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Across the landscape of current cinema, a innovative wave of visionaries is pushing the edges of the scary movie genre. Ranging from societal allegories to graphic fright-fests, these eight filmmakers are creating memorable journeys that redefine dread for a new era.

Jordan Peele

The filmmaker of Get Out has crafted pointed metaphors delving into the risks, subtleties, and conflicts of African American experience in the America. Peele's effect is obvious from the abundance of imitators, with the top within them guided by Peele himself via his studio.

Robert Eggers

An expert explorer of the most obscure corners of the history, this creator of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and Nosferatu specializes in uncovering the foreign elements of past epochs and depicting them free from contemporary alteration. His dark time machines unlock gateways to insanity, craving, and transformation.

Voice of a Generation

The modern filmmaker with their focus most attuned to the generation’s spirit, as sensitive to the loneliness, and significant relationships, of an digitally-obsessed time. Weaving ideas of connection and mainstream entertainment by way of trans experiences and the history of body horror, creations such as I Saw the TV Glow plumb the eeriest fissures of the self.

Damien Leone

The director's series of Terrifier features is this era's great horror success story, evidence that fan support can still produce true successes from expertly crafted small-scale violence. Beyond the new horror villain, insane poster boy Art the Clown is evidence that the audience's thirst for violence – over-the-top, comical, unrestrained – remains insatiable.

Rose Glass

Blurring the boundary between fantasy and the real world, with her films Saint Maud and Love Lies Bleeding, The director has assembled a collection of driven women driven to the edge by the depth of their devotion to warped beliefs. Given to surreal endings that challenge simple understandings into question, her works remain – though not so much like a pebble in your footwear than a spike in your foot.

YouTube Sensations

Emerging from the early beginnings of YouTube arose a pair of filmmakers conquering the world with a zeitgeisty brand of controversy. With their movies Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, they presented violent spectacles in between credible portrayals of how current young people behave. Aspiring directors idolize them as if they’re freshly canonised icons.

Julia Ducournau

The director's polished, metaphor-forward blend of genre trappings with arthouse styles earned her a prestigious award, the historic moment the Cannes Film Festival gave its highest honor to a horror picture. Carrying the gore-stained banner of the French horror movement, the Titane director indulges the appetites of the alienated to stunning effect.

Asian Horror Visionary

One of the most exciting artists to emerge from the Asian continent in recent years, the Seoul-based creator has crafted one gem of traditional terror (The Wailing) and co-scripted another (The Medium). Arranged with total assurance and exact tonal control, his work converts conventional structures into horrifying, unique shapes.

These eight creators signify the diverse and creative path of horror, propelling the edges of terror into unexplored realms.