The Best 25 Horror Movies from the First 25 Years of This Century

Jeremy Saulnier is a master of making audiences uncomfortable. Green Room is perhaps his crowning achievement on that front. This film centers around a touring band who ends up in a town run by murderous Nazis.

What makes it so much more devastating is the casting of Sir Patrick Stewart to lead this band of psychos, subversion at its finest

Don’t Breathe is a tried and true “What could go wrong?” movie. Three young thieves break into the house of a blind old veteran rumored to have a lot of money. What could go wrong?

Stephen Lang is both menacing and capable as the answer to that question unfolds in alarming ways.

Equal parts body horror and Black Mirror-esque moral science fiction dilemma, Possessor starts out weird and gets weirded. Christopher Abbott has carved out a great niche in these kinds of movies.

Possessor is going to have you whispering expletives to yourself over and over again.

If you ever found yourself getting mad at the victims of a horror movie for putting themselves in a certain situation, you’re really going to love The Descent.

The women from this 2005 adventure horror go deep into a cave only to find themselves fighting for their lives. Your heartbeat will speed up even before shit hits the fan because the cave they enter and the production design are terrifying.

Mark Duplass puts on one of the most impressive performances in a horror role that anyone has ever seen.

Creep will make you remember every sketchy thing you’ve ever done for money and then cringe about it!

Eli Roth took a holiday based on colonization and violence and returned it to its true nature. In true Roth fashion he does with style, camp, and ridiculousness.

Plus, we love a themed killer.

What could be more awkward than taking your new girlfriend to a dinner party hosted by your ex wife and her new husband? Well Karyn Kusama has some ideas.

The Invitation is 100 awkward minutes bordering on hysteria punctuated by a glorious ending.

With a name like that, House of 1,000 Corpses tells you exactly what to expect and then delivers.

Rob Zombie draws inspiration from classic horror movies and throws tons of tropes together in a maximalist, absurd experience that pulls no punches.

Despite having the unfortunate fate of being forever linked with the Covid-19 pandemic, The Invisible Man is a great horror film that deals with sensitive subjects matters deftly.

Leigh Whannell tackles themes of gaslighting, abuse, and the way society treats the victims of those two things in a way that is all too horrifying and all too real.

A father and son coroner duo are asked to examine the body of a mysterious and increasingly inexplicable “Jane Doe.” The Autopsy of Jane Doe is a brilliantly done “all in one place” horror that doesn’t feel small in scale while still making you feel trapped.

That paradox is at the center of why this movie is so chilling and an absolute modern classic.

It is not everyday a new horror franchise introduces a new iconic killer into the annals of horror cinema.

Not only was Saw a terrifying movie that everyone talked about for years, but Jigsaw quickly became staple imagery for all horror lovers.

As far as horror movies where some type of entity passes from one person to another (think It Follows or The Ring), Smile is in a class of its own. Chilling performances and the unsettling premise that it can be passed on to you by a mere smile are enough to make this movie scary as hell.

The fact that it was so well written and beautifully made are just icing on the cake.

Anyone over 30 will remember how worried our parents were about kidnappers in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. The Black Phone puts that fear front and center with a villain aptly titled The Grabber.

Who wouldn’t want to relive their childhood fears and put themselves in a cement basement for 90 minutes?

We were blessed in 2022 when one of the most iconic horror franchises of all time came back from the dead with an awesome new installment.

Scream gave us iconic kills, fresh characters, and tons of scares.

There’s a reason Train to Busan is on pretty much any list where it’s eligible: It rocks.

The heartbreaking set up, the claustrophobic setting and then the pulse pounding action combine to make this a great horror film that you’ll probably want to revisit often.

This unique take on the human side of living with a vampire inspired a US made sequel, but the Swedish original is the superior film. It is more beautiful than scary.

It is a perfect tale of friendship and family. And it is incredibly creepy.

In 2002, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland asked “What if zombies moved like Saquon Barkley?” Any superlative you could say about how scary a movie is applies to 28 Days Later.

Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleason, and Naomie Harris gave us an instant classic.

Equal parts disgusting and beautiful, The Substance takes a hard look at vanity, the pressures women face as they age in Hollywood, and the consequences of playing god.

Pearl features one of the best descent into madness performances ever put to video. Mia Goth starts out as a naive, yet charming, farm girl who everyone is rooting for and over the course of 100 minutes turns into a deranged killer.

It is a breathtaking performance and a one of a kind horror character study.

Did you even live through quarantine if you didn’t rewatch Soderbergh’s Contagion?

The scary part of Contagion was how much they got right. The second scariest part was what they got right.

Jordan Peele’s twisted take on showing us the darker parts of ourselves is one that will sit with you for a long time.

Whether it’s the dozens of rabbits hopping around underground, tethered Lupita Nyong’o with the scissors, or the sounds that tethered Winston Duke made, there’s so much lasting imagery to pair with the message, which we will be debating til the end of time.

Ari Aster’s follow up to Hereditary set the horror world ablaze with idyllic and iconic imagery of Florence Pugh as the May Queen.

Midsommar showed us that true horror can take many forms, even the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen.

There are remakes and then there are remakes. 2003’s take on Leatherface features a pretty great cast of Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Mike Vogel, and R. Lee Ermey.

It looks great, has truly disturbing visuals, creative kills, and a heartwarming turned heartbreaking story woven throughout.

The legend of Paranormal Activity is vast. It was made for such a modest budget and achieved absolutely insane returns at the box office. The success of this found footage film is not merely commercial though.

Paranormal understood that it didn’t take much to shake us to our core and they delivered.

No matter what time constraint this list used, Hereditary would be here.

Ari Aster’s masterpiece combines psychological scares, jump scares, and a Toni Colette performance that was snubbed for an Oscar to create this century’s best horror flick.

Featured still from “Pearl” via A24