Whether you’re into folk horror, thrillers, or found-footage, these are the best horror movies about cults to add to your watchlist.
What is it about the summer that makes me want to watch horror movies about cults, despite the fact that not every cult movie takes place in the summer? This is the question I kept returning to as I was compiling this list. Only a couple of these movies explicitly take place in the summer—I’m sure you can guess one of them—while the majority take place in an unspecified time and place or in between seasons or in the dead of winter.
Still, I can’t be the only one who associates these movies with summer. Maybe it’s because the season has a way of making life feel as though it’s suspended in a strange, never-ending loop where nothing and everything happens all at once. Cults kind of work the same way.
This list isn’t meant to be a compilation of every single horror movie about cults out there, but rather a selection of some of my personal favorites, from a psychedelic thriller to an underrated installment in a hit-or-miss found footage franchise and everything in between. Add these to your summer horror watchlist, and be sure to share your favorites in the comments.
8. Hereditary
Courtesy of A24
There’s no way we can talk about horror movies about cults (or even my personal favorite horror movies in general) without starting with Hereditary, Ari Aster‘s jaw-dropping feature debut about a grieving miniature artist (Toni Collette in one of the greatest horror performances of all time) who discovers her recently deceased mother was the leader of a demon-worshiping cult.
Of course, this summary barely scratches the surface of what makes Hereditary so relentlessly terrifying. For the first 90 minutes of its runtime, it’s a tense domestic drama that just happens to have supernatural elements. In fact, some of Hereditary‘s most stomach-churning moments happen before Annie realizes that every inexplicable tragedy in her life has been carefully orchestrated by the cult, who, as we soon discover, have found their way onto her property and into her home.
If it’s been a while since you’ve watched, or you’ve convinced yourself that Hereditary isn’t actually good, do yourself a favor and give it a rewatch. The image of Annie’s mother being showered in gold coins is still one of the funniest images in any of Aster’s films, and the post-Hereditary Paimon deep dive on Wikipedia is always fun.
Hereditary is available to stream on HBO Max.
7. Kill List
Courtesy of Optimum Releasing
If you thought Hereditary was a “feel bad” movie, then nothing will prepare you for the experience that is watching Kill List, Ben Wheatley‘s bleak, ultra-violent crime film about a former British soldier turned hitman named Jay (Neil Maskell) who has found himself struggling financially and emotionally after a disastrous mission in Kyiv. His friend and fellow hitman, Gal (Michael Smiley), reveals he has a new job for the both of them at a dinner party. He also has a new girlfriend, Fiona (Emma Fryer). She works in human resources, so finding more work after this shouldn’t be too hard.
Whenever I recommend Kill List to someone, I try not to say too much, because this really is a movie you should go into as blind as possible. Because it’s on this list, you already know there’s a cult element involved, but the reveal is so horrific, so unexpected, you’ll feel as though you’ve been punched in the gut. And yet, that’s not even the worst thing that happens in this. There’s a scene involving a disturbing amount of CSAM and though we (thankfully) don’t see what’s on these tapes, it’s enough to make Jay beat the perpetrator to death with a hammer, who thanks him as he beats him to a pulp.
Kill List is available to stream on AMC+ and Shudder.
6. The Village
Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures
Fun fact: when I took an intro to sociology class in high school, one of our final assignments was to watch M. Night Shyamalan’s misunderstood thriller The Village to discuss the concepts we studied that semester. I remember it was one of the first times I realized that you could use film to discuss things like social structures, taboos, and collective identity, something I still do here at Dread Central.
For those who haven’t seen it, The Village tells the story of the inhabitants of a rural community living in a village terrorized by robed creatures in the late 1800s. One of the inhabitants is Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard), a bling young woman who the elders send into “the towns” just beyond the forest to retrieve medical supplies after Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix) is stabbed out of jealously by Noah (Adrien Brody). Ivy soon discovers that the creatures that lurk in the forest aren’t what they seem, but there’s another, much larger secret the elders have been keeping as well.
In my opinion, The Village is one of Shyamalan’s most chilling and beautiful films, with Howard doing some of her best work. It’s as delicate as it’s unsettling, and if you haven’t seen it before, I promise nothing will prepare you for the real twist.
The Village is available to rent on Prime Video.
5. Paranormal Activity 3
Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
We don’t talk about Paranormal Activity 3 enough which is a shame considering that this is arguably one of the strongest entries in the popular found-footage franchise. It’s also, in my opinion, the freshest with the introduction of a cult.
Paranormal Activity 3 opens just before the events of the first installment, with Katie (Katie Featherston) dropping off a box of old videotapes at her pregnant sister Kristi’s (Sprague Grayden) house. Shortly after her visit, Kristi’s house in broken into, and the tapes—which were stolen—begin to play. We learn that as a child, Kristi had an imaginary friend named Toby, and that strange things started happening to the girls around the time he appeared. We also learn that their grandmother, Lois (Hallie Foote) is part of cult whose goal is to brainwash young women into having (and sacrificing) sons.
