Not Only The Witch and Hereditary: 4 Most Impressive Horror Debuts of the Last Decade
Movies that not only made their directors instantly famous, but also earned them multiple nominations for major international awards.
All fans know the first works of Robert Eggers and Ari Aster, which influenced the horror genre despite being the first works of the directors – but these are only the most famous examples.
We remembered those that were less loud, but also undoubtedly deserve attention.
1. The Eyes of My Mother, 2016
Nicolas Pesce's debut is reminiscent of Michael Haneke's famous thriller Funny Games – The Eyes of My Mother is also hard to recommend and impossible to ignore.
Francisca lives with her parents in a remote house in the countryside. Her father provides for the family and her mother used to be a surgeon, but now she teaches her daughter the art of harvesting organs from animals to help her overcome her fear of death.
Their lives change forever when a stranger named Charlie breaks into the house and kills Francisca's mother. Her father chains Charlie and hides him in a barn, and the girl uses the knowledge she received from her mother.
2. Goodnight Mommy, 2014
In a house on the edge of a cornfield, 10-year-old twins eagerly await their mother's return from the hospital. She soon appears on the doorstep, but the boys can barely recognize her. After a while, the boys begin to suspect that the woman is not their mother at all.
The movie was shot in total secrecy – all scenes were filmed in chronological order, and the actors were only given a piece of the script each day.
The result is a frightening canvas of childhood fears that straddles the line between the real and the imaginary.
3. The World Is Full of Secrets, 2018
The feature debut of director Graham Swon, who calls his movie an anti-horror, can easily scare its viewers, but its fear is of a different kind.
Five teenage girls gather in an empty house for a night of scary stories. From the first frames, we know that something terrible is going to happen in the next few hours, as the voiceover in the credits warns us.
But what it will be is a terrible secret. There will be no gallons of blood, no severed limbs, no witchcraft, no ghosts – just the girls' bloodcurdling monologues, filmed without a single cut.
4. The Blackcoat's Daughter, 2015
The Blackcoat's Daughter is the directorial debut of Oz Perkins. To the ominous tunes of the younger Perkins – Elvis – a frightening drama unfolds on the screen. It tells about what happens when you suddenly realize that there is no one to turn to for help, and instead of a heart you find an immense emptiness inside.
For Rose and Katherine, the new year has started off badly – the girls' parents did not come to pick them up, they stayed at a boarding school for the holidays and, it seems, are carefully guarding some secret.
At the same time, somewhere at a gas station, the man finds Joan – another lonely girl who cannot even explain how she ended up so far away from the city.