Best horror films by year (1968-Present)
by jp_91 | created - 16 Sep 2021 | updated - 1 week ago | PublicA list of the best horror films released from 1968 until the present.
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1. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Approved | 137 min | Drama, Horror
A young couple trying for a baby moves into an aging, ornate apartment building on Central Park West, where they find themselves surrounded by peculiar neighbors.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer
Votes: 235,292
2. La muñeca perversa (1969)
85 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Rosi is a disturbed teen, the night after her grandmother's burial, Rosi begins to kill her whole family.
Director: Rafael Baledón | Stars: Marga López, Joaquín Cordero, Lilia Michel, Ofelia Guilmáin
Votes: 85
3. The Vampire Lovers (1970)
R | 91 min | Horror
Seductive vampire Carmilla Karnstein and her family target the beautiful and the rich in a remote area of late eighteenth-century Gemany.
Director: Roy Ward Baker | Stars: Ingrid Pitt, Pippa Steel, Madeline Smith, Peter Cushing
Votes: 7,476
4. The Mephisto Waltz (1971)
R | 115 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
An old, dying satanist arranges to transfer his soul into the body of a young concert pianist.
Director: Paul Wendkos | Stars: Alan Alda, Jacqueline Bisset, Barbara Parkins, Bradford Dillman
Votes: 3,271
5. A Reflection of Fear (1972)
PG | 89 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
A disturbed young girl starts believing that there is something very sinister at work after her estranged father visits her at her mother and grandmother's house with the woman he plans to marry.
Director: William A. Fraker | Stars: Robert Shaw, Sally Kellerman, Mary Ure, Sondra Locke
Votes: 1,027
6. The Exorcist (1973)
R | 122 min | Horror
When a young girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.
Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, Lee J. Cobb
Votes: 455,161 | Gross: $232.91M
7. Black Christmas (1974)
R | 98 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
During their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger.
Director: Bob Clark | Stars: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon
Votes: 48,374 | Gross: $4.05M
8. Deep Red (1975)
R | 127 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A jazz pianist and a wisecracking journalist are pulled into a complex web of mystery after the former witnesses the brutal murder of a psychic.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia, Macha Méril
Votes: 42,661
9. Carrie (1976)
R | 98 min | Horror, Mystery
Carrie White, a shy, friendless teenage girl who is sheltered by her domineering, religious mother, unleashes her telekinetic powers after being humiliated by her classmates at her senior prom.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, John Travolta
Votes: 206,754 | Gross: $33.80M
10. Suspiria (1977)
R | 92 min | Horror
An American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci, Miguel Bosé
Votes: 105,484
11. Halloween (1978)
R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller
Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran, Nancy Kyes
Votes: 306,899 | Gross: $47.00M
12. Alien (1979)
R | 117 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
The crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright
Votes: 951,348 | Gross: $78.90M
13. The Changeling (1980)
R | 107 min | Horror, Mystery
After the death of his wife and daughter in a car crash, a music professor staying at a long-vacant Seattle mansion is dragged into a decades-old mystery by an inexplicable presence in the mansion's attic.
Director: Peter Medak | Stars: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas, Jean Marsh
Votes: 40,036
14. The Evil Dead (1981)
NC-17 | 85 min | Horror
Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker
Votes: 232,475 | Gross: $2.40M
15. The Thing (1982)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur
Votes: 466,887 | Gross: $13.78M
16. Videodrome (1983)
R | 87 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A programmer at a Toronto TV station that specializes in adult entertainment searches for the producers of a dangerous and bizarre broadcast.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: James Woods, Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits, Peter Dvorsky
Votes: 103,036 | Gross: $2.12M
17. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
R | 91 min | Horror
Teenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund, John Saxon
Votes: 262,620 | Gross: $25.50M
18. Fright Night (1985)
R | 106 min | Horror
"Fright Night" sees a teenager believing that the newcomer in his neighborhood is a vampire. He turns to an actor in a television hosted horror movie show for help to deal with the undead.
Director: Tom Holland | Stars: Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Roddy McDowall
Votes: 78,681 | Gross: $24.92M
19. Night of the Creeps (1986)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Alien brain parasites, entering humans through the mouth, turn their host into a killing zombie. Some teenagers start to fight against them.
Director: Fred Dekker | Stars: Jason Lively, Tom Atkins, Steve Marshall, Jill Whitlow
Votes: 26,127 | Gross: $0.59M
20. Hellraiser (1987)
R | 94 min | Horror, Thriller
A woman discovers the newly resurrected, partially formed, body of her brother-in-law and lover. She starts killing for him to revitalize his body and escape the demonic beings that are pursuing him after he escaped their underworld.
Director: Clive Barker | Stars: Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Sean Chapman
Votes: 140,592 | Gross: $14.56M
21. Child's Play (1988)
R | 87 min | Horror, Thriller
A struggling single mother unknowingly gifts her son a doll imbued with a serial killer's consciousness.
