Things can be pretty scary with everything happening in the world, and we’re all looking for some sort of distraction to get our minds off it, even just for a little while. Instead of doomscrolling social media, why not get scared about something outrageous as opposed to something all too real?
Horror movies aren’t simple, escapist fare, though. In fact, they are pretty inscrutable: Character motivations rarely make much sense, and what are those monsters even doing anyway? What media scholars call “intertextuality” — how works of art refer to other works of art to give them meaning in specific contexts — is important for understanding horror, in that some of these movies simply don’t make sense unless you’ve seen the ones that came before them.
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If that’s the case: What are the movies you have to watch for more modern films to be legible? We’ve put together a list of best classic horror movies ever made and justifications for their cultural relevance. Get ready to scream.
The Shining (1980)
66%
8.4/10
144m
Genre
Horror, Thriller
Stars
Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
Directed by
Stanley Kubrick
Watch on Amazon
Even if you haven’t seen The Shining, chances are you’ve seen much of The Shining in spoofs, gifs, images, homages, and parodies. The legendary cinematography of Kubrick’s 1980 masterpiece has gone on to influence almost all modern horror and the art of film writ large. Telling the story of a family tortured by angry spirits in a massive, abandoned hotel, Kubrick creates a menacing atmosphere that feels almost apocalyptic in scale and scope. Although Stephen King (the ubiquitous author who wrote the book on which the movie is based) despised this specific interpretation of his work, it’s clearly one of the few cases of an adaptation far outshining its source material.
I Spit on Your Grave (2010)
27%
6.2/10
108m
Genre
Thriller, Crime, Horror
Stars
Sarah Butler, Jeff Branson, Tracey Walter
Directed by
Steven R. Monroe
Watch on Amazon
Perhaps one of the grisliest movies ever made, it’s almost wrong to categorize I Spit On Your Grave as horror — although it’s totally fictional, there’s something so deeply dirty and disturbing about its contents that it would almost be better understood as a kind of snuff film. Ostensibly about a violated woman seeking retribution, the film sparked moral outrage for its hideous depiction of sex crimes upon its release in 1978. Roger Ebert simply described it as “a vile bag of garbage.” Nonetheless, I Spit On Your Grave wound up serving as a template for an entire subgenre later dubbed “rape-revenge” — and the movie’s stark cinematography remains a huge influence on contemporary TV ranging from Twin Peaks to Riverdale.
Halloween (1978)
87%
7.7/10
91m
Genre
Horror, Thriller
Stars
Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Kyes
Directed by
John Carpenter
Watch on Amazon
IAlthough it was far from the first entry in the “slasher” subgenre, Halloween is a sort of Ur-text for that style of cinema. When the deranged Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital, he embarks on a bloodthirsty romp, leaving a wake of teenage bodies behind him. Can the androgynous and virginal Laurie Strode survive his unending onslaught? Certainly, movies like Friday The 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street could have made their way onto this list, but Halloween is probably the purest example of the basic slasher formula that would later be endlessly copied throughout the ’80s and ’90s.
Audition (1999)
69%
7.1/10
115m
Genre
Horror, Drama
Stars
Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Jun Kunimura
Directed by
Takashi Miike
Watch on Amazon
The extent to which Japanese cinema — and director Takashi Miike, specifically — has gone on to shape almost every horror movie released in the past decade is deeply underemphasized in cinephilic circles. Although often dismissed as “torture porn,” Miike’s thoroughly disturbing masterpiece, Audition, functions as a tortuous and melancholic psychodrama and a subtle feminist critique of gendered expectations in the East. Not for the squeamish.
Suspiria (1977)
79%
7.3/10
99m
Genre
Horror
Stars
Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci
Directed by
Dario Argento
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Reinterpreted as an excellent and esoteric Holocaust parable in 2018, the original 1977 Giallo classic was a complete reimagining of what the horror genre could accomplish. Shot in a lushly neon color palette, the film’s enchanting vision of dark witchcraft has cast a spell on viewers for more than four decades. A gentle art nouveau aesthetic is juxtaposed sharply against the brutal violence endured by the movie’s protagonists.
