Coming up with a list of the Top 25 Horror Films is a good way to weed out the scary movie veterans from the scaredy cats. You can spot 'em every time a jump scare happens, or a devil-possessed girl crab walks upstairs, or an alien missiles out of some poor sucker's chest.
Okay, so we were more scared than not when working on this list. Sue us! Using overall movie quality, impact on the genre, legacy potential, fright/creepy factor and that mysterious quality known as Editor's Choice, we assembled a list of movies that guarantee you'll want to sleep with the lights on.
Some of the movies here are more traditional horror fare, others are just twisted and creepy in a "permanently scarred for life" sorta way (e.g. The Silence of the Lambs). But all of them will scare the living heck out of you. So enjoy, and fire off your own suggestions and faves in the comments!
The Cabin in the Woods is an incredibly clever and fun take on classic horror movie tropes centered around a group of kids going to a, you guessed it, cabin in the woods. Filmmakers Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard -- the two wrote the film together with Whedon producing and Goddard directing -- came up with a wonderfully conceived story that gives a bigger than life and fascinating explanation for why so many horror movie cliches exist in the first place. When you say, "Haven't I seen that done a million times before?", the answer is, well yes, of course. And Whedon and Goddard are acutely aware of and inspired by that fact.
Without giving too much away, the filmmakers add an extra level of menace beyond the typical horror movie tropes. It's a metatextual examination of the genre itself, which Whedon and Goddard are able to use to comment on and reflect upon horror films, and how the likes of Evil Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th and so many other films -- true classics and classically bad ones alike -- have given us a lot of familiar aspects we expect and even find comfort in, even as we might also roll our eyes at the predictability.
The offbeat tone and sensibility of the film is established early on, and as it goes on, The Cabin in the Woods begins to add more and more fascinating elements. The film's final act is especially audacious, delving into a whole other level of reveals that are especially crowd-pleasing and bold.
Scene to watch with the lights on: That ending, where our surviving heroes realize that the horrors they thought they were facing were only just the tip of the (bloody) iceberg.
Both director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson have plenty of successes in their career, but Scream remains a big highlight for both men. Williamson's script managed to deftly be so many things -- it was a sly meta/self-parody about the horror genre that didn't cross the line into goofiness, while also playing as a successful whodunit and, most importantly, an effective horror film in and of itself.
Finally a group of horror movie characters made it clear that yes, they'd seen all the same movies we had, and were aware of the rules and clichés that come with the genre. But no one was more knowledgeable than the killer (or is that killers?), who toyed with the victims by asking them horror movie trivia that plenty of us in the audience could have fun playing along with.
But when the killer actually showed himself, it was terrifying, with several extremely well-executed suspense scenes by Craven, which proved again just how good he was with this sort of material. A movie that set out to simultaneously make the audience laugh, cheer and yes, scream, Scream deserves a lot of credit for pulling off all these elements so well.
Scene to watch with the lights on: Scream's opening scene is incredibly strong and scary, instantly grabbing the audience by the throat. Watching a high school girl (Drew Barrymore) get a series of increasingly ominous phone calls, we (and she) begin to realize just how vulnerable she is. And that's when the guy with the ghost-faced mask shows up...
All of today's mega-popular vampire franchises owe a debt of gratitude to Count Dracula. And as much as Bram Stoker's original novel helped popularize the vampire story, it was Universal's 1931 adaptation that cemented the image of Dracula in the minds of most moviegoers.
Dracula condenses and combines many of the main characters from the novel, opening with the poor Mr. Renfield's arrival in Transylvania. After falling victim to Dracula's influence, the pair head to London so Dracula can feast on the city's inhabitants. Only the courageous Dr. Seward, his ally Professor Van Helsing, and their friends can prevent Dracula from slaughtering innocents and making the fair Mina his newest bride.
Dracula isn't the scariest film by modern standards (though the alternate Spanish cut is superior in that regard). What it does have is plenty of atmosphere and a very memorable take on the lead villain. This adaptation diverged from the source by making Dracula a handsome, charismatic figure, and Bela Lugosi captured the imaginations of millions with his performance as Dracula. For better or worse, it was a role that would follow him for the rest of his life. And it remains the definitive portrayal of this classic villain for many.
Scene to watch with the lights on: Renfield's midnight ride is full of dramatic tension as he meets the world's creepiest carriage driver and passes unearthly lights burning in the fog. By the time he finally arrives at the castle and is introduced to its master, he and the viewer are much worse for wear.
Jennifer Kent's debut feature is an elegant, psychologically-dense horror film which taps into various traditions without ever feeling the slightest bit derivative. It's an instant classic.
Like all great psychological horror, it begins with a tragedy. Amelia's husband died while driving her to the hospital to give birth to Sam, their only child. Ever since that day, Amelia has raised Sam alone and never celebrated his birthday. The film spends time establishing this complex domestic situation and the fractured relationship between mother and child. Even seven years later, it's painfully clear that Amelia hasn't successfully grieved and moved on with her life. But what's more unsettling is her relationship with Sam. While she takes him to school, reads him bedtime stories, and cooks him nutritious dinners, she secretly can't stand him. She pulls away, when she should be pulling him close. And it's into this troubled home that The Babadook worms his way.
