Horror can be a very subjective genre, as what’s scary to some might not be scary to others. However, that means there is almost no end to the various types of monsters horror movies have used to try to scare us over the years. Today we wanted to take a look back at the last decade in particular to showcase some of the scariest monsters we’ve seen in horror movies.
It’s important to note that we won’t be including ghosts, zombies, vampires, or werewolves despite the many amazing releases of the last decade that featured these equally terrifying creatures of the night but will instead be trying to focus on specifically monstrous monsters that terrified us in all kinds of ways.
LILY THE SUCCUBUS - V/H/S (2012)
This decade saw a number of indie/low-budget successes when it came to horror, especially with a few of the anthology films that were released. V/H/S featured a few terrifying found-footage shorts from horror directors, including Amateur Night from director David Bruckner (more from him soon).
The short followed a group of friends trying to pick up girls so they can film them inappropriately in a hotel room that night. However, one of the girls soon revealed her true horrifying nature as a succubus. Lily (played by Hannah Fierman) would return in Bruckner’s film SiREN, which would expand on the short and somehow made Lily the Succubus even more terrifying.
RED-FACED DEMON - INSIDIOUS (2010)
Director James Wan followed up his horror hit Saw with the less gory but still terrifying Insidious, which would launch a franchise of its own and lead to Wan’s eventual development of The Conjuring franchise. The film was best-known for its liberal use of jump scares, but also featured a terrifying demon from the astral dimension known as The Further.
This Red-Faced Demon was discovered to be the malicious entity attempting to take over the body of the lost astral dreamer, Dalton Lambert. His first few appearances in the film are some of the most terrifying, and when Dalton’s father Josh personally encounters him in The Further, we were admittedly scared out of our seats.
EASTER BUNNY - HOLIDAYS (2016)
2016 saw the release of Holidays, another horror anthology with each short film based on a usually happy and positive holiday like Christmas, Halloween, or Mother’s Day. Writer/director Nicholas McCarthy (The Pact, At the Devil’s Door) brought his unique take to Easter, a short film that has now irreparably tainted the untaintable.
Easter focused on a household at night as it gets a visit from the Easter Bunny. However, we soon learn alongside a young girl that the Easter Bunny’s connection to Christianity (the crucifixion of Jesus, specifically) is horrifyingly real as the monstrous true form and curse of the Easter Bunny is revealed.
THE BABADOOK (2014)
Fans didn’t quite know what to think of 2014’s surprise hit The Babadook, but we were unquestionably scared by the unique monster that shares its name with the title of the movie and the odd, haunting book that terrorizes the traumatized Vanek family.
Looking past the troubling psychological scars and trauma the widowed mother and her son are dealing with, the Babadook as a pop-up storybook monster that will haunt those who know of its existence forever is horrifying. And if you’ve heard it say its name in that creepy cracking voice you’ll undoubtedly agree with us.
THE ENTITY - IT FOLLOWS (2015)
David Robert Mitchell’s 2015 horror It Follows is a bit hard to categorize as a film, and the film’s “monster” is equally unquantifiable, though that doesn’t make the haunting entity any less terrifying. The film introduces the following entity after the main character is passed the curse through sexual activity and begins being followed by something.
We soon learn the murderous entity is able to transform into anyone while it follows the holder of the curse, with little rhyme or reason behind which form it adopts. It is also only visible to those who are currently affected by the curse, though it can absolutely affect anyone who gets in its way, making it not only terrifying but incredibly deadly.
GRETCHEN - XX (2017)
One of the more recent horror anthologies followed in the footsteps of films like The ABC’s of Death by focusing on the directors behind the camera and giving them the freedom and spotlight to share their stories. 2017’s XX featured short horror films from female directors and has even led to the development of a TV series with a similar focus.
Writer/director Roxanne Benjamin (Southbound, Body at Brighton Rock) introduced Gretchen in the Don’t Fall segment, as one of four students at a protected nature site is killed by an evil monster. That creature then wears the skin of Gretchen to violently kill the group, with the final shot of the Gretchen/monster climbing down the cliff lasting well past the credits.
ANNABELLE - THE CONJURING (2013)
We previously mentioned James Wan’s horror franchise The Conjuring, which introduced quite a few terrifying ghosts over the course of a few connected films and spin-offs, including The Nun, The Curse of La Llorona, and the most popular of the spin-offs, the Annabelle franchise.
Of course, while Annabelle behaved like a typical killer doll possessed by a spirit, it was actually a malevolent demon who is found to be possessing the doll of Annabelle, though it took hold of a few bodies to get there. The Demon’s drive to torture and toy with its victims along with the sheer creepiness of the Annabelle doll make this one of the last decade’s scariest monsters.
MODER - THE RITUAL (2017)
Director David Bruckner gets a second shout out this decade with his 2017 adaptation of the novel of the same name by Adam Neville, The Ritual. The film follows a group of friends on a hike in Sweden in honor of their lost friend as they are forced to detour through a thick mountainous forest.
There they encounter a series of unnerving incidents, a creepy cult, and a horrifying monster known as the Moder that is based in Norse mythology. The creature’s promises of immortality to the cultists are horrifyingly revealed as is its true form, which is one of the best and scariest monster designs of the 2010s.
MONSTERS - A QUIET PLACE (2018)
Fans were pleasantly surprised by John Krasinski’s directorial debut A Quiet Place, which featured dialogue told almost exclusively with sign language and a cast of amazing actors trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by scary alien creatures.
These creatures, or monsters, or Dark Angels as some fans call them are incredibly deadly and hunt by the smallest of sounds, and they took over the world and devastated humanity like a plague. Bulletproof armor skin, slicing claws and teeth and incredible speed mixed with their complete dominance of the planet Earth makes these monsters extremely scary.
PENNYWISE - IT (2017)
We may have seen a creepy version of Stephen King’s scariest clown ever in the TV mini-series IT, but the more recent big-screen iteration seen in Andy Muschietti’s 2017 record-breaking adaptation played on a lot of our fears while faithfully bringing the character to life.
Pennywise the Dancing Clown (played by Bill Skarsgård) wasn’t only scary as a supernatural clown, but he was able to transform in a number of frightening shapes and creatures. These forms were used specifically to increase the fear in Pennywise’s victims but it worked wonders on the theater crowd as well.
