Paste's 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time
Created by Panunzio.
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This list has been a long time coming for Paste. We are fortunate—some would say “cool enough”—to have quite a lot of genre expertise to call upon when it comes to horror in particular. Several Paste staff writers and editors are lifelong horror geeks, and there’s also a strong sentiment toward the macabre among several of our more prolific contributing writers. Case in point: We have so many writers focused on horror that we’ve produced huge lists of the 70 best horror films on Netflix, or the 100 best horror films on Shudder, both within the last year. We’ve kept you up to date with the 10 best horror movies of 2017 so far. We’ve even given you the likes of the 50 best zombie movies of all time, and the 100 best vampire movies of all time, if you can believe that.
And yet, somehow, despite all that expertise, we’ve never put together a definitive ranking of the best horror films of all time. That ends now, with the list below: a practical, must-see guide through the history of the horror genre.
There are classic films on this list, of course. There are also likely a handful of independent features that will be unknown to all but the most dedicated horror hounds. There are foreign films from around the globe, entries that range from 1922 to 2017. In some cases, you will likely be shocked by films that are missing. In others, you’ll find yourself surprised to see us going to bat for films that don’t deserve the derision they’ve received.
One thing is for certain: With all the films that were nominated, we could easily have made this list 200 entries long. Horror cinema speaks toward the dark side in all of us, allowing us to confront the most frightening, primal forces we struggle with every day—death, and human malevolence—in a way that is actually constructive in strengthening the psyche. In the oddest of ways, horror movies help us overcome our own fears.
Last updated October 2022
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4 -
Psycho
1960, in 39 top lists Check -
7 -
Jaws
1975, in 29 top lists Check -
11 -
The Silence of the Lambs
1991, in 36 top lists Check -
29 +1
The Wicker Man
1973, in 13 top lists Check -
33 -
The Sixth Sense
1999, in 20 top lists Check -
39 +1
The Babadook
2014, in 4 top lists Check -
41 +1
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
2006, in 1 top list Check -
45 +1
Repulsion
1965, in 17 top lists Check -
46 +1
Don't Look Now
1973, in 17 top lists Check -
51 -
El orfanato
2007 — a.k.a. The Orphanage, in 3 top lists Check -
53 -
We Are What We Are
2013, in 1 top list Check -
55 -
Spoorloos
1988 — a.k.a. The Vanishing, in 14 top lists Check -
58 -
We Need to Talk About Kevin
2011, in 5 top lists Check -
59 -
Trick 'r Treat
2007, in 1 top list Check -
60 -
Misery
1990, in 3 top lists Check -
65 -1
Cat People
1942, in 15 top lists Check -
67 -1
Near Dark
1987, in 9 top lists Check -
73 -1
Opera
1987, in 2 top lists Check -
76 -1
The Cabin in the Woods
2011, in 4 top lists Check -
88 -
Ich seh, Ich seh
2014 — a.k.a. Goodnight Mommy, in 1 top list Check -
91 -1
Black Christmas
1974, in 3 top lists Check -
94 -
The Invitation
2015, in 2 top lists Check -
97 -1
They Look Like People
2015, in 0 top lists Check
Last updated on Nov 22, 2022 by Panunzio; source