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 horror movie masterpieces, there’s no shortage of choices 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 on April 13, 2025 by Arthur Goyaz: Whether supernatural or true-to-life, the horror movie genre continues hold sway over audiences who can’t get enough of being scared. This list has been updated to include more of the best horror movies of all time, as well as to reflect CBR’s most current standard for formatting.
45 1989's Pet Sematary is the Best Version of the Stephen King Story
Pet Sematary Is a Poignant Examination of Death
Pet Sematary is a Stephen King story that has been adapted multiple times and even inspired sequels, but no adaptation is as good as the 1989 movie. It does a great job at introducing the idyllic life of the Creed family on the outskirts of a mysterious cemetery that brings dead things back to life. When a family tragedy happens, they resort to desperate measures that will lead to horrifying consequences.
All in all, Pet Sematary delivers one of the most chilling sequences of all time — and it doesn’t involve ghosts or any kind of supernatural threats. It’s the scene where little Gage runs after a kite towards a high-speed truck, resulting in his death. This highly disturbing scene is an eerie reminder of how life can take a dark turn in the blink of an eye. From there on, the lives of the Creed family turn into a never-ending nightmare.
44 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Transcends the Film Medium
The Twin Peaks Franchise Captured Fan Attention on TV First
Twin Peaks is one of the greatest TV shows of all time — it has a distinctive creative voice and sets up a chilling murder mystery. Though the murder of homecoming Queen Laura Palmer is what propels the narrative, the show isn’t so much about the «whodunit» aspect of the story as it is about how this tragedy impacts the characters. Then there’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, David Lynch’s horror masterpiece, which follows the last days of Laura Palmer until she meets her terrifying fate.
If the TV show Twin Peaks is about how Laura’s murder affects the lives of the people in town, the movie is all about her. What a complex figure she is — all her nuanced feelings and her demons are beautifully brought to life by Sheryl Lee, one of Lynch’s muses. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is a horror movie about the clash between the chaos of the outside world and the chaos of the soul. The outcome is devastating and hard to digest.
43 Candyman is Centered Around a Chilling Urban Legend
Candyman Will Haunt You to Death
Candyman established Tony Todd as one of the most legendary horror actors in 1992. He plays Candyman, a vengeful spirit who haunts those brave enough to say his name five times in front of the mirror. In the film, a skeptic Chicago grad student is forced to reconsider her beliefs while researching Candyman’s myth. She soon finds herself face-to-face with the malignant ghost.
Candyman is a socially conscious horror movie that reflects on the U.S.’s history of structural racism and class discrimination. The titular ghost embodies everything wrong with America in the last century. It’s a hard-hitting movie that finds space for relevant discussion in well-established horror conventions, standing out as one of the best horror movies of all time.
42 New Nightmare Sees Wes Craven Experimenting with Meta Fiction Before Scream
Freddy Krueger Oversteps the Boundaries of Fiction
Wes Craven’s Scream franchise revolutionized the horror genre with its self-aware approach, making fun of stereotypes and genre conventions while using them in its favor. What some people tend to forget is that Craven flirted with meta fiction a few years before Scream, applying it to another popular franchise created by him: Nightmare on Elm Street. New Nightmare is technically the seventh movie in the franchise, though fans debate whether it can be considered canon.
It follows Heather Langenkamp playing a fictionalized version of herself. She’s one of the cast members of the original Nightmare on Elm Street terrorized by Freddy Krueger, who, beyond infiltrating the hidden layers between reality and dreams, is now causing the line between reality and fiction to blur. New Nightmare is a playful horror movie that establishes a unique atmosphere of disorientation. It gets surprisingly bleak for a movie of this nature, successfully making viewers question how much of the film is just a figment of the character’s imagination.
