Horror is one of the most iconic genres because there’s a film for every type of fan. It can blend other genres like comedy and drama, leaving room for a compelling scare. Fans can find something for almost everyone to get satisfying thrills among horror's different subgenres.
With more than a century of good horror movie masterpieces to choose from, there's no shortage for horror fans. From slashers to ghost stories to found footage movies, each subgenre has created some of the most horrific moments in film history. So, while there are numerous horror films for everyone, a select few movies stand above the rest.
Updated October 14, 2023, by Anthony Jeanetta. With recent releases like Saw X and the highly-anticipated Five Nights at Freddy’s, horror movies are as popular and successful as ever. This list is updated to include more of the scariest and best horror films ever made.
25 Paranormal Activity (2007)
While it may seem strange to current-day audiences, when the first Paranormal Activity debuted, it made waves for its unique and terrifying approach to a ghost story. Now seven movies into the franchise, the initial entry made almost immediate waves for its lo-fi yet effective scares.
Paranormal Activity uses a found-footage format to tell the story of partners Katie and Micah, who quickly discover they’re not alone in their new house. Katie admits to a paranormal encounter as a child and becomes worried this spirit has followed her. So, the couple places recording equipment throughout their home to catch the ghost on video. The results are a riveting haunt that patiently builds tension until a hair-raising finale.
24 Last Shift (2014)
Last Shift, which director Anthony DiBlasi reimagined this year under the title Malum, is one of the best and scariest hidden-gem horror movies. The film is a low-budget masterpiece that uses its confined setting to claustrophobic and horrifying results.
Last Shift follows rookie police officer Jessica Loren (Julianna Harkavy) on her first day, coincidentally the old station's last day in operation. Although her sergeant informs her it should be a slow, unremarkable night, Jessica soon discovers something sinister haunts the station's grounds. Using stellar directing and sound design, Last Shift is an atmospheric, supernatural thriller that remains one of the best horror movies.
23 Barbarian (2022)
Barbarian is a gruesome horror flick with more on its mind than its pop sensibilities suggest. The movie, a genre debut for former The Whitest Kids You Know member Zach Cregger, contains bits of comedy, social commentary, and absolute terror all wrapped up into one.
Barbarian opens with Tess, who's renting an Airbnb in Detroit, for a job interview the next day. The trip begins on the wrong foot when Tess arrives to discover the owner double-booked, and she must share the rental with a strange man, Keith (Bill Skarsgård). Unfortunately for Tess, Keith is the least of her worries as the Airbnb holds a bloodcurdling secret. Although Barbarian touches on subjects like sexual impropriety, the cowardice of men in power, and urban decay, it has enough well-crafted scares to be as entertaining as it is intelligent.
22 The Descent (2005)
The Descent, from the twisted mind of writer-director Neil Marshall, is one of the most frightening creature features ever made. Whereas other creature features can verge into camp or action movie territory, The Descent is a legitimately harrowing tale of survival against unearthly odds.
In The Descent, a group of friends, one of whom (Sarah) is dealing with the recent death of her husband and daughter, go spelunking in the Appalachian Mountains. Sarah’s best friend Juno organized the trip to get Sarah out of her depressive, isolated state. When the group escapes a tunnel collapse in the caves, they must search for a new way out while avoiding a group of bloodthirsty, subterranean monsters. With a quality script, solid performances, and a cave full of scares, The Descent remains one of the best horror films of the 21st century.
21 It Follows (2014)
Although it borrows heavily from earlier horror masterpieces like Halloween, It Follows manages to blaze its own distressing trail. The film portrays the life of a young woman, Jay (Maika Monroe), who finds herself relentlessly pursued by a supernatural force after having sex.
Serving as an allegory about the heightened fear of sexual diseases our culture imbues in teens, It Follows wrings every possible scare out of its simple premise. Despite its lack of subtlety, It Follows is nonetheless effective thanks to palpable dread throughout, harrowing setpieces, and a fantastic Carpenteresque synth score. The movie proves that creators don't need a significant budget to create the best scary movies.
20 The Conjuring (2013)
With the newly released The Nun II, The Conjuring sparked a horror behemoth that spans nine films, including two direct sequels. Behind expertly crafted set pieces from genre icon James Wan, The Conjuring rapidly became one of the standard-bearers for horror movies.
The Conjuring follows renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who help the Perron family after they move into a Rhode Island farmhouse and discover something evil has already made it their home. Hopefully, for fans, The Nun II can capture some of the magic of the original entry and become one of the best horror movies in 2023.
19 REC (2007)
Eight years after The Blair Witch Project, REC immediately ascended as one of the best found-footage horror movies. This Spanish movie begins with a television reporter, Ángela, and her cameraman, Pablo, covering the night shift of one of Barcelona’s fire stations. When the firemen respond to a call to rescue a woman trapped in her apartment, they must seal off the building after the woman bites a police officer, leaving Ángela and Pablo trapped inside.
