10 Recent Horror Films You Need To Stop Sleeping On

Wakey, wakey, rise and shine! The horror gods are at the door demanding their dues. 

While it's easy enough to go on autopilot when it comes to horror, springing for the occasional Blumhouse flick at the local multiplex, going the extra mile to seek out the smaller releases, dig through the streamers' vaults and hit the independent cinemas where the seats are smaller, and the horror much more uncomfortable, is well worth your time.

And boy, don’t you know what you’ve been missing. Across the last few years, a whole host of horrors have slipped through the cracks and not found the audience they want, need or downright deserve. Foreign language future hits like The Vourdalak have been struck down by their subtitles, indie darlings like Stopmotion have been quietly released to Shudder with no fanfare, and low budget stalwarts like the V/H/S series keep proceeding apace, whether anyone’s tuning in or not.

But no more! It's time to hit the streamers, crack out the Blu-rays and do whatever you can to get your hands and eyes on these ten films that you really need to stop sleeping on. 

Ever since they stopped showing these things in cinemas and started distributing them via Shudder, the V/H/S series has been doing a roaring trade in bang-for-your-buck anthology horror. Habitually low budget, the franchise has made its name on the variety of its content, penchant for creativity and diversity of talent behind the lens.

While the earlier films in the series are a mixed bag, recent attempts to focus them around a central theme have done wonders for the cohesion of the short segments, and V/H/S/85 is right up there with the best. This, the sixth film, takes us back to - you guessed it - 1985, for death and destruction that largely manages to eschew the neon-and-ankle warmers Stranger Things nostalgia. It treats us to Aztec gods rising during the '85 Mexico City earthquake, university scientists discovering a shapeshifting being they don't understand and can't control, the first ever VR set calling forth a malevolent god of technology, and serial killers aplenty.

And it has begun building more of a connected universe, as the first entry to link two of its segments: "No Wake", in which seven friends are assassinated while camping, but resurrected by the lake's water; and "Ambrosia", which shows us the people who did it.

It also packs an additional Easter egg for horror fans, as Scott Derrickson's "Dreamkill" segment is directly linked to his 2021 feature film The Black Phone - which is getting its own direct sequel later this year.