8. Sunshine
I appreciate almost everything that Danny Boyle has directed. I also appreciate that hes challenged himself with many different genres, and while 28 Days Later is more directly a horror film, Im choosing to include Sunshine here, a suspense/thriller that nonetheless has many elements of horror. (I think, in a way, I could have picked almost any of Boyles films as they all seem to have some horrific components, like cutting off your own arm to avoid starving to death or watching a dead baby crawl across the ceiling thanks to a heroin trip.) Anyway, Sunshine has an intriguing concept and does a wonderful job of getting under your skin. The entire film takes place on a ship in space traveling to our dying sun with enough nuclear explosives to hopefully revive the life-giving star. At some point it becomes clear this is a journey from which none of the crew will be returning, and that, not surprisingly, makes many of them rather crazy. Unlike the first couple of films, there isnt much to laugh at here, but the direction and the performances (most notably by the always brilliant Cillian Murphy) leave you jumpy and claustrophobic. But unlike the crew of the Icarus II, you can escape whenever you want to.