The horror movie genre has been a staple in Hollywood since its Golden Age. Great directors like Alfred Hitchcock revolutionized the genre and created some of the most memorable horror flicks that still stand the test of time. A great horror movie keeps us on our toes, forces us to look away while still staying engaged, and gives us genuinely terrifying nightmares. Horror fans can't get enough these macabre gems, and over the years the genre has seen new and innovative directors find new ways to trigger our fears. The debate of which horror movie is the greatest makes great a lively debate and our list of 20 greatest horror movies of all time will certainly do the same.
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00:00The horror genre is home to a lot of quality flicks, as well as low-budget schlock, making
00:06it hard for a viewer to determine what's good and what's a waste of time.
00:10Fortunately, we've patched together a list of those films that are worth the watch.
00:14Though these movies are all pretty different in subject matter and tone, they're all worthwhile
00:18horror films that have helped define the genre.
00:21The Exorcist
00:22Even four decades after its release, 1973's The Exorcist is still the possession thriller
00:28by which all others are judged, and for good reason.
00:31Its ability to infuse a stewing sense of dread alongside moments of body horror stands alone.
00:35The grotesque tour de force made no apologies for its use of profanity or gross body fluid
00:40spewing, and it's a lasting classic as a result.
00:43The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
00:45Existing at the perfect intersection of art and schlock, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre from
00:491974 is a tangibly dirty, grungy, and frightening movie.
00:54Launching sequels in a remake franchise that are by turns too loud and too trashy, the
00:59movie that started it all is an exercise in unpleasantness.
01:03Its characters are largely unlikable, its villains the perfect version of incomprehensible
01:07hillbilly cruelty.
01:08The plot, essentially about a Texas road trip that goes south fast, will remind you why
01:17they tell you to not ever talk to strangers, pick up hitchhikers, or ask questions about
01:22what's going on in the rickety old house at the edge of town.
01:25Invasion of the Body Snatchers
01:27The very definition of a time-worn tale in cinema, the 1978 version of Invasion of the
01:32Body Snatchers is a story that's been remade over and over again, which speaks to the strength
01:36of its premise.
01:37The feeling of being helpless in an unrecognizable society is something many might identify with,
01:43but the slow-burn introduction of these alien invaders is deeply disturbing.
01:47Thrilling to the final frame, it's a story that stays with you, anchored by an excellent
01:51cast of smart, unique characters that you root for, making it hurt all the more when
01:55they fail and fall.
01:57Alien
01:58Ridley Scott's Alien from 1979 continues to resonate so many years later because it has
02:03a lot of unique qualities.
02:04A female protagonist who's just as strong and capable as anybody else, a profound sense
02:09of isolation, and an enemy that cannot be reasoned with.
02:12Its characters are constantly under the gun, tasked with identifying their threat while
02:16simultaneously struggling to survive against it.
02:18Beyond the impressive intellectual framework, there are also some shock-and-awe scenes that
02:22have since become iconic moments of cinema.
02:25The Shining
02:26With brilliant performances from its cast, quotable lines, unmatched cinematography,
02:31and those awful twins, The Shining from 1980 is an absolute masterpiece.
02:36Here's Johnny!
02:39It worms its way into your head with beautiful imagery and a hypnotic pace, showing the disillusion
02:43of one man's sanity over the course of an isolated winter at the Overlook Hotel.
02:47Stanley Kubrick's at his best here, with deliberate choices made for each frame that's
02:51as visually stunning as it is packed with unforgettable tension.
02:55The Thing
02:56John Carpenter is considered the master of horror, and this may well be his best effort
03:00in the genre.
03:01Taking creature feature elements and combining them with the who's-who paranoia of a Body
03:05Snatchers remake, The Thing from 1982 plants its characters in isolated Antarctica, and
03:11tasks them with surviving against an alien lifeform that can assume their likenesses.
03:15It's a rich premise that combines subtle, character-based interplay with full-blown
03:19body horror, like a human head scuttling around with spider legs.
03:23With a cast to root for and a villain to fear, The Thing is Exhibit A in the argument for
03:27John Carpenter's primacy among horror engineers.
03:30A remake that runs laps around its source material and bests any modern attempts to
03:34do better.
03:35Return of the Living Dead
03:37An offshoot of George Romero's Living Dead films, this spiritual cousin is easily one
03:41of the most goofily enjoyable zombie movies ever.
03:441985's Return of the Living Dead follows a group of dirtbag ravers whose graveyard
03:49party gets upset by a zombie uprising caused by acid rain.
