Last Night in Soho
2021 · MovieEloise can access the past through her dreams and finds herself experiencing the life of Sandie, a young woman trying to break into the London music industry in 1965.
Ranked by HorroRated · Updated October 19, 2026
Best Horror Movies of 2021
HorroRated has reviewed 18 horror movies released in 2021, ranked here best first. Last Night in Soho, Candyman (2021) and Fear Street Part Three: 1666 lead the list, all rated Highly Recommended.
Leigh Janiak's Fear Street trilogy turned July 2021 into a three-week horror event, moving from a 1994 mall massacre to a 1978 summer camp and back to 1666. Edgar Wright sent a dreamer into 1960s Soho in Last Night in Soho, and Nia DaCosta returned to Cabrini-Green with a new Candyman.
2021 horror movies, best first
18 films
Candyman (2021)
2021 · MovieVisual artist Anthony McCoy moves into a development built on the original Cabrini-Green site and researches the Candyman for his work, drawing something's attention.
Fear Street Part Three: 1666
2021 · MovieThrown back to 1666 by a vision, Deena lives as Sarah Fier in the settlement of Union just as spoiled food, fouled water and whispered rumors turn the villagers against Sarah and the girl she loves.
Fear Street Part Two: 1978
2021 · MovieCamp Nightwing, July 1978: straight-laced Cindy Berman and her rebellious kid sister Ziggy are barely on speaking terms when an axe-swinging killer turns the summer rivalry between Shadyside and Sunnyvale campers deadly.
Fear Street Part One: 1994
2021 · MovieA massacre at the Shadyside Mall has barely been mopped up when Deena's ex-girlfriend Sam survives a car wreck beside an old grave, and killers from the town's grim past start coming for her.
A Quiet Place Part II
2021 · MovieEvelyn Abbott and her children emerge from their fortified property and encounter Emmett and other survivors navigating the same sound restrictions.
Malignant
2021 · MovieAfter an attack at home leaves her abusive husband dead, Madison Mitchell starts seeing grisly murders as they happen. The killer, a figure she knows only as Gabriel, seems to be connected to her in ways she can't explain.
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions
2021 · MovieZoey and Ben are pulled back into the game along with previous winners from other cities. The Minos organization's reach is larger than the first film revealed.
The Forever Purge
2021 · MovieAdela and Juan, a Mexican couple building a new life in Texas, make it through Purge night behind the walls of a guarded compound, then wake to find that some of the killers have no plans to stop at sunrise.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
2021 · MovieArne Johnson's murder case in 1981 Connecticut involves Ed and Lorraine Warren's claim that he was not responsible for his actions because of demonic influence.
Things Heard & Seen
2021 · MovieCatherine and George Claire move into an old Hudson Valley farmhouse in 1980 and find the property's history involves the local brothers they hire to work on it, in ways that make the fresh start complicated.
Willy's Wonderland
2021 · MovieA silent drifter stuck in a small Nevada town agrees to scrub a shuttered family fun center overnight in exchange for car repairs. When the animatronic mascots come for him, he fights them without ever breaking his shift.
Wrong Turn (2021)
2021 · MovieA hiking group travels through territory controlled by a commune called the Foundation, who have been living in isolation for generations and defend their home by their own rules.
Shadow in the Cloud
2021 · MovieMaude Garrett boards a World War II B-17 bomber with a secret package and a crew that doesn't want her there. Then she spots something outside the plane that keeps coming back.
Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin
2021 · MovieMargot brings a small film crew to a secluded Amish community to meet the family of the mother she never knew, and the longer they stay, the less their welcome adds up.
Halloween Kills
2021 · MovieMichael Myers works through Haddonfield on Halloween night while the town turns on itself.
False Positive
2021 · MovieLucy and Adrian are thrilled to be pregnant after a difficult period. The fertility clinic that helped them turns out to have different intentions than their paperwork suggested.
Spiral: From the Book of Saw
2021 · MovieDetective Zeke Banks already got branded a traitor for turning in a corrupt partner. Now a Jigsaw copycat is picking off crooked cops one by one, and Zeke can't seem to stay ahead of the pattern.
No 2021 films match that filter right now.
2021 in Horror, by the Numbers
- Reviewed
- 18 films: 6 Highly Recommended, 8 Recommended and 4 Worth a Look
- Average score
- 3.1 of 5 tapes, against 3.3 across all 519 movies in the archive
- Leading subgenres
- Psychological (8 films), Survival Horror (8)
- Directors with more than one film
- Leigh Janiak (Fear Street Part Three: 1666, Fear Street Part Two: 1978 and Fear Street Part One: 1994)
- Streaming in the US
- 16 of 18, 5 of them free, as of November 10, 2026
Ranked by HorroRated score, then Picks, then newest release. How the year lists work
Before you press play
Frequently Asked Questions About 2021 Horror Movies
What is the best horror movie of 2021?
Six films from 2021 share HorroRated's top verdict, Highly Recommended: Last Night in Soho, Candyman (2021), Fear Street Part Three: 1666 and Fear Street Part Two: 1978, plus 2 more. They're tied, so the list shows the newest first, starting with Last Night in Soho.
Which directors have more than one 2021 film on this list?
Leigh Janiak, with Fear Street Part Three: 1666, Fear Street Part Two: 1978 and Fear Street Part One: 1994.
Which 2021 horror movies are part of a franchise?
Ten of the 18 films come from franchises with a HorroRated watch-order guide, a bigger share than in most years: Candyman (2021), Fear Street Part Three: 1666, Fear Street Part Two: 1978, Fear Street Part One: 1994 and A Quiet Place Part II, plus 5 more.