19 Recent Horror Movies That Flew Under The Radar (And How To Watch Them)

The child from The Hole in the Ground staring through the window
(Image credit: A24)

Independent horror movies are experiencing a surprising surge in popularity lately, with low-budget thrillers like the game-changing Skinamarink going viral and Terrifier 3 winning the box office in its first week. However, there are still many new, creepy hidden gems that tend to get lost in the shuffle among the most recent installments of classic horror movie franchises or the latest Blumhouse thrillers, for instance. Well, allow me to help point you in the right direction to find some of the best horror movies from the last few years that you might not have seen.

Ellora Torchia wearing a backpack outdoors in In the Earth

(Image credit: Neon)

In The Earth (2021)

Director: Ben Wheatley

Starring: Joel Fry, Reece Shearsmith

What it’s about: In the midst of a disastrous pandemic, a routine search for supplies in the deep forest takes a turn for the worse for a scientist and park ranger.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: While not as well known some of Ben Wheatley’s other notable films, such as Free Fire or Meg 2: The Trench, In the Earth is one of the filmmaker’s most acclaimed efforts, as a slow-burn that curdles into a something viscerally grisly and thematically unique.

How to watch In the Earth

Boyd Holbrook in The Cursed

(Image credit: LD Entertainment)

The Cursed (2022)

Director: Sean Ellis

Starring: Boyd Holbrook, Kelly Reilly

What it’s about: A village begins to suffer a horrifying and transformative event in the wake of a land baron’s unspeakable act in the late 19th Century.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: Solid acting performance and inventive creature effects make The Cursed one of the best werewolf movies in years.

How to watch The Cursed

The sisters from Incident in a Ghostland looking concerned

(Image credit: Vertical Entertainment)

Incident In A Ghostland (2018)

Director: Pascal Laugier

Starring: Emilia Jones, Taylor Hickson, Mylène Farmer

What it’s about: Two sisters and their mother fall prey to two intruders who have invaded their new, remote farmhouse on the first night they move in.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: With its shocking twists and turns, Incident in a Ghostland is a scary and subversive take on the home invasion genre.

How to watch Incident in a Ghostland

Seána Kerslake in The Hole in the Ground

(Image credit: Savage Productions)

The Hole In The Ground (2019)

Director: Lee Cronin

Starring: Seána Kerslake, James Quinn Markey

What it’s about: A single mother becomes increasingly convinced that her young son is not what he claims to be.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: Before Lee Cronin became part of Evil Dead movie history by helming Evil Dead Rise, he broke out with this chilling tale that also boasts a resounding theme of family torn apart by otherworldly circumstances.

How to watch The Hole in the Ground

Ezequiel Rodriguez and Demián Salomon in When Evil Lurks

(Image credit: IFC Films)

When Evil Lurks (2023)

Director: Demián Rugna

Starring: Ezequiel Rodríguez, Demián Salomón

What it’s about: Two brothers struggle to do the right thing to prevent an epidemic of demonic possession from going viral.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: At times, watching the protagonists of When Evil Lurks continuously worsen their situation with one mistake after another grows frustrating but that is why this haunting brutal Spanish-language film also works as an effective commentary on how mankind responds to crises.

How to watch When Evil Lurks

Kyle Gallner and Johnny Berchtold in The Passenger

(Image credit: Blumhouse Productions)

The Passenger (2023)

Director: Carter Smith

Starring: Johnny Berchtold, Kyle Gallner

What it’s about: A young man is forced to accompany his unstable coworker on a violent killing spree.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: Kyle Gallner (of The Walking Dead, 2022’s Scream, and Smile fame) continues to prove he is one of today’s finest horror movie actors with his chilling performance in The Passenger – an intense, Blumhouse-produced thriller that, unfortunately, never received a theatrical release.

How to watch The Passenger

Barbara Crampton and Heather Graham in Suitable Flesh

(Image credit: RLJE Films)

Suitable Flesh (2023)

Director: Joe Lynch

Starring: Heather Graham, Barbara Crampton

What it’s about: A psychiatrist discovers that her new, young patient’s problem is something much worse than anything therapy can solve.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: CinemaBlend’s Eric Eisenberg praised Suitable Flesh as one of the best horror movies of 2023 for being a refreshingly provocative and unsettlingly dark adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Thing on the Doorstep.”

