{"id":1182415,"date":"2026-02-15T09:18:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=562577"},"modified":"2026-02-15T09:18:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:18:22","slug":"the-best-horror-movies-of-the-year-ranked-by-scariness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/the-best-horror-movies-of-the-year-ranked-by-scariness\/","title":{"rendered":"The best horror movies of the year, ranked by scariness"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The year is off to a great start, at least as far as horror movies are concerned. There are films about family secrets ranging from ridiculously silly to heartbreaking and tragic. There\u2019s also a holiday-themed slasher, a good old-fashioned summer camp slasher, and a few more unconventional movies that might surprise you. <\/p>\n

To help you make sense of the wonderful year in horror so far, we\u2019ve put together a list of all our favorite terrifying movies and ranked them by scariness. We\u2019ll update the list as more movies come out, but for now, here\u2019s a list of 2025\u2019s best horror movies, ranked by scariness.<\/p>\n

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How we picked and ranked the scariest horror movies of the year<\/h2>\n

Polygon\u2019s staff consistently keeps up with new horror movies, watching them as they are released and adding to this list with the best of the best of both theatrical and straight-to-streaming releases. To create this list, we took into account all of the horror films released so far this year and picked out our favorites. From that smaller list, we then ranked each movie\u2019s scariness with a combined rating of the movie\u2019s terror and gore. Terror takes into account everything from slow-built tension to ridiculous jump scares. Gore is based on how bloody a movie is and how realistic its violence gets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Presence<\/h2>\n

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Run time:<\/strong> 1h 25m
Director:<\/strong> Steven Soderbergh
Cast:<\/strong> Lucy Liu, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday
Where to watch:<\/strong> Available to rent on Amazon Prime Video and YouTube<\/p>\n

Presence<\/a> <\/em>is a horror film in definition more than in practice. The movie is about a family that moves into a new house and is hiding all kinds of secrets from each other, but the whole thing is shot entirely from the perspective of the ghost that already resided there. That ghostliness certainly makes this a horror movie on paper, but it\u2019s more of a family drama with some ghostly elements mixed in than anything else.<\/p>\n

More importantly, however, is the fact that it\u2019s just a really excellent movie. Director Steven Soderbergh, ever a master of formal experimentation in film, turns the gimmicky premise of a movie from a ghost\u2019s perspective into an excuse to shoot dramatic scenes with a flurry of wonderful, dynamic camera movements. The ghost zips from one speaker to the next, trying to make sense of conversations based on the secrets it knows. It follows people when they storm out of rooms and leaves the rest of the conversation to play out muffled through walls. It\u2019s a truly terrific filmmaking tactic, even if it only really feels like a ghost when it has to.<\/p>\n

Presence <\/em>isn\u2019t really too tense, and it doesn\u2019t have any gore at all, so this one ranks low on our scariness scale, but high in our hearts. <\/p>\n

How scary is Presence?<\/h3>\n