12 Great Horrors From 2022 That Flew Under The Radar
Horror fans might look back on 2022 as an abundantly good year, as the amount of intriguing, terrifying, and downright wild scary movies that came out has been overwhelming to say the least. Legacyquels like "Scream," "Halloween Ends," and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" went big (with mixed results), and out-of-nowhere features like "X," "Barbarian," and "Pearl" were surprising triumphs. The buzz around low-budget horrors has also been louder than usual, as the rapidly growing fan base and success of "Terrifier 2" shows.
But as always, there were a lot of captivating horror movies that fell through the cracks and despite rave critical reviews, didn't quite find the audiences that some of these other hyped up or well-known titles did. So, we are here to bring you a list of hidden gems that — regardless of their big or small star power — managed to deliver some great thrills with compelling stories. Here are the best horror films of 2022 that might have been missed but are definitely worth a watch.
Resurrection
In the past ten years, Rebecca Hall has become a low-key queen of weird and unnerving elevated horrors. Her choices of movies to star in are distinct and often unusual, and we can't appreciate her enough for playing these intricate and complex roles. Writer-director Andrew Semans' latest feature, "Resurrection," is one of those mind-bending, deeply disturbing, and hard-to-interpret flicks that couldn't ask for a more fitting lead than Hall.
Margaret (Hall) is a single mother raising her teen daughter Abbie (Grace Kaufman) in New York. She's a strong, focused, and disciplined businesswoman with a high position at her firm she. Despite having an affair with her colleague Peter (Michael Esper), Margaret seems to have her life completely under control. That is, until a mysterious man named David (Tim Roth) shows up, and Margaret is confronted with a past that she's tried to forget.
In fact, David is the reason Margaret relocated to New York many years ago. He was a manipulative, controlling partner, who abused and terrorized her emotionally. Afraid of what David might now do to her daughter, Margaret becomes overprotective and begins losing her grip on reality. A frightening chaos ensues once David tells her the reason for his return.
"Resurrection" isn't an easy watch by any means, but it tells such an extreme and strange story anchored by Hall's fascinating performance that horror fans shouldn't miss it.
Watcher
Chloe Okuno's feature debut "Watcher" is a slow-burn psychological thriller that looks at one woman's paranoia and the frightful ways that her reality gets dismissed. Julia (Maika Monroe) and Francis (Karl Glusman) are a married couple, who have just moved from America to Bucharest, Romania, for Francis' new job. One day, while Francis is at the office, Julia spots a stranger watching her from the apartment across the street. After a few alarming incidents, she realizes that the man must be a stalker and starts to fear for her life.
It doesn't help her growing distress that the local media keeps reporting about a serial killer, who decapitates young women. Although Julia tells Francis about the stalker and contacts the police, nobody seems to believe her. Left with no choice, she has to defend herself and prove that the guy watching her isn't only dangerous, but might be the murderer the police are looking for.
"Watcher" takes its time to develop an atmosphere full of suspense and tension, which handsomely pays off in its last act with an ending that will surely leave some viewers shaken. Thanks to several streaming platforms, it has gained a decent fanbase, which wasn't necessarily the case when it was first released during the summer of 2022. Now, we can confidently say that it's one of the best surprises of the year.
Hatching
One of the weirdest movies of the year is Hanna Bergholm's feature debut, "Hatching." 12-year-old Tinja (Siiri Solalinna) lives with her seemingly perfect family in Finland and their are documented by her mother (Sophia Heikkila) for her blog. But the bubble of their superficial idyll gets popped when Tinja finds a strange egg in the woods, which she secretly hides in her room. When the egg hatches a giant birdlike creature, Tinja takes care of it and feeds it, but as the monster becomes bigger and stronger, things begin to spiral out of control...
"Hatching" is an absurd and unsettling satire wrapped up in body horror, which effectively ridicules social media and disingenuous influencers by depicting a dysfunctional Finnish family. The movie dissects trauma in a strange coming-of-age story that's essentially a creature feature with a socially relevant metaphor.
Although "Hatching" was mostly praised by critics, it hasn't really found its target audience yet and performed poorly at the box office. But if you want something truly original and different, you should give it a look.
Sissy
Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes' feature "Sissy" takes a familiar genre trope and turns it on its head. Cecilia a.k.a. Sissy (Aisha Dee) is a successful social media influencer and mental health advocate, who just celebrated reaching 200,000 followers. She runs into her previous childhood best friend, Emma (Hannah Barlow), whom she hasn't seen in over a decade. Emma wants to rekindle their friendship and invites Cecilia to her bachelorette party in the mountains. But when Cecilia shows up, she's surprised to find her childhood bully in the group. As her anxiety and distress intensify, Sissy becomes frustrated, and things quickly take a bloody and lethal turn for the worse.
