Each genre has its films that serve as the gold standard of the style, and this is doubly true for Horror movies. The best horror movies convey the best things about the genre and are still excellently made films on the technical side in their own right. It is safe to say that some of them are even almost perfect, With little to no flaws holding them back no matter how many years it may have been since they first debuted on cinema screens.
There are several aspects that horror movies have to succeed in order to be considered near perfect. For one, they have to be scary enough, able to evoke genuine fear and terror without the use of cheap jump scares or fake-outs. They also have to be competent films as a whole, avoiding the usual pitfalls of bad movies like poor acting, bad writing, low-quality production design or cinematography, and lacking editing or sound design. When a horror film is able to succeed in all these categories while also adding something new to the formula, It creates a truly legendary experience.
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10
The Exorcist
1973
The original property movie, The Exorcist is still hallowed ground decades after its initial release due to the enduring horror of its sickening depiction of demonic possession. The film revolves around a young girl, Regan, who finds herself possessed by an evil evil entity.Specifically a Christian demon. It is up to a unique exorcist to free the young girl from the presence in her, a dangerous task that is not without supernatural danger.
The Demon in Regan In The Exorcist Is still one of the most terrifying movie monsters ever put to screen. The way young Linda Blair is able to contort her face and attitude to match the jaw-dropping special effects and blood-curdling demonic voice is a hard image to shake from the mind, making for one of the most enduring horror experiences. Ever. From the technical prowess behind the camera to the iconic soundtrack, The ExorcistHis influence is impossible to deny.
9
Jaws
1975
One of the greatest films of legendary director Stephen Spielberg, Jaws Was not only very important to the horror genre, but it also helped invent the summer blockbuster as we know it. For how influential it is, the film has a relatively simple premise. A bloodthirsty, man-eating great white shark terrorizes the idyllic summer tourist Season of a small beach town, and it’s up to the town to assemble a crack team of experts to take it down.
Eliminating such a monster is not a simple matter of shooting fish in a barrel, however, and Jaws Proved to be groundbreaking for the sheer bucket of blood and gore it got away with a PG rating. It says something that the film’s terrifying imagery was so powerful as to inspire a whole series of Jaws Spin-offs, though none could ever match the aquatic terror of the original. Famous enough for two simple notes of his theme song to be synonymous with shark attacks, Jaws Has such a strong legacy for a good reason.
8
Night of the Living Dead
1968
There was a time when the humble zombie movie had a chokehold on pop culture, and to this day the subgenre remains a massively popular touchstone for the horror movie community. None of it would have been possible without the legendary George A. Romero Night of the Living Dead, which popularized the idea of ​​slow, Shuffle hordes of undead humans who can only be killed with a decisive blow to the head and transfer their condition through bites. The film centers on the survivors of a city plagued by zombies huddled in a barricaded home with little hope of survival.
The film centers on the survivors of a city plagued by zombies huddled in a barricaded home with little hope of survival.
Other than popularizing many of the tropes that have come to define zombie media, Night of the Living Dead Is almost perfect for so many other reasons. The tension between survivors and the sheer hopelessness conveyed by the menacing onslaught of the army of ghouls makes for an utterly charming experience. With gorgeous black-and-white footage hiding the creases and imperfections of the film’s special effects, Romero truly managed to strike gold with the film on a miniscule budget.
7
Hereditary
2018
The film that put eccentric horror director Ari Aster on the map, Hereditary May be a relative newcomer to the horror hall-of-fame, but has quickly cemented itself as one of the most brilliant scary movies ever conceived. The film follows a dysfunctional family dealing with the emotional fallout of the death of their matriarch, who seemed to have a mysterious past that none of the immediate family was aware of. It is not long until further tragedy and terror strikes the household, heralding the arrival of a powerful demonic lord.
Toni Collette’s performance alone is unbelievably impressive Hereditary Among one of the most genius horror films ever conceived, conveying grief and hopelessness with terrifying accuracy. Aster is also a master at his craft, sowing the seeds for the disturbing ending with a breath-thromb trail of hints that requires further viewing to fully grasp. Featuring killer performances, a haunting soundtrack and some of the most jaw-dropping scenes of any 2010s horror film, Hereditary is hard to find fault with.
6
The thing
1982
While Halloween was the film that proved John Carpenter was a horror visionary to remember the name of, The thing is arguably his magnum opus. An ingenious premise, the story revolves around the isolated crew of a research station deep in the windswept icy plains of Antarctica. When the station is invaded by a survival shape-shifting alien, the crew, headed by Kurt Russell’s McCready, Had to find a way to survive while distinguishing friend from enemy.
