Note: This is an update to this post. So many new movies have come out and I've caught up on a few I still had managed to miss from the "good old days" that it felt like the right time to update this list.
As a writer of horror stories and connoisseur of scary flicks, I get asked a lot what my favorite horror movies are. Well, it's not that simple with me (it never is; ask my wife and kids). There are so many and how can one possibly pick a favorite when there are favorites in so many subgenres? (It's like how my wife tells me she can have more than one best friend when "best" is a superlative, not a comparative.)
Anyway, as of this moment in time (subject to change), this is my list of favorite horror movies (and those that influenced my ideas and my writing) categorized by subgenre.
If you want to consider this your own "to watch" list, I won't stop you. It's a fantastic list (at least in my opinion) of the essential horror stories committed to film.
FYI, you will notice some crossover between subgenres, because, well, that's just the way horror works.
New Category#1! Sinister Locations
My son Evan recommended that I include this as a new category, and the more I thought about it, he was right. I don't include a mere haunted house tale in this list though. Those will be under Ghost Stories/Haunted Houses. This list is reserved for a place that is more than haunted; it is cursed, unclean, unwelcoming and out to get you.
1. Hausu
2. As Above, So Below
3. YellowBrickRoad
4. In the Mouth of Madness
5. Dead & Buried
6. The Shining
7. Messiah of Evil
8. The Watcher in the Woods
9. Silent Hill
10. Dave Made a Maze
11. Suicide Forest
12. Population 436
13. Cabin in the Woods
14. Pet Sematary
15. Southbound
16. Skinamarink
17. The Dark
18. Neon Demon
19. Jugface
20. Waxworks
New Category#2! Kaiju
Who doesn't love giant monsters? It all began with the two kings, Kong and Godzilla. But American sci-fi quickly picked up on the theme and gave us lots of giant monsters thanks to the dangers of atomic bombs and chemicals polluting our waters.
1. King Kong 1933
2. Gojira 1954
3. Godzilla Minus-1
4. Troll Hunter
5. Tremors
6. Them
7. King Kong 2005
8. The Host
9. Godzilla 2014
10. Destroy All Monsters
11. Monsters
12. Cloverfield
13. Mothra
14. Rodan
15. Kong: Skull Island
16. Tarantula
17. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
18. Nope
19. The Mist
20. Q the Winged Serpent
21. Pacific Rim
22. Attack of the 50 Foot Women
23. The Blob 1988
24. Anaconda
25. Colossal
New category! Stephen King Adaptations
His work has been adapted into films more than any other living writing writer, probably any writer living or dead, period. Some are fantastic, some are, well, less than fantastic. But here are the ones that have most influenced my work.
1. Cujo
2. Salem's Lot (1979)
3. Christine
4. The Shining (1980)
5. Carrie (1976)
6. It, Chapter 1
7. The Mist
8. Gerald's Game
9. 1408
10. It (1990)
11. Needful Things
12. Doctor Sleep
13. Pet Sematary (1989)
14. Secret Window
15. Misery
16. Desperation
17. It, Chapter 2
18. Maximum Overdrive (sure, it's silly but so much fun)
19. Cat's Eye
20. The Langoliers
Ghost Stories
For me, ghost stories are my favorite genre of horror tales, and whether they're about a haunted person, house, or even plot of land, I'm all in.
1. The Orphanage
2. The Devil's Backbone
3. The Haunting (1953)
4. Thir13en Ghosts
5. The Others
6. Ju-on
7. The Ring (US version)
8. The Innocents
9. In a Dark Place
10. The Sixth Sense
11. The Shining
12. Session 9
13. The Terror
14. Kwaidan
15. The Babadook
16. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
17. Last Night in Soho
18. Crimson Peak
19. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House
20. The Changeling
The Living Dead
I'm really burned out lately on zombies, and I'm really tired of the "zombies as the apocalypse" theme. I love, however, to see directors and screenwriters do something new and different with the living dead, which for me also includes mummies and ghouls returned from the grave.
