Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like Dolly:
Thanksgiving
Eli Roth, a significant figure in gnarly genre filmmaking, takes a stab at the holiday horror subgenre with Thanksgiving, a movie that successfully balances gore, satire, and a twisted sense of humor. Roth, known for his unapologetically brutal style, delivers a horror-thriller that not only embraces the conventions of the genre but also winks at them, creating an entertaining if not entirely groundbreaking Thanksgiving slasher.
Scream 6
Despite a nearly complete turnover of legacy characters, the Scream franchise keeps on rolling – and it may be as good as any since the original hit theaters in 1996. Scream 6 gets bolder and better, and the movie builds on the best aspects of Radio Silence’s last installment of the franchise.
Halloween
John Carpenter’s Halloween is one of those films that is so baked into horror DNA that it can be hard to look at it with fresh eyes, but even almost 50 years later it still works like gangbusters. You can trace nearly every slasher you love back to what Carpenter did here. The masked, wordless killer in Michael Myers. The suburban setting that looks safe until it is not. The calmly unraveling psychiatrist in Donald Pleasence’s Dr. Loomis. The smart, alert, deeply sympathetic final girl in Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode. All of that starts here, and very few of the imitators matched its patience, its clarity, or its eerie sense of watching something evil drift slowly toward you from across the street.
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.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2
Blood and Honey 2 capitalizes on the infrequent highlights of the first Winnie the Pooh horror movie, and improves around the edges where the original flopped. But despite an infusion of new ideas and kills, the core premise can only go so far. A schlocky, unique time at the movies doesn’t translate into an objectively good film.
Sick
Sick is the latest action/horror picture from director John Hyams. It’s his follow-up to the 2020 film Alone and feels like a natural successor for the filmmaker. In both movies, protagonists are quickly pushed into a battle to save their own lives from relentless attackers that feel just shy from being the boogeyman reincarnated. While Alone takes place mostly in the outdoors wilderness, Sick opts for a luxurious remote cabin secluded from neighbors and the outside world.
Final Destination Bloodlines
Final Destination Bloodlines is the rare horror legacy sequel that understands exactly what it is—and more importantly, what its fans want. Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, this blood-soaked revival of the Final Destination franchise doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it absolutely fine-tunes it, delivering gory set pieces, a slickly paced plot, and just enough lore expansion to make it feel like more than a rehash. It’s self-aware without being snarky, brutal without being mean-spirited, and surprisingly clever in how it weaves its mythology into something new.
In a Violent Nature
In a Violent Nature didn’t blow me away, but it’s creative enough to have me intrigued with where Chris Nash will set his sights next. The movie is made specifically for the hardcore sickos out there that love to see how far a creative can go to make an audience feel queasy.
Oddity
Oddity is a rather succinct and well-paced Shudder movie, making it a surprisingly refreshing picture given the current state of independent horror and Shudder‘s most recent original movies to debut on the platform. Perhaps they saved the best for a loaded October because Oddity kicks it off in strong fashion, using jarring framing and bloodstained gore to effective results.
Christmas Bloody Christmas
Joe Begos’ Christmas Bloody Christmas offers much that his first two films offer – retro colors that are intoxicating to look at, dialogue that oozes with acid and crassness, and a few kills with excellent practical effects. While the elements are pieces that I prefer quite a bit, the film loses me in forgettable character arcs and an overall sense of purposelessness.
READ MORE: Dolly (2026), Movies Like Oddity, Movies Like The Ugly Stepsister
