Here are Cinephile Corner’s 10 recommendations for movies like The Plague:
Hell of a Summer
On the surface, Hell of a Summer doesn’t have many glaring flaws. It’s an obvious love letter to classic slasher films like Friday the 13th, Scream, and Sleepaway Camp. Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard make their directorial debut here, and while their enthusiasm for the genre is clear, the film struggles to carve out its own identity. Instead of reinventing familiar tropes, it largely retraces well-worn ground, and that familiarity ultimately works against it.
It’s What’s Inside
To its credit, It’s What’s Inside makes a few choices to make itself memorable. The premise is inarguably fascinating, and the consequences of the central plot engine are enticing at times. But It’s What’s Inside becomes frustratingly convoluted, compounded by a set of characters that I simply could not care less about.
Immaculate
Immaculate is not perfect, and sometimes the film feels like just another horror movie heavily indicting the Catholic church, but there’s enough stardom and unique direction to make it work. Sydney Sweeney is outstanding, and she carries the tension for much of the movie’s brisk 89 minute runtime.
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.
Sting
Sting has its moments, but the genre has offered much better this year, and a premise like “growing killer spider gets loose” doesn’t do enough to tie the movie together and keep you engaged. It is worth the price of admission once, but it’s not much to write home about after the fact.
Stopmotion
Stopmotion is entertaining in the moment, but not all that engaging or memorable after the fact. A work of function and form, but not nearly as groundbreaking or redefining in an era of genre picture glory. A step-up from recent Shudder releases, which is still a promising sign.
Saint Maud
Saint Maud certainly has a few of the motifs and themes you’d expect from an A24 horror movie – a real sense of dread and Christian guilt lingers throughout much of its brisk runtime – but it feels like an expansive, reinvigorating mold of those ideals. I’ve occasionally bumped up against a few of the quote-unquote “elevated horror” movies that that studio has produced and distributed due to the fact that I don’t think many of the scares are earned in a handful of those films, but Saint Maud is not one of those.
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.
Companion
I went into Companion completely blind, and that’s the best way to experience it. Drew Hancock’s directorial debut thrives on twists, constantly reinventing itself in ways that keep the audience on edge. The film shares DNA with Barbarian, which makes sense given that Barbarian director Zach Cregger serves as a producer here. Both films pull the rug out from under viewers, placing their protagonists in escalating danger with seemingly no way out. But as was the case with Barbarian, discussing Companion without spoilers is nearly impossible—so consider this your warning.
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: The Plague (2026)
