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In the landscape of contemporary movie-making, a new cohort of artists is pushing the edges of the horror genre. Ranging from cultural metaphors to intense chillers, these eight filmmakers are crafting memorable adventures that reimagine fear for a current era.

Jordan Peele

The creator of Get Out has created pointed allegories exploring the risks, subtleties, and conflicts of African American experience in the US. Peele's effect is evident from the abundance of followers, with the finest within them guided by the director through his Monkeypaw.

Robert Eggers

An expert explorer of the darkest pockets of the bygone eras, this filmmaker of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and Nosferatu excels in revealing the alien aspects of past epochs and showing them devoid of modern-day reinterpretation. His unholy time machines open portals to insanity, desire, and transformation.

Jane Schoenbrun

The contemporary director with their focus most in touch with the generation’s spirit, as sensitive to the loneliness, and deep connections, of an internet-besotted age. Weaving concepts of connection and popular media through trans experiences and the tradition of physical terror, creations such as I Saw the TV Glow plumb the most unsettling cracks of the self.

Damien Leone

Leone’s series of Terrifier movies is this decade's major horror achievement, evidence that fan support can still create genuine blockbusters from well-executed microbudget gore. Not just the modern Jason or Freddy, insane poster boy Art the Clown is evidence that the audience's desire for violence – gratuitous, comical, unbridled – remains unslakable.

Rose Glass

Merging the division between delusion and reality, with her works Saint Maud and Love Lies Bleeding, The director has assembled a gallery of driven women compelled to the edge by the strength of their commitment to twisted values. Given to surreal climaxes that challenge straightforward interpretations into doubt, her films remain – though less like a rock in your footwear than a spike in your sole.

YouTube Sensations

Emerging from the primordial ooze of online video arrived a duo of filmmakers conquering the cinema landscape with a current style of controversy. With their movies Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, they created violent spectacles in between realistic depictions of how current young people act. Cinema enthusiasts idolize them as if they’re recently declared heroes.

Arthouse Horror Pioneer

The director's sleek, allegory-driven blend of genre trappings with art film touches earned her a Palme d’Or, the historic moment the festival gave its top prize to a terror movie. Bearing the blood-soaked flag of the extreme cinema wave, the Titane director indulges the cravings of the isolated to spectacular outcome.

Asian Horror Visionary

Among the most intriguing talents to come forth from Eastern cinema in the past decade, the Korean creator has crafted one gem of mythical fear (The Wailing) and collaborated on another (The Medium). Arranged with total certainty and meticulous atmosphere crafting, his films transforms mainstream formulas into frightful, novel shapes.

The listed filmmakers signify the wide-ranging and groundbreaking direction of the horror genre, driving the limits of dread into unexplored realms.