Hey… you want to see something really scary? Well, you’ve come to the right place, because CraveOnline’s film crew is here with the second half of our list for The 50 Scariest Horror Movies Ever Made. Yesterday introduced you to #50-26, which included films from Wes Craven, John Carpenter, and Steven Spielberg, haunted house movies, slashers and psychological thrillers and much, much more.
Today we’re showing off our picks for the 25 Scariest Horror Movies Ever Made, as voted by Witney Seibold, Fred Topel and myself, William Bibbiani. Each of us was given the opportunity to write whatever we wanted to say about the films we ourselves voted for, although practically every film in the Top 25 received multiple votes. Remember, the assignment was to nominate the Top 50 Scariest Horror Movies Ever Made, not just the best. Sometimes that goes hand-in-hand, but not necessarily. Hence why Jaws ranked so low on our master list compared to more focused, monstrous and amoral chillers throughout cinema history.
Check out the second half of the list, then scroll down for our final analysis.
Check Out #50-26 of CraveOnline’s Scariest Horror Movies Ever Made!
We’ve learned a lot about what scares the CraveOnline film crew, but a few observations really stand out. Wes Craven really is the “Master of Horror,” apparently: he’s the only filmmaker with four movies in the Top 50 (#36, #30, #28 and #2). John Carpenter came close, directing three of our scariest movies ever made (#35, #16, #7). Filmmakers who popped up twice include David Cronenberg (#44, #17), Sam Raimi (#24, #18) and Tobe Hooper (#13, #1).
We swear we didn’t plan this, but someone else turned up four times throughout our list of The 50 Scariest Horror Movies Ever Made: Stephen King, the subject of our 31-episode web series running throughout the month of October called The Kings of Horror. You can watch me and Shock Till You Drop‘s Ryan Turek review every single theatrically released Stephen King horror movie at the official Kings of Horror page, where we talk at length about #49, #41, #26 and #6.
Believe it or not, 1991 was the scariest year for CraveOnline, contributing three films – #33, #28 and #15 – to the Top 50. We didn’t see that one coming. But the 1980s was the scariest decade of them all, with 16 entries total: #50, #45, #42, #37-36, #26, #24, #19-16, #14-13, #10, #6 and #3. The only decade that didn’t provide a single scariest horror movie ever made from the 1920s onward was the 1940s. Sorry, The Wolf Man. Maybe next time.
That’s it, folks. Those were our picks for the scariest horror movies ever made. Did the film that freaks you out the most make the list? Where did we screw up? Let us know in the comments below, or check us out on Twitter and keep the conversation going there.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The 50 Scariest Horror Movies Ever Made - Part 2
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25. Island of Lost Souls (1932)
Are we not men? Erle C. Kenton's 1932 film Island of Lost Souls is one of those movies that punches you in the gut with how viscerally unsettling it is. Charles Laughton plays a mad scientist, Dr. Moreau, who has been using state-of-the-art vivisection to force evolution upon dumb beasts, creating gross-looking pig men, goat men, and other creatures unidentifiable. As a result of his ambition, he has declared himself the god of a race of half-mad animal men. Not for the faint of heart, Island of Lost Souls is perhaps one of the scariest films of the 1930s. ~ Witney Seibold
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24. Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn (1987)
Sam Raimi hurriedly remade and then hilariously followed up on his original 1981 shocker (see #18), a bigger, crazier and more manic Evil Dead that may not make you lose sleep, but will make you jump over and over and over again thanks to one perfectly-time scare after another. Ash (Bruce Campbell) is still stuck in that cabin in the woods, and now the Deadites are trying to make him lose his mind. They succeed. The scene where Campbell fights his own hand is a timeless classic in the horror and comedy genres alike. ~ William Bibbiani
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23. Ju-on: The Grudge (2002)
One of many films in Takashi Shimizu's Ju-on franchise, and I think the best, follows one poor individual after another as they come into contact with a house doomed to forever repeat the horrific crime exacted therein. Bizarre imagery and horrifying sound effects (oh god, that death rattle) will freak you out, but the film's unsettling premise - that a haunting could be passed from person to person like a disease (whether or not they ever even entered the house) - is almost unbearably apocalyptic. ~ William Bibbiani
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22. Eraserhead (1977)
David Lynch's first feature film took him five years to make, and it was finally released to warm reviews in 1977. Many viewers find the deliberately dreamy tone to be off-putting, and the plot doesn't stand up to any sort of rational scrutiny. Henry Spencer (John Nance) is living in a gray urban Hell, surrounded by bricks, industrial smoke, and an ever-hissing radiator. He must look after his illegitimate child, who looks a lot like a calf fetus. Few filmmakers can capture the surreal fears of the dream world like Lynch, and few films present us with unadulterated fear the way Eraserhead does. ~ Witney Seibold
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21. The Woman (2011)
Lucky McKee's violent and confrontational feminist allegory stars Sean Bridgers as a family man who discovers a feral woman (Pollyanna McIntosh) in the woods, kidnaps her, and forces his whole clan to teach her to be civilized. Quickly, we learn that this is the wrong family to be teaching anyone about wholesome values. McIntosh is a growling, powerful presence, Bridgers is a worst-case scenario come to life, and the horror actually began years before you think it does, leading to a truly shocking finale that's anything but cathartic. ~ William Bibbiani
