From the blockbuster success of Five Nights at Freddy’s to small releases like Mind Leech, 2023 featured a wide array of horror entries. But before we get into the best horror movies of 2023, let’s break down the year in horror and touch on some honorable mentions.
2023 Spilled Fresh Blood & Revived Familiar Haunts
Franchise horror fans had plenty to love in 2023, with new chapters in ongoing spine-tingling sagas including Scream VI, The Nun II, Saw X, V/H/S/85, Insidious: The Red Door, The Exorcist: Believer, and two films that cracked our top five of the year. Though we’re focusing on film, it’s worth noting that the Chucky likewise saw a continuation of its story in 2023 with the third season of its SyFy series. Between the recent casting update for Smile‘s sequel, the first teaser for Terrifier 3, and Ti West’s highly anticipated MaXXXine, 2024 is already shaping up to deliver a continued healthy serving of franchise horror.
It wouldn’t be another year of horror without a visit to the Stephen King estate, with this year’s King adaptations including The Boogeyman and Pet Sematary: Bloodlines. King wasn’t the only horror author brought to the screen in 2023, though this year’s most impactful literary retelling was delivered in the realm of television with Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher. However, H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Thing at the Doorstep” received a film adaptation in Suitable Flesh, and a wickedly entertaining reimagining of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein made its way into this year’s top five. Additionally, Bram Stoker’s Dracula saw two vastly different retellings this year in Renfield and The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
Though no meme remotely touched the heights of Barbenheimer, The Last Voyage of the Demeter inspired some run-off “Dracula on a Boat” memes among moviegoers looking to fill the atom bomb-sized hole left in Christopher Nolan and Greta Gerwig’s wake. Other meme-worthy horror titles this year included Me3gan, Skinamarink, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. The so-bad-its-good movie podcast How Did This Get Made? even dedicated an episode to Russell Crowe’s Italian accent in this year’s The Pope’s Exorcist.
Aside from the intentional and unintentional meme fodder, 2023 delivered an incredible class of genuine horror comedies. Totally Killer, El Conde, Slotherhouse, Summoning Sylvia, and Final Cut each carved out unique homes in the horror comedy landscape, but one of our upcoming honorable mentions proved the breakout star in its class.
Horror fans know where to go to scratch their itches, and films like Sick, Cobweb, Influencer, Where the Devil Roams, Satanic Hispanics, The Offering, and Brooklyn 45 certainly found success with their respective audiences this year despite not quite earning mainstream buzz. 2023 additionally served a fair share of horror films that appealed strongly to the arthouse crowd with Infinity Pool, Enys Men, and Beau is Afraid.
Lastly, Eli Roth fans were given plenty to latch onto this year beyond his new film Thanksgiving. The acclaimed horror director served as producer on Eli Roth’s Be Mine: A VR Valentine’s Slasher and the 2023 television series Eli Roth Presents: The Legend of Exorcists, The Haunted Museum, and the animated Fright Krewe.
Honorable Mentions
Before diving into 2023’s honorable mentions, it is worth discussing Late Night With the Devil, which has earned a tremendous deal of festival buzz from horror fans and critics. While the film technically debuted this year, it will not become widely available to audiences until March 2024.
No One Will Save You
Just before rumors started to circulate that Kaitlyn Dever was being eyed for the role of Abby in The Last of Us Season 2, audiences were gifted a stunning display of her talents in No One Will Save You. The mostly dialogue-free film blended home invasion horror with sci-fi, carving a distinct voice for itself in the 2023 horror landscape. Though the larger sci-fi concepts at play didn’t necessarily pay dividends for all audiences, No One Will Save You‘s unique take on the home invasion genre and Dever’s captivating performance still made the film a standout 2023 entry.
The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
Frankenstein has inspired a plethora of cinematic retellings, but The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster managed to earn a fresh place in the story’s eternal legacy. Though an obsession with overcoming death gripped seventeen-year-old genius Vicaria, her experimentation soon took on a haunting life of its own in The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster. Laya Deleon Hayes shined as Vicaria, and the film represented a promising feature debut for writer and director Bomani J. Story.