"Sissy" offers a refreshing take on themes of mental health, bullying, and social media culture. And it doesn't shy away from using dark humor and vicious gore either. Aisha Dee delivers a lead performance that's relatable and frightening, while the rest of the cast assists her in equal measure.
Beloved by critics, "Sissy" is truly a horror gem with a refreshing angle that turns victims into bullies and bullies into victims. Fans of the genre shouldn't miss it.
Glorious
Rebekah McKendry's "Glorious" is a one-location horror, offering a mind-bending premise. It takes place in a public toilet where a kinky god asks sexual favors from a human. Weirdly intriguing, this horror comedy is more than it first seems.
Wes (Ryan Kwanten) is having a disastrous day. He's on a long drive after his girlfriend Brenda (Sylvia Grace Crim) dumps him and he pulls over at a rest stop to compose himself. Instead, he winds up getting black out drunk and passing out. The next day, he wakes up miserable and hungover, and goes into the rest stop bathroom to throw up and clean himself up. There, he meets — or hears, rather — a stranger in the next stall: Ghatanothoa (J.K. Simmons), a demigod. Ghatanothoa tells Wes that the universe is in danger and there's only one way that Wes can help save humanity: satisfy Ghatnothoa's physical form through the bathroom stall's glory hole.
The whole film is a mad concept, but thanks to its sharp humor, smartly written dialogue, and a memorable performance by Kwanten, it ends up being a delight. And it even delivers a mysterious theory about how humanity and the universe came to be. We can assure you that you won't see another bonkers horror like this one in 2022.
Deadstream
The found-footage genre is usually good soil for low-budget horrors with great ideas. There are dozens of these films every year, and it's hard to find the real fine ones. Luckily, Joseph and Vanessa Winter's "Deadstream" is one of them. Their horror-comedy might not have mind-blowing special effects, but it makes up for its visual shortcomings with sick humor and charming resourcefulness.
Shawn (Joseph Winter) is a shameless Youtuber, who never shies away from doing the dumbest and wildest stunts to impress his followers. However, he was recently dropped by all of his sponsors, so he's determined to make an epic comeback. He decides to spend a night in a haunted house and live stream it. He sets up his gear in a place called Death Manor and prepares to face the place's ghosts, demons, and malicious spirits. Everything goes according to plan ... until it doesn't, and he finds himself trapped inside Death Manor. Can he make it out alive? His followers tune in to find out — and if you're a fan of the genre, you will too.
Speak No Evil
Writer-director Christian Tafdrup's "Speak No Evil" is one of the most wicked films of the year.
Danish couple Bjorn (Morten Burian) and Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch) are enjoying a lovely getaway in Italy with their daughter. While on vacation, they meet the friendly Dutch couple Patrick (Fedja van Huet) and Karin (Karina Smulders) and their son. The two families connect and enjoy their holiday time together. After Bjorn and Louise return home, Patrick and Karin invite them to spend a weekend at their house in the Dutch countryside. During their stay, several disturbing and upsetting incidents occur, and the Danes soon realize that they may have agreed to stay with the worst kind of people possible — and they'll have to pay a big price for that.
"Speak No Evil" starts off as a slightly unsettling satire about Danish and Dutch people, then it slowly turns into a haunting nightmare that destroys your soul. It's no surprise that critics praised it, but it took some time to find its target audience. To put it lightly, it's not easy to digest the movie's heinous characters and dark ending.
"Speak No Evil" certainly has a chance to become a cult film over the years, but we can't emphasize enough that it really isn't for the faint-hearted.
Torn Hearts
If there's such a sub-genre as country horror, Brea Grant's "Torn Hearts" fits right in. The idea of combining country music with horror is an uncommon one, but this twisted flick will convince you that nothing is impossible. Although "Torn Hearts" didn't fare particularly well with audiences, it received mostly positive reviews from critics.
Female country music duo Jordan (Abby Quinn) and Leigh (Alexxis Lemire) are ready to take their career to the next level. They find an unexpected opportunity to do so when they track down the address of Harper Dutch (Katey Sagal), a legendary country singer who used to perform with her sister, before her sister's untimely death. Leigh and Jordan pay a visit to Harper, who invites them into her home. But what the women had hoped would be their big break turns out to be something much more sinister: Harper has turned into a recluse and heavy drinker and Leigh and Jordan's arrival triggers her grief to manifest in violent and terrifying ways.