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20. Audition (1999)
Catching audiences by surprise, Takashi Miike's 1999 indie darling starts out as something approaching a gentle romantic comedy, and slowly mutates into one of the most terrifying pieces of horror cinema to come out of recent Japan. A hard-working director (Ryo Ishibashi) decides to hold an audition for commercial actresses when he is really looking for a potential mate. He finds the pretty Eihi Shiina, who at first seems guarded and demure, but who may be more dangerous than she lets on. The final ten minutes of the film will leave you wincing in pain. ~ Witney Seibold
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19. The Changeling (1980)
One of the better haunted house films ever made, Peter Medak's 1980 film The Changeling is classical pulp entertainment at its finest. George C. Scott plays a man who finds his secluded mansion may be haunted by the ghost of a young boy. For a film that is mostly Scott stalking around the empty halls of a darkened mansion, The Changeling is remarkably restrained, undeniably atmospheric, and undeniably terrifying. The bounding ball scene alone is enough to traumatize anyone. ~ Witney Seibold
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18. The Evil Dead (1981)
Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 (#24) may be more inventive, but the low-fi terrors of the original Evil Dead are much scarier. Bruce Campbell and a group of his closest friends go for a vacation in the woods, unleash demons from Hell, and are forced to dismember each other to save their own lives and each other's souls. All of Raimi's trademark visual panache is in its nascent form here, working with fewer resources to create a gory indie horror landmark that Stephen King called "ferociously original." ~ William Bibbiani
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17. The Fly (1986)
As a kid I couldn’t go into my video store for 6 months while they had a poster depicting Seth Brundle’s transformation shot by shot. Truly horrifying, and the pinnacle of top notch makeup effects detailing every step in between Jeff Goldblum and fly. ~ Fred Topel
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16. The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter turned the rules of horror on their head with a sci-fi monster movie classic that left nothing to the imagination. That's okay, because Carpenter's imagination is scarier than yours. Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David and a slew of other future corpses are trapped in the Antarctic with a recently unfrozen shape-shifting monster that starts infecting them one-by-one. Who is real, and who is a thing? And how will the overpoweringly terrifying practical effects top themselves next? ~ William Bibbiani
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15. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Not just one of the scariest films of the 1990s, but also one of the best, Jonathan Demme's 1991 classic The Silence of the Lambs is a terrific horror film on several levels. For one, it offers up all of the blood and gore that most horror film fans crave, but it also deals with much more relatable real-life horrors pertaining to work stress, manipulation, and subtle everyday sexism. The relationship between the green FBI agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) and imprisoned serial killer Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins, iconic) is one of the greatest in horror cinema. ~ Witney Seibold
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14. Hellraiser (1987)
The hooks in the flesh got me the most. I thought Hellraiser was just going to be about some cool guy with nails in his head killing people. I was not ready for the inexorable link between sexual pleasure and pain, and that dude with no skin was just freaky. ~ Fred Topel
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13. Poltergeist (1982)
If you're the right age, then you were definitely traumatized by Tobe Hooper's 1982 ghost story Poltergeist. Still rated PG to this very day, Poltergeist features a man-eating tree, a kidnapped little girl, a spindly demon, a child-eating closet mouth, a pool full of living muddy skeletons, a scene of a guy who is forced to rip off his own face with his bare hands, and that evil clown doll that everyone remembers. Happy nightmares, kids. ~ Witney Seibold
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12. Suspiria (1977)
A prime example of how photography and music can create scares better than any other single story element of a horror movie, Dario Argento's 1977 Eurotrash witch flick Suspiria can easily be counted as one of the best horror movies of all time. The story follows girls being killed off by evil witches in a remote ballet academy, but the real scares come from Argento's virtuosic, ultra-colorful camerawork (the stained-glass death is still awesome), and from Italian rock band Goblin's incessant noisy theme music. ~ Witney Seibold
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11. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
George Romero didn't invent the zombie, but he defined them for the modern age in 1968's stark, black and white and utterly grim Night of the Living Dead. The deceased are rising from their graves to feast on the living, and a group of survivors lock themselves in a ramshackle house to survive the first ever siege of the undead. Romero piles on dread like a pile of rotting corpses, and has some very uncomfortable things to say about human nature when civilization starts to break down. They're coming to get you, Bar-ba-ra...! ~ William Bibbiani
