What a decade we've had in horror! What started strong, grew ever more impressive as the last 10 years wore on, culminating in the absolute knockout horror lineups of the last five years. With the genre thriving, in studio horror and indie cinema alike, can 2019 close out the decade on a high note? Well, we're only half-way through to year so it's too early to tell, but even with half the year to go, there are plenty of horror standouts to add to your watchlist asap.

From theatrical hits like Jordan Peele's Us and the superhero slasher Brightburn to under-the-radar festival gems like Braid and The Hole in the Ground, streaming scares like The Perfection and Horror Noire, and the occasional arthouse thrill a la Gaspar Noé's dance-horror Climax, here are the best horror movies of 2019, so far.

Us

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Image via Universal Pictures

Jordan Peele had an impossible hurdle to clear with his sophomore feature -- how do you top Get Out? Peele's directorial debut was an instant game-changer, cultural touchstone, and the first horror movie to win an Oscar in decades. As you might expect, Peele played it smart, and rather than strike at the same territory that made his first film such a sensation, he veered towards a more straightforward home invasion-meets-dopllegänger horror movie with Us. There's still plenty of cultural commentary to interpret, but this time, Peele went straight for the visceral with a blood-soaked fight for survival. Once again, Peele shows his knack for commanding a camera and working with actors, mining a genuinely phenomenal pair of performances from Lupita Nyong'o, both as a mother fighting for her family and her "tethered" other self from the underground. Backed by an instantly essential horror score from Michael Abels and gorgeous cinematography from Mike Gioulakis, Peele managed to skirt the sophomore slump with a gripping new horror original that may not pack the cultural wallop of his debut film but easily stands out as a sharp, scary story all its own.

Climax

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Image via Wild Bunch

French filmmaker Gaspar Noe never fails to earn his place as one of contemporary cinema’s great provocateurs and stylistic innovators. His latest, the dance horror spectacle Climax certainly doesn’t disappoint. Staged in the endless hallways and confined corners of a remote warehouse, the film follows an international dance troupe through a hellish winter night when their rehearsal turns into an LSD-fuelled descent straight to hell.

Sofia Boutella taps into her dance roots and gives yet another commanding physical performance as Selva, also delivering her most impressive and grueling emotional performance to date, the leader of the dance troupe and de facto audience stand-in, who desperately tries to maintain order and sanity as the laws of civilization break down into a violent, lusty free-for-all around her. Noe kicks off his film with a dazzling performative display from the individual members of the troupe, before bringing them all together in bacchanalian group choreography, his camera twirling and flipping around to match the impressive speed and agility of his performers. Then the drugs hit and everything rapidly devolves into chaos. Noe certainly hasn’t lost his knack for cruelty, and Climax has a withering sense of humor with deadly punchlines, but it’s also one of his most accessible and bizarrely enjoyable films, a horror-performance art hybrid that keeps the blood pumping while the celebration sours, until you’re begging for the party to end.

The Hole in the Ground

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Image via A24

Irish filmmaker Lee Cronin makes a striking feature debut with A24's The Hole in the Ground, a slow burn chiller about a woman, Sarah (Seana Kerslake), and her young son, Chris (James Quinn Markey), who flee a personal trauma to the Irish countryside, only to find new terrors waiting there. Cronin digs into the paranoid parental horror of the "evil kid" subgenre when the family unit discovers a giant sinkhole near their new home and Chris starts changing, and not in nice ways. Solemn and slow-burn, with a flourish of eerie otherworldliness,  The Hole in the Ground is a lowkey, pensive bit of folk horror that digs into emotional beats over tropes, which only makes it more satisfying.

Braid

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Image via Blue Fox Entertainment

Braid is one of those weird as hell, often baffling, ultimately confounding horror movies that gets a lot of points for style, even if it never fully works. Imogen Waterhouse and Sarah Hay star as two young women evading arrest when they return to the home of their unhinged childhood friend (Madeline Brewer, in a performance that rivals her frantic work in Cam). With a fortune locked in the safe, the pair step back into a demented life-long game of make-believe, but they may have underestimated just how maniacal their old pal has become since they last saw her. Hallucinatory and unruly, Braid never quite comes together in a way that takes it to the next level, but filmmaker Mitzi Peirone makes such a daring, singular debut -- with a trio of equally daring actresses who are willing to match crazy for crazy at every turn -- that it's well worth the confusion just to experience the wild ride.

Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror

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Image via Shudder

Ok, so is Horror Noire a horror movie? No. But could I make a list of the best genre achievements of the year and leave it off? Also no. Shudder's first documentary digs into the history of black representation (or often, lack thereof) in the horror genre and how the relationship between popular cinema and black audiences has evolved over the decades. Directed by Xavier BurginHorror Noire chronicles that cultural journey, from D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation to Jordan Peele's Get Out, tracking the progress and regression along the way, while analyzing the impact of iconic films like Night of the Living DeadBlacula, and Candyman. The result is a powerful, essential horror documentary that not only examines the sometimes sordid history of representation in the genre, but celebrates the potential for filmmakers to reclaim the space and rewrite the narrative for future generations.

The Perfection

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Image via Netflix

Richard Shepard’s twisted horror-drama The Perfection scored a huge amount of buzz and a Netflix deal coming out of Fantastic Fest last year, and there was one sentiment shared by everyone who saw it: “watch it knowing as little as possible.” Keeping that spirit alive, I’ll say only that it’s a wild and unpredictable story about two gifted cellists (played by Allison Williams and Logan Browning, both exceptional) locked in an impossibly complex rivalry and/or friendship that hides a lot of layers beneath the surface. That’s it. That’s all you’re getting from me. Building from their dynamic and the secrets they carry, Shepard and co-writers Eric C. Charmelo and Nicole Snyder took inspiration from the twisted mysteries of Park Chan-wook and crafted a horror tale that leaps from genre to genre, including body horror, viral horror, psychological thrills, and some killer genre. Even better, it’s a film that rewards a rewatch, setting up a pair of fascinating character arcs that are even more rewarding the second time around.

