Much like the 1970s before it, the decade between 2000-2009 was a particularly fruitful era in the horror genre spawned by a climate of international turmoil and rapid technological advancements in the filmmaking industry. In the post-9/11 era, America was thrust into paranoid, war-fuelled anxiety and grief, and with the internet fully emerging as a dominant force behind modern culture, those anxieties were shared globally as each and every new horrific worldwide event was broadcast in crystal clear detail onto the computer screens of international households. The flip side of that technological advancement was the emergence of digital filmmaking, laptop editing software, and rapid-fire communication that allowed for an unprecedented number of unique voices, who might never have had a chance before, to get their films made and distributed. All this considered, it’s no wonder directors likeJames Wan,John Boorman,Zack Snyder, and many others spawned terrifying features during this period, many of which we’ve cataloged here in our list of the best horror movies of the 2000s.
At the same time, a number of international trends were sweeping the genre, with inventive emergent subgenres popping up the world over. Riding off the late ’90s rise of J-Horror, Asian cinema emerged at the forefront of genre filmmaking with a consistent string of eerie supernatural chillers – a trend that unfortunately led to the string of derivative American remakes that had half the heart and none of the edge of their predecessors. In French-language cinema, the sadistic hyper-violent stylings of the French New Wave swept through the horror community like a brash, invigorating force, while a string of Spanish-language filmmakers turned to the old-fashioned chills of lowkey, character-driven ghost stories.
Stateside, a number of trends also swept through the genre. Slasher films were out, but the impending zombie craze was in its nascent stages. Thanks to the rampant success ofParanormal Activity, the found-footage subgenre became the order of the hour for low-cost thrills, a format that was notoriously grating in the hands of the wrong filmmaker but offered plenty of opportunities for inventive perspective for others. And of course, the early aughts were the era of “torture porn”, the much-maligned genre that focused on carnage and mutilation over narrative. Home invasion and survival horror also became particularly prominent genres in an era where audiences and filmmakers seemed to grapple with the fact that the scariest part of the human experience is the humans.
As I said before, it was a pretty spectacularly abundant decade for horror and there’s a ridiculous wealth of movies I love that didn’t find a spot on this list, so here’s a rather lengthy list of honorable mentions:Calvaire, The Signal, Stuck, Frontier(s), All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, Marebito, Suicide Club, Them, Versus, The Children, Silent Hill, The Cottage, Exte, The Ruins, Ju-On: The Grudge, Bug, Wolf Creek, Teeth, Hostel, 30 Days of Night, Sauna, Slither, Frailty, Severence, and to be honest, probably a few more that I’m forgetting.
And now, without further ado, check out the 41 best horror films of the 2000s.
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Saw (2004)
Despite the reputation it earned as shock-factor torture porn thanks to the increasingly reductive format of the sequels,Sawis essentially a horror-grown thriller with hints of outright violence and shockingly little gore.James WanandLeigh Whannell’s nasty little puzzle box introduced one of the most iconic modern horror villains inTobin Bell’s Jigsaw, a murderer of ideals and dastardly creativity. Setting his sights on victim’s who take their life for granted, Jigsaw constructs a series of puzzles and challenges designed to test the victim’s grit and will to live. Jigsaw’s essential credo is that if one doesn’t value life enough to do whatever it takes to survive, then they are undeserving of it. The film’s main action is set against two unlikely allies, chained together in a room with scant clues on how to escape. Jigsaw gives each of them pieces of the puzzle, turning them against each other despite their bet efforts to collaborate on an escape strategy. It’s a chamber piece meets noir detective thriller that, along with Eli Roth’s Hostel, became the progenitor of the torture porn craze. But while Jigsaw’s grisly traps became the calling card of the franchise, Wan and Whannell were up to something much more clever and Saw is no parade of graphic perversion, but a twisty murder mystery that values narrative surprise over shock value set-pieces.
