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In the realm of contemporary movie-making, a new wave of visionaries is stretching the boundaries of the scary movie style. Ranging from social commentaries to visceral fright-fests, these 8 movie-makers are creating unforgettable adventures that redefine terror for a modern era.

Jordan Peele

The director of Get Out has created pointed allegories delving into the risks, subtleties, and contradictions of Black life in the United States. His effect is clear from the sheer number of copycats, with the finest within them guided by the director by way of his Monkeypaw.

Robert Eggers

A skilled uncoverer of the most obscure corners of the history, this filmmaker of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and Nosferatu is known for uncovering the alien aspects of historical periods and presenting them free from contemporary alteration. Eggers' sinister journeys into the past unlock gateways to madness, craving, and elevation.

Jane Schoenbrun

The modern filmmaker with their focus most attuned to the younger heartbeat, as aware of the isolation, and meaningful bonds, of an online-focused era. Filtering ideas of relationships and pop culture via trans experiences and the legacy of physical terror, films such as I Saw the TV Glow explore the eeriest fissures of the self.

Gore Maestro

Leone’s series of Terrifier movies is this century’s major scary movie achievement, testament that audience buzz can still create genuine blockbusters from expertly crafted microbudget violence. Beyond the next slasher icon, insane icon Art the Clown is proof that the public’s thirst for gore – gratuitous, humorous, unrestrained – remains insatiable.

Rose Glass

Blurring the line between delusion and actuality, with her films Saint Maud and Love Lies Bleeding, The director has assembled a gallery of intense protagonists compelled to limits by the depth of their devotion to warped values. Prone to surreal endings that question straightforward interpretations into question, her films linger – though less like a pebble in your footwear than a sharp object in your sole.

YouTube Sensations

From the early beginnings of online video came a team of siblings dominating the cinema landscape with a trendy brand of provocation. With their films Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, they created atrocity exhibitions in between authentic representations of how today’s youth act. Cinema enthusiasts look up to them as if they’re recently canonised icons.

Julia Ducournau

The director's refined, allegory-driven combination of horror elements with arthouse styles won her a top Cannes prize, the first time the event gave its top prize to a scary film. Holding the viscera-flecked banner of the New French Extremity, the Titane director explores the desires of the alienated to spectacular effect.

Na Hong-jin

One of the most exciting filmmakers to arise from Asia in the past decade, the Seoul-based filmmaker has made one jewel of traditional terror (The Wailing) and co-written another (The Medium). Structured with absolute assurance and exact atmosphere crafting, his movies transforms Hollywood templates into terrifying, novel shapes.

The listed filmmakers represent the varied and creative path of horror, driving the limits of dread into fresh dimensions.