Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for horror movies like P2:
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.
Speak No Evil
While I appreciate many of James Watkins’ directorial choices and the strong performances from James McAvoy, Aisling Franciosi, Scoot McNairy, and Mackenzie Davis—who all have great chemistry—I can’t shake the feeling that Speak No Evil missed an opportunity. It could have delivered a real shock to the studio horror system but instead falls into the same familiar patterns. The film ends up being a watered-down, more subdued version of the original, which felt fresh and unsettling just a few years ago. It’s not a complete failure, but it misses the mark.
Dangerous Animals
Dangerous Animals is an effective piece of genre filmmaking that doesn’t overreach and knows exactly what it wants to be. It’s scary, sharply made, and full of small, clever choices that elevate it above its straightforward premise. It’s the kind of late-night horror flick that benefits from a pitch-black room and a strong stomach, and one that knows how to get under your skin without overstaying its welcome.
Barbarian
Zach Cregger‘s Barbarian is still refreshing and thrilling, and it’s easily one of my favorite theater experiences of 2022. Films try over and over again to use the schlocky marketing bit of audiences screaming in theaters only to be disappointing in actual terror when places in front of you – but Barbarian is genuinely jaw-dropping.
Fresh
Fresh is a pointed vision from a filmmaker I’m excited to see grow and develop after a few projects. I wasn’t expecting this to blow me away, but I was hoping for some neat tricks and thrilling fun, and it delivers that. Combined with its great performances, Fresh is a fun Friday night flick. It doesn’t push the boundaries of the genre, but it does fit itself nice and snug within one.
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.
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.
Wolf Man
Wolf Man is another uneven entry in Universal Pictures’ long-running struggle to make their classic monster IP feel vital again. Leigh Whannell may be one of the more exciting genre filmmakers working today, but this misaligned project is more whimper than howl.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle feels so familiar it could play on mute and you would still predict every beat. That would be easier to forgive if Michelle Garza Cervera’s remake found a new angle on the “nanny from hell” setup, or if it harnessed the filmmaker’s sharper instincts from Huesera. Instead this Hulu release sands down her menace into something polished and weightless, another direct-to-streamer thriller built from prefab parts.
READ MORE: Movies Like In a Violent Nature, Movies Like Dangerous Animals
