Any horror movie fan you speak to will tell you that the last decade has been incredible for the genre. And so, what’s the deal? Well firstly, everything that’s coming out seems to be directed by filmmakers who know their horror — cinephiles in fact. These are filmmakers who are allergic to clichés. The genre was in dire need of new blood, and we found it with new talented directors who seemed to be inspired by the works of John Carpenter, Stanley Kubrick, and David Cronenberg.
These new original voices studied the formula of its great horror forebearers. After all, the cinematic horror genre, from its very roots in the ‘20s with German expressionism (Nosferatu) is akin to a deliciously twisted recipe that has been passed on from generation to generation, reinvented, both stylistically and socially, for the current anxieties of the day.
Here are the ten best horror movies of the last 10 years.
1) It Follows
David Robert Mitchell’s minimalist and sexually confusing “It Follows” refused to follow the conventions of 21st-century horror cinema. The story’s main character was female and the implications were more psychological than gore-tastic. Dealing with a 19-year-old (played by Maika Monroe) who loses her virginity and is later told by the same guy that he has passed on a curse to her that will follow and haunt her everywhere she goes, the film is imprinted with ridiculously clever undertones. The only way for our main protagonist to get rid of this “disease” she has inherited is to sleep with someone else and pass it on to them. Every scene in Mitchell’s film is filled with unbearable dread, bringing to mind early Carpenter just by its synth-driven musical score, courtesy of the brilliant Disasterpiece. Scene after scene, the viewer is engulfed in an inescapable sexual nightmare, and just when you think the film will unfold in a conventional way, Mitchell pulls the rug under you and slaps your face sideways. “It Follows” was inescapably eerie, haunting and masterful.
2) Hereditary
Sometimes a horror film comes along that you just feel will change the game. Ari Aster‘s “Hereditary” is just that movie – a spooky, hypnotic film that feels like the culmination of the last 50 years of horror. Aster gives us a melange of “The Shining,” “The Exorcist,” and “Rosemary’s Baby,” three of the greatest of the genre, and creates his own masterpiece in the process. This is a remarkable, triumphant, and confident picture by Aster, who gives the film an almost meditative-like sensation, as you feel every space you’re in, every emotion, every moment of grief. “Hereditary” refuses to employ cheap thrills, creating its cinematic scares with atmosphere, and continuously reinventing itself at every turn. Best of all, it’s anchored by an incredible performance from Toni Collette who is so good and deserves Oscar consideration.
3) Get Out
Chris Washington, a young African-American male (Daniel Kaluuya) is about to meet the parents of his white girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) for a weekend in their posh, but the secluded cottage. The old adage of trust none of what you heard and even less of what you see is put to full-throttle here. Don’t expect “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” speechifying, at least not in the hands of first-time director Jordan Peele, one-half of the comedic duo Key and Peele, who has the time of his life messing with our heads. “Get Out” found a way to skewer and make critical insights about race relations in America. It was a horror-comedy filled with political fireworks that made it a lot more nuanced and thought-provoking than your average B-movie flick. A refreshingly incisive stab at the white liberal and conservative elite, Peele’s film was smart enough to skewer all of white America and demand they wake up to the elephant in the room. Hypocrisy seems to be the name of the game and “Get Out” was the most relevant movie of the year.
4) Black Swan
Taking a cue from Kanye West’s masterful record, this was director Darren Aronofksy’s “Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy.” Natalie Portman gave the performance of her career in a film that was more than just about ballet but about the boundaries an artist has to cross in order to push his/herself to the very limit of their creative potential. It’s a campy, visionary, extraordinary film that turned into a horrifying statement. “Black Swan” was the most unusual Aronofsky yet, a werewolf picture that was as indebted to Argento as it was to Kubrick. The requisite contrasting darkness between the Black Swan as well as the White in “Swan Lake” was tackled for horrific gain, making it a kind of 21st century “All About Eve”-style melodrama but done via Argento’s twisted aesthetic and moral compass; disturbing, hallucinatory and filled with peculiarly beautiful frames, “Black Swan” is a stunning horror movie.
5) The Witch
In 17th century New England, panic and despair start to creep into a farmer, his wife, and their children’s safe spaces when youngest son Samuel suddenly vanishes. The family blames Thomasin, the oldest daughter who was watching the boy at the time of his disappearance. Filled with suspicion and paranoia, Robert Eggers' "The Witch" felt like some kind of reinvention of horror. I saw the film back at Sundance in 2015 and then at TIFF again that very same year. Suffice to say, I knew this spine-tingler was a movie event worthy of praise. Eggers’ haunting and spooky film wasn't your typical horror movie. More artsy than gory. More interested in building up dread and atmosphere than jump-scaring you, I couldn't have liked it more. It’s astonishing that this was a debut film, because it is told in such a carefully constructed and confident way. Every piercingly detailed frame in the film exudes ambiguity.