The Blackening
The crème de la crème of 2023’s horror comedy offerings, The Blackening positioned itself as the modern answer to the Scary Movie franchise. The uproarious film welcomed Juneteenth into the fold of novelty holiday horror and enjoyed both commercial and critical success. While The Blackening evoked elements of self-aware predecessors like Scream and The Cabin in the Woods, the film’s engaging and hilarious ensemble gave rise to something truly one of a kind.
The Top 5 Horror Movies of 2023
Though 2023 had a little something for every variety of horror fan, here are the films that managed to crawl their way through the grime and gore to earn their place on our year’s top five list.
5) Huesera: The Bone Woman
Huesera: The Bone Woman presented the type of body horror that naturally made audiences squirm in their seats. Aside from the visceral bone breaking itself, the film reiterated the age-old lesson that pregnancy and horror never go hand-in-hand.
Though Natalia Solián’s Valeria initially delighted in the news of her pregnancy, the events of Huesera: The Bone Woman took on a twisted, supernatural edge certain to appeal to fans of classics like Rosemary’s Baby. As with The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster, Huesera: The Bone Woman introduced audiences to a promising up-and-coming voice in director Michelle Garza Cervera. The director took home the Best New Narrative Director award for the Spanish-language horror film at the Tribeca Festival.
4) Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor
Found footage horror can often be a gamble, and the Hell House franchise perfectly encapsulates the subgenre’s highs and lows. While the first Hell House LLC film earned a cult following, sequels Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel and Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire fell short in the estimations of both fans and critics. However, 2023’s Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor unveiled a surprising new chapter outside the walls of the Abaddon Hotel.
Though elaborating on the lore established in the three previous films, the fourth Hell House LLC film can be enjoyed independently. Margot, Rebecca, and Chase’s supernatural investigation into the supposedly haunted Carmichael Manor came complete with clowns, haunted Zoom calls, and playful ghost children.
3) Evil Dead Rise
Though Evil Dead’s a much more recognizable franchise than Hell House LLC, the Deadite-driven horror was in a somewhat similar position coming into 2023. Despite the successful television adaptation Ash vs. Evil Dead, the franchise’s last attempt at a film reboot did not do much to move the needle with fans.
A decade after 2013’s mildly received Evil Dead, A Hole in the Ground’s Lee Cronin reanimated the series with aplomb. The standalone Evil Dead Rise delivered an entirely different breed of maternal horror than Huesera: The Bone Woman as Lily Sullivan’s Beth attempted to protect herself and her sister Ellie’s children from their newly transformed Deadite mother.
2) Talk to Me
Australian teenager Mia pushed her grief to its limits in Talk to Me, a film that imagined communing with the dead as a twisted viral trend. Life quickly spiraled out of hand when Mia sucked her friends into the orbit of the eerie and addictive party trick from which the film derived its title.
Talk to Me joined the growing canon of acclaimed A24 horror entries such as Hereditary, Midsommar, and Pearl. The film’s centerpiece, a graffitied plaster hand, instantly earned a spot among the year’s overall horror iconography, with replicas of the cursed object available for purchase on A24’s site.
1) When Evil Lurks
From the aforementioned Huesera: The Bone Woman to Season 2 of the Max series 30 Coins, 2023 has proven a banner year for Spanish-language horror, and When Evil Lurks is certainly no exception. The demonic thriller from Argentina clocks in as our number-one horror film of 2023.
When Evil Lurks saw brothers Pedro and Jaime Yazurlo attempt to contain a demonic infection. A wholly unique entry into the possession subgenre, When Evil Lurks has no shortage of gore, tension, and overwhelming dread. Beyond the captivating content and directorial voice of the film itself, When Evil Lurks represents an additional milestone for Shudder, serving as the streaming service’s first Spanish-language production.
For more of our Best of lists for 2023, check out the following:
