Halfway to Halloween: The 13 best horror films of the year (so far)

Directed by Ben Brewer and written by Michael Nilon, Arcadian follows the A Quiet Place blueprint of a family trying to survive the end of the world, and does some new things with the format along the way. The story of a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons (Jaeden Martell and Maxwell Jenkins) who must contend with monster-ridden nights while scraping out a living on their farm, the film succeeds by rooting its story in universal and potent emotional themes, carried through by strong central performance. Then there are the monsters, which truly look and act like no other end-of-the-world beast you’ve ever seen.

Though it’s sometimes a bit hampered by an overreliance on predictable jumpscares and a plot that’s stretched thin by the end, Immaculate works as both a frenzied religious horror experience and a showcase for star and producer Sydney Sweeney. As a nun who arrives at a secluded Italian convent and then finds herself miraculously pregnant, Sweeney throws herself into this film with everything she’s got, and delivers considerable acting muscle along the way. Throw in some truly effective scares and an ending that does not flinch, and you’ve got a solid new piece of creepy nun cinema.

Jonah Ray Rodrigues stars in this zany, gore-soaked horror-comedy as a struggling musician who’s trying to finish his misunderstood masterpiece. It’s hard enough trying to get it done when his day job is soul-sucking and his girlfriend doesn’t seem to get it, but things get worse when an obnoxious new neighbor (Alex Winter) arrives next door. What happens next is one of those things that you just have to experience to understand, a hilarious, wildly over-the-top ride of hallucinogenic, visceral fun that’ll have your jaw on the floor more than once.

Writer-director Larry Fessenden is one of the brightest and best minds in the indie horror scene, and he proves it once again with this werewolf feature about a down-on-his-luck painter (Alex Hurt) who regularly transforms into a murderous beast that roams the night. As with so much of Fessenden’s work, what makes Blackout great is his ability to play gleefully with horror tropes while also inserting plenty of indie drama character work into the mix. When that mix is working, Blackout becomes a compelling and haunting drama about a man trying to atone for his own beastly nature in a monstrous world, and the inventive werewolf kills are just gravy.

Zelda Williams and Diablo Cody’s campy ode to ’80s romance and monster movies didn’t get the warmest reception upon its release earlier this year, but I’m convinced that time is going to be kind to this one, and besides, I had a blast watching it. The story of the titular teen girl (Kathryn Newton) and the reanimated corpse (Cole Sprouse) who becomes her partner in (literal) crime and life, Lisa Frankenstein succeeds because it is unapologetically, luxuriantly dancing to its own beat, paying homage to past cinematic icons while impishly poking fun at them simultaneously. It’s a joy, and it deserves more fans.

A pair of roaming amateur anthropologists (Simone Collins and Charlie Maher) search Ireland for rare and unrecorded folk songs in this chilling film, and what they find when they uncover something truly ancient amid all that lost music will change them forever. A folk-horror film rooted in the transformative power of music is a great idea, but it’s what writer-director Paul Duane does within that concept that makes All You Need Is Death special. Like a great song, it’s one of those movies that just worms its way into your head and lingers

A horror prequel that works within the parameters of its franchise while also blazing its own creepy trail, Arkasha Stevenson’s The First Omen is a knockout religious horror movie that goes places even The Omen did not. Following a young nun (Nell Tiger Free, fearless and ferocious) who finds herself at the center of a vast conspiracy within the Catholic church, Stevenson’s film takes the central fears of The Omen and turns them into questions not of family, but of faith, as one woman must face the sinister turn of an entire beloved institution, and fight to keep her own soul in one piece. It’s a stunner, and a great new entry in a storied franchise.

A group of hunter-gatherers roam the Earth millennia ago, searching for a new life in a new land. What they find instead, in Andrew Cumming’s stunning film, is a nightmare, as they’re stalked and picked apart by something hidden in the surrounding landscape. The concept alone, following primitive humans as they face true horror, is enough to keep Out Of Darkness moving forward, but along the way it finds real emotional heft and heart, thanks in no small part to a tremendous lead performance from Safia Oakley-Green.

In Sébastien Vanicek’s Infested, a lone exotic spider makes its way into a French apartment building where an enterprising young man (Théo Christine) and his family and friends are trying to build a better life. Over the course of the following days, that lone spider becomes an army of deadly, relentless, constantly multiplying arachnids in a film that gives spider horror classic Arachnophobia a run for its money. What starts as a satisfyingly creepy creature feature eventually morphs into a survival horror clash for the ages, culminating in some truly jaw-dropping, brutal moments of eight-legged fury.

If you’ve seen the trailers for Abigail, you think you know this movie already. You think you’re prepared for the places this story of a group of kidnappers who unwittingly abduct a vampire girl (Alisha Weir) will go. For the first half of the movie, you’re right, and then filmmaking collective Radio Silence pushes things completely off the rails in a delightfully violent, relentless horror-comedy romp. The result is a bloody powerhouse with a great ensemble, great gore effects, and a story that’ll leave you wanting even more.

A talk show host takes the stage one Halloween night in the 1970s to try and save his show, and finds his soul in the balance as dark forces take over the set. That’s the promise of Late Night With The Devil, the throwback horror film from directors and writers Colin and Cameron Cairnes, and it definitely delivers. What ends up sticking with you most throughout this story, though, isn’t the demonic presence creeping into the story, or the production design that evokes classic 1970s TV vibes. It’s David Dastmalchian’s searing, unforgettable performance as a man just trying to keep his fortunes intact, only to find everything is slipping away.

Aisling Franciosi stars in this chilling, uncomfortable tale as a stop-motion animator who finds herself swept up in a new idea for a film to such an extent that it becomes alienating, frightening, and ultimately dangerous. The promise of exploring the horror space through stop-motion animation is reason enough to check out Robert Morgan’s film, but Franciosi’s powerful performance propels Stopmotion beyond gimmicks and into the realm of truly harrowing emotional terror, as art and artist merge into something new, violent, and unforgettable.