6) A Quiet Place
“A Quiet Place” is a thrilling, near-silent film that brilliantly toys with the audience’s nerves while deftly avoiding familiar clichés. Director John Krasinski shows a surprisingly assured and suspenseful touch within the horror genre – the film is impressively cinematic and a brilliantly constructed blend of sight and sound. Set in an aforementioned post-apocalyptic world, Krasinski also stars alongside his wife Emily Blunt and their two children (Cade Woodward, Millicent Simmonds) forced to live in a world of near-silence so as to not awaken the mysterious monsters roaming around the woods. Using sign language 24/7 as a means to silently communicate, the technique has served them well and allowed the family to survive longer than their dearly departed neighbors. The minute detail of the mechanics of suspense are admirably Hitchcock-ian; Krasinski finds ways to make every mute, subtitled interaction count. For a studio-financed endeavor, “A Quiet Place” feels damn-near experimental.
7) Cabin in the Woods
Cabin in the Woods is filled with so many twists and turns that I wouldn’t be doing the film justice without giving away what makes it so special. When it comes to this horror-comedy directed by Drew Goddard and written by Joss Whedon, the less you know about it the better. Opening with your standard horror act as five stereotypical horndog teens head out of town for a weekend of alcohol, sex, and drugs, ‘Cabin’ turns the clichés in over their heads by continuously surprising us with meta goodness at every turn.
8) The Conjuring
After watching James Wan’s “The Conjuring,” you leave the theater with an overpowering and overwhelming sense of uneasiness and foreboding. Of all the films on this list, this is the one that uses familiarity to strike up horrifying feelings within its viewers. Tackling real-life paranormal investigators and demonologists Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed (Patrick Wilson) Warren, “The Conjuring” has our protagonists brought to the home of Carolyn (Lili Taylor) and Roger (Ron Livingston) Perron. The Perrons and their five daughters have recently moved into a secluded farmhouse, where a supernatural presence has made itself known. The house’s macabre history is slowly revealed, in inscrutable dread, but it’s Wan’s acrobatic but always controlled camerawork that makes this one an instant horror classic.
9) The Invitation
“The Invitation” starts off with guests arriving at a dinner party – a reunion of friends that have known each other for many years. However, there’s an elephant in the room, one filled with regret and dismay. As Eden enters the room you start to realize that she and Will, her ex-husband, both newly remarried, broke up after an immeasurable tragedy occurred. What ensues is a twisted middle-class dinner party about grief and madness and red wine. Tensions mount, the conversation between the friends becomes darker and harder to avoid, paranoia sets in and then, well, grief turns to violence. Director Karyn Kusama, no stranger to horror having directed the now cult-classic “Jennifer’s Body,” is allergic to conventional tropes. She persistently tries to surprise us at every turn, keeping us glued to expect the unexpected. With “The Invitation” Kusama turns the screws of horror with her own fiery brand of malevolence.
10) Green Room
A punk rock band, waiting to hop on-stage at a neo-nazi club, become trapped in a secluded green room after witnessing a scene of violence. For what they saw, the band becomes the target of violence from the white powered skinheads who own the club and want to eliminate all evidence of the crime. In terms of hard-edged technical prowess, Jeremy Saulnier’s grim B-movie turns the screws loose on disturbing horror and suspense. If you haven’t seen any of the films directed by Saulnier this decade, then you’re missing out. He’s one of the very best up-and-coming directors around. His 2014 film “Blue Ruin” was a crime-thriller masterpiece and 2016’s “Green Room” is such a dark and nasty neo-Nazi revenge thriller that it almost feels like an avant-garde horror movie. Taking place, for most of its runtime, in the infamous green room, Saulnier takes advantage of the claustrophobia at hand to masterfully manage pace, tone, and storytelling in such confident and assured ways that he keeps you on the edge of your set until the film’s very final and brutal kill.
Runners-Up: Lights Out, The Wailing, Don’t Breathe, Hush, Sinister, It, Crimson Peak, Goodnight Mommy, I Spit On Your Grave, Mandy, Raw, You’re Next, Attack the Block, Climax, Midsommar, Us, The Cabin in the Woods, The Invisible Man, Cam, Possessor, The Guest
Leguizamo is set to play the main villain in "Miami Vice '85." He joins a cast that already includes Michael B. Jordan, Austin Butler, Alden Ehrenreich, Whitney Peak, Camila Morrone and Danny Ramirez.