10 Excellent Horror Movies From 2023 You Missed & Where To Watch Them

With so many excellent horror films having come out in 2023, from the continuation or reboot of popular franchises to unique independent horrors, it is easy to miss some of the year’s best. While Scream VI and creepy AI doll movie M3GAN found success with audiences and critics alike, many of the year’s best horror quietly entered and exited their limited theater runs without much fanfare. Meanwhile, some of these inventive new horror films found themselves dropped on streaming services, only to be forgotten in the wave of massive new Hollywood releases.

From hilariously sadistic battles-of-wills to eerie Mexican folk tales, 2023 has had no shortage of phenomenal independent and foreign horror films. From finding ways to bend thrills out of social issues to crafting visually stylish, fresh and exciting sequences of gore, the year continued to push the artistic boundaries of horror. Here are 10 excellent 2023 horror movies that flew under the radar, and where to watch them.

10 Huesera: The Bone Woman

Rating: Not Rated

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Cast: Natalia Solián, Alfonso Dosal, Mayra Batalla, Mercedes Hernández, Aída López, Martha Claudia Moreno, Sonia Couoh

This brilliant Mexican horror film blends elements of folk horror, body horror and psychological thriller to deliver both an unnerving film and a genuinely intelligent commentary on the societal pressure to have children. The film follows a woman named Valeria whose first time pregnancy is overshadowed by occult forces. This uniquely terrifying film, which is light on jump scares in favor of more palpable terror, and its director have already earned a ton of nominations and wins at various festivals and awards shows.

Huesera: The Bone Woman is available to watch on Shudder & AMC+, or to rent on most other services.

9 Attachment

Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Cast: Josephine Park, Ellie Kendrick, Sofie Gråbøl, David Dencik

This Danish horror film (though it’s mostly in English) follows a queer couple, Maja and Leah, returning to London, and Leah’s religious and overbearing mother, after Leah suffers a seizure. The film uses Jewish iconography, and a good helping of humor, to build a unique film that’s part love story part supernatural horror. Its three lead actresses are all pitch-perfect in this creepy and unpredictable tale of a dysfunctionally codependent mother-daughter relationship.

Attachment is available to watch on Shudder & AMC+, or to rent on Amazon Prime, Youtube and Apple TV+.

8 The Wrath of Becky

Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

Cast: Lulu Wilson, Seann William Scott, Denise Burse, Jill Larson, Michael Sirow, Aaron Dalla Villa, Matt Angel, Courtney Gains, Pac Williams

Lulu Wilson returns in this action-packed sequel to 2020s Becky as a young woman trying to move on after the first film’s harrowing ordeal, which involved the murder of her father, until the kidnapping of her beloved dog forces her on a revenge spree. The Wrath of Becky is delicious gory fun as it constantly finds new methods of revenge for its lead to take, with lead actress Wilson delivering each with an intense action prowess. As extravagantly fun as it is violent and bloody (usually for the same reasons), and with an incredible lead performance, this fast-paced revenge flick is an absolute must-see.

The Wrath of Becky is available to stream for subscribers of Paramount+ and Showtime, or to rent on most platforms.

7 Totally Killer

Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

Cast: Kiernan Shipka, Olivia Holt, Julie Bowen, Charlie Gillespie, Lochlyn Munro, Troy L. Johnson, Kimberly Huie, Liana Liberato, Kelcey Mawema, Stephi Chin-Salvo, Anna Diaz, Ella Choi, Patti Kim, Nathaniel Appiah, Conrad Coates, Nicholas Lloyd, Jonathan Potts

The perfect combination of teen comedy, time travel sci-fi, and action horror looks like Totally Killer. This hilarious new film follows a teenage girl who accidentally travels back in time 35 years to the week of her town’s series of unsolved murders, where she must help stop the deaths, and get out of the past before she gets permanently stuck in it. Totally Killer has a delicious violent, masked-killer mystery at its center, but is equally successful as a comedy with its hilarious jokes about teenagers and the much-too-lax parenting of the 1980s.

Totally Killeris available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.