How to watch Suitable Flesh

Efren Ramierz in Satanic Hispanics

(Image credit: Dread)

Satanic Hispanics (2022)

Director: Mike Mendez, Demián Rugna, Eduardo Sánchez, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Alejandro Brugués

Starring: Efren Ramirez, Jonah Ray

What it’s about: The sole survivor of a deadly occasion is brought in for questioning, where he instead recounts five terrifying tales he has witnessed.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: Academy Award winner Guillermo del Toro took to X to voice his approval of Satanic Hispanics – an anthology horror movie with stories each helmed by a different Latino filmmaker.

How to watch Satanic Hispanics

Mary Woodvine in Enys Men

(Image credit: Neon)

Enys Men (2022)

Director: Mark Jenkin

Starring: Mary Woodvine

What it’s about: A volunteer wildlife worker begins to question her reality while observing the activity of a rare flower on a remote island in 1973.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: The title of Enys Men (pronounced “ennis mane”) translates from Cornish to say, “stone island,” in reference to the setting of this persistently eerie, gorgeously shot meditation on loneliness.

How to watch Enys Men

Huesera: The Bone Woman

(Image credit: XYZ Films)

Huesera: The Bone Woman (2022)

Director: Michelle Garza Cervera

Starring: Natalia Solián, Alfonso Dosal

What it’s about: After her dream of becoming pregnant finally comes true, a woman begins to suffer an unexplainable living nightmare.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: Inspired by a terrifying legend of Mexican folklore, the Spanish-language thriller Huesera: The Bone Woman is one of the most intense horror movies about motherhood since Rosemary’s Baby.

How to watch Huesera: The Bone Woman

Bad Things image

(Image credit: Shudder)

Bad Things (2023)

Director: Stewart Thorndike

Starring: Gayle Rankin, Hari Neff

What it’s about: After a young woman inherits a hotel, she and others go there for a weekend that takes a bizarre, horrifying turn.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: Bad Things is a recent LGBTQ+-themed horror movie that has drawn comparisons to The Shining for its setting and similarly unsettling atmosphere.

How to watch Bad Things

Scene from El Conde

(Image credit: Netflix)

El Conde (2023)

Director: Pablo Larraín

Starring: Jaime Vadell, Gloria Münchmeyer

What it’s about: Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet decides that, after 250 years of sucking blood and living in hiding, he is ready to die, which attracts the attention of his children.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: Winner of Best Screenplay at the 80th Venice Film Festival, the Oscar-nominated, wild political satire, El Conde – also one of the best 2023 Netflix original movies – is unlike any vampire movie you have ever seen.

How to watch El Conde

Nicolas Cage in Willy's Wonderland

(Image credit: JD Entertainment)

Willy’s Wonderland (2021)

Director: Kevin Lewis

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Emily Tosta

What it’s about: While working as an overnight janitor for a rundown family entertainment center to pay off his car repair, a nameless, silent drifter discovers the goofy animatronics inside are alive and are not too friendly.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: While an official Five Nights at Freddy’s movie does exist, Willy’s Wonderland – a wonderfully zany low-budget horror-comedy seemingly inspired by the video game franchise – is still worth a watch, especially for Cage’s badass performance.

How to watch Willy’s Wonderland

James Badge Dale in The Empty Man

(Image credit: Disney)

The Empty Man (2020)

Director: David Prior

Starring: James Badge Dale, Marin Ireland

What it’s about: The investigation of a friend’s missing daughter leads a former cop to discover a cult tied to a terrifying urban legend.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: Perhaps the most vastly underseen and underrated horror movie of 2020 was this mind-bending adaptation of the comic book The Empty Man from David Prior, who went on to helm one of the best episodes of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, “The Autopsy.”

How to watch The Empty Man

Maika Monroe in Watcher

(Image credit: Shudder)

Watcher (2022)

Director: Chloe Okuno

Starring: Maika Monroe, Karl Glusman

What it’s about: A young woman begins to have deadly suspicions about her voyeuristic neighbor.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: Chloe Okuno makes a stunning feature-length debut with the startling Watcher, starring modern Scream Queen and It Follows star, Maika Monroe.