1. Dead Girl
2. Night of the Living Dead
3. Carnival of Souls
4. The Fog (original)
5. Tombs of the Blind Dead
6. Make Out With Violence
7. 28 Days Later
8. Dawn of the Dead
9. The Re-Animator
10. Zombi 2
11. Dead Snow
12. Brain Dead
13. Dance of the Dead (2008)
14. Return of the Living Dead
15. Day of the Dead
16. Candyman
17. Hello, Mary Lou: Prom Night 2
18. The Ghost Galleon
19. Night of the Seagulls
20. Blood from the Mummy's Tomb
Dr. Frankenstein/The Monster
The scientist who wants to play god is another of my favorite genres in horror, but not just that. This type of film also includes for me those who can't accept the "wrong" parts of people and want to create a sort of perfect version, even in non-science-y ways.
1. Deadly Friend
2. Bride of Frankenstein
3. The Bride
4. Frankenstein
5. Frankenstein Created Woman
6. May
7. Lady Frankenstein
8. Splice
9. Embryo
10. Demon Seed
11. Halloween III: Season of the Witch
12. Depraved
13. The Spirit of the Beehive
14. The Curse of Frankenstein
15. Ex Machina
16. M3ghan
17. Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman
18. The Island of Dr. Moreau
19. The Golem
20. M3gan
Vampires
Vampires. The original bad boys long before they ever sparkled. Let's just get this straight. I don't mind modern romantic vamps, but I prefer even my romantic vamps to enjoy a good rip of the jugular every now and then.
1. From Dusk Till Dawn
2. Forsaken
3. Dracula (Spanish Version)
4. Let the Right One In
5. Night Watch
6. Chronos
7. Shadow of the Vampire
8. Nosferatu
9. Prey
10. Salem's Lot (original TV miniseries)
11. Near Dark
12. Dracula (Universal)
13. Lost Boys
14. Fright Night
15. 30 Days of Night
16. Strigoi
17. The Night Stalker
18. Embrace of the Vampire
19. Taste the Blood of Dracula
20. The Brides of Dracula
Werewolves and Shapeshifters
Lycanthropes may be the A-listers in the shapeshifter crowd, but the world of therianthrope isn't limited to just wolves. I think for writers, the shapeshifters offer one of the best shorthand for looking into what makes humanity actually human, whether, wolf or cat or snake or lizard.
1. Cat People (original)
2. Howling
3. Howling V: The Rebirth
4. An American Werewolf in London
5. The Wolfman (original)
6. The Reptile
7. The Gorgon
8. Cursed
9. Cat People (remake)
10. Dog Soldiers
11. Silver Bullet
12. Blood and Chocolate
13. Underworld
14. The Wolfman (remake)
15. The Curse of the Werewolf
16. Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman
17. Ginger Snaps
18. Werewolves Within
19. Hisss
20. Night of the Cobra Woman
Demons/Devils
There are as many cultures of demons in the world as they're are countries and cultures of people. Although movies tend to default to the Western devil and demons, I wanted to include a few other brands of the demonic here as well.
1. Wishmaster
2. Sinister
3. The Beyond
4. The Exorcist
5. Lisa and the Devil
6. Rosemary's Baby
7. Drag Me To Hell
8. Jennifer's Body
9. The Evil Dead
10. Hellraiser
11. Demons
12. Night of the Demons
13. The Garden (2006)
14. Insidious
15. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
16. The Last Exorcism
17. Nightmare on Elm Street
18. Antrum
19. Prince of Darkness
20. Hereditary
"Witches"/Cultists
Yeah, I know there's a huge difference between horror movie witches, Wiccans, and nature worshippers, but for this list it if fits in any of those it works.
1. Suspiria
2. Black Sunday
3. City of the Dead (Horror Hotel)
4. The Dunwich Horror
5. The Wicker Man
6. The VVitch
7. The Babysitter
8. Curse of the Demon
9. Midsommar
10. House of the Devil
11. Witching and Bitching
12. Season of the Witch
13. The Virgin Witch
14. The Love Witch
15. Inferno
16. Mother of Tears
17. Rosemary's Baby
18. The Witch
19. The Woods
20. Viy
21. The Craft
22. Blood on Satan's Claw
23. Witchouse
24. The Autopsy of John Doe
25. The Lords of Salem
Slashers
It's the genre that will never take a break, much less die. Knives, axes, machetes, pointy sticks, bows and arrows, you name it, these folks use any tools at their disposal to dispose of their victims for revenge or no motive at all. And we still love to watch them.
