The 100 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time

The only thing better than watching Lupita Nyong’o in one role, is watching her in two. In another stellar delivery from writer and director Jordan Peele, Nyong’o portrays Adelaide Thomas, a mother and wife who must try to protect her family from a group of strange doppelgängers when they suddenly arrive outside their door. Turns out, these “tethered” figures have been waiting for some time to come to the surface.

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When a grave is exhumed, bad things happen. That’s the gist of this intoxicating mix of myth, ritual, folklore, and historical colonialism from Korean filmmaker Jang Jae-hyun. Fans of The Wailing will revel in Exhuma, a genre-blender bolstered by a well-told narrative. The film begins with two shamans helping rid a family of their curse, pinpointing the malevolent force to the grave of an ancestor. From there, you’ll take pleasure digging into this multilayered gem.

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Irish horror that illustrates the terrifying effects of sleep deprivation, Double Blind follows a group of twenty-something “lab rats” through a four-day drug trial that becomes a prescription for disaster. By mixing everyday fears like white coat anxiety, claustrophobia, and money stress with genre elements including haunting visuals, mangled insanity, and plenty of gore, the film is able to deliver an unforgettable, visceral sci-fi experience in under 90 minutes.

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Engrossing and beyond unsettling, this Persian film was inspired by true events that happened in the city of Masshad, Iran. The plot centers on an incredibly brave and diligent female journalist researching a string of murders that the city seems uninterested in solving, with the killer she’s hunting being a family man who strangles sex workers in the dining room where his wife and kids eat dinner. A taut crime thriller, Holy Spider wraps its tentacles around the nerves and does not let go.

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If that creepy-crawly feature from 1990 was too much for your own arachnophobia, then kindly just keep scrolling. Infested, Sébastien Vanicek’s 2023 debut that uses REAL spiders (albeit responsibly; read here), will make your skin crawl right off your bones. At the story’s core is Kaleb, a guy who lives on the outskirts of Paris and loves bugs. Unfortunately for him and the residents of his building, one of those insects is about to squirt out a bajillion killer offspring.

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Adrian Lyne’s hallucinatory horror is the kind of movie your parents rented back in the ’90s for movie night, thinking a drama starring Tim Robbins would be harmless. Boy, were they wrong. Robbins plays a Vietnam vet haunted by the atrocities of war and slowly dissociating from reality. With petrifying visuals and a dense narrative that will make even the viewer question what’s real, Jacob’s Ladder is a bone-chilling thrill.

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Maika Monroe stars in this turnt-up-to-11 intensity thriller akin to The Silence of the Lambs as an FBI agent investigating a serial killer (Nic Cage) she may or may not have a personal connection to. It comes from actor-turned-director Osgood Perkins (he plays Dorky David in Legally Blonde and later helmed The Blackcoat’s Daughter), which should signal to fans the kind of unique experience they’re in for. Proving an exciting new voice in the genre, Os has us excited for what comes next.

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If your only associations with stop-motion are Wes Anderson movies and Claymation characters, then we recommend you tread lightly here. Director Robert Morgan takes quite a different approach to the art form, bringing super-freaky puppets made of wax, roadkill, and raw meat to life in one of the most bizarre and unsettling horror films on record. In Stopmotion, these figures, created for an animator’s movie, unleash terror as their creator loses her grip on reality.

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Killer Clownz, Pennywise, Wrinkles – these carnival creeps have nothing on Art. Quite possibly the most horrifying villain to ever terrorize a screen, Art the Clown has no backstory, no clearly defined kryptonite, and absolutely no limits. Now, full disclosure here, the first Terrifier movie is awful – it’s exploitative, disgusting, and honestly unwatchable. The second film, however, offers a more suitable story in its homage to gory B-horror. Still, be forewarned, this one’s a very, very tough watch.

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Anyone who’s seen Pascal Laugier’s 2008 film, Martyrs, will know the sort of steel nerves and strong gag reflex necessary for this extreme Euro-horror film from Spanish director Caye Casas. Opening with a scene that sees new parents María and Jesus arguing over buying an “ugly” coffee table, the film quickly descends into the most disturbing and nihilistic 90 minutes, suitable for only the staunchest, most experienced genre buffs. You’ve been warned.

