Like them or not, scary movies take our deepest fears and bring them to life.
Nerves
tense, voices hoarse, and skirts short, the characters in horror flicks
give us chills and send us running to the theater, or more accurately,
the Netflix app on our phones, just to see just what might go bump in
the night.
The scariest, most horrifying, most brutal, and least
appropriate for children films are the only things that can satisfy our
culture’s thirst…for blood.
Here is a list of the Top 20 Scariest Movies ranked in order:
The first of
the two Australian movies on this list is a low-budget film that follows
some young and wild college kids into the Outback. Critically reviewed
as exceptionally violent towards women, the film crossed over the ocean
and performed fairly well in America because of its inventive and
creatively brutal death scenes.
18. The Purge (2013)
Starting
a little slow, the beginning of this movie features a short explanation
of the mysterious “New Founding Fathers” who helped usher in the Purge.
This one day of the year is the time when all crime, including murder,
is legalized.
The scariest thing about this horror thriller is the
sheer politeness of the violence. Neighbors invite each other over for
Purge parties, newscasters read body counts like sports scores, and even
your spouse might be planning to participate in the night’s
festivities.
17.
Reincarnation (2005)
Another Japanese film for the countdown,
Reincarnation
is the story of a hotel with a dark past. Through the eyes of a
psychopathic father and the young woman he possesses, the audience is
taken on a twisted journey throughout the resort. The movie has graphic
scenes of dismemberment, suffering, and even the onscreen murder of
children, something that even the scariest of American horror movies
tend to shy away from.
16. Poltergeist (1982)
One of the many classic horror movies that has since spawned sequels and a recent remake, the original
Poltergeist stands
a cut above the rest. With an amazingly young and talented actress who
was taken too soon, the film horrified moviegoers and new homeowners
nationwide.
15. Misery (1990)
A Stephen King classic,
Misery
and its “hobbling” scene cemented Nurse Annie as cinema’s worst
caretaker and best No. 1 fan. With incredibly believable scenes of
desperate escape attempts, torture, and violent mood swings, James Caan
and Kathy Bates fill up 107 minutes with too many memorable lines and
moments to count.
14. The Babadook (2014)
Another horror film from Australia,
The Babadook
has graced Netflix’s queue for a few month’s now and rightfully so.
Genuinely scary and refreshingly original, this horror film follows a
widow and her young son as he battles his fears and an imaginary monster
that turns out to be not only real, but deadly. This film has been
critically praised and is the third-highest rated film of 2014 on Rotten
Tomatoes.
13. Alien (1979)
This Ridley Scott
sci-fi horror thriller helped launch Sigourney Weaver’s acting career
and convinced the world that if aliens do exist, they want to murder us.
The crew of the Nostromo spaceship is helpless against its
extraterrestrial passenger and remember…in space, no one can hear you
scream.
12. It Follows (2015)
The most recently made movie on the list,
It Follows crept
into theaters this year as a dark horse horror-thriller. An excellent
balance of silence and creepy scores plus a simple premise made for an
awesome and exhilarating break from modern day horror movies like
Paranormal Activity and
Ouija.
11. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
While your kids at home
might be a lot to handle, at least be thankful that they’re not actually
the spawn of Satan. Roman Polanski’s 1968 classic features a young
mother, impregnated by the dark one himself, as she fights to protect
her soul and her mind from a demonic cult.
10. The Wicker Man (1973)
After a horrible, horrible,
horrible remake starring the horrible, horrible, sometimes okay Nicholas
Cage, this English classic is well-made and downright creepy. Featuring
the recently deceased actor, death metal musician, and all-around
awesome person, Christopher Lee,
The Wicker Man is a shining example of what a horror mystery should aspire to be.
9. The Strangers (2005)
Two people in a house being ruthlessly tormented and murdered by complete strangers.
This
often overlooked film owes some of its scare factor to something
absolutely terrifying– random chance. Featuring Liv Tyler and Scott
Speedman as lovers spending the night in a home far from the city,
The Strangers
is one of those rare movies that doesn’t complicate its story with
unnecessary plot lines and cheap thrills– its just plain scary.
8.
Jaws (1975)
The biggest departure from traditional
horror on this list is also one of its scariest. Stephen Spielberg’s
summer shark blockbuster has terrified entire generations of kids and
adults of the ocean. Despite a tight budget and a horrendous filming
schedule,
Jaws can still make most people look under the water in their swimming pool for sharks.
7. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Hello,
Clarice…Those two words introduced the young FBI agent and the world to
Dr. Hannibal Lector. The story of a young woman probing the mind of a
brilliant and cannibalistic man,
Silence of the Lambs played on
the palpable chemistry between Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins to toy
with its 1991 audience. Critically praised and commercially successful,
the film has spawned parodies, copycats, and even its very own episode
of South Park.
6. 28 Days Later (2002)
In a sea of zombie movies,
this British horror film starring a young Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins,
Red Eye, Inception) floats along a river of blood all the way to the
top. With gritty visuals and an unpredictable storyline,
28 Days Later imagines
a world overrun by zombies and left inhabited with desperate and
immoral human survivors who make an effort to beat back the monsters,
one day at a time.
5. The Ring (2002)
The movie that made everyone switch from VHS to DVD,
The Ring was
a monster success at the box office and also succeeded at verifiably
scaring the living hell out of every person that dared to watch it on
their living room TV. If you didn’t at least worry about Samara coming
through your screen, you either didn’t watch it or you’re lying.
4. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Yet another
movie franchise ruined by sequels, prequels, and remakes, this 1974
original still freaks out anybody who’s ever driven through the American
midwest. The remarkable lack of excessive blood or gore is just another
reminder that a truly scary film doesn’t need to bleed all over its
audience.
3. Psycho (1960)
Watching Alfred Hitchcock calmly and
politely showcase the house that was the scene of a horrible series of
murders might not be bloody or gory, but the master of suspense created
Psycho
and rebooted the horror genre. Behind Norman Bates’ smile, a horrible
killer wrecked with a split-personality disorder came into our homes and
never left.
2. Halloween (1978)
The “night HE came home” comes every single year and chances are John Carpenter’s
Halloween is
on TV. The first-person continuous shot of a six year-old Michael
Myers stabbing his older sister has disgusted viewers for almost 40
years. You hear the theme song, you see the mask, and you feel the knife
as Laurie Strode fights for her life in the little town of Haddonfield,
IL.
1. The Exorcist (1973)
Slowly,
but surely, this countdown couldn’t have ended any other way. Its hard
to find a film that made its audiences physically sick from fear.
Theaters refused to play it, parents protested it, and it only grew in
popularity. At a time in which most scary movies involved monsters or
knife-wielding maniacs, the possession of a little girl by the worst
that Hell has to offer was a whirlwind of controversy. Terrific acting
and a lot of split pea soup cemented this film as the top pick for
scariest movie ever made.
David Stansberry is an intern contributor and student at Middle Tennessee State University majoring in Economics and English.
Twitter: @Dave_Trace
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