Certainly, enduring one of the most terrifying years in recent history should have emboldened even the most delicate viewer to sit down and watch a few horror movies—and there were plenty of great ones to choose. The best part about it? You can watch them all from the comfort of your own home, with the lights on and a free bucket of popcorn.
It’s no surprise that many of the films on this list take place at home; it’s where we’ve spent the most time this year. For some, it’s a sanctuary, but for others, it’s a hotbed of terror raring to erupt at any moment. These films run the gamut of emotion, from grief to guilt and tremendous cabin fever—things we can all relate to, not only this year but always. These offerings include siblings wracked with regret, survivors of domestic abuse, and mothers barely keeping it together for their families. But just before things become utterly hopeless, there are the two unlikely friends who decide to face off against the undead. The movies here aren’t for the faint of heart, but they all have one thing in common: grit.
Before 2020 ends, buckle up and hit play on these horrifying contributions. You’ll be glad you did, even if you feel inclined to look under your bed before you fall asleep afterward.
1The Dark and the Wicked
Writer-director Bryan Bertino (The Strangers) returns to scare the living shit out of you in this emotional horror set on a secluded farm in Anytown, USA. There, we meet Louise (Marin Ireland) and her brother, Michael (Michael Abbott Jr.), estranged for who knows how long and reunited under grim circumstances: the impending death of their father (Michael Zagst). Almost immediately, Bertino gives us the sense that something is awry with the film’s startling silence, sans for the wind blowing outside. When Louise and Michael begin experiencing increasingly eerie visions, we soon realize that Father’s death isn’t the only one feared. The utterly horrifying The Dark and the Wicked lives up to every word of its title with a story of abandonment and bereavement that is all too resonant today.
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2The Lodge
Grief catalyzes writers-directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s nightmarish film that centers on two siblings (Lia McHugh and Jaeden Martell) who lose their mother and are instantaneously pulled into a new relationship with their dad’s mysterious fiancée (Riley Keough). As the trio coops up together at the eponymous residence, more and more frightening and inexplicable things happen that cause both the siblings and their stepmom-to-be to begin suspecting each other. The Lodge is a completely terrifying film that also leaves you looking at each of the characters a little sideways by its macabre conclusion.
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3Relic
Sensitively examining mental decay brought on by dementia, writer-director Natalie Erika James immerses the audience in a familial story that is both devastating and horrifyingly claustrophobic. We meet Edna (Robyn Nevin), an elderly woman struggling with her grip on reality when her worried daughter, Kay (Emily Mortimer), and granddaughter, Sam (Bella Heathcote), pay her a fateful visit. They are consumed by the frightening deterioration of the house, as well as everyone—and everything—in it. James kicks the haunted house genre to a chilling and emotional new level.
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432 Malasaña Street
Director Albert Pintó was clearly inspired by the throwback haunted-house horror of James Wan’s The Conjuring series because 32 Malasaña Street is packed to the gills with genuine terror in every corner of its titular residence. Set in 1976 Spain, Pintó introduces us to a family already grappling with emotional wounds of the past and present when they must confront the creepy ghosts that live among them. Pintó—with screenwriters Gema R. Neira, David Orea, Salvador S. Molina, and Ramón Campos—gets a wee bit bogged down trying to build out a clumsy backstory of one specter, but he succeeds with a legitimately spooky movie that you may only be able to watch with the lights on.
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5Metamorphosis
This is another example of an old horror premise that is successfully revamped for modern audiences. Korean filmmaker Hong-seon Kim takes the classic possession plotline and kicks it up a notch by centering it within the confines of one loving family. With the smoothness of John Carpenter’s The Thing, the dread of Metamorphosis comes from the heightened anxieties of each relative—the source of evil gliding from one to another as they fruitlessly try to identify then exorcise it. Kim is ultimately interrogating the evil mentality that already exists within a family long before an entity can get to it. This movie will have you looking at your siblings, and especially your parents, sideways.
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6#Alive
Who would have thought that a movie about a zombie outbreak would be so relatable right now? Korean writer-director Il Cho terrifically taps into the agony of survival in a world where human connection has been replaced with undead cannibals and weak cell phone signals. Grounding the story is an unlikely hero—a millennial (Ah-In Yoo) stranded alone in his apartment, barely getting by on instant noodles and waning hope. The increasingly horrifying circumstances force him to be resourceful and consider his life and the people in it in ways he’s never done before—and fight for an uncertain future. Sure, the zombies in #Alive are scary AF (and move even scarier), but the dilemma Cho poses will continue to haunt you: You either risk your life by trying to escape your apartment, or you stay inside and wait for the zombies to find you. In other words, how are you really willing to live?
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7The Grudge
Few sounds are as bone-chilling as this franchise’s signature creek attributed to its longtime villain, a restless female ghost who continues to terrify the living. Writer-director Nicolas Pesce effectively explores the trauma, horror, and rage derived from masterful original Japanese film Ju-on in this latest English-language adaptation of The Grudge. Recapturing the palpable fury of its scorned phantom, the haunting tale oscillates between the sins of our past and a present determined to repeat itself through the stories of a single mother (Andrea Riseborough) and an expectant father (John Cho).
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8The Invisible Man
In this latest remake of the H.G. Wells classic, from writer-director Leigh Whannell, Elisabeth Moss proves once again that few others do unhinged 21st-century woman quite like her. Her performance as Cecilia, who’s being stalked by her abusive ex and the eponymous villain, is felt so viscerally as we watch her struggle to convince people around her that a man they think no longer exists is actually after her. Whannell examines a universal fear of things unseen, while also pointing to a singular fear among women: not being believed. The Invisible Man is a poignant horror made for our time.
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9Rent-a-Pal
Like the rest of us, writer-director Jon Stevenson couldn’t have possibly imagined that his film would be released during an era when all of humanity is awkwardly disconnected and suffering from a supreme loneliness. But with the ’90s-set Rent-a-Pal, he chillingly hits on each of those notes with the story of David (Brian Landis Folkins), a lonely man living with his elderly mom. After coming up empty with video-dating services, David comes across another tape that offers a similar level of compassion: Rent-a-Pal, kind of like Tinder for friends and ultimately just as precarious. Because this “friend,” named Andy (Wil Wheaton), ends up preying on David’s weaknesses, he turns him into someone else entirely. It’s uncertain whether Stevenson wants us to think that Andy is an active participant in David’s demise or, even scarier, that David is already on the edge before Andy enters his life. But either circumstance proves how overwhelmingly terrifying solitude can be.
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10Spiral
You know you’ve made a particularly eerie chiller if folks on Twitter suggest it’s “kind of a documentary.” Such is the case with director Kurtis David Harder’s Spiral, centering on a gay couple (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman and Ari Cohen) who move to suburbia inhabited by right-leaning homophobes both fascinated and perturbed by their existence. If that’s not horrifying enough, per white suburban horror movie standards, cryptic murder and quiet mayhem abound. Spiral is a surprising film that keeps the mystery on level 10 the entire time.
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