2018 was quite the year for horror movies with Hereditary starting it off strong it only set the bar of what was to come. There were some great movies that completely slid under the radar and unless you were looking for something very similar chances are you didn’t know about it. Netflix has also been pulling its weight with horror as well.
Bird Box, for example, received general overall praise. Cam showed us the danger of how far technology is beginning to advance much like their hit series Black Mirror.
The following are movies from 2018 that will entertain any subgenre a horror fan migrates towards.
15) Suspiria
Official “Suspiria” Movie Trailer
A remake of the original Italian horror movie of the same name (1977) follows Susie Bannon, an American dancer who travels to Berlin for an audition at an elite dance company. Quickly rising up the ranks Susie soon takes the place of the lead dancer who had a psychotic break and accuses the female directors of practicing witchcraft. Meanwhile, a fellow dancer and psychotherapist begin to unravel the secrets that lay within the company.
Not for the faint of heart, this movie depicts some seriously horrendous scenes. If you can manage it then the psychological aspect will be worth finishing and strike you on a deeper level.
14) Unsane
Official “Unsane” Movie Trailer
Sawyer has moved to a new city to escape her stalker, David but she still sees him everywhere. When seeking help for victims of stalking she reaches out to a local behavioral health center and sees a therapist. She soon unknowingly signs herself in and is trapped in the hospital. With one of the aides looking and sounding suspiciously like David, she tries to tell the staff of the danger she’s in while they try to assure her that no David works there. She soon begins to question whether she’s really seeing him or if it’s all in her head.
What would you do if you couldn’t trust your sense of reality? The thought is scary itself and this movie has you questioning Sawyer’s state of mind just as much as she is.
13) Halloween
40 years after his killing spree in Haddonfield, Michael is being prepped to be transferred to a new facility. During the transfer, he escapes when the car taking him crashes and begins to make his way back to Haddonfield. Meanwhile, Laurie still lives there and has not had an easy life; divorced twice, a strained relationship with her daughter, and now turns to alcohol as a friend. She has spent the past years training and preparing for if Michael ever came back. When he does she engages in an epic battle to take him down once and for all.
After 40 years Laurie is ready to take on Michael again. This time putting him down for good.
12) Birdbox
Official “Bird Box” Movie Trailer
There are unseen creatures that are attacking worldwide but not physically. Instead, they take the form of whoever looks at them greatest fear which then ends in the person eventually killing themselves by any means possible so no one knows where they are unless they have their eyes open and even then it’s different for everyone. The story follows a mother who has heard of a safe haven where the creatures have not affected anyone. With her two children, they must travel blindfolded and have faith that their other senses won’t fail them in trying to reach safety.
When creatures manifest themselves no one knows what they look like but do know insanity and death follows when you look at them.
11) Hereditary
The movie opens at her mother’s funeral where we see Annie giving a speech about the strained relationship between her and her mother. Strange things begin to happen within the family’s lives which leads to Annie and her children begin to discover unspeakable secrets within the family that might have attributed to her mother’s death. In doing so Anna must come to terms with feelings she’s been harboring for years.
Not all horror movies have to have jump scares or gore in them. Sometimes the simple fact of knowing you don’t have control over your life is horrifying enough.
10) Possum
Official “Possum” Movie Trailer
Phillip takes a train to his hometown on the East Anglian bayou running away from some disgraceful actions that we are not aware of. Being a puppeteer he carries with him a bag and inside a treasured puppet of his own creation, Possum, having the body of a spider but the head of a doll. He walks to his childhood home mind swimming with memories of childhood abuse and trauma that he is now forced to confront.
Everyone has baggage. Phillip just happens to literally carry his baggage and secrets around with him. During scenes of distress, it’s another movie that makes you wonder whatever is happening actually is or if it's all inside the protagonist’s head.
9) Pyewacket
Official “Pyewacket” Movie Trailer
Since the death of her father, Leah takes a great interest in the occult and uses it as an escape. She has a tense relationship with her mother where interactions often end in anger and sadness. After a particularly bad argument, Leah wants something she never thought she would; her mother to die. In order for this to happen, she completes a ritual and calls for the demon, the Pyewacket. After doing so she realizes that she doesn’t really want her mother dead and tries to reverse the spell. However, it is too late and the Pyewacket has been unleashed.
Dabbling in the occult is always dangerous especially when you don’t know what you’re doing. When stereotypical angry teen Leah unleashed a demon to kill her mother it wants more than just her mother.
8) Climax
Official “Climax” Movie Trailer
Taking place in the ‘90s a group of French dancers goes to an abandoned school for rehearsal. After a grand performance for their manager, the group celebrates with sangria she has made. Shortly after drinking copious amounts the dancers begin to hallucinate and go into a frenzy. It is deduced that their manager must have laced the sangria with LSD. As the night goes on the group as a whole grow increasingly violent and agitated.
