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Within the landscape of modern cinema, a fresh generation of visionaries is expanding the limits of the scary movie category. Ranging from social metaphors to graphic fright-fests, these eight movie-makers are producing lasting experiences that reshape terror for a new generation.

The Mind Behind Get Out

The director of Get Out has developed spring-loaded metaphors delving into the perils, complexities, and paradoxes of African American experience in the America. His impact is evident from the abundance of followers, with the finest of them nurtured by the director via his Monkeypaw.

Robert Eggers

An expert uncoverer of the most obscure corners of the history, this filmmaker of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and Nosferatu is known for revealing the alien facets of past epochs and presenting them without contemporary alteration. His unholy historical explorations unlock gateways to madness, desire, and transcendence.

Voice of a Generation

The modern director with their finger closest to the generation’s heartbeat, as attuned to the loneliness, and deep connections, of an digitally-obsessed age. Filtering ideas of relationships and popular media via gender transition and the history of corporeal fear, works such as I Saw the TV Glow delve into the strangest fissures of the self.

Damien Leone

Leone’s series of Terrifier movies is this decade's major scary movie success story, proof that audience buzz can still produce genuine blockbusters from expertly crafted microbudget bloodshed. More than the modern slasher icon, deranged figure Art the Clown is evidence that the audience's craving for gore – over-the-top, hilarious, unrestrained – remains endless.

Rose Glass

Obscuring the boundary between hallucination and actuality, with her movies Saint Maud and Love Lies Bleeding, Glass has created a collection of driven female characters compelled to the edge by the strength of their commitment to twisted values. Known for imaginative endings that challenge easy interpretations into doubt, her films remain – though less like a stone in your footwear than a nail in your foot.

Danny and Michael Philippou

From the humble origins of digital platform arose a team of siblings conquering the world with a current brand of controversy. With their works Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, they created violent spectacles in between authentic depictions of how current teenagers act. Aspiring directors idolize them as if they’re recently declared icons.

Julia Ducournau

Her refined, allegory-driven fusion of horror elements with independent touches gained her a Palme d’Or, the historic moment the event presented its highest honor to a horror picture. Bearing the blood-soaked standard of the New French Extremity, the Titane filmmaker delves into the desires of the isolated to spectacular effect.

Asian Horror Visionary

Among the most exciting talents to come forth from Asia in the past decade, the Seoul-based creator has crafted one jewel of folk horror (The Wailing) and co-scripted one more (The Medium). Structured with absolute assurance and meticulous mood management, his films transposes mainstream formulas into horrifying, original forms.

These eight directors embody the wide-ranging and innovative future of horror, driving the limits of dread into new territories.