Best Horror Movies
by blanketjones | created - 28 Aug 2011 | updated - 28 Aug 2011 | PublicBest horror movies, in my humble opinion. Not in any particular order.
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1. Alien (1979)
R | 117 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
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: 950,053 | Gross: $78.90M
2. The Thing (1982)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur
Votes: 466,417 | Gross: $13.78M
Don't go digging up stuff that's been buried in ice for 100,000 years. Or else there'll be trouble.
3. The Ring (2002)
PG-13 | 115 min | Horror, Mystery
A journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone one week to the day after they view it.
Director: Gore Verbinski | Stars: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox, David Dorfman
Votes: 374,899 | Gross: $129.13M
The whole plot angle with the videotape is dumb, but the movie otherwise is very well done.
4. The Descent (2005)
R | 99 min | Adventure, Horror, Thriller
A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.
Director: Neil Marshall | Stars: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder
Votes: 246,844 | Gross: $26.02M
Hobbits gone bad terrorize an all-women group of spelunkers.
5. White Noise (I) (2005)
PG-13 | 101 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
An architect's desire to speak with his wife from beyond the grave becomes an obsession with supernatural repercussions.
Director: Geoffrey Sax | Stars: Michael Keaton, Deborah Kara Unger, Ian McNeice, Chandra West
Votes: 50,789 | Gross: $56.39M
One of the best ghost story movies out there.
6. Ghost Ship (2002)
R | 91 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A salvage crew discovers a long-lost 1962 passenger ship floating lifeless in a remote region of the Bering Sea, and soon notices that its long-dead inhabitants may still be on board.
Director: Steve Beck | Stars: Julianna Margulies, Gabriel Byrne, Ron Eldard, Desmond Harrington
Votes: 108,986 | Gross: $30.11M
Derelict ships, ghosts - what more could you ask for?
7. The Sixth Sense (1999)
PG-13 | 107 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist, starts treating a young boy, Cole, who encounters dead people and convinces him to help them. In turn, Cole helps Malcolm reconcile with his estranged wife.
Director: M. Night Shyamalan | Stars: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, Olivia Williams
Votes: 1,050,958 | Gross: $293.51M
Not really horror, but a great ghost flick.
8. The Fog (1980)
R | 89 min | Horror, Thriller
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: 82,961 | Gross: $21.38M
Ghost pirates. Enough said. Kind of hokey but still entertaining.
9. The Mist (2007)
R | 126 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A freak storm unleashes a species of bloodthirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole up in a supermarket and fight for their lives.
Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher
Votes: 340,198 | Gross: $25.59M
Not to be confused with The Fog. Actually a better movie, in my opinion. Tragic ending.
10. Open Water (2003)
R | 79 min | Adventure, Drama, Horror
Based on the true story of two scuba divers accidentally stranded in shark infested waters after their tour boat has left.
Director: Chris Kentis | Stars: Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis, Saul Stein, Michael E. Williamson
Votes: 56,443 | Gross: $30.61M
Not really horror, but a good thriller.
11. Cujo (1983)
R | 93 min | Horror, Thriller
Cujo, a friendly St. Bernard, contracts rabies and conducts a reign of terror on a small American town.
Director: Lewis Teague | Stars: Dee Wallace, Daniel Hugh Kelly, Danny Pintauro, Christopher Stone
Votes: 50,950 | Gross: $21.20M
One of the few entertaining movies based on a Stephen King concept.
12. The Shining (1980)
R | 146 min | Drama, Horror
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: 1,106,121 | Gross: $44.02M
One of the best ghost stories out there.
13. Event Horizon (1997)
R | 96 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A rescue crew is tasked with investigating the mysterious reappearance of a spaceship that had been lost for seven years.
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson | Stars: Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson
Votes: 197,098 | Gross: $26.67M
Outer space; black holes; strange Latin messages (not translated very well); funky makeup.
14. The Ruins (2008)
R | 90 min | Adventure, Horror, Thriller
A leisurely Mexican holiday takes a turn for the worse when a group of friends and a fellow tourist embark on a remote archaeological dig in the jungle, where something evil lives among the ruins.
Director: Carter Smith | Stars: Shawn Ashmore, Jena Malone, Jonathan Tucker, Laura Ramsey
Votes: 84,236 | Gross: $17.43M
Watch out for the maneating plants.
15. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
R | 101 min | Action, Horror
A nurse, a policeman, a young married couple, a salesman and other survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a mega Midwestern shopping mall.
Director: Zack Snyder | Stars: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Mekhi Phifer, Jake Weber
Votes: 272,365 | Gross: $59.02M
Best part is the very end.
16. 28 Days Later (2002)
R | 113 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Alex Palmer
Votes: 445,457 | Gross: $45.06M
Animal rights activists unleash zombie apocalypse upon England.
17. The Changeling (1980)
R | 107 min | Horror, Mystery
After the death of his wife and daughter in a car crash, a music professor staying at a long-vacant Seattle mansion is dragged into a decades-old mystery by an inexplicable presence in the mansion's attic.
Director: Peter Medak | Stars: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas, Jean Marsh
Votes: 39,988
More cerebral than most horror movies. George C. Scott stars.
18. Quarantine (2008)
R | 89 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A television reporter and her cameraman are trapped inside a building quarantined by the CDC, after the outbreak of a mysterious virus which turns humans into bloodthirsty killers.
Director: John Erick Dowdle | Stars: Jennifer Carpenter, Steve Harris, Columbus Short, Jay Hernandez
Votes: 77,334 | Gross: $31.69M
19. The Devil's Backbone (2001)
R | 106 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
After Carlos - a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War - arrives at an ominous boys' orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which he must uncover.
