{"id":86216,"date":"2025-07-23T15:12:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T15:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/86216\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T15:12:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T15:12:17","slug":"25-best-horror-movies-of-the-21st-century-ranked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/86216\/","title":{"rendered":"25 Best Horror Movies of the 21st Century, Ranked"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe post-pandemic theatrical landscape has mostly been an anxiety disorder punctuated by the occasional high. But one genre has consistently drawn audiences back to the multiplex in the past few years: horror.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tNo longer just pegged to Halloween, horror movies now dot the release calendar year-round. <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/m3gan-2-0-review-allison-williams-1236298922\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/m3gan-2-0-review-allison-williams-1236298922\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">M3GAN 2.0<\/a> may have fizzled last month but <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/28-years-later-review-jodie-comer-aaron-taylor-johnson-1236294541\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/28-years-later-review-jodie-comer-aaron-taylor-johnson-1236294541\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">28 Years Later<\/a> found new blood in a franchise only a fraction younger than its title. The legacy sequel <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/i-know-what-you-did-last-summer-review-jennifer-love-hewitt-1236315593\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/i-know-what-you-did-last-summer-review-jennifer-love-hewitt-1236315593\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">I Know What You Did Last Summer<\/a>, which opened last weekend, tests the limits of \u201890s nostalgia, while Dave Franco and Alison Brie\u2019s Sundance body-horror hit, <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/together-review-dave-franco-alison-brie-horror-1236120939\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/together-review-dave-franco-alison-brie-horror-1236120939\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Together<\/a>, arrives July 30. Hopes also are high for Weapons, with Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, opening early next month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tSince the turn of the 20th century, horror \u2014 first in literary form and later in movies \u2014 has reflected social anxieties about a rapidly changing world. In a 21st century plagued by such concerns as global warming, the rise of AI technology, democracy in peril and the demonization of \u201cthe other,\u201d it\u2019s unsurprising that horror in the past 25 years has become unusually fertile terrain, ushering in what might arguably be called a new golden age of screen terror.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThat made it a challenging task to whittle down a roundup of just 25 favorites, covering studio releases and indies, American and international. For every film included on the entirely subjective ranked list below, a handful of others regrettably got bumped (see Honorable Mentions for several of them).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tI make no apologies for personal preferences that lean more toward atmospheric or allegorical horror than sadistic schlock, so you won\u2019t find The Human Centipede slithering here. Likewise, I\u2019ll take monster movies and ghost stories over torture porn \u2014 don\u2019t look for Saw or Hostel representation. And as much as I enjoyed <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/ti-wests-x-sxsw-2022-1235110997\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/ti-wests-x-sxsw-2022-1235110997\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a>, <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/pearl-ti-west-mia-goth-x-prequel-1235211363\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/pearl-ti-west-mia-goth-x-prequel-1235211363\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pearl<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/maxxxine-review-mia-goth-ti-west-slasher-trilogy-1235930595\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/maxxxine-review-mia-goth-ti-west-slasher-trilogy-1235930595\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MaXXXine<\/a>, Ti West\u2019s playful trilogy showcasing the vixenish charms of Mia Goth, I opted to skip slasher flicks in favor of the occult.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tFinally, please don\u2019t bitch and moan about David Lynch\u2019s incomparable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/lists\/best-movies-21st-century\/mulholland-drive-2001\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mulholland Drive<\/a> not being here. Love it, but the genre-defying stunner is not horror.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>Honorable mentions<\/strong>: Barbarian (2022), The Devil\u2019s Backbone (2001), The Eye (2003), A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014), Goodnight Mommy (2014), The Innocents (2022), It Comes at Night (2017), Midsommar (2019), Nanny (2022), The Orphanage (2008), Prey (2022), Pulse (2005), Raw (2017), She Dies Tomorrow (2020), Thelma (2017)<\/p>\n<ul class=\"pmc-fallback-list-items lrv-a-unstyle-list lrv-u-margin-t-2\">\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tBones and All (2022)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Bones and All, from left: Timothee Chalamet, Taylor Russell, 2022.