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65 Greatest Horror Movies of the 21st Century

From topical zombie apocalypses to retro-slasher flicks, the best scary movies since the turn of the millennium

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Back in the late Sixties and early Seventies, Vietnam and civil unrest helped kickstart a new golden age of American horror movies; shortly after the beginning of our new century, we had one massive public atrocity and several new wars to fuel a whole new wave of movies dealing with communal anxieties via scary monsters and super-freaky maniacs. Yes, it’s always been a durable genre regardless of what’s going on in the culture, but considering what’s happened globally over the last 20 or so years, it makes sense that horror films would resonate with folks the way they have. That, and the fact that such free-floating dread would help give birth to a number of films from both the U.S. and abroad that deserve a place in the pantheon.

So we’ve assembled our take on the 65 best horror films of the 21st century – the zombie-apocalypse tales, things-that-go-bump-in-the-psyche ghost stories, retro-slasher flicks, neo-giallo nuggets, J-horror, K-horror, French extreme and Hollywood franchise films that have spooked us, shook us and scared us shitless since 2000. As in any committee-led process, our highly opinionated writers and experts argued over what constituted being included/categorized here (Mulholland Drive belongs on every list of the Greatest Films of the Millennium; whether it’s genuinely a “horror” film, however, is still up for debate). But the ranked list of films here are guaranteed to have you repeating to yourself, “It’s only a movie … it’s only a movie… it’s only a movie …”.

From Rolling Stone US

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24

‘Berberian Sound Studio’ (2012)

A horror movie about making horror movies, this trippy, giallo-influenced British art film stars Toby Jones as a sound-effects expert who goes slowly mad while working on an Italian fright-flick with a hostile crew. Writer-director Peter Strickland keeps most of the menace in his protagonist’s mind, watching the man disappear into his own paranoid imagination as he spends his days approximating the sounds of stab wounds and victims’ screams. It’s a clever exercise in audience manipulation, making us uncomfortable by showing the fakery that going into producing a good scare – and the delivering the goods. NMWatch Berbarian Sound Studio on Amazon Prime here

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23

‘Haute Tension’ (2003)

The most brutally horrific home-invasion flick since The Last House on the Left, this take-no-prisoners French horror flick was a rare movie to get a U.S. theatrical release despite an NC-17 rating for violence. But graphic depictions of spurting arteries, decapitation and disembowelment aside, this movie ranks high by living up to its title (translation: “High Tension”) and presenting enough intense suspense to make it so you can’t look away. Because how else would you know if its pixie-cut protagonist Marie (viva Cécile De France!) can properly defend herself with a barbed-wire–covered two-by-four or not? Also, watch out for the concrete saw. KGWatch on Haute Tension Amazon Prime here

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22

‘The Orphanage’ (2007)

J.A. Bayona’s 2007 film asks the question, What could be more terrifying than the unexplained disappearance of your child? Its unnerving answer: The possibility that ghostly youth had something to do with it. The rare horror flick that’s as heartbreaking as it is terrifying, this supernatural thriller certainly makes the most of its titular setting, a gothic pile located on a desolate stretch of Spain’s Costa Verde; but it’s Belén Rueda’s outstanding performance as the missing child’s bereaved mother that really gives the film its lasting emotional wallop. DEWatch The Orphanage on Starz here

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21

‘A Tale of Two Sisters’ (2003)

Japanese horror was all the rage in the late Nineties and early aughts; South Korean director Kim Jee-woon’s take on dark-haired-ghost stories proved that “K-horror” could match their eastern neighbors when it came to supernatural freakiness. A couple of siblings endure a hate/tolerate relationship with their icy stepmother, while the haunted mansion they live that keeps dropping disturbing clues about their shared past. Offbeat camera angles disorient the viewer, making it all the more startling when apparitions leap out of the shadows. By the time the movie reveals all its secrets, a dysfunctional family has morphed into its own kind of monster. NMWatch A Tale of Two Sisters on Amazon Prime here

20

‘A Quiet Place’ (2018)