A horrific movie of when people have lost all sense give in to their primal, carnal, and darkest urges not being in the right frame of mind to restrain themselves. While not gory per se violence plays a big part in most of the scenes.
7) The Possession of Hannah Grace
When an exorcism goes awry a young woman dies. Months later Megan Reed is working in a morgue when a body of an extremely disfigured woman comes in. When strange things begin to happen and she experiences hallucinations she begins to think that although dead, the body is responsible and still possessed just as much as it was when it was alive.
When the disfigured body of a girl who died during an exorcism comes in, strange occurrences begin to take place around the morgue.
6) Cam
Official “Cam” Movie Trailer
Cam girl Alice is working towards being one of the best on the site she’s apart of. Once she reaches her goal she’s online all the time and gets even higher in the ranks. Which would be good if she was online at the time she gets more points. Once the imposter begins to impact her personal life she tries to find out who or what her doppelgänger is.
When Alice’s identity is stolen it starts to affect the relationships around her.
5) Tumbbad
Official “Tumbbad” Movie Trailer
When Vinayak wants to escape the poverty of his village, he goes to his family’s mansion to seek out the treasure that’s hidden in it. His grandmother is the servant to the god that protects the treasure and warns him that even touching the god’s gold will turn him into a monster much like she is. However, Vinayak is a greedy man and continuously goes back to the god’s hiding place to steal more gold even if it gets him killed.
“Tumbbad,” tells the story of a man seeking his family’s treasure. Unfortunately, the treasure has a protector.
4) Blood Fest
Official “Blood Fest” Movie Trailer
Blood Fest is the biggest festival for all things horror that fans of the genre flock to every year. This year the showman in charge of it announces that he wants to create the largest and realistic horror movie ever made and that each zone of the festival is based on a subgenre (zombie, vampire, slasher, etc). Quickly the attendees realize this is not a regular festival but a real-life horror show they’ve been sucked into. In this horror comedy, a group of friends needs to stick together and figure out a way to escape the festival grounds doing anything possible all while getting into laughable but awful situations along the way.
We meet the ultimate horror fans at a festival who love the genre but don’t love being a part of it. They have to use their knowledge of horror movies to figure out a way to get out alive. (Left to Right) Krill, Sam, Lengamin, Ashley.
3) Summer of 84
Official “Summer of 84” Movie Trailer
A decade before when the movie takes place 13 teenage boys disappeared with the “Cape May Slayer” killer accused of doing so, although they were never caught. In 1984 teenager Davey Armstrong is an expert in urban legends and a conspiracy theorist. He becomes suspicious that his neighbor, Wane Mackey who is a well-respected member of the community and police officer is responsible for the murders. Enlisting the help of friends they follow Mackey around to document what he does during the day and looking for any odd behavior. When the boys discover who the killer is it’s a matter of life and death to report the identity and escape them.
The feel of “Stranger Things” meets “It” in this movie that has a nice vintage feel to it. When a conspiracy theorist teenager thinks that the neighborhood police officer is a serial killer he enlists the help of his friends to find out the truth only to be terrified by what they find out and who they encounter.
2) The Night Eats the World
Official “The Night Eats the World” Trailer
Taking place in Paris, musician Sam wakes up from a party at his ex-girlfriend’s to discover that it’s empty and there's blood everywhere. Going out into the apartment hall he comes across his ex who is now a zombie and promptly goes to attack him. Running back into the apartment he sees that the streets are filled with the undead who are completely silent and very fast. Sam is safe for the time being and begins to raid the units for supplies. As time goes on he slowly begins to break from reality due to loneliness and the insanity of what is now his life. The movie is a nice twist on zombies with them not being your typical slow, groaning types.
When Sam wakes up and discovers an infection has turned humans into zombies he has to use his wits to survive and try to keep his sanity and stop the deterioration of his mind while hoping to come across anything alive for companionship.
1)Terrifier
Official “Terrifier” Movie Trailer
On Halloween night two women, Tara and Dawn, drunkenly wait to drive home but soon see they are being watched by a clown dressed in monochromatic clothes and a menacing face. With one unnerved and the other laughing it off as a Halloween joke they wander into a close by a restaurant with the clown following them in. When the women leave they see that their car has a flat tire and call Tara’s sister asking her to come to get them. When allowed into a warehouse to use the bathroom the women discover that the clown has followed them and leads to a night of torture.
Art the clown takes great pleasure in inflicting unbelievable pain and murdering his victims in the most bloody ways possible. This movie takes torture porn to the next level and leaves the viewer cringing and uncomfortable.