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10. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
"Unflinching." Fewer films have earned the adjective more than John McNaughton's matter-of-fact portrayal of a homicidal maniac (Michael Rooker, giving a landmark performance) who finds an unexpected accomplice and a potential girlfriend who can really, we hope, do a lot better. There is no panache to the violence. It just happens. Henry and his best friend watch it with us, with the same glassy-eyed stare you yourselves get while watching re-runs you've seen a hundred times. This is horror at its most unbelievably believable. ~ William Bibbiani
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9. Alien (1979)
Even in its most bastardized forms (AVP anyone?), the alien remains one of cinema’s greatest monsters. The joy of the original Alien is discovering the alien’s every terrifying power, from chest bursting to acid blood. At every step of the way, you just feel these space truckers aren’t gonna get out of this one. It’s got the best jump scares too thanks to Jones the cat. ~ Fred Topel
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8. The Haunting (1963)
Are there ghosts, or aren't there? Robert Wise's 1963 film The Haunting is less about ghosts and the origin thereof, and more about the fear and madness that can result from a skittish personality. Julie Harris plays a perpetually terrified young woman who is asked to spend the night in a haunted house with a few cynical and uncaring compatriots, all as part of an alleged ghost study. Watching Harris unravel as the film progresses is scarier than any gore from any later, more lurid films. Stay the heck away from the remake. ~ Witney Seibold
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7. Halloween (1978)
Arguably, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre started the slasher boom, but Michael Myers was the first to invade domestic settings, at least on such an impactful scale (seven sequels, two remakes and counting). Even in your home, babysitting some children, this unstoppable force will get you. Or really John Carpenter could have just played his score for 90 minutes and scared us just as well! ~ Fred Topel
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6. The Shining (1980)
Stanley Kubrick classed up the horror genre the same way he classed up sci-fi in 2001: A Space Odyssey, directing a beautiful and haunting examination of madness, familial strife and personal, spiked with a inexplicable Moebius strip of the supernatural. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson, a monster) and his family agree to look after an isolated hotel in the winter season. Terror begins. They brought it with them. It has always been there. And it will never, ever end. ~ William Bibbiani
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5. The Exorcist (1973)
A horror film for grown-ups, William Friedkin's 1973 masterpiece The Exorcist, like The Silence of the Lambs (#15 on this list) banks on over-the-top imagery, but deals more directly with real-life human fears. A rich young girl (Linda Blair) living in Georgetown begins speaking in tongues and spewing hateful sex talk. Medicine cannot determine what is wrong with her. A priest with flagging faith (Jason Miller) is called by the girl's mother (Ellen Burstyn) to perform an exorcism. Is the young girl mad? Or is she actually possessed by a demonic force? This is a film about family, fear, children, and complex issues of faith in a modern world. And it still scares me every time. ~ Witney Seibold
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4. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Rosemary is pregnant, but it's going horribly wrong. The flush never blossoms on her cheeks. She loses weight instead of gaining it. Her husband couldn't care less. Her neighbors may be poisoning her. There has to be a reason. She can't be going mad... can she? Roman Polanski's classy paranoiac thriller subverts the beautiful human experience into an unthinkable nightmare, closing with an inevitable revelation. The truth won't set Rosemary free. What have they done to his eyes? ~ William Bibbiani
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3. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Freddy Krueger is scary looking, all powerful with the surreal realm of dreams at his behest, and able to turn your greatest fears against you. His classic introductory film really emphasizes Freddy’s hands-on (pun intended) threat, using his razor bladed glove to slice poor Tina and swipe at poor Nancy. ~ Fred Topel
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2. Psycho (1960)
Often considered Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece (perhaps behind Vertigo), and shot using his low-budget TV crew, 1960's Psycho still has the ability to shock and disturb audiences, even to this day, when the big “twist” is well-known to most horror audiences, and every single movie and TV show has referenced the famous shower scene. Somewhat gaudy, and most definitely lurid, Psycho also has a weird psychosexual edge that many movies of the time didn't dare incorporate. It's also often cited as one of the very first proto-slasher movies, informing horror for generations. ~ Witney Seibold
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1. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
The scariest horror movie ever made? We think so. Tobe Hooper's original plunge into cannibal family values is ugly, misshapen and wrong. A group of nearly unlikable friends wanders into the front yard of a serial killer clan who don't waste a single bone of their victims, crafting them into food, furniture and clothes. Daniel Pearl's 16mm photography looks like someone urinated on it, and left it to rot in a fetid basement. This is no movie. This is horror ground into fleshy celluloid. It's the film the killers would have made themselves. ~ William Bibbiani
