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In the world of current cinema, a innovative wave of creators is pushing the limits of the horror film genre. From cultural metaphors to intense thrillers, these eight movie-makers are producing unforgettable experiences that reshape fear for a new era.

Jordan Peele

The filmmaker of Get Out has developed pointed metaphors delving into the perils, complexities, and paradoxes of Black life in the United States. His influence is clear from the abundance of followers, with the best within them guided by Peele himself by way of his production company.

Master of Historical Horror

An expert excavator of the most obscure pockets of the history, this director of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and Nosferatu specializes in uncovering the foreign elements of historical periods and showing them devoid of present-day reinterpretation. His sinister historical explorations unlock gateways to psychosis, desire, and elevation.

Jane Schoenbrun

The modern creator with their finger most in touch with the generation’s spirit, as sensitive to the isolation, and deep connections, of an online-focused era. Filtering concepts of relationships and pop culture through trans experiences and the history of corporeal fear, works such as I Saw the TV Glow delve into the most unsettling fissures of the identity.

Damien Leone

The director's trilogy of Terrifier movies is this decade's great scary movie success story, evidence that word of mouth can still generate true successes from expertly crafted small-scale violence. Not just the modern horror villain, insane poster boy Art the Clown is proof that the viewers' desire for violence – over-the-top, hilarious, unchecked – remains insatiable.

Rose Glass

Obscuring the line between fantasy and reality, with her works Saint Maud and Love Lies Bleeding, The director has created a collection of intense women pushed to the edge by the strength of their dedication to warped ideals. Prone to imaginative endings that question easy understandings into question, her works linger – though not so much like a rock in your shoe than a sharp object in your foot.

YouTube Sensations

From the early beginnings of online video came a team of brothers conquering the world with a trendy type of shock. With their films Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, they staged shocking displays in between realistic depictions of how current young people act. Film students pray to them as if they’re freshly declared icons.

Julia Ducournau

Her refined, metaphor-forward combination of scary movie conventions with arthouse flourishes gained her a top Cannes prize, the historic moment the event presented its highest honor to a scary film. Bearing the gore-stained banner of the extreme cinema wave, the Titane creator delves into the appetites of the isolated to stunning outcome.

Na Hong-jin

Among the most intriguing filmmakers to arise from the Asian continent in modern times, the Korean creator has directed one jewel of folk horror (The Wailing) and collaborated on one more (The Medium). Structured with supreme certainty and exact tonal control, his films transforms Hollywood templates into terrifying, original forms.

These eight filmmakers embody the varied and innovative future of the horror genre, driving the edges of fear into fresh territories.