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Within the world of contemporary movie-making, a innovative generation of creators is pushing the limits of the horror style. Ranging from social metaphors to intense chillers, these 8 movie-makers are crafting unforgettable adventures that redefine dread for a new age.

Jordan Peele

The filmmaker of Get Out has created pointed allegories delving into the dangers, subtleties, and conflicts of African American experience in the America. His impact is clear from the abundance of followers, with the best within them nurtured by the filmmaker via his production company.

Robert Eggers

An expert uncoverer of the least known corners of the past, this filmmaker of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and Nosferatu excels in uncovering the alien aspects of past epochs and showing them free from contemporary alteration. Eggers' dark time machines unlock gateways to insanity, craving, and elevation.

Jane Schoenbrun

The modern filmmaker with their finger closest to the millennial spirit, as attuned to the loneliness, and significant relationships, of an internet-besotted era. Filtering ideas of relationships and popular media through gender transition and the legacy of body horror, films such as I Saw the TV Glow delve into the strangest fissures of the identity.

Gore Maestro

The director's three-part saga of Terrifier movies is this decade's significant scary movie triumph, testament that fan support can still generate true blockbusters from well-executed low-budget violence. More than the new horror villain, deranged poster boy Art the Clown is confirmation that the audience's thirst for gore – gratuitous, hilarious, unbridled – remains unslakable.

Blurrer of Realities

Blurring the division between fantasy and the real world, with her films Saint Maud and Love Lies Bleeding, Glass has assembled a gallery of driven female characters compelled to the edge by the depth of their dedication to warped beliefs. Prone to imaginative endings that challenge straightforward readings into doubt, her movies stay with you – though not so much like a stone in your footwear than a nail in your foot.

YouTube Sensations

Emerging from the early beginnings of YouTube came a team of siblings dominating the cinema landscape with a current type of controversy. With their works Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, they staged shocking displays in between credible depictions of how today’s young people think. Cinema enthusiasts pray to them as if they’re freshly declared heroes.

Julia Ducournau

Her sleek, symbolism-rich blend of genre trappings with independent styles earned her a top Cannes prize, the first time the festival gave its top prize to a scary film. Carrying the gore-stained banner of the New French Extremity, the Titane creator indulges the cravings of the disconnected to remarkable effect.

Na Hong-jin

One of the most intriguing 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 one more (The Medium). Paced with supreme confidence and meticulous mood management, his work transposes conventional structures into terrifying, unique forms.

These directors represent the varied and creative direction of scary cinema, pushing the limits of fear into fresh territories.