For a Friday with friends, you need a film that doesn't require perfect silence to work. Something engaging enough that it holds attention even in a room with people in it.
In retrospect, the 2010s were a decade of quiet excellence - films doing serious work without demanding credit for it.
Horror works best when it earns the dread before deploying it. The best films in the genre build something you care about, then threaten it.
When a team of explorers venture into the catacombs that lie beneath the streets of Paris, they uncover the dark secret that lies within this city of the dead.
France, June 1944. On the eve of D-Day, some American paratroopers fall behind enemy lines after their aircraft crashes while on a mission to destroy a radio tower in a small village near the beaches of Normandy. After reaching their target, the surviving paratroopers realise that, in addition to fighting the Nazi troops that patrol the village, they also must fight against something else.
A punk rock band is forced to fight for survival after witnessing an act of violence at a skinhead bar.
Police commissioner Funes and three researchers of supernatural phenomena investigate inexplicable events that are occurring in the suburbs of Buenos Aires.
The horror films worth watching are the ones that stay with you not because of the scares but because of what the scares meant. These films mean something.
When Brent turns down his classmate Lola's invitation to the prom, she concocts a wildly violent plan for revenge.
A group of students investigates a series of mysterious bear killings, but learns that there are much more dangerous things going on. They start to follow a mysterious hunter, learning that he is actually a troll hunter.
The haunted Lambert family seeks to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world.
On Halloween, a group of friends encounter an extreme haunted house that promises to feed on their darkest fears. The night turns deadly as they come to the horrifying realisation that some nightmares are real.
In the heat of the summer lays a lonesome house in the countryside where nine year old twin brothers await their mother's return. When she comes home, bandaged after cosmetic surgery, nothing is like before and the children start to doubt whether this woman is actually who she says she is.
Cinematography is the argument the film is making before anyone speaks. These films make their argument beautifully.
A great horror film doesn't leave you frightened. It leaves you thinking. These films earn that distinction.