How to watch Watcher

Sean Harris in Possum

(Image credit: thefyzz)

Possum (2018)

Director: Matthew Holness

Starring: Sean Harris, Alun Armstrong

What it’s about: A disturbed man, accompanied by his unsettling puppet, returns to his childhood home to confront his traumatic past.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: In a recent wave of comedians-turned-horror masters (i.e. Jordan Peele, Barbarian’s Zach Cregger), one such filmmaker who deserves more notoriety for such an achievement is British comic Matthew Holness, whose feature-length directorial debut, Possum, is a hauntingly visceral and uniquely poignant nightmare.

How to watch Possum

Zelda Adams in Hellbender

(Image credit: Shudder)

Hellbender (2022)

Director: John Adams, Zelda Adams, Toby Poser

Starring: Zelda Adams, Toby Poser

What it’s about: A sheltered young woman discovers she has bizarre and dangerous abilities that her mother attempted to hide from her.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: Real-life mother/daughter duo Toby Poser and Zelda Adams deserve a place among the top horror movie Scream Queens after collaborating on Hellbender — an irresistibly inventive take on witchcraft lore.

How to watch Hellbender

The cast of Soft And Quiet

(Image credit: Momentum Pictures)

Soft & Quiet (2022)

Director: Beth de Araújo

Starring: Stefanie Estes, Olivia Luccardi

What it’s about: A simple meeting between a group of women turns grim when its organizer, an elementary school teacher, encounters someone from her past.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: Eric Eisenberg named Soft & Quiet one of his favorite movies of 2022 without giving away much about the story, but horror junkies who have sought it out have praised its bold, unapologetic brutality and inventive narrative structure.

How to watch Soft & Quiet

Siiri Solalinna as Tinja in Hatching

(Image credit: IFC Midnight)

Hatching (2022)

Director: Hannah Bergholm

Starring: Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkilä

What it’s about: A young girl unwittingly puts her demanding family in danger by hiding and caring for a mysterious egg in her room.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: The horror fans who have sought out the Finnish fantasy thriller Hatching have praised its bizarre, dreamlike imagery and clever symbolism.

How to watch Hatching

Anna Cobb in We're All Going To The World's Fair

(Image credit: Utopia)

We're All Going To The World's Fair (2022)

Director: Jane Schoenbrun

Starring: Anna Cobb, Michael J. Rogers

What it’s about: A lonely teenager begins documenting the strange effect that an online role-playing game seems to have on her.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: Before Jane Schoenbrun released the A24 horror movie, I Saw the TV Glow, they debuted with We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is a chilling and intriguing analysis of the internet’s recent obsession with analog horror and urban legends known as “Creepypastas.”

How to watch We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

Joseph Winter in Deadstream

(Image credit: Shudder)

Deadstream (2022)

Director: Jessica Winter, Joseph Winter

Starring: Joseph Winter, Melanie Stone

What it’s about: A disgraced Internet personality attempts to win back his followers by live-streaming his experience in a supposedly haunted house.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: Deadstream is my personal favorite found footage thriller released in 2022 and one of the most entertaining horror-comedy movies also available with a Shudder subscription.

How to watch Deadstream

Scene from Mad God

(Image credit: Shudder)

Mad God (2022)

Director: Phil Tibbett

Starring: Alex Cox, Niketa Roman

What it’s about: An exploration of an underground world of apocalyptic ruin inhabited by monstrous creatures, as seen through the eyes of a masked loner.

Why it is an under-the-radar horror flick worth your time: I would call Mad God one of the best horror movies on Shudder, but this kaleidoscope of grungy, unsettling, otherworldly imagery without any sense of a linear narrative really transcends genre.

How to watch Mad God

We have our severed fingers crossed that horror movie hidden gems like these still have a shot at becoming legendary classics.

Jason Wiese
Content Writer

Jason Wiese writes feature stories for CinemaBlend. His occupation results from years dreaming of a filmmaking career, settling on a "professional film fan" career, studying journalism at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO (where he served as Culture Editor for its student-run print and online publications), and a brief stint of reviewing movies for fun. He would later continue that side-hustle of film criticism on TikTok (@wiesewisdom), where he posts videos on a semi-weekly basis. Look for his name in almost any article about Batman.

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