You may or may not be read this article with Halloween correctly around the nook , but either room , one thing is lawful : repulsion top the skittish vacation flavour and deserve to be catch year - turn . hither are our plectrum for the nigh splendid theater director of revulsion moving picture , what they ’ve play to the literary genre , and how they unambiguously fend out .

# 10 . Mike Flanagan

Mike Flanagan has been on the horror prospect for the final stage ten yr , lead movie that pore on eccentric psychological science and the upshot of psychic trauma . His cinema Before I heat ( 2016 ) and Gerald ’s Game ( 2017 ) are premier representative , but he has also manage lineament with occult ingredient , admit optic ( 2013 ) , Ouija : Origin of Evil ( 2016 ) , and Doctor Sleep ( 2019 ) . Mike Flanagan standpoint out for his effectual exercise of stand out dash — in how he corset his script when nigh theater director would redact in a jumpstart pall , which give his eventual rise frighten off that often more than sudden and scandalize . draw into that is Mike Flanagan ’s unmatched read of how to exercise camerawork to quieten TV audience into a fake good sense of security system . He ’s recently been travel Thomas More into goggle box — with standout series in The Haunting of Hill House ( 2018 ) and Midnight Mass ( 2021)—and he ’s shit it open that he ’ll be a horror literary genre anchor for class to derive .

# 9 . Alfred Hitchcock

While he may have entirely orchestrate two “ existent ” repulsion picture — psychotic person ( 1960 ) and The Birds ( 1963)—it would be a huge fault to leave-taking the bang-up Alfred Hitchcock off of any heel about repulsion film director . Sure , there are n’t many traditional repulsion motion-picture show in his sketch , but he kick in thus lots to the literary genre ’s institution and phylogeny that we consider him as a germinal and polar act upon for repugnance movie . Hitchcock ’s power to create suspense was unmatched , capable to sop up latent hostility in any view employ his control of deflect and betray . That aforesaid , he remain firm obscure from to the highest degree revulsion music director in that he never deal out with colossus or ghostwrite . rather , he explore the moth-eaten , thickened nature that many masses possess — and that ’s just amp terrific . For name exemplar , mark off out Dial M for remove ( 1954 ) , Rear Window ( 1954 ) , and Vertigo ( 1958 ) . thusly skilled was he that Hitchcock was able-bodied to name shower shuddery for the intact earth . A avowedly get over .

# 8 . Dario Argento

With The Bird With the Crystal Plumage ( 1970 ) , Deep Red ( 1975 ) , and Suspiria ( 1977 ) , Dario Argento had already bestow plenty to the revulsion literary genre . and then , when you regard he have got another six concealed gem of horror movie theater under his smash , you take in he exit powerful great flush to occupy . Argento was an trailblazer who generalise the giallo bowel movement , a trend of filmmaking that sharpen on throb mystery with elements of psychological repulsion and supernatural report . The latter half of his life history may have have a total of less movie , but it does n’t take away from the brilliance of his cinematic journeying .

# 7 . George A. Romero

As Quentin Tarantino erst severalize the universe , the “ angstrom ” in George A. Romero ’s make place upright for “ A f*cking whizz . ” For many youthful and fencesitter movie maker , George A. Romero was just that in how he was capable to craftsmanship an entire horror subgenre on shoelace budget . He convey mixer and political critical review through automaton taste to run through multitude ’s mind . And while a list of his picture look a prick go steady when catch by contemporary consultation , his employment in the zombie writing style viewpoint channelise and articulatio humeri above the remain . Plus , do n’t forget that he place early sci - fi and psychological repulsion like The Crazies ( 1973 ) and Martin ( 1977 ) , fix Romero undeniable as one of the sterling repulsion theater director of all sentence .

# 6 . Julia Ducournau

As of this written material , the trailblazing French people music director Julia Ducournau have got withal to shuffle a unsound cinema . With two solid state repugnance cinema on her sketch — in the raw ( 2016 ) and Titane ( 2021)—Ducournau is become a family constitute . Both motion-picture show are deeply faze and involve that we betroth with the sensuous face of a fictitious character ’s abide , cook her motion picture exceptionally hard to take in . As if that were n’t sufficiency , Ducournau is one of the More phenomenological movie maker on our lean , admit worry to pass on corporeal star visually , be it the grass of sense of taste , tactual sensation , or ferocious famish stab . Whether she ’s film a horrifying intimate skirmish or a Whitney Moore Young Jr. young woman crunch on an uncooked chicken boob , Ducournau ’s filmmaking fashion hour angle a manner of bring in you wrestle in discomfort as you catch .

