My 31 Favorite Horror Movies of 2021

It might seem like 31 horror movies is far too many for a single year, but it's actually not that much considering the ungodly amount of horror I watched in 2021. This isn't merely a ranking of all the films I saw in 2021, it's a ranking of the movies I enjoyed. The horror I watched and hated could be a list on its own, but nobody likes a complainer (that said, Lamb would certainly be number one on that list).

Anyway, some minor housekeeping before we begin. The only real qualifier for this list is whether or not a movie is scary (or at the very least, nerve-wracking and tense). That means there's not really any comedy horror on this list. That's certainly a personal choice, and I acknowledge that there was some great comedic horror this year, but it's just not my cup of tea. There are a couple hybrid movies on this list, things that could be considered sci-fi over horror, but the original caveat remains: was I scared? Was I shooketh?

Another brief note: while horror is at its best when it's exploring the human condition, I don't particularly like horror movies that are about deep trauma, even if they're done well. Some of the movies on this list deal with trauma in one way or another, but I'm never going to recommend a movie that's about severe abuse. That's simply not fun for me! I also don't particularly care for extreme gratuitous gore, though I'm not opposed to some heavy bloodshed or a severed head if it's ~*tastefully*~ done. That said, if you have personal triggers you'd like to avoid, the website doesthedogdie.com is a great way to scan over any potentially problematic content.

Ok, on with the show!

31. The Night House

Synopsis: Reeling from the unexpected death of her husband, Beth is left alone in the lakeside home he built for her. She tries as best she can to keep it together -- but then nightmares come. Disturbing visions of a presence in the house calling to her, beckoning her with a ghostly allure. Against the advice of her friends, she begins digging into her husband's belongings, yearning for answers. What she finds are secrets both strange and disturbing -- a mystery she's determined to unravel.

The Night House is, like, 75% of a movie. And that 75% is great! The premise and story building are all perfectly fine, it just doesn’t go quite far enough. Leaving the theater, it seemed like everyone was a little confused about one aspect or another. I had to read one of those "ending explained" things on Screen Rant to clarify everything, but it wasn't enough to keep the movie off my list. David Bruckner is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors—2017's The Ritual was easily my favorite horror movie of that year, and I can't wait to see what he does with the Hellraiser reboot.

30. A Classic Horror Story

Synopsis: Five people traveling by camper crash into a tree. When they recover, the road they were driving on has been replaced by an impenetrable forest and a wooden house. Weird stuff happens.

Is this a good movie, or is it just Italian? I’m not sure. It might be bad, who knows! But Matilda Lutz makes anything watchable—see 2017’s Revenge, probably my favorite film of that year. And yes, I just said The Ritual was my favorite movie of 2017. You can have two favorite movies of 2017. Leave me alone. It certainly takes a lot of hubris to put the word "classic" in your movie title, especially when said movie will absolutely never be considered a classic, but A Classic Horror Story is interesting enough to warrant a recommendation. It falters a bit in the home stretch when it tries to go meta, but it all works perfectly well as your standard cabin-in-the-woods story. The final twist sort of unravels everything, and the post credits scene is truly stupid, but whatever. I for one am ready for the Matilda Lutz supremacy.

29. Gaia

Synopsis: An injured forest ranger on a routine mission is saved by two off-the-grid survivalists. What is initially a welcome rescue grows more suspicious as the son and his renegade father reveal a cultish devotion to the forest. When their cabin is attacked by a strange being it's clear there is a far greater threat in this unrelenting wilderness.

Of all the horror subgenres, eco-horror might be my favorite. Nature is so scary!!! Gaia is lush and gorgeous despite limited resources, even if it doesn't go far enough with it's intriguing premise. Maybe I'm just greedy. Always demanding more from Mother Nature. 

28. False Positive

Synopsis: After months of trying and failing to get pregnant, Lucy and Adrian finally find their dream fertility doctor in the illustrious Dr. Hindle. But after becoming pregnant with a healthy baby girl, Lucy begins to notice something sinister through Hindle's gleaming charm, and she sets out to uncover the unsettling truth about him.

This movie trended on Twitter the day it was released for all the wrong reasons. I saw one tweet that was like “this is without a doubt the worst movie I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” And honestly, they're kinda right. Everything about this movie is a total mess. But it's actually so bad, it loops around to being great. It's almost camp. Maybe it is camp. I've just decided it's camp. It feels like teens are destined to find this movie in 30 years and make it a cult classic.

27. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City

Synopsis: Once the booming home of pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation, Raccoon City is now a dying Midwestern town. The company’s exodus left the city a wasteland, with great evil brewing below the surface of blah blah blah, whatever, there are zombies and stuff.

I can write whatever I want here because everyone is going to skip over this entry except for the twelve hardcore fans who actually saw this movie in theaters. It got 28% on Rotten Tomatoes. It bombed at the box office. But Welcome to Raccoon City deserves props for adapting 3 entire games and streamlining them into something that’s actually watchable. I wasn’t sure how they were going to cram 4 main characters into a single movie but they pulled it off with minimal changes to the source material (and let’s be honest, the source material is fucking ludicrous). What I liked most was how the narrative built tension and dread in the early parts of the movie and fleshed out Raccoon City in a very believable and topical way. The ending is stupid and rushed, but if you’ve ever played a Resident Evil game you know that they frequently drop the ball in the final act, so let’s just chalk that up to franchise faithfulness. 

26. V/H/S/94

Synopsis: After the discovery of a mysterious VHS tape, a brutish police swat team launch a high intensity raid on a remote warehouse, only to discover a sinister cult compound whose collection of pre-recorded material uncovers a nightmarish conspiracy.

I'm not sure there's any real reason for anthology films to exist anymore. They're always a mixed bag and the good ones deserve to have solo releases, especially since everything is distributed digitally now. The V/H/S franchise has been especially hit and miss, but this new sequel (reboot?) mostly hits the right mark, even if found footage is played out by now. The first two stories are a lot of fun, and you can stop there if you want. The last two shorts are, like, fine, but I won't hold it against you if you decide to fast-forward to the end. The overarching story that attempts to tie everything together is mostly pointless and silly, but I appreciate the enthusiasm!

25. Shadow in the Cloud

Synopsis: In the throes of World War II, Captain Maude Garrett joins the all-male crew of a B-17 bomber with a top-secret package. Caught off guard by the presence of a woman on a military flight, the crew tests Maude's every move. Just as her quick wit is winning them over, strange happenings and holes in her backstory incite paranoia surrounding her true mission.

I know I said I was only including movies that scared me and if I'm being totally honest I can't remember how scary this one actually was. It came out January 1st in the USA, so it's been almost a full year since I've seen it, but I do remember liking it quite a bit and I feel like Chloe Grace Moretz needs a win so I'm gonna include it. It always seemed like Chloe was on the verge of breaking out and being a movie star, but it never really happened and instead she steadily stars in these weird little genre movies. They're all over the place quality-wise, but always interesting choices. And in the case of Shadow in the Cloud, it's mostly successful. 

24. The Empty Man

Synopsis: A series of mysterious disappearances in a small Midwestern town may be linked to a supernatural entity.

Originally filmed in 2017, poor test screenings led the studio to essentially abandon it, and it only saw release this year. I'd never heard of it until April when online outlets started calling it "the next great cult classic." I don’t know if that’s entirely true (I can see how it would've deeply polarized early audiences) but I’m surprised the the studio basically dropped it altogether. A word of warning: if you decide to watch this one, understand it might not pan out the way you hope it will. So don't come CRYING to me if you don't like it. Thank you.

23. Blood Red Sky

Synopsis: When a group of terrorists hijacks an overnight transatlantic flight, a mysteriously ill woman must unleash a monstrous secret to protect her young son.

Does the world really need another vampire movie? Turns out the answer is a resounding "sure, why not?" Blood Red Sky manages to breathe some new life into the concept with a clever premise and novel setting—or maybe I just like thrillers set on airplanes? It might be that. I firmly believe Red Eye is Wes Craven's best movie, which is probably a ludicrous sentiment. Or maybe not! He only made 4 good films, after all. No, seriously, look it up. He made like 4 good ones, a couple OK movies, and like 20 garbage movies. Anyway, I didn't mean for this to become a takedown of Wes Craven. I'm sorry. Back to Blood Red Sky. It's good! Fair warning that a dog gets eaten by a vampire. But it’s a chihuahua, so it’s ok.

22. Old

Synopsis: It's a beach that makes you old!!!! What else do you need to know?!

