100+ of the Best Horror Movies of 2023, Ranked

The Top 10 Horror Movies of 2023

1. Talk to Me

Talk to Me builds upon a familiar possession-movie foundation and shapes it into something completely fresh and effective. At the center of the story is an embalmed hand used by a group of friends as a party game that supposedly opens a door to the spirit world. Mia (Sophie Wilde), a young woman dealing with overwhelming feelings of grief and alienation, finds out that the game is real when a spirit attaches itself to her. Talk to Me is dark and unnerving, and it contains some of the most chilling moments of the year.

2. Godzilla Minus One

Godzilla Minus One is a fantastic movie. It’s emotionally moving, it has layers of meaning, and the new Godzilla presented in the film is both exhilarating and frightening to watch. Set in Japan just after World War II, a kamikaze fighter pilot chooses to defy orders and live, but the fallout from that decision is something that follows him as he tries to reintegrate into a devastated Japanese society. Meanwhile, a giant, irradiated monster, Godzilla, further terrorizes the people of Japan after the war. For the former pilot, his war rages on.

3. When Evil Lurks

When Evil Lurks is one of the most disturbing horror movies of the year. It is a supernatural horror film about two brothers and their attempts to stop a demonic entity that they inadvertently help unleash. Every step of the way the brothers make things worse, leading to some truly horrific moments of violence. When Evil Lurks is recommended for viewers in the mood for something unsettling.

4. Project Wolf Hunting

Project Wolf Hunting is likely the goriest movie of the year. It is a sci-fi action horror splatter movie from South Korea, and it is fantastic. A group of dangerous criminals are transported by ship from the Philippines to South Korea, but a plot to break them out of police custody leads to mass murder. To make matters worse, a genetically altered monster of a man is also on board, and his only goal is to kill anything that moves. The plot of Project Wolf Hunting is surprisingly twisty, but the main appeal here is the action. The battles are extremely over-the-top, with broken bodies flying and blood flowing in torrents. No one is safe aboard this ship of death.

5. Evil Dead Rise

Evil Dead Rise, from writer/director Lee Cronin, is another incredible entry in what is possibly the most consistently awesome horror franchise in existence. For starters, transposing the “cabin in the woods” feel of most of the earlier Evil Dead movies into a rundown apartment building works perfectly. Also, the new story about a woman protecting her sister’s children from their Deadite mother works on multiple levels. Perhaps most importantly though, Evil Dead Rise builds its violence and gore to ridiculously fun heights.

6. The Outwaters

The Outwaters is a mesmerizing found-footage movie that emphasizes visceral terror over plot. Four friends venture into the Mojave Desert to shoot a music video. While camping in the desolate area, they begin to encounter strange, inexplicable phenomena. Their trip then turns into a nightmare as they become separated and pursued by… something in the desert. The Outwaters won’t be for everyone, but for those interested in a grueling experience of first-person horror that is intentionally disorienting, it’s one of the best of the year.

7. Infinity Pool

What would you do if you could get away with murder (and any other crimes you can think of)? To oversimplify, that’s the basic question posed by Infinity Pool. The film is about a couple, James (Alexander Skarsgård) and Em (Cleopatra Coleman), who run into trouble with the law while vacationing in a foreign country. James is sentenced to death, but the local government offers a special incentive for wealthy tourists that allows them to walk away after certain payments and actions are completed. James then falls in with a group of fellow tourists, led by Gabi (Mia Goth), who take full advantage of their privileged status by going on binges of sex, drugs, and murder. Infinity Pool is uncomfortable and grotesque, and it’s the kind of movie that will stick with you days after watching.

8. Birth/Rebirth

Birth/Rebirth is an incredibly tense and uncomfortable movie about motherhood as inspired by Frankenstein. A warm and caring mother, Celie, suddenly loses her daughter Lila to bacterial meningitis. A cold and solitary morgue technician, Rose, uses Celie’s daughter in a secret experiment to revive the dead. The two women are brought together by Lila, and Birth/Rebirth examines the lengths they will each go to in order to keep the girl “alive,” while also exploring what life really is.

9. Scream VI

Much like with Scream (2022), Scream VI gives the long-running franchise a fresh feel while delivering a familiar, but hopefully not too familiar, experience. Sisters Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega) are living in New York City with fellow survivors Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding) when the Ghostface killings begin again. The movie has enough twists to keep viewers guessing until the end, and there is plenty of gore for fans expecting an increase in violence in this sequel. Tense and bloody, Scream VI is a great time.

10. A Haunting in Venice

More non-horror film franchises should take a chance on the genre. A Haunting in Venice is the third murder mystery in the series featuring Kenneth Branagh as the literary detective Hercule Poirot, and it is the first of the series to attempt a spooky atmosphere. In the film, Poirot is retired from detecting, but he is convinced to attend a Halloween party with the enticement that he can help expose a popular spiritual medium as a fraud. A murder occurs, and Poirot can’t help but attempt to solve the case. To complicate matters, Poirot’s logical mind is tested by ghostly happenings throughout the night. A Haunting in Venice is a classical whodunit that looks gorgeous and fits in perfectly with the Halloween season.

2023 Horror Movies Ranked 11-50

11. The Blackening

With its pop-culture references and characters who are fully aware of horror movie tropes, The Blackening is a slasher comedy that is a bit like Scream in some ways, but with a much stronger emphasis on comedy over horror. And, most importantly, The Blackening skewers horror cliches from the perspective of an all-Black main cast. The best moments in The Blackening nearly all come from the banter between its lead actors who genuinely feel like longtime friends riffing on each other throughout the deadly ordeal they find themselves in.

