Now that you’ve got the essentials, watch the best horror movies every year since ‘Psycho’ on Shudder.

Psycho

(1960)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Starring: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin

Few horror films have attainted the cultural ubiquity of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller Psycho (the least of which being its atrocious 1998 Vince Vaughn remake by Gus Van Sant). The film's notorious bloody shower scene is recognized as one of the most iconic moments in cinematic history, and sure, being violently murdered by a reclusive psychopath while on the run for stealing a hefty load of cash is terrifying in and of itself (cue Marion Crane’s blood-curtling scream to haunt your dreams forever). But throwing in an unhinged hotel manager who’s kept his dead mother in their home for 10 years and assumed her identity makes for one hell of a horror flick. Hitchcock really turned up for this one. —Catie Keck

The Innocents

(1961)

Director: Jack Clayton

Starring: Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins

The Innocents is one of the most evocatively shot horror films of all time. Both narratively and visually, this ghost tale is about what we do in the shadows. The two-tone cinematography makes candle flickers unpredictable and the space under a doorway extra creepy. But director Jack Clayton also uses it to highlight the black-and-white absolutes in religion that can drive people mad. In The Innocents, we're never sure if the ghosts that Deborah Kerr sees are real or just manifestions of a mind that's shaming itself for her lusty desires. —Brian Formo

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

(1962)

Director: Robert Aldrich

Starring: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono

Robert Aldrich’s camp classic, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, isn’t funny or scary enough to be properly labeled a horror comedy. Yet, you can certainly trace some of the roots of that subgenre to this aging diva romp, particularly in something like Stephen King’s Misery. In Baby Jane, two former celebrity siblings, played by Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, share a living space and drive each other mad. Rats are served for dinner. Davis uses a creepy, incestual song as a seduction technique. And snitches get rope burns. Baby Jane might not be the biggest spook, but it sure is a hoot. —Brian Formo

The Birds

(1963)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Starring: Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette

Alfred Hitchcock was a master at his craft, and The Birds is an undeniably frightening piece of art. Somehow, he took creatures that we see every day and turn them into violent, vengeful killers. The best part? We never find out why the birds even started attacking. They just went ham on a town...and possibly took their reign of terror on an a world tour. Either way, bird-watching changes the instant you finish this film. —khal

The Masque of the Red Death

(1964)

Director: Roger Corman

Starring: Vincent Price, Hazel Court, Jane Asher

Painterly, exuberant and chilling, the cycle of Vincent Price-driven Edgar Allan Poe adaptations stand among Roger Corman’s best. But in 1964, his penultimate installment proved to be the series’ peak. Adapting The Masque of the Red Death—about the merciless, Satanist Prince Prospero’s attempts to cloister and party himself through a vicious plague—Corman, Price and then rising soon-to-be-great Don’t Look Now filmmaker Nicolas Roeg crafted a richly designed, eerie work about imminent death.

Few have physicalized the presence of our eventual end in such a lush, dreadful manner. This swirling, gothic period piece is informed by the mystically-inclined era of its production, and it makes the film reverberate to this day. Price’s Prospero embodies the cruelty and flippancy of a certain would-be world leader and what he comes to learn is that despite his subjugation of the less fortunate, the reaper has no preference. Death comes for all and serves none. —Samuel Zimmerman

Repulsion

(1965)

Director: Roman Polanski

Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser

Roman Polanski's first English language feature is one of the best psychological horror films ever made, using sexual fears as a very real and tangible source of terror. French icon Catherine Deneuve plays Carol, a virgin whose sexually liberated surrounding of the 1960s becomes a breeding ground for nightmares. Polanski accomplishes a terrifying dreamlike quality by reaching deep into the subconscious. Despite the director's sexually abusive and predatory history, Repulsion has an astounding understanding of female trauma, rather than simply using it as a vehicle for the “mad woman” trope. Many films later would go on to imitate Repulsion's themes and shadowy visuals, but none have ever quite come close to this masterpiece. —Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