LikeBlair Witch, REC utilizes its found-footage format to create teeth-clenching tension. Writer and director Jaume Balagueró knows that the most terrifying thing isn’t a zombie or ghost but the audience’s imagination. Through tight handheld cinematography, Balagueró keeps the scariest parts of the movie just outside the frame or briefly flashing across it, leaving fans guessing and terrified until the end.
18 The Witch (2015)
The Witch, Robert Egger's directorial debut, is a masterpiece in slow-burn terror. Eggers creates an atmosphere thick with dread throughout the film, which centers on a pious family in 1630s England. While The Witch lacks the jump scares of most modern horror films, it more than makes up for it with an anxiety-inducing setting that gradually gets more frightening.
The Witch's tension kicks into high gear when the family's newborn child, Samuel, mysteriously disappears. As more calamities happen, like their crops failing, the family turns on one another. The family's patriarch, William, blames his daughter Thomasin, claiming she's a witch. As the final third of The Witch crystallizes, it serves as a clear metaphor for the control God-fearing men have exerted over women since the beginning of time. Ultimately, The Witch is as poignant as it is hair-raising, making it a strong contender for the best horror movie.
17 Speak No Evil (2022)
Speak No Evil, by Danish director Christian Tafdrup, is hands down one of the best new horror movies. The film opens with two couples from Denmark (Bjørn and Louise) and Holland (Patrick and Karin), who become friends while on an Italian vacation. Later, when Bjørn and Louise receive an invitation for a visit from their vacation friends, the family – including daughter Agnes – go to Holland.
This benign beginning to Speak No Evil slowly degenerates into a wild and disturbing series of events. Serving as an allegory for the potential harms of strictly abiding by social conventions, the movie combines slow-burn atmospheric tension building and weighty, topical themes. With a devastatingly brutal ending, Speak No Evil is also sure to leave a lasting mark on even the most hardened fans of the genre.
16 Sinister (2012)
While Sinister isn’t the most well-known or well-regarded horror movie, it has a unique claim as one of the scariest movies ever. A 2020 study by Broadband Choices measured the resting heart rates of individuals while they watched scary movies and found that Sinister raised the average viewer’s heart rate more than any other film.
Sinister tracks Ellison Oswalt, a true crime writer who becomes obsessed with a serial killer whose murders date back to the 1960s. After moving his family into a house that was the site of one of these murders, he finds a box of home movies that are recordings of these killings. The consequences of Oswalt digging through the past eventually catch up to him and his family, leading to some of the most frightening jump scares and sequences in the genre’s twisted history.
15 Host (2020)
Host is an excellent example of a movie borne out of creative restrictions that perfectly met the world's conditions during its release. Released in 2020, Host came out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this pandemic, more people than ever were meeting with their friends and family on web-based video calls, like Zoom.
Host uses the Zoom platform as a storytelling device, following six friends who hire a medium to hold a séance with them online during the COVID lockdown. Unfortunately for this friend group, they soon learn an evil presence has invaded each of their homes through their ghostly ritual. Also, like Sinister, Host was the scariest movie in Broadband Choices's 2022 study of the best scary movies.
14 Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
Night of the Living Dead is as notable for its atmospheric setting and ahead-of-its-time ending as it is for creating an entire subgenre as popular today as any other horror subgenre. While director George A. Romero didn’t invent zombies, he did popularize them through this movie, which introduced these shambling monsters to a broad audience.
On top of being the first modern zombie movie, Night of the Living Dead made history by starring Duane Jones as one of the first Black leads in a horror movie. Jones’ presence and performance make Night of the Living Dead as effective a thriller as it is a piercing condemnation of segregation and racial discrimination. This groundbreaking plot combines with Romero’s masterclass in budget filmmaking to make an all-time great horror movie.
13 The Fly (1986)
David Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly remains a standard of the body horror subgenre today. Cronenberg, who has mastered creating long-lasting images of nightmarish body horror, did arguably his best work with The Fly. The movie centers on Seth Brundle, a brilliant but eccentric scientist whose latest fixation is a teleporter.
The Fly kicks off when a housefly inadvertently enters the teleporter with Brundle during one of Brundle's tests. Although Brundle emerges from the test seemingly unscathed, he quickly begins to change, eventually realizing his DNA has merged with the fly’s. What follows is some of the grossest yet most engaging body horror ever put on screen. The Fly remains one of Cronenberg's best in a filmography full of great films in the body horror subgenre.
12 Get Out (2017)
Get Out is a groundbreaking movie in several respects. It’s the directorial debut of comedian-turned-auteur Jordan Peele and serves as one of the most searing socially-conscious horror films ever. The movie was so successful this subgenre has boomed since its release. Today, studios release several movies yearly that use their spooky setting to explore relevant cultural issues.
