The 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time

The 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time's icon

Created by Igor_Brynner.

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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

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  1. 60 new

    Kaidan

    1964 — a.k.a. Kwaidan, in 13 top lists Check
  2. 57 new

    Inland Empire

    2006, in 10 top lists Check
  3. 4 new

    The Shining

    1980, in 28 top lists Check
  4. 5 new

    Rosemary's Baby

    1968, in 21 top lists Check
  5. 27 new

    Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

    1992, in 6 top lists Check
  6. 95 new

    Bram Stoker's Dracula

    1992, in 6 top lists Check
  7. 21 new

    Dawn of the Dead

    1978, in 15 top lists Check
  8. 11 new

    Profondo rosso

    1975 — a.k.a. Deep Red, in 9 top lists Check
  9. 53 new

    Le locataire

    1976 — a.k.a. The Tenant, in 7 top lists Check
  10. 44 new

    Jaws

    1975, in 28 top lists Check
  11. 23 new

    Possession

    1981, in 7 top lists Check
  12. 24 new

    The Exorcist

    1973, in 27 top lists Check
  13. 99 new

    Gwoemul

    2006 — a.k.a. The Host, in 11 top lists Check
  14. 63 new

    The Birds

    1963, in 18 top lists Check
  15. 14 new

    Kairo

    2001 — a.k.a. Pulse, in 5 top lists Check
  16. 43 new

    The Silence of the Lambs

    1991, in 36 top lists Check
  17. 34 new

    Alien

    1979, in 30 top lists Check
  18. 67 new

    Les diaboliques

    1955 — a.k.a. Diabolique, in 21 top lists Check
  19. 38 new

    Dead Ringers

    1988, in 12 top lists Check
  20. 47 new

    Invasion of the Body Snatchers

    1978, in 3 top lists Check
  21. 54 new

    Ôdishon

    1999 — a.k.a. Audition, in 11 top lists Check
  22. 89 new

    Låt den rätte komma in

    2008 — a.k.a. Let the Right One In, in 14 top lists Check
  23. 45 new

    Poltergeist

    1982, in 9 top lists Check
  24. 84 new

    The Haunting

    1963, in 6 top lists Check
  25. 85 new

    ¿Quién puede matar a un niño?

    1976 — a.k.a. Who Can Kill a Child?, in 2 top lists Check
  26. 87 new

    The Devils

    1971, in 12 top lists Check
  27. 77 new

    Scream

    1996, in 8 top lists Check
  28. 36 new

    Don't Look Now

    1973, in 17 top lists Check
  29. 3 new

    Psycho

    1960, in 39 top lists Check
  30. 17 new

    The Thing

    1982, in 20 top lists Check
  31. 73 new

    Antichrist

    2009, in 8 top lists Check
  32. 31 new

    Under the Skin

    2013, in 10 top lists Check
  33. 96 new

    Communion

    1976 — a.k.a. Alice Sweet Alice, in 1 top list Check
  34. 42 new

    Körkarlen

    1921 — a.k.a. The Phantom Carriage, in 16 top lists Check
  35. 33 new

    Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht

    1979 — a.k.a. Nosferatu the Vampyre, in 5 top lists Check
  36. 70 new

    Opera

    1987, in 2 top lists Check
  37. 48 new

    Spoorloos

    1988 — a.k.a. The Vanishing, in 15 top lists Check
  38. 92 new

    El espinazo del diablo

    2001 — a.k.a. The Devil's Backbone, in 5 top lists Check
  39. 90 new

    Gremlins

    1984, in 4 top lists Check
  40. 13 new

    Repulsion

    1965, in 17 top lists Check
  41. 66 new

    Dressed to Kill

    1980, in 7 top lists Check
  42. 100 new

    Get Out

    2017, in 16 top lists Check
  43. 64 new

    Re-Animator

    1985, in 7 top lists Check
  44. 52 new

    Onibaba

    1964, in 13 top lists Check
  45. 15 new

    Peeping Tom

    1960, in 20 top lists Check
  46. 75 new

    Tenebre

    1982 — a.k.a. Tenebrae, in 4 top lists Check
  47. 32 new

    Trouble Every Day

    2001, in 6 top lists Check
  48. 26 new

    The Innocents

    1961, in 12 top lists Check
  49. 93 new

    Grave

    2016 — a.k.a. Raw, in 4 top lists Check
  50. 94 new

    Martyrs

    2008, in 7 top lists Check
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Last updated on Mar 23, 2024; source