Over the last 4 decades we’ve had Wes Craven, John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper and David Cronenberg amongst others, carrying the flag for horror and bringing a genre that hadn’t really peeked since the monster movies of the 30’s and 40’s back into the eyes of cinema goers. Bringing with them blood, franchises and above all characters that have been feared and loved ever since.

 

 

Since then Hollywood has had a merchant for remakes and bringing back the dead to films that have had dozens of sequels and trying hard to replicate their success. Unforetunatley, while the remakes and new visions for films made for a previous generation bring in money for the studios, we’ve seen it all before with real prosthetics and not the new wave of CGI laziness.

 

 

Amongst the regurgitated shmuck, there are some gems arising in the horror scene that many will overlook due to the advertising of famous killers of yesteryear but let there be no mistake, where Carpenter gave us Myers, Craven gave us Freddy and Scream, Sean S. Cunningham gave us some of the best in cheap, filthy horror including Jason Vorhees and Hooper gave us the infamous Leatherface, over the next generation there will be more film makers creating their own legacy and placing themselves in the Horror Hall of Fame.

 

 

Ben Wheatley

Kill List, Sightseers, ABC’s of Death

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‘Kill List’ was brilliantly written and directed as to not know or expect any of the horrors that await and while the first half is a slow moving drama about two ex-army now job for hire guys, it soon develops into a haunting and violent film.

 

New film ‘Sightseers’ is set to follow suit with it’s typically British style and toning down on the grim reality of ‘Kill List’ to create a comedy of shocks as a couple go off the rails on a killing spree, gaining the nickname on the film circuit as, ‘Natural Born Caravanners’. In Ben’s own words, "It's not as dark as Kill List, I'd have to shoot a child in the head live on television to be darker than that, but it has the same humour and the same worldview. But it's also quite romantic, a bit more of a love story."

 

And with his directorial segment on ‘ABC’s of Death’ he has surely carved his name in the cemetery of horror.Wheatley is the one to look out for when it comes to dark mixology of genres that ultimately bring the horror a sinister reality.

 

 

​Soska Sisters

Dead Hooker in a Trunk, American Mary



The Canadian twins have made a name for themselves as the new Queens of Horror within the underground thanks to grindhouse cult classic ‘Dead Hooker in a Trunk’.

 

The modest film written, directed, produced, starring, and stunted by the twins was made on a modest budget thanks to Robert Rodriguez book ‘Rebel Without A Crew’. With the twins love for horror and grindhouse their determination and artistic direction led to the film receiving great applause at several film festivals and becoming a cult hit.

 

After the release of the film, the twins set up their own production company ‘Twisted Twins Productions’ in which they have begun their legacy to bring horror from the back of Hollywoods alley to the forefront of Cinemas screens.

 

Making several short films with the new company, the twins set about writing a new feature length and pitching the idea to several big name horror directors including Rob Zombie, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino to name a few, it was none other than gore fest ‘Hostel’ director Eli Roth that took to the twins nad after seeing a few ideas, requested the script to ‘American Mary’, “The one about the med student”.To the twins surprise as this was their most ‘twisted’ idea they put the script forward and got ‘Ginger Snaps’ star Kristina Isabella gripped from the first page. The most shocking of all was having the backing of none other than Monster house Universal take up ‘American Mary’ for distribution rights. Showing the film at Film4’s FrightFest in London, the film has been highly rated by even the harshest of film critics claiming the film ‘original’ and ‘fresh’ in a stale market where story takes the backseat to gore and torture-porn.

 

With this, not only have Jen and Sylvia Soska had two hit films in their filmography of 2, but they already have cogs in the works for future projects ‘Bob’ and ‘The Man Who Kicked Ass’.

 

​Adam Green

Hatchet, Frozen

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Taking over where Jason, Freddy and Myers took off, Adam Green has created Hatchet. Creating a monster and a franchise that knows it’s audience, gore loving teens, Green has the perfect pitch.

 

Using the true SFX of prosthetics and blood pumps as well as creativity on how to kill people (an electric sander?) Hatchet has made his own Star of Fame in horror.

 

Not only content with revitalising B-Movie horror, Green’s ‘Frozen’ proves that tension and gore are not dead.With nothing outlined for the future right now, we can be sure that Adam Green is hard at work with a new vision of horror where blood WILL be spilt.

 

James Wan and Leigh Whannell

Saw, Dead Silence, Insidious

 

Over the last decade the cinemas have been handed horror on a silver platter but while we’ve had at least our fair share of blood on the silver screen, the quality has been about as serious as Johnny Depp’s give blood campaign in ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’.

Then came ‘Saw’, the masterpiece based on a short by Whannell and Wan’s pitch for a horror film based on fears, that has since become the modern day Halloween and Friday. The first film in the Jigsaw franchise had it all, blood, plot, intrigue, A-list star Danny “I’m too old for this shit” Glover and the premise of brilliance only seen in Fincher’s ‘Se7en’.

 

We’re not going to bore you with the legacy that Saw has left as if you don’t know about Jigsaw and Billy the Puppet then you either have no friends or don’t breath.



Labelled as part of the 'Splat Pack' with Darren Lynn Bousman, Rob Zombie, Eli Roth and Neil Marshall, they have helped create a blood thirsty sector to the horror genre focussing more on thrills than chills.

 

As well as helming one of the greatest franchises of recent years (even the latter rubbish few were better than some of the poor imitators, ‘The Tortured’ for one) Wan and Whannell have teamed up twice since with underrated Dummy horror flick, ‘Dead Silence’ and well received and damn scary, ‘Insidious’ showing that as well as gore and story, the college friends know how to scare the living daylights out of us.

 

Wan is currently in post-production for ‘The Conjuring’ a horror film in which a group of teens conjure up some not-so-nice spirits and can only expect that we will be once again spilling popcorn in the cinema.

 

James Watkins

Eden Lake, Woman In Black (Writer on My Little Eye and Descent Pt.II)

 

In 2008 James Watkins bought us Michael Fassbender, and with that he also bought us one of the most horrible films of recent years. No masks, haunting score or suburban setting, just one couple's nightmare against a ruthless group of delinquent teenagers. To put this in perspective I have watched this film once and refuse to watch it again. James Watkins really makes you angry after watching this film, and for once I was rooting for some good to come out of this story of shock and terror of something that could be so real. Leader of the gang, Brett, is ruthlessley hellbent on ruining a couples retreat which begins with petty words and ends up in sheer pain as the film follows cat and mouse as Jenny and Steve try to end the weekend alive.

 

How a simple premise can become so terrifying with gimmicks just a very blurred line between fiction and reality.

 

Watkins next piece could not be any more different. ‘The Woman in Black’ had an eager eye as it was Daniel Craig’s first foray into movies since Harry Potter and TWIB did not disappoint Reminiscent of an old black and white casting story and build up for an unforgiving ghost story, beautifully shot and brilliantly written, this is old school horror in the fashion of the Victorians, no blood and 12A rated makes this stand out as a rare feast of how tension and good script writers can make horror without the need for beheadings and limb displacement.



Watkins name has been whispered for all sorts of new projects but nothing has been grounded but one thing we can count on, whatever project he takes on, terror will somehow be a main feature.