Related: 10 Horror Comedy Movies Like Totally Killer To Watch Next

6 Birth/Rebirth

Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Cast: Marin Ireland, Judy Reyes, A.J. Lister, Breeda Wool, Monique Gabriela Curnen, Grant Harrison, LaChanze, Rina Mejia

Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Birth/Rebirth follows a single mother who loses her daughter and a morgue technician who brings her back to life to dangerous results. This clever refocusing of the re-animated corpse story from a feminist perspective is both horrifyingly shocking, and dramatically rich in its exploration of how far a mother will go for her daughter. This morality tale is a deliriously original and deranged horror film by a promising new filmmaking voice in their directorial debut.

Birth/Rebirth is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV+ and Youtube.

5 Brooklyn 45

Rating: Not Rated

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Cast: Anne Ramsay, Ron E. Rains, Jeremy Holm, Larry Fessenden, Ezra Buzzington, Kristina Klebe, Lucy Carapetyan

The haunting and moving Brooklyn 45follows a group of military veterans in Brooklyn at the end of World War II who successfully hold a séance. Taking place in real time, though the films supernatural elements are effectively spooky, they are more a clever jumping off point to explore the unspeakable horrors of war and what it has done to these old friends. It is a powerful and emotional take on the psychological tolls of war as well as a horrifying portrayal of the paranormal.

Brooklyn 45 is available to stream for subscribers of Shudder and Paramount+, as well as to rent on most streaming platforms.

4 The Passenger

Rating: Not Rated

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

Cast: Johnny Berchtold, Kyle Gallner, Liza Weil, Billy Slaughter, Matthew Laureano, Jordan Sherley, Kanesha Washington, Lupe Leon, Merah Benoit

A meek and quiet young man is dragged into his co-workers violent killing spree in this anxiety inducing and truly insane film.The film mixes a surprisingly thoughtful exploration of trauma and empathy with all-out ultra-violent gore and inescapable constant uneasiness. It’s a truly disturbing film, with two phenomenal lead performances at its center that make this not to be missed.

The Passenger is streaming on MGM+ and is available for rent on most platforms.

3 Sick

Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

Cast: Gideon Adlon, Beth Million, Dylan Sprayberry, Marc Menchaca, Jane Adams, Joel Courtney, Chris Reid, Duane Stephens, Logan Murphy

Easily one of the best of the all-too-many films inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic, Sick follows two best friends as they retreat to one of their family’s lake houses to self-quarantine, only for their house to be broken into by mysterious masked intruders. The film is incredibly stylish and extremely unrelenting, with one punishing physical set piece after the next delivering a sense of tension that never dies down. Sick accurately captures the pandemic with its own genre flair while providing slasher fans a sickeningly good time.

Sick is available to subscribers of Peacock and to rent on Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV+ or YouTube.

2 The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster

Rating: Not Rated

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

Cast: Laya DeLeon Hayes, Denzel Whitaker, Chad L. Coleman, Reilly Brooke Stith, Keith Sean Holliday, Amani Summer, Edem Atsu-Swanzy

Another modern take on the Frankenstein story, The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster follows seventeen-year-old genius Vicaria who brings her brother back to life after his brutal murder, only to found out he isn’t quite the same as she remembers. The film mixes clever commentary about police brutality and systemic racism with genre thrills, but its best feature is how it succeeds in making the audience care about its characters through complex writing and emotional performances. At only 92 minutes, The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster is a tightly wound film that uses its original source to craft something entirely unique and timely.

The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster is available to stream on Shudder & Paramount+, as well as for rent on Amazon Prime.

1 The Outwaters

Rating: Not Rated

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%

Cast: Robbie Banfitch, Angela Basolis, Scott Schamell, Michelle May, Leslie Ann Banfitch, Aro Caitlin

The Outwaters is a found-footage horror film constructed of the memory cards of four friends who traveled into the Mojave Desert to shoot a music video but never returned. The Outwaters manages to be high-concept and hold its cards close to its chest, but still affects as a chilling and visceral cosmic nightmare. It’s a gorgeous and unique film that’s part of a brilliant new wave of arthouse horror and low-budget conceptual thrills that equally mix moving drama, cleverly relevant plots and true terror.