The Witches

(1966)

Director: Cyril Frankel

Starring: Joan Fontaine, Kay Walsh, Alec McCowen

While The Witches plays up your typical “witchcraft equals loose, evil women” trope (not to mention a profoundly deluded concept of “witch doctors”), it still offers some entertaining, old school horror. Joan Fontaine stars as an English schoolteacher who travels to Africa on missionary work and encounters a witch doctor, subsequently suffering a nervous breakdown. After returning to England, the woman discovers she’s far from escaping paranormal phenomena, as a coven of witches has plans to murder a local schoolgirl in a ritualistic sacrifice. I won’t ruin the film’s end for you, but its ominous trailer speaks for itself: "Who are the witches? They hypnotize the innocent, bedevil the unsuspecting." —Catie Keck

Wait Until Dark

(1967)

Director: Terence Young

Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna

Several decades before this year's Hush, a horror movie about a deaf woman getting stalked in her own home, Audrey Hepburn gave an Oscar-nominated performance as a blind woman in Wait Until Dark, Terence Young's tense home invasion film. Suzy's (Hepburn) husband finds himself in possession of a seemingly innocuous doll, but the doll happens to be filled with heroin, which a group of criminals led by Alan Arkin are trying to get their hands on. Suzy, home alone and blind, must face these criminals when they come to retrieve it, and Young effectively turns the lights off on the viewer in its climactic last moments. Hepburn gives a stellar performance in a role that's a departure from her usual romantic comedy lane. —Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

Rosemary's Baby

(1968)

Director: Roman Polanski

Starring: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon

Spare, stylish, and with a slick sense of terror, Rosemary’s lilting, minor key lullaby wraps cold fingers around the heart, clenching tighter as the film’s tense proceedings tumble towards their sickeningly inevitable ends. Rosemary (Mia Farrow) rubs elbows with an eccentric (read: devil-worshipping) neighbor in her new apartment building, gets pregnant, cops an awesome haircut, and begins to unravel as her loved ones groom her to become Mom of the Year to demon spawn. Farrow tackles the fragile yet rebellious role with the the same kind of gusto she uses to gnaw on bloody steak and uncooked liver. Meanwhile, Polanski masterfully plants paranoiac seeds of doubt in even the most sure-footed viewer.

Ironically, the film doubles as a horror about the loss of female autonomy, a thematic layer rendered nauseating regarding the filmmaker’s checkered past. But it’s difficult to dismiss the pure genius of Rosemary’s Baby. After all, it’s not so hard to make a film that scares, but a film that haunts? That’s another story. —Aubrey Page

Eye of the Cat

(1969)

Director: David Lowell Rich

Starring: Michael Sarrazin, Gayle Hunnicutt, Eleanor Parker

For all the feline frights that exist solely to grant audiences an empty jolt, there are comparatively few horror movies that let cats get down to some real nasty business. Written by Joseph Stefano, screenwriter of Hitchcock’s Psycho, Eye of the Cat boasts a real devious mindset. The film sees Hunnicut’s temptress Kassia and her boyfriend, the ailurophobic Wylie (Michael Sarrazin) enter into a murderous plot when Wylie’s eccentric aunt plans to leave riches to her mass of cats. Unfortunately, the vicious pets have plans to defend both the estate and Aunt Danny. What follows is a succession of visceral and wickedly funny acts of violence perpetrated on or by the entire feline ensemble. It’s a real delightfully mean mess of bad behavior. —Samuel Zimmerman

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage

(1970)

Director: Dario Argento

Starring: Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno

Dario Argento’s first film is his most Hitchcockian. The Bird With the Crystal Plumage is less about staging magnificently grotesque knife plunges and more about the elaborate getaway plans that a killer stages. In the film’s most famous sequence, a man witnesses a murder in an art gallery, steps closer and then is entrapped in a glass case unable to help or free himself. With Plumage, Argento—who made many films about the horrors of witnessing awful acts—views horror cinema as something that should make you feel like you can’t look away or escape the death you’re watching. —Brian Formo

