Horror Movies – To help you schedule your film fright night, we will guide you through German expressionism (Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) and Universal monsters (Dracula, The Wolf Man). Creature features (King Kong, The Fly) nestle with Best Picture nominees (The Exorcist, Get Out). Zombies (Dawn of the Dead), Slashers (Scream), and vampires (Let the Right One In) abound with the terror of the more psychological persuasion (Don’t Look Now, The Innocents). Plus, we honor the recent stabs and strides made by female horror directors (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, The Babadook, The Invitation) and directors abroad (Under the Shadow, The Wailing).
To sort the list, we’re using our recommendation formula, which factors in both the movie’s Tomatometer and audience-driven Popcornmeter, along with the film’s number of reviews and year of release. And how did we initially pick what to throw into our bubbling recommendation cauldron? We hand-picked only Certified Fresh movies with a positive Popocornmeter, with recent films needing at least 100 critics’ reviews. What’s recent? Anything after 2016, which is when we expanded our critic’s pool and criteria.
And for our annual October update, we welcome newcomers When Evil Lurks, Oddity, Alien: Romulus, Abigail, A Quiet Place: Day One, Longlegs, and Late Night with the Devil.
Ready to settle in for nights of Fresh fear? Then flip the switch on the best horror movies of all time.
Table of Contents
Top Horror Movies of All Time
1. Jaws (1975)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Producers: David Brown, Richard D. Zanuck
Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 20, 1975, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 22, 2015
Summary
When a young woman is killed by a shark while swimming near the New England tourist town of Amity Island, Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), the police chief, wants to shut the beaches. Still, Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton), the mayor, domineers him, scared that the loss of tourist revenue will cripple the town. Ichthyologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and greyish ship captain Quint (Robert Shaw) offer to assist Brody in capturing the killer beast, and the trio engage in an epic battle of man vs. nature.
2. Let the Right One In (2008)
Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Producer: Carl Molinder, John Nordling
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 24, 2008, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 14, 2017
Summary
When Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), a sensitive, bullied 12-year-old boy living with his mother in outer Sweden, meets his new neighbor, the secretive and moody Eli (Lina Leandersson), they strike up a friendship. At first, reserved with each other, Oskar and Eli gradually form a close bond, but it soon becomes apparent that she is no simple young girl. Ultimately, Eli shares her dark, macabre secret with Oskar, revealing her link to a string of bloody local murders.
3. Alien (1979)
Starring: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright
Director: Ridley Scott
Producer: David Giler, Gordon Carroll, Walter Hill
Release Date (Theaters): May 25, 1979, Wide
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Apr 26, 2024
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 2, 2014
Summary
In deep space, the crew of the commercial starship Nostromo is woken from their cryo-sleep capsules halfway through their journey home to inspect a distress call from an alien vessel. The terror starts when the crew encounters a nest of eggs in the alien ship. A creature from inside an egg leaps out and attaches itself to one of the crew, triggering him to fall into a coma.
4. Get Out (2017)
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford
Directed By: Jordan Peele
Producer: Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm Jr., Jordan Peele
Summary
Now that Chris and his girlfriend, Rose, have achieved the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway with Missy and Dean. Initially, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as a nervous effort to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship. Still, as the weekend progresses, a series of progressively disturbing discoveries leads him to a truth that he never could have imagined.
5. Psycho (1960)
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin
Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock
Producer: Alfred Hitchcock
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 16, 1960, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 12, 2014
Summary
Phoenix secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), on the lam after robbing $40,000 from her employer so as to run away with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin), is overcome by tiredness during a hefty rainstorm. Traveling on the back roads to evade the police, she stops for the night at the ramshackle Bates Motel. She meets the polite but highly strung owner, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a young man with a curiosity about taxidermy and a complex relationship with his mother.
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