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10. Mike Flanagan Mike Flanaganhas been on the horror scene for the last ten years, directing films that focus on character psychology and the effects of trauma. His filmsBefore I Wake(2016) andGerald’s Game(2017) are prime examples, but he has also done features with supernatural elements, includingOculus(2013),Ouija: Origin of Evil(2016), andDoctor Sleep(2019). Mike Flanagan stands out for his effective use of jump scares—in how he stays his hand when most directors would put in a jump scare, which makes his eventual jump scares that much more sudden and shocking....

10. Sally Hardesty in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) Sally HardestyfromThe Texas Chainsaw Massacrewas one of the first examples of the Final Girl trope in horror cinema. When she and her group of friends travel through rural Texas to visit her grandfather’s grave, they encounter Leatherface and his cannibalistic family, who start killing them off one by one. And even though Sally doesn’t really defeat the villain in the end, she still manages to be the sole survivor of the massacre, which turned her into a sort of prototype for the Final Girl trope....

10. Arachnophobia (1990) For me, this the scariest movie on the list because I have a terrible fear of spiders. The shower scene haunted me for years. I can’t even tell you how many times I got soap in my eyes from opening them too quickly to see if a spider was crawling around. Not only is this film terrifying, but it’s also quite good! Even if spiders don’t scare you, they might by the time you finishArachnophobia....

10. Terrifier (2016) If you “love” the blood and gore of slasher films likeFriday the 13thandThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre, then you might want to checkTerrifier. It offers the same bloody atmosphere of other slasher films, but with a creepy killer clown thrown in for added terror. Terrifiercenters on the gruesome murders of several characters during one Halloween night, with Art the Clown as the main killer. With lots of flesh cutting, this one’s a good watch for fans of body horror....

10. Richard Linklater WhileRichard Linklaterhas certainly done big-budget productions—like the cult classicSchool of Rock(2003)—he actually made his name as an independent filmmaker. His best-known films include the likes ofDazed and Confused(1993),Before Sunrise(1995),Waking Life(2002), andBefore Sunset(2004), which all cost less than $10 million to make. He’s also known forBoyhood(2014), the experimental film that took 12 years to complete and featured the actual aging-up of the film’s actors over those many years....