Daughters of Darkness

(1971)

Director: Harry Kumel

Starring: Delphine Seyrig, John Karlen, Danielle Ouimet

There's an inherent campiness to this '70s sexploitation film based on the story of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who infamously drank virgin blood to stay young forever. It's that campiness that puts Belgian vampire film Daughters of Darkness in cult category. Delphine Seyrig plays—well, slays—this part of Elizabeth perfectly, with a sinister but irresistible elegance as she preys on a young honeymooning couple while accompanied by a mysterious protégée. This vampire film comes a decade before the more widely celebrated, David Bowie-starring The Hunger, but its colors, sparkly gowns, and of course, bloody spookiness, are too good to ignore. And like so many other good horror movies, an excellent string-based score elevates the eeriness of this delectable flick. —Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

The Last House on the Left

(1972)

Director: Wes Craven

Starring: Sandra Peabody, Lucy Grantham, David Hess

Recognized as one of the early pioneers of exploitation horror, The Last House on The Left was one of the most controversial movies in the U.S. upon its release. Following two young women who are trying to attend a concert, Wes Craven's brutal directorial debut picks up steam when he introduces the audience to the four principal antagonists of the film. In the same way that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre psychologically traumatizes its audience, Last House bombards the senses with unrelenting scenes of torture, sexual violence, and a truly disgusting scene of one of the main characters getting her insides taken out. The build up is the key here, as each of the murderous members of the crew is taken out one by one—in some of the most unforgettable scenes of revenge we've ever seen. If you can make it past the mentally taxing first hour, The Last House on The Left quickly becomes one of the best horror movies of all time. —Justin Davis

The Exorcist

(1973)

Director: William Friedkin

Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, Jason Miller

The Exorcist gave us the most foul-mouthed (and most vomit-filled mouth) demon in the history of cinema. It’s still the benchmark for a possession movie, even 43 years later. It’s not just gross; it actually feels and sounds unholy. To watch The Exorcist is to give a little piece of yourself to hell for all eternity. The genital mutilation via forced crucifix masturbation is one of the most depraved moments in mainstream horror, but it doesn’t just end there. William Friedkin goes beyond envelope-pushing and has the possessed daughter thrust her mother’s head into her bloody crotch while moaning “lick me, lick me.” This is all before her head spins and spouts the C-word. The Exorcist is more than a horror film. It’s a frightful, repressed memory that will gurgle to the surface from time to time and make you cross your heart. —Brian Formo

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

(1974)

Director: Tobe Hooper

Starring: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Allen Danziger

There have been many Texas Chainsaw movies in the past few decades, the next one seemingly gorier than the last, but the original 1974 version by Tobe Hooper has an inimitable grittiness that makes it more nightmarish than its less popular successors. The idea of a family of killers, including a member who wears human skin over his own face, is truly disturbing, and they exercise their terror to full power when two siblings and their friends visit their grandfather's home in a Texan countryside. All the screaming and bleeding will haunt you, but so will the behind-the-scenes stories: blaming "going insane" from the unbearable heat, Leatherface actor Gunnar Hansen actually sliced open Marilyn Burns' finger because the fake blood clogging was holding up production. Now how badly do those screams haunt you? —Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

Jaws

(1975)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss

Credited with inventing the summer blockbuster, Steven Spielberg‘s Jaws is not just a giant of horror, but of cinema altogether. It may as well be the greatest achievement in the embarrassment of riches that is Spielberg’s career. Every single element of the film, about a shark that terrorizes a beach, functions like flawless clockwork. Yet it has such humanity, as if that clock is single-handedly operated by a mad genius with mastery over every gear and bolt. That mad genius is of course Spielberg, who directs from Peter Benchley and Paul Gottlieb‘s script. Jaws is a bonafide classic, an enduring cinematic adventure that never loses its effect. Swimming in the ocean would never be the same again. —Haleigh Foutch

Carrie

(1976)

