Coronavirus was scary enough all by itself, killing over 200,000 Americans this year and spiking as Halloween approached.
With most states having restrictions on House of Horror or Haunted Scream attractions because of limitations on the number of people crowded together in a small space, we had to rely on other methods to scare ourselves.
Mostly, we chose scary movies.
The Halloween countdown
Many fans of the Halloween season like to get in the festive mood by binging on scary movies. They even added in the use of conferencing software like Zoom or Hangouts to safely share the experience with friends.
Friends share their favorite lists on Facebook and Twitter, and ask for recommendations to expand their experiences.
Netflix’s innovative “Netflix Party” allowed users to create simulcasts. Friends were able to watch any movie together, virtually, by all viewing it at the same time on screens that were miles apart.
So what were the most popular movies this year?
Rotten Tomatoes Rankings
Rotten Tomatoes ranks these movies as among the best horror movies of 2020.
- His House – refugees find they have escaped one horror to land in another in this creepy, claustrophobic haunted apartment movie.
- Host – a classic ouija-board-gone-interdimensional movie gets the Zoom treatment in a made-for-this-moment genuinely scary movie.
- Extra-Ordinary – the words “rom-com” and “horror” don’t seem to belong in the same review, or the same movie, but critics and viewers agree that Extra-Ordinary pulls off the odd combination
- La Llorona – like “His House”, the creators of La Llorona use political horror as a springboard to traditional scare-your-socks-off moments of supernatural horror.
Hulu Best Horror Movies Right Now
- The Alchemist’s Cookbook – isolation and loneliness remain a common COVID-era theme, and this horror movie features the wild decisions a person makes when stripped of their society.
- Body at Brighton Rock – the greatest fears are our primal ones, like the woods and vicious wild animals. We follow our protagonist as a day at work becomes a struggle to survive a predatory wilderness.
- The Blair Witch Project – the film that needs no introduction remains available to stream on Hulu.
- The Cabin in the Woods – when the writers of Cloverfield and Buffy the Vampire Slayer team up, you know that there will be some genre-bending horror with moments of action and laugh-out-loud humor. The Cabin delivers.