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This past year was notably a rough one for blockbusters, as many franchise films and tentpole releases failed to generate expected interest – but for the horror genre, the exact opposite was the case. Scary movies thrived in 2023, as not only was there a clear audience hunger, but filmmakers delivered some exceptional work to both the big screen and streaming services.
I personally ended up watching more than 40 new horror movies this year, and while it was a challenge to rank them, I’ve worked to put together my list of the best of the best. It’s a diverse mix of subgenres and tones, but if you haven’t seen any of them, I recommend them all.
15. Perpetrator
This past year featured a number of surreal cinematic experiences (a few of which will appear later in this list), and Jennifer Reeder’s Perpetrator is most definitely a mind-bender. It has a setup of a classic coming-of-age story, centering on a young woman (Kiah McKirnan) undergoing some… unusual bodily changes as she turns 18, but it comes outfitted with some wild world-building, a slasher-adjacent plot, and a whole lot of blood.
Perpetrator is a movie that feels disconnected from reality as we know it, and it takes full advantage of that atmosphere with plenty of strange plot turns and attitudes, as well as first-rate affectation-heavy, purposefully over-the-top turns from Alicia Silverstone and Christopher Lowell. It’s an experience to which you have to open yourself up, and it’s a trip if you do.
14. Leave The World Behind
Sam Esmail’s Leave The World Behind doesn’t need big swings to instill terror. It’s a cocktail that simply mixes a remote location, a collection of strangers, disabled transportation and communication, and some seeds on confusion. There are some big set pieces, but it mostly keeps things simple – and it’s ultimately very successful in getting under your skin.
Any film is going to benefit from having a cast outfitted with A-listers, and Leave The World Behind features outstanding work from Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, and Kevin Bacon, but the movie also just feels all too real and possible, and that causes it to stick around in your brain once it delivers that shocking final needle drop and the credits roll.
13. Evil Dead Rise
This year, a horror tradition was continued. Prior to 2023, we never saw a bad Evil Dead movie, and that remains the case following the release of Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise. The action is moved from a cabin in the woods to an apartment building in Los Angeles, but that just means it has new ways of unleashing unrelenting insanity in the tradition of the ultimate experience in grueling terror.
There’s a part of me that was disappointed the movie didn’t make a tonal deviation from Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead from 2013 (a la the differences between The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II and Army Of Darkness), but I simply like too much about what it does for that to be my dominant takeaway. Alyssa Sutherland makes a wonderful Deadite, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed we’ll someday see a team-up between Lily Sullivan’s Beth, Jane Levy’s Mia, and Bruce Campbell’s Ash.
12. Infinity Pool
Cinema skewering the ultra-rich is very much in vogue – from Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion to Mark Mylod’s The Menu to Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn – but Infinity Pool tackles that idea as only writer/director Brandon Cronenberg can. It’s an experiment in extremes, and it’s a feast for the senses while most definitely not being for the faint of heart.
Leads Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth are certainly no strangers to this kind of extreme cinema, but that makes their performances no less bold and dazzling – with the former leading the latter deeper and deeper into a world where, thanks to a special legal loophole, the super wealthy are essentially free from any consequence. I first saw it in January, and many images it unleashed remain tattooed on my brain 12 months later.
11. M3GAN (Unrated)
When I first watched Gerard Johnstone’s M3GAN at a pre-release press screening, I liked it, but I didn’t love it. The characters, story, and design are all great, but I felt that the PG-13 rating had a harmful impact on the movie’s stakes and plot escalation. That version of the film wouldn’t make it on to this list… but then I watched the unrated cut during my 2023 personal Spooky Season marathon, and it cemented a place for itself in my Top 15.
The unrated version of M3GAN is only six seconds longer, but showing the brutality of the ear ripping, the neighbor’s face burned by pesticide, and seeing Kurt (Stephane Garneau-Monten) bathed in his boss’ blood prove vital in demonstrating the extreme danger of the titular killer doll. Let off the leash, arguably the most hyped horror movie of 2023 lives up to the hype.
10. When Evil Lurks
I don’t feel like I have to say much more than “the dog and the girl” to justify the inclusion of Demián Rugna’s When Evil Lurks on my list of the best horror films of 2023. While protecting spoilers, it’s a strong contender for the most messed up thing to happen in a feature this year, and it’s going to be forever what springs to mind when reflecting on the movie. But it’s not all that the Argentinian production has to offer.
The extreme messiness of the characters’ lives adds an extra disturbing level of realism to everything that unfolds, and that pairs incredibly well with the rules that govern the titular evil. It’s well-paced, gets under your skin, and it’s ultimately so bleak that it’s hard to shake off.
9. Dark Harvest
David Slade’s Dark Harvest initially slipped under my radar when it was first released on PVOD in mid-October, but if it’s not clear by the ranking, I’m glad that I caught up with it before the end of the year. It sports a classic horror story setup – with a community being dedicated to a bizarre annual ritual as part of a tradition to stave off devastation – but it has its own twists to add to the mix and a satisfying and appropriately dark conclusion.
Compressed as the timeline of the narrative is, Casey Likes and E’myri Crutchfield provide wonderful emotional depth as leads Richie and Kelly, and I particularly enjoyed Luke Kirby’s purposefully extra turn as the intense Officer Jerry Ricks. There’s also some stellar creature design, practical effects and worldbuilding in the creation of the monstrous, pumpkin-headed Sawtooth Jack.
8. Birth/Rebirth
Marin Ireland had a superb 2023. She has a great supporting role in William Oldroyd’s dark and surprising Eileen, delivers the scariest human performance in Rob Savage’s The Boogeyman (a movie that just missed out on being on this list), and she is the best part of Laura Moss’ Birth/Rebirth. The movie delivers an excellent new twist on the Frankenstein mythos that hits its highest highs thanks to Ireland’s turn as the introverted/sociopathic mad scientist Dr. Rose Casper.
