Favorite horror movies by year
by luuk-d-bos | created - 30 Mar 2019 | updated - 31 Mar 2019 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Halloween (1978)
R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller
Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran, Nancy Kyes
Votes: 306,704 | Gross: $47.00M
2. Alien (1979)
R | 117 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
The crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright
Votes: 950,074 | Gross: $78.90M
3. The Shining (1980)
R | 146 min | Drama, Horror
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers
Votes: 1,106,138 | Gross: $44.02M
4. The Evil Dead (1981)
NC-17 | 85 min | Horror
Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker
Votes: 232,335 | Gross: $2.40M
5. The Thing (1982)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur
Votes: 466,429 | Gross: $13.78M
6. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller
After being announced dead and taken to a morgue, Jason Voorhees spontaneously revives, escapes from the hospital, and stalks a group of friends renting a house in the countryside near Crystal Lake.
Director: Joseph Zito | Stars: Erich Anderson, Judie Aronson, Peter Barton, Kimberly Beck
Votes: 59,138 | Gross: $32.98M
7. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)
R | 87 min | Horror
A teenage boy is haunted in his dreams by deceased child murderer Freddy Krueger, who is out to possess him in order to continue his reign of terror in the real world.
Director: Jack Sholder | Stars: Robert Englund, Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Robert Rusler
Votes: 77,394 | Gross: $30.00M
8. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
R | 86 min | Horror, Thriller
Tommy Jarvis exhumes Jason Voorhees to cremate his corpse, but inadvertently brings him back to life instead. The newly revived killer seeks revenge, and Tommy may be the only one who can stop him.
Director: Tom McLoughlin | Stars: Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, Kerry Noonan
Votes: 51,213 | Gross: $19.47M
9. Evil Dead II (1987)
R | 84 min | Comedy, Horror
Ash Williams, the lone survivor of an earlier onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits, holes up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kassie Wesley DePaiva
Votes: 181,870 | Gross: $5.92M
10. Phantasm II (1988)
R | 97 min | Action, Fantasy, Horror
Mike, now released from a psychiatric hospital, meets with Reggie, and discover his dreams (the events of the original film) are real, and they both journey to find and stop the evil Tall Man from his grim work.
Director: Don Coscarelli | Stars: James Le Gros, Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm, Paula Irvine
Votes: 16,754 | Gross: $7.28M
11. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
R | 100 min | Adventure, Horror, Thriller
Jason Voorhees is accidentally awakened from his watery grave and ends up stalking a ship full of graduating high-school students headed to Manhattan, New York.
Director: Rob Hedden | Stars: Jensen Daggett, Kane Hodder, Todd Caldecott, Tiffany Paulsen
Votes: 43,064 | Gross: $14.34M
12. Child's Play 2 (1990)
R | 84 min | Horror, Thriller
While Andy's mother is admitted to a psychiatric hospital, the young boy is placed in foster care, and Chucky, determined to claim Andy's soul, is not far behind.
Director: John Lafia | Stars: Alex Vincent, Jenny Agutter, Gerrit Graham, Christine Elise
Votes: 57,641 | Gross: $28.50M
13. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
R | 118 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.
Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine
Votes: 1,547,662 | Gross: $130.74M
14. Candyman (1992)
R | 99 min | Horror, Thriller
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.
Director: Bernard Rose | Stars: Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Tony Todd, Kasi Lemmons
Votes: 100,133 | Gross: $25.79M
15. Jason Goes to Hell (1993)
R | 87 min | Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
Serial killer Jason Voorhees' supernatural origins are revealed.
Director: Adam Marcus | Stars: John D. LeMay, Kari Keegan, Kane Hodder, Steven Williams
Votes: 36,798 | Gross: $15.94M
16. Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994)
R | 91 min | Action, Fantasy, Horror
Mike and Reggie continue to hunt the mysterious Tall Man, discovering along the way that the invasion has already begun.
Director: Don Coscarelli | Stars: Reggie Bannister, A. Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Gloria Lynne Henry
Votes: 10,619
17. Scream (1996)
R | 111 min | Horror, Mystery
A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich
Votes: 388,298 | Gross: $103.05M
18. Scream 2 (1997)
R | 120 min | Horror, Mystery
Two years after the first series of murders, as Sidney acclimates to college life, someone donning the Ghostface costume begins a new string of killings.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Jada Pinkett Smith
Votes: 209,657 | Gross: $101.36M
19. Bride of Chucky (1998)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Horror, Thriller
Chucky, the doll possessed by a serial killer, discovers the perfect mate to kill and revive into the body of another doll.
Director: Ronny Yu | Stars: Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif, Katherine Heigl, Nick Stabile
Votes: 64,231 | Gross: $32.40M
20. Deep Blue Sea (1999)
R | 105 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Searching for a cure to Alzheimer's disease, a group of scientists on an isolated research facility become the prey, as a trio of intelligent sharks fight back.
Director: Renny Harlin | Stars: Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Samuel L. Jackson, Jacqueline McKenzie
Votes: 142,533 | Gross: $73.65M
21. American Psycho (2000)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
A wealthy New York City investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman, hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.
Director: Mary Harron | Stars: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Bill Sage
Votes: 715,007 | Gross: $15.07M
22. Jason X (2001)
R | 92 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Jason Voorhees is cryogenically frozen at the beginning of the 21st century, and is discovered in the 25th century and taken to space. He gets thawed, and begins stalking and killing the crew of the spaceship that's transporting him.
Director: James Isaac | Stars: Kane Hodder, Lexa Doig, Jeff Geddis, David Cronenberg
Votes: 61,521 | Gross: $13.12M
23. The Ring (2002)
PG-13 | 115 min | Horror, Mystery
A journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone one week to the day after they view it.
