It’s the time of year when even casual fans are looking for something spooky to watch, but where do you begin? Of course, all the streaming services have robust catalogs of some of the best that the horror genre has ever offered, but maybe you want to catch up with something from this year too? It’s been a strong year for the genre as highlights include the birth of a new slasher icon, a few Shudder originals, and even a Netflix movie that you probably haven’t seen. Here are quotes from 10 of our highest rated horror flicks so far this year along with information on where to watch it.
Luis Javier Henaine’s film reminded me of classic works by Craven and Carpenter wherein deeply flawed men who think they know everything about the world discovered there are things well outside of their control in films like “Serpent and the Rainbow” and “In the Mouth of Madness.” Also like those films, “Disappear Completely” has the feel of a slow-motion car crash. While it’s gorgeously shot, Henaine doesn’t allow for a lot of hope. His protagonist thinks he can find a way out of his downward spiral. We know that’s unlikely to happen. – Brian Tallerico
Available on Netflix.
“Two genre films that revel in supernatural Catholic horror? In this economy?,” you might rightfully ask. But allow this critic to assure you that you should consider yourself lucky for this contemporary time in movie theaters that gleefully slices up an abdomen and lets it hemorrhage as if it’s the bloody ‘60s or ‘70s out there. In that, if “Immaculate” is a fiendish wink towards the Giallos and nunsploitation flicks of the era, then the massively talented first-time feature director Arkasha Stevenson’s “The First Omen” is both in the latter camp, and a first-rate paranoid thriller with a vintage tinge à la “Rosemary’s Baby”. – Tomris Laffly
Available on Hulu.
“I Saw the TV Glow” mostly takes place during Owen’s older teenage years, when arresting questions of identity, sexuality, and personhood often occur with urgency. A transformative Justice Smith takes the reins of Owen, playing this outcast with the wounded rawness of a permanent scar. Owen’s young adult years are stained by personal loss and his on-again, off-again friendship with Maddy, which takes shape through and around their shared love of “The Pink Opaque,” a show that feels like a throwback to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” The show provides a window into the crushing angst Owen feels but cannot name, while his direct addresses offer intermittent grounding for his self-sabotaging. The push-pull manages to lull the viewer into a quiet trance before unmooring them into a state of unbridled panic. – Robert Daniels
Available on Max.
The most fascinating thing about Chris Nash’s hyperviolent slasher experiment “In a Violent Nature” is that it’s not scary. At least, not in the way that the “Friday the 13th“-esque splatter flicks he’s clearly riffing on used to be. There are no jump scares, few bouts of high-wire tension, and no ambiguity about who the final girl will be. And yet, “Violent Nature” ends up one of the most fascinating, oddly serene horror entries of the year so far, precisely because it flips the mechanics of the slasher on their head and asks you to imagine what it’d be like to be Jason Voorhees — a simple, demonically-risen man who gets up and clocks into work every day to do what he does best: disembowel. – Clint Worthington
Available on Shudder.
“Infested”
Spiders. Why’d it have to be spiders? Any of us who flinch at the sight of a spider can confirm the many legged arachnids are an easy source of terror. Most of us don’t like finding them on our windowsills, crawling on our walls, or making thread-y homes of their own in forgotten crevices. They are our foes as much as any unwelcome pest—even if they are helpful in keeping out other creepy crawlies. In Sébastien Vanicek’s nightmarish feature debut “Infested,” there are more spiders than you can count and spiders of unusual size that weave together a frightfully stellar monster movie that will make many viewers jump, squirm, and maybe even scream. – Monica Castillo
Available on Shudder.
“MadS”
One of the most highly buzzed premieres at Fantastic Fest this year was the wonderfully chaotic “MadS,” a film I was summarizing to those who would listen as “George A. Romero’s ‘Run Lola Run.’” It’s a one-shot stunner that, like Tykwer’s beloved film, unfolds in a very tight window of chaos on one crazy night. But, like so much Romero, it’s also about the blood-soaked end of the world. (And it features wonderfully twitchy physical movements by its infected characters that are clearly inspired by a legacy of brain eaters.) David Moreau, the writer of the fantastic “Ils” (aka “Them”) from 2006, wants to rivet you to the screen with his directorial debut, pushing aside the era of elevated horror to embrace something more like chaotic horror. It doesn’t always have to “mean something”. Sometimes, you just want to enjoy the rollercoaster. – Brian Tallerico
Available on Shudder.
“Oddity”
“Caveat,” Damian Mc Carthy’s directorial debut, was unnerving in the extreme. So, too, is his follow-up, “Oddity”. “Oddity” is, if anything, even more unsettling. In “Caveat,” Mc Carthy created a creeping sense of dread and outright terror, sometimes from merely pointing the camera at a slightly ajar door. Mc Carthy has patience as a filmmaker. He can wait. He doesn’t try to overwhelm with easy jump-scares. He allows the sense of uneasiness to build and build. Both “Caveat” and “Oddity” share a fascination with potentially supernatural objects, maybe cursed, but also maybe sentient. In “Caveat,” it’s a toy rabbit with alarming angry glass eyes. In “Oddity,” it’s a life-size wooden man. There’s something weird about these objects. They loom large in Mc Carthy’s imagination. – Sheila O’Malley
Available on Shudder.
As written and directed by James Watkins (“The Woman in Black”), adapting a much bleaker but same-titled Danish original, it’s a fun audience movie, best enjoyed on a Friday or Saturday night in a packed theater where shouting, “Get out of there, you dummy!” at the screen is not only tolerated but expected. The movie might also be of interest to therapists who tell their patients that they need to listen to that inner voice that tells them they need to leave an abusive relationship and not let themselves get talked into staying. There are a lot of teachable moments here, some involving homemade weapons. – Matt Zoller Seitz
Available on VOD.
Feeling crushed by impossible beauty standards and society’s hyperfixation on youth is nothing new. But Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” arrives in the wake of the Ozempic era, when a quick shot promises weight loss that seemed impossible to achieve without going under the knife just a few years ago. In my social media feed, the ads offer the chance to “feel like your old self again” and to give it a try for cheap and see fast results. Tempting, isn’t it? The parallels between GLP-1 weight-loss drugs to the movie’s aforementioned substance end there. But Fargeat, who wrote and directed the film, twists the search for a “fountain of youth” shot into a blood-and-neon drenched spectacle. – Monica Castillo
Available on MUBI.
Only, we haven’t. “You’ll Never Find Me,” the debut feature from Australian film-makers Indianna Bell and Josiah Allen, is a unique and startling film, decidedly its own “thing,” albeit steeped in the horror tradition. The sense of ambiguity, of not being sure what to think, of who to root for, is so thick it’s almost a solid substance. The two characters trudge through a sludge of suspicion and paranoia. The texture of “You’ll Never Find Me” is masterfully sustained, so that the atmosphere’s mix of pure fear and murky confusion is a waking nightmare, or one of those dreams where you know something terrifying is chasing you, and you are frozen in place. – Sheila O’Malley
Available on Shudder.
