Top 25 Horror Movies

Below is a list of films that are considered the best horror movies of all time. With them, I have included story plots, and current rating (taken from RottenTomatoes.com) and any additional discussion points that arose from the movies release or concern the movie / movie contents in some way. I have compiled this list to give myself better insight into what audiences like and will look for in new movies, and to see what kind of plots and themes audiences seem to have preferred over the years.

25. Friday The 13th (1980)
Rating: 60%
Plot: The story focuses on the fictional character Jason Voorhees, who drowned as a boy at Camp Crystal Lake due to the negligence of the camp staff. Decades later, the lake is rumored to be “cursed” and when a group of teenagers re-open the campsite, they die one by one by the hands of a mystery killer.
Discussion points:

• In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve hours of the clock, twelve gods of Olympus, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.
• Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century’s The Canterbury Tales, and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s.
•  It has also been suggested that Friday has been considered an unlucky day because, according to Christian scripture and tradition, Jesus was crucified on a Friday.
• Phobia friggatriskaidekaphobia (Fear of Friday the 13^th).

24. Scream (1994)
Rating: 83%
Plot: Scream follows the character of Sidney Prescott, a high school student in the fictional town of Woodsboro, who becomes the target of a mysterious killer known as Ghostface.
Discussion Points:

• The movie was partically based on the real life events of the Gainesville Ripper, who murdered five students, raping several of them, and later admitting to an additional 3 killings and the attempted murder of his father.
• The movie has also had a significantly larger female following then most other horror movies.
• Killing off one of their biggest stars, Drew Barrymore, early in the film was considered a calculated risk, but it was believed that it would be so shocking and unexpected that the audience would then believe that any character could die.
• The film was purposely released in December over the christmas period, using the fact that whilst family films are prevailent at the time, teenagers who had nothing to do would be interested.

23. Dracula (1931)
Rating: 93%
Plot: The movie is largely based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.
Discussion Points:

• Newspapers reported many members of the audience fainted whilst watching the cinematic release.
• The eerie speech pattern of Lugosi’s Dracula was said to have resulted from the fact that Lugosi did not speak English, and therefore had to learn and speak his lines phonetically. This is a bit of an urban legend. While it was true Lugosi did not speak English at the time of his first English-language play in 1919 and had learned his lines to that play in this manner, by the time of Dracula Lugosi spoke English as well as he ever would. Lugosi’s speech pattern would be imitated countless times by other Dracula portrayers, most often in an exaggerated or comical way.
• The now classic Dracula line, “I never drink … wine”, is original to this film. It did not appear in Stoker’s novel or the original production of the play. When the play was revived on Broadway in 1977 starring Frank Langella, the line was added, presumably because audiences had come to expect it.

22. The Haunting (1963)
Rating: 83%
Plot: The film centers around the conflict between a team of paranormal investigators and the house in which they spend several nights.
Discussion Points:

• Director Martin Scorese placed The Haunting first on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time.
• The film’s stature and following has grown steadily since its original release and is considered by film historians to be perhaps the finest ghost movie in filmdom.

21. The Blair Witch Project
Rating: 84%
Plot: The story of three student filmmakers who hiked into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland to film a documentary about a local legend known as the Blair Witch, and disappeared.
Discussion Points:

• Some of the townspeople interviewed in the film were not actors, and some were planted actors, unknown to the main cast.
• During filming, the actors were given clues as to their next location through messages given in milk crates found withGPS systems. They were given individual instructions that they would use to help improvise the action of the day. The directors rationed the food of the cast, causing Donahue to suffer eczema outbreaks as filming progressed. Teeth were obtained from a Maryland dentist for use as human remains in the film. Influenced by producer Gregg Hale’s memories of his military training, in which “enemy soldiers” would hunt a trainee through wild terrain for three days, the directors moved the characters far during the day, harassing them by night and depriving them of food.
• Sánchez revealed that when principal photography first wrapped, approximately $20,000 to $25,000 had been spent.Other figures list a final budget ranging between $500,000 and $750,000 and grossed $248,639,099 worldwide.

20. Suspiria (1977)
Rating: 94%
Plot: American ballet student who transfers to a prestigious dance academy in Germany, only to discover that it is controlled by a coven of witches.
Discussion Points:

• Whilst some critics praise the film’s visual performance, outstanding use of color, and soundtrack, others have criticized it for its lack of sense and puzzling storyline.

