@tobefirst
OK, here's a few, these are mostly from the last few years. It's a pretty wide range of subtypes by design, figured I'd toss out some films without too much explanation (I'll just include the short IMDB description), get your feedback. I will say these are all excellent (often with positive critical reviews), none are too exploitative, like I'm specifically avoiding "torture porn", though some of these are pretty gory.
And like the some of the best Sci-Fi, a few of these use horror as a lens for exploring grief, race, sexuality.
The Witch (sometimes stylized as
The VVitch)
2015, R, 1h 32min
A family in 1630s New England is torn apart by the forces of witchcraft, black magic, and possession.
It Follows
2014, R, 1h 40min
A young woman is followed by an unknown supernatural force after a sexual encounter.
Get Out
2017, R, 1h 44mi
A young African-American visits his white girlfriend's parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him eventually reaches a boiling point.
Us
2019, R, 1h 56min
A family's serene beach vacation turns to chaos when their doppelgängers appear and begin to terrorize them.
The Conjuring 1, 2, The Devil Made Me Do It (aka, Conjuring 3)
2013-2021, R
DT Note: This is a series of movies, with 3 main movies, several spin-offs, it's fun, it's all anchored on the Warrens, characters from the 1st movie, quoting Wikipedia to explain better:
The franchise consists of three films in the main series: The Conjuring (2013), The Conjuring 2 (2016), and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021). The first two films were directed by James Wan, while the third film was directed by Michael Chaves. The first two installments revolve around two of the many famous paranormal cases of which the Warrens have been a part, with the first film depicting the case of the Perron family, who are experiencing disturbing events in their newly acquired house in Rhode Island. The second entry focused on the controversial case of the Enfield poltergeist while briefly referring to the events that inspired The Amityville Horror. A sequel to the two films, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, was released on June 4, 2021, and revolves around the trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, a murder that took place in 1981 in Connecticut.
en.wikipedia.org
Sinister (skip the sequel)
2012, R, 1h 50min
Washed-up true crime writer Ellison Oswalt finds a box of super 8 home movies in his new home that suggest the murder that he is currently researching is the work of a serial killer whose legacy dates back to the 1960s.
Midsommar
2019, R, 2h 28min
A couple travels to Scandinavia to visit a rural hometown's fabled Swedish mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
And some from the last couple of years ...
His House
2020, TV-14, 1h 33min
A refugee couple makes a harrowing escape from war-torn South Sudan, but then they struggle to adjust to their new life in an English town that has an evil lurking beneath the surface.
Host
2020
Not Rated
57min
Six friends hire a medium to hold a seance via Zoom during lockdown, but they get far more than they bargained for as things quickly go wrong.
The Dark and the Wicked
2020, Not Rated, 1h 35min
On a secluded farm in a nondescript rural town, a man is slowly dying. His family gathers to mourn, and soon a darkness grows, marked by waking nightmares and a growing sense that something evil is taking over the family.
Freaky
2020, R, 1h 42min
After swapping bodies with a deranged serial killer, a young girl in high school discovers she has less than 24 hours before the change becomes permanent.
