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Across the landscape of modern filmmaking, a fresh generation of artists is pushing the boundaries of the scary movie category. From cultural metaphors to graphic chillers, these eight filmmakers are creating memorable experiences that reimagine terror for a new generation.

The Mind Behind Get Out

The director of Get Out has created pointed metaphors exploring the dangers, subtleties, and paradoxes of Black life in the US. Peele's influence is clear from the sheer number of copycats, with the top of them nurtured by the director by way of his Monkeypaw.

Master of Historical Horror

An expert explorer of the darkest pockets of the bygone eras, this creator of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and Nosferatu excels in uncovering the foreign aspects of past epochs and depicting them without contemporary revisionism. Eggers' unholy time machines open portals to psychosis, desire, and transformation.

Jane Schoenbrun

The millennial director with their finger most attuned to the millennial pulse, as aware of the solitudes, and significant relationships, of an digitally-obsessed time. Weaving ideas of bonding and mainstream entertainment through trans identity and the history of physical terror, works such as I Saw the TV Glow explore the most unsettling fractures of the identity.

Damien Leone

The director's three-part saga of Terrifier features is this era's great scary movie triumph, proof that audience buzz can still create genuine hits from well-executed low-budget bloodshed. Beyond the new horror villain, psychotic poster boy Art the Clown is evidence that the public’s craving for violence – over-the-top, comical, unrestrained – remains unslakable.

Blurrer of Realities

Blurring the boundary between fantasy and the real world, with her movies Saint Maud and Love Lies Bleeding, The director has assembled a collection of powerful protagonists compelled to extremes by the strength of their dedication to twisted ideals. Prone to fantastical endings that challenge easy understandings into question, her movies linger – though less like a stone in your shoe than a spike in your sole.

YouTube Sensations

From the early beginnings of YouTube arrived a duo of brothers conquering the film industry with a current style of controversy. With their films Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, they staged violent spectacles in between credible portrayals of how current young people act. Cinema enthusiasts idolize them as if they’re freshly made saints.

Julia Ducournau

The director's sleek, allegory-driven blend of scary movie conventions with art film touches won her a prestigious award, the initial instance the event presented its premier award to a horror picture. Holding the gore-stained standard of the extreme cinema wave, the Titane creator delves into the desires of the alienated to spectacular effect.

Na Hong-jin

Among the most intriguing artists to arise from the Asian continent in the past decade, the South Korean director has directed one jewel of traditional terror (The Wailing) and collaborated on one more (The Medium). Paced with supreme confidence and exact mood management, his films transforms Hollywood templates into terrifying, novel styles.

These eight creators embody the wide-ranging and creative path of scary cinema, pushing the boundaries of dread into fresh realms.