I LOVE OLD AND I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS. Sandcastle, the graphic novel Old is based on, is 100 pages of intriguing but vague French weirdness that never even tries to explain what’s going on. Shyamalan expands the story to…sort of explain things, and adds a new ending that rounds out the plot, even if it’s a little pat. It’s one of those movie where you just have to decide you’re on board for the silliness and not analyze the plot holes too intensely. It's a fucking beach that makes you old!!!!!!!!! Come on!!!!!!!!!!!

21. SLAXX

Synopsis: A possessed pair of jeans is brought to life to punish the unscrupulous practices of a trendy clothing company. Shipped to the company's flagship store, Slaxx proceeds to wreak carnage on staff locked in overnight to set up the new collection.

I don't typically go for horror comedy, as I stated above. I take my horror seriously and I prefer my movies to take themselves seriously as well. But for all its goofiness, SLAXX fully commits to its ludicrous premise, and manages to have some pretty biting commentary. And the pants are somehow scary? Like they're actually scary you guys.

20. Knocking

Synopsis: After suffering a traumatic incident, Molly moves into a new apartment to begin her path to recovery, but it's not long after her arrival that a series of persistent knocks from the floor above her begin to wake her up at night. Molly's new life begins to unravel as the sound intensifies and no one else in the building believes or is willing to help her.

You know that weird sort of quiet that happens in the middle of the night when you’re the only one awake, and it starts to feel like things aren’t quite real? Knocking is that feeling in movie form. Molly is convinced something horrible is happening in her building, but in her fragile state it’s impossible to know what’s real, or if you as a viewer can believe her. My favorite part of the movie is that it’s 79 minutes, which is exactly how long a movie should be.

19. The Old Ways

Synopsis: Deep in the Veracruz jungles, Mexican American journalist Cristina Lopez is held captive by a mysterious bruja who is convinced she's possessed by a demon. 

Possession movies are another category that I tend to avoid, because even when they're good, they're kinda boring. I can’t remember the last time I saw a possession movie do something that The Exorcist didn’t do better 48 years ago. But The Old Ways proves there’s some room grow, offering a refreshing change of pace to a genre that's been on life support for, well, the past 48 years.

18. Censor

Synopsis: Film censor Enid takes pride in her meticulous work, guarding unsuspecting audiences from the deleterious effects of watching the gore-filled decapitations and eye gougings she pores over. Her sense of duty to protect is amplified by guilt over her inability to recall details of the long-ago disappearance of her sister, recently declared dead in absentia. When Enid is assigned to review a disturbing film from the archive that echoes her hazy childhood memories, she begins to unravel how this eerie work might be tied to her past.

Censor takes place in ‘80s London, at a time when horror movies were heavily edited or outright banned for being too shocking. The visuals of the movie are so authentically '80s, too. All the sets feel like liminal spaces, which makes everything so much more sinister. It's an ambiguous fever dream about trauma, unsettling in it's slow-building oddness. 

17. Oxygen

Synopsis: A young woman wakes up in a cryogenic pod. She doesn't remember who she is or how she ended up there. As she's running out of oxygen, she must rebuild her memory to find a way out of her nightmare.

Taking place almost entirely inside a futuristic cryogenic pod, Oxygen manages to wring almost relentless tension out of its single claustrophobic set piece. It’s basically a cross between the 2010 movie Buried and some other things that I probably shouldn’t mention because it’ll give away the plot. It also marks another win for Alexandre Aja, who thankfully seems to have left his gory tendencies behind in favor of real tension and dread.

16, 15, 14: The Fear Street Trilogy

Synopsis: In 1994, a series of brutal slayings lead a teen and her friends take on an evil force that's plagued their notorious town for centuries. In 1978, a summer of fun turns into a gruesome fight for survival as a killer terrorizes Camp Nightwing in the cursed town of Shadyside. In 1666, a colonial town is gripped by a witch hunt that has deadly consequences for centuries to come, while teenagers in 1994 try to put an end to their town's curse before it is too late.

The slasher genre peaked with the Scream series (specifically Scream 2) and for a while it seemed like those meta-movies would usher in a new golden age of slasher films. Instead we mostly got duds like Urban Legend and a bunch of subpar remakes. But with Fear Street, slasher movies feel like they're officially back. The trilogy hits that Scream-style sweet spot of scares, violence, and self-aware comedy. Fear Street is what American Horror Story wishes it was. Imagine if AHS pared down all the superfluous goofy side stories and delivered concise, scary storylines, and you'd get something pretty close to Fear Street.

