The Hollywood Reporter has published its list of the 25 Best Horror Movies of the 21st Century. It’s a decent list, packed with big hitters, but, like many “best of” roundups from legacy publications, it’s also weighed down by a few head-scratchers, some recency bias, and one particularly debatable inclusion: Jonathan Glazer’s “Under the Skin.”
Let’s address that last one right away. “Under the Skin” is a masterpiece. One of the best films of the 2010s, full stop. But is it horror? That’s where things get murky. Glazer’s 2013 existential alien odyssey plays more like detached arthouse sci-fi than anything designed to scare. It’s Kubrickian, hypnotic, and unnerving, but horror? Not quite. And yet, “Under the Skin” tops the list.
Another eyebrow-raising inclusion is Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” at #8. Much like Under the Skin, it’s a brilliant film—visually lush, emotionally devastating, and thematically rich—but categorizing it as horror feels like a stretch. Sure, there’s disturbing imagery, but it’s fundamentally a dark fantasy rooted in fairy tale logic and wartime allegory.
The rest of the list is dominated by recent entries, which further tilts things. By me count, 17 of the 25 films selected come from the last ten years, suggesting a strong bias toward the contemporary.
Some of these are justified. “Get Out,” which lands at #2, was a cultural event that redefined how horror could use race, politics, and audience expectations. Jordan Peele’s film will always appear in these horror lists.
“Hereditary,” ranked at #10, feels too low. Ari Aster’s debut is arguably the most viscerally disturbing film of the last 20 years, a full-throttle descent into grief, madness, and the occult. Toni Collette’s performance alone could earn it a Top 5 spot.
Likewise, “28 Days Later,” placed at #6, could’ve easily cracked the Top 3. Danny Boyle’s rage-fueled zombie thriller reinvented the genre in 2002, making running zombies a mainstream staple. It’s a landmark work, and still terrifying today.
And then there’s “The Babadook,” a film that critics love and audiences remain split on. It shows up here, as expected, but for some viewers (myself included), it doesn’t quite earn its prestige status. It’s moody, well-made, and thematically rich, but never quite scary.
Regardless, here’s the full list, THR’s 25 Best Horror Movies of the 21st Century:
01. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer)
02. Get Out (Jordan Peele)
03. Let The Right One In (Tomas Alfredson)
04. The Babadook (Jennifer Kent)
05. The Host (Bong Joon-ho)
06. 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle)
07. Train to Busan (Yeon Sang-ho)
08. Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro)
09. The Conjuring (James Wan)
10. Hereditary (Ari Aster)
11. The VVitch (Robert Eggers)
12. Us (Jordan Peele)
13. Nosferatu (Robert Eggers)
14. The Others (Alejandro Amenabar)
15. Saint Maud (Rose Glass)
16. Sinners (Ryan Coogler)
17. The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell)
18. Presence (Steven Soderbergh)
19. It Follows (David Robert Mitchell)
20. Drag Me To Hell (Sam Raimi)
21. His House (Remi Weekes)
22. Under the Shadow (Babak Anvari)
23. A Quiet Place (John Krasinski)
24. Talk to Me (The Philippou Brothers)
25. Bones and All (Luca Guadagnino)
To be honest, I don’t envy the people tasked with putting together these kinds of lists—especially when it comes to horror, a genre defined by its wildly diverse tastes and countless subgenres. That said, there’s no denying that these outstanding titles were unjustly overlooked by THR:
Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Frailty (Bill Paxton)
The Descent (Neil Marshall)
The Mist (Frank Darabont)
The Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard)
The Invitation (Karyn Kusama)
The Wailing (Na Hong Jin)
Don’t Breathe (Fede Alvarez)
Hush (Mike Flanagan)
Goodnight Mommy (Franz and Fiala)
Mandy (Panos Cosmatos)
Attack the Block (Joe Cornish)
Possessor (Brandon Cronenberg)
Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli)