Good god, was The Card Player 2004?
My personal favourite would be, I'm afraid to say
bizarre_eye, Shaun of the Dead. It manages to get the perfect balance between a zombie film and the elements of comedy and I really find it hard to fault it at all.
I do think it's important not to forget Saw. Sure, with all the subsequent sequels expanding on the backstory which at the time of the original didn't exist in the creators' mind it's easy to disregard it as another money-churning franchise (for the record I love the first 3 and have some time for the 4th but lost interest when it became The Detective Hoffman Show) but the first film came out of nowhere and what started as a sub-rate Seven quickly became an engaging and horrific experience by the film's end (for me at least).
I also, rather surprisingly, enjoyed the remake of Dawn of the Dead. If you have to remake Romero's classic (and don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you do) then this is how you do it. It stands as a really good film in its own right, running zombies aside and Synder's unique direction (which does involve more than just slow-mo shots, I swear
) really makes it an enjoyable watch
Also enjoyed Hellevator although I was watching it at 5am in a cinema, having been there for a horror marathon since midnight and was rapidly finding it hard to follow anything that I was seeing at that point. Definitely one to revisit now that I've been reminded of it.