Horror cinema underwent a significant resurgence throughout the 2010s. After years of despair, cheap thrills, and faltering, franchise-laden productions, the decade saw the genre re-ignited as a terrifying playground for social commentary that reveled in engaging with trending topics in a manner that was both innovative and enthralling. The universal acclaim of releases like Get Out, Hereditary, and A Quiet Place is evidence of this.
However, for every gem that breached mainstream interest, plenty of harrowing horrors were overlooked by the masses. Ranging from pulsating possession flicks that critics frankly misunderstood to genre-meshing masterpieces that were enjoyed by far too few, these terrifying titles serve as a testament to the depth and quality of the genre throughout the 2010s. They are worthy and quite powerful horrors that deserve far more attention.
2010: ‘Bedevilled’
A significant reason for horror cinema’s revival throughout the decade was the influx of foreign films that mastered the genre’s tropes. While it didn’t garner the acclaim it deserved, Bedevilled is a prime example of horror brilliance on the international stage. The South Korean chiller follows Hae-won (Hwang Geum-hee), a callous woman who, after being fired from her bank job, begrudgingly vacations to her childhood home of Mudo, a socially depraved remote island, at the behest of a former friend. When she finds herself entrenched in a vile world of mental, physical, and sexual abuse, Hae-won must fight to get away from the island and the monstrous evils it harbors.
While it suffered commercially in a difficult middle ground between K-horror brutality and arthouse intrigue, Bedevilled is an exceptional and original gem of horror cinema. Its two female protagonists present two starkly opposed yet completely enticing character studies, while debut director Jang Cheol-soo exhibits a natural talent for slow-burning suspense and shock horror. Granted, its confronting depiction of sexual assault and graphic violence ensures Bedevilled won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but it remains an underrated triumph of foreign horror ferocity.
2011: ‘Absentia’
The directorial debut of Mike Flanagan, Absentia features many of the filmmaker’s defining talents, particularly his penchant for psychological horror, ability to conjure searing atmospheric intensity, and emphasis on emotionally-charged characters to complement the horror spectacle. Sadly, the 2011 supernatural horror didn’t amount to anything of commercial significance upon release—despite its promising reviews—and hasn’t gained much retrospective audience interest in the years since Flanagan’s emergence as a horror maestro.
The story of a pregnant woman still reeling from her husband’s disappearance seven years prior gives the film a strong emotional basis, while the mystery’s link to a strange tunnel inhabited by an unnatural being imbues it with an unshakable eeriness. Like many of Flanagan’s stories, Absentia thrives at taking familiar horror tropes and injecting them with something original, all while building suspense through mood and implications rather than relying on jump scares or cheap visual thrills. Further bolstered by its ambiguity, Absentia lingers on the viewer’s mind, excelling as a quiet gem of dread-inducing horror that marks the origin of one of the genre’s current masterminds.
2012: ‘Resolution’
The first feature film collaboration between Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, 2012’s Resolution is an astonishing feat of low-budget filmmaking, with the production budget coming in at just $20,000. The directing duo stretches the limited finances in extraordinary fashion, realizing a tense story of strained friendship, cult extremism, and otherworldly terror with engrossing emotional stakes and plenty of horrifying chills.
The film follows Michael (Peter Cilella), a soon-to-be father who ventures into a remote rural area to launch one final effort to help his friend, who suffers from drug addiction. Through a series of unexpected revelations that see Michael’s efforts turn into a desperate fight for survival, the film ratchets up the suspense throughout its 93-minute runtime, with its slow-burn approach building up to a truly frightful and unsettling final stretch. It drew comparisons to 2011’s The Cabin in the Woods for its clever meta-horror, but with an emphasis on emotional stakes and character rather than comedy, Resolution excels as a uniquely captivating horror that balances dread and drama with sublime craft.
2013: ‘Oculus’
Another underrated horror from Mike Flanagan, Oculus is a uniquely personal project for the filmmaker, given that it is based on a short film he directed years prior. The movie unfurls over two different timelines set 11 years apart. In 2002, the Russell family moves into a new house, where the parents become increasingly psychotic following the acquisition of an antique mirror. In 2013, Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites) is released from a psychiatric hospital and reunites with his sister, Kaylie (Karen Gillan), who believes their parents were killed by a supernatural entity.
Not dissimilar to Absentia, Oculus sees Flanagan take a familiar horror concept and explore it with a focus on the emotional weight of its story and the journeys its characters go through. While it is far from Flanagan’s best picture, it still flaunts all his trademark intricacies and was too hastily dismissed as another cheap haunted house horror. Still, Oculus is an underrated dual-narrative chiller that is impressively efficient and artful with its outbursts of terror and its sense of mounting dread.
2014: ‘As Above, So Below’
As a 2014 release, As Above, So Below’s found-footage approach does have a certain air of gimmicky opportunism, one that saw critics dismiss the film as a knock-off failure. Still, it holds some genuinely impressive qualities that have endeared it to the horror fans who have seen it. It tracks a documentary team as they descend deep into the catacombs of Paris in search of the philosopher’s stone. However, as they find themselves disoriented hundreds of metres below the streets, the crew also starts to suspect they are being hunted by a malevolent supernatural presence.
