Horror films are something you have to prepare for. Whether it’s gripping the seat or shielding your eyes or ears, or wrapping yourself up in a world full of tension and menace, great horror movies are much more than jump scares. Utilizing the sound of floorboards, the movement of shadows, the unpredictability of mist, horrific or hilarious (or hilariously horrific) deaths, or a tingling film score—this genre is always playing with the audience. The greatest horror films can be heady and philosophical, slapstick or serious—in short, if you’re a fan of horror, most likely you’re a fan of cinema. No other genre best represents how the moving image can affect us—by using every filmmaking tool in the shed.
Horror cinema has seen historic highs; the best horror movies never really leave your mind for good. But which of the genre’s finest are the very, very best? Below are the greatest, the most unforgettable—and indeed the most frightening—horror movies ever made, ranked from great to greatest.
25 ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ (1956)
When Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) begins to hear the same story from all his patients, that their loved ones are acting strange, he investigates the matter. He discovers that the cause is otherworldly: aliens have discreetly invaded Earth and are replacing humanity, growing their own duplicates from plant-like pods.
While there have been numerous adaptations of the legendary science-fiction novel, the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers remains the best. Often the creatures in horror movies take on the form of a horrific beast, but as Invasion of the Body Snatchers shows, facing a villain that can take the shape of your closest friends and family is just as terrifying, if not more so.
24 ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ (1920)
Director Robert Wiene‘s tale about a traveling showman and his fortune-telling somnambulist (a.k.a. sleepwalker) is a haunting example of the absurd angles and exploration of madness that’s at the heart of German Expressionism, but it’s also an outgrowth of the fears and experiences brought about by World War I.
Screenwriters Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz brought their pacifist and anti-authoritarian message to the script, a message the rings loud and clear throughout the picture. However, the bookends of the film’s framing story serve to undercut that message rather than underscoring it. This interpretation may be a subject of debate still, but its place in horror history is rock-solid thanks to Cesare the Somnambulist and the beastly, duplicitous Dr. Caligari. — Dave Trumbore
23 ‘Get Out’ (2017)
Meeting your in-laws for the first time can be a nerve-wracking experience for anyone, but Get Out takes that relatable dilemma to scary new places. When Chris (Daniel Kaluuya‘s Oscar-nominated, star-making performance), a young Black man, travels with his white girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) to meet her family, he discovers their seemingly perfect life harbors dark secrets.
A breakout horror hit and the debut of modern horror master Jordan Peele, Get Out won countless fans thanks to its gripping story packed with social commentary and genuine scares. One of the best and most influential horror movies so far this century, Get Out’s screenplay won Peele an Academy Award and announced him as one of the brightest stars in the genre. — Ty Weinert
22 ‘Scream’ (1996)
Wes Craven’s masterwork shares some DNA strands with Alejandro Amenabar’s Thesis from 1994, but whereas Amenabar leaned heavier on the academic tone, Craven indulges with colorful, anxious imagery that has denoted his pulpiest gore-laden delights, from A Nightmare on Elm Street to The Serpent and the Rainbow. The story itself, however, similarly toys with the moralism of enjoying horror movies, with Jamie Kennedy representing the giddy, know-it-all fanboy contingency and Skeet Ulrich representing the over-it seducer with Neve Campbell’s sanctified Sidney Prescott stuck in the middle as her friends and classmates are carved up by the now-famous Ghosface killer.
Sure, there’s a minor kick in watching these stereotypes get sliced and diced, but Craven’s post-modern conception here brings unfussy maturity to a genre that was always denoted for its general cheapness and impersonal feel. Scream marks perhaps the most personal and reflective of all the slashers, and represents a major turn towards big-budget horror as a place for burgeoning auteurs to hone their craft and flourish in distinct new directions. — Chris Cabin
21 ‘Vampyr’ (1932)
Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer is behind the seminal 1932 horror film Vampyr. Nicolas de Gunzburg —under the name Julian West —stars as Allan Gray, a young student fascinated by the occult. Stumbling upon a French village, Allan becomes involved with an older man and his sick daughter, who’s slowly succumbing to the curse of vampirism.
Enhanced by its immersive black-and-white cinematography, Vampyr is an oneiric, unforgettable picture and a triumph of 1930s horror. Although hard to follow and lacking structure, Vampyr is a visual feast, offering disturbing and elevated visuals that will satisfy loyal horror viewers – and haunt the dreams of anyone brave enough to watch it. — David Caballero
20 ‘Hereditary’ (2018)
Mourning the loss of her estranged mother, Annie (Toni Collette) and her family attempt to put their grief behind them as they move on with their lives. But when strange and terrifying events begin plaguing each family member, they find themselves caught in a darkness that threatens to rip them apart forever. The external threats of Hereditary are scary enough, but the more profoundly disturbing content here is the tragic unraveling of a family, bolstered by some of the finest performances in the genre’s history (most notably Collette, lamentably snubbed for an Oscar nod).
