David Rooney writes: "Since the turn of the 20th century, horror — first in literary form and later in movies — has reflected social anxieties about a rapidly changing world. In a 21st century plagued by such concerns as global warming, the rise of AI technology, democracy in peril and the demonization of "the other," it's unsurprising that horror in the past 25 years has become unusually fertile terrain, ushering in what might arguably be called a new golden age of screen terror.
"That made it a challenging task to whittle down a roundup of just 25 favorites, covering studio releases and indies, American and international. For every film included on the entirely subjective ranked list below, a handful of others regrettably got bumped (see Honorable Mentions for several of them)."
