Most Important Horror Films of the Past Decade?

People tend to think of the 80s as the last great period for horror films... Have there been truly great horror films since the 90s? I would definitely claim SILENCE OF THE LAMBS as one...

 

People seem to love THE RING, even though it's as bullshit as any supernatural horror movie is.

I can't comment on "TORTURE PORN", as I've never seen one. Well, I mean what they call that, not the actual cool torture porn with Jewell Marceau and shit.

 

Silence of the Lambs came out in 1991...it's pushing 2 decades.

I'd say The Sixth Sense is one of the more important horror movies of the last decade...it ushered in the twist ending and the PG13 horror movie.

I guess I would also include Saw on that list as it launched a seemingly unending stream of sequels...probably the first "big" horror franchise since A Nightmare on Elm Street and Freddie.

Edited to add: I would consider these to be important horror movies, although I don't consider either to be particularly good...certainly not great.

 

For me it's been Saw, Hostel and Wolf Creek. Those probably all qualify as torture porn but to me their relevant because they moved away from the mystical/magical enemy, and restored other people as man's greatest predator.

 

I think horror is in a pretty sad state at the moment. Those torture porn movies don't impress me at all, but I appreciated the first two Scream movies for half being decent standard horror movies and half taking the genre in a new direction with their self-aware, post-modern quality.

Of these new directors called "The Splat Pack" and considered the possible future of horror who are supposedly keeping the genre alive and well (James Wan, Rob Zombie, Eli Roth, Neil Marshall, etc.), only Marshall and Zombie have really impressed me so far with "The Descent" and "The Devil's Rejects", which both seemed to draw inspiration from classics of the past while bringing something new to the table.

I think the key to a good horror movie is interesting characters, not just innovative gore and sadism, which is why I prefer their movies over the currently more popular stuff. I'm not sure about Zombie, though...it sounds like he's kind of ruining his career with his Halloween rebootquels.

 

Too Much Fun, thanks in particular for your feedback.

What have you guys thought of the Texas and Fri 13th reboots?

 

Not very influential, but pretty much the only horror film I really like is The Others.

 

I'm reasonably sure there is no such thing.

 

I'd go for 'The Blair Witch Project' as an example of what can be done with a low budget and a smart internet campaign.

 

28 Days Later
The Descent
Devil's Rejects

 

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned 28 Days Later until ten minutes ago.

This film both popularized the fast zombie and encouraged a boom in zombie-related films of all kinds.

Surely that makes it just as important as other trendsetters like Saw and The Ring.

 

I'd say the Scream movies, just because they introduced characters who are aware of horror movie cliches, call them out and then do them anyway. And they injected humor into horror movies, which has led to a whole string of "smart, funny" horror ripoffs.

 

Most important? Probably either The Ring or the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Neither one of those films are particularly good (I think the remake of TCM is awful), but both established two of the biggest horror movie trends of the 2000s. Saw created the third with the whole torture-porn thing, so I guess you'd have to include that as well.

Blair Witch is an interesting one, though it really didn't seem to create anything significant in its wake. I guess it including that would have to be a personal call.

Best horror movie of the past decade? That's a whole other thing, and I'd probably have to go to either a Japanese horror movie (Audition or Pulse) or something like 28 Days Later, The Descent, Devil's Rejects.

 

The remake of TCSM was terrible on pretty much every level. But the new Friday the 13th was actually one of the better movies of the series.

 

Horror is just as "important" as any other genre. As far as I'm concerned Anthony Perkin's Norman Bates is every bit as good as Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone.

 

Glad to see others giving props to "The Descent" and "The Devil's Rejects". I would have mentioned "28 Days Later" too, but it totally slipped my mind! I agree it's a really awesome horror movie...not a straight "zombie movie", but very much in the tradition of those, but actually more serious and intense than a lot of them (which tend to have intentional and unintentional camp in them), and I personally liked it better than both versions of "Dawn of the Dead".

I'm not sure what to make of "The Blair Witch Project", I was totally fooled by the ad campaign when I first went to see it, so I really loved it, but I wonder if I would like it as much watching it again without being under the delusion that it's a true story.

 

Indeed. Nosferatu still scares the living daylights out of me.

 

The closest films to "horror" of the last 10 years that I like are Sleepy Hollow (1999) and Sweeney Todd (2007). Burton's darker works, basically.

The only horror I really like is from about the '20s to the '60s with a handful in the '70s. The '30s stuff is overall the best.

As I've stated before, Freaks (1932), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), House of Wax (1953) and Night of the Living Dead (1968) are my personal favorites.

 

Much obliged! Always happy to contribute and I appreciate the thanks. Great choices, Nile, I haven't seen Freaks or House of Wax yet, but I love the other two...especially "Bride of Frankenstein".

I almost think it's too romantic to simply be called a horror movie. It's my oldest favourite movie and really opened me up to older movies as I was reluctant to watch movies from such a long time ago until I saw it and it blew my mind with how fantastic it was. I'm tempted to call it one of my favourite love stories more than a favourite horror movie!

I just saw Night of the Living Dead for the first time recently and was surprised by how good it was. I actually think despite its low-budget look and more limited scope, it's superior to its "Dawn of the Dead" sequel and even the remake...it just has so much more effective suspense, excellent use of location (I got really sick of the people running around the mall), and more interesting characters.