In the 2000s, horror movies were facing another change in tone. After the slashers died out after the 80s, the self-referential horror movies arrived in the 90s. However, those movies died out due to several lackluster copycat movies of Scream, and the 2000s was a time where horror was trying to find its horror identity.
What resulted was a mishmash of horror movies, and many of them dealt in ghosts and the supernatural. This was mostly due to the rise of the Japanese J-Horror movies like Ringu and Ju-On: The Grudge. This helped the 2000s see some quality and high-brow supernatural horror movies that took the world by storm.
The House of the Devil (2009) - 73
In the early 2000s, Ti West was one of the up-and-coming horror directors that had captured genre fans' attention. The movie that really helped him break out was his 2009 throwback horror flick, The House of the Devil.
The movie was a mixture of a slasher and a haunted house movie that played off the satanic panic of the 80s. A girl offers to babysit an isolated house and fights for her life. West paid homage to classic horror movies like The Amityville Horror in The House of the Devil.
28 Days Later (2003) - 73
Danny Boyle helped revitalize the zombie horror movie in 2003 with his post-apocalyptic thriller 28 Days Later is actually more of a contagion movie similar to The Crazies than the genre George Romero made famous.
Whatever a person wants to call it, the fast-moving and crazed infected remain frightening, and the movie ended up a massive success with a 73 on Metacritic and a Besat Horror Film Award at the 2003 Saturn Awards.
The Orphanage (2007) - 74
Guillermo del Toro secured his place in horror and fantasy films by the time that fellow Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona tried to get financing for his movie one of the best supernatural horror movies of the 2000s.
When a woman returns to the abandoned orphanage, she grew up to try to turn it into a home for disabled kids, but her son claims he has met a young boy who gave him an ominous warning.
The Others (2001) - 74
In 2001, Nicole Kidman starred in a gothic horror movie set in 1945 following World War II. In The Others, Kidman plays Grace Stewart, a mother who lives in a remote country house with her two young children. The kids suffer from photosensitivity and are unable to leave the house or see bright lights.
One day, Grace starts to believe that her house is haunted, and something wants to take her children. Directed by Alejandro Amenabar, The Others had a dark twist ending that critics loved, and it has an impressive 74 rating at Metacritic.
Shaun of the Dead (2004) - 76
In 2004, first part of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy.
The Devil's Backbone (2001) - 78
Guillermo Del Toro made the list of the 10 best supernatural horror movies based on Metacritic scores with his 2001 Spanish-language ghost story The Devil's Backbone. The movie takes place during the Spanish Civil War, featuring a young boy named Carlos, who is dropped off at an orphanage in a remote part of Spain after his father dies.
While there, the ghost of a young boy begins to haunt him, opening up a mystery of who this child was and how he died. It is up to Carlos and his new friends to learn the truth before more children in the orphanage start to die.
28 Weeks Later (2007) - 78
While some consider 28 Days Later to be the superior movie in the franchise, according to Metacritic, 28 Weeks Later was the better-reviewed movie. While the first movie had a 74 rating, the sequel finished with a 78 rating. Danny Boyle, who directed the first movie, did not direct this one, although he did direct the opening scene.
The second movie shows the government's efforts to create a safe zone in London, and it features a superior cast of Jeremy Renner, Rose Byrne, Idris Elba, Robert Carlyle, and Harold Perrineau.
Let The Right One In (2008) - 82
The 2008 Swedish-language supernatural horror movie The two become friends, and she agrees to help him, but there is a high cost. A U.S. remake came two years later, and, while it was also good, it didn't reach the levels of this Tomas Alfredson film.
Drag Me To Hell (2009) - 83
WhenDrag Me to Hell, but it was one of the top critically acclaimed movies of Raimi's career.
Drag Me to Hell was about a loan officer who denied a loan to an elderly woman who needed help with her mortgage and ended up having a curse placed on her. The film has an 83 Metacritic rating, and a 92 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Host (2007) - 85
Bong Joon-hoThe Host.
This is a monster movie with a giant creature coming out of the river and attacking a coastal town. One family fights together to survive, and, when the creature takes one of them, they set out to find its nest and save her.
