15 Best Horror Movie Directors Ever

The masters of our darkest dreams.

By Ian Watson / February 21, 2016

Its apt that the horror film, where misshapen characters are usually left ignored in the basement, should be treated in the same way by critics who compile all-time best lists. Look at any of the Best Director lists drawn up by respectable critics, and one thing becomes clear: horror filmmakers are not welcome. Theyll allow in directors whove made comedies (Spike Jonze) and thrillers (David Fincher), but if you choose to dabble in the most disreputable genre on a regular basis, dont bother writing that AFI acceptance speech. This is an oversight because horror is one of the most difficult genres to get right and in the wrong hands it becomes funny or, worse, a pretentious bore that mistakes posturing for profundity. Even if its only mere entertainment, whats wrong with that? There are plenty of garlanded filmmakers whove never entertained an audience. In compiling this list, certain rules had to be adhered to: no directors with single credits in the genre (Stanley Kubrick), no directors who are not perceived as horror filmmakers (David Lynch) and no directors who made their first film after 2000. Time will tell if James Wan, Neil Marshall and Ti West deserve to be added later on, but in the meantime, here are the 15 horror filmmakers whove already proved their worth.

15. Sam Raimi

If The Evil Dead is the Velvet Underground of horror (everyone who watches it makes their own zombie movie), then Sam Raimi is the genres Lou Reed, starting small before going on to worldwide renown. Like Reed, every time he manages to annoy his fan base, he goes back to his roots and everything is forgiven. Every time a new horror comedy opens, youre seeing a movie made by someone who grew up watching Evil Dead II (1987), a film that, its fair to say, lingers in the mind longer than Spider-Man 3. Stylish, manic and highly original, it set the bar for such films, and like a good wine it only gets better with age. Raimi is one of the genres most energetic directors, and his energy carries not just the Dead films, but also Darkman (1990) and Drag Me To Hell (2009). His low ranking reflects the fact that he turned his back on the genre to make a Western with Sharon Stone, which frankly is unforgivable.