Horror is among the most successful genres in cinema. With a legion of loyal and devoted fans and considerable critical support, the horror genre thrives on the big and small screens, often producing instant classics and experimenting beyond its boundaries.
Unlike other film genres, horror is remarkably flexible and has many subgenres. Techno-horror is among its most specific and original, focusing on fears and concerns of technology and advancement to explore classic themes common in mainstream horror. Techno-horror has produced several worthy efforts, many of which have become modern classics while scaring the pants off audiences worldwide. These are the best techno-horror films, chilling and thought-provoking explorations of technology’s considerable reach and inherent dangers.
10 ‘Unfriended’ (2014)
Director: Levan Gabriadze
Set entirely on a computer screen, Unfriended follows a group of six high school students in a chat session. When they begin receiving messages from someone claiming to be a student who killed herself because of their bullying, the group must confront their darkest secrets.
The fear of the internet’s ability to expose someone’s secrets and past mistakes takes center stage in Unfriended. The film offers an intriguing and refreshing twist on the found footage and teen slasher genres for the digital age. While the results are decidedly uneven, Unfriended creates a suitably creepy atmosphere and delivers enough thrills to challenge and surprise.
Unfriended
- Release Date
- April 17, 2015
- Cast
- Heather Sossaman , Matthew Bohrer , Courtney Halverson , Shelley Hennig , Moses Jacob Storm , William Peltz
- Rating
- R
- Runtime
- 83 minutes
9 ‘The Cell’ (2000)
Director: Tarsem Singh
Tarsem Singh‘s directorial debut, The Cell, is an underrated sci-fi gem from the 2000s. The film stars Jennifer Lopez and Vincent D’Onofrio and follows a group of scientists who use technology to enter the mind of a comatose serial killer and find out the location of his latest victim.
The Cell is a divisive, ambitious, and ultimately rewarding horror thriller featuring one of Lopez’s best performances. Aided by Singh’s trademark panache for striking visuals, the film explores the extent and dangers of technology and the morality of each new development, even those made in the pursuit of justice. Offering a worthy showcase for the always reliable D’Onofrio and plenty of visual spectacle, The Cell is a flawed but inspired mix of horror and technology that remains unique 24 years later.
The Cell
- Release Date
- August 17, 2000
- Rating
- R
- Runtime
- 107
8 ‘Deadstream’ (2022)
Directors: Vanessa Winter, Joseph Winter
The 2002 supernatural horror comedy Deadstream is among the most recent examples of a great techno-horror film. The plot centers on a disgraced content creator attempting to revive his career by livestreaming from inside a notorious and seemingly haunted house. However, his reckless actions take an unexpected and potentially deadly turn when he inadvertently releases a vengeful spirit.
Using found footage to increase the plot’s eerie quality, Deadstream is an original and often great B-movie. The plot is unafraid to embrace its increasingly silly approach, mixing laughs with genuine chills to deliver a unique entry into the techno-horror genre. It might not offer any thought-provoking insights into technology’s relation to horror, but Deadstream is a heck of a great time at the movies.
7 ‘Existenz’ (1999)
Director: David Cronenberg
Existenz ranks among David Cronenberg‘s weirdest movies. Academy Award nominee Jennifer Jason Leigh stars as Allegra, a video game designer targeted by assassins while playing a virtual reality game of her creation. Two-time nominee Jude Law co-stars as a businessman turned protector of Allegra.
Like most of Cronenberg’s films, Existenz employs body horror to up the story’s themes. Gross visuals significantly increase the viewer’s discomfort, but the plot features a thoughtful look at biology and its increasingly tight connection to technology, complemented by a healthy dose of corporate espionage and deceit. Existenz ponders several questions regarding technological advancements and the morality of involving them with organic beings, even if Cronenberg isn’t necessarily interested in answering them.
6 ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ (2011)
Director: Drew Goddard
Drew Goddard‘s 2011 sci-fi horror comedy The Cabin in the Woods stars a large ensemble, including Chris Hemsworth, Richard Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford. The plot centers on a group of college students terrorized by a series of creatures while in a secluded cabin. Unbeknownst to them, the attack is being coordinated by a group of underground technicians.
Daring, original, and funny, The Cabin in the Woods is a brilliant piece of meta filmmaking. The film satirizes numerous horror tropes and conventions, although its insights into technology’s ever-increasing ability to modify and outright transform human lives are surprisingly accurate and biting. The Cabin in the Woods features a truly bonkers ending, further adding to its commentary on societal decline and the ever-changing horror genre.