Get Out follows Chris, a young Black man who travels with his white girlfriend, Rose to meet her parents and family for the first time. Chris soon realizes something far more insidious than microaggressions and racially motivated awkwardness is happening on the family's compound. Few other horror movies have as seamlessly blended this level of cultural criticism with genuinely chilling frights. It's not just one of the greatest Black horror films ever but one of the best horror movies, period
11 Hereditary (2018)
Although it's a relatively new film, Hereditary is a masterclass of blending compelling characters with a simple story and plenty of hair-raising scares. Hereditary follows the Graham family as they struggle through their collective pain and grief following the death of their maternal grandmother. The movie slowly reveals the extent of the mother's childhood trauma and how she may have passed it down to her children too.
Hereditary's plotlooms over the cast, using mental anguish from its multiple tragedies to exponentially escalate the horror that the Grahams – and viewers – experience through horrific visuals and a dark secret looming over the family. As the movie draws the characters further into a profoundly unsettling supernatural horror, it illuminates the family's struggles as much more sinister than your average familial trauma. With great visuals, a reliable story, and some of the best performances in any movie, Hereditary deserves its place among the top horror films.
10 Scream (1996)
It may seem odd to omit Wes Craven's iconic A Nightmare on Elm Street, but Scream is arguably superior. Freddy Kruger is a better individual character than anyone from Scream, so much so that the film references him. Still, Scream is effective as both a satire of the horror genre and a thrilling movie itself. The movie is about a masked, horror-loving antagonist who rampages through a small town while hunting the primary protagonist, Sydney Prescott.
Scream is worthwhile for this brilliant setup alone. Still, it elevates this premise by openly discussing the tropes of horror movies, completely subverting the genre. As characters discuss these tropes throughout the film, they’re also guilty of being or doing these exact tropes. Despite this almost fourth-wall braking, Scream remains quite scary. The balancing act between self-aware comedy and full-throttle slasher makes Scream Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson’s best work.
9 The Blair Witch Project (1999)
While not the scariest film, The Blair Witch Project is groundbreaking primarily due to its format. The movie is a simple story of three film students who travel to the Black Hills of Maryland to find the fabled Blair Witch. As the students get lost within the Black Hills, they become increasingly tense as exposure to the elements, personal differences, and starvation sets in. Then, the trio begins hearing noises and seeing figures throughout the forest as the legend of the Witch materializes before them.
Made with a micro-budget, The Blair Witch Project perfectly utilized its setting and filmmaking style to create tension to elevate its scares. Ultimately, the movie became a sensation as the filmmakers marketed it as a true story, drumming up excessive buzz. The Blair Witch Project used realism and believable characters to create palpable tension through its found-footage format, making it one of the top horror movies ever.
8 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Like many horror movie franchises, the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remains the best. Despite its minuscule budget and lack of big-name actors, Texas Chainsaw Massacre delivers as many massive scares as any other slasher film. Like The Blair Witch Project, the movie was erroneously reported as based on a true story, boosting the fright for many first audiences.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre tells the story of five friends, including two siblings, on a trip to rural Texas to visit their grandfather's grave. This group eventually happens across a large farmhouse, whose residents are a terrifying mixture of depraved, unwell, and ultra-violent. This family, which includes the chainsaw-wielding, human-face-wearing Leatherface, starts to pick off group members in increasingly horrifying ways.
7 Alien (1979)
Alien is a brilliant film that takes a straightforward slasher movie and elevates it via a brand-new approach. Tracking the crew aboard an isolated mining spaceship, Alien turns from wonderous sci-fi to bleak horror when the titular alien erupts from a crew member's chest during dinner. From here, the remaining humans, led by the badass Ellen Ripley, must close ranks to battle the rampaging Xenomorph.
Through Ridley Scott's deft direction, Alien makes the most of its atmospheric setting to create sustained tension. Like the best slasher movies, what you can't see in the spaceship's dark hallways is scarier than the actual killer. Although, thanks to H.R. Geiger's outstanding design, the seven-foot monster with a giant barbed tail and acid blood is terrifying in and of itself. These aspects work together to make Alien one of the scariest films to this day.
6 The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs is a psychological horror film that epitomizes the phrase, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." The movie follows a young FBI trainee named Clarice Starling, who enlists the help of Hannibal Lector, a renowned psychologist/serial killer, to track an active serial killer, Buffalo Bill. Although young, Starling quickly proves she's a capable agent but is racing against the clock after Bill kidnaps his latest victim.
Because of the time crunch The Silence of the Lambs puts Starling in, she must lean on Lector to help her unravel the mystery of Buffalo Bill. Subsequently, most of the horror in the movie comes from understanding the forces at play and the psychological elements at the story's center. The Silence of the Lambs continually forces Clarice to rely on an objectively more significant threat for guidance, mentally putting her at constant odds. This twisted relationship cements the film's status as a psychological horror great.