Pandemics. Political upheavals. Promises of AI takeover. The 21st century has seen its fair share of horrors. True to the adage, art has been busy imitating life. The new millennium is responsible for some of the finest horror films today, cinema that captures the anxieties of the present and reflects them like a freaky funhouse mirror. The modern world isn’t putting a cap on its output of terrors anytime soon, and while that’s not necessarily good news for the human condition, it’s certainly good news for the film industry! Capitalizing on the nastiness that surrounds us, here are the 10 best horror films of the 21st century.
Let The Right One In
Directed by Tomas Alfredson, Let The Right One In is the story of a bullied boy named Oskar, who befriends a little girl named Eli who only comes out at night. A reimagining of the vampire myth, the film frames bloodsuckers not as apex predators to be worshipped and envied, but sickly beings that require constant care. A metaphor chronic illness, Eli’s vampirism makes her dependent on human help—though only a seriously screwed up person would oblige her appetite for gallons of fresh blood. The film is fundamentally a story about abuse, as both Eli and Oskar are continually manipulated, misused, or failed by their adult caretakers. The two children are forced to rely on one another not only survive, but to experience something akin to happiness in this dreary, working-class suburb of Stockholm. A tender coming-of-age romance, Let The Right One In cautions the viewer to be careful of who they allow into their life. For Oskar, a bloodsucking creature of the night is far better company than his parents and friends—he’s even beginning to fall in love.
Hereditary
Directed by Ari Aster, Hereditary is one hell of a family drama. The film follows the Grahams, an upper-middle-class family of four living a peaceful life in Utah. After the untimely death of the Graham’s young daughter, their healthy family dynamic begins to fall apart—once tender relationships rotting from within. Their family carries a lingering curse within their bloodline, an ancient evil that will use their pain to manifest itself in the modern world. Hereditary is a story about generational trauma, how parents mistreat their children because they were mistreated by their own. In Annie Graham’s case, her mother had an unhealthy connection to the occult, an obsession responsible for some of the scariest movie scenes in horror history. Waking up in the middle of the night to a house full of naked, demon-worshipping cultists is enough to traumatize anyone.
It Follows
Directed by David Robert Mitchell, It Follows takes a familiar horror trope and turns it on its ear. After a romantic night with her boyfriend, college student Jay is horrified to learn that she is being pursued by a malevolent force transmitted through sexual contact, and she can only escape it by passing it along to someone else. Even a casual fan of the genre knows that horror movie characters aren’t supposed to have sex, or else a puritanical monster will come along and kill them! The film’s monster is one of the scariest in cinema history, a shambling shapeshifter that tirelessly tracks its victims no matter how far they run. While one could argue that the entity is a metaphor for STDs, one could make a case that it represents sexual desire: a biological urge that is nearly impossible to resist. A sobering interpretation of intimacy, the film’s thesis seems to be that sex is a vehicle for transmitting trauma—one that is often sadly accurate in real life.
Get Out
Directed by Jordan Peele, Get Out is the story of a Black photographer named Chris, who travels to upstate New York to visit the family of his white girlfriend, Rose. Behind the seemingly well-meaning smiles of the Armitage family lurks subtle prejudice, which ramps up into racist violence as the film reaches its climax. Rejecting the myth that the 21st-century United States is a “post-racist” society, Get Out demonstrates how American racism hasn’t disappeared, but evolved to hide in plain sight. An exploration of the abuse and commodification of Black bodies, Get Out is a painful parable of modern-day prejudice, sharpened by Jordan Peele’s cutting sense of humor.
28 Days Later
Directed by Danny Boyle, 28 Days Later introduced the world to a new kind of zombie: the angry, sprinting kind. After the deadly Rage virus escapes from a laboratory and spreads across Great Britain, the island’s populace is transformed into hyper-aggressive horrors that can spread sickness with one bite. The film follows injured bike courier Jim, who awakens in a hospital bed to a world changed for the worse. While the infected are technically the primary antagonists, 28 Days Later is an exploration of human evil—the kind that emerges when resources are as absent as the rule of law. A study in humanity’s innate capacity for violence, 28 Days Later is a hair-raising horror about our worst impulses, and the heroic effort to overcome them.
The Substance
Directed by Coralie Fargeat, The Substance is the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, an aerobics TV star recently fired for her age. After seeing an advertisement for a radical new age-reversal treatment, Elisabeth injects herself with the titular Substance to reclaim her lost youth. This results in Elisabeth swapping consciousnesses with a younger version of herself, Freaky Friday-style—though the results are far less family-friendly. A film about the shallowness of the entertainment industry, The Substance grapples with the brutal realities of aging—something that has unjustly brought about the end of many women’s careers in the public eye. While the titular drug gives this film’s lead character a glimmer of hope, those hopes are demolished in an explosive climax of Cronenberg-style body horror. Nasty and necessary, The Substance is sickeningly relevant.
Pearl
Directed by Ti West, Pearl is the story of an emotionally unstable young woman with dreams of becoming a star. Born to German immigrant parents in middle-of-nowhere America, Pearl lives a sheltered existence under the tyrannical rule of her overbearing mother. Driven to cabin fever while sheltering from the Spanish Flu, Pearl’s daily routine involves tormenting her bedridden father and feeding small animals to her pet crocodile—escalating to delusion-fueled murder. Pearl’s scarecrow-kissing, ax-swinging antics made her a pop culture icon—the embodiment of repressed rage. It’s impossible not to relate to Pearl’s desperate quest to feel like the main character; we all want to feel a sense of agency in our lives. As modern-day America strips its citizens of economic and personal freedom, Pearl’s struggle becomes painfully more relevant.
Raw
Directed by Julia Ducournau, Raw is the story of Justine, a lifelong vegetarian accepted into a carnivorous veterinary school. After being hazed into eating raw rabbit kidneys, Justine begins to develop an unhealthy craving for meat, which escalates from animal to human. As Justine attempts to curb her cannibalistic instincts, she learns that her sister carries the same ravenous desire and is goading her into succumbing. A queer-coded coming-of-age film, Raw is an exploration of the crushing pressure that young people face as they enter society—a pressure to fit in, to succeed, and to conform to the rigid standards of the world. Human desire is complex, and the modern world often refuses to accept its intricacies—especially when those intricacies involve eating people’s fingers.
The Cabin In The Woods
Directed by Drew Goddard, The Cabin In The Woods did the impossible: it came up with a scientific explanation for the tropes of horror. Archetypal horror characters—along with their poor decision-making and promiscuity—are not the product of lazy writing, but lab-tested research! The film follows five college students on a sex and drugs-fueled cabin getaway, who are set upon by walking horror movie cliches. As the group tries to escape the monsters, some of them begin to suspect that they aren’t victims of fate, but decades worth of scientific study. Perhaps the best horror/comedy of all time, The Cabin In The Woods satirizes every aspect of the genre while remaining one of its finest examples.
Pulse
Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Pulse is set in a Japan plagued by ghosts that enter the world through the internet. The film follows a college student and a plant shop owner as they experience increasingly horrifying hauntings, encounters that leave lasting psychological wounds. As technology spreads throughout the nation, the spirits of the dead tighten their grip on the living, resulting in an apocalyptic climax that rips the social fabric to shreds. Made in 2001, the film feels like an eerily prophetic prediction of the modern-day digital landscape, where widespread social media consumption has caused depression and isolation. Despite being more connected than ever, people are increasingly lonely and sad —lives haunted by the negative effects of the digital world. According to Kairo, there truly are ghosts in the machine, and they bring ruin with them.
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