1. Twitch of the Death Nerve (Bay of Blood)
2. Peeping Tom
3. The Burning
4. Halloween
5. Sleepaway Camp
6. Friday the 13th Part II
7. Dementia 13
8. Hatchet
9. Audition
10. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
11. Stage Fright (2014)
12. Last House on the Left (original)
13. I Spit on Your Grave (original)
14. Theatre of Blood
15. The Visit
16. All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
17. Martyrs
18. Final Girls
19. The Banana Splits Movie
20. Happy Birthday to Me
Creature Features
For my list, I'm separating supernatural and mutated creatures from the "Nature Gone Wild" critters. These monsters should be way about sharks and bears on the scary-meter. And they are. The thing I love about this genre is that often the critters are more sympathetic than their prey.
1. Pumpkinhead
2. Gojira
3. She Creature
4. Pan's Labyrinth
5. The Creature from the Black Lagoon
6. Silent Hill
7. Dagon
8. Feast
9. Troll Hunter
10. Humanoids from the Deep
11. Tremors
12. Nightbreed
13. The Mist
14. Digging Up the Marrow
15. The Host
16. The Bay
17. Jeepers Creepers
18. Tremors III
19. The Golem
20. Cellar Dweller
Nature's Monsters
You'll never go back into the water. You'll never venture alone in the woods. You won't piss off earthworms or birds anymore either.
1. Jaws
2. Cujo
3. The Birds
4. Eight-Legged Freaks
5. Piranha (original)
6. Chaws
7. Deep Blue Sea
8. Orca
9. Squirm
10. Willard
11. Empire of the Ants
12. Marabunta
13. Alligator
14. Grizzly
15. Razorback
16. Food of the Gods
17. Anaconda
18. Snakes on a Plane
19. Cocaine Bear
20. Zoombies/Zombeavers
Aliens
At some point, sci-fi aliens shifted from adventure to horror, and I love it. Who says first contact should be with something we can categorize and tame? Certainly not these otherworldly killer critters?
1. Alien
2. Slither
3. A Quiet Place
4. John Carpenter's The Thing
5. Aliens
6. The Blob (remake)
7. Species
8. Virus
9. Night of the Creeps
10. Bad Taste
11. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (remake)
12. Phantasm
13. Pitch Black
14. Day of the Triffids
15. Planet of the Vampires
16. Galaxy of Terror
17. Dead Space: Downfall
18. Under the Skin
19. The Mist
20. Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Psychos
There's often a lot of crossover between psychos and slashers, but a true psycho is out of his/her/their mind. They often have little to no rationale for their killings, and if they do, it's because of a break from sanity. They take the murderous urge above and beyond the average.
1. Nightmare in the Wax Museum
2. House of 1000 Corpses
3. Psycho
4. Misery
5. The People Under the Stairs
6. Pieces
7. The Devil's Rejects
8. The Boy
9. 2000 Maniacs
10. Eaten Alive
11. Saw
12. Don't Breathe
13. The Collector
14. Dressed to Kill (and yes, there are problematic issues that don't translate well to today)
15. Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator
16. Christine
17. 31
18. The Devil's Rejects
19. Fade to Black
20. The Pit and the Pendulum
Creepy Kids
Creepy kids have to be the absolutely creepiest movie "monsters." But it's so easy to overdo them and turn a flick into a farce. There's a very fine line that must be walked for the story to avoid the "cornfield" motif from Twilight Zone.
1. Orphan
2. The Omen
3. Children of the Corn
4. Cooties
5. The Children (1980)
6. Hard Candy
7. Village of the Damned
8. The Bad Seed (1956)
9. You'd Better Watch Out
10. Wicked Little Things
11. Who Can Kill a Child
12. Alice, Sweet Alice
13. The Brood
14. Goodnight Mommy
15. Them (2006)
16. The Children (2006)
17. Kill, Baby, Kill
18. Case 39
19. Spider Baby
20. Pet Semetary
Holiday Horror
I love just about any horror flick that is attached to a holiday. They can be so much fun, and typically they don't take themselves too seriously. Some though can be super creepy and terrifying, in spite of the holiday trappings (or often because of them).
