Horror from the 2020s: the best movies
24 horror films from the 2020s, ranked by audience rating. The best of the decade, and it still holds up tonight. Updated 25 September 2026
Succubus leads with 8.4 out of 10, ahead of La Leyenda de los Chaneques (8.4). Ratings range from 7.3 to 8.4. All were released between 2020 and 2026.
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Succubus
A new father going through a marital separation joins a dating app and matches with a beautiful but mysterious young woman... whose powers of seduction and manipulation entangle him in a mystery more horrifying than he could have ever imagined.
La Leyenda de los Chaneques
Five years after giving up his powers and separating from his friends, Leo San Juan has started a new life trying to focus on his family and their bakery, staying away from danger and adventures. However, Leo knows that his plans are rarely fulfilled and this time is no exception: while traveling with Nando to Veracruz, things start to get weird, and from the depths of the Tuxtlas jungle, an ancient curse has returned and only Leo can face it.
Las leyendas: El origen
When a human baby crosses the Eternal Mirror, the portal between the living and the dead opens its path to the beings from the underworld.
Obsession
After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Colony
Professor Se-jeong is thrust into a bloody nightmare when a rapidly mutating virus is released during a biotech conference causing authorities to seal the facility. Trapped inside with no escape, Se-jeong along with a small group of survivors must fight to stay alive while the infected undergo horrific transformations.
Lee Cronin's The Mummy
The young daughter of a journalist disappears into the desert without a trace—eight years later, the broken family is shocked when she is returned to them, as what should be a joyful reunion turns into a living nightmare.
Unicorn Wars
An army of bear cubs train and indoctrinate young recruits for the war against the unicorns, which threatens the safety of the cubs. Brothers Bluey and Tubby, along with a group of inexperienced cadets, are sent on a dangerous mission to save the Magic Forest, where the unicorns live, and start a terrible battle.
Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!
Scooby-Doo and the gang team up with their pals, Bill Nye The Science Guy and Elvira Mistress of the Dark, to solve this mystery of gigantic proportions and save Crystal Cove!
Evil Dead Burn
After her husband's abrupt death, Alice seeks solace with his remaining family — descendants of a leading researcher on demonic possession. As her in-laws transform one by one into creatures that feed on fear, she comes to discover that the vows she took in life survive even in death.
Exhuma
After tracing the origin of a disturbing supernatural affliction to a wealthy family's ancestral gravesite, a team of paranormal experts relocates the remains—and soon discovers what happens to those who dare to mess with the wrong grave.
Frankenstein
Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist, brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.
Godzilla Minus One
In postwar Japan, Godzilla brings new devastation to an already scorched landscape. With no military intervention or government help in sight, the survivors must join together in the face of despair and fight back against an unrelenting horror.
Ready or Not: Here I Come
Moments after surviving an all-out attack from the Le Domas family, Grace discovers she’s reached the next level of the nightmarish game — and this time with her estranged sister Faith at her side. Grace has one chance to survive, keep her sister alive, and claim the High Seat of the Council that controls the world. Four rival families are hunting her for the throne, and whoever wins rules it all.
Sinners
Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
The Black Phone
Finney Blake, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
Sasha is a young vampire with a serious problem: she's too sensitive to kill. When her exasperated parents cut off her blood supply, Sasha's life is in jeopardy. Luckily, she meets Paul, a lonely teenager with suicidal tendencies who is willing to give his life to save hers. But their friendly agreement soon becomes a nocturnal quest to fulfill Paul's last wishes before day breaks.
Soulm8te
After a ruthless tech giant acquires a small robotics company, a grieving engineer is tasked with testing their new AI companion. But when he attempts to reprogram her to be a truly sentient soulmate, she develops needs of her own—unleashing a relentless spree of precision-engineered mayhem.
A Quiet Place Part II
Following the events at home, the Abbott family now face the terrors of the outside world. Forced to venture into the unknown, they realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.
The Cursed: Dead Man's Prey
Following a brutal murder case, the police are baffled to find out that the assailant, whose body was found on the scene with the victim, had already been dead for three months. Meanwhile, journalist Jin-hee sets up a live interview with an anonymous caller claiming he is the true killer behind the mysterious murder. When the man announces three more murders will occur in the hands of the undead, Jin-hee must face the sinister forces beyond understanding.
Death Whisperer
When a remote village is plagued by a deadly curse, one brother must fight to save his family from a terrifying supernatural threat.
Deep Water
A group of international passengers on a flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai is forced to make an emergency landing in shark-infested waters. The terrified group is forced to work together and overcome their differences if they hope to escape their sinking plane and the frenzy of sharks drawn to the wreckage.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren encounter what would become one of the most sensational cases from their files. The fight for the soul of a young boy takes them beyond anything they'd ever seen before, to mark the first time in U.S. history that a murder suspect would claim demonic possession as a defense.
The Ugly Stepsister
In a fairy-tale kingdom where beauty is a brutal business, Elvira battles to compete with her incredibly beautiful stepsister, Agnes, and she will go to any length to catch the Prince’s eye.
Bring Her Back
Following the death of their father, a brother and sister are sent to live with a foster mother, only to learn that she is hiding a terrifying secret.
What to know before choosing
Horror is the worst-rated genre in the catalogue, and that has almost nothing to do with its quality. Its films are seen by audiences who did not choose them — the dragged-along friend, the curious — and those rate low. A horror film at 6.8 out of 10 is already very good, which is why the rating floor is lowered here. Watch the year too: the genre reinvents itself in roughly ten-year waves, and two films a decade apart do not frighten in the same way.
The current decade is the hardest to judge: its films have not finished gathering votes, and a film under two years old is almost always overrated against what it will be worth in five. The vote floor corrects part of that effect, never all of it. Read this list as a snapshot, not as a settled ranking.
Frequently asked questions
How were these 24 films chosen?
They come from the TMDB catalogue, filtered on audience rating and on a minimum number of votes — without that second filter, a film rated 9 out of 10 by eleven people would outrank a classic. No place is for sale: no platform, distributor or studio can enter this list other than by being well rated.
Which film in this list is rated highest?
Succubus (2024), with 8.4 out of 10 from 265 audience votes.
Where can I watch these films?
Taro eira shows, film by film, which platforms carry it in the UK and at what price — subscription, rental or purchase. The per-platform lists are further down this page.
Are there any recent releases in this selection?
23 of the 24 films came out since 2021. The rest are older, which is expected: a film needs a few years to gather enough votes to be judged at all.
Do I need an account?
No. Taro eira is free, asks for no account and no subscription, and the two-or-three-question flow works without installing anything.
See also
- Horror
- Horror from the 2010s
- Horror from the 2000s
- Horror from the 1990s
- Horror from the 1980s
- Horror from the 1970s
- Horror before 1970
- Action from the 2020s
- Adventure from the 2020s
- Animation from the 2020s
- Comedy from the 2020s
- Crime from the 2020s
- Documentary from the 2020s
- Drama from the 2020s
- Family from the 2020s
- Fantasy from the 2020s
- Biopic from the 2020s
- Musical from the 2020s
- Romance from the 2020s
- Sci-fi from the 2020s
- Thriller from the 2020s
- War from the 2020s
- Western from the 2020s
How this list is built
Films come from the TMDB catalogue, filtered on audience rating and vote count, then cross-checked against real availability in the country. No paid placement, no partnerships. How we choose the films.
Film data and posters: TMDB. This app uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.