13. Caveat

Synopsis: When a lone drifter with partial memory loss accepts a job to look after his landlord's niece for a few days it all seems like easy money, but there is a caveat: he must wear a leather harness and chain that restricts his movements to certain rooms.

I’m a sucker for a horror movie that takes place in a single, claustrophobic location (Cube, The Mist, The Invitation, etc.) and Caveat stretches its microscopic budget and solitary set as far as it can go. A surreal and ominous little slice of gothic horror. I think? I'm realizing I don't really know what gothic horror is but I'm pretty sure this qualifies? Leave me alone.

12. Escape Room 2: Tournament of Champions

Synopsis: Six people unwittingly find themselves locked in another series of escape rooms, slowly uncovering what they have in common to survive... and discovering they've all played the game before.

Like the original, this sequel knows exactly what it is: a bunch of fun set pieces full of traps and a juicy mystery as to why all these strangers are stuck together. Critics seemed annoyed that it didn’t improve upon the first movie, but why do they need to? This formula works. The characters are genuinely interesting and they never feel like props to be killed off. The movie also taps into the very specific horror of trying to figure out a puzzle in mixed company. Ever go home for Thanksgiving and play Trivial Pursuit with your lame cousins who never left town? Terrifying. Covid kinda put a damper on the sequel’s box office, but I hope they make ten more of these.

11. The Feast

Synopsis: An affluent family gathers at their lavish home in the Welsh mountains for a dinner party, hosting a local businessman and neighboring farmer to broker a business deal to mine the surrounding countryside. When a mysterious young woman arrives to be the family's waitress for the evening, they find their beliefs and values challenged, as her quiet yet disturbing presence begins to unravel their lives -- slowly, deliberately, and with the most terrifying of consequences.

One bad thing about being a horror fan is that after a while, it becomes pretty easy to guess where a movie is going. Even if I don’t get it exactly right, I can see the big reveals coming a mile away, which is why The Feast was such a treat—I had no clue what was going on and zero inkling about what the ending would be. I don’t even want to say more than that. Even revealing what subgenre of horror it turns out to be would be a spoiler in and of itself.

10. The Deep House

Synopsis: Deep below the surface of a seemingly tranquil remote lake lies a perfectly preserved family home. When a young influencer couple sets out to explore the submerged house to capture uncharted content for their social media followers, their dive turns into a nightmare as they discover a sinister presence.

Submechanophobia is the fear of man-made objects that are submerged underwater. Deep House gets a ton of mileage out of that particular phobia, to the point where I don’t actually know how they pulled off these set pieces. Visually, the entire movie is an absolute marvel to behold. The idea of creating a bunch of creepy sets and then flooding them is mind boggling. The acting can get a little grating (James Jagger, son of Mick Jagger, is such a bad actor that he threatens to single-handedly ruin the film). The conclusion is clunky, but there are some truly terrifying moments, and honestly there was nothing else quite like it this year. Overall it’s an impressive accomplishment and I will absolutely never go scuba diving.

9. Broadcast Signal Intrusion

Synopsis: While logging tapes of decades-old TV broadcasts, video archivist James discovers a surreal and disturbing clip that he believes is the product of a mysterious broadcast signal hacking. His discovery takes a sinister turn when he tracks down similar broadcast intrusions that send him on an obsessive mission.

Though it doesn't totally stick the landing, Broadcast Signal Intrusion has an undenial charm. It dug it's noir-ish claws into me and wouldn't let go til the end, even if the ending didn't wrap things up perfectly. The movie itself feels like an old VHS tape trapped in time—mysterious, ethereal, a little amateur, like a message board creepypasta come to life.

8. Meander

Synopsis: After getting a car ride from an unknown man, Lisa wakes up in a maze of tubes. On her arm is strapped a bracelet with a countdown. The tubes are full of traps and puzzles. And she's not alone.

You know when you're a kid and you get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and then you have to run and jump back into bed as fast as you can because you've convinced yourself something under the bed is gonna grab you? Imagine that fleeting moment of terror stretched into a 90 minute movie. I can't remember the last time I was this tense watching a movie. I took an edible beforehand and I actually had to turn the movie off and finish it in the daytime because I was TOO STRESSED OUT. The only reason it didn't wind up at the top of my list is because the ending gets a little too nutty to warrant a high placement.

