Sightlines · a viewing thread

Fresh Blood: 2020s Studio Horror

A run of the decade's mainstream fright machine — abduction shockers, franchise revivals, and one arthouse throwback — best watched back-to-back to feel how modern horror hunts its prey.

Crowd-pleasing, widely-seen genre fare that asks little beyond a strong stomach; put these on for a horror night, not a study session, though a few land hard enough to earn a 'watch when ready.'

• The Black Phone (2022)
• Good Boy (2026)
• The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025)
• Scream VI (2023)
• 28 Years Later (2025)
• X (2022)
• Final Destination Bloodlines (2025)
• Sinners (2025) — If 28 Years Later's bigger swing landed, this is the 2025 studio horror to pull down next — Coogler turns a 1932 Delta juke joint into a vampire siege that plays as crowd-pleaser and prestige at once.
• MaXXXine (2024) — The closing chapter of the X trilogy already sitting in this thread — Maxine's climb through 1985 Hollywood as a killer stalks the industry's margins, so watch it right after X.
• Scream (2022) — The Ghostface revival that directly sets up Scream VI already in this thread — the same self-aware franchise machine, best queued back-to-back with it.
• Saw X (2023) — A franchise revival built for exactly this horror night — Jigsaw at his most vicious, all elaborate trap-and-gristle payoff, asking little beyond a strong stomach.
• Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) — The Blumhouse studio crowd-pleaser that rhymes with The Black Phone — a shuttered animatronic pizzeria turned into a widely-seen, PG-13-scaled scare.
• Terrifier 3 (2024) — The 2020s slasher franchise that broke out into the mainstream on sheer nerve — Art the Clown's Christmas rampage lands hard enough to earn a 'watch when ready.'
• Terrifier 2 (2022) — Where the Terrifier phenomenon caught fire — the Halloween-night resurrection that sets up part 3, extreme enough to pair only on a strong-stomach night.