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDBOAN_MG010-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Yannis Drakoulidis\/MGM\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tLuca Guadagnino\u2019s sumptuous <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/bones-and-all-luca-guadagnino-timothee-chalamet-taylor-russell-1235211200\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/bones-and-all-luca-guadagnino-timothee-chalamet-taylor-russell-1235211200\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">horror romance<\/a>, adapted from the novel by Camille DeAngelis, is a love story bathed in the pools of blood spilled during the cannibal protagonists\u2019 feeding times. The Italian director also bathes the movie in unexpected sweetness, poetry, lush sensuality and emotional depth. Evincing simmering chemistry, Taylor Russell and Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet play the protein-diet drifters on a cross-country road trip, feasting whenever they can, \u201cbones and all,\u201d on human flesh. Separating and reuniting, they find a home in each other and attempt to live a normal life, until the past \u2014 in the maximum-eccentricity form of Mark Rylance \u2014 catches up with them in a shattering final act. Guadagnino cites Terrence Malick\u2019s Badlands as an influence, but this oddly tender trail of death evokes a whole panoply of American outsider tales.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tTalk to Me (2022)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Talk to Me, Sophie Wilde, 2022.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDTATO_EC078-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: A24\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAustralian twins Danny and Michael Philippou vaulted from viral YouTube videos to features with this <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/talk-to-me-review-1235324674\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/talk-to-me-review-1235324674\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">possession spook show<\/a>, a violent cautionary tale warning us not to mess with the spirit world. A group of Adelaide teens who never met a frightening moment unsuitable for social media sharing somehow get a hold of what\u2019s allegedly a severed forearm encased in ceramic. By clutching the hand and saying the three words of the title, they invite the dead to occupy their bodies. But there\u2019s a strict 90-second limit before the presence puts down roots. In a knockout big-screen debut, Sophie Wilde plays Mia, whose mother\u2019s apparent suicide makes her especially receptive to spiritual exploration. But a crisis explodes when Mia\u2019s surrogate little brother stays too long at the party. The talented Philippous handily sidestepped the sophomore jinx with this year\u2019s <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/bring-her-back-review-philippou-brothers-sally-hawkins-1236212871\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/bring-her-back-review-philippou-brothers-sally-hawkins-1236212871\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bring Her Back<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tA Quiet Place (2018)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A Quiet Place, from left: Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, 2018.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDQUPL_EC006-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Jonny Cournoyer\/Paramount\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAs co-writer, director and co-star alongside his wife Emily Blunt, John Krasinski revealed a flair for first-rate genre filmmaking with this modestly budgeted <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/a-quiet-place-review-1093580\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/a-quiet-place-review-1093580\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">alien-invasion chiller<\/a> that became a sizable worldwide hit. With solid support from Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe, the suspenseful film tracks a family\u2019s survival ordeal in a post-apocalyptic America overrun with spindly, blind extraterrestrials whose acute sense of hearing allows them to pinpoint their doomed targets in seconds. Early on, Krasinski folds in shattering tragedy that many films might have saved for the climax. Instead, here it raises a pulse rate that seldom slows down. The sequel, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/a-quiet-place-part-ii-1234954856\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/a-quiet-place-part-ii-1234954856\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A Quiet Place: Part II<\/a>, and prequel, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/a-quiet-place-day-one-review-lupita-nyongo-joseph-quinn-1235933652\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/a-quiet-place-day-one-review-lupita-nyongo-joseph-quinn-1235933652\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A Quiet Place: Day One<\/a>, are not half bad either.