These are the titles that still chill us to the bone and haunt our nightmares.

The 40 scariest movies of all time, ranked

These are the titles that still chill us to the bone and haunt our nightmares.

By Chris Nashawaty

Chris Nashawaty

Chris Nashawaty is a former senior writer at **. He left EW in 2019.

EW's editorial guidelines

and Kevin Jacobsen

May 7, 2026 5:00 p.m. ET

Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface in 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'; Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil in 'The Exorcist'; Daniel Kaluuya as Chris Washington in 'Get Out'. Credit:

The horror movie canon is one of the longest of any genre, dating back to silent classics like *The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari* (1920) and *Nosferatu* (1922). What scared audiences more than a century ago is still pretty frightening to modern audiences, from ghostly apparitions to supernatural monsters to a general fear of the unknown.

Compiling a list of the scariest movies of all time is a difficult task, not only for the sheer volume of genre-defining contenders but also because horror is so subjective. What scares one person might seem like child's play to someone else. What gave some people nightmares growing up may not have affected others in the same way. Yet, there are those select few that really do peer into our collective subconscious and make us confront what truly terrifies us, that are simply undeniable for how they pulled off their scares and what influence they had on future filmmakers.

Ahead, find our ranking of the 40 scariest movies of all time, and what makes them so unforgettable.

40. The Mist (2007)

The cast of 'The Mist'. Ralph Nelson/The Weinstein Company

One of the better (and more underrated) Stephen King adaptations, Frank Darabont's atmospheric chiller — about an unseen malevolent presence that rolls in with the fog in a small Maine village — flirts with supernatural silliness. But the performances and the cinematography (a suggestion: try watching it in black and white) ground it in a harrowing, paranoia-drenched reality that's hard to shake. Even harder to shake is the final scene with Thomas Jane — it's the sting in the tail that leaves a deep psychological welt. *—Chris Nashawaty*

39. The Witch (2015)

Anya Taylor-Joy as Thomasin in 'The Witch'. A24 Films

It's 1630, and there's something deeply sinister in the wintry woods of New England. Director Robert Eggers' ye olde slice of Pilgrim horror (a genre that needs to expand, stat!) taps into the always-charged live wire of satanic possession in a God-fearing family undergoing a string of Job-like trials. What makes this creepy little dark magic folktale work so beautifully is its evocative sense of time and place. Mark Korven's soundtrack, full of screechy, dissonant strings, doesn't hurt either. Best of all is Anya Taylor-Joy as the eldest child, Thomasin, whose blossoming sexuality and wicked sense of humor make her an easy scapegoat when, in fact, she may be the least of this cursed family's problems. —*C.N.*

38. Goodnight Mommy (2014)

Susanne Wuest as Mother in 'Goodnight Mommy'. RADiUS-TWC

As you continue through this list, you'll notice a recurring theme: unraveling moms and their creepy kids. And there's a reason for that — no relationship is more loaded with psychological baggage. This slow-building Austrian film introduces us to 9-year-old identical twin boys (Lukas and Elias Schwarz) who begin to suspect that something is up with their TV-actress mother (Susanne Wuest) when she returns to their stark, modernist home after cosmetic surgery. Her face is wrapped in a gauzy white cocoon of bandages, which eventually becomes as chilling as any bogeyman's mask. You may or may not see the twist ending coming, but, either way, *Goodnight Mommy* will stick with you. —*C.N.*

37. It Follows (2014)

Lili Sepe as Kelly Height and Maika Monroe as Jay Height in 'It Follows'. Everett Collection

Sometimes the scariest threats are the ones you don't see. In David Robert Mitchell's dread-fueled throwback to the look, feel, and synthesized sound of '80s-era John Carpenter flicks like *Halloween *(1978), Maika Monroe plays a Detroit teenager who is haunted by a curse resulting from a backseat hookup with her boyfriend. Sex-equals-death metaphors aren't exactly new to the genre, but Mitchell gives that timeworn formula a subversively suffocating twist as Monroe's character is pursued by shapeshifting apparitions only she can see. That is, unless she sleeps with someone else and passes the curse on like a bone-chilling chain letter. —*C.N.*

36. Dead Ringers (1988)

Jeremy Irons as Beverly/Elliot Mantle in 'Dead Ringers'. Everett Collection

David Cronenberg is creepy. Jeremy Irons is creepy. Put them together and what have you got? Wait! Before you answer, what if we threw in *another* Jeremy Irons just to up the creep factor even more? Irons, in what can only be described as a magic trick of a performance, plays a pair of brilliant identical twin gynecologists who fall in love with the same infertile patient (Geneviève Bujold). Needless to say, it does not go well. You watch enough horror movies, and you grow numb to machetes, axes, and chainsaws. But catching a glimpse of Irons' "gynaecological instruments for operating on mutant women"? That's something you won't be able to shake for a while. —*C.N.*

35. Let the Right One In (2008)

Lina Leandersson as Eli in 'Let the Right One In'. Everett Collection

If Stephen King and Anne Rice moved to Stockholm and had a child, that child might someday grow up to write something like *Let the Right One In* — a touching and twisted coming-of-age story about a picked-on 12-year-old who befriends a young girl who just happens to be an extremely thirsty vampire. If your mind is already drifting toward the *Twilight* *Saga*, fear not. This is a vampire story with bite — both literal and metaphorical. —*C.N.*

34. The Descent (2005)

A crawler in 'The Descent'. Everett Collection

What begins as a female-bonding outdoorsy weekend adventure quickly spirals into something out of our worst nightmares. Especially if your nightmares pivot around claustrophobia, dark, wet, cramped places, or bloodthirsty milky-white homunculi who live below the earth. —*C.N.*

33. Scream (1996)

Drew Barrymore as Casey Becker in 'Scream'. Everett Collection

Everyone remembers Wes Craven's cheeky rib poke at slasher films as an in-the-know genre satire. What's less recalled is just how well *Scream* works as a great slasher movie on its own. Don't take our word for it, just check out Drew Barrymore's opening scene again...if you dare! —*C.N.*

32. Hereditary (2018)

Toni Collette as Annie Graham in 'Hereditary'. Reid Chavis/A24

Seances, shock scares, and the supernatural. Check, check, and check. Ari Aster's *Hereditary* doesn't reinvent the horror wheel, but it sure does strip-mine the genre's classics for parts in effectively atmospheric new ways as the Graham family (which includes a go-for-broke Toni Collette and the creepily clucking Milly Shapiro as her odd-duck daughter) reckons with a curse and a string of bizarre incidents that don't let up until the end credits. Like the most unsettling nightmares, it doesn't all make sense, but the imagery is unshakable. —*C.N.*

31. Audition (1999)

Eihi Shiina as Asami Yamazaki in 'Audition'. Everett Collection

A widowed film producer stages a sham casting call to meet a new bride. What could go wrong, right? Anyone who's seen Takashi Miike's gruesome, cover-your-eyes finale knows the answer. Not for the weak of stomach. —*C.N.*

30. The Babadook (2014)

Noah Wiseman as Samuel Vanek in 'The Babadook'. Matt Nettheim/IFC Films

Creepy kids are a dime a dozen in horror movies. But what makes Australian director Jennifer Kent's charcoal-black chiller so effective is how it plays on the hardwired fears of parents. In this case, a widowed mother (Essie Davis) may or may not be slowly unraveling as her son, Sam (Noah Wiseman), becomes terrified by a creepy children's pop-up book inexplicably left in their home. The monster of the title is a slim dark figure in an inky top hat — and also totally beside the point. The real terror here comes in the ferociously unnerving performances of Davis and the saucer-eyed Wiseman. —*C.N.*

29. Suspiria (1977)

Jessica Harper as Suzy Bannion in 'Suspiria'. Synapse Films

Horror doesn't get more stylish than the bespoke films of the Italian Hitchcock, Dario Argento. This supernatural chiller set in a European ballet academy run by a coven of witches has a slick, surreal vibe, a hauntingly spooky score, and some of the most baroque kills anyone's ever choreographed. Watching *Suspiria* is like experiencing a dream — a very, very vivid, strange, and scary dream. Buon appetito! —*C.N.*

28. 28 Days Later (2002)

Cillian Murphy as Jim in '28 Days Later'. Everett Collection

Danny Boyle's postapocalyptic syringe full of adrenaline pushed the envelope in two major ways. The first was its introduction of "fast zombies." In almost all previous incarnations of the subgenre, the undead lumbered like slow-walking trees, arms raised at 90-degree angles, moaning for brains. But, in *28 Days Later*, they move like rabid, caffeinated jackals. It was new, bold, and utterly terrifying. Boyle's second twist was having his zombies not be zombies, per se, but infected people. When Cillian Murphy's character awakens in an abandoned hospital, the plague that's turned London into a no man's land isn't something out of a horror film we've seen a million times before — it's something far scarier, timely, and believable. —*C.N.*

27. REC (2007)

Claudia Silva as Jennifer in 'REC'.

