(Photo by Paramount Insurge/courtesy Everett Collection)
As we march through Halloween month, we’ve taken a look back on what’s already been a freaky year to find the best horror movies of 2020. These selections are all Fresh on the Tomatometer, a lot have been stamped with the Certified Fresh seal of approval, and there’s even been sightings of something with a current 100% score. See the full list on Rotten Tomatoes, and read on for our breakdown of the results.
If you can remember to way back in January 2020, you may recall a deluge of horror movies pouring into theaters, including The Grudge, Underwater, and The Turning. Suffice to say, none of these movies made it onto a list of the year’s best horror movies, except one: Gretel & Hansel, which at 65% on the Tomatometer, gets in by a hair. Before quarantine lockdown, things were looking alright for the genre, with The Invisible Man, Color Out of Space, and Come to Daddy all Certified Fresh, and all released by the end of February.
(Photo by Paramount Insurge/courtesy Everett Collection)
Afterwards, audiences had to turn to streaming platforms and services to catch their horror fix. Netflix had a few hits that also got high marks from critics, including the class parable The Platform, the crisis-in-housing 1BR, and South Korean zombie flick #Alive, which is performing better than Train to Busan spinoff Peninsula. But the big horror hit of quarantine comes from boutique streamer Shudder, whose original movie Host is currently 100% on the Tomatometer and #1 on the list.
Further best horror films of the year, with these all Certified Fresh, include the just-released Possessor, as director Brandon Cronenberg assumes the family mantle, the obsessive disorder-depicting Swallow, alien monster movie with a Soviet-era twist Sputnik, the folklore and politics blender La Llarona, and Dave Franco’s directorial debut, The Rental, starring Dan Stevens and Alison Brie.
The list of 2020’s best horror movies is ongoing and rankings change frequently, and you can see up-to-date scores on Rotten Tomatoes.
