Let's move this party to the family room and list the SCARIEST MOVIES OF ALL TIME.
I am the gore champ. I was seeing scary movies at age ten with my dad. Sure it looked a little odd taking your ten year old daughter to see THE FUNHOUSE, but hey, it's better than my mom and I going to see FLESH GORDON.
Drumroll please...
TOP TEN SCARIEST MOVIES OF ALL TIME:
10. Pyscho - Yes, it was scary, some say the scariest, but I am just too jaded to give it any higher than 10.
9. Nightmare on Elm Street - Good heavens did that give me nightmares, I can't even be in the same room with striped sweaters.
8. Trilogy of Terror - Karen Black, possessed dolls, witchcraft; my parents should be jailed for letting me watch this. I can't even BEGIN to tell you how freaking scared I was, still won't leave my feet hanging over the bed.
7. The Exorcist - All movies about possession are JUST FUCKING WRONG.
6. Friday The 13th - The first one I ever saw and kept me awake for about six months. The scene where Kevin Bacon gets it through the neck with an arrow - post-coital death - THAT IS JUST WRONG.
5. Halloween - Well this is just plain obvious - plus anything with Jamie Lee Curtis - mmmmmm...
4. The Shining - More possession and insane people - just the idea of it. Yikes.
3. Phantasm/Salem's Lot - Just creepy and gross - horror and sci-fi the best combination - they are tied.
2. Texas Chainsaw Massacre - More reasons to be afraid of Texas - terrorized teens, bloodthirsty hicks. Got To Love It.
1. Night Of The Living Dead - Being the eternal optimist that I am, this movie
removes all hope and is a testament in futility, everyone will be consumed by the living dead. Just horrific in every way. A CLASSIC - Forever.
Okay there is another movie and I can't remember the name of it, late 70s early 80s about a woman, single mom I think, living in California maybe, and she is visited upon by an invisible demon (that is what we are led to believe) some kind of possession shit. Supposed to be based an a true story. In the movie she is attacked, raped and just plain tortured by this thing - VERY FUCKING SCARY. I thought Karen Allen was in it - but I guess not. If anyone thinks of it - I will be in your debt. [turns out it was The Entity with Barbara Hershey]
Happy Halloween!
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Eric Lindholm
Please don't roll your eyes (hey!) but "The Blair Witch Project" scared the bejesus out of me. On the other hand, I also loved "The Bare Wench Project" so it all evens out.
2 - kenny
i have to disagree with your ratings although as a true horror film fanactic i love all the movies on your list but to not have the exorcist at #1 is just plain foolish, it was an still is the scariest most demented movies ever created with nothing but pure evil throughout .... i mean come on a 12 yr old girl stabbing her self in the private parts with a crusafix while screaming the words f**k me that scene alone defines how outrageous this film truly is especially when factor in this was pre 1980's ...... oh and i know norrowing the field down to ten is a hard thing to but i hope u gave ,hellraiser,candyman and a couple others some good consideration.... p.s i here house of a 1,000 corpses by rob zombie is gonna awsome and become a instant cult classic... well thats my 2 cents
3 - Scott
I have to disagree with your list as well. There should not be a top 10 list because there isn't even a number 1 scary movie. I watched The Ring last night and was extremely disappointed. Signs was a flop. The 6th sense was a good movie but not scary. Silence of the Lambs, ditto. I've watched most of the movies on your list and have yet in my life had any sort of nightmare based on the films, or at all for that matter. Make a movie that will give me nightmares and it will be the number 1 scariest movie on your list guaranteed. The movie makers are going about it all wrong, anyway. I'm going to see if I can get The Entity tonight.
4 - laurie
Must see The Clown House ,its truly the scariest movie yet,clowns scare me to death now
5 - jadester
unfortunately, i have not seen many of the films on your list. However, i question the leaving out of such classics as Jaws and Arachnophobia(sp?), both films that effectively incite fear of the "nasty" animal featured (spiders and sharks)
i know plenty of people that don't like to swim out of their depth in the sea, no matter where in the world they are, because of the possiblity of a shark attack (ingrained on their minds thanks to Jaws) - now that HAS to be an achievment. Then there's Alien - i suspect it would be doubly effective if you haven't seen any of the other films in the series and don't really know the story (unfortunately by the time i saw it i had seen Aliens, however it still has scary moments)
6 - Mark Spencer
I have seen all the movies in your top ten and none of them particularly scared me. The true most frightening film of all time (wait for it) . . . is Watership Down.
Yes, it's a cartoon kids film about rabbits, but when the Nazi rabbits start tearing off the innocent rabbits' ears in reprisals, or when the Evil Rabbit (cool Roots Manuva song also based on that theme) gets trapped in the slavering jaws of that enormous black dog - THAT, ladies and gents, that is true fear.
Since I saw it a decade ago I have barely had a good night's sleep.
And I'm being serious.
7 - brian
The scariest movie of all time is the Exorcist.
8 - sarah
your all wrong!! The Ring almost made me sh** my pants screaming so loud! i used to be an all time scary movie lover but ever since this blood curdling movie, ive been scared stiff.
9 - David smithinson
THE RING and THE EXORCIST are the scariest movies ever made
10 - Cindy Collins Smith
Okay, I've seen all but two of the movies on your list. I thought that FRIDAY THE 13TH and HALLOWEEN were pretty scary, but I didn't find NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET scary at all. It was a pretty good movie though.
