The horror genre has been one of the top genres over the last few years and 2022 is one of the best years for horror movies in a long time. There are so many great horror or horror-centric films this year that my list of horror films for consideration was really long, including several that have a chance to end up in the top 10 films of the year.

However, there were also some poor horror films as well. So we will start off with the Worst Horror films of the year…

Worst Horror Films Runners-Up: Sadly, there were some real stinkers in horror this year too. Start off with some of the poor remakes such as Firestarter, House of Darkness and one of the absolutely worst films in Texas Chainsaw Massacre on Netflix. Choose or Die was one of the first worst films of the year. My Best Friend’s Exorcism was a ridiculous film. Very bad and really disappointing was the Edgar Allan Poe film Raven’s Hollow from Shudder. I wanted to love that movie, but it just was not up to the quality I had hoped for. She Will was a film that the critics liked, but I just could not get into it. Finally, Halloween Ends could have been so much better, but it was promoted incorrectly and the big showdown between Michael and Laurie felt like an add on part.

Worst Horror Film of the Year…

Studio 666

Another film that I had high expectations for that was just a horrible flop. Poor acting, poor story, just everything lacking and it is in contention for the worst movie of the year.

Best Horror Movie of 2022

Best Horror Movie

Previous Winners:  A Quiet Place, It, Don’t Breathe, It Follows, The Conjuring, As Above So Below, Cabin in the Woods, Doctor Sleep, Black Box, Fear Street trilogy

Honorable Mentions: One of my biggest surprises this year was the Shudder film called Deadstream. This was nearly the winner of this award, but it slipped just below the mark. Another absolute epic film this year was Black Phone, one of the most clever and most dramatic films in the genre. One of the more unexpected horror films of 2022 was Barbarian, which I went into with no idea what it was about and found myself completely thrilled with the film. V/H/S 99 was a lot of fun on Shudder as it took this franchise in a bit of a new direction. Hulu’s Hellraiser was surprisingly good. I really thought this one was going to be one of those really bad remakes, but it overcame those issues. One of the scariest and creepiest films this year was the excellent Smile. I was truly shaken at times in the theater. Jordan Peele had another solid film with Nope. Bodies, Bodies, Bodies was a clever and enjoyable film with a cool ending. Another Hulu film that was one of the most creative was Fresh. The Sadness and The Cursed are both poorly titled, but both are very good horror films. We got a new entry in the Scream franchise and the new cast knocked it out of the park. Finally, we had two movies featuring a great character. X and Pearl were awesome as we learn more about the character of Pearl.

2022 Horror Movie of the Year…

The Menu

One of the best movies of the year, Ralph Fiennes and the awesome ensemble cast were delicious in The Menu. I was so entertained during this film. It was a psychological horror film with some terrible things happening to the characters.