Spooky Movies
by holyspiritdriven | created - 19 Jan 2012 | updated - 3 months ago | PublicIt is really hard to find movies that are genuinely freaky. Most horror flicks rely on the "boo!" factor, silly monsters, gore and cliches to scare you. Only a few are truly creepy. To get on this a movie must: 1) Be subtle (showing the "monster" or whatever almost always makes the movie cheesy.) 2) Have a good eery soundtrack. 3) Introduce some new idea or concept that is unexpected. In other words not another "so & so was murdered here & wants his revenge in ghost form" movie. 4) Be realistic. The characters must be as scared as we are to be believable. The audience must feel like they are there to leave you with that creepy feeling even after you've left the theater.
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1. Paranormal Activity (2007)
R | 86 min | Horror, Mystery
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: 256,334 | Gross: $107.92M
2. Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
R | 91 min | Horror, Mystery
After experiencing what they think are a series of "break-ins", a family sets up security cameras around their home, only to realize that the events unfolding before them are more sinister than they seem.
Director: Tod Williams | Stars: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Molly Ephraim, David Bierend
Votes: 109,921 | Gross: $84.75M
3. The Exorcist (1973)
R | 122 min | Horror
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: 455,327 | Gross: $232.91M
4. 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: 197,308 | Gross: $26.67M
5. What Lies Beneath (2000)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
The wife of a university research scientist believes that her lakeside Vermont home is haunted by a ghost - or that she is losing her mind.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Katharine Towne, Miranda Otto
Votes: 135,804 | Gross: $155.46M
6. The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
PG-13 | 119 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A lawyer takes on a negligent homicide case involving a priest who performed an exorcism on a young girl.
Director: Scott Derrickson | Stars: Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Campbell Scott
Votes: 140,128 | Gross: $75.07M
7. The Grudge (2004)
PG-13 | 91 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
An American nurse living and working in Tokyo is exposed to a mysterious supernatural curse, one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their life and spreading to another victim.
Director: Takashi Shimizu | Stars: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, Clea DuVall, William Mapother
Votes: 150,915 | Gross: $110.36M
8. House (2008)
R | 88 min | Horror
In rural Alabama, two couples find themselves in a fight for survival. Running from a maniac (The Tin Man) bent on killing them, they flee deep into the woods and seek refuge in a house.
Director: Robby Henson | Stars: Reynaldo Rosales, Heidi Dippold, Michael Madsen, Julie Ann Emery
Votes: 6,114 | Gross: $0.57M
9. 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: 247,158 | Gross: $26.02M
10. Dark Water (2005)
PG-13 | 105 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A mother and daughter, still wounded from a bitter custody dispute, hole up in a run-down apartment building, where they are targeted by the ghost of a former resident.
Director: Walter Salles | Stars: Jennifer Connelly, Ariel Gade, John C. Reilly, Tim Roth
Votes: 65,401 | Gross: $25.47M
11. An American Haunting (2005)
PG-13 | 83 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
An invisible entity haunts a 19th century family, and family secrets soon begin to surface.
Director: Courtney Solomon | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Sissy Spacek, Rachel Hurd-Wood, James D'Arcy
Votes: 26,877 | Gross: $16.30M
12. The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)
PG-13 | 92 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
After a family is forced to relocate for their son's health, they begin experiencing supernatural behavior in their new home, and uncover a sinister history.
Director: Peter Cornwell | Stars: Virginia Madsen, Martin Donovan, Elias Koteas, Kyle Gallner
Votes: 65,176 | Gross: $55.39M
13. Dark Skies (2013)
PG-13 | 97 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
As the Barrett family's peaceful suburban life is rocked by an escalating series of disturbing events, they come to learn that a terrifying and deadly force is after them, one which may have arrived from beyond the stars.
Director: Scott Stewart | Stars: Keri Russell, Jake Brennan, Josh Hamilton, Dakota Goyo
Votes: 79,927 | Gross: $17.41M
14. It (I) (2017)
R | 135 min | Fantasy, Horror
In the summer of 1989, a group of bullied kids band together to destroy a shape-shifting monster, which disguises itself as a clown and preys on the children of Derry, their small Maine town.
Director: Andy Muschietti | Stars: Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Martell, Finn Wolfhard, Sophia Lillis
Votes: 606,831 | Gross: $327.48M
15. The Canal (2014)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A film archivist finds his sanity crumbling after he is given an old 16mm film reel with footage from a horrific murder that occurred in the early 1900's.
Director: Ivan Kavanagh | Stars: Rupert Evans, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Hannah Hoekstra, Kelly Byrne
Votes: 14,874
16. Mother! (2017)
R | 121 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.
Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer
Votes: 249,873 | Gross: $17.80M
17. Soul Survivors (2001)
PG-13 | 84 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A college student is caught between the world of the living and the dead.
Director: Stephen Carpenter | Stars: Melissa Sagemiller, Wes Bentley, Casey Affleck, Eliza Dushku
Votes: 9,637 | Gross: $3.10M
18. The Strangers (2008)
R | 86 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A young couple staying in an isolated vacation home are terrorized by three unknown assailants.
Director: Bryan Bertino | Stars: Scott Speedman, Liv Tyler, Gemma Ward, Alex Fisher
Votes: 143,780 | Gross: $52.60M
19. 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: 40,056
20. The Apparition (2012)
PG-13 | 82 min | Horror, Thriller
A couple is haunted by a supernatural presence that is unleashed during a college experiment.
Director: Todd Lincoln | Stars: Ashley Greene, Sebastian Stan, Tom Felton, Julianna Guill
Votes: 20,638 | Gross: $4.93M
21. 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: 24,747 | Gross: $21.38M
22. The Cell (2000)
R | 107 min | Crime, Horror, Sci-Fi
An F.B.I. Agent persuades a social worker, who is adept with a new experimental technology, to enter the mind of a comatose serial killer in order to learn where he has hidden his latest kidnap victim.
Director: Tarsem Singh | Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D'Onofrio, Colton James
Votes: 109,158 | Gross: $61.33M
23. Lavender (I) (2016)
Not Rated | 92 min | Adventure, Drama, Horror
After discovering old fractures in her skull, a photographer recovering from amnesia becomes increasingly haunted by a sinister childhood secret.
Director: Ed Gass-Donnelly | Stars: Dermot Mulroney, Abbie Cornish, Justin Long, Lola Flanery
Votes: 8,928
24. Nefarious (2023)
R | 97 min | Horror, Thriller
On the day of his scheduled execution, a convicted serial killer gets a psychiatric evaluation during which he claims he is a demon, and further claims that before their time is over, the psychiatrist will commit three murders of his own.
Directors: Chuck Konzelman, Cary Solomon | Stars: Sean Patrick Flanery, Jordan Belfi, Tom Ohmer, Glenn Beck
Votes: 27,179
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