The 2010s have been an incredible decade for horror movies, both on a creative level and at the box office - rivalling only comic book movies as the genre that can most reliably get audiences into theaters. This decade in particular has seen some incredible emerging talent, with filmmakers like Ari Aster, Robert Eggers and Jordan Peele making their feature film debuts with instant horror classics.
Whether your favorite horror movie monsters are ghosts, demons, witches, cannibals, or just plain old humans, there was something for just about everyone in the 2010s - which made picking the best of the best that much harder. Great movies that didn't quite make the list include mind-bending sci-fi horror A Quiet Place.
With the arrival of Halloween, there's no better time for a horror movie marathon to visit (or revisit) some of the scariest films of the decade. Here are our picks for the best horror movies released in the 2010s.
15. IT
Andy Muschietti's adaptation of one of Stephen King's most celebrated novels is one of the most outright fun horror movies of the decade. Bill Skarsgård embraces the role of Pennywise the Dancing Clown with gleeful enthusiasm and an iconic new look, but it's the young cast that really makes this one work. Finding one really good child actor is difficult enough, but finding seven (eight, including Tony Dakota as poor little Georgie Denbrough) is a near-miracle. The nightmarish monster designs are balanced out by top-notch banter between a club of losers that you can really root for, and Muschietti's film effectively sells the small-town seediness of Derry, Maine, where all the adults are unreliable at best and monsters themselves at worst. It's a story where the kids really have to fend for themselves - and they do.
14. Revenge
A stunning feature debut from director Coralie Fargeat, Revenge stars Matilda Lutz as Jen, a young woman who is flown out to her married boyfriend's house in the desert for a weekend getaway, only to be interrupted when his hunting buddies show up for their trip a day early. While her boyfriend is away, Jen is raped by one of the men and then pushed off a cliff, leaving her impaled on a tree branch. Instead of dying, she patches herself up and returns to the house to wage a war that's as much about survival as it is about the titular revenge. The film's climax features a cat-and-mouse chase where both characters involved are simultaneously the cat and the mouse, and you won't be able to look away.
13. Us
After the release of the "Tethered" came from, and what exactly their dark plan is.
12. What We Do In The Shadows
Though it might elicit a lot more laughs than scares, Taika Waititi's What We Do in the Shadows is an ardent love letter to the horror genre. What makes the film work so well is its dedication to world-building, as the mockumentary gradually reveals not only the history of its four vampire flatmates, but also the wider community of supernatural beings prowling through the streets of Wellington at night. There's equal dedication to simple but convincing practical effects: arterial blood spray, levitation, bat and werewolf transformations, and even a vampire crawling out of someone's backpack to attack them. Put together, all of this elevates What We Do in the Shadows from simply a parody of vampire movies to a classic of the genre in its own right.
11. Crimson Peak
Easily one of Guillermo del Toro's most underrated films, (Tom Hiddleston), who is desperately trying to restore his family's lost glory by mining the red clay the homestead is built on. Also living in the house is Thomas' sister, Lucille (Jessica Chastain), whose chilly attitude towards Edith escalates to outright hostility as Allerdale Hall's secrets are unearthed. A gripping gothic romance in the tradition of Rebecca and The Fall of the House of Usher (with a few ghosts thrown in).
10. Raw
Directed by Julia Ducournau, Raw stars Garance Marillier as Justine, a young woman who has followed her sister to veterinary school. Like her parents, Justine is a steadfast vegetarian, but one of the rituals in the school's chaotic week-long hazing of rookie students involves eating a raw rabbit kidney. After Justine gets her first taste of meat, she develops an insatiable hunger for human flesh, and finds her moral principles at war with her cannibalistic desires. By turns gory and sensual, Raw is a delightfully nasty coming of age tale in the vein of Ginger Snaps and Teeth, and an instant classic of modern French horror.
9. You're Next
A home invasion movie that turns into an R-rated take on Home Alone, Adam Wingard's You're Next is gory fun that flies in defiance of every stupid decision made by every horror movie character since the genre began. Sharni Vinson plays Erin, a woman who accompanies her boyfriend to a family reunion at the wealthy person's equivalent of a cabin in the woods. At first it seems like the scariest thing about the visit will be ive-aggressiveness at the dinner table, but then the evening is interrupted by the arrival of assailants in animal masks who appear to have only one goal: kill everyone in the house. Unfortunately for them, Erin was raised in a survivalist commune, and she's not going to go down without a fight.
8. It Follows
If you want to make a great horror movie, it's always good to start with a great premise. In David Robert Mitchell's chilling 2014 film It Follows, teenager Jay (Maika Monroe) has sex with the guy she's been dating for the first time, only to find out that his real goal with dating her was to on a curse. He tells her that something is going to follow her, and that it will always be walking directly towards her. The only way to escape it is to keep running, forever, or to the curse on to someone else. The most frightening thing about It Follows' villain is that it can look like anyone, so you may find yourself nervously looking over your shoulder at people walking behind you in the days after watching it. Set against the backdrop of suburban Detroit, It Follows pairs an eerie atmosphere with rising tension and abrupt shocks, and has a killer synth score that, like the movie itself, is unforgettable.
7. Green Room
Proving that Nazis are still some of the scariest monsters around, Jeremy Saulnier's brilliant horror-thriller late Anton Yelchin leads the cast of punks, and Green Room's defiant spirit makes it one of the most unmissable horror movies of the decade
6. Midsommar
The first of two appearances on this list by director Ari Aster, Midsommar is a 21st century answer to The Wicker Man in which a terrible relationship is as much the source of horror as the Pagan cultists. Florence Pugh stars as Dani, a young woman who loses her family in an unbearable tragedy. Several months later she decides to her boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor), and his buddies on a trip to a remote commune in Sweden, where the community is preparing for a nine-day festival filled with dancing, feasting, and... other activities. Aster's love of showing artistically graphic deaths makes Midsommar not for the faint of heart, but there's a surprisingly uplifting (if twisted) message at the heart of it.
