The Best Horror Movies of 2019 — So Far

"I truly was not prepared for the horror-comedy masterpiece that is Ready or Not. The film, which hails from cowriters Guy Busick and Ryan Murphy and codirectors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, is a blood-splattered thrill ride as sharp as the point of the crossbow frequently aimed at the chest of the movie's heroine, Grace (Samara Weaving, in a star-making performance), who finds herself sucked into a demented game of hide and seek the night of her wedding. In addition to insane stunts and pulpy-red goop exploding left and right is a humorous edge that helps take to task not only the antiquated ideals of marriage, but also the shallow moral code of the one percent. I desperately need more genre films like this."

"I've been actively searching for my tethered since I saw Us. Seriously, Jordan Peele has convinced me that there is another version of me out there (at least, I hope there is — there's the strong possibility that I'm the tethered, right?), and I can't rest until I figure it out. I was completely captivated by the concept of this movie, and Lupita Nyong'o's dual performance as Adelaide and Red will haunt me forever. Give her two Oscars!"

"I loved Hereditary. I found it to be one of the most daring and visually striking horror films in recent memory. I also have no intention of watching Hereditary ever again. Ari Aster's feature debut has a way of not only getting under your skin, but taking up residence there indefinitely. Midsommar — an ambitious film about paganism, anthropology, and heartbreak — is no different. And if you can get past the body horror, it will at least leave you feeling as though your last breakup wasn't so bad after all."

"Each scene of Alexandre Aja's Crawl is so tense it's almost painful to watch, transforming the kitchen counters and basement stairs of a suburban home in Florida into the ultimate arena of horror. Kaya Scodelario gives a tightly wound performance as the resourceful Haley, who has to rescue her injured father (Barry Pepper) from the clutches of two massive alligators that have taken over their home in the middle of a hurricane, resulting in the fight of both of their lives. Please, Hollywood, give me more smart, gory creature features! I beg of you!"

"Professional provocateur Gaspar Noé's Climax leaves you feeling slightly off-kilter from the moment it starts and only gets increasingly difficult to stomach from there. The film follows the members of a dance troupe after they're dosed with LSD during a party, but don't expect a woozy trip — the events unfold violently, with Atomic Blonde star Sophia Boutella (as well as the rest of the cast, many of whom had never acted before) struggling to crawl through the brutality of the night and make it to sunrise."

"Ready for some atmospheric Irish horror? The Hole in the Ground, starring Seána Kerslake as a single mother who begins to question if her son is indeed her son after he returns from running off into the woods one afternoon, is a slow burn, but its take on the changeling myth will fill you with a pretty spectacular amount of dread. And yes, I now have a fear of both sinkholes and evil fairies, thanks."

"Netflix's Velvet Buzzsaw is not a perfect movie, but I'll be damned if the 'Final Destination set in the haughty art world' conceit didn't hook me immediately. It's in-your-face gory and at times absurd, but thanks to an all-star cast including Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Toni Collette, Tom Sturridge, and many, many others, Dan Gilroy's film is campy, can't-look-away entertainment. Oh, and the haircut on Gyllenhaal's Morf Vandewalt? Just incredible."

"The gang is all grown up in It Chapter Two, but Pennywise hasn't aged a day! With a stellar cast portraying the adult members of the Losers Club, the sequel is just as fun and frightful as It. Though it can often feel like a rehashing of the events of the 2017 adaption, a few new additions make it worth watching — namely Bill Hader's comic timing and Jessica Chastain's scene with the elderly woman. (If you know, you know.)"

"Will there come a day when I finally give up on The Conjuring franchise? Not likely. (I paid $21 to see The Nun, which is pretty terrible, at one of those fancy movie theaters, and I still don't regret it.) Like the sequel before it, Annabelle Comes Home is a solid entry into the lore surrounding the cursed doll with Edith Piaf eyebrows, though this time it wisely shrinks the scope down to a single night of frights for Ed and Lorraine Warren's daughter and her babysitter (and one very, very reckless friend). Yes, it's yet another haunted house outing to add into The Conjuring universe's many, many haunted house outings, but it's still worth a watch."

"The Perfection is straight up BONKERS and I loved every minute of it. Get Out's Allison Williams plays Charlotte, who is the perfect vehicle for the actress's chilling (and brilliant) ability to use her calm, affable, composed exterior to hide any sinister motives lurking within. Charlotte is a troubled musical prodigy who seeks out Elizabeth (Dear White People's Logan Browning), the new star cellist of the music conservatory Charlotte attended as a teen. After they meet, the encounter sends both musicians down a deeply twisted path that ends with a startlingly gruesome crescendo. It's one of the most bizarre movie I saw this year (and I mean that in the most positive way possible)."

"The idea at the core of Brightburn is a simple one: what if Clark Kent, with all his extraordinary powers, had grown up to be evil instead of a superhero? Young Brandon Breyer (Jackson A. Dunn) is the stand-in for the Clark Kent figure here, being raised on a farm by two loving parents (Elizabeth Banks and David Denman) who adopted him as a baby after his alien spacecraft crash landed in the woods behind their home over a decade earlier. Despite their warmth, Brandon succumbs to the allure of his seemingly unlimited power, which zaps him of all empathy and convinces him to take whatever he wants in the most violent way possible. Sure, the movie, directed by David Yarovesky, is clunky at times, but I found myself pulled in by both the stomach-turning death scenes and the terrifying spin on Hollwood's superhero movie obsession."

"Joker isn't your stereotypical horror movie. What makes the film so gut-wrenchingly terrifying, though, is how closely it ties into our current reality. The fact that it's about someone who struggles with his mental health, gets bullied by everyone around him, and violently retaliates hits too close to home in today's world. The entire movie is deeply unsettling, and that's really what makes it scary."

"For much of this razor-sharp thriller, the immensely talented Kiersey Clemons is the only character, moving about the island she washes up on after a shipwreck in tense silence as she struggles to survive on her own. Without spoiling too much, she soon discovers that a bloodthirsty threat also calls the island home, making her ordeal that much more terrifying. It's a testament to both Clemons' performance and the film as a whole that, despite the lack of dialogue, it's still a deeply compelling full of so much dread I frequently caught myself subconsciously holding my breath."

"For a movie about a lighthouse, Robert Eggers's stylistic, second-ever feature film leaves viewers in the dark. Between the unreliable narration, stark lighting, and oftentimes impossible-to-understand accents, the film purposefully makes it difficult to glean what is actually going on. What is plain to see, however, is that its two protagonists — outstandingly played by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson — are gradually going mad. After watching The Lighthouse, you'll wonder if you are, too."