The 2010s have very quickly become known as one of the greatest decades for horror cinema in the history of the medium. It could be strongly argued that there had never previously been a better time to be a horror filmmaker or viewer. To say that horror audiences are spoiled for choice would be putting it very mildly.
However, one subgenre of horror seemed to get lost by the wayside through the 2010s: slasher movies. All the subgenre's iconic franchises had ended or paused, except for Halloween's revival trilogy. Many of these slasher movies either didn't get the marketing they needed or were reviewed negatively on release: looking back, one can find plenty of underrated, hidden gems.
10 'The Babysitter' (2017)
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In this McG-directed film, a child who stays up past his bedtime finds out that his babysitter is part of a Satanic cult and must fight for his life against them. The Babysitter was reviewed well when it came out and did well enough to justify a sequel.
However, like many other hidden gems on Netflix, it noticeably suffered from being released at a time when Netflix was flooding the marketplace with content and received little long-term attention. This is a shame, as the film is much, much better than one would expect a horror comedy from the director of Terminator: Salvation to be, with impressive kills and an all-timer villain performance from Samara Weaving.
9 'Green Room' (2015)
In this Jeremy Saulnier-directed film, a punk band, The Ain't Rights, takes a questionable-sounding gig out of financial desperation and finds themselves trapped in a neo-Nazi bar fighting for their lives. While not structured as a traditional slasher, instead resembling something closer to John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, Green Room is a film with a keen awareness of the parallels between the siege movie and the slasher.
Over the course of the film, the characters are whittled down one by one in exceptionally bloody and brutal ways, lending it a sense of dread and unease that's difficult to match. Green Room has achieved some presence in pop culture, but the film was an absolute financial bomb, which stands as one of horror cinema's true injustices.
8 'Hell Fest' (2018)
In this throwback slasher, a mask-wearing killer attacks a group of teens attending a Halloween-themed amusement park. Hell Fest's reception was marked by the criticism that it brings nothing new to the table and has no original ideas; every single idea in it has been done before.
However, that's both the film's downfall and the film's greatest asset. Sometimes, it's nice to see a movie simply play the hits reasonably well, and Hell Fest delivers that; it's a perfectly competent slasher that deserves to be seen as such.
7 'The Gallows' (2015)
In this found-footage slasher, on the 20th anniversary of a horrific accident at a school play, the school's current students attempt to revive the play and instead accidentally revive an extremely angry ghost with a fixation on nooses.
With a 1.89 on Letterboxd, a 4.2 on IMDB, and a staggering 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, The Gallows is certainly one of the more maligned horror films of the decade, and it's by no means good in the traditional sense. However, it's a lot more watchable than that level of heat would ordinarily indicate. The film successfully lands somewhere around so-bad-it's-good and is a lot more entertaining than it should be.
6 'The Editor' (2014)
In this giallo throwback made by the production studio Astron-6 (of later The Void and Psycho Goreman fame), a one-handed film editor working in Italy finds himself the suspect in a series of brutal murders.
From its very first frame, The Editor strikes a balance between parody and masterful tribute perfectly. It's made with a real love and care towards the films it draws influence from, absent from many throwback films, and it has an incredible soundtrack (keep an ear out for Carpenter Brut's "Le Perv" over a chase scene). Astron-6 has had difficulty getting to their current prominence in indie horror, and their early work demands just as much attention as their new films.
5 'Maniac' (2012)
In this remake of the hyper-violent 1980 cult classic, Elijah Wood plays a serial killer tormented by trauma and delusions. It's difficult, though not impossible, for a remake to escape the shadow of its original.
However, Alexandre Aja's remake of Maniac successfully finds its own identity with its first-person perspective and its synthwave score by Robin Coudert. While the film slipped many radars when it first released, it stands the test of time well and deserves a look from any fan of slasher cinema.
4 'Clown' (2014)
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In this chiller from Jon Watts (of later Spider-Man: Homecoming fame), a man finds himself transforming into a mutant killer clown upon donning a cursed clown costume.
This film fell under the radar upon its release, due partly to having been shelved for years (it was initially filmed in 2012 and did not see an American release until 2016), and that's a shame. Clown is an inventive little creature feature, with surprisingly good effects for the budget and a mile-wide mean streak. It deserves much more attention than it's gotten.
3 'The Bye Bye Man' (2017)
In this horror film, three college students find themselves summoning a ludicrously-named supernatural entity that targets anyone who knows about it.
The Bye-Bye Man might just be one of this century's most widely mocked horror films, and it's not hard to see why. The film's title sounds hilarious, and its theatrical PG-13 rating does it no favors. However, the unrated cut of this film (widely available on home video) is a reasonably competent slasher; it's not perfect, but it punches above its title's weight.
2 'Stitches' (2012)
In this Irish horror-comedy, an unfunny clown passes away in a brutal accident at a child's tenth birthday party; six years later, the traumatized now-teenager finds himself stalked by the clown's vengeful revenant.
This film has received almost no attention, and that's a shame because it's an all-timer. There are some absolutely brutal kills in this involving a can opener and an umbrella, and one of the all-time great head explosions in cinema history. In addition, for those who like their slashers lore-heavy, Stitches builds up a surprisingly interesting mythology for its killer, making it a shame the film never received sequels. The film easily merits a look from any fan of the subgenre.
1 'Death Note' (2017)
In this Adam Wingard-directed adaptation of the classic anime, Light Turner (Nat Wolff) finds himself in possession of a notebook that kills people and uses it to create chaos. Rarely is a film as widely maligned as Death Note, and even more rarely is it this undeserved. On its own, the film stands well as a piece with Wingard's other, better-regarded horror films of the same era; there's nothing here that a fan of You're Next or The Guest wouldn't fully expect and love, with some absolutely wild kills and an all-timer synthwave soundtrack.
As an adaptation, the film manages to carry over the intended subtext of its source well, arguably better than said source's English translations do; Death Note has always been a criticism of Japan's attitudes towards law and order, and its 2017 adaptation effectively reframes it as a criticism of American law and order. The film is much better than its reputation would suggest and demands a revisit from film fans.