Happy Death Day 2U

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Image via Universal Pictures

Blumhouse's follow-up to the 2017 slasher breakout Happy Death Day was underappreciated at the box office, which is a shame because the sequel is an emotionally gratifying, surprising, and eminently likable return to Tree (Jessica Rothe) and her nightmare time loop. Happy Death Day 2U catches up with Tree shortly after the never-ending day that changed her life (and ended it countless times), when she gets sucked into a parallel dimension where a whole new time loop awaits. While Happy Death Day 2U definitely puts slasher tropes on the back burner in favor of embracing the sci-fi thriller genre, it's still a delightful romp, grounded by another firecracker performance from Rothe, and more morbid cheekiness from writer/director Christopher Landon.

Escape Room

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Image via Sony Pictures

I count Escape Room as one of the surprise genre delights of the year. PG-13 horror gets a bad rep (often deserved,) but Escape Room is the kind of high-concept studio horror aimed at teen audiences that manages to work for all audiences. "What if escape rooms, but deadly" could be utterly ridiculous, but Robitel takes full advantage of the set-piece opportunities, turning each new room into a distinct survival puzzle. And with the help of a charming cast that includes Deborah Ann WollTyler Labine, and Logan MillerEscape Room has just enough character drama to keep you hooked, and more than enough spectacle to keep you amused. Taking a cue from hard-R trap films like Saw and Cube while embracing the tonal demands of PG-13 horror, Escape Room isn't quite as inventive or brutal as it could be, but it's one of the too-rare "fun for the whole family" horror movie that checks the boxes for a crowd-pleasing hit without abandoning the thrills.

Brightburn

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Image via The H Collective

Produced by James Gunn and directed by David YaroveskyBrightburn jam-packs abundant love for slashers and superheroes into an unfortunately slight container. Riffing on Superman's origin story, Brightburn introduces Elizabeth Banks and David Denman as the Breyers, loving parents to an adopted orphan that crash-landed into their backyard from outer space. Except unlike the Kents, The Bryers -- oopsie -- raise a super villain rather than a superhero. Brightburn only scratches the surface of the character potential you could mine from such material, focusing instead on an old-school slasher vibe that embraces mounting tension and horrifically gory payoffs over psychological investment. And boy, they did not come to play with the kills, which are as brutal and nasty as the MCU's popcorn blockbusters are crowd-pleasing. You might not find yourself obsessed with Brightburn's characters the same way you do your favorite superheroes, but Yarovesky pulls off a feat of blood-soaked world-building that makes you eager to see what his take on a shared universe of super-slashers might look like.

Pet Sematary

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Image via Paramount Pictures

Perhaps the most divisive entry on this list, Pet Sematary sure didn't work for everyone, but I can't deny it worked for me. Pulling from one of Stephen King's darkest and best novels, filmmakers Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer dive into the terror of mortality and the madness of denying it with the help outstanding performances from stars Jason ClarkeAmy Seimetz, and John Lithgow. Seimetz, in particular, is phenomenal and her character's pitch-dark journey through grief is what makes the film so special for me, but every actor here is on their A-game as they ping-pong through the emotional torment of King's tale. While I don't agree with all the changes from the source material (Jud, especially, deserves more,) Kölsch and Widmyer's overall vision holds up as a worthy take on the classic Monkey's Paw fable, with an impressive commitment to the bleak tone of King's novel.

Piercing

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Image via Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Nicolas Pesce‘s The Eyes of My Mother was a gorgeously-shot, somewhat divisive horror throwback that demonstrated a spectacular knack for technical execution and disturbing imagery from the debut feature director. For his sophomore film Piercing, Pesce leaves behind the black-and-white Hitchcockian vibes in favor of a lush, stylish Giallo throwback with one seriously twisted romance at its core. The film stars Christopher Abbot as an Average Joe husband and father who’s just absolutely desperate to kill someone. When he stages a business trip to purge himself of his dark desires, he orders a hooker (Mia Wasikowska in her best performance yet), who has some deviant desires of her own. Surreal and strangely sexy with a surprising amount of humor and tenderness beneath the depravity, Piercing is a surprising and impressive follow-up for the filmmaker that will make you even more curious what he’s going to do with The Grudge.

Hagazussa: A Heathen's Curse

Image via Forgotten Film Entertainment

If you like witchy terror, super slow-burns, or understated arthouse horror, direct your attention to Hagazussa: A Heathen's Curse, the stunning directorial debut from Lukas Feigelfeld. Set in the remote wilds of the 15th century Austrian Alps, Hagazussa introduces an outcast woman, scorned by her neighbors just like her mother was on the suspicion of witchcraft. Feigelfeld sets the film to a simmer with a steady stream of subtlely unnerving imagery and sound throughout, but things really kick over into a boil by the final act, when Hagazussa transforms from muted chills to all-out hallucinatory horror, with plenty of gross-out gags and wild, unnerving imagery to fully pull you into the madness. Understandably, Hagazussa gets compared to The Witch a lot, but it's more of a cousin film than a sibling, sharing some of the same DNA, but ultimately, it's a distinct terrifying experience with a personality all its own.