My Top Ten Horror Movies of 2022
Streaming into the future?
With the year winding down, it’s time for my list of the top ten best horror movies of 2022. Like the movie industry as a whole, direct-to-streaming releases have become common in recent years. The pandemic accelerated a trend that had already begun.
There’s something to be said for watching a horror movie on opening weekend in a packed theater. It’s virtually impossible to emulate that type of atmosphere at home. On the other hand, curling up on your couch with a cold beer and watching the latest slasher flick is appealing as well.
The streaming vs. theater conflict seems particularly relevant this year because many of the movies on this list spent relatively little, if any, time in movie theaters. Of course, there are exceptions. Scream, Smile, The Black Phone, and even the hardcore slasher movie Terrifier 2 all launched exclusively in theaters. All of them raked in profits at the box office so, clearly, theaters aren’t dead.
But many other movies found success streaming. Prey was released directly to Hulu. Hellbender went to Shudder after premiering at Sundance. Pearl and X went streaming after brief theatrical runs, as did We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. Bodies Bodies Bodies took the middle road, starting with a limited theatrical release before expanding nationwide and then premiering on streaming platforms.
There are numerous ways for movies to be released these days, and plenty of options for viewers to watch them. However you prefer to watch, we hope you enjoyed this year’s crop of horror movies. Here are our picks for the top ten best horror movies of 2022.
Note: Many of these movies were already reviewed on The Slasher Shack, so we just summarize them briefly here. Movies that had not been reviewed received longer writeups.
10. Smile
Smile is about a therapist, played by Sosie Bacon (the daughter of Kevin Bacon), who becomes the victim of an ancient curse after witnessing the death of a patient. With the help of her ex-boyfriend, she attempts to break the curse before it’s too late. Smile is often compared to It Follows, another movie about a woman who is targeted by a supernatural curse.
9. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
If we were making a list of the strangest movies of 2022, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair would shoot straight to the top. Casey, a deeply disturbed teen girl, decides to take the World’s Fair Challenge, an internet contest where a person records themselves saying “I want to go the world’s fair” three times. The “player” then supposedly begins to experience supernatural phenomena, which they document and record on their channel.
Casey watches creepy YouTube videos of other people who are taking the challenge. She then creates videos of her own. Casey tears her stuffed animals to pieces, pulls out her hair, throws wild screaming fits, and makes unhinged rants about wanting to kill her father.
She is eventually contacted by a mysterious YouTube user named “JLB”. He tells Casey that she is in trouble and needs his help before it’s too late. Who is this enigmatic man and what does he want with her?
It’s rare to watch a movie and have no idea where the storyline is going, but that’s the case here. The film’s creepiness and unpredictability make it among the most chilling horror movies of the year.
8. Terrifier 2
Terrifier 2 features the return of the sadistic Art the Clown. After being magically resurrected in a coroner’s office, Art begins another Halloween rampage. This time he faces a worthy foe: a sword-wielding young woman in an angel costume who could be destined to defeat him.
7. Prey
Prey is a prequel to Predator, the gloriously entertaining Arnold Schwarzenegger movie about an extraterrestrial creature who travels to Earth to hunt humans for fun. This time, the alien bounty hunter visits us during colonial times, where he encounters Native warriors and French colonists. This seems like a colossal mismatch: an alien bounty hunter with interstellar technology against folks with primitive 18th century weapons.
The Predator does indeed have an easy time killing most of the people that he encounters. But he finds formidable opponents in a group of Comanche warriors, led by Naru (Amber Midthunder), who discovers the alien’s secret Achilles’ heel.
Prey makes an effort to develop its characters, a rarity for this series. It features a bravura, star-making performance by Amber Midthunder. After languishing in mediocrity for three decades, the “Predator” franchise finally finds its way again.
6. Bodies Bodies Bodies
This satirical slasher is about a group of vapid twentysomethings who throw a house party in the middle of a hurricane. When a partygoer is found dead, accusations fly, and the party turns into a chaotic bloodbath. A unique twist ending distinguishes this movie from most slasher films.
Movie Review: Bodies Bodies Bodies
5. Pearl
Director Ti West secretly filmed this movie back-to-back with his retro slasher movie X. This prequel is set in 1918 in the midst of World War I and the influenza pandemic. Decades before her ill-fated encounter with a gang of pornographic filmmakers, Pearl, played again – and brilliantly – by Mia Goth, is a naive farmgirl living with her German immigrant parents on their Texas farm.
Pearl struggles with her toxic relationship with her mother, profound boredom with small-town life, and the gnawing realization that something is missing inside of her. Her mental instability and lack of emotional intelligence take her down a bleak path.
Pearl is a darkly amusing depiction of a young sociopath who is determined to achieve the life she wants, no matter how many people she has to kill to get it. The film gets extra credit for originality: it’s one of the few horror movies set during the 1910s and is also, to our knowledge, the only movie in history to depict a sexual encounter with a scarecrow.
The next installment of the series, Maxxxine, is set to be released in July 2024.
4. Hellbender
A middle-aged woman and her teenage daughter live together deep inside the woods. They have a close relationship and enjoy making sweet harmonious death metal music together. The teen wants to explore the wider world and meet new people, but the mom insists that her daughter has a medical condition that makes such contact impossible. She is attempting to shield her daughter from their family’s history of witchcraft.
Inevitably, the daughter rebels against her mother’s wishes, with profound and deadly consequences. Hellbender was made on a shoestring budget by a family of independent filmmakers. The cast’s chemistry and surprisingly decent special effects help make the film effective. Hellbender is an example of how to make a successful horror movie with minimal resources.
3. Scream
Radio Silence followed the success of their horror comedy Ready or Not by reviving the Scream slasher franchise. Several years after the events of Scream 4, Ghostface returns to the small northern California town of Woodsboro for yet another rampage. This time he targets a woman who is secretly the daughter of the original Ghostface, Billy Loomis.
Jena Ortega is the main star here, but it’s also fun to see the return of series mainstays like David Arquette, Courtney Cox, and Neve Campbell. This film pierces the plot armor that protected these legacy characters in the previous installments, making Scream the least predictable film since the original.
2. The Black Phone
Based on Joe Hill’s short story, The Black Phone is about a kid who gets abducted by a serial killer nicknamed The Grabber. The boy is trapped inside a basement with a black phone attached to a wall. The Grabber insists that the phone doesn’t work. But when the kid is alone, the phone rings – and the ghosts of the killer’s previous victims are on the line.
1. X
Ti West’s retro slasher captures the mood and style of 1970s horror movies. Mia Goth plays both the heroine and the villain. Jena Ortega pitches in with a memorable performance in a supporting role. The striking cinematography and haunting soundtrack help turn “X” into a delicious slice of slasher movie heaven.
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