"Torn Hearts" isn't without flaws but it makes up for them with an eerie atmosphere and a terrific performance by Katey Sagal, who can be still as frightening as ever.
Saloum
We don't often get the chance to see genre-bending movies from countries like Senegal, so Jean Luc Herbulot's "Saloum" is a much-welcome surprise. Mixing genres like old-fashioned western, crime thriller, and folk horror is a challenging task — especially in 84 minutes — but Herbulot manages to pull them together into a coherent whole.
A trio of mercenaries called Bangui's Hyenas is on a mission to extract a suitcase full of gold bullion from a Mexican drug lord in Guinea-Bissau during a coup d'etat in 2003. Chaka (Yann Gael), Rafa (Roger Shallah), and veteran Minuit (Mentor Ba) are meant to deliver the bounty and the drug lord in Dakar. However, due to a fuel leak on their plane, the three soldiers are forced to land in Sine-Saloum, where they find shelter in a holiday resort. As they're trying to figure out the next step to get out of there, they face hostility, violence ... and humanoid monsters thirsty for their blood.
"Saloum" is a wild and experimental hybrid of various genres, but after watching it, we understand why many critics loved it all over the world.
Significant Other
Dan Berk and Robert Olsen's sci-fi horror "Significant Other" is one of the naughtiest and most bonkers horrors of the year.
Ruth (Maika Monroe) and Harry (Jake Lacy) are a couple that go on their first backpacking trip together in the wilderness in the Pacific Northwest. Harry is an experienced hiker, and he leads her to the most breathtaking spot in the forest and ask her to marry him. Everything goes according to plan ... except that she says no, which creates an awkward tension between them. The following day, she wanders off and discovers a foreign matter in a nearby cave that changes this entire journey dramatically. What was meant to be a romantic getaway soon turns into a gory ordeal.
Masterfully throwing viewers off in its first act, "Significant Other" starts out as a relationship drama with some deeply-rooted trauma before it turns into a survival horror with well-timed twists that will catch unassuming viewers by surprise. Moderately liked by critics, "Significant Other" is one of the best hidden gems of 2022.
Piggy
Carlota Pereda's Spanish feature "Piggy" is a feminist revenge horror with a social awareness twist. Aptly dealing with realistic issues such as body shaming, anxiety, and adolescent troubles, Pereda's film is among those lesser-known horrors of 2022 that deserve more spotlight.
Based on the writer-director's short film of the same name, "Piggy" follows Sara (Laura Galán), an overweight teenager, who lives in a Spanish village. Sara tries to keep a safe distance from both the cliques of other girls, who repeatedly mock and bully her, as well as her hyper-critical and overbearing mother. But Sara's fate changes when she witnesses a strange man abducting the very girls who have made her life miserable and insufferable. Sara has a choice: Does she save her bullies and return to her life as it was or does she say nothing and let these girls become victims for a change?
Thanks to Galán's convincing and vulnerable performance, the creepy atmosphere, and the socially self-aware script, "Piggy" has impressed critics and has a great chance of becoming a cult slasher over time.
The Innocents
Although writer-director Eskil Vogt's supernatural thriller, "The Innocents," is technically a 2021 movie, it was released in U.S. cinemas and digital platforms in 2022. That's a good thing because this Norwegian flick deserves every chance it can get to reach a bigger audience.
Ida (Rakel Lenora Flottum) and her family have just moved to the residential neighborhood of Romsas, Oslo. She's an angry and mean nine-year-old because she feels neglected by her parents, whose attention is often devoted to her autistic older sister Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad). One day, Ida meets Ben (Sam Ashraf), a boy who lives in the neighborhood and has a cool trick: He can move things with his mind. The two quickly become friends and their group expands to include Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim), who has telepathic powers and can communicate with Anna in her mind. It's all fun and games until Ben starts using his power in anger, as he deals with his own family and life frustrations. Ida, Aisha, and Anna must do something to stop Ben, as he spirals out of control.
There's a slowly culminating tension in "The Innocents," which creates a compellingly sinister atmosphere of a world where there are no parents and therefore, hardly any rules. Or rather, the rules are made to be bent by Ben. The film is held aloft by the sensational performances from the child actors and ultimately, Vogt's movie is a low-key chiller that fans of the genre need to see.