With a seemingly endless stream of remakes and sequels, the 2000s was a pretty dull decade to be a horror fan. Unless a given moviegoer got a kick out of the diminishing returns of the Saw franchise, or watching Marcus Nispel’s futile attempts to retell a story that Tobe Hooper already told perfectly the first time, there wasn’t much to enjoy in the way of horror cinema.
But as always, a handful of great scary movies were getting made. As long as there are dedicated filmmakers out there committed to their craft, there will always be a couple of horror classics hitting theaters each year.
Orphan (2009)
Long before helming Run All Night and The Shallows, Jaume Collet-Serra directed Orphan, the story of a couple reeling from the stillbirth of their child who adopt a mysterious nine-year-old girl.
Vera Farmiga gives a riveting portrayal of the mother trying to figure out the strange goings-on that her new child has brought with her, while a young Isabelle Fuhrman gives a sinister performance as the titular orphan.
The Host (2006)
The horror cinema of 2006 brought uninspired remakes like The Omen and The Hills Have Eyes, as well as movies with a self-aware edge like Monster House and Snakes on a Plane, but Parasite director Bong Joon-ho provided the genre with one new gem: The Host.
Inspired by a story about a deformed fish found in the Han River, the director made one of the most original and compelling monster movies in recent memory, anchored by human characters with more depth than is usually seen in the genre.
Open Water (2003)
The sharks in Open Water aren’t giant, bloodthirsty monsters like the sharks in Jaws or Deep Blue Sea or The Meg, but that’s exactly what makes them so terrifying.
The movie tells the true story of a couple stranded at sea during a scuba trip, best estimated from what might’ve happened, since they were never found.
American Psycho (2000)
Adapted from Bret Easton Ellis’ incisive satirical novel of the same name, American Psycho tells the story of Patrick Bateman, a corporate highflier who brutally murders people in his spare time.
Christian Bale gives a truly haunting — and, at times, disturbingly hilarious — performance as Bateman, while director Mary Harron’s ambiguous handle on what is and isn’t really happening keeps the audience guessing.
Saw (2004)
James Wan proved that horror movies can be gory and smart with his groundbreaking debut, Saw. From the intriguing setup to the shocking revelations in its finale, Saw is a helluva horror flick.
While its sequels focused too much on bloodshed and too little on plot, the original Saw movie is a brilliantly woven tapestry of terrifying storytelling.
The Others (2001)
Alejandro Amenábar’s haunted house chiller The Others is proof that horror movies don’t need R ratings or gruesome violence to be scary. Within the confines of a PG-13 rating, Amenábar created a suitably creepy atmosphere.
Nicole Kidman gives a riveting performance in the lead role, the score is petrifying (composed by Amenábar himself), and the movie builds masterfully toward its shocking twist ending.
28 Days Later (2002)
Danny Boyle refuses to call 28 Days Later a zombie movie, but it has all the hallmarks of one, with the intensity ratcheted way up. Just when zombies were becoming stale and familiar, Boyle made them sprinting maniacs.
Cillian Murphy wakes up in a hospital after going under the gas for routine surgery, only to find that most of humanity has been wiped out by virus-infected flesh-eaters in the end times.
REC (2007)
The “found footage” subgenre of horror has been the source of some of the worst scary movies ever made. But in the hands of dedicated filmmakers, it’s also been the source of some of the best.
A prime example is REC, shot from the perspective of a news crew stuck in an apartment building with patient zero of a zombie virus. It becomes hauntingly apparent that they’ve been quarantined in the building as necessary casualties of the containment — and that they won’t survive the night.
Let The Right One In (2008)
Horror and romance don’t always mix well because one side usually dominates the story, but director Tomas Alfredson places the focus squarely on the relationship at the heart of Let the Right One In, so the horror and romance arise naturally from a well-told story.
The film is about a bullied child and a vampire who develop a friendship, drawing parallels between their lives as outsiders.
The Descent (2005)
While the true-to-life terror of Wolf Creek was the source of a lot of sleepless nights, 2005’s most haunting horror movie was Neil Marshall’s The Descent. It opens with a group of friends going caving and getting trapped in a cave-in, which is scary enough as it is.
But then they discover a race of bloodthirsty, cave-dwelling mutants that start picking them off one by one in increasingly gnarly fashion. It’s an intense ride that doesn’t let up through its whole runtime.