12. Saw X

Saw X distills the sprawling Saw franchise down to its most interesting parts: John Kramer, Amanda Young, and bloody traps. Set between Saw (2004) and Saw II (2005), Saw X eschews the convoluted drama that grew out of control in the continuing sequels, and it instead focuses on showing us a different side of the Jigsaw Killer. Kramer has never been this sympathetic, and that serves to heighten the intrigue for a character, a villain, filled with contradictions that feel so agonizingly human. Also, at times the gore borders on ridiculous which is also fun.

13. Do Not Disturb

Do Not Disturb was one of the best surprises of the year. It is a relationship drama by way of a psychedelic drug movie and a bloody horror film. The story is about a man and a woman who are making one last effort to set their rocky relationship in the right direction. While vacationing in Miami, they come into possession of drugs that, when taken, awaken something dark within them. Peppered with dark humor and covered in blood and severed body parts, Do Not Disturb is something that should be watched without knowing any of the twists it takes.

14. 15 Cameras

Sky and Cam buy a duplex to live in, knowing it used to be owned by a notorious voyeur and serial killer. The previous owner, known in true-crime media as The Slumlord, is presumed dead, but Sky’s growing obsession with The Slumlord’s story brings up fears the he might still be alive and watching. Meanwhile, Cam discovers that their new home still has cameras hidden throughout, and he finds a secret bunker that allows him to spy on his new neighbors. 15 Cameras is built upon the tension created by the obsession of watching others while fearing you’re being watched yourself, and it executes its tension extremely well.

15. Sick

Timely horror can be a tricky thing to pull off. Released on Peacock in January of 2023, a movie about masks and self-quarantine could very easily turn people away if this highly-charged topic isn’t handled well. Thankfully, Sick gets just about everything right. Sick stars Gideon Adlon and Beth Million as Parker and Miri, two friends who are spending quarantine in Parker’s family lake house. Their first night in isolation turns deadly when a masked man with a knife arrives. Sick is a straightforward slasher movie with great chases, good kills, and just enough dark comedy to make it fun.

16. The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster

Vicaria (Layla DeLeon Hayes) is a brilliant young woman living in a community that is constantly under the shadows of drugs and violence. Her mother died when Vicaria was a child, and her older brother Chris (Edem Atsu-Swanzy) was recently killed after falling into a life controlled by a local gang. Determined to cure the disease of death, Vicaria uses her scientific mind to bring Chris back to life, but how will he react to a world that already saw him as a monster before he was killed and resurrected? From writer/director Bomani J. Story, The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster is a visually interesting movie that presents compelling storytelling through a monster-movie aesthetic.

17. Meg 2: The Trench

Meg 2: The Trench is like two movies in one. For about the first half of its runtime, it is a survival horror film about a group of people led by Jonas (Jason Statham) who accidentally uncover an illegal mining operation deep underwater. Then, when the survivors make it to the surface, the movie turns into an over-the-top action movie with aquatic monsters, ridiculous sequences, and many people getting eaten. All together, it’s great fun for people who enjoy cheesy shark/monster movies.

18. Unicorn Wars

Unicorn Wars is a beautiful and horrific movie. It is funny and disturbing. Cute and cruel. The usage of candy-colored animation to tell a story about fascism, religious fanaticism, deep-seated family trauma, and other related themes is a bold decision, and it works fantastically. There is a lot going on in Unicorn Wars, but the main thrust of the narrative follows two teddy bear brothers: Bluey (or Azulín) and Tubby (or Gordi). The brothers are recruits in a teddy bear army that is fighting a generations-long war against its hated enemy, the unicorns. The war, based on lies and religious doctrine, brings out the worst in Bluey who is driven to perform increasingly sadistic actions while the good-natured Tubby watches in horror. With extreme violence and mature themes, Unicorn Wars will stand the test of time as one of the most unique and intriguing war/horror movies ever.

19. The Conference

The Conference is a good Swedish slasher movie with a nice balance of comedy and horror. The kills can be brutal, and the funny parts aren’t so campy that they make the movie an all-out comedy. It is about a group of co-workers who travel to a remote resort for a team-building retreat, but a mysterious killer in a mask shows up to take them out one by one. It has a classic feel that will satisfy longtime slasher fans, but it also has a few clever twists that keep it from being a stale retread of so many slashers that have come before.

20. Cobweb

From director Samuel Bodin, the co-writer and director of the chilling Netflix series Marianne, Cobweb feels like a twisted and extremely dark fairy tale. A young boy, Peter, hears noises in his bedroom walls at night, but his parents dismiss his fears. As the taps turn into something else, Peter becomes increasingly aware that his parents may have a dark secret. The strongest features of Cobweb are its creepy visuals, but its story is also quite engaging.

21. Dark Harvest

Dark Harvest is kind of like The Purge mixed with It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. In a small, isolated town in 1963, the teenage boys of the population take part in an annual tradition near Halloween. They are locked in their rooms for a few days to make them hungry and angry, then they are let loose to hunt and kill a pumpkin-headed monster that rises from the town’s fields once a year. It’s an odd premise, but it makes enough sense when you let the movie carry you along with it. Dark Harvest also looks really nice, and the monster-filled violence is highly entertaining.

22. Huesera: The Bone Woman

Huesera: The Bone Woman is a pregnancy/motherhood horror movie that uses folk horror to express some of its themes. Valeria becomes pregnant, and at first it seems like everything she ever wanted. But as her husband and family begin treating her differently, and as the changes a new baby will bring begin to dawn on her, Valeria begins to feel a growing sense of anxiety. She is also haunted by a presence that brings her whole life into question. Quietly chilling, Huesera: The Bone Woman builds to an impressive conclusion that is completely driven by the movie’s strong focus on character.

