July 17th, 2018 | Updated on February 14th, 2022
When Jordan Peele won a best original screenplay Oscar for Get Out this year, it sent a message to everyone in Hollywood: the horror genre finally gets its long due recognition.
Tapping into our most basic and primal fears, these horror movies are outstanding, legitimately terrifying works of cinema that feed off your imagination and as a result aren’t easily forgotten.
To celebrate this often overlooked and thrilling genre, we present here 20 scariest horror movies which are so brilliantly suspenseful, intense, relatable and legitimately terrifying works of cinema that you shouldn’t ever watch all alone in an empty house.
1. The First Purge (2018)After the rise of a third political party, the New Founding Fathers of America, an experiment is conducted, no laws for 12 hours on Staten Island. No one must stay during the experiment yet there is $5,000 for anyone who does. Review An unabashedly violent B-movie throwback, the sort director John Carpenter used to make, with moments that resonate with real life…The result is an unabashedly violent B-movie throwback, the sort director John Carpenter used to make, with moments that resonate with real life. Read Full Review… |
Price : $19.99
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2. A Quiet Place (2018)In a post-apocalyptic world, a family is forced to live in silence while hiding from monsters with ultra-sensitive hearing. ReviewBut there are moments when the movie takes us firmly by the hand and escorts us down a darkened path, and they lead to one of the most profound of communal pleasures: the sound of a movie audience screaming as one. Read Full Review at SLATE
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Price : $19.99
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3. It (2017)In the summer of 1989, a group of bullied kids band together to destroy a shapeshifting monster, which disguises itself as a clown and preys on the children of Derry, their small Maine town. Review ByThis movie was great with a lot of different scares not only from the clown. The cgi was overall good but at times it could look overdone. The casting was great with very likable kids and a very good played clown. It was very nice seeing that this movie came out about 27 years later from the old movie series.They should not have spoiled so much in the trailers because if saw all the trailers you would what would happen in certain scenes. But overall very enjoyable. Read Full Review Here…
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Price : $9.99
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4. Hereditary (2018)After the family matriarch passes away, a grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences, and begin to unravel dark secrets. ReviewThe scariest thing in “Hereditary,” a movie well supplied with fear, is a noise. It’s the one that you make by flicking your tongue down from the roof of your mouth: klokk. Most of us rarely do this, unless moved by a desire to mimic the hoofbeats of a horse, but Charlie Graham (Milly Shapiro), a non-smiling girl of thirteen, klokks with unnerving frequency. It’s her signature sound, like the bing! emitted by the annoying guy in “Groundhog Day,” and her brother, Peter (Alex Wolff), who’s a few years older than Charlie, hears a klokk in the corner of his bedroom, after dark, even when she’s not there. Read Full Review at THE NEWYORKER |
Price : $19.99
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5. The Domestics (2018)In a terrifying post-apocalyptic world inhabited by gangs divided into deadly factions, a husband and wife race desperately across the countryside in search of safety and must work together as they are pushed to the breaking point in order to survive. ReviewIt’s the end of the world as we know it, and every single surviving human has broken up in to fractions, mini-societies, and tribes that delight in murder of others, and survival of the fittest. “The Domestics” is “The Purge,” meets “Red Dawn,” meets “Mad Max,” meets “The Warriors,” with a dash of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” for good measure. Let’s face it, at the end of the day its pure blissful, loony post apocalyptic movie porn and hot damn if I didn’t love every single minute of it from beginning to end. Read Full Review at Crazed
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Price : $14.99
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6. The Vampire Diaries (2009–2017)A young teen struggles to make a decision between two vampire brothers and their supernatural lives. Soon after she discovers the truth her whole world turns upside down. ReviewExecutive producer Julie Plec promised an “emotional experience” in “The Vampire Diaries” series finale, and that’s exactly what we got. Picking up where the penultimate episode left off, “I Was Feeling Epic” begins with Stefan (Paul Wesley) attempting to resuscitate Bonnie (Kat Graham) after an especially draining bit of magic. Read Full Review at VARIETY
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Price : $24.99
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7. Annihilation (2018)A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don’t apply. ReviewAnnihilation is a movie so prepared to alienate audiences that it comes with its own built-in version of a dissatisfied viewer. His name is Lomax, he’s played by a gruff, hazmat-suited Benedict Wong, and he appears to work for the secret agency responsible for sending expeditions into Area X, a stretch of swampy wilderness that’s been taken over by a mysterious atmospheric phenomenon nicknamed “the Shimmer.” Read Full Review at BuzzFeedNEWS |
Price : $18.26
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8. Get Out (I) (2017)A young African-American visits his white girlfriend’s parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him eventually reaches a boiling point. ReviewBy focusing the storyline on a particular form of racism — the kind that’s often disguised as peculiar envy — Get Out reveals something more insidious. Jordan Peele’s highly anticipated — and justifiably hyped — cinematic directorial debut “Get Out” would be terrific even if it didn’t happen to be so goddamn timely. But coming a mere month into a new administration that’s its own special nightmare, the film’s racial anxiety horror feels all the sharper and more eerily resonant. |
Price : $12.99
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9. The Purge (I) (2013)A wealthy family are held hostage for harboring the target of a murderous syndicate during the Purge, a 12-hour period in which any and all crime is legal. ReviewViggo Mortensen plays twins in Everybody Has A Plan, Paul Bettany and Stephen Graham are brothers in Blood, while Lena Headey and Ethan Hawke take on The Purge. An Argentinian life-swap thriller with Viggo Mortensen playing twins? Sounds promising – but Everybody Has A Plan doesn’t quite go according to plan. The start is suitably intriguing: Mortensen plays Agustín, an unhappily married doctor whose errant twin brother, Pedro, arrives unannounced and in several levels of hot water. Read Full Review at METRO |
Price : $13.99
