The greatest horror films of all time are a diverse group. The finest scary movies, in the minds of non-horror enthusiasts, are endless slasher films drowning in gore and depravity. While some of the films listed below are somewhat graphic, the best horror flicks accomplish far more than just scare you. They terrify you on a primal level, instilling in you new phobias you never imagined imaginable. Are you sure you wouldn’t be terrified of camping if you hadn’t seen The Blair Witch Project? Many of us are terrified of darkness. Horror films simply put things in our heads that we couldn’t have imagined before. That’s why you’ve come here: to locate even more blasts of nightmare fuel that will torment you for the rest of your life.
1. The Shining
There’s a reason this is at the very top of this mountain of screaming. The Shining has a sinister vibe to it. This is a film that never lets you feel comfortable, from Jack Nicholson’s unhinged acting like a guy spiraling into deadly insanity to Kubrick’s unrelenting directing as we hypnotically follow Danny wandering the hotel halls on his bike. The Shining, like Hereditary earlier in this list, is like being driven by a drunken lunatic. What will happen next? Bloodlifts, perhaps? Little girls, who have been chopped up? What is the terror that lurks in Room 237’s bathroom? This isn’t a cheap horror film with jump scares; Kubrick’s film is a lurking, dangerous beast that haunts you long after the TV has turned off.
2. Hereditary
Hereditary does not feel safe at any stage in the game. You never feel like you can take a breather or even estimate what’s going to happen next during the film’s two-hour run duration. Is this a film about the supernatural? Is this a bereavement exercise akin to the Babadook? Is there even a distinction to be made between these two concepts? Every sight of Collette’s artist patiently building little dioramas feels like a menace, and every awkward discussion between the family’s two teenagers makes you sick to your stomach. Why? It’s impossible to pinpoint the exact cause. Hereditary may have divided critics, but it is a masterwork of modern horror that will leave you reeling long after the film’s brutal third act. We simply will not tell you why.
3. 28 days later
28 Days Later has the feel of a nightmare. This feels like the truest view of the modern British apocalypse as Jim and his fellow survivors search for shelter in Scotland, along with a soundtrack that is both devastating and heart-pounding. The Infected are terrifying, survivors are skeptical, and the film’s imagery of the devastating British landscape is breathtaking. 28 Days Later is a horrific feast for the eyes and the heart, thanks to great performances from everyone involved.
4. Night of the living dead
Barbra and Johnny, siblings, drive to a graveyard in rural Pennsylvania to pay their respects at their father’s grave. Due to technical difficulties, their car radio goes off the air. A bizarre, ashen-faced figure in a ragged suit kills Johnny and threatens Barbra as they leave. She runs and seeks refuge in a farmhouse, but the woman who once resided there is found dead and half-eaten. She notices a growing number of odd ghouls approaching the home, led by the man from the graveyard. Ben arrives, boards the windows and doors, and chases the ghouls away with a lever-action rifle he found in the closet and fire, which the ghouls fear.
5. Psycho
Marion Crane and her boyfriend Sam Loomis discuss their inability to get married because of Sam’s debts during a Friday afternoon tryst in a Phoenix hotel. Marion returns to work, decides to steal a $40,000 cash payment entrusted to her for bank deposit, and drives to Sam’s house in Fairvale, California. Marion hurriedly swaps her automobile on the way, sparking suspicion from the car dealer as well as a California Highway Patrol officer.