Director: Tom Holland | Stars: Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif
Votes: 116,802 | Gross: $33.24M
22. Pet Sematary (1989)
R | 103 min | Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
After tragedy strikes, a grieving father discovers an ancient burial ground behind his home with the power to raise the dead.
Director: Mary Lambert | Stars: Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby, Fred Gwynne, Brad Greenquist
Votes: 115,079 | Gross: $57.47M
23. Flatliners (1990)
R | 115 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Five medical students experiment with "near death" experiences, until the dark consequences of past tragedies begin to jeopardize their lives.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Julia Roberts, William Baldwin
Votes: 93,467 | Gross: $61.49M
24. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
R | 118 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.
Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine
Votes: 1,548,865 | Gross: $130.74M
25. Candyman (1992)
R | 99 min | Horror, Thriller
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.
Director: Bernard Rose | Stars: Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Tony Todd, Kasi Lemmons
Votes: 100,185 | Gross: $25.79M
26. Necronomicon: Book of Dead (1993)
R | 96 min | Horror
Lovecraft visualizes 3 stories in Necronomicon: The Drowned, The Cold and Whispers, about bringing a dead wife and child back to life, extending life and aliens.
Directors: Christophe Gans, Shûsuke Kaneko, Brian Yuzna | Stars: Jeffrey Combs, Tony Azito, Juan Fernández, Brian Yuzna
Votes: 6,956
27. In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
R | 95 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
An insurance investigator begins discovering that the impact a horror writer's books have on his fans is more than inspirational.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Sam Neill, Jürgen Prochnow, Julie Carmen, David Warner
Votes: 79,363 | Gross: $8.95M
28. Lord of Illusions (1995)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A private detective gets more than he bargains for when he encounters Philip Swan, a performer whose amazing illusions captivate the world, but they are not really what everyone thinks.
Director: Clive Barker | Stars: Scott Bakula, Kevin J. O'Connor, J. Trevor Edmond, Daniel von Bargen
Votes: 19,279 | Gross: $13.29M
29. Scream (1996)
R | 111 min | Horror, Mystery
A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich
Votes: 388,608 | Gross: $103.05M
30. I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
R | 101 min | Horror, Mystery
Four young friends bound by a tragic accident are reunited when they find themselves being stalked by a hook-wielding maniac in their small seaside town.
Director: Jim Gillespie | Stars: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Anne Heche, Ryan Phillippe
Votes: 158,151 | Gross: $72.59M
31. Urban Legend (1998)
R | 99 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A college student suspects a series of bizarre deaths are connected to certain urban legends.
Director: Jamie Blanks | Stars: Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Michael Rosenbaum
Votes: 71,506 | Gross: $38.07M
32. Sleepy Hollow (1999)
R | 105 min | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the decapitations of three people; the culprit is legendary apparition The Headless Horseman.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon
Votes: 384,013 | Gross: $101.07M
33. Ginger Snaps (2000)
Not Rated | 108 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Two death-obsessed sisters, outcasts in their suburban neighborhood, must deal with the tragic consequences when one of them is bitten by a deadly werewolf.
Director: John Fawcett | Stars: Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Kris Lemche, Mimi Rogers
Votes: 52,314 | Gross: $0.00M
34. Jeepers Creepers (2001)
R | 90 min | Horror, Mystery
A brother and sister driving home through isolated countryside for spring break encounter a flesh-eating creature which is in the midst of its ritualistic eating spree.
Director: Victor Salva | Stars: Gina Philips, Justin Long, Jonathan Breck, Patricia Belcher
Votes: 142,610 | Gross: $37.90M
35. May (2002)
R | 93 min | Drama, Horror
A socially awkward veterinary assistant with a lazy eye and obsession with perfection descends into depravity after developing a crush on a boy with perfect hands.
Director: Lucky McKee | Stars: Angela Bettis, Jeremy Sisto, Anna Faris, James Duval
Votes: 40,510 | Gross: $0.15M
36. Wrong Turn (I) (2003)
R | 84 min | Horror, Thriller
Chris and a group of five friends are left stranded deep in the middle of the woods after their cars collide. As they venture deeper into the woods, they face an uncertain and bloodcurdling fate.
Director: Rob Schmidt | Stars: Eliza Dushku, Jeremy Sisto, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Desmond Harrington
Votes: 131,570 | Gross: $15.42M
37. Saw (2004)
R | 103 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Two strangers awaken in a room with no recollection of how they got there, and soon discover they're pawns in a deadly game perpetrated by a notorious serial killer.
Director: James Wan | Stars: Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, Danny Glover, Ken Leung
Votes: 466,912 | Gross: $56.00M
38. The Skeleton Key (2005)
PG-13 | 104 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.
Director: Iain Softley | Stars: Kate Hudson, Peter Sarsgaard, Joy Bryant, Gena Rowlands
Votes: 123,035 | Gross: $47.81M
39. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
R | 92 min | Comedy, Horror, Thriller
The next great killer and psychopath has given a documentary film crew exclusive access to his life as he plans his reign of terror over the quiet town of Glen Echo.
