12 Best Horror Movies Of The Last 10 Years, Ranked

Heading into 2015, horror fans had no idea how exciting the genre was about to get. The rising dominance of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu meant more filmmakers would be able to execute weirder ideas that might not satisfy studios thinking theatrically. At the same time, they made watching international breakouts from countries like Japan and South Korea even easier to access. Meanwhile, distributors like Neon and A24 began to see more success platforming rising filmmakers with transgressive visions for the genre's future, giving way to the pseudo-subgenre known as "elevated horror."

These developments, occurring as major studios like Warner Brothers and Universal Pictures continued to invest in the blockbuster scares audiences expect, have created a cinematic landscape that sees horror films going toe-to-toe with superhero behemoths. In America, Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" out-grossed every Marvel Cinematic Universe film released in 2025. The vampire flick — along with "V/H/S: Halloween," "Weapons," and "Companion" – outranks every other film in the top ten domestic highest-grossing films of the year on Rotten Tomatoes. The last ten years could very well be seen as the decade that changed horror forever. For now, though, let's rank our favorite films from this period.

Even though comedians turn in top-tier horror movies on a regular basis, it's still a little jarring that Jim from "The Office" is responsible for one of the biggest contemporary horror franchises. After directing small-scale dramas "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" and "The Hollars," John Krasinski pivoted in a major way with "A Quiet Place," a science fiction screamfest that would require him to carefully employ a $17 million budget to deliver on a script (originally written by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck) carried by numerous action set pieces and CGI alien adversaries. Perhaps he was able to conserve a bit when it came to the cast, as he employed himself and his real-life spouse Emily Blunt as the film's leads.

When we first meet their characters, Lee and Evelyn Abbott, the world of "A Quiet Place" has already seemingly fallen to predatory Death Angels, an invasive extraterrestrial species that hunts exclusively by sound. Though the family of five is fortunately practiced in non-verbal communication due to the fact that the couple's daughter Reagan (Millicent Simmonds) is non-hearing and communicates through ASL, this harsh and unforgiving new world takes its toll on them almost immediately. The film follows their attempts to move past unspeakable grief as they search for a safe place for Evelyn to give birth to their fourth child.

Inventive and surprising, "A Quiet Place" was Krasinski's first critical and commercial hit, grossing over $340 million worldwide. It has since spawned a direct sequel and standalone prequel, which were both similarly successful.

Speaking of massive horror franchises that came somewhat out of the blue, it's hard to imagine anyone at Warner Bros. fully understood what was coming when they released "The Conjuring" over a decade ago. The 2013 film was a fairly simple haunted house movie, the likes of which were far from uncommon at the time. Even the film's protagonists, infamous real-life occult investigators and demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, had already inspired numerous films, from 1979's "The Amityville Horror" to 2009's "The Haunting in Connecticut." So why did this one film gross over ten times its budget and spawn nine sequels and spin-offs?

For the second half of that question, we'd argue it had a lot to do with returning director James Wan and returning screenwriters Chad and Carey W. Hayes managing to outdo themselves in every possible way with "The Conjuring 2," specifically with regard to the two main characters. Both the screenplay and the performances from stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga render the Warrens as dramatically compelling protagonists, with their relationship serving as the emotional backbone for the sequel. (It was such a strong component of the plot that it convinced Wan to return.) At the same time, either because Warner Bros. had become interested in potential spin-offs or the writers were simply that locked-in on the script, the villains are equally captivating and even more terrifying than those featured in the first. "The Conjuring 2" is one of the best horror sequels ever made, period, and it's just an added benefit that it can basically be enjoyed on its own.

It's been a great decade to be a Stephen King fan. Between the slew of solid streaming adaptations produced by Netflix, well-received theatrical releases like "The Monkey" and "The Long Walk" (perhaps the best adaptation of the author's work to date), and Edgar Wright's highly-anticipated remake of "The Running Man," King's contemporary renaissance has enjoyed a surprising amount of runway — especially considering it started in 2017 with "It." Though Andy Muschietti's take on King's behemoth horror epic was released the same year Mike Flanagan gave us "Gerald's Game," there's no questioning the impact the former film had.

Bill Skarsgård is nothing short of a revelation as Pennywise the Clown, a manifestation of a demonic entity that haunts the small town of Derry, Maine. His work surpasses creepy clown stereotypes, with smart, intentional use of CGI effects making him appear appropriately uncanny and impossibly powerful, such that he becomes a credibly terrifying threat to the talented ensemble of child actors. And these young performers are just as responsible as Skarsgård for getting audiences genuinely invested in the fates of the children at the heart of the story.

Further, it was a brilliant decision on the part of Muschietti and the screenwriters to keep "It" focused on young Bill Denbrough's (Jaeden Martell) search for his missing little brother. It gives "It" the ability to give audiences a satisfying story on its own, without relying on its ultimately messy sequel for full narrative payoff.