The found footage subgenre exploded in the mid-2000s, but many of them felt like cheap gimmicks cashing in on a trend. Not so with *REC*, the Spanish zombie chiller that launched a franchise with multiple sequels and an American remake. None quite compares to the original, though, which finds TV reporter Ángela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) out on assignment with her camera crew at an apartment building teaming with terrifying, ravenous, zombielike creatures. It's claustrophobic horror done right. —*Kevin Jacobsen*

26. Poltergeist (1982)

Heather O'Rourke as Carol Anne Freeling in 'Poltergeist'. Everett Collection

"They're heeeerrre!" Horror comes to a suburban cul-de-sac in Tobe Hooper and writer-producer Steven Spielberg's ode to what lies beyond. Between creepy clown dolls, thunder and lightning, and the things that go bump in the night, there isn't a kiddie fear that the filmmakers don't exploit the hell out of in their joy-buzzer ghost story. But underneath all of the jumps, shrieks, and primal scares is the story of a family doing whatever it takes to stick together and bring their little girl back home. —*C.N.*

25. The Omen (1976)

Harvey Spencer Stephens as Damien Thorn in 'The Omen'. Everett Collection

Released shortly before the Satanic Panic of the '80s, *The Omen* finds demon seed Damien (Harvey Stephens) — the tiny Antichrist with the 666 devil sign on his scalp — maniacally pedaling his tricycle and knocking Lee Remick over the second-floor railing to the menacing strains of "Ave Satani." Even scarier? The boy's nanny, about to hang herself, cooing: "Look at me, Damien! It's all for you!" —*C.N.*

24. The Evil Dead (1981)

Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams in 'The Evil Dead'. Everett Collection

Two decades before he would famously tackle the *Spider-Man* franchise, Sam Raimi was just a college dropout with $385,000 and a dream. A nightmare, actually. Plot-wise, his white-knuckle calling card, *The Evil Dead*, is just your basic "kids at a remote cabin in the woods foolishly read a forbidden book and unleash demons" movie. But the film wound up being so much more. It became a template for a generation of horror filmmakers, thanks to the wry Bruce Campbell (as Ash Williams, in the performance that made him a cult horror hero), those predatory trees, and Raimi's wickedly inventive daredevil direction. —*C.N.*

23. Friday the 13th (1980)

Robbi Morgan as Annie Phillips in 'Friday the 13th'. Everett Collection

Forget the slew of mostly terrible sequels. The original Jason-less Jason movie is a tight and tense slasher flick about a pack of randy camp counselors paying the price for their sins (even you, young Kevin Bacon!). Sean S. Cunningham's Crystal Lake movie gets an unfairly bad rap from genre purists, and we can't figure out why. It's a perfectly engineered body-count movie with one of the all-time great final leap-from-your-seat scares. —*C.N.*

22. Get Out (2017)

Daniel Kaluuya as Chris Washington in 'Get Out'. Universal Pictures

*Get Out* is obviously more than just a horror movie: It's a meditation on race in America. But that third-rail subtext wouldn't work at all if the movie weren't as unsettling as it is. Daniel Kaluuya's performance as Chris becomes especially layered upon second viewing, once you know the twists and can focus on the nuance with which he plays the film's finer emotional notes. *Get Out *is a dark comedy and a stinging satire, but more than any of that, it's the sort of movie that never lets you feel sure of your footing. Jordan Peele's biggest jolts have nothing to do with blood or body counts, but instead with big (Oscar-winning) ideas. —*C.N.*

21. Repulsion (1965)

Patrick Wymark as the landlord and Catherine Deneuve as Carol Ledoux in 'Repulsion'. Everett Collection

Only 21 at the time, Catherine Deneuve plays Carol, an icy blonde, fragile flower who shares a London flat with her sister. When she's left alone for the week, she slowly unravels — haunted by strange noises and hallucinations where the walls turn into grasping hands pawing at her. As he would later do in *Rosemary's Baby *(1968), Roman Polanski gives us a psychologically terrifying glimpse of what madness looks and feels like. —*C.N.*

Look out! The 17 best horror movies on Netflix

The 20 best horror movies on Tubi to watch late at night

20. Se7en (1995)

Morgan Freeman as William Somerset (left) and Brad Pitt as David Mills (right) in 'Se7en'. New Line Cinema

From the jittery, scratched celluloid of its opening credits onward, David Fincher's *Se7en* oozes more deranged creativity than any Brad Pitt movie has a right to. Before this film came out, *gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, wrath, pride,* and *lust* were just intangible words uttered in Sunday school. From its bleak, rainy setting to an unshakably grim finale, *Se7en* is so nihilistic and disturbing that it's hard to fathom how it ever got greenlit. And we mean that as a compliment. —*C.N.*

19. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger in 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'. Everett Collection

The screen debut of the character who gave striped sweaters a bad name, *A Nightmare on Elm Street* introduces a suburban monster who stalks teens while they sleep. Wes Craven makes the most banal aspects of adolescence hellish, whether it's turning the sanctity of childhood bedrooms into murder zones or a phone into a demonic tongue. Freddy Krueger eventually turned into an all-too-jokey shadow of himself, but there's nothing funny about him in this first installment. Bonus: A young Johnny Depp gets eaten alive by a bed. —*C.N.*

18. Carrie (1976)

Sissy Spacek as Carrie White in 'Carrie'. Everett Collection

As the tagline reads: "If you've got a taste for terror, take Carrie to the prom." Brian De Palma's pig-blood-soaked metaphor about a young woman coming of age in the oversexed world of high school remains a master class in dread. As the bullied, telekinetic Carrie White, Sissy Spacek pivots from tormented to tormentor with the flip of a switch. The prom scene is a Rube Goldberg contraption of suspense. And the final scare remains the best stinger in horror movie history. —*C.N.*

17. Ringu (1998)

Rie Inō as Sadako Yamamura in 'Ringu'. Everett Collection

Before it became a J-horror cliché, Hideo Nakata's fiendishly clever chiller introduced us to the unshakably spooky and strange image of a long-haired ghost of a dead girl crawling out of the television. Good luck sleeping after you see *Ringu* for the first time. —*C.N.*

16. Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Sarah Polley as Ana Clark and Ving Rhames as Sgt. Kenneth Hall in 'Dawn of the Dead'. Michael Gibson

Is it as good as George A. Romero's *Dawn of the Dead *(1978)? No — more on that in the next entry. But the opening 20 minutes of Zack Snyder's version are the most frantic, outrageous, pulse-quickening moments of any zombie movie ever. You feel what it's like to wake up in the middle of an apocalypse where the dead have risen from the grave, and they won't be stopped until they're gnawing on your flesh. —*C.N.*

15. Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Various zombies in 'Dawn of the Dead'. Everett Collection

Zombies come to the shopping mall in the splatter-packed second installment of George A. Romero's Living Dead cycle. Enhanced by an almost sickening sense of dread and make-up maestro Tom Savini's gruesome special effects, *Dawn of the Dead* is every bit as unshakeable as *Night of the Living Dead* (1968) was a decade earlier. Plus, this time the gore is in color. —*C.N.*

14. Nosferatu (1922)

Max Schreck as Count Orlok in 'Nosferatu'. Everett Collection

The granddaddy of all vampire films, thanks to German maestro F.W. Murnau and his indelible leading man, Max Schreck, whose silent, sinister, slim-fingered Count Orlock still raises goosebumps more than a century later. —*C.N.*

13. Pulse (2001)

Haruhiko Kato as Ryosuke Kawashima and Kumiko Asō as Michi Kudo in 'Pulse'.

Courtesy Everett Collection

There's nothing quite like Japanese horror at the turn of the 21st century. This haunting thriller is one of the best in its subgenre, envisioning a terrifying world where ghosts can access the real world through the internet — and have the ability to turn people into ghosts just by coming in contact with them. —*K.J.***

12. Alien (1979)

A Xenomorph in 'Alien'. Everett Collection

"In space, no one can hear you scream." Although technically not correct, that tagline for Ridley Scott's old-dark-house-in-space thriller is spot on. After all, the first half of *Alien* is like a noose that slowly tightens around its audience's neck. When the jack-in-the-box shock finally does come in all of its chest-bursting glory, it's a giddy, gruesome catharsis. And the best part is, the good stuff is just getting started. —*C.N.*

11. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse in 'Rosemary's Baby'. Everett Collection

"What have you done to its eyes?!" —*C.N.*

10. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

A zombie in 'Night of the Living Dead'. Everett Collection

"They're coming to get you, Barbara!" Filmed in black and white for about $100,000, George A. Romero's original zombie fever dream is still a haunting vision of a particularly gruesome sort of apocalypse and a perfect barricade-ourselves-in-this-old-house siege thriller. Romero's film is packed with indelible images — none more chilling than an undead little girl in a nightgown going after her parents. —*C.N.*