Director: Scott Glosserman | Stars: Nathan Baesel, Angela Goethals, Zelda Rubinstein, Robert Englund
Votes: 25,451 | Gross: $0.07M
40. Trick 'r Treat (2007)
R | 82 min | Comedy, Horror
Five interwoven stories that occur on Halloween: an everyday high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer; a college virgin might have just met the guy for her; a group of teenagers pull a mean prank; a woman who loathes the night has to contend with her holiday-obsessed husband; and a mean old man meets his match with a demonic, supernatural trick-or-treater.
Director: Michael Dougherty | Stars: Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, Dylan Baker, Rochelle Aytes
Votes: 104,646
41. Let the Right One In (2008)
R | 114 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl.
Director: Tomas Alfredson | Stars: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl
Votes: 226,828 | Gross: $2.12M
42. Orphan (2009)
R | 123 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A husband and wife who recently lost their baby adopt a 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she appears.
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra | Stars: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder
Votes: 252,521 | Gross: $41.60M
43. Insidious (I) (2010)
PG-13 | 103 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further.
Director: James Wan | Stars: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lin Shaye
Votes: 339,135 | Gross: $54.01M
44. You're Next (2011)
R | 95 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
When the Davison family comes under attack during their wedding anniversary getaway, the gang of mysterious killers soon learns that one of the victims harbors a secret talent for fighting back.
Director: Adam Wingard | Stars: Sharni Vinson, Joe Swanberg, AJ Bowen, Nicholas Tucci
Votes: 109,490 | Gross: $18.47M
45. Sinister (I) (2012)
R | 110 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A controversial true-crime writer finds a box of Super 8 home movies in his new home, revealing that the murder case he is currently researching could be the work of an unknown serial killer whose legacy dates back to the 1960s.
Director: Scott Derrickson | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, James Ransone, Fred Thompson
Votes: 280,344 | Gross: $48.09M
46. The Conjuring (2013)
R | 112 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.
Director: James Wan | Stars: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ron Livingston, Lili Taylor
Votes: 555,112 | Gross: $137.40M
47. Deliver Us from Evil (I) (2014)
R | 118 min | Crime, Fantasy, Horror
New York police officer Ralph Sarchie investigates a series of crimes. He joins forces with an unconventional priest, schooled in the rites of exorcism, to combat the possessions that are terrorizing their city.
Director: Scott Derrickson | Stars: Eric Bana, Edgar Ramírez, Olivia Munn, Chris Coy
Votes: 85,743 | Gross: $30.58M
48. The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (2015)
R | 92 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A family in 1630s New England is torn apart by the forces of witchcraft, black magic and possession.
Director: Robert Eggers | Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Julian Richings
Votes: 301,095 | Gross: $25.14M
49. The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)
R | 86 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A father and son, both coroners, are pulled into a complex mystery while attempting to identify the cause of death of a young woman who was apparently harboring dark secrets.
Director: André Øvredal | Stars: Brian Cox, Emile Hirsch, Ophelia Lovibond, Michael McElhatton
Votes: 139,391 | Gross: $0.01M
50. The Ritual (I) (2017)
TV-MA | 94 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A group of old college friends reunite for a trip to a most dangerous country in Europe - Sweden, encountering a menacing presence there stalking them.
Director: David Bruckner | Stars: Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier, Sam Troughton
Votes: 119,810
51. Hereditary (2018)
R | 127 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.
Director: Ari Aster | Stars: Toni Collette, Milly Shapiro, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff
Votes: 378,430 | Gross: $44.07M
52. Midsommar (2019)
R | 148 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A couple travels to Northern Europe to visit a rural hometown's fabled Swedish mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
Director: Ari Aster | Stars: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Vilhelm Blomgren, William Jackson Harper
Votes: 403,680 | Gross: $27.33M
53. Possessor (2020)
R | 103 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
An agent works for a secretive organization that uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people's bodies - ultimately driving them to commit assassinations for high-paying clients.
Director: Brandon Cronenberg | Stars: Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rossif Sutherland
Votes: 45,837
54. Last Night in Soho (2021)
R | 116 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Aspiring fashion designer Eloise is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s, where she encounters dazzling wannabe singer Sandie. But the glamour is not as it seems, and the dreams of the past crack and splinter into something darker.
Director: Edgar Wright | Stars: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Diana Rigg
Votes: 177,136
55. Talk to Me (I) (2022)
R | 95 min | Horror, Thriller
When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.
Directors: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou | Stars: Ari McCarthy, Hamish Phillips, Kit Erhart-Bruce, Sarah Brokensha
Votes: 143,793
56. Late Night with the Devil (2023)
R | 93 min | Horror
A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation's living rooms.
Directors: Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes | Stars: David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi
Votes: 34,591
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