03:53Return takes a lively approach to its material that still feels fresh, even if the hilariously
03:57dated fashion of the characters decidedly does not.
04:01Why do you eat people?
04:04Not people.
04:06Brains.
04:08Being too self-serious about zombie material is a trap that lots of movie's fellows fall
04:12into, but Return sidesteps that problem with aplomb.
04:14It's not a parody, just a great ride.
04:17Jacob's Ladder
04:18This quiet character study from 1990 follows Jacob Singer, a Vietnam veteran and postal
04:23service worker who slowly comes to believe that either his sanity or reality itself is
04:28falling apart.
04:30The film is notable for some standout sequences.
04:32Take for example Singer's long gurney ride through a hellish hospital littered with body
04:36parts, blood, and inhuman monsters gone mad.
04:39The sequences influenced horror media for decades afterwards, so even if you haven't
04:43seen this movie, you've definitely seen its impact.
04:46In the decades since its release, it's developed into a noted cult classic lauded for its indelible
04:51imagery as much as the deep melancholy at its core.
04:55Scream
04:56The first film ever to kick off the self-aware horror trend is also still the best.
05:00I'm just in a scary movie.
05:03You like scary movies?
05:05Uh-huh.
05:06What's your favorite scary movie?
05:08Wes Craven, who was already horror royalty thanks to The Hills Have Eyes, The People
05:11Under the Stairs, and the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, outdid himself with Scream
05:16in 1996.
05:17This funny, freaky slasher flick subverted every trope in the book and roundly mocked
05:22the horror genre at large, while still scaring the hell out of its audience.
05:25Oh, you want to play psycho killer?
05:29Can I be the helpless victim?
05:32The Blair Witch Project
05:34The found-footage project that started it all, 1999's The Blair Witch Project launched
05:38plenty of copycat projects that never got anywhere close to the haunted, pine-scented
05:43quality of the original.
05:44The forest itself becomes the monster in this ultra-low-budget camcorder picture, where
05:48every tangle of twigs and leaves takes on an eerie suspicion.
05:52Following a group of hapless young filmmakers as they circle the wilderness, lost and increasingly
05:57certain they're being hunted, the film is a story about madness, isolation, and distrust
06:01while still infusing a classic ghost story in its bones.
06:05Its title antagonist is never truly seen, and maybe not even real, but that's part of
06:09the beauty of the film.
06:10The witch's absence offers an uncertainty that gets to the heart of what horror is,
06:14fear and a sense of helplessness in the face of the unknown.
06:18Audition
06:19Back in the days before OK Cupid or eHarmony, a widowed, middle-aged businessman had to
06:23get creative when it came to finding a date.
06:26Or at least, that's the premise of Audition, from 1999.
06:29This Japanese horror film is a very slow burn, with a scream-worthy finale as the poor
06:33love-lorn protagonist realizes that the young lady he's auditioned to be his new bride comes
06:38with a checkered past and some disturbing baggage.
06:41In addition to boasting stellar performances and a creative, scary script, Audition has
06:45the added benefit of making your worst Tinder date look like a great time by comparison.
06:50The Descent
06:51Claustrophobes be wary.
06:53If you've got a fear of being trapped in tight spaces, The Descent, from 2005, is one of
06:57the scariest movies you could watch.
06:59The unique story of a group of female cavers who get lost in the uncharted depths, The
07:03Descent is a top-notch horror experience that gets taken to the next level when the heroes
07:07stop spelunking and have to start caving in monsters' skulls.
07:11They've got to fight for survival, all while wading through massive lakes of blood.
07:15Be sure to catch the version with the original ending, which was deemed too dark for U.S.
07:18audiences and cut from the theatrical release.
07:22The Mist
07:23A lot of Stephen King's horror novels have been made into movies or TV shows, but only
07:27some of them have been successful at translating the tension and terror of the source material
07:31to the screen.
07:32I don't think you'd like it, Henry."
07:34The Mist was of the few to get it right, thanks to the unsettling plot tweak sprinkled in
07:38by writer-director Frank Darabont.
07:40The 2007 film tells the story of a New England town beset by unspeakable, otherworldly horrors
07:45that descend under the cover of an impenetrable, mysterious mist.
07:49It's a solid monster movie, but its scariest moments are the ones that reveal the dark
07:53tribalism of human beings who believe they're witnessing the end of the world.
07:57It pulls no punches on that front.