41 An American Werewolf in London is a Classic Body Horror Movie
A Contemporary Examination of the Werewolf Myth
An American Werewolf in London is centered around David and Jack, two American tourists who are attacked by a vicious beast while hiking in the British moors. Following the traumatic episode, David starts to experience a ghastly transformation that corrupts his body and mind. An American Werewolf in London explores the well-known myth with a keen eye to the hysterical aspect of the process of becoming a wolf.
David experiences various stages of what seems like a bizarre ailment; Only the audience knows quite well what he’s going through. The big question, however, is how much of it is real and how much is just a projection of David’s fever dreams. All these queries are answered in an intense third act that offers some of the gnarliest horror sequences of the ’80s.
40 A Cursed Car Goes on a Killing Spree in Christine
Christine is One of the Greatest Stephen King Adaptations
Stephen King’s Christine is a hell of a tome: it’s over 500 pages long, has an array of multilayered characters, and most notably, it’s determined to be scary even though its main antagonist is a cursed automobile. John Carpenter does magic with this seemingly unadaptable book, crafting an escalating tale of obsession centered around Arnie, a bullied high schooler who gets his hands on a mysterious 1958 Plymouth Fury.
Assassin cars aside, Christine understands that within the figure of a repressed high-school nerd lies a potential psychopath. Christine, the car, is nothing but a catalyst for Arnie’s angry impulses. The contrast between supernatural evil and a human threat clashes when Christine’s curse begins to mirror the darkness inside Arnie. Carpenter delivers a stylish and genuinely mean-spirited Stephen King adaptation, and fans can only wish the two horror geniuses would collaborate once again.
39 The Babadook Turns Single Parenthood Into a Horror Story
A Child's Fantasy Becomes a Real Nightmare in The Babadook
The Babadook opens with an obviously troubled woman struggling to handle her difficult child, Sam. Audiences soon learn this distressed mother, Amelia, is a widower whose husband died in a tragic accident. As a single mother, she must deal with her son’s increasingly erratic behavior while battling insomnia herself.
All the issues facing Amelia in The Babadook come to a head when, one night, Sam asks Amelia to read him a pop-up book called Mister Babadook, which describes the titular figure. Afterward, stranger and stranger events occur in their house, leaving both Sam and Ameilia terrified. By building tension through its characters, The Babadook is equally emotionally affecting and spine-chilling and one of the best contemporary horror films by a woman.
38 Pulse Was Ahead of Its Time
The World of the Dead is Overcrowded and the Internet Leads to the Human World
Pulse, not to be confused with the poorly received American remake, is a Japanese horror movie that uses cutting-edge social commentary as the foundation of a global-scale supernatural menace. In the film, tormented souls from the beyond are finding their way to Tokyo through the internet, working collectively to take over the world of the living.
Released in 2001, Pulse predicted how the advent of the internet was bound to envelop people in loneliness and isolation rather than bringing them together. The movie depicts the afterlife as a mirror to the characters’ existential dread, to the point it becomes difficult to tell the living and the film’s terrifying ghosts apart. Still, every ghost sighting in Pulse is filled with pure dread and an authentic otherworldly feel to it, which makes the movie one of the pillars of the ’00s wave of J-horror movies that entered the mainstream.
37 Sinister Has a Scientific Claim as One of the Scariest Movies Ever
A Chilling Mystery and a Bizarre-Looking Villain Lead to a Terrifying Climax
While Sinister isn’t the most 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.
36 The Wailing Is a Supernatural Horror Epic
The Wailing Provides Folk Horror With Unique Supernatural Elements
With a runtime of over 2.5 hours, The Wailing is an anomaly in the typically tight horror genre. Still, there’s a massive payoff for fans who brave the film’s duration. The Wailing is an epic South Korean horror film by Na Hong-jin portraying the investigation of a series of strange murders in the small village of Goksung.
The Wailing tracks police officer Jong-Goo as he searches for the cause of these killings, traversing the rural town in search of answers. Things get personal when Jong-Goo’s daughter, Hyo-jin, becomes ill, and she appears to be the next victim of whatever malevolent spirit is haunting the countryside. The Wailing rewards viewers who make it through to the end with a final act that’s chock-full of top-quality supernatural thrills.
