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Across the landscape of modern movie-making, a fresh wave of creators is expanding the edges of the scary movie genre. Ranging from cultural metaphors to graphic thrillers, these 8 movie-makers are producing memorable journeys that reshape dread for a current era.

Jordan Peele

The director of Get Out has crafted sharp allegories exploring the risks, nuances, and paradoxes of Black life in the America. Peele's influence is obvious from the abundance of followers, with the top within them nurtured by the filmmaker by way of his studio.

Master of Historical Horror

A skilled excavator of the darkest corners of the bygone eras, this filmmaker of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and Nosferatu specializes in uncovering the foreign elements of past epochs and depicting them without modern-day alteration. His dark time machines create doorways to psychosis, longing, and elevation.

Jane Schoenbrun

The contemporary director with their finger closest to the millennial spirit, as attuned to the loneliness, and significant relationships, of an digitally-obsessed age. Channeling concepts of bonding and popular media through trans identity and the history of physical terror, creations such as I Saw the TV Glow explore the most unsettling cracks of the self.

Damien Leone

The director's trilogy of Terrifier features is this era's significant scary movie triumph, proof that word of mouth can still produce bona fide blockbusters from skillfully made microbudget gore. Beyond the modern horror villain, insane figure Art the Clown is evidence that the public’s craving for violence – over-the-top, hilarious, unchecked – remains endless.

Rose Glass

Obscuring the division between delusion and reality, with her movies Saint Maud and Love Lies Bleeding, Glass has assembled a collection of powerful protagonists compelled to the edge by the depth of their commitment to twisted beliefs. Given to imaginative endings that question straightforward readings into question, her movies remain – though not so much like a pebble in your footwear than a nail in your foot.

Danny and Michael Philippou

Emerging from the humble origins of online video arose a duo of filmmakers taking over the film industry with a current brand of controversy. With their works Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, they created violent spectacles in between realistic representations of how modern young people behave. Cinema enthusiasts pray to them as if they’re freshly made icons.

Julia Ducournau

Her polished, symbolism-rich blend of scary movie conventions with independent flourishes earned her a Palme d’Or, the historic moment the Cannes Film Festival gave its premier award to a scary film. Bearing the gore-stained standard of the French horror movement, the Titane filmmaker indulges the cravings of the isolated to remarkable effect.

Na Hong-jin

Among the most thrilling filmmakers to come forth from the Asian continent in modern times, the South Korean filmmaker has made one gem of traditional terror (The Wailing) and co-scripted another (The Medium). Structured with absolute assurance and meticulous tonal control, his films transposes Hollywood templates into terrifying, unique shapes.

These creators embody the diverse and creative direction of horror, propelling the limits of dread into fresh realms.