Looking for a good scare this silly season? Here are the best horror films of 2023, as chosen by ScreenHub reviewers – and where to stream them over the summer.
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M3GAN
‘From the outset, we understand that this is not a serious film. It’s not an out-and-out slapstick comedy – the characters are engaging seriously within their universe and they’re facing what they perceive to be a frightening situation, and M3GAN is genuinely unsettling. But everything from the casting of comedy actors, to the plot, from the setting and the overuse of tropes, is too on the nose to be a 100% earnest horror’.’ – Amy Loughlin.
Stream it on: Netflix
Scream VI
‘In the universe of Scream, characters become pathologically obsessed with repetition and imitation. There’s some interesting overlaps between psychological compulsion and genre fidelity, but directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett aren’t nearly as interested in exploring that as they are peppering visual references into every frame. Without much narrative depth, Sam’s hallucinations of her killer father should be unforgivably cheesy, but Barrera sells it every minute she’s on screen.’ – Naja Later.
Stream it on: Binge
Pearl
‘Mia Goth fully commits every drop of her blood, sweat, tears, AND snot to the role – and rewards our endurance through the gore with one of the most riveting performances of the year. The dance audition is a damn delight, as is Pearl’s unhinged monologue to her sister-in-law, Mitsy. It’s just a shame that Mitsy, played by newcomer Emma Jenkins-Purro, has what I like to call resting iPhone face. That girl desperately wants to Tweet, I know it.’ – Silvi Vann-Wall.
Stream it on: Netflix
Read: New films in 2024: Furiosa, Dune part two, Mickey 17, Priscilla and more
The Pope’s Exorcist
‘A weirdly committed Russell Crowe does a lot of heavy lifting here while looking eerily identical to Orson Welles in his F for Fake era. It’s a performance with an old-school movie-star quality to it. Once upon a time, we might have seen George C Scott or even late-era Marlon Brando doing something similar, valiantly trying to elevate the familiar nonsense around them to something approaching a good time.’ – Glenn Dunks.
Stream it on: Prime Video
Evil Dead Rise
‘Director Lee Cronin (2019’s The Hole in the Ground) isn’t Sam Raimi, and this doesn’t quite have the demented glee of the peaks of prior Evil Deads (again, that’s Evil Dead II). But if the vibe here is a bit more gruelling than Raimi’s horror-comedies, that’s only to be expected. Rather than a bunch of disposable teens – and Bruce Campbell as Ash, horror’s greatest hero – facing monsters, this is about a family tearing itself apart, often literally.’ – Anthony Morris.
Stream it on: Apple TV
Infinity Pool
‘From the opening scene – actually, from the opening credits – this film sinks its claws in you and doesn’t let up until the end credits roll. There’s a constant sense of foreboding throughout, created by the thumping percussion soundtrack, slo-mo zooms and out of focus foreground shots – all of which are employed liberally to grow that feeling of unease that keeps you from looking away, even when things get particularly gruesome and blood-soaked.’ – Silvi Vann-Wall.
Stream it on: Binge
Huesera: The Bone Woman
‘It might be a drama-driven film, but the bone woman is really scary. She scurries around with uncanny hydraulic movements, and it’s often hard to tell if a figure lurking out of focus is the heroine or the monster. Valeria’s compulsive knuckle-cracking starts to permeate the whole soundscape, as if she’s haunting herself. Valeria is warned that childbirth ‘feels like your bones are breaking,’ and Solián’s physical performance makes stretching out a crick in her neck look like she’s snapping her own spine.’ – Naja Later.
Stream it on: Shudder
Talk to Me
‘For all the terror, there is also a spunky teen spirit with attendant doofus humour that’s sure to strike a chord with local audiences. The film greatly benefits from the Philippou’s insistence on shooting in Adelaide with age-appropriate Australian actors. Doing it their way is undoubtedly why Talk to Me was such a scene-stealer at this year’s Sundance Film Festival – after debuting at the Adelaide Film Festival last October – landing a North American distribution deal with indie powerhouse A24.’ – Stephen A Russell.
Stream it on: Netflix
Read: The top ten: best Australian films of 2023
Monolith
‘Monolith is expertly shot, turning a narrative about an audio-only medium into an audiovisual feast. Michael Tessari’s tight cinematography adds to the alienating feel of The Interviewer’s headquarters, and makes the expansive rooms feel increasingly claustrophobic as the mystery unravels.’ – Silvi Vann-Wall.
Stream it on: Binge
Godzilla Minus One
‘Minus One wears its inspirations on its sleeve, in particular the great Spielberg thriller, Jaws. Looking for a job after the war, our pilot Shikishima joins a ragtag group of men on a tiny wooden fishing boat commissioned to clean up sea mines. While de-activating the mines, their guns naturally attract the attention of Godzilla. As the beast chases them through the water, the men desperately fire on it with increasing fervor, and eventually explode a mine inside its mouth … which does nothing. To their dismay, Godzilla can regenerate his damaged flesh in a second. I bet they wished they had a bigger boat.’ – Silvi Vann-Wall.
Stream it on: Godzilla Minus One is still playing in cinemas over the summer.
