The Ring (2002)

A remake of Japan's ultra-creepy "Ringu" (1998), Hollywood spun this subconscious-jarring flick to shake American moviegoers in a big way. Like the original, a journalist (Naomi Watts) investigates a mysterious videotape that has killed four teenagers, including her niece.

Dismissing their deaths as accidents, she scoffs at the urban legend that viewers will die seven days after watching the tape's mesmerizing horrors. Yet after she and her son watch it, she races against the clock to lift its curse and save their lives.

Unlike earlier films, "The Ring" grips audiences without going the gory, horror-porn route. But like the new century in which it was made, its truly disturbing chills come from watching an isolated human being take on a world of hidden terrors.

FearDotCom (2002)

Preceding many of the decade's true news stories about people endangered because of dabbling with the Internet, "FearDotCom" dishes up a plot that makes ordinary Joe's think twice about entering any online site. In this fright fest four bodies are found in New York City.

All the victims died within 48 hours after logging onto a site named feardotcom. A tough cop sets out to solve the mysterious deaths. Yet the only way to discover feardotcom's link to the crimes is to enter the site itself. It's spine-tingler that haunts audiences most with is real message: be forewarned, rather than bewitched, by what lurks within cyberspace.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

While many remakes turn out badly, this re-telling of the '70s cult classic makes the grade in gruesomely fine form. As some young friends head to a Dallas concert, they take a shortcut across a tiny, isolated town. Despite their better judgment, they pick up a distraught woman who shoots herself before their eyes.

Assuming that the nice country folk will rush to their aid the spooked crew comb the town for help, completely unaware they've been marked for death by a chainsaw-wielding psycho with a heart-stopping mug. Stalked by the madman and a family of cannibals, these do-gooders run for their lives. Yet as audiences discover, this down-home inhospitality isn't so easy to escape.

The Grudge (2004)

Inspired again by money-making J-horror (aka scary Japanese film), Hollywood hired "Ju-on" director Takashi Shimizu to Americanize this moody spine-tingler. After a young exchange student (Sarah Michelle Gellar) moves to Tokyo, she helps an elderly woman in a semi-catatonic state.

Yet the American do-gooder senses something evil lurking in this poor woman's home. With bodies suddenly dropping like flies about her, the spooked student takes on this vengeful supernatural force. While watching Gellar may lack the slasher thrills of the '90s, this surreal nightmare will still keep die-hard horror buffs awake at night.

Saw (2004)

In this hellish hit and all its lucrative sequels, director James Wan served up a feverish new level of grisly scares. Playing on the extreme partyer's darkest fears, two men awake chained to a bathroom pipe - and with a dead body lying between them.

As they come to they realize they're in the lair of serial killer named Jigsaw - a calculating fiend who gets his giggles by concocting devious deathtraps for random victims. Giving his captives their gruesome challenge - namely, kill one another before nightfall - Jigsaw's prey set out to outsmart their hellish host. But as in any taut race against the clock, no one knows who'll reap the last thrill.

In this remake of Wes Craven's classic, Alexandra Aja dishes out enough blood-soaked antics to make even the most desensitized horror buffs cringe with fright.  While travelling to California in a trailer, a family takes a shortcut through New Mexico - one that leads them to an abandoned gas station. Filled with a foreboding, the family spends the night there. Mistake #1. Faster than they can whistle Britney Spears' "Toxic," they're trapped by a rampaging group of deformed cannibal psychos.

Thanks to nuclear tests done on the site decades before, these killers have a taste for fresh meet -- and we're not talking caribou. While some might see this flick as merely a remake, "The Hills Have Eyes" wields enough grisly twists to scare modern moviegoers out of their wits.

Hostel (2005)

A controversial little fright fest, director Eli Roth made waves with this xenophobic tale about three American backpackers who get locked out of their Amsterdam hostel. Thanks to one caring stranger, the pleasure-seeking men hear of a nearby hostel filled with women hotter than the noon day sun.

But as in anything in life that's too good to be true, this backpacker's paradise has a definite down side. The tourists quickly morph from happy campers to terrorized prey, shaking audiences up with the graphic physical, mental and sexual torture they endure. "Hostel" may have stirred up emotions with its uncompromising brutality and homophobic undertones. But it's to die for.

In this sequel to Rob Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses" (2003), the Texas State Police raid the evil Firefly home. With several officers dead and three of the Firefly killers on the run, the murderous trio head on a deadly road trip, leaving dozens of mangled bodies in their wake. 

Just as Zombie intended, this grim little grab bag of sadistic violence grabs people by the throat. For some it's an exploitation flick at best. For others "The Devil's Rejects" is horror heaven.

One of the first harrowing, all-female horror flicks, "The Descent" marked new cinematic ground by pitting hot chicks against unfathomable terrors - and none of them undress for gratuitous sex. A letdown for some, this taut tale about a caving trek gone wrong still serves up enough ample thrills to titillate moviegoers.

Trapped underground after a freak collapse, the film's athletic beauties are suddenly pursued by bloodthirsty cave creatures. They fight. They scream. These girls run for their lives. But this flick's real horrors come once the women's friendships sour. Turned into mortal foes, their fear for one another and what it inspires isn't pretty.