Director: Brian De Palma

Starring: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving

What makes Carrie incredibly terrifying (and deserving of its spot on this list) isn’t rooted in the horror of Carrie White’s telekinetic abilities or her weirdness. It’s in the terror that other people can inflict on one another carelessly and without consequence—well, unless you have said telekinetic powers. In Brian De Palma’s adaptation (the only one that counts) of Stephen King’s novel, Carrie (played by Sissy Spacek) is the pariah of her high school, the butt of all jokes and pranks. On top of all that, she has a truly insane, religious nut for a mother who torments her at home. The endless horrors that Carrie continually absorbs between school and home show just how easy it is to wear someone to their breaking point. So while you’ll feel vaguely justified about Carrie’s telekinetic violence at the end of the film, you’ll also feel that it should have never come to this point at all. —Kerensa Cadenas

Suspiria

(1977)

Director: Dario Argento

Starring: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci

Has there ever been a film that uses the color red better? Even the blood in Italian horror maestro Dario Argento's cult classic oozes in a stream of a fantasy hue., It’s too delectable to be real, but it’s sinister in its sweetness all the same. Jessica Harper plays young and wide-eyed American ballerina Suzy, who gets accepted to a prestige ballet school in Germany. But when her schoolmates start dropping dead in horrendous ways, she realizes something witchy is in the air. Beautiful and terrifying, Argento's essential horror film comes with one of the best horror movie soundtracks, scored by Italian prog rock band Goblin. —Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

Halloween

(1978)

Director: John Carpenter

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Tony Moran

At this point it’s totally cliché to say that “Halloween birthed the modern slasher film,” but is it cliché if it’s still true? So many of the hallmarks of horror movies today directly call back to Halloween—creepy masks, babysitters, virginal final girls—but it’s the first that perfectly mastered the formula. Fifteen years earlier, a young Michael Myers murdered his older sister and was committed to a mental hospital. He escapes and comes back to murder many more people in his hometown, which includes Laurie Strode (played by horror queen Jamie Lee Curtis) and her group of friends. It’s a pretty basic premise, but it’s executed to creep perfection by director John Carpenter, who also scored the eerie music. It made a star out of Curtis, who maybe set the bar for future horror heroines a little too high. —Kerensa Cadenas

Alien

(1979)

Director: Ridley Scott

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt

Alien is amazing sci-fi, yes, but it’s also underrated as a horror film. Sure, it had a tagline for the ages (“In Space No One Can Hear You Scream”), but Ridley Scott’s first foray into the gothic cosmos carefully sets up the larger franchise’s queasy feeling of the maternal dread that can click between gestation and birth. The alien “birth” scene is iconic and extremely phallic, but it’s the proximity between Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and the Xenomorph that leaves the most lasting sensation. The alien’s every entrance into the corner of a frame stops time with needle drop unpredictability. —Brian Formo

The Shining

(1980)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd

The scariest part of The Shining isn’t the A-story about a man who goes stir-crazy as the caretaker of a Rocky Mountain hotel and tries to murder his family—it’s the suggestion that we all have this sort of madness lurking beneath the surface. Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s like-titled novel (for the record, King hates what Kubrick did) is gorgeously shot, sinister, and foreboding, with compelling performances from Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. It’s greatest strength, however, is the way the movie sticks with you, creating a haunting mental labyrinth out of mazes employed in the movie. Just watch Room 237, a documentary dedicated entirely to sussing out what The Shining is REALLY about… because the uncertain feeling the movie leaves you with is terrifying. —Andrew Gruttadaro

The Evil Dead

(1981)

Director: Sam Raimi

Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManicor

Though the term “splatstick” wasn’t officially coined by Peter Jackson until the early ‘90s, it was invented and nearly perfected in 1981 with Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead. A group of teens, headed by Bruce Campbell in a Canadian tuxedo, amble into an abandoned cabin and accidentally invoke an evil spirit, becoming possessed with the urge to kill in increasingly colorful ways. Raimi gleefully turns up the mayhem to 10, grounding the first few minutes in faux slasher set-up before ratcheting up the tension (and tree rape) for a pedal-to-the-metal possession flick that’s surprisingly rich in mythology. Despite the DIY effects, it’s still scary when a zombified girlfriend suddenly mimics her old, tender voice as she lashes out from underneath a trap door, or in another scene, when a number two pencil is jabbed into someone's ankle. —Aubrey Page

