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Across the world of current filmmaking, a innovative generation of visionaries is stretching the limits of the scary movie style. Ranging from societal commentaries to visceral thrillers, these eight movie-makers are crafting memorable adventures that reimagine fear for a modern generation.

The Mind Behind Get Out

The director of Get Out has developed sharp allegories examining the dangers, subtleties, and paradoxes of African American experience in the United States. His effect is evident from the sheer number of imitators, with the best of them nurtured by the filmmaker through his Monkeypaw.

Master of Historical Horror

A skilled explorer of the most obscure corners of the bygone eras, this creator of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and Nosferatu excels in finding the foreign aspects of historical periods and depicting them devoid of present-day reinterpretation. His unholy journeys into the past unlock gateways to insanity, desire, and elevation.

Voice of a Generation

The modern filmmaker with their finger most attuned to the millennial pulse, as sensitive to the loneliness, and deep connections, of an internet-besotted era. Weaving ideas of relationships and pop culture by way of trans identity and the tradition of body horror, films such as I Saw the TV Glow delve into the most unsettling cracks of the psyche.

Damien Leone

Leone’s series of Terrifier movies is this decade's great horror achievement, testament that word of mouth can still generate true hits from expertly crafted small-scale bloodshed. More than the next horror villain, deranged poster boy Art the Clown is confirmation that the public’s desire for gore – over-the-top, comical, unchecked – remains endless.

Blurrer of Realities

Obscuring the line between hallucination and actuality, with her works Saint Maud and Love Lies Bleeding, Glass has created a collection of powerful women driven to the edge by the intensity of their devotion to twisted values. Given to surreal grand finales that question easy interpretations into suspicion, her films remain – though less like a pebble in your footwear than a nail in your sole.

Danny and Michael Philippou

Emerging from the early beginnings of digital platform arrived a pair of filmmakers taking over the film industry with a zeitgeisty brand of controversy. With their movies Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, they created atrocity exhibitions in between credible portrayals of how current teenagers act. Cinema enthusiasts look up to them as if they’re recently declared saints.

Julia Ducournau

The director's refined, allegory-driven fusion of horror elements with independent touches gained her a prestigious award, the historic moment the event presented its top prize to a horror picture. Holding the gore-stained standard of the extreme cinema wave, the Titane creator delves into the appetites of the isolated to spectacular effect.

Na Hong-jin

Among the most exciting artists to come forth from Asia in modern times, the South Korean filmmaker has crafted one gem of folk horror (The Wailing) and collaborated on a second one (The Medium). Paced with absolute assurance and exact tonal control, his work transforms conventional structures into frightful, unique shapes.

The listed creators signify the diverse and groundbreaking direction of scary cinema, pushing the edges of fear into unexplored territories.