The 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time

The 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time's icon

Created by Igor_Brynner.

Favorited 1 time, disliked 0 times, added to 0 watchlists.

One of the most common claims made about horror films is that they allow audiences to vicariously play with their fear of death. Inarguable, really, but that’s also too easy, as one doesn’t have to look too far into a genre often preoccupied with offering simulations of death to conclude that the genre in question is about death. That’s akin to saying that all an apple ever really symbolizes is an apple, and that symbols and subtexts essentially don’t exist. A more interesting question: Why do we flock to films that revel in what is, in all likelihood, our greatest fear? And why is death our greatest fear?

A startling commonality emerges if you look over the following films in short succession that’s revelatory of the entire horror genre: These works aren’t about the fear of dying, but the fear of dying alone, a subtlety that cuts to the bone of our fear of death anyway—of a life unlived. There’s an explicit current of self-loathing running through this amazing collection of films. What are Norman Bates and Jack Torrance besides eerily all-too-human monsters? Failures. Success also ultimately eludes Leatherface, as well as the socially stunted lost souls of Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s Pulse. What is the imposing creature at the dark heart of F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu? He makes for quite the presence, but his hungers ultimately lead him to oblivion.

So many films, particularly American ones, tell us that we can be whatever we want to be, and that people who don’t achieve their desired self-actualization are freaks. The horror film says: Wait Jack, it ain’t that easy. This genre resents platitude (certainly, you can count the happy endings among these films on one hand), but the best horror movies of all time usually aren’t cynical, as they insist on the humanity that’s inextinguishable even by severe atrocity. Which is to say there’s hope, and catharsis, offered by the horror film. It tells us bruised romantics that we’re all in this together, thus offering evidence that we may not be as alone as we may think. Chuck Bowen

Remove ads

Pssst, want to check out the The 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time list in our new look?

Filter

  1. 1 new

    The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

    1974, in 15 top lists Check
  2. 2 new

    Night of the Living Dead

    1968, in 20 top lists Check
  3. 3 new

    Psycho

    1960, in 39 top lists Check
  4. 4 new

    The Shining

    1980, in 28 top lists Check
  5. 5 new

    Rosemary's Baby

    1968, in 21 top lists Check
  6. 6 new

    Suspiria

    1977, in 17 top lists Check
  7. 7 new

    Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens

    1922 — a.k.a. Nosferatu, in 28 top lists Check
  8. 8 new

    Carrie

    1976, in 11 top lists Check
  9. 9 new

    Freaks

    1932, in 19 top lists Check
  10. 10 new

    Halloween

    1978, in 17 top lists Check
  11. 11 new

    Profondo rosso

    1975 — a.k.a. Deep Red, in 9 top lists Check
  12. 12 new

    The Fly

    1986, in 11 top lists Check
  13. 13 new

    Repulsion

    1965, in 17 top lists Check
  14. 14 new

    Kairo

    2001 — a.k.a. Pulse, in 5 top lists Check
  15. 15 new

    Peeping Tom

    1960, in 20 top lists Check
  16. 16 new

    I Walked with a Zombie

    1943, in 10 top lists Check
  17. 17 new

    The Thing

    1982, in 20 top lists Check
  18. 18 new

    Videodrome

    1983, in 18 top lists Check
  19. 19 new

    Bride of Frankenstein

    1935, in 19 top lists Check
  20. 20 new

    Eraserhead

    1977, in 20 top lists Check
  21. 21 new

    Dawn of the Dead

    1978, in 15 top lists Check
  22. 22 new

    Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari

    1920 — a.k.a. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, in 30 top lists Check
  23. 23 new

    Possession

    1981, in 7 top lists Check
  24. 24 new

    The Exorcist

    1973, in 27 top lists Check
  25. 25 new

    Vampyr

    1932, in 18 top lists Check
  26. 26 new

    The Innocents

    1961, in 12 top lists Check
  27. 27 new

    Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

    1992, in 6 top lists Check
  28. 28 new

    Cat People

    1942, in 15 top lists Check
  29. 29 new

    They Live

    1988, in 7 top lists Check
  30. 30 new

    The Leopard Man

    1943, in 3 top lists Check
  31. 31 new

    Under the Skin

    2013, in 10 top lists Check
  32. 32 new

    Trouble Every Day

    2001, in 6 top lists Check
  33. 33 new

    Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht

    1979 — a.k.a. Nosferatu the Vampyre, in 5 top lists Check
  34. 34 new

    Alien

    1979, in 30 top lists Check
  35. 35 new

    Carnival of Souls

    1962, in 5 top lists Check
  36. 36 new

    Don't Look Now

    1973, in 17 top lists Check
  37. 37 new

    Evil Dead II

    1987, in 9 top lists Check
  38. 38 new

    Dead Ringers

    1988, in 12 top lists Check
  39. 39 new

    The Wicker Man

    1973, in 13 top lists Check
  40. 40 new

    Vargtimmen

    1968 — a.k.a. Hour of the Wolf, in 7 top lists Check
  41. 41 new

    The Last House on the Left

    1972, in 4 top lists Check
  42. 42 new

    Körkarlen

    1921 — a.k.a. The Phantom Carriage, in 16 top lists Check
  43. 43 new

    The Silence of the Lambs

    1991, in 36 top lists Check
  44. 44 new

    Jaws

    1975, in 28 top lists Check
  45. 45 new

    Poltergeist

    1982, in 9 top lists Check
  46. 46 new

    Frankenstein

    1931, in 18 top lists Check
  47. 47 new

    Invasion of the Body Snatchers

    1978, in 3 top lists Check
  48. 48 new

    Spoorloos

    1988 — a.k.a. The Vanishing, in 15 top lists Check
  49. 49 new

    Les yeux sans visage

    1960 — a.k.a. Eyes Without a Face, in 14 top lists Check
  50. 50 new

    The Brood

    1979, in 5 top lists Check
Remove ads
Show all 100 movies

Last updated on Mar 23, 2024; source