The Thing

(1982)

Director: John Carpenter

Starring: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David

Before body parts expand, leak fluid and drip ickiness, there is an exemplary creation of dread in John Carpenter’s The Thing. The stillness of an isolated Antarctic research center that’s pummeled by snow and wind is just as frightening as a classical Transylvania castle. Everything about The Thing is so impersonal. The workers who are willing to isolate themselves by taking a job literally at the end of the earth are certainly closed off to others, so predicting which one has been overtaken by the monster isn't an easy task, making it that much scarier. The Thing is one of the greatest paranoia thrillers; it's the bodily modifications that push it into chilly and detached escalations of pure terror. —Brian Formo

Sleepaway Camp

(1983)

Director: Robert Hitzik

Starring: Felissa Rose, Jonathan Tiersten, Karen Fields

Watch 'Sleepaway Camp' on Shudder.

All that anyone talks about when they talk about Sleepaway Camp is the shocking ending. What’s more surprising is the curling iron penetration murder scene. It’s mostly shadows, but your brain fills it in ways that should make you squirm and recoil much more than the final image that reveals the identity of the killer. Sleepaway Camp has the look and feel of a Porky’s movie with grisly deaths, but the final freeze frame belongs in an art museum, right next to a Francis Bacon painting. —Brian Formo

Nightmare on Elm Street

(1984)

Director: Wes Craven

Starring: Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund

If we’re being real here, Freddy Krueger, Nightmare on Elm Street’s killer, isn’t that scary looking, with his disfigured face, knives for hands, and stylish (and certainly iconic) striped sweater. But when you first watch Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy is scary with a capital "S" because of what he can do to you while you are sleeping. A group of teens (led by final girl badass Heather Langenkamp) are tormented by Freddy while they are sleeping, but the dead bodies are very real once they awaken. The real horror here is not being able to sleep: if you fall asleep, you’ll be brutally murdered, and if you stay awake, you’ll be so sleep deprived that you’ll go nuts. —Kerensa Cadenas

Re-Animator

(1985)

Director: Stuart Gordon

Starring: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton

Re-Animator has a sex scene that perfectly encapsulates the viewing experience of this twisted H.P. Lovecraft adaptation. No, it’s not the decapitated head being held in position to perform rapey cunnilingus on a tied down medical student, as referenced in 1999’s American Beauty. Rather, it's a scene where a lover playfully annoys his girlfriend in a university hallway, while she says “no, no, no,” before it cuts to them in bed having sex while she yells, "yes, yes, yes." There are gross things that happen in this movie about med students reviving the dead, but it’s done in such a funny way, that what makes you initially say "no, no, no," will make you let out a gleeful "yes, yes, yes" when it ratchets up the grossness. —Brian Formo

The Fly

(1986)

Director: David Cronenberg

Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz

The Fly is quintessential Cronenberg body horror. Taking the “science experiment gone wrong” formula from the original Vincent Price B-movie from 1958, Cronenberg manages to breed his own horror hybrid: a malignant creature with a goopy gross-out exterior concealing a hard narrative center of existential terror. Goldblum stars as eccentric scientist Seth Brundle, who is hell-bent on developing cutting edge technology for matter transportation. But he accidentally fuses his DNA with that of an errant fly found in the crosshairs of the experiment. It isn’t long until the gross-out fest: fingernails are torn off, insect puke is spewed, and extremities are burned with acid. But there’s far more careful calibration going on behind the viscera. Yes, this is a movie that finds his quasi-girlfriend (Geena Davis) accidentally ripping off Goldblum’s jaw bone with a sickening squish, but it’s also a horror film that’s most effective when it’s dealing with the repercussions and inevitability of human decay. Be afraid, be very afraid. —Aubrey Page

Hellraiser

(1987)

Director: Clive Barker

Starring: Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence

Watch 'Hellraiser' on Shudder.