23. Knock at the Cabin

M. Night Shyamalan‘s Knock at the Cabin poses an impossible question: would you willingly choose to sacrifice a member of your family in order to save the world? Relying heavily on themes of religion and the supernatural clashing with skepticism, Knock at the Cabin is more of a philosophical mystery than it is a horror movie. However, there are some horrific things that happen in the film. The movie is filled with great performances, with Dave Bautista in particular standing out as a man who is endearing, frightening, chilling, and sad all at the same time. Knock at the Cabin is inspired by the novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay.

24. It Lives Inside

It’s always great when an underutilized mythological creature is highlighted in a horror movie. In It Lives Inside, that creature is a Pishacha of Hindu mythology, a shapeshifting entity that feeds on negative emotions. The creature attaches itself to Samidha (who prefers to go by Sam) after she distances herself from her heritage and denies help to her former best friend. Heavy on metaphors but also managing to deliver nice scares, It Lives Inside works extremely well.

25. The Last Voyage of the Demeter

Based on the chapter in the novel Dracula in which the eponymous vampire travels by ship to England, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a movie in the vein of Alien (1979) in which a small group of people are trapped in close quarters with a deadly monster. The story focuses on Clemens (Corey Hawkins), a man trained as a doctor but not allowed to practice because of the color of his skin. Clemens joins the crew of the Demeter, the ill-fated ship carrying a monstrous version Count Dracula. Dark and gory, The Last Voyage of the Demeter does an admirable job of crafting a new spin on an under-explored part of Dracula’s legacy.

26. Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a fun slasher movie that feels like a throwback to past eras of the subgenre. Though it doesn’t feel at all like the fake trailer that inspired it, it feels more like an early 2000s remake of the movie that the fake trailer was advertising. Thanksgiving has some fun kills and lots of dark comedy. It is also a whodunit style of slasher, and even though the mystery isn’t too mysterious, it is quite fun.

27. Cocaine Bear

Directed by Elizabeth Banks, Cocaine Bear is a silly animal-attack movie about a bear high on copious amounts of cocaine. The movie’s goal is to feel like a bigger-budget B-movie, and it certainly achieves that goal. With brutal bear attacks filled with gore and a cast full of cartoonish characters, Cocaine Bear is a great movie when you want to turn your brain off and watch something dumb and violent.

28. No One Will Save You

No One Will Save You is a nearly wordless exercise in home-invasion, psychological, and sci-fi horror. Brynn lives alone in a large house on the outskirts of a small town. She maintains a solitary existence, with something in her past keeping her from interacting with other people, and keeping them from interacting with her. One night something enters her home. Something alien. The ending of No One Will Save You might be divisive for some, but the tense action leading up to the finale is excellent.

29. Re/Member

Released on Netflix, Re/Member is a Japanese horror movie that uses a time-loop structure like Happy Death Day (2017) and Groundhog Day (1993). Six high-school students are chosen, and they are forced to relive the same day over and over. The only way to break the time loop is by finding and reassembling all of the dismembered body parts of a young girl killed years ago. A “red person,” the spirit of the young girl, stalks them during their scavenger hunt, murdering the students in horrible ways, only for them to wake up and repeat the process until they complete their goal. With high-school drama, lots of blood, and a creepy monster, Re/Member is an entertaining teen horror movie.

30. Renfield

Prior to this year, if fans of Universal’s classic Dracula (1931) were to think what a movie about Dracula’s servant Renfield might look like, Renfield probably isn’t what they would conjure in their mind. That’s not a bad thing though. Renfield is a fun movie that works well as a silly comedy. It is a cross between a horror comedy and a crime thriller, and it is held together by a strong cast. Nicholas Hoult and Awkwafina are a great leading pair, Ben Schwartz is entertainingly goofy as a crime boss’s son, and Nicolas Cage is the best as a maniacal version of Count Dracula. Renfield is mostly all about laughs and bloody action sequences, and it has a lot of fun delivering both.

31. Totally Killer

Kiernan Shipka stars in Totally Killer as a teenager, Jamie Hughes, who travels back in time while attempting to escape from the masked “Sweet Sixteen Killer.” Jamie lands in 1987, just days before the Sweet Sixteen Killer is going to have his first murder spree in which he will kill the friends of Jamie’s mother. Now Jamie is in a race against time to stop the killer while finding a way back home before she is trapped in the past. Totally Killer is fueled by nostalgia and jokes, both of which work well more often than not.

32. Unwelcome

Unwelcome feels like a glorious throwback to the time in the 1980s when horror movies with tiny creatures were all the rage. Hannah John-Kaman stars as Maya, a pregnant woman who, with her husband Jamie (Douglas Booth), move from a small London apartment to a large house in a small village in Ireland. The move comes after a violent home invasion, so Maya and Jamie are hoping to start a new life free of fear. Unfortunately for them, they are now living next to a forest where murderous goblins known as Redcaps are said to live. With good performances and a great mixture of practical and digital effects, Unwelcome is campy, bloody, and super fun.

33. Shaky Shivers

Shaky Shivers is easily one of the best comedies of 2023. The movie opens with friends Lucy and Karen preparing to deal with a major problem. Lucy was cursed by woman with leaves and twigs in her hair, and now Lucy believes she will turn into a werewolf. She does turn into a werewolf, but that is only the beginning of a series of misadventures Lucy and Karen have as their shared supernatural problems get worse and worse. Shaky Shivers is often hilarious, and its monster effects (there are more monsters than just a werewolf) are quite good.

34. Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor

Despite being the fourth movie in the franchise, you don’t need to see any of the previous movies to enjoy Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor. Of course, people who follow the series will get more out of it since it does have direct connections to the other films, but even going in blind, Carmichael Manor is a supremely creepy found-footage horror movie. Or, it’s more accurate to describe it as a pseudo-documentary. The movie is presented as a documentary featuring the last known footage of three people investigating a supposedly haunted house. It uses the format well, making the unnerving clown mannequins found inside the house utterly chilling.

35. M3GAN: Unrated

M3GAN needs no introduction to horror fans. From her viral dancing to her cheerfully blunt attitude, the killer doll landed in theaters in January to high praise. M3GAN became the first horror hit of 2023, and the film’s success reaffirmed the value of PG-13 horror while also guaranteeing a sequel (coming in 2025). That said, the unrated version is even better. Is M3GAN the beginning of a franchise that will one day rival Chucky’s decades of killer-doll dominance? Time will tell, but for now, people can’t seem to get enough of M3GAN.

36. Haunted Mansion

Haunted Mansion is a light and funny haunted-house movie that is entertaining for people of any age. In other words, it delivers exactly what you would expect and everything you could hope for from a movie based on a ride at Disney theme parks. The cast is great, the script is heartwarming, and the ghosts are fun.

37. Influencer

Influencer is a twisty thriller that begins by following an influencer, Madison (Emily Tennant), on a trip to Thailand. Her cheerful social media posts are in stark contrast to her lonely and solitary experience. Madison’s working vacation starts to turn around when she meets a mysterious young woman named CW (Cassandra Naud), but CW’s words and actions hint that her true intentions for Madison might not be completely on the level. Influencer is tense and engaging, and its twists will likely surprise most viewers.

38. Suitable Flesh

Suitable Flesh is a Lovecraftian horror movie from director Joe Lynch (Mayhem, Wrong Turn 2) that echoes the classic Lovecraft adaptations by director Stuart Gordon. A psychiatrist, Elizabeth Derby (Heather Graham), becomes unusually attracted to a patient of hers, Asa Waite (Judah Lewis). Asa has a problem he needs help with involving his father and the entity he believes is attempting to jump from his father’s body into his own. What follows is a steamy and bloody horror film about body swapping that contains a superb final act.

39. You’re Killing Me

When Eden attends a party thrown at the house of her school’s resident rich-kid, she doesn’t know her night will turn into a fight for survival. In something akin to a reverse home invasion movie, Eden becomes trapped inside the house as three of her classmates try to retrieve a phone from her that contains a video incriminating them in a horrific crime. With tense action and surprising twists, You’re Killing Me is a great choice for fans of thrillers.

40. Cube

Originally released in Japan in 2021 and finally brought to North America in 2023 via Screambox, Cube (2021) starts off with a similar setup to the original. Six people wake up inside a cubic room with six doors, only to discover that each door leads to another room that is nearly identical. As they try to find a way out, they must contend with deadly traps while trying to work together despite clashing personalities. When compared to the original, this Japanese version heightens the emotional drama of its story while playing little more loose with the rules of the traps.

41. Deliver Us

Twins born to a nun through immaculate conception. A prophecy of the birth of the Messiah and the Antichrist. A ruthless sect of believers determined to eliminate the children by any means necessary. And a skeptical priest taking one last assignment before leaving the Church and becoming “a good Christian rather than a bad priest.” These are the elements that make up Deliver Us, a dark and glooomy religious horror/thriller movie. Though Deliver Us takes some potentially unnecessary detours on its way to its inevitable conclusion, there are a few nice surprises and lots of beautiful imagery to keep you engaged in the story.

42. The Puppetman

The Puppetman is a nicely eerie supernatural horror film that plays out like a movie about a curse. Michal (Alyson Gorske) witnessed her father kill her mother when she was a child, and what she saw still haunts her to this day. Her father is on death row, and as his execution nears, Michal begins to experience inexplicable phenomena that are uncomfortably close to what her father described after his awful deed so many years ago.

43. There’s Something Wrong with the Children

There’s Something Wrong with the Children is like The Bad Seed (1956) crossed with a sci-fi monster movie. The story follows two married couples vacationing in neighboring cabins in the woods. One couple has kids, a young girl and boy, and the other couple is childless. The kids begin acting oddly after they visit a strange pit in the woods, and the four adults are in for a day and night of terror as the children become increasingly dangerous. The movie throws in a bit of psychological horror as the plot unfolds, but in the end There’s Something Wrong with the Children turns out to be a good monster movie with a few really nice twists.

44. Signal 100

Seemingly inspired by the “battle royale” subgenre, Signal 100 is a Japanese thriller that contains lots of blood, violence, and high-school drama. Students are hypnotized by their teacher so that whenever they or their classmates perform certain actions, they are compelled to immediately commit suicide. There are 100 “signals” which trigger the suicide conditioning, and the students have to figure out what the triggers are if they want to survive through the night. Signal 100 is a bit campy and doesn’t always make absolute sense, but it’s still a whole lot of fun.

45. The Exorcist: Believer

As a legacy sequel to the original The Exorcist from 1973, The Exorcist: Believer stumbles. But when viewing it as an unrelated movie about demonic possession, it definitely has its moments. The story focuses on a father, Victor (Leslie Odom Jr.), and his daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett). Angela and her friend disappear for three days after taking an ill-advised trip through the woods, and when they come back home, they bring something with them. With the girls possessed, Victor struggles to reconcile his beliefs (and disbeliefs) with what he is witnessing as he tries to save his daughter.