While its premise isn’t exactly the most original, the film still delivers a tense viewing experience propelled by its masterful ability to extract a palpable sense of claustrophobic suspense from its found-footage pandemonium. For genre purists, As Above, So Below is appropriately intense viewing, laced with some truly disturbing moments to be a worthy entry to the pantheon of found-footage horror. It deserved a hell of a lot more than the derision it received when it premiered.
2015: ‘We Are Still Here’
The polar opposite of As Above, So Below, We Are Still Here was widely celebrated by critics upon release, but failed to gain traction with the public, with a sect of horror fans dismissing it entirely. Whether this was because of its emphasis on character over terror or because it adds so many new ideas to the haunted house concept is up for debate. However, there is a certainty in the notion that the 2015 supernatural horror stands as an underrated gem 10 years on.
It focuses on grieving parents Anne (Barbara Crampton) and Paul Sacchetti (Andrew Sensenig) as they relocate to a rural home in New England to come to terms with their heartache. However, they soon discover their new home harbors a dark secret that could destroy the whole town if it is unleashed. Intelligent, brilliantly acted, and imbued with a mesmerizing sense of style, We Are Still Here is a sharp and effective horror rife with impactful jump scares and a festering suspense that keeps viewers glued to their chairs.
2016: ‘A Dark Song’
Atmospheric, unsettling, and reinvigorating in how it handles horror tropes, A Dark Song is an overlooked gem of a movie from Ireland and the UK that brings a new dramatic depth and isolated intrigue to séance suspense. Sophia Howard (Catherine Walker) rents a house in a remote area of Wales so that she and occultist expert Joseph Solomon (Steve Oram) can perform an extensive and dangerous ritual that will allow Sophia to communicate with her guardian angel and speak with her dead son.
With the horror amplifying as the ritual grows darker and more demonic, A Dark Song utilizes horror magnificently to explore the main characters’ convictions and reveal the hidden motivations that drive them. Complemented by impressive technical filmmaking all-around and two compelling lead performances, A Dark Song may be light on visceral fear, but as a clever procedural exploration of faith and the supernatural, it has an uncanny ability to worm its way into the viewer’s mind and stay there long after the credits roll.
2017: ‘One Cut of the Dead’
Spearheaded by the commercial success of films like Get Out, It, and The Ritual, 2017 stands as a defining year for horror, especially in the context of the genre’s rampant resurgence in the latter part of the decade. As such, it is understandable that One Cut of the Dead, a frightful and feverishly funny spin on zombie horror, flew under the radar despite its unique and fiercely impressionable qualities.
The Japanese horror picture follows the cast and crew of an ambitious indie horror production as director Tatayuki Higurashi (Tatayuki Hamatsu), unhappy with how the picture is going, uses a blood pentagram to bring real zombies to life. As the cast and crew fight for survival, Higurashi orchestrates carnage and chaos in the name of good coverage. Maniacally meta and a joyous medley of monster horror mayhem, One Cut of the Dead is an underrated sensation, a marvel of pulsating horror fun that genre enthusiasts and film lovers alike can appreciate.
2018: ‘Summer of 84’
2018 marked another great year for horror cinema, which saw the innovation, originality, and technical mastery of filmmakers progress the genre into the future with such releases as Hereditary, Annihilation, and A Quiet Place. Therefore, it is somewhat ironic that one of the year’s most underrated horror movies was as much an indulgent dose of nostalgia as it was a scintillating thrillfest. Summer of 84 follows a conspiracy theorist teenager as he becomes obsessed with the idea that his next-door neighbor, a well-liked member of the police force, is an active serial killer and enlists his friends to help him find answers.
Granted, the film’s nostalgic quality proves to be a double-edged sword, with its enthralling intrigue sometimes overplaying its hand. Still, Summer of 84 provides plenty of jolting jump scares and a rich and immersive atmosphere of the wonder of ‘80s America, laced, of course, with the inviting allure of horror intensity. It is a sublime and suspenseful summer stunner that had every right to become a far bigger hit than it did.
2019: ‘Saint Maud’
An entrancing blend of psychological horror, philosophical pondering, and religious drama, Saint Maud loads its sharp 84-minute runtime with a plethora of well-developed ideas about humanity and faith that are made compelling through the depth and detail of its central characters. Morfydd Clark stars as a private palliative care nurse who, having recently become a devout Catholic, tries to save the soul of a hedonistic and atheist patient. As her plan backfires, however, Maud begins to grow delusional as she becomes completely obsessed with her faith.
Saint Maude is as confident as it is wickedly unsettling, a relentlessly tense and taut horror that juggles themes of belief, redemption, loneliness, and desire with engaging depth and craft. Despite earning widespread critical acclaim, the British picture has made little to no impact with horror fans and general moviegoers, solidifying it as a sadly overlooked horror movie that uses the darkness of the genre to incredible effect. It was the directorial debut of Rose Glass, who went on to experience more success with her sophomore outing, 2024’s Love Lies Bleeding.
