Horror at its Best
by theclintdavis | created - 15 Feb 2015 | updated - 11 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. 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: 226,727 | Gross: $2.12M
The most human horror film since "Rosemary's Baby." This one redefined vampire pictures by having its most terrifying character be trapped inside the body of an adolescent girl. The relationship between the two leads is sweet and genuine and successfully creates conflicting emotions in the audience regarding whom to root for. This is simply a flawless movie — horror or otherwise.
2. REC (2007)
R | 78 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A television reporter and cameraman follow emergency workers into a dark apartment building and are quickly locked inside with something terrifying.
Directors: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza | Stars: Manuela Velasco, Ferran Terraza, Jorge-Yamam Serrano, Pablo Rosso
Votes: 196,584
Found-footage horror at its very best. This movie offers intense scares by making the camera act as the first line of defense against the terrifying creatures that line this film. We follow a Spanish TV news reporter on a routine assignment with a local fire crew that results in them being quarantined inside a large apartment building after an unknown virus breaks out.
3. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
R | 81 min | Horror, Mystery
Three film students vanish after traveling into a Maryland forest to film a documentary on the local Blair Witch legend, leaving only their footage behind.
Directors: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez | Stars: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard, Bob Griffin
Votes: 285,415 | Gross: $140.54M
Three college kids head into the woods to make a documentary about a mythic witch. They end up slowly turning on one another as their sanity slips away in a labyrinth of the Maryland wilderness. The movie's low budget and highly tense performances make for an unnerving docudrama with plenty of atmospheric scares.
4. 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: 950,127 | Gross: $78.90M
Retro-futuristic production design and special effects that still look fantastic after nearly 40 years keep this a sci-fi/horror masterpiece. The alien represents the ultimate silent hunter — the apex predator that all imposing slasher killers aspire to be.
5. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
R | 91 min | Horror
Teenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund, John Saxon
Votes: 262,393 | Gross: $25.50M
A terrifying premise brought to life with cutting-edge special effects and horror's most charming villain. This was Wes Craven's masterpiece. The kills are brutal, gory and frightening and the idea that Freddy Krueger was created out of the brutal vengeance of ignorant suburban parents makes for a great origin story.
6. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Approved | 137 min | Drama, Horror
A young couple trying for a baby moves into an aging, ornate apartment building on Central Park West, where they find themselves surrounded by peculiar neighbors.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer
Votes: 235,076
7. Poltergeist (1982)
PG | 114 min | Horror, Thriller
A family's home is haunted by a host of demonic ghosts.
Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: JoBeth Williams, Heather O'Rourke, Craig T. Nelson, Beatrice Straight
Votes: 179,518 | Gross: $76.61M
8. 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: 1,106,266 | Gross: $44.02M
9. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
R | 83 min | Horror
Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.
Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain
Votes: 183,560 | Gross: $30.86M
10. The Conjuring (2013)
R | 112 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.
Director: James Wan | Stars: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ron Livingston, Lili Taylor
Votes: 554,652 | Gross: $137.40M
11. The Booth (2005)
Not Rated | 74 min | Horror, Thriller
Shogo (Ryuta Sato), the arrogant and condescending star of a popular call-in radio-show must temporarily broadcast out of Studio 6, a creepy and dilapidated booth abandoned since its last ... See full summary »
Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura | Stars: Maiko Asano, Makoto Ashikawa, Mansaku Ikeuchi, Seiko Iwaidô
Votes: 450
12. The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (2015)
R | 92 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A family in 1630s New England is torn apart by the forces of witchcraft, black magic and possession.
Director: Robert Eggers | Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Julian Richings
Votes: 300,587 | Gross: $25.14M
Artful, Kubrick-inspired horror based on atmosphere. This is one of those rare horror films that leaves you thinking about its themes and imagery for hours after it ends. Just wish the dialogue was easier to understand.
13. 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
PG-13 | 103 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A young woman is held in an underground bunker by a man who insists that a hostile event has left the surface of the Earth uninhabitable.