Director: Gore Verbinski | Stars: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox, David Dorfman
Votes: 374,907 | Gross: $129.13M
24. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
R | 98 min | Horror
After picking up a traumatized young hitchhiker, five friends find themselves stalked and hunted by a deformed chainsaw-wielding loon and his family of equally psychopathic killers.
Director: Marcus Nispel | Stars: Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Andrew Bryniarski, Erica Leerhsen
Votes: 152,356 | Gross: $80.57M
25. Saw (2004)
R | 103 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Two strangers awaken in a room with no recollection of how they got there, and soon discover they're pawns in a deadly game perpetrated by a notorious serial killer.
Director: James Wan | Stars: Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, Danny Glover, Ken Leung
Votes: 466,551 | Gross: $56.00M
26. The Devil's Rejects (2005)
R | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
The murderous, backwoods Firefly family take to the road to escape the vengeful Sheriff Wydell, who is not afraid of being as ruthless as his target.
Director: Rob Zombie | Stars: Sid Haig, Sheri Moon Zombie, Bill Moseley, William Forsythe
Votes: 105,761 | Gross: $17.04M
27. Final Destination 3 (2006)
R | 93 min | Horror, Thriller
Wendy Christensen and a group of teens who escaped a fatal roller-coaster crash face a bloody date with Death.
Director: James Wong | Stars: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ryan Merriman, Kris Lemche, Alexz Johnson
Votes: 153,693 | Gross: $54.10M
28. 28 Weeks Later (2007)
R | 100 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Six months after the rage virus was inflicted on the population of Great Britain, the US Army helps to secure a small area of London for the survivors to repopulate and start again. But not everything goes according to plan.
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo | Stars: Jeremy Renner, Rose Byrne, Robert Carlyle, Harold Perrineau
Votes: 293,703 | Gross: $28.64M
29. Let the Right One In (2008)
R | 114 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl.
Director: Tomas Alfredson | Stars: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl
Votes: 226,725 | Gross: $2.12M
30. Friday the 13th (2009)
R | 97 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A group of young adults visit a boarded up campsite named Crystal Lake where they soon encounter the mysterious Jason Voorhees and his deadly intentions.
Director: Marcus Nispel | Stars: Jared Padalecki, Amanda Righetti, Derek Mears, Danielle Panabaker
Votes: 116,892 | Gross: $65.00M
31. Hatchet II (2010)
R | 85 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
Marybeth escapes the clutches of the bayou-butcher Victor Crowley and returns to the swamp with an army of hunters and gunmen, determined to end Crowley's reign of horror once and for all.
Director: Adam Green | Stars: Danielle Harris, Kane Hodder, Tony Todd, Parry Shen
Votes: 15,083 | Gross: $0.06M
32. The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
R | 95 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Five college friends head out to a remote cabin for a getaway, but things don't go as planned when they start getting killed. They soon discover that there is more to the cabin than it seems.
Director: Drew Goddard | Stars: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz
Votes: 450,543 | Gross: $42.07M
33. Chernobyl Diaries (2012)
R | 86 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Six tourists hire an extreme tour guide who takes them to the abandoned city Pripyat, the former home to the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. During their exploration, they soon discover they are not alone.
Director: Bradley Parker | Stars: Jesse McCartney, Jonathan Sadowski, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Nathan Phillips
Votes: 68,628 | Gross: $18.12M
34. Evil Dead (2013)
R | 91 min | Horror
Five friends head to a remote cabin, where the discovery of a Book of the Dead leads them to unwittingly summon up demons living in the nearby woods.
Director: Fede Alvarez | Stars: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Jessica Lucas, Lou Taylor Pucci
Votes: 197,196 | Gross: $54.24M
35. As Above, So Below (2014)
R | 93 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
When a team of explorers venture into the catacombs that lie beneath the streets of Paris, they uncover the dark secret that lies within this city of the dead.
Director: John Erick Dowdle | Stars: Perdita Weeks, Ben Feldman, Edwin Hodge, François Civil
Votes: 111,650 | Gross: $21.20M
36. Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Not Rated | 132 min | Drama, Horror, Western
In the dying days of the old west, an elderly sheriff and his posse set out to rescue their town's doctor from cannibalistic cave dwellers.
Director: S. Craig Zahler | Stars: Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins
Votes: 117,910
37. Train to Busan (2016)
Not Rated | 118 min | Action, Horror, Thriller
While a zombie virus breaks out in South Korea, passengers struggle to survive on the train from Seoul to Busan.
Director: Yeon Sang-ho | Stars: Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an
Votes: 258,481 | Gross: $2.13M
38. It (I) (2017)
R | 135 min | Fantasy, Horror
In the summer of 1989, a group of bullied kids band together to destroy a shape-shifting monster, which disguises itself as a clown and preys on the children of Derry, their small Maine town.
Director: Andy Muschietti | Stars: Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Martell, Finn Wolfhard, Sophia Lillis
Votes: 605,961 | Gross: $327.48M
39. Halloween (I) (2018)
R | 106 min | Crime, Horror, Thriller
Laurie Strode confronts her long-time foe, Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.
Director: David Gordon Green | Stars: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney
Votes: 169,054 | Gross: $159.34M
40. Us (II) (2019)
R | 116 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Adelaide Wilson and her family are attacked by mysterious figures dressed in red. Upon closer inspection, the Wilsons realize that the intruders are exact lookalikes of them.
Director: Jordan Peele | Stars: Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker
Votes: 340,925 | Gross: $175.08M
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