10 Nastiest Horror Films Since 2000

Making his feature debut, Xavier Gens (Hitman) takes no prisoners and delivers one of the best meat movies never to feature Leatherface, throwing in everything from cannibalistic neo-Nazis to mutant children. Heads explode, bodies are ripped apart by a circular saw and heads are bashed in, but what makes Gens’ movie stand out from the pack is the setting.

It’s the not-too-distant future, where the extreme right wing is vying for control (“We’re where America was 10 years ago,” says one character, “we’ve got our George Bush now”), leading to riots that leave the cities ablaze. Taking advantage of the chaos, a group of Muslim Arab youths attempt a robbery that goes wrong and leaves them running for their lives, but they can find no refuge even in the middle of nowhere.

Seeking shelter at an isolated hostel, the gang encounters a group of fascists who refer to them as “half breeds” and set about dispatching them in the grisliest ways possible, even cutting one member’s Achilles tendons before locking him in a shed with pigs. The subtext is as loud as a jukebox: if it’s okay for politicians to preach hatred and violence, why not everyone?