Director: Dan Trachtenberg | Stars: John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr., Douglas M. Griffin
Votes: 354,605 | Gross: $72.08M
14. Don't Breathe (2016)
R | 88 min | Crime, Horror, Thriller
Hoping to walk away with a massive fortune, a trio of thieves break into the house of a blind man who isn't as helpless as he seems.
Director: Fede Alvarez | Stars: Stephen Lang, Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto
Votes: 300,439 | Gross: $89.22M
15. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Not Rated | 83 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
The Wolf Man tries to warn a dimwitted porter that Dracula wants his brain for Frankenstein monster's body.
Directors: Charles Barton, Walter Lantz | Stars: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi
Votes: 19,563 | Gross: $4.80M
16. Life (I) (2017)
R | 104 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A team of scientists aboard the International Space Station discover a rapidly evolving life form that caused extinction on Mars and now threatens all life on Earth.
Director: Daniel Espinosa | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada
Votes: 253,764 | Gross: $30.23M
17. Get Out (I) (2017)
R | 104 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A young African-American visits his white girlfriend's parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him eventually reaches a boiling point.
Director: Jordan Peele | Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener
Votes: 696,387 | Gross: $176.04M
18. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.
Director: Charles Laughton | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason
Votes: 97,312 | Gross: $0.65M
19. Hereditary (2018)
R | 127 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.
Director: Ari Aster | Stars: Toni Collette, Milly Shapiro, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff
Votes: 377,672 | Gross: $44.07M
20. The Babadook (2014)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book titled "Mister Babadook" manifests in their home.
Director: Jennifer Kent | Stars: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Hayley McElhinney
Votes: 247,179 | Gross: $0.92M
21. The Others (2001)
PG-13 | 104 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
In 1945, immediately following the end of Second World War, a woman who lives with her two photosensitive children on her darkened old family estate in the Channel Islands becomes convinced that the home is haunted.
Director: Alejandro Amenábar | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston, Fionnula Flanagan, Alakina Mann
Votes: 393,130 | Gross: $96.52M
22. A Quiet Place (2018)
PG-13 | 90 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
A family struggles for survival in a world where most humans have been killed by blind but noise-sensitive creatures. They are forced to communicate in sign language to keep the creatures at bay.
Director: John Krasinski | Stars: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe
Votes: 583,347 | Gross: $188.02M
23. 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: 306,714 | Gross: $47.00M
24. The Host (2006)
R | 120 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
A monster emerges from Seoul's Han River and begins attacking people. One victim's loving family does what it can to rescue her from its clutches.
Director: Bong Joon Ho | Stars: Song Kang-ho, Byun Hee-Bong, Park Hae-il, Bae Doona
Votes: 132,678 | Gross: $2.20M
25. Dracula (1931)
Passed | 75 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula bends a naive real estate agent to his will, then takes up residence at a London estate where he sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for potential victims by night.
Directors: Tod Browning, Karl Freund | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye
Votes: 58,611
26. White Zombie (1932)
Passed | 69 min | Horror
A young man turns to a witch doctor to lure the woman he loves away from her fiancé, but instead turns her into a zombie slave.
Director: Victor Halperin | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Madge Bellamy, Joseph Cawthorn, Robert Frazer
Votes: 11,652
27. Don't Look Now (1973)
R | 110 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A married couple grieving the recent death of their young daughter are in Venice when they encounter two elderly sisters, one of whom is psychic and brings a warning from beyond.
Director: Nicolas Roeg | Stars: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland, Hilary Mason, Clelia Matania
Votes: 62,308 | Gross: $0.98M
28. The Wicker Man (1973)
R | 88 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A puritan police sergeant arrives in a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl, who the pagan locals claim never existed.
Director: Robin Hardy | Stars: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Britt Ekland
Votes: 92,234 | Gross: $0.06M
29. The Innocents (1961)
Not Rated | 100 min | Horror
A young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted.
Director: Jack Clayton | Stars: Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins, Michael Redgrave
Votes: 33,055 | Gross: $2.62M
30. Peeping Tom (1960)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A young man murders women, using a movie camera to film their dying expressions of terror.