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tUnder the Shadow (2016)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Under The Shadow, Narges Rashidi (front), Avin Manshadi (back), 2016.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDUNTH_EC188-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Kit Fraser\/Vertical Entertainment\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBabak Anvari made a splash at Sundance with this <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/under-shadow-sundance-review-858884\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/under-shadow-sundance-review-858884\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spellbinding story<\/a> of supernatural siege, inspired by the British Iranian director\u2019s Tehran childhood. Set in 1988 as post-revolutionary conflict rages on, the movie plays like one of Asghar Farhadi\u2019s intense domestic dramas deftly crossed with paranormal horror in the vein of Poltergeist or The Babadook. The cultural specificity of its political turmoil and the feminist view of a society that oppresses women turn up the alarm of a former leftist radical (played with fierce grit by Narges Rashidi) trying to save herself and her young daughter from a seemingly inescapable war and an infestation of djinn \u2014 Middle Eastern spirits carried by the wind \u2014 bent on dividing or destroying them. The most haunting image of this white-knuckle watch is a faceless figure in a whirling chador that threatens to engulf the mother.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tHis House (2020)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"His House, Sope Dirisu, 2020.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDHIHO_ZX011-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Aidan Monaghan\/Netflix\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBritish horror has yielded a strong crop in the past quarter-century, including Saint Maud, Romola Garai\u2019s Argento-esque <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/amulet-review-1296579\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/amulet-review-1296579\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Amulet<\/a>, Peter Strickland\u2019s beguilingly weird <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/general-news\/edinburgh-review-berberian-sound-studio-344612\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/general-news\/edinburgh-review-berberian-sound-studio-344612\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Berberian Sound Studio<\/a> and Joe Cornish\u2019s Spielbergian sci-fi monster comedy, <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/attack-block-film-review-205881\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/attack-block-film-review-205881\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Attack the Block<\/a>. One of the best is <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/his-house-1276185\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/his-house-1276185\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Remi Weekes\u2019 debut<\/a>, a highly original marriage of haunted house terror with harrowing social realism. The film depicts the refugee experience as its own kind of horror \u2014 fleeing the violent massacres of a war-torn country; making a perilous crossing in an overcrowded boat; surviving, albeit with sacrifices and guilt; and then facing the endless bureaucratic red tape that asylum seekers are required to navigate, along with the myriad anxieties of cultural displacement. Wunmi Mosaku (a standout in Sinners) and Sope Dirisu bring agonizing depth of feeling to their roles as South Sudanese refugees. Their adjustment to life in England goes from difficult to hellish when they discover that their dilapidated government-assigned housing is inhabited by an \u201capeth,\u201d a night witch that has followed them from East Africa to claim retribution for their sins.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tDrag Me to Hell (2009)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Drag Me to Hell, Alison Lohman, 2009.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDDRME_EC003-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Universal\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tMacabre humor and gross-out gore often go hand in hand with Sam Raimi, but the lurid jolt of hag horror in this return to the dark side after six years on Spider-Man duty makes it one of the most madly entertaining entries in the influential director\u2019s canon. Alison Lohman plays Christine, a loan officer angling for a promotion, who needs to convince her boss she\u2019s no soft touch. But when she refuses to extend Sylvia Ganush\u2019s mortgage, even after the elderly European Roma woman begs not to have her house repossessed, Christine finds herself saddled with a curse \u2014 a \u201clamia,\u201d to be precise \u2014 promising three days of demonic torment before she\u2019s dragged to you know where. The epic tussle in the parking lot between Christine and Sylvia (played with ferocious cruelty by a stage veteran with the fantastic name of Lorna Raver) is one for the ages. A black-hearted delight.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tIt Follows (2014)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"It Follows, Jake Weary (back), Maika Monroe, 2014.