1. Black Christmas (original)
2. Halloween
3. Rare Exports
4. Santa's Slay
5. Saint
6. Gremlins
7. April Fool's Day
8. My Bloody Valentine (original)
9. Anna and the Apocalypse
10. Trick or Treat
11. Satan's Little Helper
12. A Christmas Horror Story
13. Wind Chill
14. Dead End
15. Santa Jaws
16. Letters to Satan Claus
17. Holidays
18. Krampus
19. Terror Train
20. Violent Night
Anthologies
Okay. A lot of anthologies kind of suck. Maybe one good segment in a bucket filled with crap. But a few, a select few, get it right. Maybe by theming with a good theme. Maybe by lining up great writers and/or directors. Or just maybe by getting lucky.
1. Trilogy of Terror
2. Trilogy of Terror II
3. Tales from the Crypt
4. From a Whisper to a Scream
5. V/H/S
6. Creepshow
7. The House That Dripped Blood
8. Asylum
9. Southbound
10. The Field Guide to Evil
11. Trick 'r Treat
12. Creepshow 2
13. A Christmas Horror Story
14. V/H/S II
15. Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
16. Tales from the Hood
17. XX
18. The Uncanny
19. Cat's Eye
20. Ghost Stories
Creepy Comedy
There's a big difference (at least to me) between a comedy movie that adds tropes from horror and a horror flick that paces and dresses like a comedy during its runtime. I tend to like them both. But the best is the kind that integrates both genres almost seamlessly.
1. Bubba Ho-Tep
2. Shaun of the Dead
3. House (with William Katt)
4. Monster Squad
5. Black Sheep
6. Fido
7. The Cottage
8. Trailer Park of Terror
9. Doghouse
10. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
11. Elvira Mistress of the Dark
12. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (movie, not series)
13. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
14. Grabbers
15. Zombieland
16. Evil Dead II
17. Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy
18. Psycho Goreman
19. Young Frankenstein
20. Zombie Strippers
Giallo Horror
When Noir abandoned black and white, it found the world of four-color gore and violence. This is one of my favorite genres to watch. I love the Everyman aspect, caught up in a dangerous crime spree or mystery. And I love the way this type of film skirts the edges of horror tales and mystery stories.
1. Don't Torture a Duckling
2. Deep Red
3. Blood and Black Lace
4. Hatchet for the Honeymoon
5. Bird with the Crystal Plumage
6. Tenebre
7. The Case of the Bloody Iris
8. Cat O' Nine Tails
9. Kill, Baby, Kill
10. Four Flies on Velvet
11. Night of the Glass Dolls
12. The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
13. Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key
14. Black Belly of the Tarantula
15. Unsane
16. A Blade in the Dark
17. Whatever Happened to Solange?
18. Don't Look Now
19. The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh
20. The Perfume of the Woman in Black
21. Baba Yaga
22. The Girl Who Knew Too Much
23. Lizard in a Woman's Skin
24. The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire
25. Stage Fright
Body Horror
This one can be a tough genre to watch. It tends to revel in its super-gross-out ideas and images. It can be sickening down to its core concept (I'm looking at you Centipede). But when maintaining a fantastic story to accompany that imagery, they can be the most memorable stories around.
1. Videodrome
2. Blue My Mind
3. Dr. Jeckyll and Sister Hyde
4. Altered States
5. Shivers
6. The Human Centipede II
7. The Fly
8. Teeth
9. Spring
10. Thale
11. Tetsuo the Iron Man
12. Society
13. The Fly (Jeff Goldblum)
14. Sssssss
15. Splinter
16. Dead Ringers
17. American Mary
18. Eraserhead
19. The Skin I Live In
20. Tusk
Voodoo
Voodoo is a mixed bag in horror. Some films treat it as a bogeyman and make stuff up left and right to give it more horror gravitas while some evil cast it as the "white man's fears of others" -- some select few at least try to treat it fairly as a religion. But whatever the bag it's put in, it's still the home of the original zombies.
