The Best Horror Movies of 2023: The Scariest Things Podcast 177

The Best Horror Movies of 2023:
The Scariest Things writing team didn’t have a consensus #1 film, but all four of the films that reached the top spot are likely to become instant classics, remembered for decades to come. If you want a sampler platter of tasty horror, then listen to the FIVE top ten lists in our roundtable discussion!

A few trends were notable when considering the best horror movies of 2023. Zombie movies were down. No werewolves this year. Possession movies were way up! A big benchmark win for Kaiju movies. Three of our individual #1 movies were demonic possession films. (Additionally, one of our #2 movies featured the trope. Possession was so trendy. It was one of the popular kids this year.) Australia delivered a bunch of great films, including the top ten films: Talk To Me, Late Night With the Devil, Beaten to Death, Monolith, You’ll Never Find Me, and Evil Dead Rise. Not to be outdone, Australia’s southern hemisphere partner, Patagonia, provided the movies When Evil Lurks and El Conde. It was a great year for the Southern Hemisphere’s horror offerings.

Surprisingly, this year’s big box office winner was the surprise Universal Pictures PG-13 feature M3GAN. And surprise, surprise… it’s GOOD! Sadly, some of the other big offerings that were also pretty good, such as Renfield and The Last Voyage of the Demeter, bombed at the box office. So, it remains to be seen how Hollywood will react to putting bigger budgets to horror movies. One movie that may teach Hollywood a bit about doing spectacle on a tight budget is Godzilla Minus One. Also, it might teach a few studios about giving us great protagonists that we care about in a monster movie. (Nudge, nudge, Legendary!)

Victory was also achieved for artistic liminal horror with the micro-budget success of Skinamarink. It requires a ton of patience and plays like a museum interpretive piece, but it struck a deep nerve with many in the audience.

Release Notes:

A few of our selections were festival darlings but have not had their theatrical or streaming releases yet. You’ll have to wait for Late Night with the Devil, Hundreds of Beavers, Minore, The Deep Dark, and All You Need is Death, as they will have 2024 landing spots once their festival runs are complete. That’s part of the deal when attending film festivals before the distribution rights are secured. Those who are patient will be rewarded with some terrific movies next year.

Trust us, next year will be a bit of a struggle, with a lot of movie productions put on hold due to the combination of the screenwriter and actor’s strikes of 2023. So, you may find yourselves coming back to this review when the pickings get thin for next year. We would like to congratulate our friends in the writing and acting rooms. Justice has been properly served!

A thank you to our Festival Partners:

We don’t always get to write written thank you messages, but we will take this opportunity to recognize the organizations that have helped put us on the map. If you haven’t gotten a chance to attend a horror festival, you should take a look at this list and find a festival in 2024 so you can get in early on the great independent and foreign horror films, as well as a bevy of horror shorts.

Here is a list of all the festivals that we have either attended or screened films for review. Find a festival near you and plan accordingly! It will make it easier for you to agree or disagree with our deeper-cut festival films, and they are so much fun!

Sundance, Park City, January 8-18
Midwest Weirdfest, Eau Claire, WI, March 1-3
SXSW, Austin March 8-16
The Overlook Film Festival, New Orleans, April 4-7
Panic Fest, Kansas City April 4-7
The Portland Horror Film Festival, Portland, June 5-9
Chattanooga Film Festival, Chattanooga, June 21-28
Bucheon International Film Festival (Bifan), July 4-14
Popcorn Frights, Ft. Lauderdale, August 8-18
Cabin in the Woods Film Festival, Seattle, August 26-30
Fantastic Fest, Austin, September 19-26 (TBD)
FilmQuest, Salt Lake City, September (TBD)
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Brooklyn, October 17-24
The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, Portland, October (TBD)
Another Hole in the Head, San Francisco, December (TBD)

Closing thoughts:

We had so much fun recording the Best Horror Movies of 2023. It is a fitting celebration at the end of the year. Thank you to all of our fans who listen to all our podcasts and stop by regularly to our website to get wise to the trends and tropes of the horror genre! Check out our ranking lists below for a more in-depth analysis of our top 10 lists. But, for the pure fun of the year in review, you can’t beat listening to our podcast! It’s a jumbo-sized episode. Some might even call it EPIC!