Not Only Hereditary: 5 Best Recent Psychological Horror Movies With High RT Scores

Sudden jump scares and appearances no longer frighten fans of the horror genre. A new wave of young directors has arrived, offering the concept of psychological horror, when they scare not with monsters under the bed or in the closet, but with those demons that sit inside each of us.

1. Raw, 2015

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

Justine is a young woman from a vegetarian family who enrolls in veterinary school. In order to fit in, Justine participates in an initiation ritual that involves eating raw meat.

Afterwards, the normally quiet and reserved Justine begins to experience a terrifying craving for raw meat, including human flesh. To make matters worse, her older sister, Alexia, is a student at the same college and is also a cannibal.

Raw is a body horror movie told through vivid metaphors. It is a story about growing up, female sexuality and the dark side of human nature.

2. It Follows, 2014

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Jay goes on a date with a man she barely knows named Hugh. After sex in the car, the young man chloroforms Jay. Waking up in an abandoned factory, the girl learns that she will now be haunted by a supernatural creature visible only to the two of them.

It can take the form of any person and will kill Jay if it catches her, although it moves slowly. After a frightening incident at home where the creature tries to get to Jay, a group of friends find out Hugh's real identity – his name is Jeff.

Jeff explains that he deliberately infected Jay to save himself, as he was cursed in the same way earlier. If the creature kills Jay, it will return to haunt Jeff.

3. Cuckoo, 2024

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 78%

After the death of her mother, 17-year-old Gretchen moves in with her father and his new family. Communicating with her stepmother, Beth, and her eight-year-old daughter, Alma, is not easy for the girl.

To escape the oppressive atmosphere, she gets a job at a hotel owned by her father's partner. Loneliness and strange occurrences – frightening sounds from the woods, bloody visions – turn Gretchen's life into a nightmare, and soon the girl learns a shocking family secret.

4. The Killing of a Sacred Deer, 2017

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%

Talented heart surgeon Steven is confronted with the ghosts of his past when Martin, a sixteen-year-old boy whose father died on Steven's operating table several years ago, appears in his life.

Feeling guilty, Steven lavishes Martin with gifts and introduces him to his family. But the boy turns out to be intrusive and strange, causing the man to distance himself.

Suddenly, Steven's youngest son loses the ability to walk. Medical examinations reveal no pathology. The doctor realizes that Martin is the cause. He holds Steven responsible for his father's death and gives him a monstrous ultimatum: the doctor must choose a member of his family and sacrifice him.

5. The Witch, 2015

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

In 1630 New England, William and his family are expelled from their Puritan community for violating religious principles. After settling on the edge of the forest, the family tries to start a new life, but soon a terrible tragedy befalls them – baby Samuel disappears.

Heartbroken, mother Katherine believes her son has been taken by a wolf. But it soon turns out that the child was taken by a witch to make a magic potion.

Robert Eggers masterfully builds an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty, forcing the viewer to doubt the source of the evil: is it hidden in the forest thicket or in someone in the family? This is a leisurely psychological horror that frightens with a primal fear of the unknown.