Featured Image Credit: A24
Topics: Horror, Film and TV, Stephen King, UNILAD RANKED
Simon Fearn
As the reboot of 90s classic I Know What You Did Last Summer tears into cinemas, people have been voting on the scariest horror films of the 21st century for this week’s UNILAD RANKED.
The fourth film in the franchise, released today (July 18), sees Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. return as another group of teens find themselves menaced by an evil fisherman and his big hook for past misdeeds.
And the sequel to the 90s classic has got horror films debating what is the most spine chilling film to have been released since 2000.
We’re talking watching through fingers, squeezing your partner’s hand so hard it hurts, nightmares for days kind of scary.
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We asked the folks in the Netflix Bangers community for their thoughts, and there was one film in particular that had them cowering in fear, with over a third of voters dubbing it the scariest film of the last 25 years.
Also making the top five is a movie so scary it gave one of its stars PTSD, and a film widely thought to have one of the best jump scares in history.
Let’s get into it.
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Some of our voters look to be coulrophobia sufferers (a fear of clowns, to save you a Google search), since 3.4 percent said Stephen King’s IT was the scariest horror of the 21st century.
IT is still the highest grossing horror film ever, grossing more than $700 million worldwide, and tells the story of a group of seven kids - The Losers Club - who are unlucky enough to fall prey to a killer clown that feasts on the children of Derry once every 27 years.
Given it opens with a child getting his arm gnawed off in the street, the movie can get pretty intense at times, but it’s also bolstered by decent child actor performances from Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Jaeden Martell (Knives Out) and Sophia Lillis (I Am Not Okay with This).
And who could forget Bill Skarsgard’s terrifying turn behind the clown makeup, for me blowing Tim Curry’s take on Pennywise from the 1990s miniseries out of the water (sorry, Tim!).
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Director Andy Muschietti (Mama) and writers Cary Joji Fukunaga (No Time To Die), Chase Palmer (The Alienist) and Gary Dauberman (Until Dawn) served up one of the most well-liked popcorn horror movies of recent times.
Nevertheless, the film almost went in a very different direction, with Will Poulter (Midsommar) originally set to play Pennywise. Fukunaga was set to direct at that point and, according to Variety, ‘could not say no after being blown away by Poulter’s audition’.
Oh, what I would give to see his take on the killer clown.
Viewers have been shook up, with one writing on Rotten Tomatoes: “I don't think I've ever feared a movie monster in the way I feared Pennywise.”
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Another said: “Still holds up as a modern horror film classic.”
Let’s just forget IT Chapter Two ever existed, eh?
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Like many millennials, I watched Insidious for the first time at a sleepover and was absolutely bloody terrified.
Who could forget the ‘red demon’ jump scare? The ghostly woman creeping closer in every childhood picture? Eurgh.
In our poll, 3.9 percent of people reckoned it was the scariest film of the 21st century.
Starring Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring) and Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids), it came from a pair of horror legends: director James Wan (Saw) and writer Leigh Whannell (The Invisible Man).
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It follows parents Josh (Wilson) and Renai (Byrne) who are understandably alarmed when their son falls into a coma-like trance. Then they’re hit with the news that he’s actually been held hostage by a demon in a hellish dimension called The Further, and Josh has to go save him.
Ready to be creeped out even more? One of the ghosts in Insidious is inspired by something James Wan’s pal claims to have seen while in bed *gulp*.
The director says on the DVD commentary that the Long-Haired Fiend (J. LaRose) was inspired by a friend who said that ‘one night he woke up and saw a man dressed in a long trench coat with long hair pacing outside his room’.
The film ended up being one of the most profitable horror films ever made, making $99 million at the global box office on a budget of just $1.5 million. Wowzers.
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One viewer shared on Reddit: “I was a freshman in high school when it came out in theaters. After watching it I slept in my parent's bed...at 14. I was that f**king terrified. Something about it just so unsettling.”
Another said it was the ‘scariest theater experiences I've ever had’, while a third recalled the baby monitor scene in particular ‘scared the absolute s**t out of me’.
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I compel you to watch the famous scene of long-haired ghoul Samara climbing out of a TV and not sleep with the lights on after. It’s just pure nightmare fuel.
This yarn about a cursed video, a body in a well and a seven-day countdown to death had 7.7 percent of people saying it was the scariest film of the century.
A remake of the 1998 Japanese film of the same name, it comes from director Gore Verbinski (A Cure for Wellness) and writer Ehren Kruger (F1: The Movie).
