Eight Filmmakers Who Are Transforming Today's Scary Movies
In the realm of modern movie-making, a fresh cohort of creators is pushing the edges of the horror genre. From social allegories to intense thrillers, these 8 movie-makers are producing lasting journeys that reshape fear for a modern era.
Jordan Peele
The director behind Get Out has created pointed allegories delving into the risks, nuances, and paradoxes of Black life in the US. His influence is evident from the multitude of imitators, with the best among them nurtured by Peele himself by way of his Monkeypaw.
Master of Historical Horror
A skilled excavator of the darkest pockets of the past, this filmmaker of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and Nosferatu specializes in revealing the unfamiliar facets of historical periods and depicting them devoid of contemporary alteration. Eggers' sinister journeys into the past open portals to psychosis, longing, and transcendence.
Jane Schoenbrun
The contemporary filmmaker with their finger closest to the millennial spirit, as aware of the loneliness, and deep connections, of an digitally-obsessed era. Weaving ideas of bonding and pop culture through trans experiences and the tradition of physical terror, works such as I Saw the TV Glow plumb the most unsettling fissures of the identity.
Damien Leone
The director's series of Terrifier features is this century’s great scary movie achievement, testament that fan support can still generate genuine successes from skillfully made low-budget violence. Beyond the next slasher icon, psychotic icon Art the Clown is evidence that the viewers' craving for gore – excessive, humorous, unchecked – remains endless.
Blurrer of Realities
Merging the line between fantasy and reality, with her movies Saint Maud and Love Lies Bleeding, Glass has built a portfolio of intense female characters compelled to limits by the intensity of their commitment to twisted beliefs. Given to surreal climaxes that call simple understandings into doubt, her films remain – though less like a stone in your footwear than a spike in your sole.
YouTube Sensations
Emerging from the primordial ooze of online video arrived a pair of siblings dominating the film industry with a trendy type of provocation. With their movies Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, they staged shocking displays in between credible representations of how today’s young people think. Cinema enthusiasts pray to them as if they’re newly made heroes.
Arthouse Horror Pioneer
The director's polished, symbolism-rich blend of scary movie conventions with independent styles won her a Palme d’Or, the historic moment the festival presented its highest honor to a scary film. Holding the viscera-flecked flag of the New French Extremity, the Titane creator delves into the cravings of the isolated to spectacular result.
Asian Horror Visionary
A member of the most exciting filmmakers to come forth from Asia in the past decade, the South Korean creator has crafted one jewel of traditional terror (The Wailing) and collaborated on a second one (The Medium). Structured with supreme confidence and exact atmosphere crafting, his work converts Hollywood templates into terrifying, original shapes.
These filmmakers embody the wide-ranging and groundbreaking direction of horror, propelling the limits of dread into new territories.
