Top 10 Horror Movies of All Time

by Allan Ayalla

10. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT

I’m scared to close my eyes, I’m scared to open them!

This is arguably the film that popularized the subgenre in horror known as found footage. This movie had only a budget of $300,000 and had a roundhouse box office revenue of $248.5 million, making it a smash hit. 

After these three students decide to make a documentary about the mythical Blair Witch, they get lost in the woods. They chronicle themselves as they run around the forest, terrified. 

This film was also very popular because when it came out, it was hard to discern where reality and fiction blurred together. The promotion surrounding this movie made it seem like a real thing — so realistic it was disturbing.

Watch this movie to never go camping ever again.

9. ROSEMARY’S BABY

Concieved in terror, born in fear.

Rosemary and her husband have just moved into this brand new amazing apartment building, when gradually Rosemary starts to feel uneasy, disturbed, unsettled, and things only get worse after she gets pregnant. 

Something is seriously wrong here — and Rosemary’s weird neighbors aren’t helping. Is everyone lying to her? What is she a vessel for? What’s wrong? 

Follow Rosemary on her terrifying journey as she tries to figure out what’s brewing in her pregnant belly. Parenthood is terrifying.

8. HEREDITARY

It’s all in the family. 

Families are strange. We’re kind of born with them, or have them assigned to us at birth. Annoying little sisters, brooding older brothers, emotionless dads, overbearing mothers.

This movie shows how much of a curse that can be.

Demons. Gruesome deaths. Cults. Fire. Possession. Plot twists! Watch the twisted mind of Ari Aster come to play in one of the best horror movies of modern time.

7. THE THING

Man is the warmest place to hide.

At a remote Antarctic base, a team becomes disturbed to find out that they’ve been infiltrated by a beast who can take the shape of whatever it wants, including taking the perfect image of one of them. 

When you’re isolated all alone and there’s a creature trying to kill each and every one of you, who can you really trust? This movie is terrifying, gory, and lots of fun. It’s practical effects, stellar performances, and incredible direction from John Carpenter will blow your mind.

6. THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

“I’m sorry I let you get attacked by a werewolf and then ended the world.”

If you watch a lot of horror movies, you start to realize there’s a formula to them. You’ve got the hot girl, the jock, the brains, the slacker, and of course, the final girl. It becomes a little tiresome to watch the same movie over and over again.

However, this movie is the ultimate subversion of every horror trope, as you realize there’s something more at play behind the scenes. Someone is pulling the strings to these events. Our protagonists aren’t in control.

5. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

They’re coming to get you, Barbara!

This movie created what we now know as the modern zombie trope: undead, flesh eating, sluggish, and brain-loving. 

Watch as this group of likable survivors come together in this farmhouse to fend off the living dead from attacking them and making them a part of the mindless horde. 

An independent feature from zombie king George Romero. This low-budget, black-and-white horror audiences terrified audiences. This Halloween, watch where the zombie fever all started.

4. PSYCHO

We all go a little mad sometimes.

Leave it to Alfred Hitchcok to make one of the most influential horror movies ever. A movie about The Bates Motel and Norman Bates, the innkeeper with a secret on his house in the hill. 

This movie was revolutionary, at the time it was one of the most visceral portrayals of violence ever to be shown on screen. The iconic shower scene that has rippled throughout pop culture.

It also was one of the first movies to kill off its main character, which shocked audiences. 

Watch this revolutionary horror movie this halloween!

3. SILENCE OF THE LAMBS 

I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

This is the only horror movie that’s won Best Picture, and it’s one of the only movies to ever win the top five categories at the Oscars.

This movie is riveting, tightly paced, and an excellent mystery. The screenplay is top-tier, the story of a rising FBI agent teaming up with a deadly cannibal to solve a series of slaughters. 

Hannibal Lecter is one of the best antiheroes ever. He’s a genius; charismatic-yet-terrifying. You will root for Clarice Starling as she uncovers the mysteries in this case, resulting in one of the best climaxes ever.

2. HALLOWEEN

“You know it’s Halloween. I guess everyone’s entitled to one good scare, huh?”

One of the pioneering movies of the slasher sub-genre. This low-budget film was an independent production made and scored by John Carpenter.

Halloween follows the story of Michael Myers, a mental patient who was committed to a sanatorium for killing his teenage sister. Many years have passed and as he’s being moved from facility to facility, he escapes. He’s on the prowl for more kills this Halloween.

Jamie Lee Curtis is in her scream queen debut. She’s a babysitter, unlucky enough to be babysitting on Halloween night. What will become of her and her friends on the night the bogeyman takes Haddonfield?

1. SCREAM

“What’s your favorite scary movie?”

At a time when the horror genre was in a repeated rut, churning out futile sequels to long-dead franchises, “Scream” came and flipped everything upside down. “Scream” subverted everything you knew about the slasher genre with smart cool characters, great writing, and a riveting whodunnit mystery.

These characters know horror movies; they’re trained in the rules and mechanics of it. They know as much that you and I know, referencing “Night of the Living Dead,” “Prom Night,” “Carrie” — hell, they’re watching “Halloween” in the climax of the movie! 

It has one of the best openings to any movie ever, jump starting you right into the thick of the horror of this movie. “Scream” wastes no time gutting, slashing, and killing. 

This movie revitalized the horror genre, and is also just such a fun time and a must watch! From the twisted mind of Wes Craven, watch a slasher like no other.