With the rise of “torture porn” and an increasing reliance on cheap jump scares, horror cinema hit a bit of a rough patch in the 2000s. But as long as there are visionary filmmakers hard at work, there will always be great movies. The noughties still brought plenty of instant horror classics, from Cloverfield to The Descent to Pan’s Labyrinth.
The decade’s horror output added a ton of exciting new faces to the genre’s canon of iconic villains, including Jigsaw, Stuntman Mike, Death itself, and a race of cave-dwelling, flesh-eating mutants.
Almost a century after King Kong and Godzilla defined the genre’s tropes, kaiju movies are pretty played out. It’s hard to come up with a fresh take on the genre that isn’t just the mindless carnage of a giant monster smashing up a city.
Matt Reeves and J.J. Abrams managed to put an original spin on the genre with the “found footage” style of Cloverfield. Clover itself is only glimpsed briefly, but it makes an unforgettable impression.
Home invasions are a particularly unnerving setup for a horror movie because, unlike ghostly hauntings and zombie apocalypses, they happen all the time in the real world.
The most truly terrifying thing about the masked intruders in The Strangers is their non-existent motivation. When one of the tormented homeowners asks, “Why are you doing this to us?,” they simply reply, “Because you were home.”
Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof – his half of the double feature Grindhouse, co-helmed by Robert Rodriguez – is widely considered to be his weakest film. It has long stretches of inconsequential dialogue and recreates the schlocky style of the exploitation classics that inspired it a little too closely.
But its juicy premise is the perfect intersection between the slasher and carsploitation genres. Kurt Russell’s villain, Stuntman Mike, is a Hollywood stunt driver who uses his “death-proof” stunt car to stalk and kill unsuspecting young women.
Even before the monsters show up, Neil Marshall’s The Descent is a terrifying movie. A bunch of friends go exploring in uncharted caves and end up stuck in a cave-in with no hope of escape. This is already a horrifying situation to be in – and then they discover a race of bloodthirsty mutants lurking in the shadows.
The so-called “Crawlers” turn The Descent into one of the scariest movies ever made. They use their night vision and superhuman strength to pounce on unsuspecting victims and rip them to shreds.
John Jarratt gives an unforgettably sinister turn as Mick Taylor in Wolf Creek. The plot follows a trio of backpackers who get targeted by a sadistic, xenophobic serial killer in the Australian outback.
The movie was marketed as being “based on true events.” While Taylor is fictional, writer-director Greg McLean’s script was loosely inspired by the real-life murders of backpackers committed by Ivan Milat and Bradley Murdoch.
When Bret Easton Ellis’ wildly controversial novel American Psycho was picked it up by the Hollywood machine for adaptation, it managed to come out on the other side with its searing satirical tone intact, thanks to director Mary Harron’s vision.
Christian Bale perfectly embodies the lead role of Patrick Bateman, who’s just as concerned about how his skin looks as he is about whether or not his series of murders will be discovered by the cops.
Guillermo del Toro solidified his place as one of the key filmmakers pushing social commentary through genre cinema with his universally praised masterpiece Pan’s Labyrinth.
The movie contrasts the real-world terror of the Francoist regime with the imaginary horrors of a little girl’s Alice in Wonderland-style adventure into an underground fantasy realm. Her stepfather Captain Vidal is the true villain of the story, but the literal monstrosity is terrifyingly manifested as “The Pale Man.”
High schoolers getting picked off one by one is a familiar horror setup, but Final Destination managed to put a fresh spin on it. Masked killers and paranormal boogeymen are ten a penny, but Death itself is a truly unique slasher villain.
Making the Grim Reaper cosmically responsible for the fated deaths of the protagonists via various gruesome coincidences is an inventive twist on the slasher genre.
While Orphan received some negative reviews for its formulaic plotting, most critics praised its effective scares, the pitch-black sense of humor, and Isabelle Fuhrman’s haunting performance as Esther.
The story concerns a grieving couple who adopt a mysterious nine-year-old orphan and, through various strange occurrences, slowly come to the horrifying realization that their new daughter is actually a murderous 33-year-old woman with a rare hormonal disorder that makes her look like a kid.
While the sequels are nowhere near as smartly crafted or genuinely shocking as the widely adored original, the Saw movies comprise one of the most iconic slasher franchises of all time. One of the main reasons why audiences love these movies so much is their iconic villain, the Jigsaw killer, played by Tobin Bell.
Jigsaw isn’t just a mindless serial killer who dons a mask and starts picking people off – he’s much more cunning than that. After a near-death experience, he begins orchestrating sadistic games that test people’s will to live.
