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Across the realm of current filmmaking, a fresh cohort of creators is pushing the boundaries of the scary movie style. From cultural commentaries to visceral chillers, these eight filmmakers are crafting unforgettable experiences that redefine terror for a current generation.

Jordan Peele

The creator of Get Out has created sharp symbolic tales delving into the perils, subtleties, and conflicts of Black life in the US. His influence is obvious from the sheer number of followers, with the best of them guided by the director by way of his studio.

Robert Eggers

An expert excavator of the darkest corners of the past, this creator of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and Nosferatu excels in finding the foreign facets of distant history and presenting them devoid of contemporary revisionism. His sinister historical explorations unlock gateways to insanity, desire, and transformation.

Voice of a Generation

The contemporary filmmaker with their finger most in touch with the generation’s pulse, as sensitive to the solitudes, and meaningful bonds, of an internet-besotted era. Weaving ideas of bonding and mainstream entertainment through trans experiences and the history of corporeal fear, works such as I Saw the TV Glow explore the eeriest fractures of the identity.

Damien Leone

The director's three-part saga of Terrifier films is this decade's great horror achievement, proof that word of mouth can still produce bona fide blockbusters from well-executed small-scale bloodshed. Beyond the modern Jason or Freddy, insane icon Art the Clown is proof that the viewers' thirst for violence – over-the-top, comical, unchecked – remains insatiable.

Rose Glass

Merging the boundary between delusion and the real world, with her movies Saint Maud and Love Lies Bleeding, The director has built a gallery of driven protagonists driven to the edge by the intensity of their dedication to twisted ideals. Given to imaginative climaxes that challenge straightforward understandings into question, her films linger – though not so much like a pebble in your footwear than a sharp object in your foot.

YouTube Sensations

Emerging from the early beginnings of digital platform arrived a team of brothers dominating the world with a trendy brand of shock. With their works Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, they presented atrocity exhibitions in between authentic depictions of how today’s young people act. Film students look up to them as if they’re recently canonised saints.

Julia Ducournau

The director's sleek, symbolism-rich fusion of scary movie conventions with arthouse touches won her a Palme d’Or, the initial instance the Cannes Film Festival awarded its premier award to a terror movie. Carrying the viscera-flecked banner of the French horror movement, the Titane director explores the desires of the alienated to spectacular result.

Na Hong-jin

One of the most exciting artists to come forth from the Asian continent in modern times, the South Korean creator has crafted one jewel of folk horror (The Wailing) and co-written another (The Medium). Paced with total confidence and meticulous tonal control, his work transposes mainstream formulas into frightful, original styles.

The listed filmmakers represent the wide-ranging and creative future of the horror genre, propelling the boundaries of terror into unexplored dimensions.