Not all horror films are created equal. Some deliver a few good scares, while others make us long for the closing credits.
A precious few cling to our dreams – and nightmares – indefinitely.
WWTW presents the Top 25 Horror Movies, a comprehensive list of genre favorites no movie fan should miss. The selected films show the breadth of the genre as well as its artistic excellence. Some may be considered exercise is shock viewing, while others stand tall as great movies, period. And, of course, a few mix genre chills with a dose of laughter.
- “The Exorcist” – It’s often the first movie people name check when asked about the scariest movie they’ve ever seen … for very good reasons.
- “Silence of the Lambs” – Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter may be the most frightening monster in movie history, and he didn’t require a stitch of makeup.
- “The Shining” – A swirling descent into madness as only Jack Nicholson could convey. Stephen King may have famously dismissed Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his novel, but the rest of us were too busy cowering to concur.
- “Night of the Living Dead” – More than four decades later that opening sequence still scares me silly. It’s the grandfather of the zombie era, and those grainy, black and white images blow away most modern shockers.
- “Halloween” – The perfect slasher movie.
- “Psycho” – Alfred Hitchcock made us afraid of going into the shower. Consider the simple power of that statement.
- “Jaws” – “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” The film cast a bigger shadow than nearly every other thriller from the ’70s.
- “Alien” – A flawless science fiction film which offers all the chills any horror fan could demand.
- “An American Werewolf in London” – A brilliant blend of horror and comedy elements, with old-school effects by Rick Baker which still stand out nearly 30 years later.
- “The Omen” – One of the earliest “evil kid” movies, and still the standard bearer.
- “The Descent” – The best horror movie of the past decade. It’s a thrill ride through unexplored caverns, a masterful exploration of the power of darkness.
- “Poltergeist” – Scary clowns, missing children and a pint-sized ghost buster all come together in a seemingly pristine suburban setting. Wrong.
- “[REC]” – Never mind “The Blair Witch Project.” This stands as the best single-cam horror entry yet, followed very closely by its American remake “Quarantine.”
- “The Fly” – David Cronenberg’s crafty remake launched Jeff Goldblum’s career. It’s icky and smart, slick and unnerving.
- “Salem’s Lot” – Who says TV movies can’t scare the pants off us? This vampire might be the scariest ever committed to any screen, big or small.
- “Zombieland” – Hard to tell if this brilliant romp will stand the test of time. All we can say is, right now it rocks.
- “Shaun of the Dead” – A loving homage to brain-chewing zombies.
- “Invasion fo the Body Snatchers” (1978) – A remake that eclipses the original as well as subsequent eboots. That final scene, where Donald Sutherland points to an old friend, is as iconic as any sequence elsewhere on this list.
- “28 Days Later” – Purists may moan the zombies here don’t fit the shuffling, George A. Romero prototype. Who cares? Director Danny Boyle delivers big scares, thrills and social commentary in blissful harmony.
- “Misery” – Who’s afraid of a heavyset woman who has trouble separating fiction from reality? Everyone, if the woman is played by the peerless Kathy Bates.
- “Wolf Creek” – This is one nasty piece of work. It lulls you into a false sense of security with its Aussie vistas and minimalist story. And then … buckle up.
- “Fright Night” – “You’re so cool, Brewster!” Yes, Charlie Brewster and co. sure are cool, breezing past ’80s conventions to make a humdinger of a vampire story mixed with a gooey love story.
- “The Host” – This Korean import uses an old monster movie template to tell a story brimming with family dysfunction. Who says they don’t make ‘em like they used to, but with a twist?
- “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2002) – A fine example of using modern movie making techniques to bring old stories back to life. Critics savaged it. WWTW respectfully disagrees. And there’s never been a more alluring damsel in distress than Jessica Biel.
- “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974) Yes, it’s near sacrilege to list the original below the much maligned remake. This spare, horrifying vision still matters as both a genre touchstone and a creepy slice of timeless cinema.
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree with most of the list, but I’ve got to take exception with “Fright Night” (a good movie, but not in the top 25) and the remake of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (don’t like it at all). I would have included the underrated “The House of the Devil”. I also think “Audition” is a top horror movie.
Shouldn’t there be some movies on the list made prior to 1960 like “Freaks”, “Nosferatu” and “The Thing”?
I agree with most of the selections on this list, except for Halloween (which I never found particularly scary, mainly because slasher movies don’t do anything for me), and 28 Days Later (which was utterly dull- the first half had only a couple decent scares, and the second half jettisoned the zombies completely in favor of a military-bashing subplot, ugh).
I would also add The Strangers, which was an incredibly creepy movie, and the miniseries It, which scared the bejesus out of me as a kid (thanks for the nightmares, Tim Curry!).
@JimmyC
Halloween was one of the first successful and scary movies to start the resurgance of the Horror franchise. Without that movie most of what we see today would not have been made.
@ Aleric: I agree 100% that Halloween was massively influential. But in my opinion, for a horror movie to be considered “essential,” it has to be scary, just as any “essential” comedy would have to be funny for it to make the list.
BTW, glad to see Wolf Creek getting some love here. Way too many horror fans haven’t seen that overlooked gem.
Evil Dead movies?
My tastes run to the modern … it’s a bias I can’t really explain away but one I can’t deny.
The TV “It” was quite good, especially Curry’s performance. “They all float down here, Georgie!”
My love for “Fright Night” is manifold, but the way it pays homage to the hokiest horror movies of yore via Peter Vincent puts it over the top for me.
That’s a nice list I can agree with for the most part. There’s only one entry I’d disagree with: Zombieland. This flick might contain horror elements but Zombieland never really goes for the scare as The Excorcist does for example. It’s like calling Naked Gun a crime movie.
Rosemary’s Baby, 1974’s It’s Alive, Omen, Last House on The Left and Halloween terrified me as a kid, and pretty much still do.
I would opt for ‘Let Me In’ over the ‘Chainsaw’ movies, but that’s admittedly due to my weak stomach. Wimpy am I. Great list!
And yeah, I’d probably not list ‘Shaun’ or ‘Zombieland’, except that I feel they lighten an otherwise heavy/disturbing list of horrors. In that sense, they are most welcome.
If I could add some notable Asian horror flicks, think The Ring deserves to be in the list. It does grow into a successful franchise, and a Hollywood remake. Movies like Ju On or Thai’s Shutter is also creepy as hell.
This list seems to made more out of recent memory than artistic merit. Where are James Whale, Val Lewton, Mario Bava, and Dario Argento? What about Island of Lost Souls, The Haunting, Night of the Demon (1957) and Nosferatu?
Great list. One movie you should consider, although it is not quite in the horror genre, is “Don’t Look Now”. It still sends shivers down my spine. If you watch it on a good big screen setup, late at night, the backdrop of crumbling Venice draws you in.
I have mentioned here before that I am not much of a horror movie fan, but I am reasonably proud to say that I have seen 11 of the movies on your list, which surprised me greatly. Mostly the ones from the 80s and 90s, and not the more recent fare.
As if I couldn’t love you any more. Love the list!
it baffles me that ‘Let the right one in’ is not on the list..although these kinds of lists are very hard to make everyone happy…i disagree with Paula ‘Fright Night’ is one of my favorite horror films partly because i grew up with that film so im a little biased..i would of also included Hammer’s ‘Horror of Dracula’, ‘From Beyond’ and ‘Re-Animator’ to name a few and you can’t forget Argento’s ‘Suspiria’…