7. Wrong Turn

Synopsis: Backwoods terror and never-jangling suspense meet when Jen and her friends set out to hike the Appalachian Trail. Despite warnings to stick to the trail, the hikers stray off course-and cross into land inhabited by The Foundation, a hidden community of mountain dwellers who use deadly means to protect their way of life.

Yes, this is a reboot of the 2003 movie and its (checks Wikipedia) SIX straight-to-dvd sequels??? Somehow it defies expectations and delivers a really fun ride. It’s a smart update that feels completely sure-footed, with some pretty deranged Midsommar-esque flourishes. It’s goofy but it leans in, and I’m bummed this didn’t get the theatrical release it deserved.

6. Queen of Black Magic

Synopsis: A family travels to a distant, rural orphanage to pay  respects to the facility's gravely ill director. But their visit turns into a terrifying supernatural ordeal that threatens their lives—someone is using dark magic to avenge evil deeds, long-buried but not forgotten.

It feels like all horror movies are about ~*vibes*~ now, with the storytelling and plot becoming an afterthought. Queen of Black Magic almost feels old fashioned in its ability to tell a compelling, intriguing narrative. Including this movie on my 2021 list is technically cheating since it came out in 2019, but it wasn't available in America until this past January, so it counts! Please don't tell me how to do my job! This is MY account, and I'll include whatever movies I want! Maybe I'll get real goofy and add the original 1981 version that this movie is based on, just to be a jerk. Do not tempt me.

5. Queen of Black Magic (1981)

Synopsis: A family travels to a distant, rural orphanage to pay  respects to the facility's gravely ill director. But their visit turns into a terrifying supernatural ordeal that threatens their lives—someone is using dark magic to avenge evil deeds, long-buried but not forgotten.

I told you I'd do it. I told you and you didn't believe me. Now my whole numbering system is off. I hope you're happy. You did this. This is your fault.

4. Chucky

Synopsis: After a vintage Chucky doll turns up at a suburban yard sale, an idyllic American town is thrown into chaos as a series of horrifying murders begins to expose the town's hypocrisies and secrets.

I know this looks like another STUNT, seeing as how it's a TV show, but hear me out. Chucky is a direct continuation of 2017's Cult of Chucky, the seventh entry in a franchise that has somehow gained momentum and only gotten better with age. Cult of Chucky was easily my favorite horror movie of 2017, and the new TV series is arguably the best the franchise has ever been, bringing back pretty much every main character from the whole series. Unfortunately you do have to watch all 7 movies for the series to make sense, but what's better than an all-day Chucky marathon?

3. Till Death

Synopsis: After a romantic evening in their secluded lake house, Emma awakens handcuffed to her dead husband. Trapped and isolated in the dead of winter, she must fight off hired killers to escape her husband's twisted plan.

We don’t give Megan Fox the respect she deserves. She was nearly a movie star before Hollywood turned on her for whatever reason and she was relegated to B-movies for years. But guess what? Till Death is her best movie ever (I’ll give you a minute to look up her Wikipedia filmography because I know that seems like a bold statement, but I'm always right, even when I'm wrong). This movie is basically a one woman show for Megan and it’s absolutely what she deserves. Hopefully this is the start of a fruitful second act.

2. Candyman

Synopsis: For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago's Cabrini-Green neighborhood were terrorized by supernatural killer with a hook for a hand. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy  and his partner, gallery director Brianna Cartwright, move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials. With Anthony's painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini-Green old-timer exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman.

Even when sequels and reboots are good, they rarely surpass the original. Candyman improves upon the first movie (and smartly ignores the sequels) while elevating and expanding the mythology (even though the ending felt a little rushed and abrupt).  Make sure you watch the original first! 

1. Malignant

Synopsis: Paralyzed by fear from shocking visions, a woman's torment worsens as she discovers her waking dreams are terrifying realities.

If you've seen Malignant, you're either thrilled it's number 1 on my list, or you're furious, and there's no in-between. Malignant is completely unhinged. It has absolutely no regard for believability but doesn’t seem to care, content rather to barrel along like a car with no brakes, breezing through its confusing and complicated storyline to get to the thoroughly batshit conclusion. The entire film borders on ridiculous, but that’s what makes it all work. Actually, I’m not sure it works at all, but for whatever reason I can’t bring myself to care. I feel like they stopped making risky unhinged movies like this in the ‘80s. It's camp giallo nonsense. Is it a good movie? No. Is it a perfect movie? Somehow, yes.