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2023 saw a colossal boost in horror film releases coming hot off the tail-end of the COVID-19 pandemic delaying many projects. The result is not a slew of films attempting to capitalize off of the current panic zeitgeist of mass extinction and misinformation, but rather a series of horror experiences that tend to delve into far more personal stories, potentially reflecting the isolation of recent years that many are still coming to terms with. On the other hand, there’s also a movie about Dracula on a boat with David Dastmalchian. Needless to say, it will be a challenge counting down the best horror films of 2023.
It’s worth noting that what’s considered a “2023 release” here is based on films that received major theatrical releases in 2023, since the majority of the public wasn’t able to experience these stories during some of their limited-run film festival premieres in 2022.
10. Saw X
A surprising amount of the original Saw crew are back to deliver one of the best films in the series with Saw X. Obviously, fans of the series are primarily here to see what’s always been at the core of the franchise; convoluted gore traps to illicit shock and disgust from every poor onlooker. Surprisingly, Saw X delivers an impressive story on top of that, with more cohesion than the series has seen since its first two entries.
9. Scream 6
Unfortunately, recent behind-the-scenes trouble involving major stars like Jenna Ortega appears to be spelling the end for this new era of Scream. This is a shame because it has already provided two of the best slashers of the new decade, and it would have been nice to see more. The best thing that can be said about Scream 6 is that it continues to deliver everything fans want from a film in this series avoiding the stale points. It doesn’t push quite as hard as Scream 5, but it’s still a load of fun to watch.
8. Knock At The Cabin
There’s no way for an M. Night Shyamalan film to not be weird. What most can hope for is that each new work from the director manages to ride that line between weird and grounded/coherent that is necessary for one of his directorial works to not wind up like… the ones Shyamalan fans prefer not to speak of. Thankfully, Knock at the Cabin is one of the good ones. The story is right up someone like M. Night’s alley, blending apocalypse with a cult-like mystery, and actors like Dave Bautista and Rupert Grint only enhance the uncanny feeling of the picture.
7. Infinity Pool
The Cronenberg dynasty cements itself with the new film from burgeoning talent Brandon Cronenberg who continues to prove he has a knack for abstract body horror akin to his father. Infinity Pool is certainly not a casual watch – something that should be apparent to anyone who saw Possessor a few years back – and this movie continues down the path of stories that question identity and what makes a person beyond their flesh.
6. Attachment
Attachment has a blend of suspense, psychological terror, and compelling performances that make it one of the best horror films of 2023. It’s really easy to get possession horror wrong nowadays since the path is so worn that nearly everything new comes up as derivative and boring, but Danish director and writer Gabriel Bier Gislason makes this a fresh experience through his blend of various cultures (Danish, Jewish, English) and dark humor that shows promise for the future of this new talent.
5. Beau Is Afraid
Beau is Afraid is by no means a horror film in the traditional sense. Its terror comes from the feeling of pure anxiety shared with the viewer through its fever-dream pace and interpretation of events happening to the main character. It might be more accurate to consider this a horror-comedy, something director Ari Aster is certainly not known to have explored in the past through films like Midsommar and Hereditary, but the levels of absurdity reached in certain points here make it as funny as it is stressful, although fairly bloated as well.
4. Huesera: The Bone Woman
Huesera: The Bone Woman is an undeniably Mexican horror movie firmly rooted in the culture and location, yet its themes are nearly universal. Beneath the surface-level terrors is a movie where it’s clear that the true fear being explored is the pressure put on women to live their lives a certain way, to abandon all personality and personal achievement in the face of what they “should be doing.”
3. Evil Dead Rise
The Evil Dead series continues to be cruel, bloody, and downright creepy with Evil Dead Rise. This is a horror movie for horror movie lovers, paying tribute to past films and even some other horror classics (There’s a pretty fun reference to The Shining at one point). If this is the beginning of a new post-Ash era of the franchise, it’s starting off strong.
2. When Evil Lurks
Shudder continues to prove itself as one of the best platforms for international horror with two fantastic Spanish-language films in 2023, the second of which on this list is When Evil Lurks. This movie has a uniquely Argentinian feel while simultaneously containing themes of religion, fear, and pestilence that somehow dodge all tropes that would normally be associated with a “possession” film of its kind. The lore this film builds up around its demonic entities is what truly sets it apart, it flawlessly creates and communicates its rules in a way that never feels tedious, but rarely feels confusing to the viewer (Any more than it wants to feel confusing, at least).
1. Talk To Me
The A24 film by a couple of Australians who got their start making YouTube videos about Ronald McDonald eating Burger King was certainly not expected to wind up as good as the final product. In some ways, Talk to Me feels like the expansion of a good Goosebumps episode, and that’s intended as a high compliment. It takes some classic youth archetypes, throws a creepy cursed object in there with several logical rules, and lets things wander in their naturally macabre direction. Going above and beyond, though, the Philippou brothers focus on character to make the emotional weight of this movie run that much deeper, leading into an absolutely spine-chilling conclusion.