Director: Guillermo del Toro | Stars: Marisa Paredes, Eduardo Noriega, Federico Luppi, Fernando Tielve
Votes: 70,992 | Gross: $0.75M
Compelling ghost story. Interesting background against the Spanish Civil War.
20. Psycho (1960)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
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: 718,050 | Gross: $32.00M
Classic, one of Hitchcock's best. Mindbender in its day.
21. The Amityville Horror (2005)
R | 90 min | Horror
Newlyweds are terrorized by demonic forces after moving into a large house that was the site of a grisly mass murder a year before.
Director: Andrew Douglas | Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Jimmy Bennett, Jesse James
Votes: 117,342 | Gross: $65.23M
Pretty scary, but cliched.
22. Jeepers Creepers (2001)
R | 90 min | Horror, Mystery
A brother and sister driving home through isolated countryside for spring break encounter a flesh-eating creature which is in the midst of its ritualistic eating spree.
Director: Victor Salva | Stars: Gina Philips, Justin Long, Jonathan Breck, Patricia Belcher
Votes: 142,517 | Gross: $37.90M
23. Triangle (2009)
R | 99 min | Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Five friends set sail and their yacht is overturned by a strange and sudden storm. A mysterious ship arrives to rescue them, and what happens next cannot be explained.
Director: Christopher Smith | Stars: Melissa George, Joshua McIvor, Jack Taylor, Michael Dorman
Votes: 129,728
Ships. Strange assailants. Time warps.
24. House on Haunted Hill (1999)
R | 93 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
An amusement park mogul offers a group of diverse people $1,000,000 to spend the night in a haunted house with a horrifying past.
Director: William Malone | Stars: Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher
Votes: 60,130 | Gross: $40.85M
Scary ghosts in abandoned insane asylum.
25. Deathwatch (2002)
R | 94 min | Drama, Horror, War
In the middle of World War I, nine British soldiers caught behind enemy lines seek refuge in a complex network of German trenches. What they soon discover is that they aren't alone - and it isn't a German soldier that's hunting them down.
Director: M.J. Bassett | Stars: Jamie Bell, Rúaidhrí Conroy, Mike Downey, Laurence Fox
Votes: 13,257
Scary German ghosts in WW1.
26. Outpost (2008)
R | 90 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
In war-torn Eastern Europe, a mysterious businessman hires a group of mercenaries on a routine mission to protect him not knowing of the long-hidden secret that lies there.
Director: Steve Barker | Stars: Ray Stevenson, Julian Wadham, Richard Brake, Paul Blair
Votes: 17,921
27. R-Point (2004)
R | 107 min | Action, Horror, War
During the Vietnam War, a South Korean base receives a radio transmission from a missing squad, presumed dead, and sends a platoon to rescue the lost squad from the R-Point.
Director: Su-chang Kong | Stars: Kam Woo-seong, Son Byung-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Park Won-sang
Votes: 5,830
Scary Korean film about ghosts terrorizing a ROK unit in Vietnam.
28. The Keep (1983)
R | 96 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Nazis are forced to turn to a Jewish historian for help in battling the ancient demon they have inadvertently freed from its prison.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Scott Glenn, Ian McKellen, Alberta Watson, Jürgen Prochnow
Votes: 14,292 | Gross: $3.76M
Before Michael Mann did The Last of the Mohicans, he did . . . The Keep
29. Identity (2003)
R | 90 min | Mystery, Thriller
Stranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rain storm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they're being killed off one by one.
Director: James Mangold | Stars: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, John Hawkes
Votes: 267,099 | Gross: $52.16M
More of a thriller/whodunit, but cool.
30. Pumpkinhead (1988)
R | 86 min | Fantasy, Horror
After a tragic accident, a man conjures up a towering, vengeful demon called Pumpkinhead to destroy a group of unsuspecting teenagers.
Director: Stan Winston | Stars: Lance Henriksen, Jeff East, John D'Aquino, Kimberly Ross
Votes: 27,812 | Gross: $4.39M
Scary, esp. if you were a kid in 1988
31. Wolf Creek (2005)
R | 99 min | Horror, Thriller
Three backpackers stranded in the Australian outback are plunged inside a hellish nightmare of insufferable torture by a sadistic psychopathic local.
Director: Greg McLean | Stars: Nathan Phillips, Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi, John Jarratt
Votes: 78,332 | Gross: $16.19M
Killer in the outback! And I'm not talking about a dingo!
32. Dead Snow (2009)
Not Rated | 91 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.
Director: Tommy Wirkola | Stars: Jeppe Beck Laursen, Charlotte Frogner, Jenny Skavlan, Geir Vegar Hoel
Votes: 70,000 | Gross: $0.04M
Norwegian teenagers still ghosts' gold. Then the ghosts come for it. More of a horror/comedy.
33. The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
PG-13 | 119 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A reporter is drawn to a small West Virginia town to investigate a series of strange events, including psychic visions and the appearance of bizarre entities.
Director: Mark Pellington | Stars: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, David Eigenberg, Bob Tracey
Votes: 84,770 | Gross: $35.75M
Creepy. What is the Mothman? Is he real? Is he dangerous or just trying to help? You be the judge.
34. The Wicker Man (1973)
R | 88 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A puritan police sergeant arrives in a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl, who the pagan locals claim never existed.
Director: Robin Hardy | Stars: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Britt Ekland
Votes: 92,230 | Gross: $0.06M
Weirdos team up on police officer from mainland searching for lost child.
35. Cold Creek Manor (2003)
R | 118 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A family relocates from the city to a dilapidated house in the country that was once a grand estate. As they begin renovations, they discover their new home harbors a secret and may not be completely free of its former inhabitant.
Director: Mike Figgis | Stars: Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone, Stephen Dorff, Juliette Lewis
Votes: 24,729 | Gross: $21.38M
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