Part of what makes looking back at the last decade in horror so fun is that, with this period containing the rise of studios like A24 and Neon, there is a proper mix of that now-dominant sort of "elevated," glossy, "Film Twitter" horror movie alongside the sort of weird, mid-2010s low-budget frightfests that you'd mostly hear about through passionate horror nerds working at sites like ours. There was nothing better than scouring the web and finding a scrappy hidden gem like "Creep" or "The Taking of Deborah Logan," having little to go on but some verbose stranger's opinion. "The Autopsy of Jane Doe" was one of the last horror movies released during this era — and if you didn't take our word back in 2016, now's your chance to trust us and enjoy one of the 2010s' most uniquely terrifying horror movies.

The majority of "The Autopsy of Jane Doe" takes place in a small town mortuary, where father-son coroner duo Tommy and Austin Tilden (Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch) struggle to understand the circumstances that led to a young, unidentified woman — referred to as a "Jane Doe" (and played by Olwen Catherine Kelly) — winding up on their table. Ian Goldberg and Richard Naing's script is exceptionally well-equipped to keep revelations steady and increasingly disturbing, almost using Jane's corpse as a grotesque mystery box that unleashes dark discoveries with each fresh cut. Director André Øvredal takes the challenging limitations of the film's setting head on, exhausting the sensual tools at his disposal to ring out every scare he possibly can. And if you still aren't ready to take our word that "The Autopsy of Jane Doe" is worth your movie night, ask Stephen King himself what movie he's too afraid to watch alone.

Though the increasing prevalence of social media subcultures has led to a significant over-saturation of discourse around certain films (especially those released by A24), there's no denying that the distribution house has helped ensure great, under-the-radar horror movies now enjoy the mainstream critical and commercial success that helps the genre grow. A perfect and relatively recent example of this is "Talk to Me," a shockingly brutal teen ghost story from Australian first-time feature directors Danny and Michael Phillipou that had enough vicious kid violence to potentially alienate a pre-"Weapons" moviegoing audience.

After spending almost a year screening the film at festivals to secure international distribution territory by territory, "Talk to Me" was released worldwide in 2023. Critics rightly lauded the final product for its novel premise, uniquely devastating narrative tone, and technically immaculate work from all involved, especially the actors. For how gratuitously gruesome the movie gets, it earns each broken bone and split skull through the moving character work of the cast, especially Sophie Wilde and Miranda Otto.

"Talk to Me" was a runaway hit at the box office, swiftly becoming the highest-grossing horror movie A24 had ever touched at the time. Today, it continues to terrify new audiences discovering it through streamers like Netflix.

We promise the rest of this list is not a full A24 sweep. But when a film is as bizarre, haunting, and impactful on the landscape of horror as "The Witch," it deserves a high position on a list like this. Since the release of this 2015 puritanical period horror masterpiece, writer-director Robert Eggers has gone on to become not only one of the distributor's most relied-upon filmmakers, but a defining voice in the contemporary horror genre. It has been popularly argued that "The Witch" itself is responsible for the "elevated horror" trend, setting the stage for another A24 mega hit to make it spread like wildfire.

On its own merits, however, "The Witch" is an excellent and effectively scary feature, tailor-made for horror fans who enjoy the kind of film that actively antagonizes them for continuing to watch it. For readers who haven't trod down the wooden path before, it plays out like a dark 17th century folktale, following a family of Puritan refugees who accidentally encroach upon the territory of a cruel and powerful witch. Among the cast is a young Anya Taylor-Joy, just a year before her breakout role in M. Night Shyamalan's "Split." She impressively anchors the film as Thomasin, a young girl who endures every trauma Eggers can imagine within a 90-minute runtime. Eggers struggles to get through "The Witch" now himself, but we're always ready to return to the forest once more.

Fans of South Korea cinema have likely already encountered "The Wailing," a 2016 horror film from writer-director Na Hong-jin that drew near unanimous and international acclaim upon its release. It follows the strange happenings in a small village in rural South Korea, where citizens have developed symptoms of a demonic possession that ultimately compels them to attack those they are closest to. As paranoia begins to take over, policeman Jong-goo (Kwak Do-won) attempts to uncover the root of the evil that has infected his town, including his young daughter.

Aside from the steady onslaught of scares, "The Wailing" succeeds because it smartly pairs the deliciously foreboding dread of a good horror movie with the tense unraveling of a mystery. The town becomes increasingly sure that a singular citizen is responsible for the bloodshed, giving Jong-goo's investigation the feel of a serial killer hunt in a crime thriller. And for readers especially interested in horror movies with a devilish twist, "The Wailing" offers an occult experience that can't be compared to many other movies in the genre.

Some readers may take issue with us choosing to start our top 5 with a pick released so recently, and, yes, normally even an exceptional film that hasn't spent a full calendar year in the public consciousness might warrant a heavy dose of caution. But we're willing to make an exception for "Sinners," which has remained a strong contender for the most culturally significant movie of the year despite being released all the way back in April.