Session 9 (2009)
Brad Anderson’s spooky little tale of encroaching madness is all about the atmosphere. There’s not much that’s inherently terrifying about the film – there’s almost no gore, the pace is slow and the action low, and much of it is just a bunch of dudes talking as they go through the paces of their daily grind. But Anderson masters a slow-burn tension that creeps up on you as the boundaries of sanity and civility dissolve within the confines of a decaying abandoned mental hospital. The film follows a group of asbestos control experts, a real red-blooded masculine bunch of working everymen who badger and belittle each other in their unglamorous high-pressure gig. As those tensions fester and deepen, a parallel narrative unfurls via the disturbing audio recordings of a split-personality patient who underwent hypnotherapy in the decrepit hospital. As the horrors of the past unfurl through the session tapes, a Lovecraftian descent into madness sweeps through the crew, who turn on each other, vanish, and reappear in a perplexing, slight narrative that rides on its thick, creeping mood to carry the film to its chilling conclusion.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
In a genre as tried and true as the exorcism film, it’s a challenge to come up with a new spin that manages to make the threat of the devil feel fresh and dangerous. WithThe Exorcism of Emily Rose,Scott Derricksonpulled off just that feat with a mature, heartfelt drama that also chills to the bone when the moment calls for it. Were it not for the heavy horror overtones,The Exorcism of Emily Rosewould have probably been positioned as a prestige drama. Supported by an A-List cast that includesLaura LinneyandTom Wilkinson, the film dramatizes the real-life death ofAnneliese Michel, a woman who was diagnosed with Epilepsy after a series of visions and fits. Uncured by conventional medicine, her family turned to the church in a brutal exorcism that ended her life. Telling the concurrent stories of Emily, the priest who was charged with negligent homicide (Wilkinson), and the Lawyer defending him at trial (Linney),The Exorcism of Emily Roseis a pensive portrait of faith and the chilling reality that, if you believe in god, you must also believe in the horrifying power of the devil.
As Emily, the fresh-out-of-JulliardJennifer Carpenterdelivers a career-making performance; contorting and screeching with the frenetic panic of an animal caught in a trap, and Derrickson utilizes these piercing moments of performance horror with a wise restraint. With one foot in the realm of reality as we know it and one firmly planted in the reality of biblical horrors, Derrickson interweaves the dramatic and the terrifying with a measured hand.
Final Destination (2001)
Like so many originals that spawn a franchise,Final Destinationisn’t nearly as goofy as the films that followed. Directed byJames Wong, who would amusingly enough cement the franchise status in the realm of the silly with the delightfulFinal Destination 3,Final Destination, in its original incarnation, is an effective horror thriller with just enough self-aware humor. The story follows a group of teens (and one horribly ill-fated teacher) after they escape the fiery deaths that awaited them on flight 180. Thanks to the premonitions of the young, awkward Alex Browning (Devin Sawa), the band of teens exit the flight just before it explodes. And everyone who stepped off the plane with him, whether against their will or not, become the targets of death – an unembodied, relentless force that is constantly setting the wheels in motion for Rube Goldberg-esque death machinations.
It’s broad and cheeky, but never more than it is disturbing as the victims are picked off one-by-one by a force they are all but helpless against. There’s a blatant goofiness to the ultimate discovery of how Death chooses the order of its victims and how it can (at least temporarily) be defeated, but likeNightmare on Elm Streetbefore it andIt Followsafter,Final Destinationdeals in the ultimate and unavoidable fact that we will all perish. And in the Final Destination world, if we attempt to skirt that inevitable doom, we just become the target of an invisible, whatever-it-takes form of death that will have it’s bloody vengeance.
Paranormal Activity (2007)
Yes,Cannibal Holocaustwas technically the first everfound footage film. Yes, 1999’sThe Blair Witch Projectpushed theboundaries of the genre in ways no one could have ever imagined. But 2007’sParanormal Activity, the first of a seven-and-growing franchise, kickstarted the found footage craze that persists today, 16 years later. The simple but effective story follows a couple, Kate and Micah, who document the unexplained and creepy happenings in their home. It begins with a subtle noise in the middle of the night, Katie’s keys drop to the floor without any explanation. But then it escalates to the door slamming, Katie finds a burnt picture from her childhood in the attic. Katie’s behavior begins to become more erratic and aggressive. And it all culminates in an unforgettable finale that yes, seems predictable in today’s climate, but terrified audiences at the time.Paranormal Activityis the cinematic embodiment of “less is more.” No blood, no gore, no Freddy Kruger. It’s what we can’t see that makes the film so terrifying. The concept has been done to death, and to varying results in the subsequent sequels. But the original film has to be remembered for its innovative approach to a genre many thought was dead and for bringing it back to life. To this day, it remains one of the most profitable films of all time. -Emma Kiely
Rec (2007)
Paranormal Activitymay have been the found-footage revivalist that launched a thousand imitators, butJaume BalagueróandPaco Plaza’s news footage-style descent into a hellish house of horrors was the most kinetically-charged and outright horrifying found footage film of the decade. Following TV host Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) on a routine assignment for her series “While You’re Sleeping” with a plan to spend the night on patrol with the local firemen.Recspins that night out into a nightmarish journey through a building under siege when those firemen respond to a distress call that leaves them trapped in a lockdown with a mysterious deadly virus. A virus that also happens to turn people in to cannibalistic monsters. Along with her cameraman Pablo (Pablo Rosso), Angela makes it her mission to document the truth of the events as they unfold.Recis economical and calculating with its scares, proving that the found footage format can reap great rewards when its in the hands of clever filmmakers, and as the green-tinged faces that light up the screen throughout, the performers deliver face-first terror with completely convincing immediacy.Recis the rare horror film that makes good on the promise of the found footage medium, and even rarer, it’s one genuinely scary.