Psycho (1960)
97%
8.5/10
109m
Genre
Horror, Drama, Thriller
Stars
Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles
Directed by
Alfred Hitchcock
Watch on Amazon
Widely considered one of the greatest movies of all time — horror or otherwise — Psycho spawned endless psychoanalytic criticism, which investigated the motifs of violence and gender confusion with Freudian verve. Film scholars have dissected this movie so thoroughly that frame-by-frame analysis of its most famous scenes is commonly taught to budding moviemakers in art schools around the world. Alfred Hitchcock’s minimalism and tightly wound terrors are a far cry from the bombastic and omnipresent jumpscares that appear in spooky movies these days, but there’s no way to argue that Psycho hasn’t served as something of a blueprint for almost every horror film that came after it.
Nosferatu (1922)
7.9/10
94m
Genre
Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Stars
Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder
Directed by
F.W. Murnau
Watch on Amazon
Dracula might get more name recognition, but Nosferatu really is film’s foremost vampire. This 1922 silent film, based on Stoker’s famous gothic novel, showcases the beauty of German expressionist cinema, with its chiaroscuro design and angular, brutalist scenery. The hyper-aestheticized visual world of Nosferatu would come to define the look of horror. Echoes of Nosferatu can be spotted throughout the works of auteurs like Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Guillermo del Toro, and many more.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
84m
Genre
Horror
Stars
Marilyn Burns, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain
Directed by
Tobe Hooper
Watch on Peacock
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre follows a group of friends on a road trip through rural Texas, turning an idyllic summer afternoon drive into a horrifying encounter with a bizarre and cannibalistic family. This one earns its status as a classic horror film because it helped pioneer the slasher genre, establishing several tropes that became staples. These include the “final girl” — a lone survivor, usually female, who exhibits resourcefulness and resilience in the face of overwhelming odds. Other things it pioneered are the masked killer and the use of power tools as weapons.
81%
8.1/10
The Exorcist is the standard by which the scariness of every movie that has come out since its 1973 release has been judged — and with good reason. The movie’s practical effects remain absolutely revolting and heart-wrenchingly grotesque to this day — and the human story beneath the puddle of pea soup is equally as compelling. This movie somehow remains so feared that some maintain the footage it was shot on is cursed.
The Exorcist (1973)
81%
8.1/10
122m
Genre
Horror, Thriller, Drama
Stars
Jason Miller, Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair
Directed by
William Friedkin
Watch on Amazon
Scream (1996)
65%
7.4/10
112m
Genre
Crime, Horror, Mystery
Stars
David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox
Directed by
Wes Craven
Watch on Amazon
Perhaps the greatest example of postmodern cinema ever made, Scream exploded the rules of horror by self-consciously deconstructing the tropes that had become so patently stale before its 1996 release. And despite it being over two decades old, the humor really holds up. As characters are killed off one by one, their snarky comments about final girls and sexual promiscuity remain bizarrely poignant. It’s astounding that the movie got blamed for inciting violence, considering it’s actually a rather obvious but thoroughly astute criticism of depictions of violence in cinema.
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
138m
Genre
Drama, Horror, Thriller
Stars
Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon
Directed by
Roman Polanski
Watch on Paramount+
One of the most evil movies ever made, Rosemary’s Baby tells the story of a young couple who move into a new apartment. When the woman finds out she’s pregnant, she begins to get incredibly ill and finds herself doted upon by kind but deeply strange neighbors. Things get more and more unsettling as she begins to suspect that something is being done to her without her knowledge, all leading to a final reveal that is better left unspoiled. Rosemary’s Baby may be more than 50 years old, but it’s still just as terrifying as any movie you might see today.
Evil Dead II (1987)
84m
Genre
Horror, Comedy, Fantasy
Stars
Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks
Directed by
Sam Raimi
Watch on Amazon
Director Sam Raimi almost single-handedly invented the kind of slapstick horror comedy that he perfected with Evil Dead, and he is still better at it than almost everyone else. Evil Dead II starts as a straightforward horror movie about a group of young people traveling to a cabin in the woods. From there, it quickly devolves into something that wouldn’t seem out of place in a Looney Tunes cartoon if it weren’t for the fact that there’s a lot of blood and dismemberment going on. Evil Dead II is wicked and wickedly funny, and you’ve probably never seen anything else quite like it.