 

19. Let The Right One In (2008)
Rating: 98%
Plot: the story of a bullied 12-year-old boy who develops a friendship with a vampire child in Blackeburg, a suburb of Stockholm.
Discussion Points:

• The sequence where multiple cats attack Virginia, one of the most complicated scenes to film, required several weeks of drafting and planning. The crew used a combination of real cats, stuffed cats and computer-generated imagery.
• Both men and women up to the age of forty auditioned for the role of Eli’s voice. After a vote, the film team ended up selecting Elif Ceylan, who provides all of Eli’s spoken dialogue.Footage of Ceylan eating melon or sausage was combined with various animal noises to emulate the sound of Eli biting into her victims and drinking their blood.
• The book focuses on the darker sides of humanity, including exsitential anxiety, pedophilla, bullying and murder.

18. An American Werewolf In London (1981)
Rating: 88%
Plot: The story follows two american backpackers on their trip to England. Following an awkwardly tense visit to a village pub, the two men venture deep into the moors at night. They are attacked by a werewolf, which results in Jack’s death and David being taken to a London hospital. Through apparitions of his dead friend and disturbing dream sequences. David becomes informed that he is a werewolf and will transform at the next full moon.
Discussion Points:

• The various prosthetics and fake, robotic body parts used during the film’s painful, extended werewolf transformation scenes and on Griffin Dunne when his character returns as a bloody, mangled ghost impressed the Academy Of Motion Picture Art and Sciences so much that they decided to create a new awards category at the Oscars specifically for the film — Outstanding Achievement In Make-Up.Since the 1981 Academy Awards, this has been a regular category each year.

17. Dawn Of The Dead (1978)
Rating: 94%
Plot: a pandemic of unknown origin has caused the reanimation of the dead, who prey on human flesh, which subsequently causes mass hysteria.
Discussion Points:

• Cultural and film historians read significance into the film’s plot, linking it to critiques of large corporations  as well as Americanconsumerism and of the social decadence and the social and commercial excess present in America during the late 1970s.

16. Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
Rating: 95%
Plot: Set in the fictional Midwestern town of Springwood, Ohio, the plot revolves around several teenagers who, if they fall asleep, will be killed by Freddy Kreuger in their dreams, thus causing their deaths in reality. The teenagers are unaware of the cause of this strange phenomenon, but their parents hold a dark secret from long ago.
Discussion Points:

• A Nightmare on Elm Street contains many biographical elements, taking inspiration from director Wes Craven’s childhood. The basis of the film was inspired by several newspaper articles printed in the La Times in the 1970s on a group of Hmong refugees, who, after fleeing to America from theC.I.As Secret War in Vietnam, were suffering disturbing nightmares, after which they refused to sleep. Some of the men died in their sleep soon after. Medical authorities called the phenomenon Asian Death Syndrome. The condition itself afflicted only men between the ages of 19-57 and is believed to be sudden unexplained death syndrome and/or Brugada Syndrome.
• nitially, Fred Krueger was intended to be achild molester, however the decision was changed to him being a child murderer to avoid being accused of exploiting a spate of highly publicized child molestations that occurred in California around the time of production of the film.
• Craven chose to make Krueger’s sweater colors that of red and green, after reading an article in Scientific American in 1982 that said the two most clashing colors to the human retina were this particular combination.

15. The Thing (1982)
Rating: 79%
Plot: A parasitic lifeform, assimilates other organisms and in turn imitates them. It infiltrates an Antartic research station, taking the appearance of the researchers that it kills, and paranoia occurs within the group.
Discussion Points:

• In 2007, the Halloween Horror Nights event at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, the film property was designed as a haunted attraction called The Thing – Assimilation. Guests walked through Outpost 3113, a military facility where the remains of Outpost 31 were brought for scientific research. Scenes and props from the film were recreated for the attraction, including the bodies of MacReady and Childs.

14. The Fly (1986)
Rating: 91%
Plot: A scientist accidentally merging with a housefly during a teleportation experiment.
Discussion Points:

• It is notable for the line, “Be afraid. Be very afraid.”
• The Fly became embraced as a cultural metaphor for AIDS, since the director originally intended the film to be a more general analogy for disease itself, terminal conditions like cancer and, more specifically, the aging process.

13. The Poltergeist (1982)
Rating: 87%
Plot: Carol Anne, the daughter, awakes one night and starts to converse with the families tv set, which is emitting static. The following night, she converses with the tv again, to which an apparition jumps from the television and disappears through a wall. The days following thereafter, paranormal activities start to happen, intensifying as the days go on.
Discussion Points:

• The franchise is often said to be cursed, because several people associated with it, including stars Dominique Dunne and Heather O’Rourke, died prematurely.
• Buried within the plot of Poltergeist is a basic, splendid fairy tale scheme: the story of a little girl who puts her parents through the most outrageous tribulation to prove their love for her. Underlying most fairy tales is a common theme: the comforts of family. Virtually all fairy tales begin with a disrupting of the family order, and their conclusion is usually a return to order.

