The horror movie genre, unlike the dreadful, bottom-shelf VHS years of the 80s and 90s, is currently in a great place. Thanks to a throng of creative auteurs, some of who you'll read about here, the genre is providing some of the best writing, acting, and visuals in cinema today. That's saying a lot.
Two of the films on this list examine the pinnacle of today's post-modern horror resurgence, while the other introduces a black-and-white, criminally underseen classic that's just as powerful as any of the best horror films in recent memory.
Barbarian (Hulu)
Barbarian, written and directed by Zach Cregger, starts with a simple premise: Tess (Georgina Campbell) arrives at an Airbnb only to discover Keith (Bill Skarsgård) already staying there. They attempt to straighten out the mix-up and then decide to both stay the night.
Much like its predecessors, Barbarian insists on paying attention to Keith--his toiletries under the sink; his eagerness to assuage Tess with alcohol; and his bedtime quirks. There's something wrong with Keith. That's where similarities to previous films end.
Barbarian twists and turns in surprising ways, and yet retains a simple logic that allows viewers to purchase the mayhem at face value. It's a fresh take on horror that melts the genre's tropes into a cauldron of wicked fun and fright.
Cregger, a Whitest Kids U' Know alum whose previous effort was 2009's underrated comedy, Miss March, was perhaps inspired by Jordan Peele's uber-successful transition from comedy to horror. Whatever his motivations, Barbarian is a film you should watch first if you intend to explore post-modern horror at its finest.
Diabolique (Max)
Horror is experiencing a much-needed renaissance, but today's best entries on built on the shoulders of classics like Diabolique. Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, a French master of taut thrillers in the 50s, it features one of the best twist endings in cinema history that somehow still retains its potency 70 years later.
Like Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, the story starts with a murder. Mysteries begin piling but not adding up. A series of shocking visuals, even by today's standards, leads viewers down a hazy hall that culminates with a closing scene so brilliant and so outrageously evil it puts a large majority of films that have tried the same to shame.
Don't let the French language and black-and-white dissuade you--Diabolique hits just as hard today as it did in 1955.
Longlegs (Amazon Prime)
Longlegs is another auteur-driven horror film on this shortlist. With a brilliant marketing campaign and successful box office (at least for an indie genre film), it's much more than hype.
Longlegs follows Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), a highly perceptive FBI agent on the hunt for a serial killer who calls himself Longlegs (Nicolas Cage). As she gets closer to apprehending the mysterious and methodical killer, Harker plunges into a Satanic plot intertwined with her demons.
Much of Longlegs appeal comes from its chilling but sparse production design, brooding music, and creative camera movement. Writer-director Osgood Perkins creates a chilling sonic and visual tapestry that effectively makes Harker an avatar for the viewer--as she traverses into the shadows, so do you. The film has its shocking moments, sure, but instead relies on unsettling ambiance like Ari Aster's 2018 instant horror classic Hereditary.
Cage, no stranger to genre films, shifts into a new gear here--something incredibly difficult to accomplish with an oeuvre as varied as his. He's not on screen much, but when he arrives, boy does he make his present felt. Perkins comes from American film royalty: his father is legendary Psycho actor Anthony Perkins. A pedigree steeped in history like his deserves an entry in new-age horror cinema. So do we.