What follows isn't a monster movie nor a slasher film; things don't frequently jump out of the shadows. The threat is much less tangible -– it's ambitious, pervasive, and in the final analysis, much more terrifying. Things go bump in the mind. This is a brilliantly made, elegant horror film, with real psychological depth. It's also a celebration of a school of horror that's been dormant for much too long. The Babadook belongs firmly to a genre that understands the power of restraint and terror of the unseen. There are definite shades of The Haunting and The Innocents, but it stands proudly in its own right. This is modern psychological horror at its most rich, macabre, and moving.
Scene to watch with the lights on: When The Babadook pays Amelia a visit one night, all she can do is throw the covers over her head while she listens to the inhuman sounds it makes. You'll be reaching for the covers too in this moment.
The movie that gave birth to the whole "horror movie as faux-documentary" and that inspired such films as Paranormal Activity, The Blair Witch Project is quite an effective scare fest in retrospect.
Some of its then-inspired choices in the realm of "is it or isn't real" seem dated and obvious now, given the fact that the Internet seemingly sets out to reveal spoilers that surround projects like this. (Also, we know it's all fiction at this point.) But Blair Witch came out in 1999, when the Internet was in its infancy and could be used as a tool to successfully convince audiences that maybe the story of a three-person documentary crew going Snipe hunting for what turns out to be pure evil is in fact real.
Blame the gift/curse of the shaky cam on this movie, but give it credit for delivering scares in such a way that changed the way we like to be scared... and that changed the way Hollywood goes about making the things that scare us. In fact, a new take on Blair Witch is coming out in the fall of 2016.
Scene to watch with the lights on: A night in the woods full of tent shaking and lots of screaming leads to a morning where one character discovers a nice gift-wrap of anatomy no longer attached to its person.
Of course we're including a giallo film on this list, though the question did come up as to which of the Italian horror masters was most deserving to represent this distinctive genre. In the end, we had to give it to Dario Argento and his Suspiria -- a supernatural shocker that is an experience in style as well as terror.
The film is about an American ballerina who travels to Germany to attend a dance academy, but instead gets a tutu full of trouble when she comes to realize that the place is home to a coven of witches who are brewing up all kinds of deadly mischief.
The picture might seem over the top in some ways, but Argento proves masterful at creating an environment and a world that is uniquely its own thing. The gruesome, convoluted killings, the garish color design, the freaked-out sound (including a haunting score by Goblin)... this is the stuff that nightmares are made of.
Scene to watch with the lights on: Don't even bother turning the lights off, since the film gets right to it with a double murder early on that sees one young lady staring out a window into the dark, only to suddenly realize that a pair of eyes are staring back. This leads to stabbings, a hanging and, finally, impalement by stained glass for her and her friend.
Can you believe that there's a movie on our list that got its title from a Morrissey song? This most unusual of love stories is a Swedish film which hit it big internationally with its tale of a 12-year-old boy and his centuries-old vampire... who looks like a 12-year-old girl (but most certainly isn't).
Whether or not Oskar and Eli's relationship is an equal partnership, or Oskar is doomed to become the vampire's next Hakan (the old and ill-fated human who takes care of Eli early in the film) isn't clear. But it's an engrossing story from start to finish.
Though chock-full of bloody good horror moments, director Tomas Alfredson's film works so well because it is acutely interested in its two lead characters: Oskar, the boy who is bullied at school and finds a protector in his new, nocturnal neighbor; and Eli, a beautiful little cherub who's actually not even a girl and certainly not a cherub. Weird, right? But so good.
Scene to watch with the lights on: This may be a controversial pick (and a spoilery one), but we'd have to go with the closing moments of the film, as Oskar and Eli head off for a new life together as friends and/or love interests. Or as master and slave? You decide, but it is creepy either way.
It rarely hurts to merge horror with a tinge of comedy, and John Landis' An American Werewolf in London is one of the finer examples of that combination. It's also one of several iconic werewolf movies that hit theaters in 1981. Of the trio, American Werewolf remains the most popular and well-loved.
The film follows two backpackers traveling the English countryside. When only one survives an attack by a vicious wolf, he becomes convinced he's been infected by the werewolf's curse. And it wouldn't be much of a werewolf movie if he turned out to be wrong.
An American Werewolf in London stood out at the time thanks to its amazing makeup and special effects work; never had the werewolf transformation seemed so convincing. The humor didn't hurt either, particularly with the brilliantly demented nightmare sequences. But American Werewolf was ultimately a tragic horror film, and one certainly deserving of remembrance today.
Scene to watch with the lights on: American Werewolf's iconic transformation scene is a showcase for just how grotesque and painful the werewolf curse can be. When David wolfs out, what ensues is a graphic transformation of man into werewolf. This all-too convincing display of special effects and makeup work from 1981 still holds up today.
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