Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for horror movies like Carrie:
The Exorcist
While The Exorcist may feel like a dated recollection of visual ideas from a newer generation of filmmakers, William Friedkin’s daring and mannered horror film is still about as sturdy as anything made since. A tentpole movie release that paved the way for every audacious genre picture that came after it.
Weapons
Weapons opens with one of the most chilling hooks you’ll hear in any movie this year: at exactly 2:17 a.m., every child from Mrs. Gandy’s class woke up, walked downstairs, opened the front door, stepped into the dark… and never came back. It’s the kind of premise that immediately grabs you, the kind of logline that sells itself in a trailer and sticks in your head for days. Writer-director Zach Cregger, who burst onto the horror scene with 2022’s Barbarian, proves once again that he knows how to start a story with an irresistible, terrifying question.
Ring
Ring is among the most influential movies to ever come out of Japan. Setting aside it’s successful attempt to blend Japanese filmmaking into the mainstream, Hideo Nakata‘s wildly successful 1998 film is one of the horror genre’s most well-regarded releases. It transcended where it came from, becoming an international powerhouse and spawning and English-language remake due to its popularity.
Heretic
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods have steadily built themselves a career since their breakthrough writing credit for A Quiet Place nearly a decade ago. The duo has parlayed their success into multiple directorial efforts, including the pulse-pounding Haunt and the sci-fi thriller 65. Now, they return to their horror roots with Heretic, a chilling and twist-laden movie about two young religious missionaries who knock on the wrong door on a cold, snowy night.
undertone
A24 knew exactly what they were doing when they marketed undertone. Although it may not end up being the scariest movie you’ll see in 2026, it’s certainly in the running for the scariest you’ll hear. The trailers leaned heavily into the film’s unsettling sound design, and for good reason. That’s the entire hook. A pretty simple premise executed with confidence has become A24‘s bread and butter over the last decade, and while undertone won’t be joining the studio’s horror hall of fame anytime soon, it’s another reminder that modest ambitions carried out well can still make for an effective night at the movies.
Hereditary
Hereditary is the rare debut that instantly reshapes a genre. Ari Aster’s 2018 feature moves with an icy confidence, turning domestic grief into occult nightmare, and it still feels like a defining horror film of the century. Backed by A24, the film has the precision and patience of a masterwork: long takes that corner you in the frame, sound design that hums with unease, and edits that withhold just enough to make every cut feel like a trapdoor.
Evil Dead Rise
There aren’t many horror franchises able to reinvent themselves as often as Evil Dead does while still maintaining relevancy and quality. Maybe it’s because Sam Raimi holds his creation so close to his heart that only a select few are able to take on the premise, or maybe it’s because the premise seems simple and malleable enough to make nearly anything work. It can shoot for the downright zany and ludicrous with Evil Dead II or Army of Darkness, or it can strive to be like Lee Cronin’s newest spin Evil Dead Rise – a movie so sick and twisted that you can’t help but give it its dues by the time the credits roll.
Obsession
Curry Barker – YouTube creator turned filmmaker – has emphasized that Obsession is partly inspired by a Simpsons episode where Bart gets his hands on a monkey’s paw. Which tracks, because the film is about exactly that and essentially just that: what happens when you get one wish and that wish goes so, so horribly wrong. It’s contained at such a small, intimate scale, like a messed up Twilight Zone episode that escalates in tension and stays committed to its absurdity without overbaking any of its characters or themes.
Bring Her Back
Bring Her Back may satisfy diehard fans of A24-style horror or those looking for a few jarring images, but for most viewers, it will likely feel like an echo of better films. This is the kind of horror that thinks it’s elevated but forgets to be compelling. For the Philippous, it’s a clear step back—stylistic confidence without a story worth telling.
MaXXXine
MaXXXine has a handful of worthwhile moments, but the movie ultimately ricochets between two different sides of Ti West’s mind: the throwback B-movie auteur with a great taste for kills and the heady screenwriter with something to say about the industry he works in. It’s unfortunate that MaXXXine doesn’t strike that balance often, and it’s easy to tell when he’s switching from one gear to the next. Mia Goth reprises her scream queen role as the titular film star.
READ MORE: Horror Movies Like Heretic, Horror Movies Like undertone
