Most Horrible Movies of the Decade are difficult to analyze. They capitalize on disturbing the viewer, and if they succeed, the picture is more likely to be remembered. Some horror films conceal their weak stories behind visceral jump scares, while others opt for a horrible atmosphere instead.
And still, other horror films manage to combine both, combining long-running tension with the promise of terrifying moments. The previous decade of cinema, in especially, was replete with these masterpieces of frightening filmmaking. Here is a ranking of the best ten horror films of the 2010s.
Hereditary
Hereditary, the debut film by Ari Aster, emanates evil to its core. The film immediately establishes a very unsettling mood that feels fundamentally wrong at every point. The characters, who spend the majority of the film grieving, are possessed and controlled by a demonic entity.
The film’s production value and creative choices are intended to confound and convey a vague sense of dread. Before being disclosed, the source of each terrifying moment is never evident, and certain scenes of the film will instill the audience with palpable dread.
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is a novel take on the vampire genre that follows an introverted girl with a fascination for life and a predilection for killing abusive men. Ana Lily Amanpour, the film’s director, shoots the picture in black and white.
The narrative reverses many of the usually male vampire traits and transforms the vampire in question into an anti-hero. The film is also largely a romance and raises questions about the woman’s relationships with her community, presenting a challenging spin on traditional vampire tales.
Midsommar
The first fifteen minutes of Midsommar contain some of the most gruesome and unsettling moments ever filmed, establishing Ari Aster as the modern master of evoking terror. Dani, who is grieving the loss of loved ones, travels to Sweden with her boyfriend and several friends, where they find a religious group that is more than meets the eye.
The majority of the film takes place in broad daylight, yet so many of those moments are filled with actual horror since the nature of the group’s surroundings is never revealed. Midsommar is a superb picture of mourning and rejuvenation that is profoundly uncomfortable throughout its whole.
Get Out
Get Out, which the Writers Guild of America recently named the greatest script of the 21st century, is Jordan Peele’s first horror film and directorial debut. For some spectators, the picture was somewhat simpler to follow than Us, and it won four Oscars for its devastating narrative of prejudice.
Daniel Kahluuya’s character encounters a new type of white slaver during what appears to be a typical weekend trip, resulting in a botched kidnapping. Get Out’s greatest strength is its escalating suspense, which makes every moment feel like something is off. The film’s heightened metaphor for racial prejudice is both visceral and captivating.
The Lighthouse
The Lighthouse is Robert Egger’s horror feature film sequel to The Witch. Given more creative freedom for The Lighthouse, Eggers recreates the style of ancient black-and-white films and adopts a 4:3 aspect ratio to emphasize the film’s claustrophobia. Robert Pattinson and Willem Defoe play two lighthouse keepers who are slowly driven insane by their isolation and the lighthouse’s eerie presence.
Surrealistic imagery follows their journey into insanity and draws the audience into the brains of this tortured couple. Eggers employs every trick in the book to heighten the dread and paranoia of being alone at sea, making this a memorable picture that will linger in the minds of audiences due to its unconventionality and originality.
Us
Us is Jordan Peele’s second attempt at a full-length horror picture, and the abilities he acquired while making Get Out are on full display. The film makes excellent use of the concept of doppelgangers, ghostly near-identical replicas of individuals.
As with Jordan Peele’s Get Out, Us contains a significant subtext concerning political separation that makes this horror picture resonate strongly with audience members who dread the film’s allegory’s potency. Some felt that the film was more difficult to follow than Get Out (2017), however comparing the two is difficult owing to their distinct narrative styles.
Train To Busan
The action in Yeon Sang-zombie ho’s thriller takes place on a speeding train, giving it a fresh spin on the genre. Train To Busan may be one of the best zombie films ever made due to its grotesque realistic effects, outstanding performances, and editing.
The picture has a powerful emotional undercurrent, and each character is distinctly human until their terrible deaths. This film continues the legacy of South Korean horror films made by a new generation of filmmakers. It is being adapted for American audiences as The Last Train to New York.
The Witch
In New England in the 1630s, a puritan family descends into disorder and disarray as forces of an evil plot to destroy their tenuous existence. Robert Eggers, who drew inspiration from his childhood in New England and passion for mythology, directed the film.
The nature of the evil in The Witch has allusions to sexual repression and sexism under a repressive patriarchy, which is situated within the backdrop of the severe religious hierarchy of the earliest settlers. Using just natural light and candlelight to express the claustrophobia of the situation, Robert Egger’s picture exudes a palpable sense of foreboding.
Paranormal Activity 3
After Paranormal Activity 2 ended up retreading the same material as the previous film, the third installment made some intentional additions to the series’ distinctive structure. The majority of views in each film are presented from the perspective of a home security camera, occasionally sweeping left and right over shadowy rooms as invisible monsters terrorize a family.
In numerous horrific ways, the scares in Paranormal Activity 3 enhance the lore surrounding this demon’s activities. The last minutes are among the most terrifying in the franchise’s history, which continues to produce new films.
It Follows
It Follows features an innovative notion that is terrifyingly executed. Jaime receives the curse of a constantly following supernatural creature after a sexual encounter with a boy with a skeletal appearance. She spends the remainder of the film in flight, pursued by an entity that assumes the form of ordinary individuals who are expressionless, nude, and pursue their targets without end.
As a film built around a chase, the threat of the monster is ever-present, and the stakes reach a horrifying climax as Jaime and her companions attempt to free themselves of the curse rather than pass it on.
Conclusion
To be terrifying, horror films do not need to be extraordinarily lengthy, multimillion-dollar productions. In reality, some of the scariest stories are created by tiny teams with limited resources. In one instance, one of the best Horror films of the past decade was produced during a lockdown, during which people were obliged to remain at home due to a global pandemic.
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