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In the realm of current movie-making, a new wave of creators is expanding the edges of the scary movie genre. Ranging from societal allegories to visceral chillers, these 8 filmmakers are crafting memorable adventures that reimagine terror for a current age.

Jordan Peele

The filmmaker of Get Out has created spring-loaded allegories exploring the dangers, subtleties, and conflicts of Black life in the US. His impact is clear from the sheer number of followers, with the finest among them nurtured by Peele himself through his production company.

Robert Eggers

A skilled excavator of the most obscure recesses of the bygone eras, this director of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and Nosferatu excels in uncovering the unfamiliar elements of historical periods and presenting them without present-day reinterpretation. His dark time machines create doorways to psychosis, longing, and elevation.

Jane Schoenbrun

The modern filmmaker with their pulse most in touch with the millennial spirit, as aware of the loneliness, and meaningful bonds, of an internet-besotted era. Filtering themes of connection and pop culture via trans identity and the tradition of body horror, works such as I Saw the TV Glow explore the strangest fractures of the psyche.

Gore Maestro

The director's three-part saga of Terrifier movies is this era's great scary movie triumph, evidence that word of mouth can still generate true hits from skillfully made small-scale violence. Not just the new slasher icon, deranged poster boy Art the Clown is confirmation that the audience's thirst for violence – excessive, hilarious, unchecked – remains endless.

Rose Glass

Blurring the division between delusion and actuality, with her works Saint Maud and Love Lies Bleeding, Glass has assembled a gallery of driven female characters compelled to extremes by the intensity of their dedication to warped values. Given to imaginative climaxes that call straightforward interpretations into question, her movies linger – though less like a rock in your shoe than a spike in your foot.

YouTube Sensations

From the early beginnings of YouTube arose a pair of filmmakers conquering the world with a current brand of shock. With their movies Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, they created violent spectacles in between realistic portrayals of how today’s youth act. Aspiring directors pray to them as if they’re recently made icons.

Julia Ducournau

The director's refined, symbolism-rich combination of scary movie conventions with arthouse flourishes earned her a prestigious award, the historic moment the event gave its highest honor to a scary film. Bearing the gore-stained standard of the French horror movement, the Titane director delves into the cravings of the isolated to spectacular outcome.

Na Hong-jin

A member of the most thrilling filmmakers to emerge from Asia in modern times, the Seoul-based filmmaker has crafted one jewel of mythical fear (The Wailing) and collaborated on another (The Medium). Structured with supreme confidence and precise mood management, his films transposes mainstream formulas into horrifying, unique forms.

These eight creators signify the varied and innovative path of scary cinema, pushing the limits of dread into unexplored territories.