The Paranormal Activity movies might be repetitive and predictable, but I love how this entry expands the franchise’s lore and delivers some solid scares. I watched this one while I was still babysitting for a few families in my neighborhood, and the scare involving the babysitter and the bedsheet stayed with me anytime I was alone in a Tuscan kitchen.
Paranormal Activity 3 is available to stream on Paramount+.
4. The Invitation
Courtesy of Drafthouse Films
Karyn Kusama can do no wrong in my eyes, and her 2015 psychological horror film The Invitation is one of the strongest entries in her filmography. If you only know Kusama through her 2009 black comedy turned cult classic Jennifer’s Body, then I recommend you push this to the top of your watchlist.
Inspired bythe slow pace of Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In, The Invitation tells the story of one tragic night in the Hollywood Hills. Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and his girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) have been invited to a dinner party hosted by Will’s ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard) and her charismatic new husband David (Michiel Huisman). The dinner party is a fun time until David decides to show their guests a disturbing self-help video, which he insists contains the secret to overcoming grief. It worked for him and Eden and their strange new friends. And it just might work on everyone else in the room, whether they’re open to it or not.
The Invitation is a tense, elegant movie that rewards you with multiple watches. If you can’t handle the brutality in Kill List but are looking for something a little more grounded than The Village, this might be the best pick on this list for you. It also has one of the most haunting final shots I’ve seen in any movie, horror or otherwise.
The Invitation is available to stream on Tubi.
3. Mandy
Courtesy of RLJE Films
What is there for me to say about Panos Cosmatos‘s gorgeous, surrealist action thriller Mandy that I haven’t said before? If you somehow managed to not fall in love with Nicolas Cage in Moonstruck (my type, missing hand and all, judge me in the comments), then you’ll definitely fall for him here as Red, a sensitive lumberjack living in the woods with his free-spirited artist girlfriend, Mandy (Andrea Riseborough). When a cult called the Children of the New Dawn kidnaps and kills Mandy, Red goes on a psychedelic, violent quest for vengeance against their leader, Jeremiah Sand (an extremely scary Linus Roache).
This might be one of my absolute favorites on this list, but it’s definitely not for everyone. There’s a lot going on here: there’s a cult, obviously, but there’s also an LSD-addicted cannibalistic/demonic biker gang, a chainsaw fight, and lots and lots of Cage at his Cage-iest. It’s also a beautiful story about love and learning how to live with and embrace loss.
Riseborough might not be in this one for long, but her presence haunts every blood-soaked, candy-colored scene. Watch this one if you really want to feel something.
Mandy is available to stream on Philo and Shudder.
2. Suspiria (1977, 2018)
Maybe I should have added a disclaimer earlier, but let me say this now: not all covens are cults and not all cults are covens, but Suspiria, both the 1977 original and 2018 reimagining, is one of the rare horror movies where the two are one and the same.
Directed and co-written by Dario Argento, Suspiria (1977) follows American ballet student Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) as she tries to make sense of the bizarre murders and increasingly sinister happenings inside a prestigious dance academy in West Germany. Drenched in saturated colors and impossibly bright red blood, Argento’s film leaves a lot to interpretation, prioritizing a fairy tale atmosphere and outrageous kills over a traditional plot.
Luca Guadagnino‘s Suspiria (2018) loosely follows the same premise with Dakota Johnson as Suzy, but it places its story within the political unrest of a divided Germany, using the lingering trauma of World War II to give it more weight. This Suspiria is muted, contemplative, and bleak, yet it’s somehow way more accessible than the original despite being such a heavy watch. I’m a freak, so I’d watch these as a double feature, but if you’re not into the idea of watching a little over 250 minutes of witches wreaking havoc on innocent young women, then I’d recommend just sticking to the original (even if I think the remake is way better).
Suspiria (1977) is available to stream on Tubi and Suspiria 2018 is available to stream on Prime Video.
1. Midsommar
Courtesy of A24
Ari Aster’s take on folk horror, Midsommar, tells the story of a grad student named Dani (Florence Pugh in her breakout role) who is still grieving her entire family after her sister commits a murder-suicide. Her boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor) had been thinking about ending their relationship for a while, but refuses to do it now that Dani is traumatized and alone. Her reluctantly invites her to join him and his friends on a trip to Sweden, where they will have the opportunity to celebrate midsummer with their friend Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren) and his family on the remote Hårga commune.
Without getting too personal, I watched this for the first time right around the time I was applying for grad school and contemplating ending things with someone I had been seeing. While our relationship was not nearly as dysfunctional as Dani and Christian’s, I could see myself in Dani and understood why she’d choose the cult over her boyfriend, even if she’s technically trading one form of codependency for another.
Despite the sex rituals, blood eagle, bear suit, and shroom-induced hallucinations, Midsommar is Aster’s most accessible/mainstream work, and I don’t mean that as a slight. Your friends who aren’t horror fans probably love this one or have at least seen it, and it’s perfect to watch when it’s too hot to do anything else.