It stars Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive) and Brian Cox (Succession). While I was all of six years old when The Ring came out, many remember the film’s intense viral marketing campaign, which actually makes the film even creepier than it already is.
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Taking to TikTok and Reddit, fans remembered the cursed video - you know, the one where you die seven days later if you watch it - was played as a TV spot with zero context.
They would also, apparently, leave copies of the cursed video on blank video tapes, which would then direct people to a series of websites which claimed the 1998 Japanese RING film was ‘a fictionalized account’ of a real curse. You can check out the archived versions of these these creepy websites here and here if you’re feeling brave.
The Ring is one of those films that sticks with you, with one viewer saying on Reddit it was ‘the only film that has genuinely scared the hell out of me’, adding it ‘shook me to the core’.
Another said: “In 7th grade when it came out on DVD and I watched it at home. 13 years old. I slept on my parents bedroom floor for the whole night I watched it. It's the one movie of my life that truly truly got to me and altered my life for a day or two.”
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While a third confessed: “I unplugged my TV and computer monitor the night I watched it. I was like 'This is silly....but juuuuuust in case..'."
True story - one of my friends bailed on Hereditary literally one minute in because the music was too tense, and I think she might have had a point.
The debut movie from writer-director Ari Aster (Midsommar) had 16.5 percent of our votes saying it was the scariest film since 2000.
It’s a dread-filled slow burn, but goes very hard in the last 20 minutes or so, so strap in if you’ve not seen it already.
It follows Annie (Toni Collette, The Sixth Sense), grieving the death of her complicated mother, while trying to parent her incredibly odd daughter Charlie (Broadway star Milly Shaprio), who likes to chop off dead birds’ heads with scissors at school.
Family secrets and a terrible mistake by her son Peter (Alex Wolff, Old) soon have the entire family at each other’s throats and potentially in the grip of some very sinister forces.
Hands down, Toni Collette should have won an Oscar for this movie. That “I am your mother” scene gave me shivers.
Viewers agree it’s not a film you forget, with one writing on Reddit: “I knew it was impactful when the girl sitting next to me in the movie theater started crying at how disturbing it was. I can genuinely say I’ve never experienced anything like it since, or before.”
Another said it ‘was the most scarred I've ever been by a horror film’, while a third mused: “It's exactly what "horror" should be in my opinion, truly horrifying. Exploring the far reaches of what we should never want to happen to ourselves or anyone else.”
You know who else got shook up Hereditary? Alex Wolff.
He told Vice: “It stuck with me while we were filming, and it stuck with me well after. I don’t think you can go through something like this and not have some sort of PTSD afterwards.”
He also said when he watched it back he had absolutely no memory of filming some of the crazy scenes he’s in. Hope the poor guy is doing OK!
And now for the official scariest film of the 21st century…
My girlfriend is convinced this is the scariest film ever made, and so are the good people of Netflix Bangers, with 36.7 percent voting it the scariest horror film of the century.
Viewers on Reddit say it ‘scared the living daylights’ out of them, while one viewer said: “I have never been quite that genuinely terrified.”
The wardrobe scene in particular had a visceral impact on people, with one writing: “This scene gave me night terrors. I woke up screaming and everyone in the house was like what the f**k!”
Another said they were ‘creeped out for days’ when they saw it in cinemas.
The movie follows real-life paranormal investigators Ed (Patrick Wilson, Aquaman) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga, Orphan), who are called in for ghostbusting duties when a family accidentally moves into a house previously owned by a renowned witch and Satanist.
It comes from James Wan (Insidious) and twin brother screenwriting team Chad and Carey Hayes (House of Wax).
Anyone of a nervous disposition, you’re not going to like this: many of the events in the film are allegedly said to have happened.
The Perron family are real, and said they heard noises, smelled foul odors and saw apparitions, not all of whom were friendly.
It all culminated with a seance with the Warrens (which in the movie is an exorcism), during which mom Carolyn ‘began to speak a language not of this world in a voice not her own’, her daughter Andrea told USA Today.
Haunted doll Annabelle is also real, although she looks nothing like she does in the movie. She was back in the news this week after paranormal investigator Dan Rivera died while touring the doll around the country.
The Conjuring made almost $320 million worldwide, and is now officially - I’ll brook no objections - the scariest horror film of the 21st century.
Speak now in the comments or forever hold your peace.
UNILAD RANKED is a weekly series with a new article released every Friday