NOLTD and CHAINSAW and PSYCHO are all awesome scare-fests. (BTW, if you don't think PSYCHO is all that scary, see it on the big screen without interruption. That's how I saw it on my third viewing of the film and it scared the crap out of me).
Anyway, I publish on horror movies in books, so needless to say I've been exposed to a much wider spectrum of horror than most horror fans have. That's not a brag. It's more like an invitation to check some of THESE out and see if you think they're scary or not...
The ORIGINAL film version of THE HAUNTING. No, not that stupid color movie from a few years ago. I'm talking about the b/w film from the early 60s. A lot of horror movie historians consider THIS to be the scariest horror movie ever made. BLAIR WITCH fans should love it, incidentally, since BLAIR WITCH is using similar psychological mechanisms to scare the audience. (Suggestion, psychological terror rather than directly showing what's happening).
THE BLACK CAT, produced by Val Lewton--the originator of the psychological terror film (which influenced THE HAUNTING, BLAIR WITCH and two of Shyamalan's films).
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Technically a science fiction movie, but it's a lot scarier than that. Another psychological terror film.
SUSPIRIA. Italian supernatural horror film. A lot of people find it VERY scary. It's very intense, whether you find it scary or not.
DEEP RED. An Italian giallo movie. Giallo films are the predecessors of the American slasher movies. This is a very good one.
BLOOD AND BLACK LACE. The first giallo movie. Made in the early 1960s. (Not as scary IMO as DEEP RED, but it will definitely show you where slashers came from).
The Italian movies, incidentally, are in brilliant, gorgeous color. The American movies mentioned above are all in b/w.
Oh, and btw, I saw THE EXORCIST when it first hit the theater (I was 16). It was scary, but I think ROSEMARY'S BABY is a MUCH MORE DISTURBING movie. You think NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD will mess with your eternal optimism? Check out ROSEMARY'S BABY. It's virtually the ULTIMATE movie about futility.
Also... check out DAWN OF THE DEAD (a.k.a. Zombies at the mall). It's very funny in its own perverse way (just as CHAINSAW is very funny), but it's even more pessimistic than NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. And it's also made by George Romero.
11 - Corey
Aren't you forgetting about Evil Dead that scared the hell out of me I stayed up for ten nights because of that.I know freddy vs jason is new but that movie was real good scary the part that really freaked me out was 1,2 freddy comin for you 3,4 you better lock your door and so on. I also disagree with your standings Freddy Jason or Phantasm BOY!!
12 - andy
what about army of darkness? haha! that movie was so funny it was scary!
13 - Sandra
The Hills Have Eyes gets my vote, seen all of the top ten but this one for me takes the cake.
14 - ScottM
Don't forget about THE CHANGELING. You can finally check it out on a decent DVD from HBO video. That's one creeeeeepy movie w/ a terrific performance from the immortal George C Scott.
15 - ScottM
...and the opening 30minutes of the original Jeepers Creepers!
16 - pauly
the thing i hate the most about horror films, and wut always makes them not scary is shitty monsters finally revealed at the end. movies that make u imagine and believe in your imagined monsters are the best, thats the beauty of BWP and those types of movies. horror movies dont have to have monsters either, if u want something to shock and scare, rent "SALO" and italian flick
17 - Chris Arabia
Three offbeat choices (more scary less horror):
Midnight Express was frightening, especially to those of us who have seen the business end of the rifles of troops in some crooked backwater.
Deliverance.
8mm--a lousy movie but that whole scene is a downer, man, a real downer.
18 - david
THE ULTIMATE TOP 5
THE EXORCIST
THE SHINING
THE CHANGELING
THE RING
ANYTHING WITH KEANU REEVES
19 - sam jacobs
I agree with the above. Two more lesser known ones not mentioned anywhere here, but worthy of checking out are: Burnt Offerings and Beyond the Door
20 - Phil
The ring almost made me pee my pants. My electric bill was high that month with all the lights I left on. I won't even watch the EXORCIST I like scary movies, but not that much :)
21 - Krishnan
Hi, how about Hitchcock's The Birds? It did leave me scared, and dreaming about them attacking me and my family for quite some days after! And to think I watched it on a 21-inch TV - what if it had been full-screen viewing? The sound effects are particularly brilliant!
22 - Phillip Winn
The Ring was a scary movie? Maybe for twelve-year-old girls at a slumber party!
Dawn, you list actually rocks pretty hard. I have seen every movie on the list, but the ones I've seen are pretty darned scary. THanks!
23 - The Theory
hey now, Phillip... don't go calling me a 12 year old girl. Ouch. My feelings are hurt.
24 - Phillip Winn
First you're scared by The Ring, and then your feeling are hurt because I mistook you for a little girl? Boy, you're messed up!
No, TT, you know I'm kidding. You know I like you. Every movie probably scares somebody. Personally, I'm horrified by The Tigger Movie. When Tigger is in the woods, and there's that big tree... ::shivers::
Anyway, Dawn's lists contains classics that have clearly stood the test of time and will continue to do so. I don't think The Ring measures up.
25 - The Theory
I'm just Mr Messed-Up. mwahaha.