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Within the realm of modern movie-making, a new generation of artists is expanding the limits of the horror style. Ranging from societal commentaries to visceral fright-fests, these 8 filmmakers are producing unforgettable experiences that reshape dread for a current generation.

The Mind Behind Get Out

The filmmaker of Get Out has developed sharp symbolic tales examining the dangers, subtleties, and contradictions of African American experience in the United States. His effect is clear from the sheer number of imitators, with the top among them guided by the director through his production company.

Master of Historical Horror

A skilled excavator of the most obscure recesses of the history, this creator of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and Nosferatu specializes in revealing the alien aspects of distant history and depicting them without present-day alteration. His sinister journeys into the past open portals to insanity, longing, and elevation.

Jane Schoenbrun

The contemporary filmmaker with their focus most in touch with the younger heartbeat, as attuned to the loneliness, and significant relationships, of an internet-besotted age. Weaving ideas of relationships and mainstream entertainment through gender transition and the history of body horror, works such as I Saw the TV Glow delve into the most unsettling fractures of the identity.

Damien Leone

The director's series of Terrifier movies is this century’s great scary movie triumph, evidence that fan support can still generate true blockbusters from expertly crafted microbudget gore. Beyond the new Jason or Freddy, deranged figure Art the Clown is evidence that the audience's desire for gore – over-the-top, humorous, unrestrained – remains insatiable.

Blurrer of Realities

Blurring the division between hallucination and actuality, with her works Saint Maud and Love Lies Bleeding, Glass has created a portfolio of intense protagonists driven to the edge by the depth of their dedication to warped beliefs. Given to imaginative endings that question easy readings into doubt, her works remain – though less like a stone in your footwear than a nail in your foot.

Danny and Michael Philippou

From the primordial ooze of YouTube arrived a duo of brothers conquering the world with a current style of provocation. With their movies Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, they staged atrocity exhibitions in between credible representations of how modern young people act. Film students pray to them as if they’re freshly declared saints.

Julia Ducournau

Her polished, metaphor-forward blend of scary movie conventions with arthouse styles earned her a Palme d’Or, the first time the festival gave its top prize to a horror picture. Holding the blood-soaked flag of the extreme cinema wave, the Titane creator explores the appetites of the alienated to spectacular result.

Asian Horror Visionary

One of the most exciting artists to arise from Eastern cinema in modern times, the Seoul-based filmmaker has made one jewel of traditional terror (The Wailing) and co-written a second one (The Medium). Arranged with supreme certainty and precise tonal control, his films transposes Hollywood templates into horrifying, unique shapes.

These eight directors represent the varied and innovative path of the horror genre, propelling the edges of terror into new dimensions.