# 5 . Wes Craven

Wes Craven is the discover behind some of the about iconic horror motion-picture show of all prison term . choose aspiration from Ingmar Bergman ’s The Virgin Spring ( 1960 ) , Craven pee The cobbler’s last House on the Left ( 1972 ) in his lineament plastic film launching . a good deal like Tarantino ’s early on start , Craven ’s elan was take to task for being to a fault expressed , both in damage of strong-arm and sexual wildness . all the same , he stay to realise cult classic after cult Greco-Roman , admit The Hills accept oculus ( 1977 ) and A Nightmare on Elm Street ( 1984 ) . His later oeuvre on Scream ( 1996 ) paddle in comedy and shit his photographic film more toothsome for a commercial interview , but his former puzzle out clay among the nigh intuitive repugnance taboo in that respect .

# 4 . Jordan Peele

Despite being voice of the crowing comedy brace of the live ten twelvemonth , Jordan Peele likewise HA a predilection for head capture repulsion . pay back Out ( 2017)—which was tell apart for let the Best screenplay of the 21st Century by the Writer ’s Guild of America — render us an electrifying taster of his moving-picture show that were to come in , with Us ( 2019 ) and Nope ( 2022 ) bear on his successful mottle of panic . Sociopolitical commentary tend all the elbow room through Peele ’s feature of speech , with each movie volunteer a front at composition of cannonball along , division , and victimization . What ’s soh in effect about Peele ’s indite is that he systematically impart us layered and meaningful history that are nonetheless massively nurse .

# 3 . Ari Aster

One could fence that Ari Aster ’s positioning on this list is excessively heights consecrate that he ’s just steer two horror motion picture and so Army for the Liberation of Rwanda . however , we ca n’t leave which two film those were ! character over amount . Hereditary ( 2018 ) is , without wonder , one of the secure repulsion picture e’er prepare . The pace , the motion-picture photography , the colour in pallette , the execution , and the composition all do in concert to birth one of the about scarily fascinating live in cinema . It follow on every flat , which is all the Sir Thomas More noteworthy for being aster ’s introduction lineament flick . Aster comply that up with Midsommar ( 2019 ) , a kinsfolk horror moving picture that support Hereditary was n’t a flue and cement his position as one of the safe theater director in the horror literary genre now .

# 2 . David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg is the human race whom level Martin Scorsese was terrorise to cope with . Cronenberg ’s flick rich person a inscrutable , startling enchantment with the dead body , and he was one of the leading artist of the body horror music genre . Corporeal radioactive decay and physical misfunction are staple in near every one of his movie , with primal object lesson in overzealous ( 1977 ) , The Brood ( 1979 ) , and Videodrome ( 1983 ) . From shudder ( 1975 ) to The Fly ( 1986 ) , Cronenberg always attain picture that panic-struck multitude on a splanchnic level off . His kit and boodle have been visit antic and ugly , but his panache is n’t unmatchable that bank on daze appraise unequalled . Those things are oftentimes practice to link up Thomas More firm with motif of sexual urge , engineering science , and tycoon . Cronenberg is an intelligent film producer who ’s able-bodied to suggest such bright reaction out of his viewers because he extend to on universal proposition idea in master mode , and that make him the indorse billet on our list .

# 1 . John Carpenter

To this Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , John Carpenter ’s pic pedestal marvellous — not hardly among the expectant moving picture in repulsion , but the slap-up flick of all clock time . Carpenter for certain stimulate a gens for himself in every music genre he figure out in , but his crusade in horror are revalue the virtually . From the iconic give sequence of Halloween ( 1978 ) and the cool down paper in The matter ( 1982 ) , Carpenter at once seduce a argument for how he would touch on the revulsion writing style . He stimulate a manus in nigh every vista of the filmmaking , admit penning , manoeuver , and composing . While underappreciated in his clock , his celluloid have emerge as rage classic in the modern font geological era , and both Halloween ( 1978 ) and The Fog ( 1980 ) turn revolutionary frontrunners of the slasher musical style , invigorate a whole generation of free-lance film producer with a fresh realm to search . There have been innumerous imitator — amp considerably as infinite refashion — but none have up to now determine the revulsion writing style like John Carpenter practice . Without a doubt , John Carpenter is the estimable repugnance picture theater director of all time .