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10. Teen Wolf (2011–2017)A somewhat awkward teen is attacked by a werewolf and inherits the curse himself, as well as the enemies that come with it. ReviewIs anyone else having trouble processing everything that just went down? On Teen Wolf Season 5 Episode 20, there was so much that happened. It was kind of ridiculous, but this is also Teen Wolf, so you would think that we would be prepared for all of the insanity by now. At one point or another, everyone was either injured, dead, or presumed to be dead. It was insanity. Read Full Review at TV FANATIC |
Price : $14.99
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11. The Shape of Water (2017)At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity. ReviewAn enchanting re-imagining of “Beauty and the Beast,” it is an unforgettably romantic, utterly sublime, dazzling phantasmagoria,Guillermo del Toro may know better than any living filmmaker how to create a fantasy with intelligence and maturity. He might make some miscalculations — I found much to admire but little to enjoy in his 2015 Victorian gothic extravaganza “Crimson Peak” — but never shows a lack of artistry and aspiration. Read Full Review at StarTribune
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Price : $9.99
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12. Incident in a Ghostland (2018) (2018)The story follows a mother of two who inherits a home from her aunt. On the first night in the new home, she is confronted with murderous intruders and fights for her daughters’ lives. Sixteen years later when the daughters reunite at the house, things get really strange. ReviewAlthough this film by the French director, Pascal Laugier, takes on the conventions of the film genre, it also proposes a different reading, influenced by the current of the new French extremism.Read Full Review at LETRAS LIBRES |
Price : $9.99
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13. It (1990)In 1960, seven pre-teen outcasts fight an evil demon who poses as a child-killing clown. Thirty years later, they reunite to stop the demon once and for all when it returns to their hometown. Review ByI read this book and loved it. The movie isn’t quite as good, but I love it also. I don’t have a favorite part in the movie, but the first half is the best. My favorite actor, Jonathan Brandis plays Bill at age 12. Read Full Review at IMDb
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Price : $12.99
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14. iZombie (2015)A medical resident finds that being a zombie has its perks, which she uses to assist the police. ReviewI’ve been reading a lot of ’50s and ’60s Superman comics to my son lately, which means I’ve been reading a lot of stories where Superman does inadvertently cruel things to Lois Lane and his other “friends” under the guise of maintaining his secret identity. Again and again, he thinks to himself something like, “I can never tell Lois that I’m really Clark Kent, or else she’d be in danger from all my enemies,” then uses a robot, or Batman in disguise, or some kind of memory-altering device to convince her that he’s not who she thinks he is. |
Price : $29.99
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15. The Purge: Election Year (2016)Former Police Sergeant Barnes becomes head of security for Senator Charlie Roan, a Presidential candidate targeted for death on Purge night due to her vow to eliminate the Purge. Review ByI found that the movie is a good movie, a lot of people didn’t like it as it wasn’t scary enough. Personally, too make a good horror movie, you need a creepy tone and it must be entertaining. This movie is very creepy and gory, its scary, and found that it was very fun and enjoyable. Read Full Review…
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Price : $18.26
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16. Fear the Walking Dead (2015)A Walking Dead spin-off, set in Los Angeles, following two families who must band together to survive the undead apocalypse. ReviewNobody enjoys admitting they messed up, but AMC has essentially done just that with its major makeover of “Fear the Walking Dead,” which includes importing one of the original’s best characters. The gamble might have come a bit late, but faced with the alternative, there was nothing to fear but “Fear” itself. The busy season premiere — positioned to piggyback on “The Walking Dead” finale — brings Morgan (Lennie James) into the mix, pairing him with a strong trio of new additions, played by Garret Dillahunt, Jenna Elfman and Maggie Grace..Read Full Review at CNN entertainment |
Price : $15.99
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17. The Purge: Anarchy (2014)Three groups of people intertwine and are left stranded in the streets on Purge Night, trying to survive the chaos and violence that occurs. ReviewThe Purge: Anarchy further develops the series’ conceit: America in the near future is a haven with virtually no unemployment, a low crime rate, and a thriving economy. The nation owes its transformation to the Purge. Once a year for 12 hours, Americans may commit any crime – murder is recommended – without prosecution.Read Full Review at philly |
Price : $9.99
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18. The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018)A family of four staying at a secluded mobile home park for the night are stalked and then hunted by three masked psychopaths. ReviewThe 2008 horror movie The Strangers, which found Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman being terrorized in a remote country house by three creepily masked young people, was harsh and unnerving and, thanks to affecting work by it stars, memorably sad. The low-budget flick made big money, but somehow — in what’s surely a behind-the-scenes Hollywood story crueler than anything Strangers writer-director Bryan Bertino could get onscreen — it’s taken ten years for a sequel to make it to theaters. Read Full Review at villageVOICE |
Price : $14.99
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19. The Terror (2018)In 1848, two real life warships, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, sent on a Royal Naval expedition to find the treacherous Northwest Passage become trapped in ice near Arctic and face starvation, mutiny, cannibalism and a demonic polar bear. ReviewA lavish event series that could be called ‘Master and Commander Meets The Thing.’ It’s not quite as exciting as that pitch makes it sound, but it is a show that builds up steam around the fourth episode.Read Full Review at Rogerebert |
Price : $24.99
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20. Mother! (2017)A couple’s relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence. ReviewDarren Aronofsky’s “mother!” is one of the most audacious and flat-out bizarre movies that a major studio has released in years. The director has never shied away from controversial filmmaking, but this deep dive into metaphorical horror finds him working in a register that feels crazy even for the man who made “The Fountain” and “Noah.” “mother!” is at times horrifying, at times riveting, at times baffling, and at times like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Read Full Review at Rogerebert |
Price : $7.99
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Source: IMDb