Director: Michael Powell | Stars: Karlheinz Böhm, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer, Maxine Audley
Votes: 39,235 | Gross: $0.08M
31. Eyes Without a Face (1960)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Horror
A surgeon causes an accident which leaves his daughter disfigured and goes to extreme lengths to give her a new face.
Director: Georges Franju | Stars: Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Juliette Mayniel, Alexandre Rignault
Votes: 35,126 | Gross: $0.05M
32. Repulsion (1965)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A sex-repulsed woman who disapproves of her sister's boyfriend sinks into depression and has horrific visions of rape and violence.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser, Yvonne Furneaux
Votes: 57,265
33. The Vanishing (1988)
Not Rated | 107 min | Mystery, Thriller
Rex and Saskia, a young couple in love, are on vacation. They stop at a busy service station and Saskia is abducted. After three years and no sign of Saskia, Rex begins receiving letters from the abductor.
Director: George Sluizer | Stars: Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, Johanna ter Steege, Gwen Eckhaus
Votes: 44,152
34. The Devil's Backbone (2001)
R | 106 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
After Carlos - a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War - arrives at an ominous boys' orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which he must uncover.
Director: Guillermo del Toro | Stars: Marisa Paredes, Eduardo Noriega, Federico Luppi, Fernando Tielve
Votes: 70,993 | Gross: $0.75M
35. 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: 1,547,722 | Gross: $130.74M
36. Threads (1984 TV Movie)
TV-MA | 112 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
The effects of a nuclear holocaust on the working class city of Sheffield, England and the eventual long-term effects of nuclear war on civilization.
Director: Mick Jackson | Stars: Karen Meagher, Reece Dinsdale, David Brierly, Rita May
Votes: 20,069
37. Psycho (1960)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin
Votes: 718,089 | Gross: $32.00M
38. Midsommar (2019)
R | 148 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A couple travels to Northern Europe to visit a rural hometown's fabled Swedish mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
Director: Ari Aster | Stars: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Vilhelm Blomgren, William Jackson Harper
Votes: 402,801 | Gross: $27.33M
39. Funny Games (2007)
R | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Two psychopathic young men take a family hostage in their cabin.
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet
Votes: 103,809 | Gross: $1.29M
40. Sleepaway Camp (1983)
R | 84 min | Horror
Bunks and showers are a mad stabber's beat at a summer camp strictly for teens.
Director: Robert Hiltzik | Stars: Felissa Rose, Jonathan Tiersten, Karen Fields, Christopher Collet
Votes: 38,039 | Gross: $11.00M
41. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
PG | 115 min | Drama, Mystery
During a rural summer picnic, a few students and a teacher from an Australian girls' school vanish without a trace. Their absence frustrates and haunts the people left behind.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Rachel Roberts, Anne-Louise Lambert, Vivean Gray, Helen Morse
Votes: 41,018 | Gross: $0.23M
42. Doctor Sleep (2019)
R | 152 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Years following the events of The Shining (1980), a now-adult Dan Torrance must protect a young girl with similar powers from a cult known as The True Knot, who prey on children with powers to remain immortal.
Director: Mike Flanagan | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Cliff Curtis
Votes: 218,394 | Gross: $31.58M
43. The Exorcist (1973)
R | 122 min | Horror
When a young girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.
Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, Lee J. Cobb
Votes: 454,812 | Gross: $232.91M
44. Godzilla (2014)
PG-13 | 123 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
The world is beset by the appearance of monstrous creatures, but one of them may be the only one who can save humanity.
Director: Gareth Edwards | Stars: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe
Votes: 440,702 | Gross: $200.68M
45. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
R | 121 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Steven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos | Stars: Barry G. Bernson, Herb Caillouet, Bill Camp, Raffey Cassidy
Votes: 187,207 | Gross: $2.29M
46. Midnight Mass (2021)
TV-MA | 64 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
An isolated island community experiences miraculous events - and frightening omens - after the arrival of a charismatic, mysterious young priest.
Stars: Kate Siegel, Zach Gilford, Kristin Lehman, Samantha Sloyan
Votes: 144,439
47. The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
TV-MA | 57 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Flashing between past and present, a fractured family confronts haunting memories of their old home and the terrifying events that drove them from it.