In space, no one can hear you scream — and in actor-director John Krasinski’s post-apocalyptic parental nightmare, no one had better hear you scream or else. The premise is pure high-concept ingenuity: Extraterrestrials with supersensitive ears hunt down the surviving members of the human race via sound. Stay silent, stay alive. For someone who claims he’s not a horror-film fan, Krasinski certainly knows how to use the conventions for maximum shock and awe; the scene in which Emily Blunt is trying to avoid a predator after stepping on a nail (and going into labor!) suggests he’s boned up on his Hitchcock 101. Even when this domestic take on Alien turns into a last-act riff on Aliens, it still delivers the scares. DFWatch A Quiet Place on Hulu now

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19

‘It Follows’ (2014)

STDs, unplanned pregnancy, social awkwardness at keg parties — as unintended consequences of sex go, they’re all a walk in the park compared to, say, an unstoppable wraith that stalks frisky teens and is passed from victim to victim by, well … take a wild guess. David Robert Mitchell’s lo-fi, revisionist take on the slasher flick’s horny-teen-victim trope is filled with stylistic flourishes (that 360-degree pan is a stunner), pitch-perfect John Carpenter homages and a genuine sense that you’re watching a waking nightmare. Never has losing your V-card ever had a higher cost. CBWatch It Follows on Amazon Prime here

18

‘Us’ (2019)

How did that girl just appear in a funhouse mirror? Why is that guy, the one with the bloody hands, standing on the edge of the beach? What’s up with all the scissors? Who, exactly, are the four people in red jumpsuits standing at the end of the driveway — and what do they want with the vacationing Gabe and Adelaide Wilson and their kids? Jordan Peele’s second movie does more than beat the dreaded sophomore slump, or prove that Get Out was not a fluke; it’s a genuinely terrifying tale that doubles down on the old chestnut about how we’ve seen the enemy, and it’s … well, check out the title one more time. The fearsome acting foursome at the center of this tale nail both the average middle-class family under siege and the psychotic dopplegängers who are stalking them, but kudos to Lupita Nyong’o for giving her two best performances to date in one film (and, occasionally, in the same scene). You will never look at “Hands Across America” the same way again. DFWatch Us on Amazon Prime here

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17

‘The House of the Devil’ (2009)

Ti West’s slow-simmering “Beware of Satanists!” cautionary tale looks and feels like an artifact from the early 1980s, found in a dusty corner of an abandoned video store. A naive college student takes a babysitting job at a creaky Victorian house, working for a couple of shady characters (played by veteran cult movie weirdos Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov). Before the literal all-hell-breaks-loose third act, The House of the Devil plays up the spooky atmosphere and retro style – right down to a scene involving a cranked-up Walkman, a song by the Fixx, and our sick fear that everything’s about to go very wrong. NMWatch The House of the Devil on Vudu here

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16

‘The Devil’s Backbone’ (2001)

A mesmerizing, moody ghost story set in a haunted orphanage during the waning days of the Spanish Civil War, Guillermo del Toro’s third feature was the one where all the pieces fell into place, and watching him grab hold of his true voice remains a thrill. It’s his simplest movie, and still one of his scariest, the moreso because its old-school vision of the supernatural fits so snugly into the real world. SAWatch The Devil’s Backbone on Amazon Prime now

15

‘Annihilation’ (2018)

Something has landed on Earth, and it’s starting to terraform within a permeable dome — “the shimmer” — surrounding the ground-zero point of contact. And because she lost her military husband (or did she?) when he entered this danger zone, Natalie Portman joins a recon unit to see what, exactly, is happening inside this rapidly evolving ecosphere. Writer-director Alex Garland (Ex Machina) turns this adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s novel into a slab of cerebral sci-fi. But it’s as much a horror movie as it is an alien-invasion flick — just ask anyone who sat through that blood-curdling scene involving a “screaming” mutant bear. And even when the movie goes full cosmic head-trip at the end, there’s a close-up of Portman, caught between a door and … something, that we’d consider instantly creepfest canon-worthy. Go to the 55-second mark here. That shot alone still gives us chills years later. DFWatch Annihilation on Hulu now