The last decade has been great for horror. It's seen the rise of sophisticated spookiness with the likes of Hereditary and The VVitch, along with the continued box office dominance of James Wan's Conjuring franchise and the latest Stephen King adaptations. Heck, even Jim from The Office is a horror icon now.
All this suggests that audiences have not lost their craving for things that go bump in the night. If profits are anything to go by, Hollywood looks set to keep cranking out nightmare fuel for a long time to come.
Split (2017) - $278m Worldwide
Split is director M. Night Shyamalan's best movie in years. It's a Hitchcock-inspired thriller that centers on Barry (James McAvoy), a man with dissociative identity disorder who kidnaps two women for reasons known only to him (or them). The movie is held together by McAvoy's excellent performance as Barry's 23 personalities. (Patricia and Hedwig are particularly praiseworthy.)
Shyamalan is known for his twist endings, but Split is more like a puzzle that the audience slowly pieces together. With its intriguing premise and impressive acting, it's no surprise that Split was a hit. It spent three straight weeks at number one, a feat Shyamalan last accomplished in 1999 with The Sixth Sense.
A Quiet Place: Part II (2021) - $296m Worldwide
John Krasiniski's mostly silent A Quiet Place was one of the last's decade most original American horrors. Its premise - an attack by monsters with supersonic hearing - was clever and well-executed. The sequel might not be as good as the original, but it's still worth the price of admission.
A Quiet Place 2 isn't as committed to its silence gimmick as its predecessor. It has three times the dialogue and a lot more action. It's more of a generic monster flick along the lines of Alien and Jurassic Park. However, the movie does succeed in exploring the danger posed by other humans in its post-apocalyptic landscape. Much of the story hinges on Emily Blunt's attempts to win over the help of their one-time family friend Emmett (Cillian Murphy), who is now a cynical loner. Murphy is great as the gruff Emmett, and Blunt delivers yet again as a mother fighting to keep her family alive.
Annabelle: Creation (2017) - $305m Worldwide
Of the top 10 highest-grossing horrors of the last 10 years, a full four of them take place in James Wan's Conjuring universe. Unfortunately, Annabelle: Creation might be the weakest entry, though it certainly had a strong box office showing. The film, which explores the origins of the haunted doll, has a few good scares, but mostly serves up horror clichés.
Nevertheless, Annabelle: Creation clearly resonated with audiences. As Child's Play and its infinite spinoffs proved, it's hard to go wrong with a killer doll.
The Conjuring 2 (2016) - $310m Worldwide
The Conjuring 2 revolves around the Enfield poltergeist alleged to have terrorized an English family in the 1970s. While the haunting appears to have been a hoax, James Wan successfully spins it into a decent horror movie. A lot of the scares come from the skillful camerawork by Oscar-winning cinematographer Don Burgess. The film uses forced perspective, camera trickery, and zoom shots for most of its frights. In this regard, it draws on 1970s horror classics like The Shining and The Omen.
Most of all, The Conjuring succeeds because its lead characters are likable and complex. They have detailed backstories and conflicting motivations. The audience can invest in them. This sets the franchise apart from the bulk of horror movies which tend to be heavy on jump scares but light on character.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) - $314m Worldwide
The final installment in the Resident Evil series received mixed reviews but performed well at the box office, likely due to the fan loyalty it had built up over the previous years. Based on the bestselling videogames, Resident Evil is a sci-fi zombie saga starring Milla Jovovich as a resistance fighter/leather enthusiast.
The CGI is decent and its depiction of a post-apocalyptic Washington D.C. deserves kudos, but overall Resident Evil: The Final Chapter just rehashes tropes we've seen before. Its title isn't even accurate, since a reboot was released in 2021. Go figure.
The Conjuring (2013) - $317m Worldwide
Director James Wan burst onto the scene with 2004's mega-hit Saw, but The Conjuring might be his best work. Looking for a project that would allow him to explore real people's lives, Wan got to work on his next project. Enter Ed and Lorraine Warren, real-life demonologists played to perfection by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga.
Wan's films can be over-the-top (see 2020's Malignant) but The Conjuring is surprisingly restrained. It eschews gore and mayhem for creaking floorboards and an unsettling score. (Not to mention that iconic 'clap' scene.) Farmiga is also convincing as the clairvoyant Lorraine. She convincingly portrays the toll her powers take on her. The Conjuring revamped tropes from The Exorcist and Poltergeist for a 21st-century audience, proving that the ghost story still has some life in it.
A Quiet Place (2018) - $334m Worldwide
A Quiet Place is set in a post-apocalyptic world where even the smallest noise might get you killed. The film uses this premise to great effect. There is almost no dialogue, with the characters instead communicating via sign language. All it takes is a lingering shot of a gun or an exposed nail in the floor to build tension.
Horror giant Stephen King praised the film. "The main thing is the SILENCE," he wrote. "And how it makes the camera's eye open wide in a way few movies manage." A Quiet Place set a high bar for original American horror movies and proved that audiences will follow filmmakers to new places, provided they have the talent to pull it off.
The Nun (2018) - $363m Worldwide
Another lightweight entry in the Conjuring universe, The Nun tells the story of a demon that torments a monastery in 1950s Romania. The cinematography and set design are great, as one would expect from the franchise. Director Corin Hardy nails the sense of Gothic dread that hangs over the monastery.
On the other hand, The Nun lacks the fleshed out characters and realistic emotions that made The Conjuring so engrossing. The script doesn't give stars Taissa Farmiga and Demián Bichir much to work with. It mostly just shuffles them from jump scare to jump scare. The result is a run-of-the-mill possession flick that comes across as half-baked and superficial, but there's no denying that it found its audience and then some.
It: Chapter Two (2019) - $469m Worldwide
It: Chapter Two is a mostly faithful adaptation of Stephen King's iconic novel which follows the main characters as adults. Pennywise is back, and the heroes must finish what they started as kids. Chapter Two isn't as good as the original, but the acting is still solid. The leads have great chemistry, and Bill Hader is especially entertaining as the loudmouth Richie.
The highlight is Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise. He creates his own take on the killer clown which is different from the original performance by Tim Curry and Heath Ledger's iconic Joker. Pennywise has madcap energy. He veers from jokes to violence at a moment's notice. Skarsgard's turn as Pennywise is sure to go down as one of the all-time great horror villains.
It: Chapter One (2017) - $701m Worldwide
It: Chapter One is the last decade's horror juggernaut - and for good reason. It follows the main characters as adolescents and plays out like an even darker version of Stand By Me (also based on a King story). As with The Conjuring, a lot of It's appeal comes from the realistic way it portrays its characters. Each of them has a tragic backstory that makes them vulnerable to Pennywise. But the characters also find some solace in each other. The camaraderie between them is well-developed and genuinely touching.
It has achieved cult status because it's much more than just a horror movie. It's an ode to the joys of childhood, but also the dangers. The result is one of the decade's best films in any genre.