What makes a movie scary?
Is it the movie that stays with you for years after (I’m looking at you, “Children of the Corn”) or is it the movie that keeps you awake — for days.
Love them or hate them, they are a beloved genre of movies that are here to stay. And if you are looking for truly scary, then let’s take you on a journey to the scariest, most frightful and chilling movies — of all time (scary laugh!!!).
Prepare to have sleepless nights as you cross off your list one by one…
50.The Conjuring (2013)
- IMDB Rating: 7.5 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 7.4 / 10
- Classic line: “When the music stops, you’ll see him in the mirror standing behind you.”
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorised by a dark presence in their farmhouse.
49. The Babadook (2014)
- IMDB Rating: 6.9 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 8.3 / 10
- Classic Line: “Ba-ba-ba… dook, Dook… DOOOOOOOOK!”
A single mother and her son are plagued by the violent death of her husband. Her son has a fear that there is a monster in the house… and there is!
48. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
- IMDB Rating: 7.4 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 6.7 / 10
- Classic line: “When there is no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth.”
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.
47. The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
- IMDB Rating: 6.5 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes:5.5 / 10
- Classic Line: “Are they trying to warn me”
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.
46. The Evil Dead II (1987)
- IMDB Rating: 7.8 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes:8 / 10
- Classic Line: “That’s right… who’s laughing now? Who’s laughing now?”
The lone survivor of an onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits holds up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack.
45. Paranormal Activity (2007)
- IMDB Rating: 6.3 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes:7 / 10
- Classic Line: “I feel it. I feel it breathing on me.”
After moving into a suburban home, a couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence.
44. The People Under the Stairs (1991)
- IMDB Rating: 6.3 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 5.7 / 10
- Classic Line: “She’s been feeding that thing between the walls again.”
Two adults and a juvenile burglar break into a house occupied by a brother and sister and their stolen children and can’t escape.
43. Signs(2002)
- IMDB Rating: 6.7 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes:6.8 / 10
- Classic Line: “Swing away, Merrill.”
A family living on a farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields which suggest something more frightening to come.
42. The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
- IMDB Rating: 7.0 / 10
- Rottent Tomatoes: 7.9 / 10
- Classic line:”We are not who we are.”
Five friends go for a break at a remote cabin in the woods, where they get more than they bargained for. Together, they must discover the truth behind the cabin in the woods.
41. The Omen (1976)
- IMDB Rating: 7.6 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes:7.1 / 10
- Classic Line: “Look at me, Damien! It’s all for you!”
Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist The Devil’s own son.
40. 28 Days Later (2002)
- IMDB Rating: 7.6 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes:7.4 / 10
- Classic Line: “Plans are pointless. Staying alive’s as good as it gets.”
Perhaps the best zombie movie ever made. This movie keeps you on the end of your seat the whole time. They create the end of world apocalypse just perfectly.
39. The Sixth Sense (1999)
- IMDB Rating: 8.2/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 7.6 / 10
- Classic Line: “I see dead people.”
A boy who communicates with spirits that don’t know they’re dead seeks the help of a disheartened child psychologist.
38. Hellraiser (1987)
- IMDB Rating: 5.9 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 7.1/ 10
- Classic Line: “We’ll tear your soul apart!
An unfaithful wife encounters the zombie of her dead lover; demons are pursuing him after he escaped their sadomasochistic underworld.
37. Pet Sematary (1989)
- IMDB Rating: 6.6/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 5.2 / 10
- Classic Line: “Sometimes dead is better”
Behind a young family’s home in Maine is a terrible secret that holds the power of life after death. When tragedy strikes, the threat of that power soon becomes undeniable.
36. Friday the 13th (1980)
- IMDB Rating: 6.5/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 5.5 / 10
- Classic Line: “Look what you did to him – look what you did to him!”
A group of camp counselors is stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp which, years before, was the site of a child’s drowning.
35. 1408 (1997)
- IMDB Rating: 6.8/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 6.6 / 10
- Classic Line: “Hotel rooms are a naturally creepy place, don’t you think?”
A man who specialises in debunking paranormal occurrences checks into the fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel. Soon after settling in, he confronts genuine terror.