9. The Thing (1982)

Charles Hallahan as Norris-Thing in 'The Thing'. Universal Pictures

A loose remake of Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks' 1951 sci-fi Cold War allegory, John Carpenter's *The Thing* isn't concerned with messages. It's just a terrifying meditation on paranoia and subzero dread as a group of scientists at the South Pole (led by Kurt Russell) is infiltrated by an alien that assumes the bodies of its victims in very messy ways. And despite its many gross-out F/X (thanks, Rob Bottin!), no moment in the movie is more unsettling than watching cuddly Quaker Oatmeal pitchman Wilford Brimley lose his mind. Reviled at the time of its release, *The Thing* has rightly been reappraised as one of Carpenter's masterpieces. —*C.N.*

8. Halloween (1978)

Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode and Nick Castle as Michael Myers in 'Halloween'. Everett Collection

John Carpenter's original *Halloween* is, was, and forever shall be the alpha and omega of bogeyman flicks. It also remains one of the most profitable indie films of all time — costing a mere $300,000 and pulling in more than $55 million. The influence of 1960's *Psycho* is everywhere — from the tiniest details (Donald Pleasence's Dr. Sam Loomis is named after Janet Leigh's boyfriend in *Psycho*) to the casting of Leigh's daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, as *Halloween*'s shrieking heroine. —*C.N.*

7. Jaws (1975)

The shark in 'Jaws'. Everett Collection

"You're gonna need a bigger boat." —*C.N.*

6. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

Sheryl Lee as Laura Palmer and Kyle MacLachlan as Special Agent Dale Cooper in 'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me'. Everett Collection

Director David Lynch knew how to get under your skin and leave you shaken, as demonstrated with this frightening, devastating prequel film to his TV masterpiece, *Twin Peaks*. Sheryl Lee reprises her role as Laura Palmer, the homecoming queen whose mysterious death was the engine of the series, as the film recounts the fateful last seven days of her life. Lynch's dissonant sound design and Lee's fiercely committed performance put us directly in Laura's mind as she encounters dangerous forces in the world — and terrifying ones in her own home. —*K.J.*

5. Psycho (1960)

Janet Leigh as Marion Crane in 'Psycho'. Everett Collection

What's left to say about *Psycho*? This is the movie that invented the rules by breaking them. Janet Leigh's iconic shower death occurs so early in the film that we're left dizzy and disoriented. Alfred Hitchcock is toying with us. Anthony Perkins is the essence of creepy as mama's boy Norman Bates ("She just goes a little mad sometimes...we all go a little mad sometimes."). This is where the modern horror movie officially begins. —*C.N.*

4. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Anthony Hopkins in Dr. Hannibal Lecter in 'The Silence of the Lambs'. Orion Pictures

As Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Anthony Hopkins is a waking nightmare of seductive depravity — the sick, twisted serial killer America hates to love. We hear his performance goes down especially well with some fava beans and a nice Chianti...*fffttpp, fffttpp, fffttpp! *—*C.N.*

3. The Shining (1980)

Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance in 'The Shining'. Everett Collection

Forget all the conspiracy theories swirling around what *The Shining*'s really about. Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel about the Torrance family's descent into madness is a hypnotically artful chiller that works on the most primal of levels. It doesn't need additional subtext. Between ghostly butlers, creepy twins, REDRUM, and the apparitions of Room 237, there's more than enough there to fuel our collective nightmares. —*C.N.*

2. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface in 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'. Everett Collection

Truth is stranger than fiction...and a hell of a lot scarier, too. Based (like much of *Psycho*) on the horrific ritual murders committed by Ed Gein, *Chain Saw* looks, feels, and smells so much like a grainy, low-budget documentary that it borders on snuff. Leatherface and his clan of sadistic backwater cannibals seem to be bogeymen conjured from a diseased mind.

And Tobe Hooper, the owner of said mind, told *Interview* in 2014 how he settled on the title weapon: “I found myself in the hardware department. I looked down and there was a rack of chain saws in front of me for sale. I said, ‘If I start the saw, those people would just part. They would get out of my way.’ That birthed the idea of the chain saw.” Imagine if he had been standing by a box of hammers or a garden sprinkler instead. A restored print of *Chain Saw* now resides in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. —*C.N.*

1. The Exorcist (1973)

Linda Blair as the possessed Regan MacNeil in 'The Exorcist'. Everett Collection

*The Exorcist* isn't scary. A cat unexpectedly jumping from off-camera is scary. *The Exorcist* is so unsettling, it will mess you up for weeks. Months. Years. Controversial and profane, William Friedkin's bone-chilling masterpiece remains the most viscerally harrowing movie ever made, not only because it dares to question the existence of God, but because it has the audacity to put Satan in the body of a sweet 12-year-old girl. —*C.N.*

- Movie Reviews & Recommendations

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Movie”