Summary

• Radio Silence's horror movies, from the debut in V/H/S to the recent Abigail, showcase their evolution and unique blend of creativity.
• Ranking Radio Silence's films, like Ready Or Not and Scream series, is difficult due to individual preferences but each offers something different.
• The Radio Silence team's ability to balance humor, gore, and original storytelling shines in films like Ready Or Not and Scream 2022.

The horror movie genre found popular modern creatives with the Radio Silence team, and the strength of their work makes ranking their movies from worst to best a difficult task. The horror filmmaking collective Radio Silence has been active since 2012 when they made their cinematic debut with a short in the successful anthology horror movie V/H/S. The group includes producer Chad Villella and directors/writers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who have gone on to helm major franchises like Scream.

Before directing Scream’s 2022 reboot, Radio Silence came to prominence with their aforementioned V/H/S short, a later short in the underrated 2015 horror anthology Southbound, the 2014 feature film Devil’s Due, and the 2019 satirical horror hit Ready Or Not. That successful indie horror led to their hiring as Scream 2022’s directors, which led to them returning for Scream VI and then launching an original horror movie with 2024's Abigail. Through them all, picking the best Radio Silence movie is subjective and a matter of individual taste.

7 V/H/S ("10/31/98")

Their Directorial Debut

The first major work from the Radio Silence team, the horror anthology V/H/S’s final short, 10/31/98, is a solid scare-fest that fits the movie’s found-footage aesthetic. However, while more inventive than most of the Paranormal Activity sequels, "10/31/98" lacks the satirical bite of the collective’s later outings. Credit where it's due, the premise of a group of gormless frat boys stumbling across an exorcism and endeavoring to save its subject is a great conceit. However, "10/31/98" works better as a great idea than a fully fleshed-out short. Although, its excised joke ending does provide the biggest laugh of the V/H/S franchise so far.

6 Devil’s Due

The First Feature Film

Smart and scary, Devil’s Due is a 2014 Rosemary’s Baby homage that suffers only in comparison to later Radio Silence productions and its famous inspiration. As famous fan Eli Roth noted at the time of the movie’s release, Devil’s Due is a “legit scary, smart horror film” and a rare attempt to breathe new life into the “spooky unborn baby” sub-genre. However, while Devil’s Due is a worthwhile watch, the recent horror movie does struggle with a noncommittal, sort-of-found footage gimmick that adds nothing to the project.

5 Southbound ("The Way In")

An Underrated Short Film

Released in 2015, Southbound is a wildly underrated anthology horror that drew praise from no less than Paul Thomas Anderson. The horror put Radio Silence firmly on the mainstream map, as their short "The Way In" deserved. Like V/H/S, Southbound saves Radio Silence’s contribution for last and is right to do so; however, this time around, both the collective’s contribution and the surrounding movie's other shorts are stronger, stranger, and scarier. "The Way In" is a fast-paced and terrifying home invasion thriller that serves as a precursor to what will come.

4 Scream VI

Their Franchise Return

Radio Silence's return to the Scream franchise for Scream VI delivered another memorable and fun experience. Looking to keep the long-running horror series feeling fresh, the story shifted to a New York setting, while the violence went up a notch to make it arguably the most brutal installment to date. Scream 6 features some brilliant and thrilling set pieces as a result, with Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett showing their continued growth as directors in of the scale they can handle. It also maintained the subversive roots of the series, playing into the franchise's mythology and tropes repeatedly.

One of the biggest reasons Scream 6 works as well as it does is the Core Four characters. With Sidney out of the picture, and despite Hayden Panettiere returning as Kirby, the movie keeps its focus on the siblings/friends, Sam and Tara Carpenter and Mindy and Chad Meeks-Martin. Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera both shine in their respective roles. However, Scream 6's killer identity is too obvious, and it loses some of the franchise's inherent fun by taking more of a direct horror/slasher approach. It's still mostly a blast, despite its flaws making it lower when ranking the Scream movies.

3 Scream 2022

They Replaced Wes Craven

Scream 2022 was clever, funny, perfectly paced, and inventive. While many fans of the long-dormant franchise were understandably afraid that no new Scream movies could do justice to Craven’s originals, the Radio Silence team proved their doubters wrong with a story that managed to balance returning legacy characters with an engaging and believable cast of likable new leads. As far as sequels go, few (if any) horror franchise reboots could claim to have reignited interest in their respective series as much as Scream 2022 managed to.

Scream 2022 never felt gratuitous in its cruelty and managed to ground its gore amidst poignant character beats

Despite killing off one of the franchise’s most beloved characters, Scream 2022 never felt gratuitous in its cruelty and managed to ground its gore amidst poignant character beats. That said, even such a superior sequel was not perfect. For all the successful suspense sequences, Scream 2022 did lack the serious scares of earlier franchise installments. But it remains a stellar example of rebooting a franchise without upsetting fans of the original movies, showing real love for the earlier outings while remaining endlessly inventive on its .

2 Abigail

A Return To Original Horror

2024 brought the Radio Silence team back to original horror filmmaking, and Abigail proved to be a bloody great return at that. Reuniting with Melissa Barrera after the two Scream movies, the movie puts her in the middle of a group of criminals who out they've kidnapped a vampire who looks like a young girl. Abigail features a stellar cast around Barrera, as everyone from Kathryn Newton, Dan Stevens, and Alisha Weir turn in memorable performances. They all help the movie pull off its tricky tonal balance of being brutal, gory, and scary while also maintaining some levity and heart.

By the time that Abigail's ending rolls around, the Radio Silence movie delivers on just about everything you could hope for from a modern vampire horror movie. The single location at the mansion keeps the scale small, but there are still plenty of great sequences of action and horror. It is also incredibly refreshing to see a vampire movie like Abigail that is not directly connected to Dracula or a major IP, even if it hints at possible crossovers if this became a franchise. Abigail is ultimately a thrilling crowd-pleaser that very much earns its praise.

1 Ready Or Not

Radio Silence's Breakout Hit

2019’s barnstorming blackly comic horror thriller Ready Or Not saw Radio Silence balance tense set-pieces, gory dark humor, and smart, uncompromising satirical writing. It’s a rare scary, gruesome, and endlessly original horror-comedy that does justice to both genres. Telling the story of the Le Domas family, Ready Or Not introduces viewers to the new arrival Grace on her wedding day. To become a full-fledged member of the clan, Grace must win a deadly game of Hide and Seek, prompting the uber-rich family to take up arms and hunt her for sport to appease the devil.

As this synopsis implies, the class commentary in Ready Or Not is roughly as subtle as a brick to the face. The movie is about the extremely wealthy playing with the lives of ordinary, decent people and the heroine's struggle to survive their pitiless machinations. Embodied in The Babysitter star Samara Weaving’s resourceful heroine, the working class gets a killer Final Girl who is more than able to match wits with the soulless Le Domas brood and ends up beating them at their own game.

Ready Or Not is Radio Silence at their best, making its placement at the top of this ranking deserving. Whether it's the strength of Samara Weaving's performance, the twisted take on Hide and Seek, the explosively bloody ending, or the somewhat iconic final shot, there is a lot to like here. Ready Or Not sees Radio Silence deliver thrills, brutal violence, high tension, and razor-sharp satire in the directing team’s strongest effort so far.