The 45 Scariest Horror Movies to Watch Right Now
Goodbye, sleeping through the night. It was fun while it lasted.
If you were to pop into your group chat right now and ask five friends what the scariest movie they’ve ever seen is, you’d probably get five different answers. (Or, like, four different answers and one person who just says “same” because they’re actually too scared to watch horror movies at all. Much love to this person.)
Anyway, there are approximately a million different ways for a movie to be scary. Whether you’re most horrified by creepy little kids, jump-scares, psychological thrillers, ghosts, or zombies, there is truly something for everyone. Here are 45 of the absolute scariest movies of all time. Have fun never sleeping again!
1. ORPHAN
Remember how badly Orphan freaked you out in 2009? Well, I have a feeling it’s going to feel a lot creepier in 2019, considering this story line might have actually played out IRL. (There’s a couple that claims the little girl they adopted was actually an “adult sociopath.”)
For those who haven’t seen Orphan, it’s about a couple that adopts a 9-year-old girl after recently losing a baby. To their horror, she turns out to be a full-ass adult serial killer.
2. HOUNDS OF LOVE
If you’re a fan of My Favorite Murder, you probably already know that Karen and Georgia (two women who literally talk about murder for a living) were both majorly disturbed by this Australian movie. It really is one of the most unsettling things ever.
Hounds of Love is based on a true story (strike one) about a serial-killing couple (strike two) that abducts an innocent teen, Vicki, who was just trying to get to a party (ding, ding, ding, you’re out!). Vicki ends up trapped in their home for days and has to find a way to survive. It’s somehow even worse than it sounds?
3. THE OTHERS
If you have not yet seen The Others, I am so jealous of your entire life and soul. The plot twist in this one is SO good.
Anyway, Nicole Kidman plays the mother of two children who are allergic to sunlight. They live in a big ol’ creepy mansion with a bunch of ghosts. I won’t spoil too much because like I said, the plot twist will get you.
4. THE FOURTH KIND
The Fourth Kind is a fake documentary, which is totally the scariest kind of movie because it’s designed to make you question what’s real and what’s not. It leaves you with the long-lasting kind of fear that makes you freak out when you wake up and look at the clock at 3:33 a.m. even years after seeing the film, because you genuinely think you’re about to be abducted by aliens.
5. IN THE TALL GRASS
Netflix’s take on Stephen King’s novella, In the Tall Grass might be super new...but it’s already earned its spot as one of the spookiest movies of all time. You will be uncomfortable for the entire hour and 40 minutes of this film.
6. SINISTER
A true-crime novelist is suffering from writer’s block, so he moves into the house of a family that was murdered. (It’s probably important to mention they were killed in that home. Honestly, I feel like he could have written the story without moving in there, but! To each his own!) While in the home, he discovers a bunch of spooky home movies that prove he’s in a much creepier situation than he initially thought. It’s horrifying!
7. THE GRUDGE
Nope! This one’s not about your Scorpio ex who still won’t forgive you for accidentally Liking that one guy’s photo on Instagram. Sarah Michelle Gellar stars in this iconic, ridiculously scary movie about a house that’s been supernaturally cursed. It’s the kind of thriller you’ll think about any time your jacket is making a weird shadow on your closet door in the middle of the night.
8. THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
9. SUSPIRIA
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Amazon remade the classic 1977 horror film Suspiria and somehow made it even scarier? It’s kind of impossible to describe this intense movie about a witchy dance academy, but if you decide to watch it and feel that you need a palate cleanser after...we’ve got you.
10. INSIDIOUS
The worst thing about Insidious is that it’s the one movie about a haunted house where the family is actually like, “You know what? We should just move.” Instead of being rewarded with a new calm, suburban lifestyle, this family discovers that the house wasn’t the problem. It’s actually their son. You truly hate to see it.
11. HEREDITARY
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Hereditary is the rare horror film that keeps you guessing—or more accurately, keeps you screaming “WTF?!”—throughout the entire film. Without giving too much away, I can tell you that Toni Collette plays Annie, a mother of two teens, who is trying to cope with her own mom’s death.
Filmmaker Ari Aster’s directorial debut blends together real-life horrors (like the loss of a child and feeling disconnected from the people closest to you) with the genre’s stalest motifs (ghosts, devil worship, creepy children and their even creepier mothers) into something truly original.
12. THE EXORCIST
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This 1973 classic, adapted from the 1971 book of the same name, tells the story of a 12-year-old girl named Regan MacNeil who gets possessed by the devil after using a Ouija board to communicate with her imaginary friend Captain Howdy. And, like...this is why you should never have an imaginary friend.
