To start a conversation on the last 10 years of horror and also get back into the swing of blogging, I’ve rounded up what I consider to be the top ten horror films of the past decade (check out the first half here). The following are my personal top five—what I consider to be the absolute must-see flicks of the past decade. So read on fellow horror fanatics, and tell me what picks you agree with, and what you want to tear my head off for not including.

My, the past 10 years have flown by. Circa 2000 I was just entering middle school, and now I’m about to graduate college (!) and head out into the real world. Things certainly changed in the horror genre as well, and this past decade produced a lot of defining gems as well as mountains of trash. Seeing as how I haven’t been tending to my blog recently, I decided to put together my own personal list of the best horror movies of the decade to get back in the swing of things. Note: This is purely my own opinion, and does not represent that of the entire Fango staff. I’m making this list merely to start a conversation on what people think the best horror flicks of the 2000s were.

Let’s get this out of the way right now—I hated this movie. It took all the creepiness, simplicity and dread I loved in the first film and made it a funhouse ride of nothing but cheap “boo scares” while serving many of the same reheated plot points and fear tactics. In a word, disappointing. But the point of this post isn’t to bash the film outright—PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2, to me, exemplifies all the problems and pratfalls one encounters when trying to create a good horror sequel, issues that have plagued the genre since its inception.

Dear horror fans—what scares you? Tis the season for terror, and in honor of my favorite month I figure I’d drop the angry rants for a post and talk about something different: the scenes in horror movies that have truly chilled me to the bone and that have made me such an addict of the genre.

Holy shit.

Those were the two words I uttered upon reaching the end credits of A SERBIAN FILM. Actually, that’s a lie. I looked at the screen stone-faced for several moments, barely able to comprehend what I just watched, like I just got cracked upside the head with a sledgehammer and my brains were still rolling around my head. Effective? Yes. Disturbing? Without a doubt. It’s climbed into the infinitesimally small category of movies that truly were hard for me to sit through, with one scene in particular nearly causing me to turn the movie off.

F**k Wes Craven. Yeah, I said it—it’s time that genre fans get off their knees and stop weeping for the “great director” he once was. Newsflash: he was never great. Hell, in a career expanding for over three decades, he’s only created two notable hits: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and SCREAM. Granted, both changed the face of horror as we know it (and I’m about as huge a Freddy fanboy as can be), but in between these two giants? Zilch (otherwise known as DEADLY FRIEND).

After watching this rather dismal E3, I’ve come to terms with something I’ve been denying for several years: survival horror—my favorite genre in all of gaming—is on its deathbed, and despite all of my false hope, I realize the time has come to write the eulogy.