12. The Ring (2002)
Rating: 71%
Plot: According to the legend, if you watch the cursed video tape, you will die within 7 days of watching it.
Discussion Points:

• Psychological horror.
• Both films are based on Koji Suzuki‘s novel Ring and focus on a mysterious cursed videotape which contains a seemingly random series of disturbing images. After watching the tape, the viewer receives a phone call in which a girl’s voice announces that the viewer will die in seven days. The film was a critical and commercial success.
• Has theme’s of disease / the spreading of disease, i.e. making copies of the video tape and passing it on for someone else to become cursed (infected).

11. Halloween (1978)
Rating: 64%
Plot: A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood escapes on a mindless rampage while his doctor chases him through the streets.
Discussion Points:

• Focuses on the fictional character of Michael Myers who was committed to a sanitarium as a child for the murder of his older sister. Fifteen years later, he escapes to stalk and kill the people of Haddonfield, Illinois while being chased by his former psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis. Michael’s killings occur on the holiday of Halloween, on which all of the films primarily take place.

10. Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
Rating: 96%
Plot: A group of people hide from bloodthirsty zombies in a farmhouse.
Discussion Points:

• The franchise is often said to be cursed, because several people associated with it, including stars Dominique Dunne and Heather O’Rourke, died prematurely.
• Buried within the plot of Poltergeist is a basic, splendid fairy tale scheme: the story of a little girl who puts her parents through the most outrageous tribulation to prove their love for her. Underlying most fairy tales is a common theme: the comforts of family. Virtually all fairy tales begin with a disrupting of the family order, and their conclusion is usually a return to order.

9. Teas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Rating: 90%
Plot: The film follows a group of friends who fall victim to a family of cannibals while on their way to visit an old homestead.
Discussion Points:

• Although it was marketed as a true story to attract a wider audience and as a subtle commentary on the era’s political climate, its plot is entirely fictional.
• The character of Leatherface and minor plot details were inspired by the actions of real-life killer Ed Gein.

 

8. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Rating: 98%
Plot: Rosemary is an expecting mother who fears that her husband may have made a pact with their eccentric neighbors, believing he may have promised them the child to be used as a human sacrifice in their occultist rituals in exchange for success in his acting career.
Discussion Points:

7. Bride Of Frankenstein (1935)
Rating: 100%
Plot: A chastened Henry Frankenstein abandons his plans to create life, only to be tempted and finally coerced by the Monster, encouraged by Henry’s old mentor Dr. Pretorius, into constructing a mate for him.
Dicussion Points:

6. The Shining (1960)
Rating: 88%
Plot: 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.
Discussion Points:

• The film is based on the novel of the same name, by Stephen King, about a writer with a wife and young son who accepts the job of an off-season caretaker at an isolated hotel. The son, who possesses psychic abilities, is able to see things in the future and past, such as the ghosts in the hotel. Soon after moving in, and after a paralyzing winter storm that leaves the family snowed in, the father becomes influenced by the supernatural presence in the haunted hotel; he descends into madness and attempts to murder his wife and son.

 

5. Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
Rating: 96%
Plot: Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee played by Foster, seeks the advice of the imprisoned serial killer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter, to help apprehend another serial killer, known only as “Buffalo Bill“.
Discussion Points: N/A

4. Alien (1979)
Rating: 96%
Plot: A mining ship, investigating a suspected SOS, lands on a distant planet. The crew discovers some strange creatures and investigates.
Discussion Point: N/A

3. Jaws (1975)
Rating: 100%
Plot: 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.
Discussion Points: N/A

2. Psycho (1960)
Rating: 99%
Plot: The film depicts the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane hiding at a scheduled motel after embezzling money from her eomployer, and the motel’s disturbed owner and manager Norman Bates and the aftermath of their encounter.
Discussion Points:

• Psycho is a prime example of the type of film that appeared in the United States during the 1960’s after the erosion of the production code. It was unprecedented in its depiction of sexuality and violence, right from the opening scene in which Sam and Marion are shown as lovers sharing the same bed, with Marion in a bra; in the production code standards of that time, unmarried couples shown in the same bed was taboo.

 

1. The Excorsist (1973)
Rating: 85%
Plot: Based on the excorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win her daughter through an excorsim conducted by two priests.
Discussion Points: N/A