1. White Zombie
2. The Serpent and the Rainbow
3. Scream Blacula Scream
4. Venom
5. Eve's Bayou
6. Sugar Hill
7. The Skeleton Key
8. Ritual
9. Jessabelle
10. I Walked with a Zombie
11. The Plague of the Zombies
12. Black Mamba
13. The Curse of the Doll People
14. I Eat Your Skin
15. Ouanga
Gateway Horror for Kids
Even as a kid, I loved being scared by movies. Without these horror-themed entry-level flicks, where would kids like me have ended up? Some were designed to be horror-lite, but some just took elements of horror and wove them in to build in the creepy factor. Either way, they were my gateway drug as a kid.
1. Coraline
2. Corpse Bride
3. Monster Squad
4. Goosebumps (the movie)
5. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
6. The Gate
7. Willy Wonka
8. Monster House
9. The Watcher in the Woods
10. ParaNorman
11. Hocus Pocus
12. Little Monsters
13. Gremlins
14. The Lady in White
15. The Witches
Super Powers Gone Crazy
As a writer of superhero fiction, I love it when horror and superpowers mix. Call me a cynic, but I think if we have powers like that in the real world, they would more often lend themselves to moments of real horror than to moments of Boy Scouts saving folks from falling buildings.
1. Phenomena
2. Carrie
3. The Fury
4. Firestarter
5. Brightburn
6. The Crow
7. New Mutants
8. Split
9. Scanners
10. Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Warriors
11. Akira
12. Dead Zone
13. Chronicle
14. Blade
15. Tourist Trap
Creepy Dolls
On the creepy scale, does anything rate higher than creepy dolls? I mean, really? (Okay, maybe clowns, but even that would be too close to call without a photo finish.) What is it about things that are almost lifelike that scare us so? Especially things that are inanimate. Is there something in them that reflects something we don't want to face back at us?
1. Dolls
2. Puppet Master
3. The Boy
4. Dead Silence
5. Love Object
6. M3ghan
7. Magic
8. Dolly Dearest
9. Marronnier
10. Corn
11. Tourist Trap
12. Annabelle
13. Devil Doll
14. Bride of Chucky
15. Trilogy of Terror
16. The Devil's Machine
17. Baba Yaga
18. Anatomy
19. The Doll Master
20. Love Object
Stupid Shark Movies
I'll admit it. I love shark movies, both the genuinely awesome, scary ones that make me look twice at the ocean before entering the water at the beach AND the ones that are so stupid, so ridiculous that I simply laugh all the way through at the zany situations they create on celluloid. In fact, sometimes I prefer the really goofy ones, and the dumber the better.
1. Sharktopus
2. Sharknado
3. Santa Jaws
4. Sand Sharks
5. Ice Sharks
6. Ghost Shark
7. Two-Headed Shark Attack
8. Empire of the Sharks
9. Sharknado III
10. Planet of the Sharks
11. Trailer Park Shark
12. Jurassic Shark
13. Ouija Shark
14. Toxic Shark
15. Malibu Shark Attack
16. Three-Headed Shark Attack
17. Sky Sharks
18. Shark Night
19. Shark Week
20. House Shark
Torture Porn
Not a fan of this subgenre, but the first Saw and the first Hostel, like the original found footage cannibal films, were groundbreaking horror flicks. Seems like the films they inspired were just insipid and uninspired derivatives.
1. Saw
2. Hostel
3. The Wizard of Gore (original)
4. Martyrs
5. Cannibal Holocaust
Truly Weird/Genre Defying/Outliers
This last list is for my absolute favorite type of horror flicks, the kinds that don't fit neatly, or often at all, into easily definable categories. This is the place where the truly gifted or the truly insane come out to play. It's the kitchen where writers and directors operate with a blender and a spray nozzle more than with a paintbrush or a list of classic techniques and storylines. And it's where the best of the best in horror can usually be found (at least in my opinion).
1. Uzumaki
2. Lake Mungo
3. Rubber
4. The Lift
5. Lord of Illusions
6. From Beyond
7. Chopping Mall
8. The Woman
9. Jacob's Ladder
10. Freaks
11. Donny Darko
12. Us
13. The Deaths of Ian Stone
14. Irreversible
15. It Follows
16. Frontier(s)
17. The Broken
18. The Baby
19. Scare Me
20. Santa Sangre
