20 Horror Movies From The 21st Century That Didn't Actually Suck

3. Sinister (2012)

Like several films on this list, this one might be a bit 'by the numbers' but it's no less effective for that. It plays on the found-footage sub-genre but only through the Super 8 film reels that Ethan Hawke's protagonist finds in his attic. It is a tightly wound film though which plays on the Boogeyman myth through the pagan deity Bughuul who murders families a kidnaps children.

Ellison Oswalt is a true crime writer who is researching murders in his newly bought house. It's when he discovers a series of snuff movies though that he begins to be truly terrified and, when he realises he's gone too far, he burns them...only for them to keep reappearing in the attic where he first found them.

Eventually, Bughuul begins to infect Oswalt's world but it's what he does to his children that is truly horrifying. Like many films on this list, it is a tight, well-crafted little film which, through Hawke's central performance and Scott Derrickson's writing and directing, manages to terrify you as the presence of Bughuul grows and grows.

The grainy Super 8 footage is pretty gruesome and Oswalt's investigation into the pagan myths makes sense (for a character that is pretty unlikeable). Again, we might have seen a lot of these elements in other films but they put together here in an inventive manner that truly has some scary moments.