5 Best Horror Movie Directors Working Today

The horror genre is a proving ground for filmmakers and it spawned some of the most well-known names in cinema history. In the 70s and 80s came a boom when most of these names were established. John Carpenter, Wes Craven, George Romero, Tobe Hooper, David Cronenberg, and Clive Barker all rose to prominence with their iconic contributions to the medium.

Each man boasted a vision that was unsettlingly moody and viscerally graphic – in its dissection of the human body as much as its thematic dissections of life and society. But they also won renown for their bold originality and cultivated their own followings – very much making their kind of followings a thing. Simple film buffs gave way to ardent, transgressive subcultures flocking to yearly conventions or speaking engagements.

All the classics have their names attached to them: Halloween and The Thing (Carpenter), The Hills Have Eyes and The Last House on the Left and Nightmare on Elm Street (Craven), the Living Dead Trilogy and Creepshow (Romero), Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist (Hooper), Scanners and The Fly (Cronenberg), Hellraiser and Nightbreed (Barker). Similar men followed suit and garnered minor acclaim with their work over the years – from Frank Henenlotter (Frankenhooker, Basket Case) to the inimitable Larry Cohen (Maniac Cop, It’s Alive).

Horror today is in an interesting place. It has never seemed more popular and is often considered very commercial. The genre is close to the mainstream (if not in the middle of it). Yet, one thing it lacks presently is the quasi-brand name value of identifiable auteurs that came with it back when. Who is in the director’s chair doesn’t matter as much as what franchise the film is a part of (Saw feels bigger than Darren Lynn Bousman). Regardless, someone always helms the project and has their moniker plastered on it. Quite a few have proven their reliable craftiness in regard to spilling buckets of blood, bumping off witless teenagers, giving us new monsters to fear, and overall atmospherics.

We all know the names Guillermo Del Toro and James Wan and all they’ve done thus far. Their works are franchises (Hellboy, Pacific Rim, Saw, Conjuring, Insidious), institutions unto themselves. But horror never revolves around the contributions of one or two beings; there are more. Below are five directors on the rise who also became masters of horror in modern times.

 

5. Andy Muschietti

Hailing from Argentina, Andres “Andy” Muschietti has made major waves in American horror despite only making two feature films. His first, Mama, based on his short of the same name, became full-length with a little help from Del Toro, and was high on tenebrous Burton-esque visuals. A decent success still talked about, Mama opened the door for Muschietti’s name to be attached to a host of other projects, including his second feature, IT, which was a smash hit. That is no small accomplishment for a director on his follow-up, and certainly not when he’s taking over for Cary Fukunaga who has a popular TV show (True Crime) to his credit.

Andy Muschietti achieved big things with minimal effort and keeps on earning favor. He also made clowns dark and scary again so you know he’s credible.

4. The Soska Sisters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SAEN43OHZc

Horror isn’t strictly a man’s world anymore, face the facts. Canadians Jen and Sylvia Soska are collectively known as the Twisted Twins and built their brand around every implication due that sobriquet. Their 2009 debut, Dead Hooker in a Trunk, became a cult film and placed them on the gorehound radar. But it was their second effort American Mary (2012) that brought them to prominence. Both are modern genre classics and gutturally original. Their unique style caught the eye of WWE, for whom they chillingly revamped Jacob Goodnight in See No Evil 2.

Few filmmakers, male or female, combine gory carnage with the kind of rebellious counterculture panache that is the Soska’s trademark. They pull it off skillfully and it gets them noticed more and more.

 

3. Adam Green

Adam “FN” Green, as he likes to be called, is another purveyor of splatter and dismemberment in the same vein as the Soskas. However, he spent most of his time the past ten years adding to the saga of his signature character Victor Crowley, an unkillable, disfigured backwoods slasher played by Kane Hodder (sounds familiar). And Green is preparing to release the fourth installment in the legend of Victor Crowley – Hatchet 4 – four years after the last one dropped, with Hodder returning.

The Hatchet series is an all-out gore fest but also an ensemble affair. Aside from Hodder, the films featured Tony Todd, Danielle Harris, Derek Mears, and Joel David Moore in big roles. Harris, Moore, and Todd kept coming back for more mayhem, appearing in at least two films in the series. The latest will restore Green to the helm and is fixing to give loyal fans the blood and guts they crave.

Green is a throwback to undead threats with weapons, practical effects, and sudden shock endings whose love for the genre shows in his work. He is one to watch.

 

2. Mike Flanagan

Few filmmakers of any stripe have been as consistently impressive as Mike Flanagan, who brought Oculus to life. Bursting onto the scene with 2012’s Absentia about disappearances in a haunted tunnel, Flanagan proved what he could do with a small budget, bringing back a simpler method in the process. What is scary about Absentia is the atmosphere and what we don’t see – the interdimensional creature is vividly described but hardly seen. Tension and plot thicken as characters appear and reappear, often dragged off by an unseen force.

Flanagan brought many of the same thrills to Oculus, granted with more money and freedom to play with FX and makeup. The results are still as twisted and enthralling, in a story based around two time frames.

He also showed he could make lemonade out of lemons by taking on the prequel to the so-so Ouija and turning out a far superior effort to film he was supposed to be preceding. Flanagan is an unsung maven who doggedly makes the best horror films he can in any circumstance. Recognition among the greats is sure to come.

 

1. Alexandre Aja

Nobody on this list has been as prolific as Alexandre Aja. He’s produced and directed some of the most seminal, reflexive, and reverent works in the genre over the last two decades. Still, he remains more of a cult figure plodding away.

Starting with the psychological bloodbath that is Haute tension (High Tension in the US, Switchblade Romance in the UK), Aja began his career as a pioneer in France’s New Extremity movement. Upon commercial acclaim, he shifted his focus to remakes of classics Hills Have Eyes and Piranha. He also found time for sleeper thrillers like Mirrors and P2. Delving into producing, he reinterpreted another notorious title, Bill Lustig’s Maniac, alongside Elijah Wood – shot entirely in the killer’s POV.

In 2013, Aja took on Joe Hill’s book Horns – the author’s first adaptation – a production starring Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe. Coming out last year with the psychological thriller The 9th Life of Louis Drax, Alexandre Aja shows no signs of slowing down at bringing his unique brand of horror to the screen. Named a director to watch not long ago, he’s still one to keep your eye on.

Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.