Aside from being terrifying because it’s a movie about a possessed preteen who pukes green slime and pees on floors, The Exorcist gets extra scare points for being inspired by the true story of Roland Doe, a young boy in Maryland who underwent an exorcism in 1949.
13. THE WITCH
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Robert Eggers’ debut feature-length film builds at a slow pace that you’ll either totally love or totally hate. The story revolves around a Puritan family that moves to a remote part of the woods, which we all know is never a good idea.
As the atmosphere builds and the family starts to fall apart (read: accuse each other of being witches), a patient viewer will be swept away into one of the most satisfying endings ever. It’s so bleak that it received an endorsement from the actual Satanic Temple, that’s all I’m saying.
14. THE BABADOOK
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Have you noticed how children are kinda automatically scary, no matter what they’re doing or saying? Like, they could just look over at you and whisper, “I wish I had some pizza,” and you’d be like, “AAAH! STOP!”
The Babadook, which relies heavily on the “kids are creepy” feeling, centers on a recently widowed mother of a 6-year-old son who—after reading a pop-up book about a top-hat-wearing ghoul named Mister Babadook—spends the rest of the movie screaming bloody murder and attempting to convince his mom that the Babadook is real.
15. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
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Every moment of Paranormal Activity plays upon the viewer’s ultimate fears: (1) people staring at you while you sleep, (2) the person you’re romantically tied to being secretly evil, and (3) actual ghosts in your actual house. Filmed in such a way as to make it seem like a real home movie, Paranormal Activity is expertly paced and leaves you dreading the nighttime scenes—for obvious reasons. I’ve personally never watched the last few minutes because I keep hearing that they’ll ruin my life.
16. THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE
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Another exorcism movie that’s supposedly based on a true story, this one stars Jennifer Carpenter as Emily Rose, a country girl who goes away to college and then becomes possessed by the devil. Ah yes, the dangers of going away to school and all that, eh?
The inspiration for the film came from the story of Anneliese Michel, an allegedly possessed woman who died from starvation after a series of unsuccessful exorcism attempts in 1976. Jennifer’s ability to contort her body as her character falls more and more under the spell of evil forces is so mesmerizing and disturbing that it should have won an award.
17. THE VISIT
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People tried to say this wasn’t scary both before and after it came out because it’s only rated PG-13. Those people are delusional.
Regardless of the film’s rating, The Visit depicts one of the grossest, scariest takes on “creepy grandparents” to spring forth from a writer’s twisted mind. Naturally, said writer is M. Night Shyamalan.
18. THE RING
Some people prefer the original Japanese version of this film to the 2002 remake, so if you have time, watch both. If you don’t, start here. Added incentive: Naomi Watts stars!
This movie (along with several others from the early 2000s) marked a transition from slasher and monster films to a more psychological approach that relies on suspense and anticipation over in-your-face jump-scares. As anyone who’s seen Samara crawling out of that TV knows, the visuals in this tale of a cursed videotape are haunting beyond belief.
19. IT FOLLOWS
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The primary bummer about It Follows is that the main events are set off by a young woman having sex—but the female lead is strong enough that the movie gets a pass for an otherwise nonfeminist “girls having sex leads to evil” plot. There are a lot of legitimate scares in It Follows that catch you by surprise but are still very subtle, which makes the film feel refreshing, fun, and horrifying at the same time.
20. 28 DAYS LATER
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Zombie movies have pretty much been the same, give or take a few details, since Night of the Living Dead came out in 1968: Slow-moving zombies, arms outstretched, making “urrrgh, arrrgh” noises while they lumber toward you in hopes that you’ll trip over a bush so they can casually lean down and eat your brains. 28 Days Later comes at the genre in a new way by making the zombies fast and using an atmospheric soundtrack to really drive home the overall feeling of unease.
21. THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE
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Inspired by the horrific true story of Ed Gein, a Wisconsin serial killer who murdered people and made furniture and clothing out of their flesh, this is one of the creepiest classics there is.
Even if you’ve already seen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 25 times, it’s worth watching at least once a year because it never gets old. And even though Leatherface hacks up teenagers with a chainsaw and wears a mask made out of skin, you can’t help kind of rooting for him. We’ve all had bad days!
22. THE SHINING
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Jack Nicholson’s face is made of nightmares. Like, you know those rides they have at amusement parks where animatronic people come to life as you pass by and say something weird to you? Those things are him. The good news? Jack’s performance in Stanley Kubrick’s reimagining of the classic Stephen King novel is so beyond memorable that it’s definitely iconic.
23. HELLRAISER
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A favorite of goths due to its heavy reliance on evil, pain, gallows humor, and metal body adornments, this movie is most certainly a night ruiner.
