Salo's Horror Film Challenge 2023
by rodeznos-46376 | created - 7 months ago | updated - 7 months ago | PublicWelcome to my Horror Film Challenge for October 2023. I assembled this list of films over the year from talking to family, friends, and keeping my eye out for horror films with lead actors of color. Representation in media matters, and this also applies to those working behind the scenes. As such, this list also includes films written and/or directed by filmmakers of color!
I am excited to continue examining films alongside friends. There is a Google spreadsheet that accompanies this IMDb list which details some important inclusion details that matter to me. These include if and how the films pass popular inclusion tests like the Bechdel test, Vito Russo test, and Ava Duvernay test. You can look up these tests and make your own conclusion on their utility. I like using these test as a starting point to foundational ways to thinking and discussing film representation of diversity (e.g., race, age, dis/ability, sexuality, etc.) and how this continues to be a major challenge in media and popular culture.
I'm excited for this horror film journey! Seeing one film a day is A LOT, but I try and do what I can, especially given that I'm a full-time PhD student with a two jobs. This challenge is about fun and not stressing out, so enjoy!
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1. Ravening (2019)
107 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Two chaste lovers bow down to social taboos and repress their feelings, but doing so pushes them towards a horrific crime.
Director: Bhaskar Hazarika | Stars: Lima Das, Arghadeep Baruah, Neetali Das, Sagar Saurabh
Votes: 3,711
2. Mahal (1949)
165 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A young lawyer is involved with a ghostly woman in his new house, where the builder and his fiancée died shortly after it was built.
Director: Kamal Amrohi | Stars: Ashok Kumar, Madhubala, M. Kumar, Vijayalaxmi
Votes: 496
3. Tumbbad (2018)
Not Rated | 104 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A mythological story about a goddess who created the entire universe. The plot revolves around the consequences when humans build a temple for her first-born.
Directors: Rahi Anil Barve, Anand Gandhi, Adesh Prasad | Stars: Sohum Shah, Jyoti Malshe, Anita Date-Kelkar, Ronjini Chakraborty
Votes: 59,004
4. They/Them (2022)
TV-MA | 104 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A group of teenagers at an LGBTQ+ conversion camp endures unsettling psychological techniques while being stalked by a mysterious masked killer.
Director: John Logan | Stars: Kevin Bacon, Theo Germaine, Anna Chlumsky, Carrie Preston
Votes: 11,480
5. The Funeral Home (2020)
86 min | Horror, Mystery
Bernardo runs a funeral home in his house. His family lives among coffins, wreaths and supernatural entities that visit them daily. One day they decide to try to discover the origin of these creatures, but the results are terrifying.
Director: Mauro Iván Ojeda | Stars: Luis Machín, Celeste Gerez, Camila Vaccarini, Susana Varela
Votes: 638
6. No One Gets Out Alive (2021)
R | 87 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
After being forced to take a room in a boardinghouse, an immigrant in search of the American Dream finds herself in a nightmare she can't escape.
Director: Santiago Menghini | Stars: Phil Robertson, Joana Borja, Victoria Alcock, Cristina Rodlo
Votes: 20,914
7. Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020)
PG-13 | 85 min | Comedy, Horror
A group of young friends from the Bronx fight to save their neighborhood from gentrification...and vampires.
Director: Oz Rodriguez | Stars: Jaden Michael, Gerald Jones, Gregory Diaz IV, Sarah Gadon
Votes: 11,131
8. Bingo Hell (2021)
Not Rated | 85 min | Comedy, Horror
In the Barrio of Oak Springs live a strong and stubborn group of elderly friends who refuse to be gentrified. Their leader, Lupita, keeps them together as a community, a family. But little ... See full summary »
Director: Gigi Saul Guerrero | Stars: Adriana Barraza, L. Scott Caldwell, Joshua Caleb Johnson, Richard Brake
Votes: 2,783
9. Little Monsters (2019)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A washed-up musician teams up with a teacher and a kids'-show personality to protect young children from a sudden outbreak of zombies.
Director: Abe Forsythe | Stars: Lupita Nyong'o, Alexander England, Josh Gad, Kat Stewart
Votes: 19,296
10. Prey (I) (2022)
R | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Horror
Naru, a skilled warrior of the Comanche Nation, fights to protect her tribe against one of the first highly-evolved Predators to land on Earth.
Director: Dan Trachtenberg | Stars: Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Dane DiLiegro, Stormee Kipp
Votes: 227,468
11. La Llorona (2019)
Not Rated | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
An aging paranoid war criminal, protected by his faithful wife, faces death while being haunted by the ghosts of his past.
Director: Jayro Bustamante | Stars: María Mercedes Coroy, Sabrina De La Hoz, Margarita Kenéfic, Julio Diaz
Votes: 7,755
12. Candyman (1992)
R | 99 min | Horror, Thriller
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.
Director: Bernard Rose | Stars: Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Tony Todd, Kasi Lemmons
Votes: 100,216 | Gross: $25.79M
13. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Not Rated | 96 min | Horror, Thriller
A ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls that are ravaging the Northeast of the United States.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman
Votes: 139,230 | Gross: $0.09M
14. Barbarian (2022)
R | 102 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A woman staying at an Airbnb discovers that the house she has rented is not what it seems.
Director: Zach Cregger | Stars: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long, Matthew Patrick Davis
Votes: 181,878
15. Alien vs. Predator (2004)
PG-13 | 101 min | Action, Adventure, Horror
During an archaeological expedition on Bouvetøya Island in Antarctica, a team of archaeologists and other scientists find themselves caught up in a battle between the two legends. Soon, the team realize that only one species can win.