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDITFO_EC002-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: RADiUS-TWC\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tSex in the slasher glory days of the 1970s and \u201880s was usually an invitation to evil, which gave us the trope of the virginal holdout as the \u201cFinal Girl.\u201d In David Robert Mitchell\u2019s bone-chilling <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/follows-film-review-cannes-705174\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/follows-film-review-cannes-705174\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">lo-fi fright feast<\/a>, sex is the means of transference for a dark force bringing certain death to whomever is last on the copulation conquest list. The only escape is by sleeping with someone else and letting them fend off the lethal entity, which can take on any form, including that of friends and family. Maika Monroe stars as the young Detroit suburbanite with a target on her back, who enlists her friends to help thwart the possibly supernatural assailant. Mitchell cited George A. Romero, John Carpenter and still photographer Gregory Crewdson as influences on the taut, almost unbearably tense film\u2019s seductive visual compositions, full of virtuosic pans and voyeuristic tracking sequences. It\u2019s a surreal fusion of 1950s horror with dreamy adolescent limbo.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tPresence (2024)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Presence, Lucy Liu, 2024.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDPRES_EC125-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Neon\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIt takes a supremely assured director and an equally accomplished screenwriter to start with one basic core idea and build it into a contemporary <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/presence-review-steven-soderbergh-lucy-liu-1235794074\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/presence-review-steven-soderbergh-lucy-liu-1235794074\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">haunted house movie<\/a> as gripping and scary as this low-budget quickie from Steven Soderbergh and David Koepp. That central spark is the choice to shoot the entire single-location film in first-person perspective, with the camera standing in for the unseen entity of the title. In a sense that also makes us the ghost that gives a chilly welcome to the home\u2019s new owners, gradually slamming the family with the full force of its diabolical intent. It\u2019s a dazzling exercise in sustained tension and steadily mounting dread, with a terrific ensemble led by Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tThe Invisible Man (2020)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"The Invisible Man, Elisabeth Moss, 2020.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDINMA_UV004-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Universal Pictures\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWhile 1999\u2019s The Mummy, with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, is a lot of fun and has plenty of passionate fans, my pick for best of Universal\u2019s classic monster remakes is Leigh Whannell\u2019s spine-tingling reimagining of H.G. Wells\u2019 novel about an unseen aggressor, previously the source for horror titan James Whale\u2019s 1933 film. Along with casting Elisabeth Moss, Whannell\u2019s best idea was firmly anchoring his modern version in the #MeToo age, focusing not on the title character, a mad tech scientist who fakes his own death after cracking the invisibility code, but on the girlfriend traumatized by his abusive behavior. Not since Peggy Olson has Moss been so enthrallingly subsumed by a role as she is playing Cecilia Kass, increasingly freaked by her ex\u2019s stalking and gaslighting until she turns vengeful.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tSinners (2025)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Michael B Jordan in Sinners\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/rev-1-GRC-TT-0026r_High_Res_JPEG-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAfter getting the Rocky franchise off life support with Creed and showing that a Marvel movie could have seriousness and soul with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/lists\/best-movies-21st-century\/black-panther-2018-3\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Black Panther<\/a>, Ryan Coogler delivered his first entirely <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/sinners-review-michael-b-jordan-ryan-coogler-horror-1236186742\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/sinners-review-michael-b-jordan-ryan-coogler-horror-1236186742\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">original blockbuster<\/a> \u2014 not based on real-life events or existing IP \u2014 with this genre-crossing panorama of the Jim Crow South. It stars a magnetic Michael B. Jordan as twin brothers known as Smoke and Stack, Chicago gangland veterans returning to the Mississippi Delta to open a juke joint. But beyond that compelling narrative spine, the movie is a soaring ode to the spiritual and supernatural power of the blues, an allegory about the elusiveness of freedom and an orgy of vampire violence. The time and care spent on character and milieu make the explosive carnage pop in a pulse-racing thriller with a lot on its mind.