The plot focuses on a character named Pinhead, who got his name because...of the pins stuck in his face and head. Make sense? If you like gore and just about every other disgusting and grim thing you can dream up in your worst nightmares, then here you go.
24. HALLOWEEN
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Director and composer John Carpenter’s use of sound and tension plus OG scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis’s outstanding performance makes Halloween a no-brainer for this list—even as you come to the hopeless realization that yes, she’s going to go investigate what that noise is, and yes, she’s going to fall while running, and yes, Michael Myers is gonna pop out with his creepy mask-face when you least expect it.
25. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
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One of the most “WTF” movies ever made, this truly blew minds when it came out in 1991 (and won five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Actor).
The combination of Anthony Hopkins as the seductively grotesque Hannibal Lecter, Jodie Foster as the take-nary-a-sh*t Clarice Starling, and some lotion in a basket makes this a highly enjoyable roller coaster of freak-outs. Based on the popular novel by Thomas Harris, it’s truly one of the best psychological thrillers ever. Seriously!
26. BLACK SWAN
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This is another one of those movies that people insist on saying isn’t scary but is, in actuality, one of the most terrifying films ever.
It’s got a creepy, overbearing mom, an accidental masturbation session in front of said mom, finger skin that peels off, and Natalie Portman going completely mental in the best possible way. In other words, it’s got it all! Darren Aronofsky directed, and since he’s also responsible for such soul-crushing hits as Requiem for a Dream, it makes sense that Black Swan has a similar “I want to die now” effect on viewers.
27. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT
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Released in 1999, this movie was one of the first to use the now-common technique of framing a scripted film as found footage. [Editor’s note: When I saw this movie in seventh grade, I was so convinced it was a documentary that I had nightmares for weeks.] A group of friends take off into the woods to document the myth of a witch who kills people, and sh*t devolves from there. Initial reviews claimed that people were literally passing out in movie theaters from fear, which I totally believe, TBH.
Also interesting to note: The actors who starred in this film have since had difficulty advancing their careers because people think they’re still missing or dead in the woods somewhere—no, seriously.
28. CANDYMAN
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Okay, all I remember about this one is that I’m pretty sure someone gets hacked up in a porta potty. Which is horrifying in more ways than one!
Produced by Clive Barker, who’s also responsible for the Hellraiser franchise, Candyman tackles the fears of a graduate student writing a paper on urban legends, which, naturally, leads him down a path of pure terror and blood. And, I think, the previously mentioned porta potty.
29. ROSEMARY’S BABY
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The beauty of this classic is in what it doesn’t show. Mia Farrow stars as an almost comically neurotic expectant mother who, unbeknownst to her, shares an NYC apartment building with satanists. From the beginning until the moment the credits roll, you’re pulled along a dark thread in anticipation of seeing one thing, which is the one thing the movie never shows you. Sometimes it’s nice not to be hit over the head with every element, you know?
30. JAWS
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Up until this point, this list has stuck pretty close to the tropes of creepy ghosts and scary murderers, but if you’re trying to give yourself a proper horror-movie education (that’s why you’re here, right?), then you need to see Jaws. Sharks are real and they would actually eat you if given the chance. You can’t just sage away a shark like you can a ghost!
Even if you’ve never watched Jaws, you know the score by heart, and if any of your friends decide to put it on during a pool party, you’ll flip out, even though you know rationally that sharks don’t like chlorine. And they can’t fit through the pool filter! It doesn’t matter!
31. POLTERGEIST
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A lot of people don’t have televisions anymore, so there’s a good chance some of you reading this are unfamiliar with the static that fills up your TV screen when it’s not picking up a channel clearly. Let me tell you: There is nothing more terrifying.
This movie, about a family experiencing heavy ghost activity in their home, could very well have had a hand in people abandoning their TVs in favor of static-free laptops, phones, and tablets. (JK, Netflix probably had something to do with it....) That static screen buzzing at you, telling you to do things, filling your house with ghost vibes...um, no thanks!
32. CARRIE
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Yet another classic based on a Stephen King novel, this movie tells the story of Carrie White, a small-town girl cooped up in a house with her religious nut of a mother.
As the anxieties of high school life build, Carrie comes to find that she has, uh, special powers. Think about it: This is the ultimate teen girl revenge movie. Who hasn’t fantasized about telekinetically throwing things at people who made fun of your period stains in high school?
33. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
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Sometimes when you’re young, the desperate need for a best friend outweighs the fact that the friend in question is actually a vampire who keeps themselves alive (and immortal) by killing people and drinking their blood. Good friends are hard to come by, so I’d personally take a loyal vampire over a fair-weather loser any day.
