The 2000s saw the arrival of a new kind of horror movie, with found footage works like Paranormal Activity and torture-heavy fare like Saw. However, while these movies were dominating the box office and breaking records, there were several other great horror releases that decade which remain mostly obscure titles for today's horror fans.
These were both smaller independent releases and foreign movies, many of which were popular for horror fans when they came out. These are also movies that horror aficionados recommend to people who want to expand their knowledge of the genre.
The Host (2006)
There is more than one movie called The Host — one is a young adult adaptation and the other a South Korean horror movie. The latter came out in 2006 and was directed by Bong Joon-ho. The plot centers on a monster that is terrorizing a coastal town.
What makes the movie great is the fact it focuses mostly on a family unit and deals as much with their dysfunction and personal struggles as it does with surviving the monster. Bong went on to win an Oscar for Parasite in 2020, so fans of the Best Picture winner will want to check out The Host.
Drag Me To Hell (2009)
Sam Raimi was already a legend in horror movies before he released Drag Me to Hell in 2009. The movie stars Alison Lohman as Christine, a bank loan officer who embarrassed an elderly woman when she rejected her for a loan. The woman then placed a curse on Christine, in which evil wanted to, well, drag her to hell.
Raimi made his name with The Evil Dead and his follow-up, Evil Dead II, is considered one of the best horror movies of all time. Drag Me to Hell was a throwback movie to Raimi's Evil Dead days and works great for all his fans who wanted to see him return to his roots.
The Devil's Backbone (2001)
Guillermo del Toro became famous in Hollywood for his Hellboy and Pacific Rim series, but some of his best work came with his Spanish-language movies, with one of his most successful being Pan's Labyrinth.
There is a more obscure release horror fans should check out in Devil's Backbone. A young boy is dropped off at an orphanage during the Spanish Civil War and he soon finds a ghostly young boy haunting him. For anyone who loves ghost movies, this hits all the right marks and creates a sympathetic ghost who needs help more than he wants to haunt someone.
Frailty (2002)
Bill Paxton is best known for his acting, from his legendary turns in Near Dark, Aliens, and Twister to his TV show Big Love. In 2001, he also proved that he was a great director, even though he only helmed one movie in his career.
This was the horror movie Frailty. Paxton stars as a father who murdered several people with his son's help, claiming he could see demons were in possession of them. The movie is a frightening look at a father destroying his son's lives and has a twist ending that worked perfectly.
Slither (2006)
James Gunn is on top of the comic book movie world, with two Guardians of the Galaxy movies and DC's The Suicide Squad. Gunn got his break with Troma movies and brought that sensibility to his 2006 horror movie Slither.
Slither is an alien invasion movie where the aliens sent parasites into humans and turned them into monsters. It is both a gory gross-out horror movie but also full of Gunn's trademark humor, allowing the laughs to come just as the scares start to build again.
The House Of The Devil (2009)
In the 2000s, a group of young horror filmmakers broke into the business and shook things up. Most of them remained cult favorites without hitting the big time, with Ti West as one of the more talented.
In 2009, West released his best horror movie, The House of the Devil. The story features a young babysitter at an isolated house who ends up fighting for her life. The movie mixed a few genres of horror, including slasher movies, haunted house movies, and Satanic cults, into a minor masterpiece of atmospheric terror.
Thirst (2009)
Park Chan-wook is one of the best South Korean filmmakers of his era with masterpieces like Old Boy under his belt. Six years after he released that cult favorite, he directed the vampire movie Thirst. This was unlike almost any other vampire movie released.
Thirst starred Song Kang-ho as a Catholic priest who volunteers to help participate in a trial experiment for a vaccine for a deadly virus, only to fall ill and find he has to feed on blood to remain alive. By mixing the idea of religion and horror, this is a vampire movie that brings the scares back to a genre that became watered down in the 2000s.
Dog Soldiers (2002)
There have been several different depictions of werewolves in movies, but the most well-known are those that use practical effects. There were some good, scary werewolf movies in the 2000s with Ginger Snaps as the most popular, but Dog Soldiers really deserves its fans.
This Neill Marshall movie centered on a training exercise by British soldiers in the Scottish Highlands. They dropped into the area and then found themselves hunted by a pack of werewolves. The movie has great practical effects and a strong sense of humor leveling out the horror scenes.
Fido (2007)
Released in 2007, Fido was a movie that took place after a zombie apocalypse. Unlike most zombie movies, this one starts after the humans have won the war and a company developed control collars for the zombies that turned them into domestic servants.
The cast was great, with Carrie-Anne Moss and Dylan Baker as a couple who has their own zombie named Fido, played by Billy Connolly. While zombie movies have become tired in recent years, Fido brings something different and unique to the genre, showing what happens after the zombies already lost the war in a very smart story.
Session 9 (2001)
Brad Anderson directed the horror movie Session 9 in 2001. The movie was a tough sell when it first came out because its biggest star was a television actor in NYPD Blue's David Caruso. The only other major name was Josh Lucas.
The movie featured a team of asbestos cleaners hired to clean out an abandoned psychiatric hospital where they believe something ominous and deadly exists in the walls. This is a great movie for people who love haunted house stories, especially those that don't play it straight and leave viewers never knowing what to expect next.