20 Best Horror Movies Since 2000

Finding decent horror films can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack. As one of the most popular genres of all time, there's an abundance of films available, most of which aren't up to scratch and only a handful of which get two bloody thumbs up.

In the 1980s the straight-to-video market flooded the market with cheap and nasty fare; nowadays the streaming services are where bad movies go to die. Combined with Hollywood's desire to get ever more bums on seats in movie theatres with the increasing number of PG-13 horror movie releases (surely an oxymoron of sorts), it's no wonder many old school horror fans are of the opinion that the genre is dying a slow and unfortunate death.

But dig a little deeper and there are plenty of great horror gems still being produced. Just when you think a horror concept - found footage, anthologies, vampires and zombies - have been exploited as much as is humanly possible, a smart and innovative film comes along which proves there's still plenty of life left in the old beast.

Here are the twenty best horror movies released since 2000, proving that, if anything, horror is going from strength to strength.

Horror anthology movies are more often misses than they are hits. The condensed run times of each entry makes it much more difficult for filmmakers to build tension and create the necessary atmosphere for the scares to be truly effective. Michael Dougherty's 2007 anthology Trick 'R Treat is a notable exception to the rule.

Four Halloween stories are told in Trick 'R Treat, with a weird kid wearing a burlap sack on his head tying these macabre tales together. A young vandal gets his comeuppance; a group of kids learn about a horrific accident involving mentally challenged children and a school bus; an old curmudgeonly man fends off unwanted trick or treaters from his home. Each tale is tightly told, with Dougherty showing a real flair for visuals.

Trick 'R Treat is a wonderful homage to classic anthology movies of the 1980s which managed to overcome a limited release and find its audience on home video, picking up a much-deserved cult following. Rumours of a sequel have been floating around since 2009, and Dougherty has expressed his desire to bring the franchise back to life following the release of Godzilla: King Of The Monsters.