The Cabin in the Woods
- Release Date
- April 13, 2012
- Rating
- R
- Runtime
- 95 minutes
5 ‘Host’ (2020)
Director: Rob Savage
Screenlife movies have become increasingly popular in recent years, and 2020’s Host is among the superior efforts. The plot centers on a group of friends who inadvertently summon a supernatural force during an online séance and must do everything to escape its wrath.
Host makes the most of its intriguing premise by creating a creepy atmosphere and delivering multiple chills. Filmed at the height of the pandemic, Host is a meta and self-aware story about technology’s many possibilities—a film can be shot entirely during quarantine!—without ignoring its many dangers. Eerie, suspenseful, and outright scary, Host is a horror gem for the modern age with a very relatable element that will ring uncomfortably true for almost everyone in the audience.
Host
- Release Date
- July 30, 2020
- Cast
- Haley Bishop , Jemma Moore
- Runtime
- 56 minutes
4 ‘The Ring’ (2002)
Director: Gore Verbinski
Two-time Oscar nominee and remake queen Naomi Watts stars in Gore Verbinski‘s psychological horror film The Ring. Based on the Japanese movie Ring, the film follows a reporter who must find a way to escape a supernatural curse where victims die seven days after watching a cursed video.
The Ring is among the rare remakes that surpass the original, thanks to Verbinski’s confident approach and a terrific performance from Watts. The Ring is also one of the first horror films to use technology as a major aspect of the story, bridging the gap between the supernatural and the technological. It offers no explanations, but it doesn’t need to. After all, in 2002, the internet made everything seem possible; if technology could link humans across the globe, why couldn’t it do the same beyond the grave?
The Ring
- Release Date
- October 18, 2002
- Rating
- PG-13
- Runtime
- 115 minutes
3 ‘Videodrome’ (1983)
Director: David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg’s Videodrome remains a triumph of sci-fi body horror. The film follows Max Renn, a sleazy TV executive desperate for content who discovers a gratuitously violent show, “Videodrome,” and includes it among his channel’s programming. When his girlfriend auditions for the show and never returns, Max realizes the violence behind “Videodrome” might not be as fictional as he previously thought.
Videodrome is a brilliant takedown of the media and their relentless obsession with glorifying violence and cruelty. Cronenberg brilliantly mocks and criticizes society’s hypocrisy in decrying violence while still getting a morbid kick out of it. Despite being thirty years old, Videodrome‘s ruminations on technology remain as fresh today as in 1983, while its disturbing and bewildering visuals continue to shock and challenge audiences’ sensibilities.
Videodrome
- Release Date
- February 4, 1983
- Cast
- James Woods , Sonja Smits , Deborah Harry , Peter Dvorsky , Leslie Carlson , Jack Creley
- Rating
- R
- Runtime
- 87
2 ‘Titane’ (2021)
Director: Julia Ducournau
Agathe Rousselle stars in Julia Ducournau‘s 2021 body horror thriller Titane. The plot follows Alexia, a serial killer with a titanium plate fitted into her head following a childhood car crash, who goes on a violent journey of self-discovery after committing a series of murders.
Audacious and uncompromising, Titane is a riveting psychosexual thriller from one of cinema’s boldest filmmakers. Although it openly defies traditional interpretation, the film explores themes of family, identity, and humanity’s connection with the inanimate and mechanical through striking and visceral visuals. Titane‘s approach might be off-putting to many—indeed, its visuals are designed to provoke a raw reaction from viewers— but the film is a modern masterpiece of techno-horror.
Titane
- Release Date
- October 1, 2021
- Cast
- Vincent Lindon , Agathe Rousselle , Garance Marillier , Laïs Salameh , Dominique Frot , Myriem Akeddiou
- Rating
- R
- Runtime
- 108 minutes
1 ‘Pulse’ (2001)
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
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Kiyoshi Kurosawa‘s 2001 techno-horror film Pulse remains the subgenre’s greatest achievement. The plot, triggered by the suicide of a college student, revolves around three individuals investigating a series of malevolent spirits using the internet to haunt and possibly invade the human world.
Pulse expertly captures its age’s fear of the internet with a terrifying story that remains harrowing and resonant today. Through suggestion and suspense, Pulse crafts an eerie and anxiety-inducing technological nightmare more effective than most movies with twice the thrills and guts. The film perfectly blends the subtle and the overt, keeping things contained before releasing its few but expertly-timed jumpscares. Unnerving and relentless, Pulse is a masterpiece of techno-horror and a cult classic with a reputation that grows by the year.
