It's tempting to revisit one's favorite horror classics around Halloween, but what if you're tired of the same old exorcists, madmen, and chainsaw massacres? What if you want some new unholy hellishness to scare you silly? While 2015 hasn't been the most fruitful year for horror cinema, there have nonetheless been a number of offerings that stoke bloodlust in fresh, inventive ways. Some are in theaters, some are available at home right now courtesy of streaming services and/or physical media, and all will deliver at least a few solid jolts, if not compel you to sleep with the lights on.
Crimson Peak (in theaters on Oct. 16)
Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy, Pacific Rim) delivers a gorgeous gothic ghost story with this star-studded film about a 19th-century man (Tom Hiddleston), his new bride (Mia Wasikowska), his sister (Jessica Chastain), and some undead specters who reside in his English mountain mansion.
The Visit (in theaters now)
M. Night Shyamalan rebounds from a string of debacles with this sturdy found-footage film, about a pair of kids who go to stay with the grandparents they never knew, only to discover that something's not quite right.
Krampus (in theaters on Dec. 4)
Yuletide bitterness leads to supernatural misery when a young boy, angry about how his Christmas turned out, summons a legendary demon—who's something like the anti-Kris Kringle—in this highly anticipated horror-comedy from director Michael Dougherty (Trick 'r' Treat).
We Are Still Here (rent via Amazon Instant Video and iTunes, and on DVD/Blu-ray)
An old-school throwback to American and Italian horror classics of the '70s and '80s, Ted Geoghegan's film focuses on a couple who move to New England after the death of their son, and find that their new abode is populated by all sorts of undead spirits.
It Follows (rent via Amazon Instant Video and iTunes, and on DVD/Blu-ray)
The year's most acclaimed horror film is this creepy John Carpenter-esque STD allegory about a girl stalked by a series of silent, nameless pursuers.
This menacing Austrian import concerns a pair of twins who, after reuniting with their mother—whose face is covered in bandages, due to cosmetic plastic surgery—come to suspect that the woman whose care they're now in may not, in fact, be who she claims.
Unfriended (available via Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, and DVD/Blu-ray)
Found-footage horror films are a dime a dozen, but this release from earlier this year is a cut above the rest, given that its story—about a group of teens terrorized by an online villain—is cleverly told solely through its characters' techno-device screens.
Spring (available via Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, and DVD/Blu-ray)
Directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead's unconventional Spring begins like your average romance between an American man (Lou Taylor Pucci) and an Italian woman (Nadia Hilker)—until, that is, the woman's deep, dark secret comes to light.
Deathgasm (in theaters now)
A splatterfest of the most deliberately goofy, gonzo order, this New Zealand import charts the odyssey of two dim-witted metalheads who inadvertently summon an evil demon.
Creep (streaming on Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, and iTunes)
An unnerving relationship is born when a videographer responds to a stranger's Craigslist ad—for a job in which he's supposed to videotape his client, day and night—in this sturdy thriller from filmmakers Patrick Brice and Jay Duplass.
The Gift (on DVD/Blu-ray Oct. 27)
Joel Edgerton has a mysterious gift for Jason Bateman—an old friend with whom he shares a not-very-nice secret—in this underrated thriller from earlier this summer. The less you know about it ahead of time, the better.
The Nightmare (streaming on Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, and iTunes, and on DVD/Blu-ray)
Perhaps the most unsettling film of 2015 is this fiction-documentary hybrid from director Rodney Ascher (Room 237), about the bizarre phenomenon known as sleep paralysis—a condition in which people wake up in the middle of the night unable to move, and possessed by the feeling that they're being watched by silhouetted specters hovering over their beds.
The Witch (in theaters on Feb. 26, 2016)
A huge hit at this past January's Sundance Film Festival, The Witch—about a 17th-century Puritan clan in New England that must confront an ancient evil in the nearby woods—doesn't arrive in theaters until 2016, which marks it as possibly the horror film to beat next year.
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