46. Bad CGI Gator

Bad CGI Gator is an animal-attack movie with an alligator as its monster, but it is best categorized as a satire film. The CGI gator is poorly rendered on purpose, lightly mocking the countless modern movies that overuse underdeveloped computer generated effects. The movie itself is a goofy comedy, and, at just under an hour in length, it delivers lots of laughs and eye-rolls at a rapid pace.

47. Enys Men

Enys Men is a beautiful movie. It is shot on film, and it genuinely looks like it came out of the past. The story is about a woman living alone on a small and isolated island. The woman has a routine she follows every day in which she documents the growth and changes (if any) of a group of flowers. As the movie moves along, a mystery about a horrific event is touched on that may or may not be solved by the movie’s end. Hypnotic and meditative, metaphysical and mysterious, Enys Men is great if you can connect with its esoteric method of storytelling.

48. Appendage

Appendage is a body horror movie that would pair well with something like Basket Case (1982). In Appendage, Hannah is a fashion designer who struggles mightily with her self-confidence. One day she finds that she has a growth forming on her side, and the growth quickly turns into something that exacerbates her downward spiral of self-doubt. Appendage is a dark comedy with some crystal-clear metaphors.

49. Family Dinner

Family Dinner has a creeping, measured pace that won’t work for some viewers, but if you like slow-burn psychological horror, then Family Dinner provides a feast. Simi (Nina Katlein) is a young woman who wants to lose weight, so she decides to stay with her nutritionist aunt in her country home for a few days. Simi slowly discovers that there is something unusual about her aunt and her aunt’s family, but that realization may come too late. Though sometimes referred to as a mystery, one of the best things Family Dinner does is to tell the audience almost exactly what’s going to happen, and it then forces you to watch as the characters make agonizing decisions.

50. The Pope’s Exorcist

The trailer for The Pope’s Exorcist looked like the movie might be incredibly campy, and though the movie does get fairly silly in its depiction of an exorcism performed on a possessed boy in Spain, it might’ve been even better if it had leaned into into the campiness a bit more. As it is, The Pope’s Exorcist is a good time thanks in large part to the always-charismatic presence of Russell Crowe.

2023 Horror Movies Ranked 51-85

51. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead

A zombie apocalypse isn’t always a bad thing. For Akira Tendo (Eiji Akaso), waking up to a world overrun with the living dead means he is free from the living hell of his job. Now, he sets out to do everything he ever wanted to do in life before he joins the ranks of the undead. Zom 100 is a cute zombie comedy that can get a bit melodramatic and very silly at times, but it’s great for viewers looking for a light and cheerful zombie film.

52. Murdercise

Murdercise is a low-budget slasher comedy made for fans of campy slasher cheese. It can be seen as an homage to low-budget 1980s slashers like Killer Workout (1987) and Death Spa (1989), and admirers of those films will likely get the most out of Murdercise. In the movie, Phoebe is cast in a workout video put together by a mafia boss’s wife and a sleazy director. Phoebe just wants to make the best aerobics video she can, but when her fellow cast members don’t share her vision, she takes matters into her own blood-soaked hands.

53. There’s Something in the Barn

An American family of four moves to a remote house in Norway. The father, Bill (Martin Starr), plans to open a bed and breakfast in the barn of his deceased uncle’s Norwegian home, but his wife (Amrita Acharia), daughter (Zow Winther-Hansen), and son (Townes Bunner) aren’t so keen on the idea. As the family drifts apart internally, the son discovers an elf living in the barn. But there are strict rules for a barn elf, and breaking the rules can be deadly. There’s Something in the Barn is a horror comedy that takes its time getting to the horror, but its fun once the elves attack.

54. Beaten to Death

Beaten to Death begins with, unsurprisingly, with a man being beaten. That man is Jack, and his struggle to survive is the focal point of the film. Through subsequent beatings, various attempts to escape, and flashbacks, viewers gain insight into the decisions that led Jack to the situation he is currently in. Beaten to Death is bloody and gruesome, and it is for horror and thriller fans in the mood for something dark and grueling.

55. Sister Death

Sister Death is a beautifully-shot film that is strongest when it comes to its visual storytelling. The pace of the movie is rather methodical, meaning fans of slower movies will get the most out of it. The story is about a novice nun, Narcisa, who carries with her the reputation of having a religious experience as a child that affected many people. Now, Narcisa struggles with her place in the Church as she is called to teach at a school for girls. While there, Narcisa encounters a dark presence that will forever change her.

56. The Nun II

The Nun II improves on its predecessor, 2018’s The Nun, providing a better story, better characters, and a more interesting overall appeal. This followup picks up the story of The Nun a few years after the finale of the first movie, and it involves Sister Irene tracking the demon Valak’s activities after it escaped from the monastery she though she’d sealed it in. The story does take a backseat to the scares a lot of the time, but the spectacle of it all is enjoyable. The connections to the wider Conjuring franchise are also nice treats for enthusiastic followers of the entire series.

57. The Boogeyman

The Boogeyman is a supernatural creature feature in the vein of films like Darkness Falls (2003) and Lights Out (2016). Inspired by the 1973 short story of the same title by Stephen King, The Boogeyman is about two girls, Sadie and Sawyer (Sophie Thatcher and Vivien Lyra Blair), grieving the death of their mother. Their father, Will (Chris Messina), has become emotionally distant after the tragedy, and when the girls begin encountering a monster that lives in the dark, they believe they have to face it on their own. The Boogeyman tries for some heavy emotional metaphors from time to time, but in the end it becomes a monster movie that doesn’t always live up to its potential.

