Horror is one of the most difficult genres for filmmakers to get right.
Mastering a scare is something only the most gifted directors can pull off, and there are many films that fall badly short when trying to scare their audiences.
However, those who deliver succeed with aplomb: John Carpenter, George Romero and Go out Director Jordan Peele to name a few.
It can be pretty tricky out there for those in search of horror, but don’t worry – we’ve rounded up the scariest horror movies out there, from 1920s German expressionist films to indie bangers. Hereditary .
Below we rank all the horror movies that will really scare you – click through the gallery to see what made the cut.
Directed by Michael Haneke. Funny Games brings the horror into the familiar environment of home. It follows two young men who take a family hostage and torment them with sadistic games. The result is far scarier than anything related to ghosts, witches or demons.
Concorde Castle Rock/Turner
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg. The Amityville Horror is based on the true story of the Lutzes, a family who were evicted from their home after being terrorized by paranormal phenomena in 1975. Just a year earlier, Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot and killed six members of his family in the same house. James Brolin and Margot Kidder direct this film which became one of the biggest hits of 1979.
American International Pictures
Directed by Takashi Miike. Japanese Horror Audition (1999) follows a widower who meets a woman named Ayoma after hosting auditions to meet a potential new partner. Soon, however, her dark past begins to surface, to a rather disturbing climax.
Omega project
Directed by Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez. Although parodied to death, The Blair Witch Project made the found footage format frighteningly popular in 1999. People really believed they were watching real clips of three student filmmakers being terrorized by a Maryland legend named the Blair Witch.
Craft entertainment
Directed by Robert Wiene. The black and white silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) is considered the epitome of German Expressionism, but also one of the scariest films in cinema history. It follows a hypnotist (Werner Krauss) who uses a sleepwalker to commit murders, and Wiene’s shadowy backdrops and striking visual style unsettle the viewer in a way most filmmakers only dream of.
Decla Bioscop
Director: Bernd Rose. A contemporary horror cinema classic that has spawned two sequels and is working on a remake produced by Jordan Peele, the 1992 film Candyman follows a graduate student whose studies lead her to the legend of a ghost who appears when you say his name three times .
TriStar images
Directed by Ruggero Deodato. Extreme enough to warrant a ban in Italy and Australia, Cannibal Holocaust (1980) was one of the first films to adopt the found footage format – so much so that Deodato, amid rumors that several of the death scenes of the Movies were real. He was later exonerated.
United Artists Europe
Director: Neil Marshall. Released in 2005, The Descent follows six women as they explore a cave fighting to survive against the creatures they find within. It is these creatures that deserve this British horror film’s spot on this list.
Pathé distribution
Director: William Friedkin. One of the most controversial films of all time, The Exorcist – which tells the story of the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl named Regan (Linda Blair) – became the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars in 1974.
Warner Bros
Director: John Carpenter. Sure, it may be dated, but John Carpenter’s original Halloween film – released in 1978 – remains the father of all horrors. It redefined the rule book and was emulated in everything from Scream (1996) to Trick ‘r Treat (2007). The tension builds with each new watch as babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) tries to avoid masked killer Michael Myers.
Compass International Images[
Directed by: Ari Aster. Proving that horror is a force to be reckoned with, Hereditary became independent distributor A24’s highest-grossing film around the world upon its release in 2018. It tells the story of a family who find themselves haunted after the death of their secretive grandmother and features a final act that left many of its viewers with sleepless nights.
A24
Directed by: Ti West. The House of the Devil (2009) follows a student named Samantha who is hired to guard an isolated house with one rule: don’t go upstairs. For most of the film’s runtime, not much happens, which is what makes the action-packed final third so terrifying. Spoiler: she goes upstairs.
MPI Media Group
Directed by: Jack Clayton. Based upon Henry James’ chiller The Turn of the Screw, the plot of 1961 psychological horror film The Innocents concerns a governess who watches over two children and comes to fear that their large estate is haunted by ghosts and that the youngsters are being possessed.
20th Century Fox
Directed by: Tommy Lee Wallace. Forget the effects-laden remake – this version of It, released as a miniseries in 1986, is the most terrifying adaptation of Stephen King’s beloved novel to date. It follows a shapeshifting demon who takes the form of a sadistic child-killing clown named Pennywise (Tim Curry).
Lorimar Productions
Directed by: Takashi Shimizu. Japanese horror maestro Takashi Shimizu – who also directed the pretty scary 2005 remake starring Sarah Michelle Gellar – balances mystery with horror in Ju-On: The Grudge, a story based in a cursed house in Tokyo.
Lions Gate Films
Directed by: Ben Wheatley. To describe the horrors of Kill List is to ruin the film’s surprises, but let’s just say this: the final 20 minutes of Ben Wheatley’s violent drama from 2011 features some of the most unsettling scenes in any film from this decade.
Optimum Releasing
Directed by: Joel Anderson. Taking the form of a mockumentary, the little-seen Australian drama Lake Mungo may have received a limited release in 2008, but its story of a family attempting to come to terms with the drowning of their daughter stays with viewers long after.
