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Here’s our list of the best horror movies of all time, in order. After the list, we’ve included links to other pages on the Internet offering different opinions about which are the greatest horror movies of all time.

The Best Horror Movies of All Time

  1. The Shining – In terms of pure film-making magic and art, no horror movie can touch Kubrick’s masterpiece. Maybe someday someone will top this, but they haven’t yet.The Shiningis the #1 best horror movie of all time.
  2. The Silence of the Lambs – It’s hard to beat Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of Hannibal Lecter.
  3. Se7en – This one’s a Halloween tradition at our house.
  4. Let the Right One In – This one probably comes closest to The Shining in terms of artistry.
  5. The Birds – I love Night of the Living Dead, but The Birds did it first and better.
  6. Night of the Living Dead – All subsequent zombie apocalypse movies stem from this one, but none of them match it in terms of scariness.
  7. An American Werewolf in London – The most successful combination of humor and horror ever, Shaun of the Dead notwithstanding.
  8. Halloween – Carpenter’s best film owes a big debt to Black Christmas, but it’s a better movie. I’d rather have my eyes poked out than have to sit thought Zombie’s remake again though.
  9. Rosemary’s Baby – Creepy as hell, even now.
  10. Dawn of the Dead – I’m going to refuse to say which version of this made the list. You can assume either or both, and you’ll be right.
  11. Misery – Why, oh why, can’t we get Rob Reiner to make more horror movies for us?
  12. Carrie – I saw this as a child, and it still gives me nightmares.
  13. The Wicker Man – This one is often called the Citizen Kane of horror, but it’s not quite on the same par. Great movie though, nonetheless.
  14. Cloverfield – I’m surprised that this doesn’t make more “best horror movies of all time” lists.
  15. The Thing – Carpenter’s 2nd best horror movie. Kurt Russell is awesome.
  16. The Omen – I’m talking about the original. Gregory Peck is a tough act to follow.
  17. The Fly – Cronenberg’s made a lot of weird movies, but this is his finest horror film. (Although The Brood is great too.)
  18. Fright Night – I saw this in 8th grade. It was great then, and it’s great now.
  19. Frailty – Who knew that Bill Paxton was going to direct and star in a horror movie classic?
  20. Near Dark – One of the better thought out vampire movies.

More Lists of the Best Horror Movies of All Time

I’ve listed 20 movies that I consider the greatest horror films of all time. Now here are 20 more opinions:

  1. About.com’s Top 100 Horror Movies of All Time
  2. Buried.com’s Top 25 Horror Movies of All Time
  3. Cinefantastique’s List of the 50 Best Horror Movies of All Time
  4. Cinemarv’s 13 Best Horror Movies List
  5. Cinematical’s 25 Best Horror Movies of All Time (or at least since 1990)
  6. Entertainment Weekly’s 20 Scariest Movies of All Time
  7. Hollywood.com’s Top 25 Highest Grossing Domestic Horror Movies of All Time
  8. IGN’s Top 25 Horror Movies of All Time
  9. IMDB’s Best and Worst Horror Titles
  10. IMDB’s Top 50 Horror Movies by Average Vote
  11. In Contention’s Top 20 Horror Films of All Time
  12. Justin Tessler’s List of Greatest Horror Movies at Amazon’s Listmania
  13. Moviefone’s Best Horror Movies of All Time
  14. The New York Daily News’ 20 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time
  15. Reel Reviews Scariest Horror Movies Ever
  16. Retrocrush’s 100 Greatest Horror Movie Performances
  17. Rotten Tomatoes’ Best Horror Movies List
  18. Rotten Tomatoes’ List of the Best Reviewed Horror Movies
  19. Time Magazine’s Top 25 Horror Movies
  20. Yahoo Users Top Rated Horror Movies

Please note that the list of best horror movies of all times links is in alphabetical order. They’re all hand-picked lists that I found myself.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 6:17 pm and is filed under Best Horror Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “The Best Horror Movies of All Time”

  1. Jyrkface says:
    November 22, 2009 at 3:52 pm

    Wow dude. The only thing more shallow than the choices on this list is the justifications behind them. Looks pretty much copy-pasted from a thousand similar lists from people who think their opinions matter, except for the inclusion of Cloverfiled, which even those retards would see as bad taste.

  2. admin says:
    November 28, 2009 at 10:39 am

    Thanks for your comments, Jyrkface. Sorry you didn’t like the list. If you’d like to post your own list, with deep choices and even deeper justifications for their inclusion, I’m sure the readers here would love to see it. (And I would too.)

  3. jjthemick says:
    March 14, 2010 at 2:55 am

    Great list. I’ve seen and LOVE every film on this. So glad to see both Cloverfield and Frailty included. Cloverfield is so underrated, genius on multiple levels, and anyone with a broader understanding of Film theory, technology, Branding and the idea of the untrustworthy narrative ala The killer inside me or Rashomon would clearly see that. So few films have even attempted to tell a story from the first person perspective, and in this one doing so colors and adds nuance to the spectacle, and reveals aspects of all the characters in subtle, fleeting, half captured glimpses. I’d be fascinated to hear anyone give me an intelligent negative review of the film – so far the only bad things i’ve ever heard were related to motion sickness, to which I say, take a dramamine and change your tampon. The cojones it takes to make a $100,000,000 picture and then shoot it so verite that it’s almost unwatchable at times are huge – and a sly critique of the gloss and bloodless massacre of shiny expensive crap like 2012.

    Also, I was living in Austin when Frailty came out so got to see in the Theater and it was BRUTAL!

    As for jerkface, my guess is his idea of a good horror film is anything from the Saw franchise (these are not good films. I’ll give a pass on the first one for having cary elwes and making a lot out of a very small budget, but that’s it.)

    I’m going to watch Near Dark right now!

  4. Bryan says:
    March 17, 2010 at 10:46 am

    It’s an interesting list. I’m kind of surprised the Exorcist wasn’t listed. I thought that was automatically posted on all Best Horror Film lists. Some of your choices I wouldn’t necessarily classify as “horror”, but they are great films. “Seven” is one of my all time favorites.

  5. Manoj says:
    June 3, 2010 at 2:49 am

    Where is The Exorcist ??

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