1) This list of "best directors" is limited to contemporary directors currently working.
2) I've disregarded directors who don't stick to the horror genre. These names include Park Chan-Wook (Thirst), Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse), Bong Joon-Ho (The Host), Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead), Matt Reeves (Let Me In), and many others. If you don't see a director you love on the list, it's either because they're too variable in the type of film they make... or because they suck more than you realize.
3) One thing this list reveals is the severe drought of female directors in the horror genre. I have my suspicions for why this is so, but gender parity is a topic for another day, and it'd be condescending to list females just to fill a quota. For what it's worth, Karyn Kusama (Jennifer's Body), the Soska Sisters (American Mary), and Marina de Van (whose movies I haven't seen) are names to watch.
Now let's do this.
15. James Watkins
(Eden Lake, The Woman in Black)
What I loved about the potential for ghost stories, there's a purity in the grammar of them... it's a real challenge, because you're trying to get the pacing right and judge the scares and atmosphere. This incremental sense of dread. It's a very technical challenge.
Where to Start?
The Woman in Black (2012)
Can we start out this whole thing by talking about the collective awesome of recent UK horror? Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead), Joe Cornish (Attack the Block), Chris Smith (Black Death), Neil Marshall (The Descent), Ben Wheatley (Kill List). Irish flicks like The Eclipse, Grabbers, and Citadel? And how about James Watkins? Director of two archetype-heavy horror thrillers. 2008's Eden Lake is a brutal twist on the "vacation gone bad" (think The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Wolf Creek). 2012's The Woman in Black is about a mansion that... okay, look, it's basically The Haunting. Before you can say "Gaw blimey," these films swing into old horror standards like a woman rushing through a dark forest and a man wandering through shadowy hallways.
In both films, Watkins displays a casual control of the horror set-piece as he moves heroes from point A to point Worse, threats hinted at more than witnessed. Eden Lake sees hero Jenny (Kelly Reilly) continually escaping tormentors, listening for their distant voices. The Woman in Black shows Arthur (Danielle Radcliffe) moving from one damn decrepit room to another, danger communicated by how long he holds his shots - when is something gonna happen?! In both films, there's a stately style to how the shots linger, hold steady, how Watkins uses wide shots to miniaturize his characters against imposing environments.
Watkins has his best films ahead of him, possibly including upcoming lake monster thriller The Loch, but what Eden Lake and The Woman in Black offer up so far is sturdy horror-craft with uncommon control, craft that reinvigorates classic thriller tropes and reminds us a bit of how they felt the first time around. Cheers to that, mate.
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