5 - The Cabin in the Woods
Among my personal favorite modern horror films, this film includes samplings of just about every sort of horror filmmaking you can image. If the previous entry added some bloody good gore to this list, then get out your mop for this one, because once the monsters get started, they never let up. It's as hilarious as it is gory, as gory as it is fun, and somehow it manages to be one big homage and yet also entirely original all at the same time. The film more than doubled its $30 million budget with $66 million in theatrical revenue, but the studio's portion barely covered those expenses and the marketing adds tens of millions more in the red column.
4 - A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Sensual shades of black and gray mingle to a hip western score for a vampire romance by way of Dead Man and Rumble Fish. Few directors in horror have a freshman outing as perfect as this, and it's brilliant that the blood letting is of secondary importance to the main characters and arcs woven throughout the film. With a micro-budget, the film had a limited release and only took just under $500,000. But it received almost universal critical praise, as well it should, and is building quite a following on home entertainment among horror fans.
3 - The Conjuring
Supposedly based on a true story (but of course, none of it is seriously true), it's old-school haunted house cinema extraordinaire. There is an instant timelessness to the proceedings, and a visual texture that is John R. Leonetti's career-best. If you want to ensure you'll spend the rest of the night awake under your covers, jumping at every creaking floorboard and afraid to look at the closet door lest it seem to move, this is your ticket. At $20 million to produce, the film was a major hit with $318 million worldwide, making it one of the most profitable and highest-grossing horror films in history.
2 - The Babadook
With serious capacity to disturb viewers, it relies not just on monstrous terror but also psychological terror of the most frightening sort. Some of the most unnerving and chilling moments are not of the creepy creature, but of the little boy as he seems to lose his mind or lashes out until his mother is losing hers. Amazingly effective with very few literal "traditional" scares, it relies on tension and unsettling real-life moments to make the darker parts all the more horrific. Budgeted at a low $2 million, the film pulled nearly $7 million in theaters and garnered widespread acclaim as one of the greatest modern horror releases.
1 - Sinister
This film has been on my top horror lists since its release, and it's slowly made its way higher with each viewing. Now, it finally sits where it was destined to, as the most terrifying, disturbing, well-acted, perfectly paced horror film not just of the last five years but of the last decade. It's a true modern classic that joins the ranks of The Exorcist, Halloween, Psycho, and other iconic productions that constitute the best achievements of the genre. For the ultimate effect, watch this one as late at night as possible, with all of the lights off and either alone or with just a small number of other people. This film grossed $77 million off of a $3 million budget, so it performed very well and had terrific profit margins.
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