10 Great Modern Horror Movies That You’ve Probably Never Heard Of – Screen Rant

Not everybody loves horror movies and even the people that do often don't love loving them. It's arguably the most integral genre in all of film history and finding the good stuff from any time period can be a long road, especially since all of our personal tastes differ.

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With this in mind, here are 10 great horror movies from the past 20 years that you may have never heard of. Not everything on this list will necessarily be for everyone but, if you're a fan of quality filmmaking that leaves a lasting impact, there will be something on this list for you.

Australian writer and director Sean Byrne followed up his breakout feature-length debut hit The Loved Ones with an even more ambitious debut in the world of American movies and this nerve-shredding story of a family moving into a serial killer's former home does not disappoint.

Part supernatural satanic shocker and part chillingly-real psycho-drama, The Devils Candy is an incredibly intense ride even for the most seasoned of horror fans and it manages to pull entertainment out of some of the most gut-wrenching scenarios imaginable.

The first feature-length film of writing/directing husband/wife team Hlne Cattet and Bruno Forzani, Amer is clearly a partial love letter to the oft-aped Giallo style of Italian filmmaking but crafted with a deft hand and bucketloads of the couples own distinctive style.

Amer is far from your usual horror movie or cinematic experience in general. Cattet and Forzani construct most of their stories through an uncommonly high usage of extreme closeups and the story itself follows three equally weighted acts of a womans life, from childhood to adolescence and adulthood. The aggressiveeroticism of the Giallo slasher bleeds into the directors own flair for sensuality to create a very unique thrill.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa may not be as famous as Japanese cinema's other great Kurosawa (no relation), but he's built quite the reputation out of his own unique body of work over the past 40 years.Retributionis a lesser-known example of the director's numerous entries into the horror genre but one of his most noteworthy.

Fans of his international breakthrough classic,Cure, will see a number of similarities in thequiet eerieness, and almost-apocalyptic foreboding, of this story about a haunted cop who becomes increasingly convinced that he's secretly a serial killer.

Belgian director Fabrice du Welz's feature filmdebut is indescribable in a number of ways, partially due to the fact that there's little to really compare it to in terms of tone and plot. There are elements of torture and degradation as seen in the works of the director's contemporaries in the New French Extremity movement going on at the same time. But, as the English-language title of the movie (The Ordeal) highlights,Calvaireis much more of a trip.

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The plot basically follows a traveling singer/entertainer who, after completing work at a secluded retirement home, becomes lost in the woods and his experience with the peculiar locals progressively slips further and further into the realm of a living hell.

Lucile Hadihalilovis very belated second feature film shares the creepy atmosphere of her much-lauded first movie,Innocence, as well as an overarching plot similarity. The sinister nature of the goings-on on her isolated island of children and overseers is, however, much more explicit this time around.

Hadihalilovi opts to tell her stories through moods and images rather than dialogue and, even if you're not a fan of feeling your way through what is essentially a genre movie, it's near-impossible not to be spellbound byManuel Dacosse's cinematography.Evolutionis a strange, but powerful, take on the idea of watching someone else's nightmare unfold before you.

Fans of Giallo, and Euro-slashers in general, may find a more conventional night of frights with directorGuillem Morales' thriller chiller about a woman who must solve a vicious murder mystery whilst also dealing with the gradual loss of her sight.

There's certainly the clean genre precision that you'd expect from a movie with a Guillermo del Toro producing credit (black gloves on a psychotic killer who's always just out of view, etc. and so forth). But the real standout quality ofJulia's Eyes would have to be its emotional drama.It would all feel too cold without it and Morales understands that there's no tension if you don't really care about the characters.

When a struggling group of asbestos removal workers is tasked with cleaning out a disused asylum, numerous old ghosts and rivalries are stirred up within the walls of the building and within the workers themselves. Brad Anderson's low-budget, high-impact, take on the haunted house genre, and the pressured working class of America, may well have been considered a masterpiece if released in another time but sits in relative obscurity.

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Session 9is a movie where the primary location (the now-demolished Danvers State Hospital in Massachusetts) does a lot of the talking but the fraying relationships and cracking minds of the ensemble cast, particularly Peter Mullan's lead performance, adds so much to the staying power of this terrifying modern American classic.

Brandon Cronenberg (son of the infamous David Cronenberg) stepped into the family business of writing and directing odd Canadian body horror movies with a great level of gusto with this high-concept sci-fi horror.

The Cronenbergian hallmarks of Giger-esque biomechanics, and an even more grotesque marriage between business and science, feature prominently in this vision of a world where the obsession with celebrity culture has resulted in people buying and selling the diseases of the famous like cosmetics. Accordingly, the practical effects and gore are very entertaining but it's Caleb Landry Jones' lead performance that really sells this ever-increasingly relevant story of corporate sickness gone quite literally mad.

Rainer Sarnet's captivating Estonian fairytale about love and the literal deals with the devil made to get it stands out as an authentic original and not just in the field of horror.

Mart Taniel's beautiful black and white cinematography, coupled with Sarner's unflinchingly weird and dark sense of humor, brings to life a macabre fantasy full of fantastic performances, visual ingenuity, and uncanny cultural horrors. Fans of Robert Eggers' modern hitsThe WitchandThe Lighthouseshould be sure to seek it out.

Soo-youn Lee's hugely unconventionalpsychological horror movie may have some rough edges but its accomplishments in complex, and haunting, drama more than makes up for them.The Uninvitedis one of those rare ghost stories where the ghosts are almost the least important part of it. Or, at least, the ghosts aren't what you think they are.

The plot follows a young, and soon to be married, architect after he witnesses the aftermath of a terrible crime. His problems really begin when he crosses paths with a mysterious and beautiful woman who may hold the answers to his questions about the specters that plague his thoughts. The truth, however, is far more personal and horrific than he could have possibly anticipated. Views on religion, class and mental health in a rapidly changing Korea are all intimately explored in this shockingly underrated gem.

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Mark is a freelance copywriter and copyeditor. When not writing or editing, he can most likely be found complaining about movies on Twitter.

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10 Great Modern Horror Movies That You've Probably Never Heard Of - Screen Rant