We're now a little ways past the halfway point of 2023 and so far it has been another successful year of horror films either in theatrical releases or direct to streaming. The admiration of the genre definitely outweighs those who criticize it, as even the films that may not have gotten the respect they deserve so far this year, still are worth checking out.
The underrated horror films on this list may have flown under the radar due to the amount of films and television shows at our fingertips. Or they may have been overlooked due to major franchises in the genre like Insidious getting a lot of attention this summer, or the next big A24 horror film that is in the zeitgeist. Either way, hunt these eleven horror films down that came out this year. They deserve more love.
11 Unseen
Unseen is a Blumhouse produced horror-thriller about a gas station clerk named Sam (Jolene Purdy) who gets a random face time call from Emily (Midori Francis) from thousands of miles away. The woman is on the run from her murderous ex-boyfriend. With Emily being nearly blind, the two use video chat, so Sam can help navigate Emily through the woods.
The horror-thriller is short and sweet at a run time of seventy-six minutes with two incredibly likable lead characters. It's a film that isn't trying to be any more than what it is. It will keep you tense one moment and make you laugh the next, and organically makes you root for the repressed characters at the forefront of the film.
10 Influencer
The movie plot of how annoying some of us seem to find the social media influencer persona has shown up for a few years now. Upon seeing the poster for the Shudder original, Influencer, you may make a hard pass on it due to the assumption that it is that recycled plot point. Well, It's not, it's a tight 90-minute thriller that twists and turns all the way to the film's final moments. With the beauty of Thailand as its setting, we follow Madison (Emily Tennant), an influencer who looks like she's having a great vacation online, but her personal life is in shambles.
She befriends CW (Cassandra Naud), who shows her a good time around the area. Things take a darker turn as CW takes her out to a deserted island. Influencer plays on the idea of what life looks like online, and then there's real life and all its issues. Don't go into the film thinking it's murder and carnage, but more about manipulation and loss of identity.
9 Clock
Clockis psychological horror meets body horror, all centered around a woman who takes part in a clinical trial to fix her biological clock. The message is very clear in the Hulu original film, as it explores the result of pressuring women in their 30s to hurry up and procreate before it is too late for them.
Clock isn't anti-have kids, but it's very much commentating on the struggles women go through if they have made a firm stance that motherhood isn't for them. Or, even the struggles they go through if they can't biologically create life to begin with. There's a very real issue underlining the horror of the film, watch at your own risk.
8 Sick
Peacock
Sick is the first COVID pandemic film that truly works in acknowledging the pandemic of 2020. Many shows and even low budget Indies mention and acknowledge COVID upon their late 2020 and early 2021 releases. But since we were all still living through it, it just didn't really hit yet. Now nearly three years removed, Sick, does a brilliant job as a little slasher film that takes place during the pandemic, as two friends hanging out at a cabin by a lake during the summer of social distancing.
As the night progresses, the two begin to be stalked by a, well, masked killer. Written by Scream screenwriter, Kevin Williamson, Sick feels simple in its premise but expands on its world in the third act. And mixes in humor that we all can relate too, because for the most part, we all lived parts of this movie.
7 The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
Directed by Bomani Story, The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster is an amazing re-telling of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. The film is about a brilliant teenager named Vicaria (Laya DeLeon Hayes) who follows the belief that death is not forever, it is a disease that can be cured. It is with that belief we learn that Vicaria has tried to revive her dead brother's corpse.
Once she actually is able to bring him back to life, she realizes that isn't her brother anymore, it's a monster. Loaded with plenty of social commentary on the black experience in America, The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster is a must-see for any horror film enthusiast.
6 Huesera: The Bone Woman
Pregnancy horror makes its second appearance on this list. The Spanish film Huesera: The Bone Woman popped up on Shudder back in early 2023 and is loaded with scares that will keep you up at night. When a woman is cursed by an evil spirit at the time she is expecting her first child, her only hope may be a group of witches.
Huesera, has a well-written lead role Valeria (Natalia Solian), who begins to struggle with the loss of her identity and postpartum depression, as her family constantly attempts to tear her down. The scares of the movie keep you up at night, but the drama of it all is very human.
5 Swallowed
Swallowed had its initial release last year, but it premiered on VOD earlier this year for a wider audience. The film, directed by Carter Smith, tells the story of a drug run that goes completely bad. Two friends spending their final night together before one leaves for Los Angeles get caught up in having to orally smuggle drugs.
The bags that the drugs come in, seem to have something alive in them. You can figure out the rest. This body horror film is slow in its pacing, but executes at a high level with its dread and stomach-turning moments in the film's third act. It's also great to see the Scream Queen himself, Mark Patton, playing an eccentric villainous role.
4 Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey
With a staggering 3% on Rotten Tomatoes, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is a wild ride that turns the sweet innocent child story on its head and makes it a slasher film that you can't even comprehend how or why it got made. Blood and Honey takes place as Christopher Robin returns home from college only to learn that Pooh and Piglet are now murderous human-hating beings.
The film wants you to turn your brain off, so be sure to do that. And if you do, enjoy the ride, as the loving animal friends of our childhood commit barbaric acts that should be meant for horror titans like Jason, Freddy and Leatherface.
3 The Price We Pay
When The Price We Pay dropped on places like Peacock and other VOD platforms, you probably just scrolled past it due to its generic plot line. Two criminals who have a robbery go wrong find a secluded place to hide out till the heat that's on them cools off. Only things turn more menacing for the as they hide out.
The poster for the film alone looks like a straight-to-video action movie with Stephen Dorff and Emile Hirsch in the leads. Rest assured, once the film gets to where it needs to go, in goes from a formulaic robbery movie to a blend of Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Barbarian. Critics are mixed on this one. Horror fans are happy they discovered it.
2 The Outwaters
The trailer for The Outwaters showed up at Terrifier 2 screenings back in late 2022. It's a new, haunting look at found footage in the digital era. The footage is presented over three memory cards from a camera for a music video shoot in the Mojave Desert. It follows four individuals on the shoot who also camp out in the desert when they're not filming.
Things begin to unravel as we hear grizzly sounds and vibrations. There's a back and forth between unnerving and strangely calming horror in the atmosphere of the movie. It's easy to say it's the next Blair Witch Project, but The Outwaters stands on its own as a film, and like Blair Witch, you must hand yourself over to it in order to get the full experience of its terror.
1 Skinamarink
Some loved it, and some hated it. But by the end of its small theatrical release in January, anyone who saw it was very passionate about their stance on it. Skinamarink is a lo-fi horror film that is trying to tap into the feeling of waking up in the middle of the night in your childhood home while everyone else is asleep. It's about two children who wake up during the night and learn that their father is missing and all the windows and doors in the house are gone. It's hard to grasp the concept of that plot based on of that information, so just watch it over on Shudder.
The film asks you to drop the idea of what you know and think a movie should be and go down the wormhole of a nostalgic nightmare with it. For nearly two hours you are fed shots of dark hallways in an outdated home, a television playing late-night cartoons, and whispers from the two brothers whom you never fully see.
All of this culminating in nightmare fuel. Longer articles are out there about the analysis of Skinamarink and what is actually going on in it. The film is a technical masterwork in sound design and grainy visual aesthetics. You gaze into the dark abyss of the house in Skinamarink, and while doing so, you get that dreadful feeling that the abyss is looking right back at you.
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