The 25 Best Halloween Movies of XXI Century
If you're still wondering which would be the perfect film to watch on Halloween night, worry no more because we have you covered with a special selection of great dark films made in the XXI Century. We're not only focusing on horror films, we decided to open the criteria to cater all tastes, as long as obscure themes are present. This is the material your nightmares are made of: ghosts, witches, vampires, anarchist clowns, disturbed children, psychotic ballerinas, and, uhm, veneral diseases.... it all fits here.
25. What we do in the Shadows Dir. Taika Waititi & Jemaine Clement (New Zealand, 2014)
This fake documentary follows the life of four vampires that share a flat in contemporary New Zealand. It's a hilarious take on the vampiric myths reimagining them dealing with the hectic modern life in a way that puts Twilight to shame (Shame! Shame! Shame!).
24. The Babadook Dir. Jennifer Kent (Australia, 2014)
A woman is having problems with her disturbed child who swears that a monster lives in his closet, when suddenly a creepy pop-up book arrives at their home. It gives you the goosebumps while being a good metaphor for deep themes like family communication and understanding, and how all those things that we want to hide "in our personal closet" are the ones that will eat you from the inside.
23. Holy Motors Dir. Leos Carrax (France, 2012)
An experimental film that follows a man that goes along the day interpreting different characters: a beggar, an assassin, an executive, a mad goblin. This is pure surrealism that will frustrate people with low tolerance to non-narrative films, but for those who are open to the strangest kind of films, this will be an entire delight.
22. The Conjuring Dir. James Wan (United States, 2013)
A couple of demon busters goes to investigates the strange events that have been happening to a family. It's a very classic horror film, made with good taste and certitude, and it's treatment of demonic possessions reminds of The Exorcist and the very best of the genre.
21. Sweeney Todd Dir. Tim Burton (United States, 2007)
A goth musical that deals with a murderous barber and a sinister pie-maker. Burton's unique style works beautifully to adapt this Broadway piece to the cinema, and the team that he makes with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter is at its peak.
20. It follows Dir. David Robert Mitchell (United States, 2014)
Like a venereal disease from hell, you'll be haunted by deadly specters unless you pass them to somebody else through sex. A nonsensical idea that got serious and inventive approach, part indie film, part vintage horror, that makes it gripping and frightening.
19. El Orfanato (The Orphanage) Dir. José Antonio Bayona (Spain, 2007)
A woman goes back to the old orphanage where she grew up to suddenly discover that his son's new imaginary friend might not only be in his mind. It creates a slow tension that will leave you terrified of little children's games.
18. Ich seh, Ich seh (Goodnight, Mommy) Dir. Severin Fiala & Veronika Franz (Austria, 2014)
Two brothers believe that the woman that came back from a surgery it's not their real mother. With an style heavily influenced by the psychological horror of Michael Haneke, this creepy tale on the power of mind suggestion will make you consider never want to have child.
17. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Dir. Alfonso Cuarón (United Kingdom, 2004)
This was the film that moved Harry Potter from a kid's franchise to a much more obscure territory thanks to the masterful direction of Alfonso Cuarón. It is full of magic, fantastic animals, werewolves and those nightmarish creatures that eat your soul, the dementors.
16. El Espinazo del Diablo (The Devil's Backbone) Dir. Guillermo del Toro (Spain, 2001)
Set at the end of Spanish Civil War, it's the story of a kid that enters an orphanage that is haunted by the ghost of a former student. Del Toro creates dark atmospheres charged with political allegories, making a film that is as frightening as it is sad.
15. 28 Days Later Dir. Danny Boyle (United Kingdom, 2002)
A post-apocalyptic London after a virus has infected the population and turned them into zombie-like creatures. A great tone and magnificent opening sequences that lead to an interesting analysis on human mind and how we're transformed when our survival instinct is tested.
14. Saw Dir. James Wan (United States, 2004)
Two men found themselves chained in a room with instructions to kill each other in what turns out to be a sadist puzzle set out by a psycho. The first film by now horror master James Wan mixes gore with psychological games to make you part of the intimate terrifying action that he develops in smart plot twists and bloody scenes.
13. Donnie Darko Dir. Richard Kelly (United States, 2001)
A cult film that explores the dark imagination and hallucinations of a disturbed teenager after he survives a close-to-death experience. It's dark science fiction that is closer to David Lynch than it is to Steven Spielberg. That creepy bunny is nightmare material of the worst kind.