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tSaint Maud (2019)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Saint Maud, Morfydd Clark, 2019.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDSAMA_EC026-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: A24\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBrit director Rose Glass\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/saint-maud-review-1238558\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/saint-maud-review-1238558\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">crackling debut<\/a> tests the boundaries between faith and insanity via a palliative care nurse who becomes a Christian convert and assumes the godly name of the title after the shock of losing a patient at her former hospital job. Welsh actress Morfydd Clark plays the tightly wound Maud as a zealous self-appointed savior, obsessed with rescuing the darkened soul of her private patient Amanda, who is slowly succumbing to cancer. Played by a never-better Jennifer Ehle with a cymbal clash of withering hauteur and fearful neediness, the once-celebrated dancer seems an unlikely candidate for absolution \u2014 she\u2019s an unapologetic hedonist, a non-believer and a fiend for sins of the flesh, indulging during regular visits from her girlfriend. The enthralling interplay between the principal characters steers them toward mutual destruction as Glass orchestrates a crescendo in which demonic visions and splinters of the supernatural collide with religious ecstasy.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tThe Others (2001)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"The Others, Nicole Kidman, Alakina Mann, 2001.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MSDOTHE_EC003-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Dimension Films\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThere have been countless screen riffs on The Turn of the Screw, and while Alejandro Amen\u00e1bar\u2019s supernatural psychodrama is inspired by, rather than adapted from, Henry James\u2019 1898 gothic horror novella, it\u2019s probably the most effective retelling since Jack Clayton\u2019s The Innocents in 1961. Switching the protagonist from a governess to the World War II-era mother of two photosensitive children, the movie gives Nicole Kidman one of her finest roles, her porcelain beauty and emotional fragility lending a tragic grandeur to the character\u2019s isolation, breakdown and collapse into perceived madness. Conjuring a dreamy atmosphere out of the hushed, candlelit manor, the Chilean-Spanish director honors the classic ghost story while deepening its trauma with suffocating repression.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tNosferatu (2024)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Lily-Rose Depp stars as Ellen Hutter and Emma Corrin as Anna Harding in director Robert Eggers\u2019 NOSFERATU\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/4193_D035_00267_R31718991886-H-2024.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Aidan Monaghan\/Focus Features\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe title is a clear indication of Robert Eggers\u2019 reverence for F.W. Murnau\u2019s 1922 silent masterwork. This ravishingly beautiful, devilishly repellent take on Bram Stoker\u2019s <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/nosferatu-review-bill-skarsgard-lily-rose-depp-nicholas-hoult-robert-eggers-1236074321\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/nosferatu-review-bill-skarsgard-lily-rose-depp-nicholas-hoult-robert-eggers-1236074321\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">immortal vampire tale<\/a> travels the same tar-black depths, but casts its own unique spell. Bill Skarsgard plays the lugubrious Count Orlok with Lily-Rose Depp as the young woman who becomes his \u201caffliction,\u201d her seeming purity masking a raw sexuality and innate darkness that bind them together with a heady erotic charge. A fever dream of a movie steeped in disturbing poetry and intoxicating imagery, it\u2019s a triumph of design, atmosphere and malevolent intent, with a superlative cast also featuring Nicholas Hoult, Emma Corrin, Willem Dafoe and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tUs (2019)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Us, Lupita Nyong'o as doppelganger Red (left) and Adelaide Wilson (right), 2019.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDUSSS_EC018-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Universal\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cOnce upon a time there was a girl, and the girl had a shadow.\u201d Those words, spoken in a half-strangulated rasp by Lupita Nyong\u2019o in Jordan Peele\u2019s superbly acted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/us-review-1193550\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/us-review-1193550\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cryptic creep show<\/a>, can still spark shudders years later. The Wilson family\u2019s beach vacation is interrupted one night when Adelaide (Nyong\u2019o), her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) and their two kids are startled to see four doppelg\u00e4ngers silhouetted in their driveway. Those uncanny twins \u2014 sadistic, animalistic, feral versions of the Wilsons wearing red jump suits \u2014 are known as \u201cthe Tethered,\u201d shadows connected to their counterparts, set on untethering themselves by the bloodiest means possible. I confess I cackled at the double of Elisabeth Moss\u2019 Kitty clumsily applying lipstick with a maniacal smile, but mostly I cowered. A deeply distressing reflection on the enemy within us that mercilessly skewers the \u201cKumbayah\u201d spirit of \u201cHands Across America.