58. Visitors: Complete Edition

Visitors: Complete Edition is a strange horror comedy from Japan. Influences from the early Evil Dead movies are unmistakable. There are giggling demonic possessions, buckets blood and other fluids, and even chainsaws. The story is somewhat light, focusing primarily on a trio of possessed people and a man who isn’t possessed. The man is drawn into an odd friendship with the overly-happy demons to whom he warms up to over time. Visitors: Complete Edition is goofy and good.

59. The Sacrifice Game

In The Sacrifice Game, a pair of girls are left behind at their private school for girls during the Christmas holiday break. Staying with them is one of the teachers and a male member of the staff who also happens to be their teacher’s boyfriend. Meanwhile, a quartet of killers planning to perform a cult ritual on Christmas is heading towards the school. When the two groups meet, The Sacrifice Game really picks up. Part 1970s exploitation throwback, part twisty supernatural horror, this is a good Christmas horror movie that takes some interesting and odd turns.

60. Jethica

Jethica is a dark, deadpan comedy about a woman whose stalker finds her even after he’s dead. Jessica (Ashley Denise Robinson) randomly runs into her old friend from high school, Elena (Calle Hernandez), while in New Mexico. The two of them reconnect, and Elena learns that Jessica is running away from a stalker she had back in Los Angeles. Jessica’s stalker arrives… but he’s a ghost. The rest of the movie is about how Elena tries to help Jessica with her ghostly problem. The humor in Jethica is about as dry as the New Mexican desert Elena lives in (which isn’t a complaint).

61. Insidious: The Red Door

Insidious: The Red Door is a followup to Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013). It focuses on Dalton (Ty Simpkins), who as a child was nearly lost in The Further. Dalton is now headed off to college, but his memories of his supernatural experiences have been repressed. Also repressed are the memories of Dalton’s father, Josh (Patrick Wilson). Both father and son can sense that something is wrong, and a particularly influential class unexpectedly begins to open a door that Dalton would be better off sealing shut. Insidious: The Red Door never reaches the creepy heights of the first two films in the franchise, but it has its moments.

62. Herd

Herd is advertised as a zombie movie, but it really succeeds more as a relationship drama set in an apocalyptic scenario (which just happens to have zombies in it). The tension built around the relationship of Alex and Jamie is very well done. Alex and Jamie go on a trip together with Alex hoping to fix their issues, but with Jamie resisting attempts at reconciliation. Even though they are separating, they are forced together when zombies start appearing. They are then thrust into a situation where they have to deal with a fight that isn’t their own, among people who wouldn’t approve of their relationship.

63. Slotherhouse

With a title like Slotherhouse, you know exactly what you’re going to get: goofiness. It’s a sorority-set slasher movie with an unusually intelligent sloth as the killer. It’s a movie that is dumb on purpose, and it performs well with that in mind. Emily (Lisa Ambalavanar) is in her senior year of college and wants to finally stand out from the crowd, so she buys a sloth from a shady exotic-animal dealer and announces her intent to run for sorority president. The sorority’s resident mean-girl and incumbent president, Brianna (Sydney Craven), will do anything to shut down Emily’s campaign. One thing leads to another, and the sloth murders a bunch of people.

64. Organ Trail

The horror western is an underutilized subgenre in the modern era, so Organ Trail stands out in a good way. The story is about Abigail, a young woman who is abducted by bandits after they kill her parents and brother. Abigail finds potential allies in Cassidy, a woman previously taken by the bandits, and Erik, a rancher caught up in the trouble after performing a good deed. But in the wilds of 1870’s Montana, allies might not last very long. Organ Trail sets up a great story and a dark, realistic tone early in the film, but a few unbelievable scenarios later in the movie turn a great western into a pretty-good horror film.

65. Skinamarink

Anywhere Skinamarink places on this list is going to be controversial. This is the kind of movie that will work fabulously for certain audiences, will be completely impenetrable for another group, and will be utterly dull for others. But hey, eliciting such varied reactions is a good thing. Skinamarink is fascinating as an experimental work of art that can mean so many different things to so many people. For this reviewer though, it didn’t work as something particularly interesting to watch for 100 minutes.

66. Five Nights at Freddy’s

Five Nights at Freddy’s looks great, and it has an interesting premise. Mike (Josh Hutcherson) has a troubled past, but he’s doing his best to raise his young sister Abby (Piper Rubio) on his own. Mike gets a job as a night watchman at a long-closed family entertainment center, but he soon finds that he has a connection to the place and its animatronic entertainers. The story of Five Nights at Freddy’s feels like it touches on a deep lore that is too expansive to portray in one film, and it’s not particularly scary, but it’s highly entertaining for a specific audience (an audience that made it one of Blumhouse’s biggest successes ever).

67. Blood

Jess (Michelle Monaghan), a mother, nurse, and recovering addict, tries to keep her family together after her son Owen (Finlay Wojtak-Hissong) contracts an unusual illness from a dog bite. Owen and Jess discover that drinking blood is the only thing that keeps Owen’s health from completely deteriorating, so now Jess must make a choice: find a steady supply of blood for her son, or risk her son’s life by putting his health in the hands of doctors. Blood is an interesting take on vampire movies that gives vampirism something of a realistic spin while still suggesting that there may be supernatural elements involved.

68. Elevator Game

The premise of a movie about a game/ritual/internet challenge that opens a door to a spirit world in an elevator might sound a bit silly. That’s because it is silly. But it’s also kind of fun. Elevator Game follows Ryan (Gino Anania) as he joins a group of urban legend video makers and tries to convince them to investigate the elevator where his sister went missing. As they look into the Elevator Game, they try to uncover the secrets of the deadly elevator before it claims them all.