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Before Cillian Murphy’s Jim woke up in a London hospital to find the world outside raging, zombie movies pretty much moved at a leisurely pace. But director Danny Boyle changed all that with 28 Days Later, a turbocharged biter blitz about a group of survivors who fight off super-fast, super-violent infected beings on their way to sanctuary. It’s enough to get the pulse pounding, for sure, especially when it’s all tuned to John Murphy’s supreme original score.

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For those times when you want all of the fright but none of the carnage, check into the Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, an abandoned asylum located just outside Seoul, Korea. Reportedly one of the country’s most haunted locales, Gonjiam is the stuff of lore — and exactly what lures a group of YouTubers to its grounds for a live broadcast. Mixing elements of fiction and non, director Jung Bum-shik unleashes a hair-raising encounter that rises to the top of extreme haunted housing.

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Enough time has passed that horror enthusiasts can size up David Robert Mitchell’s 2014 hit free of blinders. The verdict? Still holds up. The story belongs to Jay, played masterfully by new-age scream queen Maika Monroe, and unfolds after a sexual encounter unleashes some sort of entity hell-bent on killing her. It’s a fresh and fun premise, but it’s the atmospheric limbo swirling with paranoia in which Mitchell imprisons his final girl that really makes It Follows one of the best scary movies ever.

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Ellie Foumbi’s debut has been called a psychological drama, a revenge thriller, a suspenseful character study, and so much more. The inability to confine it to a single genre adds to its allure, so we'll go ahead and add intense slow-burner. The story, which morphs into an entirely new experience by its end, unfurls around Marie, an African refugee and chef whose world gets turned upside down when she comes face to face with the warlord who murdered her family.

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From Christmas (Krampus) to St. Patrick’s Day (Leprechaun), nearly every holiday has gotten the horror movie treatment. So, it was only a matter of time before Valentine’s Day was up. Luckily, it got a thrill factor in the form of Heart Eyes, a genre-bending, rom-com slasher about a serial killer who goes around murdering couples (a humorous premise for any singles watching the film). In an impressive balancing act, the film acts as a genuinely engrossing romance, while also offering up some seriously intense gore.

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Skinamarink has been at the forefront of the horror-genre conversation since its release, and for good reason. This tiny indie isn’t your typical horror film — there’s no formula, no real setup, or cast even — just two faceless children locked in a house where strange things go bump in the night. Still, Kyle Edward Ball’s experiential project is nightmare fuel that will burrow its way into your brain and never leave. Like the bad dream you had as a kid and remember to this day.

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Mumblegore fans, here’s a shoestring-budget psychological gem that’s right up your alley. It comes from a directing team who call themselves Perry Home Video and stars co-director Steph Holmbo who borrowed from her own experiences to craft the screenplay and tells the story of a woman who’s terrorized by horrifying phenomena after leaving her abusive boyfriend. Deeply unnerving, this one is a sensory assault that will seep into your nightmares.

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Show of hands if you’ve seen this little Aussie treat from the A24 folks. About a group of teens who conjure the dead through an ancient relic, it stars relative newcomer Sophie Wilde, who’s brilliant as Mia, a woman who recently lost her mother and believes this new embalmed-hand party trick is her ticket to seeing her again. With genius effects and an intensity that takes hold like a death grip, Talk to Me is one of the best modern entries into the supernatural subgenre.

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In his directorial debut, Lights Out, David F. Sandberg adapts his short story of the same name about a group of textile factory workers who find themselves haunted by a spirit that only shows up in the darkness. Then, in natural horror movie fashion, this presence starts to torment people outside of the factory, making things even more twisted. If you’ve ever been afraid of the dark, this might be one you’ll want to skip.

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She’s autonomous. She’s lethal. She’s got a killer wardrobe. Her name is M3gan, and she’s the closest thing to a best friend and confidant a little girl can have. So goes the case of Cady, an orphaned eight-year-old who’s put in the care of her Aunt Gemma (Allison Williams), a robotics whiz on the verge of a major invention. Not ready for children and feeling the squeeze at work, Gemma pairs M3gan with Cady, unaware of the deadly consequences that come with trusting artificial intelligence.

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