Right Now, These Are The 16 Best Scary Movies:
In Halloween by John Carpenter, a great Sheriff Leigh Brackett once said, “It’s Halloween.” I guess everyone deserves a good scare now and then. Yes, that’s a good line. But one scary thing? Is it just for Halloween? What a cheapskate! Empire believes that everyone should have access to a wide range of scary events all year long.
You have definitely come to the right place to find your next sleepy night. Whether you’re looking for classic slashers, creepy killer clowns, or arthouse horror films that break society’s most scary taboos and make your heart race and your cheeks clench, we have what you’re looking for.
The fact that horror movies are still so popular shows that everyone likes a good scare. The genre is a lot of fun, with everything from unexpected jump scares as well as creepy settings to scary animals and strange events.
That being said, these movies aren’t always meant to be fun to watch. Some horror movies are so scary, upsetting, and weird that even the biggest fans would have a hard time sitting through them.
The Empire team got together in the middle of the night in an empty house on an old dirt road in Texas to make a list of the 50 best horror films ever made.
You’ll find enough scary movies here, from classics to new favorites, that even the most devoted horror fans will have to double-check that their doors are locked when they’re done.
It:
If you count both movies as one, which they pretty much are, you get a six-hour drama centered around Stephen King’s loose, baggy, monsterous book.
Two generations, each 27 years apart, share the screen time to tell the story of the Losers’ Club’s ongoing fight against Pennywise, an unknown evil cosmic entity who takes the form of a clown. Like the book it’s based on, it’s crazy, tiring, sometimes scary, and surprisingly friendly.
Sinister:
Many people think that Sinister is the scariest modern horror movie of all time. It is, well, pretty scary. Ethan Hawke plays a real-life crime writer who moves his family into a house where horrible killings happened because his study leads him to those shocking facts.
The story of the movie is simple, but it is made within a way that will remain with you for a long time. The 8-track tapes Hawke’s character finds a number of deaths that are already scary to see, but the monster face that keeps showing up in all of them is the stuff of nightmares.
Saw:
The first Saw is a great, low-budget horror movie that gets lost in the shuffle of all the sequels. It’s stylish, well-written, and has a killer surprise at its conclusion.
The main plot is about two strangers who are locked in a room together and don’t know why. The police investigation going on in the background sets the stage for future parts that will be very confusing. Please tell us you’re not hooked.
Hereditary:
Ari Aster has become a fresh and important voice in horror movies in the last few years, as shown by his first movie, Hereditary. The movie is about a family that is grieving over the passing of their mother and how strange events lead them to find out dark family secrets.
That being said, Aster’s movie is the scariest one that A24 has ever released. It’s dark, hopeless, and full of disturbing images and sounds.
Roni Collette gives a very scary performance, and there is a scene with a nut allergy that takes a horrible turn that people will never forget. Very dark things.
Hellraiser:
It’s tough to remember how different Hellraiser was when it first came out in the late 1980s. In a horror world where kids are getting cut, Clive Barker’s first movie to be a director was an adult domestic drama with magical elements, violence, gore, and hints of an interesting bigger universe whose rules were almost fully formed when the movie started.
The second part would go into more detail about that, but for now, this is just a love triangle as well as a Faustian deal. It’s a weird mix of Marlowe as well as Chekhov, told alongside low-key visual flair.
The S&M demons Cenobites and, especially, Doug Bradley’s Pinhead get all the attention, even though they’re only shown for a short time. But Uncle Frank has to be the real winner here.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre:
Many people say that new horror movies are always scary, but The Texas Chain Saw Massacre from 1974 isn’t one of those movies. In the movie, Leatherface and his family of cannibals go after a group of hitchhikers for the initial time. The effects are mean and bloody.
When it came out, it was banned in several countries because it had the right amount of pure horror and extreme gore. It is still thought to be one of the scariest movies of all time. It is gross and very amazing for its time, but not for people who are easily scared.
Drag Me To Hell:
Lorna Raver’s Hungarian gypsy screams at Alison Lohman’s bank worker, “You shamed me!” because the worker didn’t give the gypsy another debt extension.
The Lamia, a monster, is coming to visit, which is the worst fate ever. Even though the punishment appears to be fair, the results are a wild, raw, and highly entertaining ride, alongside Sam Raimi at his funhouse finest the whole time.
On the other side of Lohman’s awful bubble, Justin Long plays the classic horror part of not believing an atheist.
