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Another year is in the books, and it was a very solid one for horror movies. In addition to some quality work from big franchises like Saw and Scream, the indie horror scene has been a goldmine full of great horror that never got a significant theatrical release--or any theatrical release at all in a bunch of cases. Let's celebrate the year in horror by looking at the top-rated horror films by Metacritic score. Metacritic, which is GameSpot's sister site, aggregates reviews of movies, TV shows, video games, and other media with a weighted average of the individual review scores. Anything that was released in the United States for the first time in 2023, in theaters or on streaming, qualifies, and so it's not the big titles that dominate this list. Let's take a look. And after you're done here, make sure to check out the year's best and worst movies, according to Metacritic, along with GameSpot's best movies of 2023.
19. Saw X
Score: 60
26 reviews After two reboot attempts that didn't stick, We got a proper new Saw movie set when Jigsaw was still alive that actually maintains the existing franchise lore. The result? The best reviews that any movie in this franchise has ever received.
18. No One Will Save You
Score: 60
16 reviews This Hulu alien invasion thriller with a twist is of a rare breed, with no dialogue throughout the film save for a single line during one dramatic moment.
17. Scream VI
Score: 61
53 reviews Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett returned for their second Scream movie in as many years, and while it doesn't quite hit as hard as their previous Scream flick, it offered enough wrinkles to the formula to satisfy critics.
16. The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
Score: 62
8 reviews A teen girl's brother is killed in a shooting, and she brings him back to life through Frankenstein-style means. On top of being viscerally effective, critics liked that it took that classic premise and took it in a modern, profound direction.
15. Totally Killer
Score: 62
17 reviews Kiernan Shipka accidentally time travels back to 1987 and has to team up with her mom to stop a slasher villain. If that sounds like a horror version of Back to the Future, it's because that's basically what it is. And while it didn't quite live up to that potential, critics found it fun anyway.
14. Thanksgiving
Score: 63
34 reviews Director Eli Roth returns to his horror roots with this holiday slasher film that began life as a fake trailer in Grindhouse. It turns out there's a reason Eli Roth is a household name for horror fans: He's pretty good at making disgusting horror flicks that are dripping with irony.
13. A Haunting in Venice
Score: 63
52 reviews Kenneth Branagh's third Hercule Poirot movie takes Agatha Christie's whodunnit formula and runs with it in a whole new way: ghosts! And it actually worked.
12. Knock at the Cabin
Score: 63
60 reviews M. Night Shyamalan's latest film was as divisive as they all tend to be these days, but the critical consensus ended up coming down on the side of Knock at the Cabin being one of the good ones.
11. Suitable Flesh
Score: 64
12 reviews Heather Graham plays a psychologist who gets caught up in a rather upsetting Lovecraftian mess in this tongue-in-cheek body-swapping horror flick from director Joe Lynch. It's mean and twisted, but it's also just fun.
10. Perpetrator
Score: 66
15 reviews A villainous and scene-chewing Alicia Silverstone steals the show in this story about a teen girl who learns that her family has some major body-horror-related secrets. And Perpetrator comes with a searing feminist angle, something we always love to see in new horror flicks.
9. Evil Dead Rise
Score: 69
38 reviews This flick took the Evil Dead franchise out of the cabin and into the city, a change in formula that worked well for critics. It's not the Evil Dead you remember, and that's a good thing.
8. Raging Grace
Score: 70
8 reviews An undocumented immigrant woman, Joy, works as a live-in housekeeper and caretaker for an old, dying aristocrat in his creepy and dusty old mansion, and she secretly keeps her young daughter Grace around without her employers knowing. Naturally, some creepy, Edgar Allen Poe kind of stuff starts to happen, and the movie isn't called Raging Grace for nothing.
7. Brooklyn 45
Score: 71
13 reviews Just after the end of World War II, five military veterans and old pals gather for a dinner party that leads to a seance. And this being a horror movie, that seance results in some bad stuff showing up. But as is usually the case with well-regarded horror, Brooklyn 45 has more on its mind than just spooking you.
6. El Conde
Score: 72
30 reviews This satirical horror-comedy from Jackie director Pablo Lorrain imagines a world in which the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was a centuries-old vampire. It's an experience that's as searing as it is hilarious, according to critics.
5. Infinity Pool
Score: 72
46 reviews Director Brandon Cronenberg still isn't in his father's league as a filmmaker, but Infinity Pool--about some rich folks hanging out in a fictional foreign country in which they punish non-citizen criminals by cloning them and then executing the clone--is captivating in its own way, thanks in no small part to stars Mia Goth and Alexander Skaarsgard.
4. In My Mother's Skin
Score: 73
8 reviews While suffering under a frantic Japanese occupation near the end of World War II, a young Filipino girl is forced to care for her mother while a messed-up fairy plans to eat them and the rest of their family. This is one of those movies that will make you feel really bad afterward.
3. When Evil Lurks
Score: 75
14 reviews While it got considerably less attention than the poorly reviewed Exorcist: Believer, this Argentinian supernatural horror flick about a demonic plague received near-universal acclaim for both its visceral thrills and thematic heft.
2. Talk To Me
Score: 76
44 reviews Some college kids fool around with an old mummified arm that lets them invited ghosts to possess--which they do frequently as a fun party trick. Obviously, things end up going pretty wrong in this chilling little Australian flick, which ends up being a surprisingly original ride.
1. Birth/Rebirth
Score: 78
17 reviews Judy Reyes plays a nurse whose 6-year-old daughter has just died. Marin Ireland plays a mortician who likes to play Frankenstein--and who manages to successfully resurrect the dead girl. This flick takes a very grounded approach to that premise, resulting in a thriller that gets increasingly queasy as the two women go to disturbing lengths to protect this reborn girl, who may not even be worth saving anymore.
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