A24’s new thriller Opus is pretty disappointing, but the story it sets out to tell has been pulled off by a handful of much better horror movies in recent years. Opus stars Ayo Edebiri as a young journalist who’s invited to the remote compound of a reclusive pop star, played by John Malkovich. Upon her arrival, she quickly learns that the pop star has a literal cult following and something sinister is afoot.

One of the reasons why Opus has bombed at the box office is that audiences have seen this kind of movie a lot lately. It belongs to a specific subgenre of “all is not what it seems” suspense thrillers about an unsuspecting protagonist being lured into a cult and having to figure out a way to escape. But the comparisons aren’t favorable, because other films in this genre have been much smarter, scarier, and more satirically substantial.

5

Blink Twice

Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut, Blink Twice, stars Naomi Ackie as a down-on-her-luck young woman who’s swept off her feet by a billionaire tech magnate, played by Channing Tatum, and invited to his private island. When she gets to the island, it initially seems to be a carefree paradise tucked away from the worries of the outside world. However, it soon becomes apparent that something really dark is going on.

Blink Twice is far from a perfect movie. Its tone is all over the place, flitting between broad comedic beats and really shocking sequences of Sєxual violence, and its final message is a little muddled. But on the whole, it achieves the slow-burn mystery effect much better than Opus.

4

The Menu

Mark Mylod’s horror comedy The Menu seems like the template for Opus’ plot; just swap out pop music for food. Instead of going to the remote compound of an eccentric pop star, The Menu’s cast of characters go to the remote restaurant of an eccentric celebrity chef, played brilliantly by Ralph Fiennes. Anya Taylor-Joy’s Margot, much like Edebiri’s Ariel, is the outsider who doesn’t buy into the cultism and sets out to bring down the whole shady operation.

The Menu has a much clearer satirical message than Opus. Opus has some vague ideas about the cult of celebrity and the power of attention, but The Menu is a razor-sharp critique of high-end cuisine and the surrounding industry. Plus, Fiennes gives an unforgettable turn as a sadistic villain.

3

Ready Or Not

Radio Silence’s comedy thriller Ready or Not stars Samara Weaving as a young bride who is ritualistically hunted by her husband’s wealthy devil-worshipping family on her wedding night. Like Opus, it’s a darkly comic subversion of the final girl trope. But it’s much more successful in empowering its protagonist to outsmart her captors and become a badᴀss.

Not only is Ready or Not a delightfully diabolical slasher movie that turns the tables on the villains; it’s also a surprisingly astute satire of socioeconomic disparity. There have been a lot of eat-the-rich satires lately, but they’re rarely as much fun as Ready or Not. Weaving gives a star-making turn as a put-upon hero who’s easy to root for, and the movie builds to one of the most gruesomely satisfying final scenes in recent horror cinema.

2

Midsommar

The Levelists cult in Opus is tame compared to the Hårga cult in Midsommar. This Wicker Man-style folk horror epic stars Florence Pugh as a grieving young woman who accompanies her emotionally distant boyfriend to a nine-day midsummer festival in rural Sweden. At first, it’s a magical journey — but then, the bodies start piling up.

There are some images in Opus that are clearly trying to evoke the shock factor of Midsommar, like puppets made out of rotting rat carcᴀsses and a dying woman stuffed into a beanbag chair. But no other filmmaker is quite as twisted as Ari Aster. Midsommar opens with a murder-suicide and only gets more and more disturbing from there. It features a sledgehammer mercy kill, a couple of bad mushroom trips, and a human corpse splayed out like a blood eagle.

1

Get Out

The current trend of social thrillers that led to Opus was initially started by Jordan Peele’s debut feature Get Out. Get Out recontextualizes the Sєxist suburban horror of The Stepford Wives to tackle America’s racial tensions. Daniel Kaluuya stars as a Black pH๏τographer who visits his white girlfriend’s parents’ predominantly white gated community. After some initial awkwardness, it dawns on him that the Stepford whites have an unsettling ulterior motive.

Peele earned a much-deserved Oscar for his fiercely original screenplay. Get Out works beautifully as both a nail-biting conspiracy thriller and a poignant social commentary. It deftly conveys a timely message about an important social issue without ever slowing down its perfectly paced horror story. In other words, it’s everything Opus wants to be (but isn’t).