Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for horror movies like Host:
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.
Smile
While Smile delivers on a couple creative and freaky scares, it ultimately falls apart with a prototypical first hour and a generally confusing second one. Sosie Bacon stars as a traumatized doctor looking for answers to her visions.
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.
Talk to Me
Talk to Me is the latest elevated horror movie from A24, a studio that’s completely redefined and reimagined the state of the genre, introducing new ideas and themes into it over the past decade. Talk to Me attempts to do the same, pitting trauma and coping mechanisms with demonic forces to a scary degree.
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.
Passenger
There’s enough in Passenger to recommend to horror fans. The central premise is clever, the performances are strong, and André Øvredal demonstrates a real understanding of how to stage individual scares. But it arrives at a moment where other filmmakers are swinging bigger.
Insidious: The Red Door
Patrick Wilson is insistent that the Insidious franchise goes out with a bang. At least that’s the feeling you get as you watch The Red Door, the fifth entry into the bloated franchise that’s keeping the leading horror actor buried somewhere deep within the James Wan cinematic universe. This time not only is Wilson playing the front man Josh Lambert, but he’s also directing. His first directorial outing, and one I hoped would feel more impactful for the genre.
Backrooms
Kane Parsons’ deliriously scary YouTube creepypasta series The Backrooms has been adapted to the big screen, and he is not the first to graduate from YouTube filmmaking and short-form horror to feature auteur in the last few years. Zach Cregger and Curry Barker have similar trajectories off the success of Barbarian/Weapons and Obsession, respectively. But Parsons makes a direct adaptation of his own highly successful and notorious Backrooms project here, becoming A24’s youngest feature director in the process.
Cobweb
Cobweb might be accused of adhering to some familiar horror tropes, but its commitment to its genre roots is what makes it stand out. The movie surpasses expectations with its tight narrative, commendable performances, and a commitment to delivering unadulterated horror.
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.
READ MORE: Movies Like Passenger, Movies Like undertone