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tThe Witch (2015)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"The Witch, Anya Taylor-Joy, 2015.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDWITC_EC013-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Jarin Blaschke\/A24\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIn his astonishingly confident debut, Robert Eggers\u2019 binding grasp of horror, folklore, history and mythology elevates an unsettling tale of a Puritan family in 1630s New England, expelled from their community over a religious dispute. They build a farm in the nearby woods, where an evil force attaches itself to them \u2014 grim news for the outcasts, starting with their infant son. The focus gradually settles on spirited teenager Thomasin, played by Anya Taylor-Joy in a revelatory breakthrough, her unholy alliance with a talking goat named Black Phillip bringing this slow-burn folk horror to its shivery conclusion. Eggers\u2019 attention to authenticity and detail in the language, lore and design of the film has become a hallmark of his work across four idiosyncratic period pieces to date.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tHereditary (2018)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/hereditary-hdy_screenshot_6_crop_-_h_2018.jpg\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of A24\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAri Aster burst onto the scene as an exciting new horror craftsman with this ingenious <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/hereditary-sundance-2018-1078212\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/hereditary-sundance-2018-1078212\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">domestic shocker<\/a> about a family hammered by sinister events after the death of their secretive grandmother. Having contributed an indelible portrait of a sensitive but spiky mother in one of the \u201990s\u2019 most iconic horror hits, The Sixth Sense, Toni Collette reaches almost operatic heights of hysteria as another spooked mom, Annie, notably in a spectacularly angry meltdown with her traumatized teenage son, played by Alex Wolff. The entire ensemble, which also includes Gabriel Byrne, Milly Shapiro and Ann Dowd, is exceptional. Making Annie a mixed-media miniature artist specializing in architectural models allows Aster to frame the entire story as if in a dollhouse, depicting the home not as a refuge but a point of entry for a malevolent coven. Thanks a lot, Grandma.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tThe Conjuring (2013)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"The Conjuring, Vera Farmiga, 2013.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDCONJ_EC009-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Michael Tackett\/Warner Bros. Pictures\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tParanormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren\u2019s logbook partly inspired 1979\u2019s The Amityville Horror, memorable solely for its fabulous tagline: \u201cFor God\u2019s sake, get out!\u201d While a 2005 remake made marginal improvements, the trillion sequels and spinoffs did not. But James Wan\u2019s petrifying, franchise-launching <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/general-news\/conjuring-laff-review-573656\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/general-news\/conjuring-laff-review-573656\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">supernatural freakout<\/a> ushered in the Warrens as central characters, played with an optimal balance of grave seriousness and warmth by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. The intelligence, conviction and mounting heebie-jeebies with which the married couple approach their work anchors the movie as the Warrens in 1971 battle to save a Rhode Island family whose house stands on land cursed by the Satanist witch who died there. Old-fashioned in the best possible sense of favoring practical over digital effects, it locks the viewer in a stranglehold of fear. My blood froze as the Warrens attempted to communicate with the mother possessed by the dark entity (Lili Taylor in spectacular form), and she wheeled around snarling, \u201cShe\u2019s already gone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tPan\u2019s Labyrinth (2006)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Pan's Labyrinth, Ivana Baquero, Doug Jones, 2006.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDPALA_EC008-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Picturehouse\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tGuillermo del Toro proved himself a gifted fabulist with The Devil\u2019s Backbone, weaving a ghost story into a political allegory set at the end of the Spanish Civil War. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/lists\/best-movies-21st-century\/pans-labyrinth-2006\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/lists\/best-movies-21st-century\/pans-labyrinth-2006\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tenebrous fairy tale<\/a> unfolds soon after, in the early days of the Franco regime. It parallels the ruthless efforts of a sadistic Civil Guard officer to eradicate rebel freedom fighters with the fantastical wanderings of his 10-year-old stepdaughter through an ancient stone labyrinth. Among the magical beings there, she meets a faun. Believing her to be the reincarnation of an underworld princess, the creature assigns her three tasks to complete in order to acquire immortality and return to her kingdom. A work of unbridled imagination and breathtaking beauty.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tTrain to Busan (2016)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/train_to_busan_h_2016.jpg\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Next Entertainment World\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe zombies are fast on their feet in Yeon Sang-Ho\u2019s unrelenting adrenaline rush of an <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/general-news\/train-busan-bu-san-haeng-894153\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/news\/general-news\/train-busan-bu-san-haeng-894153\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">action thriller<\/a> about flesh-eater mayhem on a high-speed inter-city train from Seoul. That claustrophobic setting, along with the gratifying amount of time and attention allotted to character establishment, gives the thrill ride an entertaining kinship with \u201870s disaster movies. Among the passengers is a workaholic finance manager trying to repair the broken bond with his daughter, a blue-collar couple expecting a child, a snaky COO, a high school baseball team and a homeless stowaway. Yeon fosters genuine investment even in the stock characters and their ordeal as they band together \u2014 or look out for themselves \u2014 in the fight to survive.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\t28 Days Later (2002)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"28 Days Later, Cillian Murphy, 2002\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDTWEI_FE010-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: 20th Century Fox Film Corp.\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tGeorge A. Romero\u2019s Night of the Living Dead was an undisputed game-changer. But that film\u2019s shambling undead, shuffling along with a stiffness that indicates rigor mortis well underway, seem almost harmless next to the lethal zombie sprinters of director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland\u2019s low-budget post-apocalyptic smash. Cillian Murphy stars as a bicycle courier in a coma after a traffic accident, who awakens to find society collapsed and the streets of London deserted \u2014 in what now seems an eerie premonition of the Brit capital under pandemic lockdown. All because an obstinate animal rights activist released a rabid monkey from a cage in Cambridge, unleashing a highly contagious \u201crage virus.\u201d I\u2019ll confess I watched half this film through the cracks between my fingers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tThe Host (2006)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"The Host, Song Kang-ho, Ko Ah-sung, 2006.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDHOST_EC057-H-2025.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Magnolia Pictures\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tLong before his international sensation Parasite bagged Oscars for best picture, director and original screenplay in 2020, Korean maestro Bong Joon Ho cooked up this riveting monster movie inspired by a real-life incident in which an American civilian under contract to the U.S. military ordered the illegal dumping of toxic waste into the Han River near Seoul. The great Song Kang-ho stars in a wicked blend of environmental and political satire with big creature-feature scares, drawing on the marauding Godzilla tradition while imprinting it with Bong\u2019s signature affection for goofy humor and a touching family dynamic. The sequence in which the giant mutant tadpole emerges from the water to spread panic along the riverbanks is an all-timer.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tThe Babadook (2014)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"The Babadook, 2013.\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDBABA_EC029-H-2025.jpg-.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: IFC Midnight\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tJennifer Kent\u2019s <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/babadook-sundance-review-673048\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/babadook-sundance-review-673048\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">nerve-rattling debut<\/a> finds psychological complexity and visceral fear in a child\u2019s imagination \u2014 fueled by a gothic picture book right out of Edward Gorey \u2014 and in the 6-year-old boy\u2019s fraught relationship with his depressed mother, a widow played in a wrenching whirl of despair, rage and helplessness by Essie Davis. The Australian director artfully blurs fantasy and reality in a story that\u2019s as much about grief and the dread of parental failure as it is about the malevolent, black-hatted, steampunk-styled entity that emerges from the clothbound pages of that creepy kid-lit volume. It\u2019s a gruesome assault on the senses with a hand-tooled aesthetic that evokes pre-digital horror stretching back to the German Expressionists.