# The best horror movies of all time

The horror films that appear again and again at the top of the big all-time rankings (Time Out's 100, Rotten Tomatoes' guide), from silent expressionism to modern 'elevated' horror.

- 175 votes · 28 items
- Oct 10, 2020 · Rosie Atkinson
- https://even.best/en/l/35/the-best-horror-movies-of-all-time

## Top 25

1. **The Exorcist** (13 · ▲15 ▼2) — William Friedkin, 1973. The possession of 12-year-old Regan; the first horror film nominated for Best Picture.
2. **Rosemary's Baby** (11 · ▲11 ▼0) — Roman Polanski, 1968. Mia Farrow suspects her neighbours have plans for her unborn child.
3. **The Shining** (9 · ▲11 ▼2) — Stanley Kubrick, 1980. Jack Nicholson loses his mind in the snowbound Overlook Hotel; based on Stephen King.
4. **Halloween** (9 · ▲10 ▼1) — John Carpenter, 1978. Michael Myers stalks Haddonfield; the film that defined the slasher.
5. **Night of the Living Dead** (7 · ▲7 ▼0) — George A. Romero, 1968. The independent film that created the modern zombie.
6. **Jaws** (7 · ▲7 ▼0) — Steven Spielberg, 1975. The shark that emptied beaches and invented the summer blockbuster.
7. **Nosferatu** (6 · ▲8 ▼2) — F. W. Murnau, 1922. The unauthorized silent Dracula, with Max Schreck as Count Orlok.
8. **Get Out** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — Jordan Peele, 2017. A weekend with the girlfriend's parents turns into a satire of racism; Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
9. **Hereditary** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — Ari Aster, 2018. A family's grief turns into something much worse; Toni Collette's performance is legendary.
10. **Alien** (5 · ▲7 ▼2) — Ridley Scott, 1979. The crew of the Nostromo against H. R. Giger's xenomorph.
11. **Psycho** (5 · ▲6 ▼1) — Alfred Hitchcock, 1960. Norman Bates, the Bates Motel and the most famous shower scene in cinema.
12. **A Nightmare on Elm Street** (4 · ▲5 ▼1) — Wes Craven, 1984. Freddy Krueger kills teenagers in their dreams.
13. **Suspiria** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Dario Argento, 1977. A ballet academy, witches and saturated Technicolor with a score by Goblin.
14. **The Texas Chain Saw Massacre** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Tobe Hooper, 1974. Low-budget, sweaty and relentless, it introduced Leatherface.
15. **Let the Right One In** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Tomas Alfredson, 2008. A bullied boy befriends a child vampire in snowy Swedish suburbs.
16. **The Fly** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — David Cronenberg, 1986. Jeff Goldblum's scientist slowly mutating after a teleportation accident.
17. **The Thing** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — John Carpenter, 1982. A shape-shifting alien in an Antarctic base, with Rob Bottin's practical effects.
18. **Don't Look Now** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Nicolas Roeg, 1973. A grieving couple in wintry Venice; famous for its ending in red.
19. **Dawn of the Dead** (2 · ▲4 ▼2) — George A. Romero, 1978. Survivors hole up in a shopping mall during the zombie apocalypse.
20. **Ringu** (2 · ▲4 ▼2) — Hideo Nakata, 1998. A cursed videotape that kills in seven days; it launched the J-horror wave.
21. **The Witch** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — Robert Eggers, 2015. A Puritan family in 1630s New England and Black Phillip the goat.
22. **It Follows** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — David Robert Mitchell, 2014. A curse passed on through sex that walks slowly but never stops.
23. **The Innocents** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Jack Clayton, 1961. Deborah Kerr in the best adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw.
24. **The Babadook** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Jennifer Kent, 2014. A widowed mother and a sinister pop-up book; grief as a monster.
25. **The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Robert Wiene, 1920. The landmark of German Expressionism, with painted sets of impossible angles.
26. **Scream** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Wes Craven, 1996. The meta-slasher that revived the genre with Ghostface.
27. **The Silence of the Lambs** (0 · ▲3 ▼3) — Jonathan Demme, 1991. Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter; the only horror film to win Best Picture.
28. **Bride of Frankenstein** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — James Whale, 1935. The Universal sequel often considered better than the original, with Elsa Lanchester.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.