10 years. Some of these movies were acclaimed upon their release, but others flew more under the radar. Each of them is worth checking out for one reason or another, though.
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Hereditary (2018)
128m
Genre
Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Stars
Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Gabriel Byrne
Directed by
Ari Aster
Watch on Amazon
The story of a family that unravels in the aftermath of the death of its matriarch, Hereditary is a family story to its bone. Although this movie has possession, the true terrors of Hereditary come from the question of whether it’s possible for us to outrun our families and if we should even try. Director Ari Aster has proven himself to be a master of tension and suspense, and he uses those skills to full effect here, creating a movie that has come to be regarded almost instantly as one of the best horror movies of the 21st century.
Get Out (2017)
104m
Genre
Mystery, Thriller, Horror
Stars
Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener
Directed by
Jordan Peele
Watch on Amazon
Jordan Peele’s debut feature is horrific and hilarious in equal measure, even as it makes plenty of fascinating, trenchant points about race in America. The film follows Chris, a Black man dating a white woman who is traveling to visit her family for the weekend. Once he arrives, alarm bells immediately start going off, telling Chris that everything is not what it seems, but because he doesn’t want to cause a fuss, he ignores them. Get Out is a horror movie about how much we’re willing to tolerate and about the way race still plays into every interaction between Black and white people even today.
Barbarian (2022)
103m
Genre
Horror, Mystery
Stars
Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long
Directed by
Zach Cregger
Watch on Amazon
A horror movie that starts out as nothing more than an awkward situation, Barbarian may be the wildest movie on this list. The film follows who discovers that her Airbnb in the exurbs of Detroit was double-booked and agrees to share it with the man who showed up on the same night as her. While she’s initially threatened by him, she eventually lets her guard down, and that’s when things take a turn that you might not expect. Barbarian is a movie that is best watched unspoiled, but suffice it to say that it’s both deeply funny and incredibly scary, and the implications of the horror we see on screen will linger with you longer after you the leave the theater.
Longlegs (2024)
101m
Genre
Horror, Crime
Stars
Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Blair Underwood
Directed by
Osgood Perkins
Watch on Amazon
A Silence of the Lambs riff that has a more supernatural bent, Longlegs follows an FBI agent assigned to investigate a string of murders that appear to be related. What she discovers is a conspiracy with ties to her own life, and one that is more unsettling than she ever could have imagined. Featuring a riveting central performance from Maika Monroe and a healthy dose of Nicolas Cage in a supporting role, Longlegs will leave you terrified long after you’ve left the theater.
Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)
99m
Genre
Horror
Stars
Annalise Basso, Elizabeth Reaser, Lulu Wilson
Directed by
Mike Flanagan
Watch on Netflix
The first Ouija movie was nothing all that scary, but strangely, Origin of Evil turned out to be much more frightening. This prequel tells the story of a mother and her two daughters. The mother supports her family in part by pretending to be a mystic who has a connection with the beyond, but finds herself in over her head when her own daughter is actually possessed. Unsettling imagery abounds in this sequel, which is light on jump scares but heavy on mood and atmosphere. Director Mike Flanagan would later replicate this in other projects, but Origin of Evil gave us a sense of everything he was capable of.
Smile (2022)
115m
Genre
Horror, Mystery
Stars
Sosie Bacon, Kyle Gallner, Caitlin Stasey
Directed by
Parker Finn
Watch on Hulu
On paper, Smile seemed like a rather conventional horror movie, but the movie we actually got turned out to be way more psychological than you might expect. The film follows a psychiatrist who has an unsettling encounter with a patient, and then slowly begins to unravel herself. She notices that everyone around her appears to have an unsettling, massive smile on their face, and realizes that she’ll have to confront her own past if she wants any hope of escaping the curse she’s now under. Smile is genuinely terrifying, and it’s made even better by the fact that it ends in a way you might not expect.
X (2022)
106m
Genre
Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Stars
Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow
Directed by
Ti West
Watch on Amazon
A thrilling, bloody throwback slasher, X follows a group of young people who rent a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere with the goal of shooting some low-rent porn there. When they start interacting with the property’s owners, though, they realize that their explicit sexual activity could come with some deadly consequences. X plays out almost exactly the way you might expect it to, but director Ti West has a remarkable sense of style, and Mia Goth emerges as a hugely compelling lead, so much so that they made an entire trilogy of X-related films together.
The Witch (2016)
92m
Genre
Drama, Mystery, Horror, History
Stars
Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie
Directed by
Robert Eggers
Watch on Amazon
Robert Eggers’ first film is probably still his scariest. The Witch is set in a pilgrim colony in the 17th century and follows a family that is excommunicated from their village because they are too religious. After moving to the edge of the woods, they begin to suspect that they are being haunted by an evil presence that lurks just beyond the tree line. What starts as religious fanaticism eventually becomes something much more concrete as the family is slowly picked apart by various elements black magic. The movie is stylish, dark, and incredibly tense, and proved to be a signifier for what Eggers career would ultimately become.