Goodnight Mommy:
It’s a slow-burning psychological horror movie that is filled with fear from beginning to end. It’s about twin boys Elias and Lukas who start to wonder who their mother is when she comes home from surgery with bandages all over her face.
People always say that this is one of the scariest horror movies ever made. The film’s creepy atmosphere and slow pace will get under your skin, but the scenes of children torturing each other will make you squirm. It goes to some very scary and dark places.
Audition:
At first glance, the movie that made Takashi Miike famous around the world doesn’t look like a horror movie at all. In this show, a widower tries to start dating again with a younger woman by going through the sketchy and dishonest audition process that the title refers to.
When we learn that the person he wants has been waiting through the phone for days, in an apartment that doesn’t seem to have anything else in it besides a scary-looking bag, we start to understand that something was very, very wrong. The foot-sawing and eye-needles are also there.
The Innocents:
The Nordic countries always make great scary movies with great use of atmosphere, if you’ve seen any of their movies. There are also creepy kids doing cruel things, which makes for some pretty uncomfortable watching.
These things come together in The Innocents to make a quiet but always creepy movie. In the middle of a bright Nordic summer, some kids try out their new skills as things start to go badly. It’s even harder to handle the violence and abuse when it’s done by kids.
Cat People:
Universal was making horror movies such as there was no tomorrow, so RKO asked director Val Lewton to make an action movie that would be similar. The company did not expect the results to be what they were.
Instead of giving them the monster mash they wanted, Cat People gave them more psychological scares and a still-surprising idea about a woman who is afraid to complete her marriage because she thinks that sexual climax will transform her into a panther.
The update by Paul Schrader in the 1980s made great use of today’s FX and sexuality, but Tourneur’s scares are more subtle and are all about shadows and following.
Mother:
Mother! by Darren Aronofsky is one of the most controversial movies of all time. Jennifer Lawrence plays the title character and lives with him within a Victorian house in the country.
When three surprise guests show up at once, things go crazy, and Mother is caught within a scary and confusing turn of events. The movie is scary from beginning to end, and its symbolism, loud sound effects, as well as shaky camera work help to tell its symbolic story.
It gets scarier and scarier in ways that were not expected, and it ends in a way that will make people upset and never want to watch this movie again.
The Devil Rides Out:
The Devil Rides Out was a big change for Hammer Horror. Instead of a classic gothic tale, it was a modern Dennis Wheatley occult thriller.
The book is streamlined and made better by Richard Matheson’s brilliant script. The language and pace are spot on, and the performances are top-notch, especially from the great Charles Gray as well as as always, Christopher Lee.
The studio would come back to Wheatley a few years later with To The Devil A Daughter, but they missed a chance through never bringing back Lee’s Duc de Richleau, the ghost hunter who brings hell to his friends’ innocent friends in eleven of the author’s books.
Speak No Evil:
It’s not a lie to say that Speak No Evil is one of the more shocking, horrible, and highly rated movies of 2022. A Danish family makes friends with a Dutch family while on vacation and is asked to their home. However, the Dutch family’s friendliness turns into something more and more disturbing.
It’s the perfect example of a slow burn, where things don’t seem quite right at first but then go to a truly impossible and disgusting place by the end. The movie is very scary and doesn’t have any kindness to it. It’s about the risks of following orders.
A Quiet Place:
Your whole view changes when you have kids. The best thing you can do is keep your kids safe or get them ready for what they’ll face in the real world. The ambitious monster movie by John Krasinski You make noise, you die adapts that main idea and turns it into a number of almost unbearably tense scenes.
The emotional hook of Krasinski’s Lee as well as Evelyn and their fight to keep their kids safe is what makes A Quiet Place so powerful. A movie that will take your breath away in every way
Infinity Pool:
Infinity Pool, directed by Brandon Cronenberg, is about James and Em Foster, a married couple who take a holiday to Li Tolqa, an island with a fancy lodge. Soon after, they are in a terrible accident that leaves them with no choice but to face the island’s strange laws and be put to death, or buy a clone as well as watch themselves die.
Soon, the mystery Gabi Bauer pulls James deeper into the island community’s partying ways. She shows him everything he needs to know regarding being a murder tourist. Infinity Pool is currently a movie that fans and reviewers are arguing over and talking about a lot. It has shocking scenes of blood, sex, torture, as well as of course, body horror.
It could become a new popular favorite soon, but only time will tell. There is one thing that is certain: it will be remembered to be a truly scary horror movie that people will likely only watch once.