35 Let the Right One In Is a Violent Yet Optimistic Vampire Flick
This Vampire Movie is a Coming-of-Age Story With a Horror Twist
For fans of vampire movies who are exhausted with the tween versions like in Twilight or those with a comedic bent, like What We Do in the Shadows or Renfield, Let the Right One In is the perfect panacea. From Swedish director Tomas Alfredson, Let the Right One In is an atmospheric vampire horror flick that matches its chilly setting. Let the Right One In takes place in 1982’s Stockholm, where viewers meet Oskar, a target of consistent and increasingly violent bullying.
Oskar eventually meets Eli, who recently moved into a nearby apartment with her father. Unknown to Oskar, Eli is a vampire who requires a steady blood supply. The two gradually become close friends, divulging their respective secrets and forging a bond through violence. In addition to its sinister atmosphere, outstanding performances, and deft direction, Let the Right One In is worth the price of admission for its shocking ending alone.
34 Last Shift Is a Claustrophobic Fright Fest
Last Shift Provides Dark Horror Filled With Grisly Imagery
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 for claustrophobic and horrifying results. It’s certainly one of the more disturbing horror movies out there, but it holds a power that few can match.
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.
33 Barbarian Is a Twisted Thrill Ride
Viewers Will Perceive Airbnb Differently Thanks to Barbarian's Story
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 on 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.
32 The Descent Is One of the Scariest Creature Features
The Descent Puts Audiences in a Claustrophobic Cave Harborign Terrifying Creatures
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.
31 It Follows Is a Suspense-Filled Ode to John Carpenter
The Plot of It Follows Creates Dread That Knows No End
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. The film’s slow-burn narrative matches the pace of its unrelenting villain but pays off with an eerily distressing climax.
Serving as an allegory about the heightened fear of sexual diseases our culture imbues in teens, It Follows wrests 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 filmmakers don’t need a significant budget to create the best scary movies.
30 The Conjuring Was So Scary It Spawned a Cinematic Universe
Paranormal Twists Are Grounded in Reality in The Conjuring
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.
Despite being a staple of the commercial horror scene, the franchise takes advantage of the authentic relationship between the Warren couple to dig deep into their real-life investigations. 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.
29 REC Utilizes the Found-Footage Format to Perfection
An Electrifying Zombie Tale That Revitalized Found Footage Movies
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.
Like Blair 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.
28 Hereditary Announced a New Maestro of the Genre
Hereidatary's Visuals Are Some of the Bleakest Horror Images in Recent Years
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, especially for a feature-length directorial debut. 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 plot looms 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.
27 The Blair Witch Project Practically Invented Found Footage Horror
Blair Witch Depicts Every Filmmaker's Worst Nightmare
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. As the project these characters envisioned gradually turns against them, The Blair Witch Project exposes every filmmaker’s worst nightmare.
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.
26 The Innocents Delivers a Classic Ghost Story
Audiences Will See Projections of the Mind vs. Evil Itself in The Innocents
The Innocents takes the best features of Henry James’ classic horror novella, The Turn of the Screw, and crafts an eerily intimate ghost story. The film is told from the perspective of Miss Giddens, a young woman who takes a job as a governess to take care of two children in a remote house. When she gets there, visions of what seem to be ghosts stir up fear and suspicion, and Miss Giddens becomes convinced the ghosts are trying to get ahold of the children.
Despite its familiar setting and classic horror narrative, The Innocents subverts expectations and continues to age like fine wine. Every ghostly apparition is enveloped in a forlorn atmosphere and disturbing quietness. Through Miss Gidens’ eyes, the film dissects evil’s frightening roots. The audience witnesses the unknown, but the mystery is — as it should — never explained. The Innocents never makes it clear whether the children are inherently evil or they’re being corrupted by the ghosts around them; the story cleverly leaves it up to viewers to decide.