34. SEVEN
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Very little can be said about this without giving away one of the best movie endings ever, but suffice it to say that Brad Pitt stars as a homicide detective investigating a serial killer who models each murder after one of the seven deadly sins. To say any more would be to let the head out of the box.
35. CHILDREN OF THE CORN
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Has that thing ever happened to you where you go on a road trip and stop for gas and realize that if you stray too many miles off the beaten path, people start looking at you like you’re from the moon? Those instances always remind me of this movie. Venture too far into the wilderness and it’s all just Children of the Corn territory.
36. ERASERHEAD
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This isn’t really intended to be a scary movie, but the slow build of never-ending unease that’s the signature of all David Lynch films makes it one. This movie is an abstract take on family life featuring a baby that looks like a shrimp you dropped and then forgot to pick up. Just watch it and go along for the ride.
37. GET OUT
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Jordan Peele’s wildly successful directorial debut isn’t so much scary as it is highly unsettling, disturbing, and steeped in some horrifying truths about racism in America.
The movie follows an interracial couple, Chris and Rose, on a trip to her parents’ house. It quickly becomes clear to Chris that something is off about the family and their friends. What he doesn’t know yet is that he’s being auctioned off to the neighborhood white people, and his allies are not who they seem.
38. PET SEMATARY
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Based on the eponymous novel by Stephen King, this movie offers a buffet of nightmares. There’s the friendly ghost Victor Pascow; a back-from-the-dead, scalpel-wielding toddler; and a back-from-the-dead, mutilated wife. Note to self: If you live near a graveyard that allows you to bring back the dead, just...don’t do it.
39. HUSH
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This Netflix Original had the potential to be bad—it’s about a deaf woman who lives alone in the woods and has to defend herself from a murderous home invader—but it was actually incredibly well done. It’s fast-paced and surprising, and it doesn’t patronize its protagonist. Also, it’s genuinely scary.
40. A QUIET PLACE
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Who knew shushing could be so terrifying?
A Quiet Place—starring IRL couple John Krasinski and Emily Blunt—introduces audiences to a post-apocalyptic world where the only means of survival is being really, really quiet (so that the super-sound-sensitive human-hunting monsters don’t hear you). If that doesn’t stress you out enough, there’s a crying baby involved.
41. US
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Jordan Peele’s newest horror movie lived up to the hype, and now I’m convinced my evil doppelgänger is lurking outside my house trying to kill me. The film stars Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, and Elisabeth Moss, and—while definitely a horror movie—Peele says its main theme is actually American privilege.
Just listen to this wisdom: “You know, the biggest disservice we can do as a faction with a collective privilege like the United States is to presume that we deserve it and that it isn’t luck that has us born where we’re born. For us to have our privilege, someone suffers. That’s where the Tethered connection, I think, resonates the most, is that those who suffer and those who prosper are two sides of the same coin. You can never forget that. We need to fight for the less fortunate.” YUP!
42. DON’T LOOK NOW
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Kay, so this movie has the longest and most ’70s un-simulated sex scene you’ve ever seen, and that’s not even the scariest part.
Don’t Look Now—starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie—is about a couple in Venice that’s haunted/stalked by a tiny child demon in a raincoat, and honestly, both the pubic-hair situation and the sheer horror of the plot will shake you. FYI, the movie’s famous sex scene was hugely controversial at the time—in part because it featured a man going down on a woman. Sarcastic gasp.
43. IT
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It fully ruined everyone’s childhoods by introducing the world to Pennywise, a deranged clown who eats children faster than I eat pizza Bagel Bites. The original is solid, but if you’re in the mood to scream hysterically, the reboot starring Bill Skarsgård is what you need in life.
That said, I think we can all agree that the scariest part about watching It is realizing you have a crush on Bill and spending the next few days worrying you’re attracted to clowns. Anyone?
44. THE CONJURING
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The best/worst part about The Conjuring? How much of it is true. Set in 1971, this movie introduces us to the Perrons, a large family that moves into a creepy Rhode Island farmhouse and gets all kinds of haunted. Real-life supernatural investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) roll in to get rid of the demonic presence lurking in the house, and it’s all extremely nope-nope-nope from there.
But how real is it? According to Lorraine, realer than real: “The things that went on there were just so incredibly frightening,” she told USA Today. “It still affects me to talk about it today.” Note to self: Never move to a farmhouse in Rhode Island.
45. BIRD BOX
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Bird Box is kinda like A Quiet Place, only instead of not being able to talk, people have to blindfold themselves in order to avoid spontaneously killing themselves. This movie had the entire internet freaked out to the point where I couldn’t even log in to Twitter without having a Bird Box–related panic attack.
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