The 10 best new horror movies of the last five years

Here’s a horror film that’s been made with no reasonable way to discuss it beforehand. (You know the boat sinks in Titanic, but these surprise-laden plot twists are another matter entirely.) Let’s just say: cabin, woods, cute collegians. The trade-off is a movie that’s akin to looking under the hood of a Stephen King novel—a joy for mechanics.

Deceptively, this one starts off with a horror too many know firsthand: the depleted savings account, the dinner-table squabbles and the demoralized glares that come with joblessness. Our heroes are low-rent British criminals who lunge at a new gig, one that tips toward something especially dark: the cultish witchery of The Wicker Man.

A timid British sound recordist (Toby Jones) heads to early-’70s Rome for a gig on a gory giallo thriller, directed by a pretentious, Dario Argento–esque artiste. A mental breakdown is imminent, and impressively, Peter Strickland’s film snaps, too, tearing itself apart in a collage that’s close to experimental, yet never unmotivated.

The elements are familiar—a rural house, a vulnerable family, some pissed-off demonic spirits—but filmmaker James Wan (the first Saw) knows how to use them. In both its setting and rock-solid craft, this blockbuster is a throwback to horror’s early-’70s heyday, a model that ain’t broke and don’t need fixing.