The thing Not wasting a single moment of its runtime, wordlessly dropping viewers into the hellish snowstorms of Antarctica before setting its creative and repulsive creature on them. The practical special effects in The thing They are some of the greatest of all time, and make for spectacular bloody messes that punctuate the long periods of tension in the claustrophobic research station. While the audiences of the 80s were unable to appreciate it, The thing Continues to be an all-time great horror film for a variety of reasons.
5
The Shining
1980
From the mind of genius director Stanley Kubrick comes one of the greatest adaptations of a Stephen King book of all time, The Shining. Even if King himself isn’t a fan of Kubrick’s film, for most, it’s hard to find things to complain about in this brilliantly-crafted multi-genre horror masterclass. The story centers around the Torrance family, whose young boy, Danny, has an uncanny ability to communicate telepathically.. This comes in handy when his father, Jack, brings him and his mother to the Overlook Hotel, where madness will soon get the better of him.
Every performance in The Shining It’s almost impossible to believe as an act, from Nicholson’s eerie grin to Shelley Duvall’s shrieking hysteria. Every single frame of the film is an absolute painting, from the bone-chilling bathroom sequence to the legendary shot of Danny patrolling the halls of the Overlook on his tricycle. It can be argued that The Shining is simply one of the greatest films of all time, let alone among horror movies specifically.
4
Alien
1979
It’s rare that a multi-genre film is so inspiring to its peers in multiple sectors, but Ridley Scott’s Alien is undoubtedly monumental in both the horror and science fiction spaces. Set in an isolated spaceship, the film follows Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley as she awakens from cryogenic stasis, along with the rest of her crew, only to encounter a terrifying alien life form terrorizing the confined ship. Before long, Ripley’s creammates are being picked off one at a time by the top predator that is the Xenomorph.
like The thing, Alien is also a groundbreaking film when it comes to conveying extraterrestrial terror through the lens of practical effects. Each performance totally navigates through Scott’s believable retro-future world, full of twisted black cables and chunky digital screens that form the bones of the USCSS Nostromo. Even if none of the spin-offs or sequels have quite managed to re-capture the silent terror of the original film, Alien Is so influential for a good reason, having few to no real flaws.
3
Psycho
1960
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Even though iconic thriller director Alfred Hitchcock may be better known for his intricate murder mysteries, it’s his work in straight-up horror that towers over the rest of his filmography. The precursor of the modern slasher film, many stories owe their existence Psycho. The story revolves around a trio of unlikely allies converging to investigate the disappearance of a young woman at the mysterious Bates Motel, Run through the Nebish tavern Norman Bates, who soon becomes a suspect in the murder.
As far as horror villains go, Norman Bates is one of the most chillingly human, with his sadistic grin in the final shot leaving a final horror impression. before his time, Psycho is brilliantly edited, with the infamous shower scene still being a pop culture touchstone over 50 years after its performance. An old movie that has aged remarkably gracefully, It’s hard to find fault Psycho Even by modern horror movie standards.
2
The silence of the lambs
1991
Based on the novel of the same name, The silence of the lambs is one of those rare horror films that transcends its disturbing subject matter enough to be highly regarded as genuine art. The film introduces Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, a rookie FBI agent who sets out to capture the notorious serial killer known as Buffalo Bill, who is suspected of kidnapping a powerful senator’s daughter. To help her in her quest, she enlists the help of the infamous Hannibal Lecter, An incarcerated serial killer and former licensed psychiatrist known for eating his victims.
Sir Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter is simply one of the greatest cinematic villains of all time, transcending his role with a hypnotically watchable yet disturbing persona of viciously violent tendencies colliding with an appreciation for the finer things in life. Every other performance holds up just as well, And the images of the film and the extended moments of terrifying tension feel capable of having a physical effect on the viewer. As far as horror movies go, The silence of the lambs Just might be a perfect film.
1
Get out
2017
Marrying the very real horror of racism with some existentially terrifying body horror implications, Get out was the first horror film by Jordan Peele, quickly changing the public perception of the director as a former sketch comedy guru. The film centers on a young African American photographer who agrees to travel to a well-to-do suburb In an effort to meet the parents of his white girlfriend. Racial tensions soon turn to something much darker as Daniel Kaluuya’s Chris Washington uncovers the community’s sinister secret.
It’s rare enough for a horror film to look as good as this Get out It does, but it’s the writing that really elevates the debut movie to another level. Few horror movies offer political commentary as valuable as Peele’s, which comes without feeling overbearing or eclipsing the story’s more supernatural elements. Thought-provoking, scary and expertly crafted in every technical category, Get out is about as perfect as Horror movies come