07:59King even famously said that Darabont's gut-wrenching twist ending for the film is the one he wishes
08:03he'd written himself.
08:05Paranormal Activity
08:06Found-footage horror got a fresh face with this 2007 movie, which proved that you don't
08:11need a gothic mansion or dilapidated cabin in the woods to make a highly effective haunting
08:15flick.
08:16All the action of Paranormal Activity takes place in the comfy, carpeted setting of a
08:20suburban townhome, as a pair of newlyweds learn they're not entirely alone in their
08:23house.
08:24Like the genre predecessor The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity is all about
08:28the slow burn.
08:29Even the most ordinary occurrences, like a door swinging shut or a hall light illuminating
08:33off-screen, are imbued with foreboding, and the teeny-tiny cast does a convincing job
08:38of making the found-footage premise feel real.
08:41Martyrs
08:42Profoundly disturbing to the point of being unwatchable, 2008's Martyrs was one of the
08:46progenitors of the French extreme horror movement, and earned that distinction in every single
08:51way.
08:52In the haunting sequence, which depicts the chillingly merciless murder of an entire family,
08:56the movie only gets harder to watch.
08:58It's a curiosity-killed-the-cat parable about revenge, mercy, and humanity's search for
09:03meaning, and it's unlike anything you've ever seen.
09:06It challenges you to keep watching right up to the cruel and bitter end, but watch the
09:10original rather than the 2016 remake, because that one's scary for a whole different series
09:14of reasons.
09:15Let the Right One In
09:17Not to be confused with Let Me In, the regrettable American remake, Let the Right One In was
09:21a sleepy Swedish surprise.
09:23In the 2008 pic, a bullied young boy named Oscar makes friends with an unusual new neighbor
09:28who only comes out at night because, well, she's a vampire.
09:32But Let the Right One In doesn't go the way of Twilight or True Blood and try to get too
09:35campy about human-vampire relations.
09:38Instead, it's a smart piece of commentary on the loneliness of the human condition.
09:42That is, when people aren't being drained of blood, bursting into flames, or getting
09:45torn to shreds by a bunch of cute little kitties.
09:49You're Next
09:50Home invasion thrillers are a staple subgenre within the horror film family, and You're
09:54Next is a perfect specimen of this often-mishandled storyline.
09:58With an opening scene that sets just the right mood, a stylish execution, and a badass final
10:02girl who you'll be rooting for from the get-go, there's nothing about this 2011 movie that
10:07isn't utterly on point.
10:09Except maybe for the fact that there's no sequel.
10:11Goodnight Mommy
10:12This Austrian feature from 2014 is a masterclass in making the audience feel very, very bad.
10:18Two twins develop a syndrome that makes them believe their mother, lost in depression after
10:22being disfigured in an accident, has been replaced by an imposter.
10:26The story unfolds with train wreck inevitability as their investigation turns from curious
10:30to cruel, playing with the allegiances of the audience in an excruciating way.
10:34The story is riddled with blank spaces and patches of silence where a lesser film would
10:38try to tell the audience too much.
10:40The amazing result is that the viewers have to do the legwork on figuring out what's really
10:43going on.
10:44And the film is not so much about jump surprises as it is about the pure horror of watching
10:49innocent children do terrible, unspeakable things.
10:53The Witch
10:54Not only is The Witch historically authentic to an eerie degree, but its careful approach
10:58to introducing scary supernatural elements into the real-life religious anxieties of
11:03colonial New Englanders is intensely unsettling.
11:06And the climax of this 2015 film is an emotional piece of hell.
11:10A lot hinges on the endings of horror movies, and this one sticks the landing with confidence.
11:15It's an unsparing picture, the very meaning of dreadful, and a modern classic.
11:19Get Out
11:20A meet-the-parents situation goes terribly awry in Jordan Peele's directorial debut Get
11:24Out, which hit theaters in 2017 amid a wave of well-deserved buzz.
11:29The movie follows interracial couple Rose and Chris, who are visiting for a weekend
11:33at Rose's parents' estate, a classy place where the polished veneer of white liberal
11:37tolerance turns out to be masking some deep, dark, terrifying secrets about why there aren't
11:42more black folks in town.
11:43Get Out fully lives up to the hype, delivering suspense and scares while also tackling complex
11:48and uncomfortable racial issues with incisive wit.
11:51If it doesn't make you scream, it'll definitely make you squirm.
11:53"...and take the floor."
11:56Wait, wait, wait...
11:57"...sit."