69. Dear David

Dear David could have been a lot scarier than it is. The film, based on real Twitter posts, is about a writer and artist who is being haunted by the ghost of a young boy. Like many haunting movies, Dear David often presents its haunting as something that could be supernatural, but that could also just be psychological. But the way the story is executed makes it less frightening than the Twitter thread that inspired it, which is slightly disappointing.

70. Subspecies V: Bloodrise

Subspecies V: Bloodrise is a prequel to the Subspecies franchise. It follows Radu Vladislas centuries ago, when he first learned of his vampiric heritage. This long-awaited new entry in the series (Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm was released in 1998) gives fans a welcome return to one of Full Moon Features’ most visually striking and memorable worlds. Though it does feel like the movie loses focus at times, it’s still a treat for fans of the franchise.

71. Phantom Fun-World

Phantom Fun-World is a fun slasher movie that gets a lot of things right. The story is set in an indoor amusement park where someone using a mask of the mascot of the park, The Phantom, starts killing people. Phantom Fun-World has a good design for its masked killer, the characters are interesting, and the lead actors are all engaging. The movie is very campy (mostly intentionally, though maybe sometimes not), and it’s a good recommendation for die-hard fans of low-budget slashers.

72. Outpost

Joe Lo Truglio (The State, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Reno 911) directed Outpost, a movie about a woman who volunteers as a lookout in a remote outpost as a way of getting away from other people after a horrifically traumatic experience. What begins as a psychological thriller focusing on the woman, Kate (Beth Dover), and her struggles to deal with her recent past turns into something else entirely. To expound on what Outpost turns into would spoil the movie, but it definitely drifts into horror territory before it’s over. The potential tension and fear of Kate’s situation isn’t always portrayed in the most effective of ways, but Outpost is still an interesting spin on what viewers might expect if they watch the movie’s trailer.

73. LandLocked

LandLocked is one of the most unique horror movies of 2023. After the death of his father, Mason visits his old family home which is scheduled to be torn down. While there, Mason finds a VHS camera that can see into the past. As Mason records video in and around the house he grew up in, the images he puts on tape show himself, his brothers, and his parents at various times throughout their past. Unfortunately, with the joy of nostalgia comes the knowledge that those times are gone forever. Director Paul Owens used real home movies from his childhood as the video we see Mason (Paul Owens’ actual brother) recording, and that combined with the naturalistic tone give LandLocked a feeling of something that is close to real life, yet just beyond our grasp.

74. Zombie Town

Zombie Town is based on the book of the same name by R.L. Stine. It is about two teenagers who try to undo a curse they unwittingly unleash when they watch a movie from a reclusive filmmaker. The curse threatens to turn everyone in town into zombies, and the man who made the film, Len Carver, may be the only person who can stop it. Zombie Town is geared towards a young audience, so this might be a good choice for family viewing.

75. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

In the 100 Acre Woods, Winnie the Pooh and his friends have gone feral. After Christopher Robin grew up and left his animal friends to go to college, the animal/human “abominations” had to fend for themselves. Now Christopher is back for a visit, but he discovers Pooh and Piglet are holding an intense grudge against Christopher and the rest of humanity for the suffering they had to endure after being left alone. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is a micro-budget slasher with all the tropes that come with that type of movie. It looks and sounds great for its budget, and if all you really want out of the movie is to see a creepy version of Winnie the Pooh kill people, it absolutely delivers.

76. It’s a Wonderful Knife

It’s a Wonderful Knife is an admirable attempt at creating a Christmas-horror classic, but it doesn’t necessarily come together in the end. One year after stopping (and killing) a murderer dressed all in white, Winnie (Jane Widdop), still isn’t over the loss of her best friend at the hands of the killer. Winnie’s life is falling apart, leading her to wish that she’d never been born. Magic happens, and Winnie is now is a world where she never existed… meaning the killer, The Angel, was never killed. While the premise is good, it splits focus away from its slasher setup too much at times. Also, the ending feels a bit too perfect in ways that don’t make sense with the rest of the movie.

77. The Ghost Station

If you’ve seen The Ring (any version of it), then you’ll have a good idea of what happens in The Ghost Station. There is a ghostly curse affecting people who visit a particular South Korean train station, and a journalist is investigating the curse’s origins. The basic plot of The Ghost Station plays out very similarly to The Ring, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid The Ghost Station. It’s well made, and the finale is particularly satisfying.

78. Perpetrator

In Perpetrator, Jonny is a young woman who gains a mysterious power when she turns eighteen. At a new school where young women tend to go missing, Jonny uses her power to try to find the truth about what is happening in her new town. Perpetrator has some great ideas and good scenes, but it also feels unnecessarily jarring in how its plot unfolds.

79. Bird Box: Barcelona

Writing too much about the setup and plot of Bird Box: Barcelona would ruin the best part about the movie. However, it is safe to say that the best reveal in the film happens very early on, and the later parts of the movie never fully capitalize on the potential of the premise.

80. Night of the Killer Bears

Night of the Killer Bears is a bit misleading. The poster art shows a killer teddy bear, but in the movie the killers are actually normal people wearing oversized bear masks. Once you get past that incongruity between the advertising and the actual film, Night of the Killer Bears is pretty good. It is a slasher movie with a few nice kills and a decent twist, but it does go on some strange tangents that feel out of place.

81. Pet Sematary: Bloodlines

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines is a prequel to the 2019 version of Pet Sematary, and it is the story of how Jud Crandall (Jackson White) became irrevocably connected to the cursed burial ground in the town of Ludlow. The way the story plays out is far removed from what makes the original Pet Sematary (the 1983 novel and the 1989 movie adaptation) so chilling. Specifically, by focusing on Jud Crandall who is merely discovering and reacting to the dark things that other people have done, the story sidesteps the emotional and moral implications of having a main character make those impossible decisions about life and death.

