My Top 25 Scariest Horror Movies

by renhudspizza | created - 29 Sep 2017 | updated - 29 Sep 2017 | Public
 Refine See titles to watch instantly, titles you haven't rated, etc
  • Instant Watch Options
  • Genres
  • Movies or TV
  • IMDb Rating
  • In Theaters
  • Release Year
  • Keywords





IMDb user rating (average) to
Number of votes to »




Reset
Release year or range to »




































































































1. The Exorcist (1973)

R | 122 min | Horror

83 Metascore

When a young girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.

Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, Lee J. Cobb

Votes: 455,341 | Gross: $232.91M

2. The Omen (1976)

R | 111 min | Horror, Mystery

62 Metascore

Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil's own son?

Director: Richard Donner | Stars: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Stephens, David Warner

Votes: 132,750 | Gross: $4.27M

3. Trilogy of Terror (1975 TV Movie)

Unrated | 72 min | Horror, Thriller

Three bizarre horror stories, all of which star Karen Black in four different roles playing four tormented women.

Director: Dan Curtis | Stars: Robert Burton, John Karlen, George Gaynes, Jim Storm

Votes: 8,730

4. It's Alive (1974)

PG | 91 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

72 Metascore

The Davises are expecting a baby, which turns out to be a monster with a nasty habit of killing people whenever it is scared. And it is easily scared.

Director: Larry Cohen | Stars: John P. Ryan, Sharon Farrell, Andrew Duggan, Guy Stockwell

Votes: 8,982

5. The Amityville Horror (1979)

R | 117 min | Horror

28 Metascore

Newlyweds and their three children move into a large house where a mass murder was committed. They start to experience strange, inexplicable manifestations which have strong effects on everyone living in or visiting the house.

Director: Stuart Rosenberg | Stars: James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Don Stroud

Votes: 44,623 | Gross: $86.43M

6. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

R | 83 min | Horror

90 Metascore

Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.

Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain

Votes: 183,843 | Gross: $30.86M

7. Friday the 13th (1980)

R | 95 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

22 Metascore

A group of teenage camp counselors attempt to re-open an abandoned summer camp with a tragic past, but they are stalked by a mysterious, relentless killer.

Director: Sean S. Cunningham | Stars: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan

Votes: 157,571 | Gross: $39.75M

8. Alien (1979)

R | 117 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

89 Metascore

The crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright

Votes: 951,883 | Gross: $78.90M

9. Carrie (1976)

R | 98 min | Horror, Mystery

86 Metascore

Carrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother, unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by her classmates at her senior prom.

Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, John Travolta

Votes: 206,833 | Gross: $33.80M

10. Phantasm (1979)

R | 89 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

72 Metascore

A teenage boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber, known only as the Tall Man, who employs a lethal arsenal of unearthly weapons.

Director: Don Coscarelli | Stars: A. Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Reggie Bannister, Kathy Lester

Votes: 41,300 | Gross: $11.99M

11. The Legend of Hell House (1973)

PG | 95 min | Horror

56 Metascore

A physicist, his wife and two mediums are hired to investigate the Belasco House, where 27 guests had inexplicably died in 1927, along with most of a team of paranormal investigators that was sent in the early 1950s.

Director: John Hough | Stars: Roddy McDowall, Gayle Hunnicutt, Pamela Franklin, Clive Revill

Votes: 14,045

12. Halloween (1978)

R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller

90 Metascore

Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.

Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran, Nancy Kyes

Votes: 306,996 | Gross: $47.00M

13. Psycho (1960)

R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

97 Metascore

A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin

Votes: 718,870 | Gross: $32.00M

14. Prince of Darkness (1987)

R | 102 min | Horror

50 Metascore

A group of graduate students and scientists uncover an ancient canister in an abandoned church, but when they open the container, they inadvertently unleash a strange liquid and an evil force on all humanity.

Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Lisa Blount, Jameson Parker, Victor Wong

Votes: 50,009 | Gross: $14.18M

15. The Shining (1980)

R | 146 min | Drama, Horror

68 Metascore

A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers

Votes: 1,107,695 | Gross: $44.02M

16. Grizzly (1976)

PG | 91 min | Adventure, Horror, Thriller

25 Metascore

An eighteen-foot-tall grizzly bear terrorizes a state park, leaving it up to a Park Ranger to save the day.

Director: William Girdler | Stars: Christopher George, Andrew Prine, Richard Jaeckel, Joan McCall

Votes: 5,960

17. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

R | 81 min | Horror, Mystery

80 Metascore

Three film students vanish after traveling into a Maryland forest to film a documentary on the local Blair Witch legend, leaving only their footage behind.

Directors: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez | Stars: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard, Bob Griffin

Votes: 285,853 | Gross: $140.54M

18. The Fog (1980)

R | 89 min | Horror, Thriller

55 Metascore

An unearthly fog rolls into a small coastal town exactly 100 years after a ship mysteriously sank in its waters.

Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh, John Houseman

Votes: 83,065 | Gross: $21.38M

19. The Fury (1978)

R | 118 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

64 Metascore

A former CIA agent uses the talents of a young psychic to help retrieve his telekinetic son from a shadowy secret government agency.

Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress, Charles Durning

Votes: 17,338

20. Sinister (I) (2012)

R | 110 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

53 Metascore

A controversial true-crime writer finds a box of Super 8 home movies in his new home, revealing that the murder case he is currently researching could be the work of an unknown serial killer whose legacy dates back to the 1960s.

Director: Scott Derrickson | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, James Ransone, Fred Thompson

Votes: 280,512 | Gross: $48.09M

21. Paranormal Activity (2007)

R | 86 min | Horror, Mystery

68 Metascore

After moving into a suburban home, a couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence.

Director: Oren Peli | Stars: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs, Amber Armstrong

Votes: 256,344 | Gross: $107.92M

22. Crowhaven Farm (1970 TV Movie)

Not Rated | 74 min | Drama, Horror

A young couple inherits a farm. Hoping that the rural location might help to patch up their strained marriage, they move into it, only to be confronted by the supernatural forces that inhabit it.

Director: Walter Grauman | Stars: Hope Lange, Paul Burke, Lloyd Bochner, John Carradine

Votes: 1,020

23. Black Christmas (1974)

R | 98 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

65 Metascore

During their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger.

Director: Bob Clark | Stars: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon

Votes: 48,387 | Gross: $4.05M

24. The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

Not Rated | 80 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery

78 Metascore

In the sixteenth century, Francis Barnard travels to Spain to clarify the strange circumstances of his sister's death after she had married the son of a cruel Spanish Inquisitor.

Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr, Luana Anders

Votes: 16,407 | Gross: $4.36M

25. Race with the Devil (1975)

PG | 88 min | Action, Horror, Thriller

53 Metascore

Two couples vacationing together in an R.V. from Texas to Colorado are terrorized after they witness a murder during a Satanic ritual.

Director: Jack Starrett | Stars: Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Loretta Swit, Lara Parker

Votes: 7,340 | Gross: $12.64M



Recently Viewed