While Hereditary feels more like a dark drama than a straight horror movie at times, it features one of the most haunting atmospheres in the genre. Even when there are seemingly no threats on screen, first-time feature director Ari Aster still manages to keep the audience feeling unsettled, creating a film that sticks with you long, long after the credits have rolled. — Ty Weinert
19 ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ (1984)
With A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven introduced one of horror’s all-time greatest villains in Robert Englund‘s Freddy Krueger, a cruel and crass killer of children who somehow manages to charm even as he cuts his way through the innocents of Elm Street. In fact, Krueger’s legacy has grown so great over the years, spawning seven sequels and a remake along the way, that it can outshine how incredibly innovative and well-executed Craven’s original film was, and how inherently brilliant the film’s basic idea was.
Craven took the slasher concept popularized by films like Halloween and Friday the 13th, twisted it through the lens of nightmarish dream logic,and redefined it through subtle genre deconstruction (though nowhere near as outright as his New Nightmare and Scream). Craven found a way to take the tropes of the slasher genre and reshape into the legend of Freddy Krueger. You can’t escape most slasher killers because, well that’s just how the genre works, but it’s innate to Krueger’s very construct. — Haleigh Foutch
18 ‘Frankenstein’ (1931)
Boris Karloff burst onto the scene in a big way as the Monster in James Whale‘s this briskly paced mad-scientist thriller that’s arguably even more influential than Dracula (released the same year). Thanks to Carl Laemmle Jr.’s foresight in landing the rights to Dracula and that film’s nearly instantaneous success, Universal Pictures greenlit a number of monster pictures, of which Frankenstein would be next. It also features a curious introduction by actor Edward Van Sloan who warns the audience that the story of Frankenstein might horrify us, which of course only added to the titillation.
Despite its relatively short runtime of 70 minutes and its prevalence in our modern culture, Frankenstein was heavily censored in certain regions upon release. One scene that was long considered controversial–and is probably my favorite part of the whole picture–is when the monster throws a little girl into the lake, ultimately drowning her. Other censors asked to cut Dr. Frankenstein’s line about knowing what it’s like to “be God”, the same line in which he famously shouts, “It’s alive!” Fortunately, the original cut has survived to this day. — Dave Trumbore
17 ‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1968)
The zombies in George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead are called “ghouls” but nonetheless this is the film that created the movie zombie as we know them: blank, thoughtless creatures who lumber around with vacant stares and barely retain any resembling sense of their humanity. For this reason, the thrill of the movie zombie has generally been in seeing how our heroes with brains dispatch them with great efficiency and cruelty. They’re no longer human, after all.
However, re-watch Romero’s film and try not to escape with having more sympathy for the “ghouls” than most of the humans. The living humans mostly only retain humanity’s weakest learned attributes: prejudice, xenophobia and selfishness. The most selfless non-ghoul we follow (Duane Jones) is famously shot—after valiantly fighting against the ghouls—simply because his skin color triggers a suspicious reaction to the man on the other end of the rifle. —Brian Formo
16 ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991)
The late Jonathan Demme directed Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins to Oscar wins with his powerful 1991 horror thriller The Silence of the Lambs. Based on Thomas Harris‘ eponymous novel, the plot follows Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee tracking Buffalo Bill, a serial killer targeting women. Hoping to gain new insights into Bill’s mind, she arranges a meeting with the notorious cannibalistic killer Hannibal Lecter, forming a complex relationship with him.
To this day, The Silence of the Lambs remains the only horror film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards – and only the third to win the Big Five Oscars. A stunning and riveting thriller that effortlessly goes from heavy drama to petrifying suspense, The Silence of the Lambsis a gem of modern horror, a psychological and emotional nightmare that creeps deep within the viewer’s skin. — David Caballero
15 ‘The Thing’ (1982)
If you’re making a case for remakes that vastly improved upon the original work, look no further than The Thing. Adapted from John W. Campbell’s novella “Who Goes There?”, which was previously adapted by Howard Hawks and Christian Nyby as The Thing from Another World in 1951, the 80s version remains the preferred and iconic version of the story today.
And how could it not? It featured Carpenter in his prime, riding high with Russell from their experience on Escape from New York the year before; the amazing practical creature effects were churned out by Oscar-winner Rob Bottin with an assist from the legendary Stan Winston; Tobe Hooper worked on a draft of the script; and the one-and-only Ennio Morricone composed the score. The story follows a tough crew of researchers at an Antarctic station who come into contact with a dangerous alien shape-shifter. From the completely insane opening sequence, to the unabashed reveal of an extraterrestrial spaceship, to the cat-and-mouse game played between the entity and each of the surviving humans, The Thing could arguably be…