34. It Follows (2014)
- IMDB Rating: 6.9/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 8.2 / 10
- Classic line: “It could look like someone you know or it could be a stranger in a crowd. Whatever helps it get close to you.”
A young woman is followed by an unknown supernatural force after getting involved in a sexual encounter.
33. Deliverance (1972)
- IMDB Rating: 7.8/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 8.5 / 10
- Classic Line: “Squeal like a pig! Wheeeeee!”
Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it’s turned into one huge lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a river-rafting trip they’ll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.
32. Saw (2004)
- IMDB Rating: 7.7/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 5.5 / 10
- Classic Line: “Live or die, make your choice.”
Two men awaken in the secure lair of a killer who forces them to play a deadly game that will determine life or death.
31. Psycho(1960)
- IMDB Rating: 8.6/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 9.2 / 10
- Classic Line: “She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes.”
A Phoenix secretary steals $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.
30. Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- IMDB Rating: 8.6/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 8.5 / 10
- Classic Line: “It puts the lotion on its skin.”
A young F.B.I. cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims.
29. The Shining (1980)
- IMDB Rating: 8.4/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 8.5 / 10
- Classic Line: “All work an no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.
28. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
- IMDB Rating: 7.5/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 7.9 / 10
- Classic Line: “Hit ‘er Grandpa, hit’er.”
Five friends visiting their grandfather’s house in the country are hunted and terrorised by a chainsaw-wielding killer and his family of grave-robbing cannibals.
27. Poltergeist (1982)
- IMDB Rating: 7.4/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 7.2 / 10
- Classic Line: “They’re heeeeeeeere.”
A family’s home is haunted by a host of ghosts.
26. The Exorcist (1973)
- IMDB Rating: 8.0/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 8.1 / 10
- Classic Line: “The power of Christ compels you!”
When a teenage girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.
25. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
- IMDB Rating: 8.0/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 8.1 / 10
- Classic line: “I’m afraid to close my eyes, I’m afraid to open them.”
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.
24. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
- IMDB Rating: 8.0/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 8.8 / 10
- Classic line: “They use blood in their rituals, and the blood with the most power is baby’s blood!”
A young couple move into a new apartment, only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbours and occurrences. When the wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of her unborn child begins controlling her life.
23. Sinister (2012)
- IMDB Rating: 6.8/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 6.2 / 10
- Classic line: “Don’t worry Daddy, I’ll make you famous again”
A true crime writer finds a cache of 8mm home movies that suggest the murder he is currently researching is the work of a serial killer whose career dates back to the 1960s.
22. The Others (2001)
- IMDB Rating: 7.6/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 7.2 / 10
- Classic line: “Sometimes the world of the living gets mixed up with the world of the dead.”
A woman who lives in a darkened old house with her two photosensitive children becomes convinced that her family home is haunted.
21. Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
- IMDB Rating: 7.5/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 6.5 / 10
- Classic line: “They weren’t human.”
Mourning his dead child, a haunted Vietnam war veteran attempts to discover his past while suffering from a severe case of dissociation. To do so, he must decipher reality and life from his own dreams, delusion, and perception of death.
20. What Lies Beneath (2000)
- IMDB Rating: 6.6/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 5.5 / 10
- Classic line: “I didn’t kill my wife.”
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.
19. Ju-on (2002)
- IMDB Rating: 6.7/ 10
- Classic Line: “Eeeeeeeeeeeoooooooooow.”
A mysterious and vengeful spirit marks and pursues anybody who dares enter the house in which it resides.
18. Misery (1990)
- IMDB Rating: 7.8/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 7.5 / 10
- Classic line: “I am your number one fan.”
Paul Sheldon, a successful novelist, is rescued after a snow storm by his “Number One Fan” and must rewrite his latest novel to her liking in order to stay alive.
17. It (1990)
- IMDB Rating: 6.9/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 5.5 / 10
- Classic line: “What if it’s just some crazy guy in a clown suit?”
In 1960, seven outcast kids known as “The Loser Club” fight an evil demon who poses as a child-killing clown. Thirty years later, they are called back to fight the same clown again.
16. Alien (1979)
- IMDB Rating: 8.5/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 9 / 10
- Classic Line: “I admire its purity. A survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.”