Eden Lake (2008)
The 2000s were a decade filled with horror films about ordinary people doing extraordinary bad things to good people, butEden Lakemay well be the most wrenching. The feature directorial debut fromMy Little EyescribeJames Watkinsfollows a young couple Jenny (Kelly Reilly) and Steve (Michael Fassbender) on a planned romantic lakeside getaway that goes horrifically wrong when they confront a gang of unruly teenagers (including a youngJack O’Connell, who has always had a gift for menace). What should be a casual, if confrontational, conversation rapidly escalates from contentious to deadly serious when the local teens reveal themselves as a sadistic force of violence. The consequences for the unsuspecting couple are harrowing, and Watkins ditches flashiness and shock-factor gore for an unflinching and all-too-effective presentation of violence. The film cleverly avoids the classist bent that threatens at every turn, and while the young villains are never quite sympathetic, Watkins leaves room to explore peer pressure and the dangers of group-think.Eden Lakeisn’t quite the endurance test that marked some of the decades most depraved offerings (looking at you,Martyrs), but it’s a chilling experience that leaves a pit in your stomach for days.
Orphan (2009)
Juame Collet-Serrais one of the cheekiest filmmakers in the genre, so it’s fitting that he’d be the one to take the tired “Evil Child” trope and turn it into something completely bombastic. The movie follows a married couple, Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard) recovering from the loss of a child in labor. To help the healing process, the two set out to adopt a new member of their family and they’re instantly taken with the well-mannered and all-too-precious Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman); a Russian orphan with remarkable artistic talents and a sugary sweetness. Naturally, that saccharine charm belies the deep and despicable capability for evil that Kate almost immediately discerns once Esther is welcomed into their home. If there’s an aggressive failing inOrphan, it’s the way that John absolutely refuses to believe his wife at every turn, but the film is devoted to such a schlocky, sensationalist reinvention of the demon seed child that it’s impossible to take such squabbles too seriously. Collet-Serra takes the film in all manner of twisted and unpredictable directions, and once you figure out where it’s all headed, it’s impossible not to marvel at the work the young Fuhrman delivers in the dastardly role.Orphanis a pulpy melodrama that’s dripping with psychosis, neurosis, and all kinds of damage, and it’s an absolute blast from start to finish.
Antichrist (2009)
Antichristis such a viscerally disquieting and disturbing movie, it’s hard to translate the film’s image-heavy effect into a quick blurb, but I’ll do my best. In the hands ofLars Von Trier, who never seems to run out of new forms of torment for his characters,Antichristis something between shock schlock and arthouse cinema. It’s vile and unapologetic, getting up close and personal with rotting corpses, genital mutilation, and sex scenes so lurid and lengthy they border on pornographic. And did I mention the genital mutilation? Because oh boy, it’s a doozy. Von Trier sparked some bonafide controversy with his explicit, hellish trip down the rabbit hole of guilt and grief, and with two fearless performers likeCharlotte GainsbourgandWillem Dafoecarrying film, he had a pair of powerhouse talents willing to see the gruesome tale to its brutal, bitter end.Antichristis mean-spirited and cynical; an unflinching look at the worst of the human experience and the greatest indecencies in man, but it is also the singular vision of a forceful auteur that’s to be admired for its audacity and the efficiency with which it displays the disgusting depths of human evilness.
Splinter (2008)
A descendant ofThe Thing‘s lineage,Splinteris your classic practically-scripted limited-location starter film with an extra edge thanks to first-time directorToby Wilkinsbackground in visual effects and a scene-stealing performance from Shea Whigham, who somehow still hasn’t become the industry-leading name his talent deserves . Set almost entirely in a gas station, Splinter follows a believably worn-in-but-still-in-love couple Polly and Seth (Jill WagnerandPaulo Costanzo) who are taken hostage by a pair of deadly fugitives (Whigham andRachel Kerbs). When they stop at a gas station, the group is besieged by an amorphous, infectious organism that inhabits and reconfigures the bodies of its victims into grotesque malformities.
The concept is lean and elegant, and it’s executed beautifully, but the film’s greatest strength the faith it has in its characters, who are given the opportunity to defy expectation at every turn.Splintergleefully plays against gender tropes, introducing Polly as the tough, outdoorsy type in contrast to Seth’s reticent intellectualism, and celebrates the individual strengths that come with those traits. Meanwhile, Whigham’s Dennis Farrell, who is introduced as a violent antagonist, ultimately becomes the film’s standout character. It’s the type of movie that regularly turns up on a lot of “Best Movies You Haven’t Seen” lists and the kind of directorial debut that makes you sad Wilkins hasn’t turned out another original film since.
