The job requirements of directing a Marvel movie and directing a horror film are completely different. Marvel movies are designed to put the audience at ease with lighthearted humor and escapist spectacle, while horror films are designed to fill the audience with a sense of dread from start to finish.
But a handful of directors from the MCU have tried their hand at the horror genre. From James Gunn’s alien slug movie to Jon Watts’ killer clown movie to Taika Waititi’s vampire mockumentary, these are the best horror films by MCU directors.
Clown (Jon Watts, 2014)
Before giving Tom Holland’s Peter Parker/Spider-Man his own movies, Jon Watts made his directorial debut with the low-budget horror gem Clown. It was the coming-of-age road movie Cop Car that put Watts on Marvel’s radar, but Clown is an unnerving delight.
Produced by Eli Roth, Clown tells the story of a loving father who becomes trapped in a cursed clown costume after wearing it for his son’s birthday party. The supernatural element puts a unique spin on the well-worn killer clown subgenre.
The Exorcism Of Emily Rose (Scott Derrickson, 2005)
Although Doctor Strange is his highest-profile movie, Scott Derrickson is primarily known as a horror director. Since dropping out of directing the sequel to Doctor Strange, Derrickson has gone back to his roots and started work on the horror thriller The Black Phone.
Back in 2005, Derrickson helmed his first theatrically released feature film, The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Loosely based on a true story, the movie subverts the expectations of exorcism movies by mixing in a courtroom drama.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (Kenneth Branagh, 1994)
For the majority of his career as a filmmaker, Kenneth Branagh has directed himself in adaptations of Shakespeare plays, but he’s occasionally broken the mold. Thor, of course, was an interesting change of pace for the director, and his recent Poirot movies have seen him step outside his comfort zone.
In 1994, Branagh gave horror movies a try with an adaptation of Frankenstein starring himself as Dr. Frankenstein and Robert De Niro as the monster. Like Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Branagh’s movie includes the author’s name in the title, which is appropriate as it’s considered to be one of the most faithful adaptations of the Mary Shelley classic.
The Wolfman (Joe Johnston, 2010)
A year before giving Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers his big-screen debut in Captain America: The First Avenger, Joe Johnston directed a remake of the 1941 Lon Chaney-starring Universal Monsters classic The Wolf Man.
With the tightened title The Wolfman, Johnston’s remake stars Benicio del Toro as an actor who returns to his ancestral home in search of his missing brother and gets attacked by a werewolf. With $150 million at his disposal, Johnston created some truly terrifying werewolf effects.
Drag Me To Hell (Sam Raimi, 2009)
Although Sam Raimi has yet to helm an MCU movie, he’s currently working on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The reason he was hired for the Doctor Strange sequel is that it promises to be the MCU’s first full-blown horror film and Raimi is one of the most acclaimed and revered horror filmmakers in the world.
After completing his Spider-Man trilogy with a third installment that failed to get everything right and opting out of a fourth movie, Raimi went back to his roots with 2009’s Drag Me to Hell, which tells the story of a young woman being tormented by a gypsy’s curse with the director’s signature pitch-black humor.
Slither (James Gunn, 2006)
After writing the Dawn of the Dead remake and the live-action Scooby-Doo movies, Guardians of the Galaxy helmer James Gunn finally got to make his feature directorial debut with 2006’s sci-fi horror gem Slither.
Harking back to classic B-movies, Slither is a shamelessly schlocky piece about a small town being invaded by alien slugs turning people into zombies. The premise has been compared to the classic horror-comedy Night of the Creeps, but Gunn offers enough of his own take for Slither to avoid feeling like a rip-off.
Sinister (Scott Derrickson, 2012)
While The Exorcism of Emily Rose is a possession movie like no other, Scott Derrickson’s greatest contribution to the horror genre is arguably 2012’s Sinister.
Ethan Hawke stars as a true-crime writer trying to figure out what his next bestseller will be. He finds a snuff film of a family being killed and, determined to tell their story, naively moves his own family into the dead family’s house. Evidence begins to mount that there’s a supernatural presence responsible for the deaths. This movie has some truly disturbing imagery and packs a couple of shocking twists and turns.
Berlin Syndrome (Cate Shortland, 2017)
Cate Shortland is the latest addition to the MCU’s stable of directors, having helmed the Black Widow movie, but she’s been working as a filmmaker for over two decades. In 2017, Shortland helmed the psychological thriller Berlin Syndrome.
The plot follows a young woman who wakes up after a one-night stand locked in the guy’s apartment, unable to escape. Thanks to Shortland’s taut direction and Teresa Palmer’s impeccable lead performance, Berlin Syndrome is a tense, captivating thriller.
What We Do In The Shadows (Taika Waititi, 2014)
Korg’s reference to vampires in Thor: Ragnarok was a nod to Taika Waititi’s previous film What We Do in the Shadows, which he co-directed with Jemaine Clement. It’s more of a comedy than a horror movie, but it’s the best cinematic portrayal of vampires in years (along with Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night).
Chronicling the lives of some vampires living in New Zealand, What We Do in the Shadows is a mockumentary incorporating motifs and themes from all kinds of classic 1970s (and beyond) vampire stories, from Dracula to Nosferatu to Twilight.
The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi, 1981)
Sam Raimi’s directorial debut, the low-budget 1981 masterpiece The Evil Dead, inspired a generation of independent filmmakers to scrape together some money and shoot a horror film with their friends. Despite the amateur production, Raimi’s gory effects still hold up today.
Bruce Campbell stars as Ash Williams, who travels to an isolated cabin in the woods with his friends, only to find that it’s haunted by demonic spirits who pick off the group one by one. It’s a simple premise, but Raimi uses it to sustain a sense of beginning-to-end terror.