10 films, ranked
Top 10 Horror Films of the 2020s
So far. Ask again in December.
Horror is the only genre right now where a first-time director with no money can walk in and reset the entire conversation. The last few years have been absurd. Narrowing this to ten was genuinely painful.
Rules: released 2020 onwards, has to actually be horror rather than a thriller wearing a mask, and it has to have done something nobody else was doing.
Sinners
2025
Number 1: Sinners
2025
A period drama, a vampire siege and a musical, all at once, all working. The most ambitious horror film of the decade by a distance.
Talk to Me
2023
Number 2: Talk to Me
2023
Two YouTubers made the meanest, tightest possession film in twenty years. The opening party scene is a masterclass in escalation.
The Substance
2024
Number 3: The Substance
2024
Louder than everything else on this list combined. Not subtle, not trying to be, and impossible to shake off.
Nope
2022
Number 4: Nope
2022
Peele making a horror western about spectacle itself. The bit with the house. You know the bit with the house.
Weapons
2025
Number 5: Weapons
2025
Structure as a weapon. Every perspective shift makes the previous chapter worse in hindsight.
Barbarian
2022
Number 6: Barbarian
2022
The first forty minutes are a perfect short film about a rental booking. Then it goes somewhere insane, twice.
Titane
2021
Number 7: Titane
2021
Julia Ducournau made a film that should be unwatchable and it turns out to be about a father and a child. Still cannot explain it. Still thinking about it.
The Invisible Man
2020
Number 8: The Invisible Man
2020
Took a Universal monster and turned it into the scariest film ever made about not being believed. That empty-corner shot lives rent free.
Longlegs
2024
Number 9: Longlegs
2024
The marketing was better than the film and the film is still excellent. Framing so uncomfortable it feels like a mistake.
Pearl
2022
Number 10: Pearl
2022
A Technicolor melodrama about a woman losing it on a farm. That monologue, then that final shot held for far too long. Perfect.
Nearly made it
The ones that kept us up at night during the final cut.
- Saint Maud
- When Evil Lurks
- Malignant
- Heretic
- His House
Wrong? Tell us. We are on the internet, unfortunately.