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson | Stars: Sanaa Lathan, Lance Henriksen, Raoul Bova, Ewen Bremner
Votes: 212,370 | Gross: $80.28M
16. Under the Shadow (2016)
PG-13 | 84 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
As a mother and daughter struggle to cope with the terrors of the post-revolution, war-torn Tehran of the 1980s, a mysterious evil begins to haunt their home.
Director: Babak Anvari | Stars: Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi, Arash Marandi
Votes: 30,143 | Gross: $0.03M
17. Mulholland Drive (2001)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Jeanne Bates
Votes: 384,113 | Gross: $7.22M
18. Master (I) (2022)
R | 98 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Three women strive to find their place at an elite Northeastern university. When anonymous racist attacks target a Black freshman, who insists she is being haunted by ghosts, each woman must determine where the real menace lies.
Director: Mariama Diallo | Stars: Regina Hall, Zoe Renee, Julia Nightingale, Talia Ryder
Votes: 5,927
19. Spiral (I) (2019)
Not Rated | 87 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A same-sex couple move to a small town to enjoy a better quality of life and raise their daughter with strong social values. But when neighbors throw a very strange party, nothing is as it seems in their picturesque neighborhood.
Director: Kurtis David Harder | Stars: Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Ari Cohen, June Laporte, Ty Wood
Votes: 5,045
20. The Wailing (2016)
TV-MA | 156 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Soon after a stranger arrives in a little village, a mysterious sickness starts spreading. A policeman, drawn into the incident, is forced to solve the mystery in order to save his daughter.
Director: Na Hong-jin | Stars: Jun Kunimura, Hwang Jung-min, Kwak Do-won, Chun Woo-hee
Votes: 82,139
21. Host (II) (2020)
Not Rated | 57 min | Horror, Mystery
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.
Director: Rob Savage | Stars: Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb, Radina Drandova
Votes: 39,536
22. Bad Hair (2020)
Unrated | 102 min | Comedy, Horror, Music
In 1989 an ambitious young woman gets a weave in order to succeed in the image-obsessed world of music television. However, her flourishing career may come at a great cost when she realizes that her new hair may have a mind of its own.
Director: Justin Simien | Stars: Zaria Kelley, Corinne Massiah, Elle Lorraine, Moses Storm
Votes: 4,329
23. The Vigil (2019)
PG-13 | 89 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A man providing overnight watch to a deceased member of his former Orthodox Jewish community finds himself opposite a malevolent entity, in writer-director Keith Thomas' electrifying feature debut.
Director: Keith Thomas | Stars: Dave Davis, Menashe Lustig, Malky Goldman, Lynn Cohen
Votes: 9,819
24. Sweetheart (I) (2019)
PG-13 | 82 min | Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi
A woman washes ashore a small uninhabited island after an accident. The situation turns from bad to worse when she realizes there is a mysterious creature hunting at night.
Director: J.D. Dillard | Stars: Kiersey Clemons, Emory Cohen, Hanna Mangan Lawrence, Andrew Crawford
Votes: 9,701
25. Hellraiser (2022)
R | 121 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A young woman struggling with addiction comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to summon the Cenobites.
Director: David Bruckner | Stars: Odessa A'zion, Jamie Clayton, Adam Faison, Drew Starkey
Votes: 48,835
26. ParaNorman (2012)
PG | 92 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A misunderstood boy takes on ghosts, zombies and grown-ups to save his town from a centuries-old curse.
Directors: Chris Butler, Sam Fell | Stars: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Tucker Albrizzi
Votes: 109,972 | Gross: $56.00M
27. The Blue Hour (2015)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, Horror
THE BLUE HOUR is a sexy supernatural love story about a bullied loner, Tam, who finds solace in the arms of Phum, a boy he meets at a haunted swimming pool. Phum reveals that his family's ... See full summary »
Director: Anucha Boonyawatana | Stars: Atthaphan Phunsawat, Oabnithi Wiwattanawarang, Duangjai Hiransri, Nithiroj Simkamtom
Votes: 1,037
28. Let the Right One In (2008)
R | 114 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl.
Director: Tomas Alfredson | Stars: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl
Votes: 226,870 | Gross: $2.12M
29. Blood Quantum (2019)
Not Rated | 98 min | Drama, Horror
The dead are coming back to life outside the isolated Mi'kmaq reserve of Red Crow, except for its Indigenous inhabitants who are strangely immune to the zombie plague.
Director: Jeff Barnaby | Stars: Michael Greyeyes, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Forrest Goodluck, Kiowa Gordon
Votes: 5,413
30. The Old Ways (II) (2020)
R | 90 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Cristina, a journalist of Mexican origin, travels to her ancestral home in Veracruz to investigate a story of sorcery and healing. There, she is kidnapped by a group of locals who claim she's the devil incarnated.
Director: Christopher Alender | Stars: Brigitte Kali Canales, Andrea Cortés, Julia Vera, Sal Lopez
Votes: 7,842
31. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)
PG-13 | 108 min | Adventure, Horror, Mystery
In 1968, the night of Halloween brings mayhem in a small town when a group of friends discovers a notebook written by a mysterious girl that foretells terrifying events.
Director: André Øvredal | Stars: Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Austin Abrams
Votes: 85,325 | Gross: $68.95M
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