Ryan Coogler took a fresh bite out of the vampire subgenre with this 2025 hit, which became the first original film to gross $200 million at the domestic box office since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Michael B. Jordan shines as the calm, cool, cash-collecting mobster-turned-business owner Elijah "Smoke" Moore, starring opposite Coogler's second favorite actor Michael B. Jordan, who plays Elijah's twin brother Elias "Stack" Moore. But even with double the star power fighting for focus, newcomer Miles Caton steals the film as the brothers' younger cousin Sammie, who is willing to give anything — perhaps even his soul — to play in the jazz club the twins want to open.

Scary, sexy, and fueled by a powerful passion for music (special recognition is owed to composer Ludwig Göransson), "Sinners" is by far one of the best films of 2025 overall. There's no question in our minds that audiences will be revisiting this movie more than most others for decades to come.

For many horror fans, "Hereditary" is the definitive horror movie of the past ten years. This doesn't necessarily mean the best, or even the most influential — though few would argue Ari Aster's head-spinning 2018 debut feature has been used as inspiration for studios and up-and-coming filmmakers eager to capitalize on the appetite it identified in moviegoers.

Rather, "Hereditary" is the definitive movie of this period for the simple fact that it became the horror movie all other horror movies were compared to, favorably or otherwise. It became synonymous with a range of immediately identifiable qualities audiences craved in serious, adult horror films: artistically striking visual presentation, transgressive themes and plot points, unhinged performances from respected actors, and imagery that was all at once surprising and viscerally disturbing.

From the film's opening sequence to its haunting end, "Hereditary" is so narratively, visually, and atmospherically arresting that it is sincerely hard to enjoy other horror movies in the same way until you let yourself come down from the experience. It was a paradigm shift in the world of popular horror cinema that every fan deserves to experience.

Plenty of horror movies have introduced elements of hardcore action into their narratives, but none of them strike quite as hard as "Train to Busan." Directed by Yeon Sang-ho and starring Gong Yoo (maybe best known for playing the enigmatic ddakji recruiter in the Netflix series "Squid Game") and Ma Dong-seok (also known as Don Lee, the actor who played Gilgamesh in Marvel's "Eternals"), "Train to Busan" is a claustrophobic zombie bloodfest that's as cathartically violent as it is terrifying.

Anchored by a movingly human story about a father doing his best to be there for his young daughter, the film quickly evolves from a simmering, tense voyage on the rails to a mad sprint toward humanity's last hope of salvation. Yeon uses the unique architecture of the train to elevate the growing threat of the undead, pushing the survivors back car by car. Even today it's proof that, especially after "The Walking Dead" and "World War Z," there are still imaginative ways to rework the zombie subgenre. "Train to Busan" has grossed over $95 million worldwide since it premiered in 2016, earning Yeon the chance to helm two follow-up films set in the same universe.

Of all the films on this list, "One Cut of the Dead" is the one readers are least likely to have seen. This is due to a variety of reasons, the largest one being that it's an independent Japanese film that never got a formal international rollout except for eventually being included in Shudder's dauntingly vast catalog. It also might have something to do with the niche streamer's unusual approach to marketing their acquisition: Shudder was so averse to revealing anything about the film's actual narrative that the trailer actually urged potential viewers to click away and give "One Cut of the Dead" a shot in the dark.

Though it's true that this is a film best experienced with as little context as possible, we'd hate for coyness to result in readers not being enticed by one of the best found footage horror movies ever made. To keep it brief, "One Cut of the Dead" is an impossible-to-predict zombie thriller that unfolds on the set of a low-budget Japanese horror film. Shocking, exciting, and hilariously meta, readers will not be disappointed if they blindly select "One Cut of the Dead" as their Halloween watch.

Eight years later, we're comfortable calling Jordan Peele's "Get Out" the greatest directorial debut of the 2010s. The 2017 horror movie about a Black man (Daniel Kaluuya) trying to survive a weekend with his white girlfriend's (Allison Williams) wealthy and eccentric family is an unimpeachable modern classic. Peele's mastery of the genre, evident in his confident visual style and total command of pacing and tension, is married perfectly to genuinely profound social commentary that's accessible regardless of what your background is. And yet, for all it accomplishes intellectually and artistically, "Get Out" also manages to be a darkly entertaining adventure for all moviegoers.

"Get Out" was an instant hit when it was first released, crushing a sleepy February box office and transforming Peele from a sketch comedy favorite into a superstar filmmaker overnight. He was nominated for and ultimately awarded his first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay later that year. Though his subsequent films "Us" and "Nope" failed to capture the same unanimous praise, their generally accepted quality overall proves that "Get Out" was no mere stroke of luck, but the first strike of a horror auteur coming into his own before our eyes. The film was also the first financial success for Peele's Monkeypaw Productions company, which has since produced films like Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman," the Netflix animated feature "Wendell and Wild," and the ill-fated football horror flick "Him."