82. The Third Saturday in October Part V

The best part of The Third Saturday in October Part V is the idea of it. It is presented as a “lost” slasher movie from 1994, being only one of two movies in the entire franchise known to still exist. The movie itself is an okay low-budget slasher movie that is fun enough.

83. Gangnam Zombie

Gangnam Zombie is a South Korean zombie movie about an outbreak of a zombie infection. Employees of a struggling social-media channel are caught inside a shopping center as the zombie outbreak worsens, and they do what they can to try to survive and escape. The action is okay, but the best part of the movie is the chemistry between its two lead actors, Ji Il-joo and Park Ji-yeon. At the very least, they are a charming couple to pin your hopes of survival on.

84. Run Rabbit Run

In Run Rabbit Run, Sarah, a divorcee and mother to a young girl named Mia, becomes concerned when her daughter begins acting strangely. Mia claims to be someone she isn’t, someone from Sarah’s past. As the film moves on, Sarah’s grip on reality begins to falter as she deals with events she thought she’d left far behind. While the story in Run Rabbit Run is good, the movie feels drawn out at times despite the great performances from its cast.

85. Bury the Bride

A trip to a rundown house in the middle of nowhere for a bachelorette party turns into a night of survival for five women. The groom-to-be and his friends have a supernatural secret, and the women are intended to be their prey. The first half of Bury the Bride is really quite entertaining, but some odd decisions later in its run time make this a difficult film to recommend for most casual viewers.

86. All Fun and Games

All Fun and Games is, as the title would suggest, a take on the survival-game subgenre. In an abandoned house in Salem, Massachusetts, a boy finds a knife that he takes home. The knife has a strange power over him, and it compels the boy to coerce his brother, sister, and their friends into playing a game. His older brother becomes possessed, and he becomes a supernatural gamesmaster for games where losing means a horrible death. All Fun and Games is fun to a point, though towards the end the movie just seems to stop without a satisfying conclusion.

87. HeBGB TV

HeBGB TV (pronounced Heebie Jeebie TV) is an anthology horror comedy. With the exception of a few framing segments, it is presented as a television broadcast from a “mysterious cable box.” There are a variety of shorts, with longer stories dominating the later part of the movie. HeBGB TV is brightly colored and campy, and even though its comedy stylings won’t work for everyone, it can be great for the right audience.

88. The Unheard

The premise of The Unheard is intriguing. A hard-of-hearing young woman undergoes an experimental treatment to restore her hearing. She travels to her father’s remote home to spend time there for her recovery, but as her hearing begins to return she hears impossible things that begin to reveal dark secrets. Unfortunately, The Unheard takes a long time getting to the point, and the potential of its story is never fully realized.

89. The Price We Pay

The Price We Pay is a mashup of a crime thriller and a splatter film. The movie begins with a robbery that goes poorly, sending the perpetrators and their hostage into hiding at a remote farmhouse. It turns out the farm is secretly the location of an underground torture chamber and operating room where horrific acts take place. This all sounds great, but the movie itself is just okay.

90. Bad Things

Bad Things is psychological horror movie about a group of friends who spend a few days in an empty hotel. The baggage they bring with them is mostly of the mental variety, and the longer they stay, the more conflict arises. Bad Things is a riff on aspects of The Shining, complete with obvious allusions to the horror classic. Unfortunately, Bad Things suffers by comparison since it comes across as more disjointed than was probably intended.

2023 Horror Movies Ranked 91 and Beyond

• 91. In the Fire – This possession movie about a doctor (Amber Heard) traveling to a remote plantation in Spain to look after a possibly possessed boy is too heavy-handed with its “science vs. religion” themes.
• 92. Don’t Look Away – The cursed mannequin in Don’t Look Away is creepy at first, but the rules of its curse (as in, how it follows and kills people when they aren’t looking at it) are too obscure and undercut the scariness of the situation.
• 93. Kill Her Goats – This throwback slasher looks good on paper, but on your TV screen it is unfortunately rather dull.
• 94. The Loch Ness Horror – For a micro-budget action thriller with a digital Loch Ness Monster, this is okay.
• 95. Children of the Corn – An awkward and unnecessary retelling of the story originally written by Stephen King.
• 96. Sound of Silence – An evil entity haunting a radio is a fine idea, but the special effects are strange and the movie plods along slowly.
• 97. Megalodon: The Frenzy – If you want a good movie from 2023 with a shiver of megalodons, watch Meg 2: The Trench. If you want to see Eric Roberts starring in a movie from 2023 with a shiver of megalodons, watch Megalodon: The Frenzy.
• 98. Forest of Death – A nice no-budget effort about a shapeshifting monster in the woods, but it’s too much buildup and not enough payoff.
• 99. Santa Isn’t Real – A predictable plot and awkward editing makes this a good idea without great execution.
• 100. Three Blind Mice – The mice-monsters are neat, but the movie just runs in circles.
• 101. Monsternado – Dumb fun for the right audience, but a rip-off of a satire about bad movies was never going to be great.
• 102. House of Dolls – Despite a legitimately awesome looking killer and the welcome presence of Dee Wallace, this just isn’t very fun to watch.

Streaming Links for Horror Movies Released in 2023

Further Reading

• Best New Horror Movies of 2022
• Best Horror Movies of 2021
• New/Upcoming Horror Movies
• Best Horror Movies on Netflix Right Now
• Best Horror Movies on Shudder
• Best Horror Movies on Max
• Best Horror Movies on Hulu
• Noteworthy Horror Movies on Peacock