Stars: Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas, Elizabeth Reaser
Votes: 288,110
48. Come and See (1985)
Not Rated | 142 min | Drama, Thriller, War
After finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces and experiences the horrors of World War II.
Director: Elem Klimov | Stars: Aleksey Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Laucevicius, Vladas Bagdonas
Votes: 97,162
49. The Brood (1979)
R | 92 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist's therapy techniques on his institutionalized wife, amidst a series of brutal murders.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle, Henry Beckman
Votes: 34,296
50. Saint Maud (2019)
R | 84 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A pious nurse becomes dangerously obsessed with saving the soul of her dying patient.
Director: Rose Glass | Stars: Morfydd Clark, Caoilfhionn Dunne, Jennifer Ehle, Marcus Hutton
Votes: 46,950
51. It Comes at Night (2017)
R | 91 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son. Then a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge.
Director: Trey Edward Shults | Stars: Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo, Riley Keough
Votes: 103,058 | Gross: $13.99M
52. Titane (2021)
R | 108 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Following a series of unexplained crimes, a father is reunited with the son who has been missing for ten years.
Director: Julia Ducournau | Stars: Vincent Lindon, Agathe Rousselle, Garance Marillier, Laïs Salameh
Votes: 56,096
53. Raw (2016)
R | 99 min | Drama, Horror
A young woman, studying to be a vet, develops a craving for human flesh.
Director: Julia Ducournau | Stars: Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella, Laurent Lucas
Votes: 89,092 | Gross: $0.51M
54. Cape Fear (1962)
Passed | 106 min | Drama, Thriller
A lawyer's family is stalked by a man he once helped put in jail.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen, Lori Martin
Votes: 31,876
55. Nope (2022)
R | 130 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
The residents of a lonely gulch in inland California bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.
Director: Jordan Peele | Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott
Votes: 265,625 | Gross: $123.28M
56. X (II) (2022)
R | 105 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in rural Texas, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the crew find themselves fighting for their lives.
Director: Ti West | Stars: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow, Kid Cudi
Votes: 172,549
57. Fail Safe (1964)
Approved | 112 min | Drama, Thriller
A technical malfunction sends American planes to Moscow to deliver a nuclear attack. Can all-out war be averted?
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Fritz Weaver, Dan O'Herlihy
Votes: 24,402
58. The Night Stalker (1972 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 74 min | Horror, Mystery
An abrasive Las Vegas newspaper reporter investigates a series of murders committed by a vampire.
Director: John Llewellyn Moxey | Stars: Darren McGavin, Carol Lynley, Simon Oakland, Ralph Meeker
Votes: 7,377
59. Three... Extremes (2004)
R | 125 min | Horror
An Asian cross-cultural trilogy of horror films from accomplished indie directors.
Directors: Fruit Chan, Park Chan-wook, Takashi Miike | Stars: Bai Ling, Lee Byung-hun, Kyoko Hasegawa, Pauline Lau
Votes: 20,863 | Gross: $0.08M
60. The Wailing (2016)
TV-MA | 156 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Soon after a stranger arrives in a little village, a mysterious sickness starts spreading. A policeman, drawn into the incident, is forced to solve the mystery in order to save his daughter.
Director: Na Hong-jin | Stars: Jun Kunimura, Hwang Jung-min, Kwak Do-won, Chun Woo-hee
Votes: 81,898
61. Safe (1995)
R | 119 min | Drama
An affluent and unexceptional homemaker in the suburbs develops multiple chemical sensitivity.
Director: Todd Haynes | Stars: Julianne Moore, Xander Berkeley, Dean Norris, Julie Burgess
Votes: 17,232 | Gross: $0.51M
62. Suspiria (I) (2018)
R | 152 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the artistic director, an ambitious young dancer, and a grieving psychotherapist. Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.
Director: Luca Guadagnino | Stars: Chloë Grace Moretz, Tilda Swinton, Doris Hick, Malgorzata Bela
Votes: 92,160 | Gross: $2.47M
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