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tLet the Right One In (2008)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Let_The_Right_One_In_a_l.jpg\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe desaturated colors, the setting in Stockholm\u2019s snow-blanketed suburbs and the bulky Scandinavian winter-wear make Tomas Alfredson\u2019s transfixing thriller look at first glance like dour Nordic arthouse drama. But this emotionally penetrating adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist\u2019s novel (which has since birthed an enjoyable U.S. remake, a stage version and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/tv\/tv-reviews\/let-the-right-one-in-demian-bichir-showtime-1235235401\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Showtime series<\/a>) is one of the most distinctive and delicately textured vampire movies in decades. A bullied 12-year-old boy finds companionship when a pale, mysterious girl who appears to be around his age moves in next door. While never edging away from pre-sexual innocence, their friendship evolves into love, even as gruesomely murdered bodies mount up and she is revealed to be an ancient vampire with an insatiable bloodlust. Light years away from the surging teen hormones of Twilight, this mortal-undead romance is equal parts melancholy, tender and bracingly scary.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tGet Out (2017)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Daniel Kaluuya in 2017's 'Get Out'\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Get-Out-MCDGEOU_EC006-H-2024.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Universal Pictures\/Courtesy Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tJordan Peele\u2019s sketch-comedy background provided an unorthodox but strangely apposite springboard to his fiendishly clever <a data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/get-review-967922\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/get-review-967922\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first feature<\/a>, with its provocative reflections on racial divisions, loss of identity and Black bodies treated as commodities by the white privileged class. The writer-director uses horror tropes to address needling questions that hung in the air at the end of Barack Obama\u2019s presidency and have been steadily amplified in the years since. Daniel Kaluuya stars as a photographer meeting the parents of his white girlfriend (Alison Williams), thrust into a nightmarish reality in which the aggressively welcoming, seemingly ultra-liberal WASPs \u2014 played to insidious perfection by Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener \u2014 have other plans for him. Both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/lists\/best-movies-21st-century\/get-out-2017-2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">terrifying and hilarious<\/a>, it\u2019s like Invasion of the Body Snatchers with well-heeled upstate New Yorkers as the predators.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<p>\tUnder the Skin (2013)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1296\" height=\"697\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"'Under the Skin'\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/MCDUNTH_EC116-1.jpg\" data-lazy- data-lazy-\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWith a slender output of just four features over 25 years, Brit director Jonathan Glazer has established himself as an exacting craftsman across different genres. It\u2019s no surprise that he would make the most original and enigmatic horror movie of the new century \u2014 also among the most polarizing \u2014 with this experiential adaptation of the Michel Faber novel. Scarlett Johansson is in quiet command as an extraterrestrial female in Scotland, preying on lone men whom she lures into an inky abyss, until the discovery of human empathy scrambles her instincts. The scene in which the alien seduces and then spares the life of a facially disfigured man played by Adam Pearson is as affecting as it is disturbing. Few films deliver more hypnotically on the promise of their title.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The post-pandemic theatrical landscape has mostly been an anxiety disorder punctuated by the occasional high. But one genre&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":86217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[58199,29983,58200,58201,208,58202,171,58203,54,58204,32737,58205,58206,58207,47633,53,58208,58209,58210,32759,58211,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-86216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-alejandro-amenu00e1bar","9":"tag-ari-aster","10":"tag-babak-anvari","11":"tag-bong-joon-ho","12":"tag-danny-boyle","13":"tag-danny-philippou","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-guillermo-del-toro","16":"tag-horror","17":"tag-james-wan","18":"tag-john-krasinski","19":"tag-jonathan-glazer","20":"tag-jordan-peele","21":"tag-leigh-whannell","22":"tag-luca-guadagnino","23":"tag-movies","24":"tag-robert-eggers","25":"tag-rose-glass","26":"tag-ryan-coogler","27":"tag-sam-raimi","28":"tag-steven-soderbergh","29":"tag-united-states","30":"tag-unitedstates","31":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114903196932809997","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}