Top Horror Movies Of The Past Decade: A Year-By-Year Breakdown

While it’s true that a lot of Hollywood movies are focused on remakes and utilizing existing IPs, to a fault, that hasn’t exactly been the case with the horror genre. In fact, horror movies are thriving and many of the films released in the past decade in the genre have been fantastic.

These movies are often made on relatively small budgets, which makes their box office success even more impressive. The past decade has seen some truly great horror movies, including the arrival of some outstanding new directors like Jordan Peele, Ari Aster, and more. Looking back at the past 10 years shows how good horror has been.

2015: The Witch

Speaking of directors who arrived on the scene with a great horror movie, there’s Robert Eggers. His directorial debut was The Witch, which set the tone for the style he has become known for over the past decade.

The Witch takes place in New England in the 1630s and follows a Puritan family who become the target of a malevolent force in the woods, which includes the baby in the family going missing. The scene where that happens during a game of peek-a-boo is truly unsettling.

Robert Eggers’ movies pay attention to detail and make sure the eras depicted are accurate. The Witch does that expertly and it was one of the most well-received aspects of the film. It holds a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and introduced a lot of people to the talented Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays the protagonist.

2016: Raw

Raw should be much more widely known than it is but it suffers from the problem that too many people don’t want to read subtitles. They completely ignore great movies from around the world, including this French horror film.

Written and directed by Julia Ducournau, Raw tells the story of Justine, a vegetarian girl’s first year at veterinary school. During a hazing ritual, she’s forced to eat meat for the first time, only to discover that she has a craving for it, leading to cannibalistic tendencies.

It’s a different kind of horror movie, though it did receive some criticism for its graphic nature. Still, the critical reception was strong, including praise for Ducournau’s work and the lead performance of Garance Marillier. The 93% Rotten Tomatoes rating is further proof of the merits of Raw.

2017: Get Out

While the directorial debut of Robert Eggers signaled the arrival of a great horror filmmaker, nobody announced themselves in a louder way than Jordan Peele. Known for his comedic talents on Key & Peele and Mad TV, Peele surprised everyone with his penchant for scares.

Get Out was a revelation upon arrival, scoring big numbers both commercially and critically. On a budget of less than $5 million, Get Out grossed more than $250 million and became a cultural phenomenon. It even won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

The story of Get Out follows Chris, a Black man who visits his white girlfriend’s family for the first time, only to learn about the horrific things they’ve done to Black people over the decades. It’s widely considered one of the best movies of the decade and was lauded for almost every aspect, including its social commentary.

2018: Hereditary

Another incredible horror debut came from Ari Aster in 2018. Hereditary quickly picked up steam thanks to positive word of mouth and ended up as the highest grossing movie in A24’s history until Everything Everywhere All At Once bested it.

Hereditary combines both psychological horror and supernatural horror to make one of the most terrifying films of all time. The plot centers on a grieving family that gets tormented by an unknown entity following the death of the grandmother.

Reception for Hereditary was astounding, holding a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and being hailed by critics everywhere. On top of that, many believe that Toni Collette was snubbed for an Oscar nomination as the Academy often ignores horror performances. Her work in this film is a must-see.

2019: Midsommar

Ari Aster wasn’t satisfied with creating one of the best modern horror movies, so he went out and released a second one a year later. That was Midsommar, which looks completely different from almost every other horror movie you’ll ever see.

That’s because the vast majority of Midsommar takes place during the day and the pagan festival setting means there are lots of pastel colors. That actually helps it be scarier because there’s an unsettling vibe as soon as the characters arrive in Sweden.

Midsommar follows a group of friends who visit the festival at the invitation of one of their own, only for things to never go the way they expect. At the center of it all is Florence Pugh’s Dani and the actress gives one of the best performances of her already impressive career.

2020: The Invisible Man

2020 was a difficult year for all of cinema thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Several major films were pushed back by a year, including A Quiet Place Part II, which only premiered in 2020 before waiting until 2021 for a wider release around the world.

That leaves The Invisible Man as the standout horror project from 2020, though it does veer more into sci-fi territory. The updated take on a classic story centers around Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss), a woman who is tormented by her abusive ex-boyfriend and the invisibility technology his company developed.

A woman being abused by an unseen entity is scary enough on its own, but the ways in which this sadistic man goes after her, ruining her life in every possible way, is truly haunting. Moss also follows in the footsteps of Collette and Pugh by delivering a remarkable lead performance.

2021: The Black Phone

While A Quiet Place Part II has a strong case for the best horror movie of 2021, it feels like The Black Phone just barely edges it out. From horror master Scott Derrickson (who previously helmed Sinister, which was once voted the scariest film ever), this reteams him with Ethan Hawke.

Unlike Sinister, The Black Phone places Hawke as the villain rather than the hero. He plays The Grabber, a man who kidnaps and murders children, and the film sees one child fight back against him with the help of a rotary phone that lets him communicate with the dead.

The premise allows The Black Phone to incorporate supernatural elements with the terrifying, realistic aspects of a child being abducted. The film was well received and was financially successful with a sequel on the horizon in late 2025.

2022: Barbarian

2022 is one of the hardest years to pick out the best horror film because there were so many good ones. X and Pearl are fantastic entries into a trilogy, there’s the cannibalistic love story from Bones and All, and Jordan Peele’s alien movie Nope.

However, the scariest of them all is Barbarian, the directorial debut from Zack Cregger, who made headlines in 2025 for Weapons. Barbarian is a movie where you’re never quite sure what’s going to happen next but all of it is extremely unsettling.

Barbarian begins with a woman staying at an Airbnb only to find a man already staying there. Their entire interaction is off-putting and things quickly become terrifying, only for the film to shift and change its focus to a man with sexual assault allegations against him and it all comes together for a creative, scary story.

2023: Talk To Me

Talk to Me was technically a 2022 film thanks to its debut at the Adelaide Film Festival that year but it received its wide, more official release in 2023, so it’s being counted there. Talk to Me comes from Danny and Michael Philippou, who make an outstanding first impression as filmmakers after a successful YouTube career.

The protagonist of Talk to Me is Mia, a teen struggling after the death of her mother. She ends up at a party where people play a game with a severed and embalmed hand that allows them to communicate with spirits.

This opens the door for her to deal with her trauma but her little brother gets involved and the spirit he connects with is malevolent. That makes for some truly harrowing scenes including many that are hard to sit through because of the sheer brutality of them.

2024: Smile 2

2024 is another year with several strong horror films, including the critically acclaimed Nosferatu​​​​​​. While that might be the stronger movie from a technical and critical standpoint, Smile 2 is actually a fair bit scarier.

The first Smile is a strong horror movie on its own but the sequel took what worked there and improved on it. The film focuses on a curse that follows people around where they see people with creepy smiles on their faces and the hallucinations lead them to take their own lives.

The reason that Smile 2 toppled the first is the performance of Naomi Scott. It’s another case of an actress delivering a stellar performance that was overlooked during awards season. Throw in the fact that she plays a pop star, which gives her a unique perspective on the curse, and this was a winner.