Arclight Films
Directed by: Pascal Laugier. The polarising 2008 film Martyrs, often associated with the New French Extremity movement, is the kind of horror that leaves you needing a shower once the credits roll. It follows a young woman’s quest for revenge on the people who kidnapped and tormented her as a child.
Anchor Bay Films
Directed by: George A Romero. Younger viewers may be desensitised by the more extreme horror films to have been released in recent decades, but the scares featured in Romero’s Night of the Living Dead – including the young girl zombie reveal – remain some of the most chilling committed to celluloid.
Continental Distributing
Directed by: FW Murnau. Alongside Cesare in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920), the character of vampire Count Orlok in 1922 film Nosferatu – played by Mac Schreck – remains one of the most spine-tingling in cinema history.
Film Arts Guild
Directed by: JA Bayona. Produced by Guillermo del Toro, this acclaimed 2007 chiller follows the disappearance of a young boy in an orphanage, which brings many of the building’s terrifying secrets to the fore.
Warner Bros Pictures de España
Directed by: Alejandro Amenábar. The Others (2001) is a towering achievement for Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenábar who wrote, directed and scored this Nicole Kidman-fronted tale about a woman trying to protect her children from supernatural forces. It’s perhaps the scariest 12-certificate film of all time.
Warner Sogefilms
Directed by: Oren Peli. Could Paranormal Activity be the scariest film of all time? It’s certainly one of them. Just when you thought found-footage had had its day, Oren Peli’s small-budgeted festival favourite became one of 2009’s biggest hits. Audiences lapped up the story of a couple who capture supernatural presences on a camera in their own home.
Paramount Pictures[
Directed by: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman. Paranormal Activity 3 earns its place on this list for its final 10 minutes. Set 18 years prior to the events of the first two films, we see the cause of the curse that follows characters Katie and Kristi for the rest of their lives – and it’s down to a coven of witches led by their grandmother.
Paramount Pictures
Directed by: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza. Played out in real-time, the claustrophobic Spanish horror film [REC] is one of the better examples of found footage cinema. Released in 2007, it follows a reporter and her cameraman who follow firefighters to a building in Barcelona and soon find themselves locked in with its occupants exhibiting murderous behavior.
Filmax International
Director: Hideo Nakata. If you haven’t been living under a rock, you know Ring’s story by now: Viewers of a cursed video die seven days after watching it. While the inevitable 2002 Hollywood remake was better than it should have been, Nakata’s original is as terrifying as horror movies come.
Toho
Director: Roman Polanski. Released in 1968, Rosemary’s Baby follows a pregnant woman who suspects an evil cult wants to use her baby in their rituals. Performances by Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes and Ruth Gordon elevate this psychological chiller to classic status.
Paramount Pictures
Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Forget the iconic “Heeeeere’s Johnny” or that bathing scene – it’s the smaller moments that make Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Shining” a terrifying watch, particularly the trippy final act where Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) loses his mind to the Overlook Hotel.
Warner Bros
Director: Scott Derrickson. Of all the Blumhouse horror films, Sinister, released in 2012 – starring the demonic character Bughuul – is the scariest of them all. Ethan Hawke plays a true crime writer who discovers a box of home videos depicting grisly murders in the attic of his new home.
momentum images
Directed by Jaume Balaguero. This little-seen Spanish horror follows a concierge who, believing he was born without the ability to feel happiness, decides to make life hell for everyone around him.
filmax
Directed by Tobe Hooper. The fictional Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), marketed as a true story, follows a group of cannibals – including Leatherface – as they relentlessly hunt down a group of friends.
whirl
Directed by Danny Boyle. Many might not consider 28 Days Later (2002) one of the world’s scariest horror films, but its bleak portrayal of a virus outbreak seems more real than any other. When combined with the fast-moving infected and use of John Murphy’s song “In the House – In A Heartbeat,” it’s hard to deny that status.
Fox Searchlight images
Director: Various. Directed by six filmmakers including Adam Wingard and Ti West, the 2012 anthology film V/H/S is sordid horror of the highest order. Look no further than David Bruckner’s “Amateur Night” section, which follows three friends who meet a mysterious girl who says just three little words: “I like you.”
magnet release
Director: Na Hong-jin. Twisted horror drama The Wailing follows a police officer who investigates a series of mysterious murders and diseases in the mountains of South Korea. If the journey doesn’t scare you, your destination will leave you awake at night.
20th Century Fox Korea
Directed by Robin Hardy. It’s not for nothing that The Wicker Man is considered the best British horror film of all time. It tells the story of a police sergeant who travels to a remote island in search of a missing girl, only to find that its inhabitants practice a form of Celtic paganism.
British Lion Films
Director: Robert Eggers. For the most part, it’s not what you see in The Witch that is terrifying, it’s what you don’t see. Eggers holds his camera, disturbingly at times a little too long, as he retells the story of a Separatist family who encounter supernatural forces in the woods behind their farm.
A24
Director: Ben Coccio. The horrors are all too real in Zero Day, a film inspired by the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Most of the film is represented by the video journals of two students planning to attack their high school.
Avatar Movies
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