The commercial vessel Nostromo receives a distress call from an unexplored planet. After searching for survivors, the crew heads home only to realise that a deadly bioform has joined them.
15. The Grudge (2004)
- IMDB Rating: 5.9/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 5.1 / 10
- Classic line: “Actually the face of that child is like a real ghost”
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.
14. The House of the Devil (2009)
- IMDB Rating: 6.4/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 7.1 / 10
- Classic line: “This one night changes everything for me.”
College student Samantha Hughes takes a strange babysitting job that coincides with a full lunar eclipse. She slowly realises her clients harbour a terrifying secret.
13. Hide and Seek (2005)
- IMDB Rating: 5.9/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 3.8 / 10
- Classic line: “Come out, come out wherever you are…”
As a widower tries to piece together his life in the wake of his wife’s suicide, his daughter finds solace — at first — in her imaginary friend.
12. The Last House on the Left (2009)
- IMDB Rating: 6.6/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 4.9 / 10
- Classic line: “We don’t wanna off someone first night out. I mean, it’d be a shame to get this floor all messed up with blood.”
After kidnapping and brutally assaulting two young women, a gang unknowingly finds refuge at a vacation home belonging to the parents of one of the victims: a mother and father who devise an increasingly gruesome series of revenge tactics.
11. The Ring (2002)
- IMDB Rating: 7.1/ 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 6.6 / 10
- Classic Line: “Before you die, you see the ring…”
A journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone in a week of viewing it.
10. Jaws (1975)
- IMDB Rating: 8.1 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 9.1 / 10
- Classic Line: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
When a gigantic great white shark begins to menace the small island community of Amity, a police chief, a marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to stop it.
9. The Vanishing (1988)
- IMDB Rating: 7.8 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 8.4 / 10
- Classic line: “I don’t need a gun. Your obsession is my weapon.”
Rex and Saskia, a young couple in love, are on vacation. They stop at a busy service station and Saskia is abducted. After three years and no sign of Saskia, Rex begins receiving letters from the abductor.
8. Wolf Creek (2005)
- IMDB Rating: 6.3 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 5.6 / 10
- Classic line: “Hey! Like your little mate said before, you know? That’s not a knife. *This* is a knife.”
Stranded backpackers in remote Australia fall prey to a murderous bushman who offers to fix their car, then takes them captive.
7. Carrie (1976)
- IMDB Rating: 7.4 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 8.4 / 10
- Classic line: “There are other people like me who can do what I can do.”
A young, abused and timid 17-year-old girl discovers she has telekinesis, and gets pushed to the limit on the night of her school’s prom by a humiliating prank.
6. Children of the Corn (1984)
- IMDB Rating: 5.6 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 4.1 / 10
- Classic line: “Any religion without love and compassion is false! It’s a lie!”
A young couple is trapped in a remote town where a dangerous religious cult of children believe everyone over the age of 18 must be killed.
5. Cujo (1983)
- IMDB Rating: 6.0 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 5.5 / 10
- Classic Line: “Don’t worry ’bout it m’aam. Cujo won’t hurt him.”
Frightened of dogs Not a good idea to watch this one. Based on the Stephen King book of the same name, it is about a family dog that contracts rabies and goes on a killing spree.
4. When a Stranger Calls (1979)
- IMDB Rating: 6.6 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 5.1 / 10
- Classic line: “Have you checked the children?”
A psychopathic killer terrorises a babysitter, then returns seven years later to menace her again.
3. Halloween (1978)
- IMDB Rating: 7.9 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 8.5 / 10
- Classic line: “It’s Halloween, everyone’s entitled to one good scare.”
On Halloween night of 1963, six-year-old Michael Myers stabbed his sister to death. After sitting in a mental hospital for 15 years, Myers escapes and returns to Haddonfield to kill.
2. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
- IMDB Rating: 7.5 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 7.7 / 10
- Classic Line: “Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep!”
Several people are hunted by a cruel serial killer who kills his victims in their dreams. When the survivors are trying to find the reason for being chosen, the murderer won’t lose any chance to kill them as soon as they fall asleep.
1. The Descent (2005)
- IMDB Rating: 7.2 / 10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 7.3 / 10
- Classic Line: “Hey, there’s something down here.”
A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.
What’s the scariest horror movie of all time for you?
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