Of course, not to be sold short is Judy Reyes’ awesome work as Celie Morales – who begins the film as the audience’s anchor in reality but ends up being just as demented and dangerous as her accidental partner in resurrection. Laura Moss brings new ideas to the classic Pet Sematary maxim “sometimes dead is better,” and they’re clearly a talent to keep an eye on.
7. Suitable Flesh
As someone who loves Stuart Gordon’s H.P. Lovecraft adaptations Re-Animator and From Beyond, I am very much the target audience for Joe Lynch’s Suitable Flesh, and I love it for being the love letter that it is. There’s an unsettling darkness to the body swapping horror orchestrated by the antagonist entity, but also a thrilling and brazen sexuality that’s both rare today and is a necessary part of the homage.
Pulling a gender swap with Lovecraft’s story “The Thing On The Doorstep,” the movie provides us with the magical pairing that is Heather Graham and genre legend Barbara Crampton, and the practical horror work (highlights including the decapitation of “Ephraim” and exceptional use of a parking assist camera) is tremendous.
6. Beau Is Afraid
While Ari Aster’s Hereditary and Midsommar are almost unanimously considered instant modern horror classics, I perfectly understand that Beau Is Afraid is not for everyone. Its’ plotting is manic, the pacing is akin to an arrhythmia, and the sensibilities are extreme. I, however, am an individual for whom the film contains tremendous appeal, and I love it.
It’s a cinematic interpretation of crippling anxiety, and I love it for being as funny as it is disturbing and horrifying. The titular Beau’s whole existence in his apartment complex in the film’s first act is as nightmarish as anything that played on the big screen in 2023, and that’s before he gets on the road and deals with the unrelenting insanity that is his attempt to get to his mother’s funeral.
5. Influencer
Scream queens tend to get all the love in the horror genre, but not to be sidelined are the great femme fatales, and Cassandra Naud’s CW makes for a terrific one in Kurtis David Harder’s Influencer. At the jump, you think that the main character is Emily Tennant’s Madison, a seemingly vacuous social media maven on a splashy Thailand vacation, but she is just a fly to be caught in CW’s spider web, and watching the antagonist-turned-protagonist maneuver in the aftermath is stellar stuff.
I’ll admit that I saw Influencer’s big final twist coming, but that does nothing to diminish my appreciation for what the film does successfully – including its manipulation of audience biases and CW’s clever wriggling and brutality.
4. Godzilla Minus One
The biggest problem with the MonsterVerse movies is that none of the characters are particularly memorable– and Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One is a demonstration that things could be much better. The disaster unleashed by the titular King of the Monsters is no joke and utterly terrifying (which is why it qualifies for this list), but what makes the film particularly special is the journey of Ryunosuke Kamiki’s Kōichi Shikishima and his battle with unyielding guilt in the wake of World War II.
Instead of just waiting for the next time that Godzilla shows up, the film does a spellbinding job unfolding Kōichi’s path to redemption – plagued by first his failure as a kamikaze pilot and then his inability to embrace and protect those he loves. It’s spectacular blockbuster storytelling, and it’s shocking that the film was made for under $15 million.
3. Dream Scenario
Horror is the secret weapon in Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario. The movie features an imaginative story, an off-beat character for star Nicolas Cage, and a number of big laughs – but it’s when things get scary that the film really takes off. One of the key themes of the film is the inability to control how others perceive you, and that brilliantly hits home when the narrative starts delivering literal nightmares.
Unafraid to gamble with tone, Kristoffer Borgli doesn’t pull punches when people start seeing Cage’s Paul Matthews as the perpetrator of their deepest fears, and they’re not only freaky to watch, but it’s then enthralling to watch the consequences unfold. And that’s all without recognizing the escalating nightmare that it is for Paul, as mysterious universal forces tear his life to ribbons for seemingly no reason.
2. No One Will Save You
Writer/director Brian Duffield’s Spontaneous made my personal Top 10 list when it was released in 2020, so I was naturally outfitted with high expectations prior to seeing his 2023 follow-up, No One Will Save You. I went in simply hoping to see a rad home invasion film where the invaders are classic grey aliens, but it’s really so much more, and it blew me away.
The fact that there’s no dialogue never feels like a gimmick, but it does make the film a showcase for the phenomenal acting talents of Kaitlyn Dever, as we understand everything she is feeling without the need for words. The tight narrative is not only thrilling and frequently surprising (including its bonkers ending), but the whole structure can be looked at as a fascinating reflection of the five stages of grief. It’s remarkable, and in most years, it would probably rank as my favorite of the year, but in 2023 we also got…
1. Talk To Me
Danny and Michael Phillipou’s Talk To Me sports my favorite high concept plot of the year: what if teens treated possession like a party drug? This idea is a natural avenue for fun – centering on a group of charismatic teens excited by the taboo new “thing” – but when it makes its real full dive into terror, it’s akin to one’s grip on the ceramic hand at the center of the story in that it doesn’t let go.
Newcomer Sophie Wilde instantly establishes herself as a stunning screen presence (hopeful future scream queen?), and the way that the film both nimbly dances around tropes and keeps certain questions unanswered is masterful. It’s at times a brutal experience (you have to be careful not to bite your own tongue witnessing the intense scenes of Joe Bird’s Riley smashing his own head), and in addition to being my favorite horror movie of the year, Talk To Me features my favorite scary scene of the year: Mia’s glimpse into hell.
Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend in the coming days and weeks for more of our lists ranking the best of the best films of 2023, and get ready for all of the cinematic scares on the way in 2024 with our upcoming horror movies guide.