12. The Dark Knight Dir. Christopher Nolan (United States, 2008)
This film alone justifies superheroes costumes in Halloween. It's the film that saved the genre from infantilization and effectism by offering a dark history led by one of the best psychopats in film history: The Joker. Heath Ledger offers a perfect performance that is creepy and brutal in its explorations of anarchism and human mind.
11. Antichrist
Dir. Lars Von Trier (Denmark, 2009)
A couple retires to a cabin in the woods to cope with the loss of their only child, but soon the forest will awake to bring out the worst in them. It's a hard film, cryptic and delirious, but beautifully shot and with the usual pushing of boundaries that are usual in Von Trier's cinema. It's visually hypnotic, but also repulsive in its depiction of human nature.
10. The Witch Dir. Robert Eggers (United States, 2015)
A folk tale that explores in a serious and dark tone the witchcraft stories of the XVII century. The members of a christian farmer family start to transform when the baby of the family disappears and supernatural events begin. It's not a traditional horror film, but it's innovative and of a tremendous visual attraction.
9. Get Out Dir. Jordan Peele (United States, 2017)
A black guy goes for the weekend to meet the family of his white girlfriend, but soon he'll find that race prejudice is alive and is terrifying. The perfect horror film for the present Trump era, where there's nothing more dangerous and threatening as white supremacism.
8. Only Lovers Left Alive Dir. Jim Jarmusch (United Kingdom, 2013)
Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston are vampires disenchanted with modern world and whose existence is disrupted by the arrival of the wild sister of her. A contemporary take on the old vampire myth, with the delirious style of Jarmusch, a slow narrative and stunning aesthetic values, making it as cool as it can be.
7. Lat den Rätte Komma in (Let the Right One in) Dir. Tomas Alfredson (Sweden, 2008)
Set in the cold streets of a Swedish town, an outcast kid befriends a girl that is a vampire. It's the human-monster youth romance in an opposite direction to Twilight: dark, macabre and mature. The cold atmospheres and the construction of tension just take this film to the category of modern horror classic.
6. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night Dir. Ana Lily Amirpour (Iran, 2014)
Iranian feminist hipster vampires!!! Taking the myth to new heights, Amirpour's film is all about style, mixing gothic horror with pop culture, creating a fascinating underground world to adapt a (mostly) European tale to her native Middle Eastern world, with a kick-ass feminist undertone to kick in the ass the sexist trends that vampyrism has had in its long history.
5. Black Swan Dir. Darren Aronofsky (United States, 2010)
The descent to madness of a ballerina obsessed with perfection. This psychological drama is suffocating in its explorations of darkest part of the human mind, the tension is constructed in a masterly way and a perfect cinematic sense where the amazing visuals support the story to enhance its qualities. And what to say of Natalie Portman, by far her best performance to date, she nails the dualities in her character.
4. The Others Dir. Alejandro Amenábar (Spain, 2001)
A woman tries to educate her kids, who suffer a skin condition, in a victorian mansion under very strict religious rules, but the new employees will make them notice that they're not alone in the house. An elegant ghost history that slowly grows the tension of the story and reverse it with a brilliant plot twist right at the end.
3. We Need to Talk About Kevin Dir. Lynne Ramsay (United Kingdom, 2011)
If in principle this is not a horror movie, it will terrify you much more than any film with monsters. Jumping between the story of a mother dealing with the atrocious acts committed by her son, and the flashbacks of herself bringing up that kid, it deals with psychological themes on family relationships and the root of evil. Kevin is one of the most twisted characters in contemporary cinema, almost comparable with Norman Bates (but the opposite of that), and his story will leave you cold blooded.
2. Mulholland Drive Dir. David Lynch (Spain, 2007)
An aspiring actress arrives to Los Angeles, where she meets an amnesiac woman and together they'll try to find out who this woman really is. Lynch might be a surrealist, but this film is nightmares rather than dreams. The noir scenarios that he creates are deranged and asphyxiant, here we have a genius that will go to the darkest corners of the human mind and won't come back with answers but with even more questions to ask.
1. El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) Dir. Guillermo del Toro (Mexico, 2006)
A dark fairytale of a girl who, during the Spanish civil war, will find a fantasy world where a faun will reveal her that she's a princess, but to go back to her kingdom, she'll have to face three tasks. Del Toro not only creates an obscure universe full of fantastic creatures, he does it while create a subtext on a tragic historic time, being as rich in its visuals as it is in its narrative.