Before Pinhead was the go-to Halloween costume for the cool kid on your block, he was the antagonist of a pretty ground-breaking little horror franchise called Hellraiser, borne out of Clive Barker’s gothic but highly personal horror novel The Hellbound Heart. Ditching the surefire slasher formula for something far more esoteric, Hellraiser is the ultimate cautionary tale against opening strange, decorative boxes. (No, seriously, you really don’t wanna open this box.) Hellraiser has sexy subtext and scares in droves, which keeps its plentiful gore from getting monotonous, hitting more than a few notes of red-blooded lust and carefully calibrated dread to keep things plenty interesting. —Aubrey Page

Child's Play

(1988)

Director: Tom Holland

Starring: Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent

Don't lie—Child's Play probably had you looking at your dolls at little differently. Before Toy Story made the idea of living toys a child-friendly box office hit, Charles Lee Ray (affectionately known as Chucky) cornered the market in fun-sized chaos. The story of a boy and his psychopathic doll, Child's Play attempted to build the mystery behind Chucky before fully revealing what he could REALLY do midway through the movie. State of the art special effects and stellar performances by Brad Dourif (who has voiced Chucky in every movie in the franchise since), child star Alex Vincent, and Chris Sarandon catapulted a silly concept into a true horror classic. —Justin Davis

Pet Sematary

(1989)

Director: Mary Lambert

Starring: Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby, Fred Gwynne

Let’s get this out of the way—Pet Sematary isn’t particularly good. But thanks to its full commitment to B-movie cheese and a near-gonzo approach to the genre, it does manage to qualify as pretty damn great. The tale follows a white-bread, New England family headed up by a particularly denial-prone patriarch (Dale Midkiff). They move into a new home adjacent to both a well-traveled highway and a mystical cemetery that has the ability to raise animals from the dead. Pet Sematary, gleefully dark as ever, takes its time before killing the family's youngest son in a heavily foreshadowed semi-truck collision. Grief-stricken, the father buries his son in the town cemetery, hoping to take advantage of the cemetery’s handy life-giving loophole. Of course, things don't go so well.

Both goofy and grotesque, Pet Sematary nonetheless presents bracingly terrifying ideas of the horror of death and our lack of control over it. Whether it’s an inadvertent masterpiece of schlock or a masterful exploration of loss is anyone’s guess. Regardless, Pet Sematary is certainly deserving of its cult status. —Aubrey Page

It

(1990)

Director: Tommy Lee Wallace

Starring: Tim Reid, Richard Thomas, Annette O’Toole, Harry Anderson, Richard Masur, Jonathan Brandis

The scariest movie of 1990 was televised. A two-part movie event broadcast on ABC, It brought yet another Stephen King horror to life. It is a particularly manipulative horror movie—especially if you watch it for the first time at a young age—that capitalizes on the well-worn fear of clowns and the terrors of childhood. As clowns become a source of real-life scares, one doesn't need to emphasize how horrifying those bozos can be. Most of all though, It is successful because it echoes another King tale, The Body, which was adapted into the film Stand By Me. The camaraderie and shared history of It’s protagonists stir feelings of warm nostalgia in viewers—which makes it all the more horrifying every time Pennywhistle pops up. FYI: It will also change the way you look at storm drains forever. —Andrew Gruttadaro

Silence of the Lambs

(1991)

Director: Jonathan Demme

Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Lawrence A. Bonney

One of the most prestigious horror films—it won Best Picture at the 1992 Academy Awards, becoming the only horror film to do so—Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs is an indisputable masterpiece that birthed two iconic movie villains. Jodie Foster stars as FBI trainee Clarice Starling, who's tasked with picking the brain of the scariest psychopath on the prison block, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. She does so in order to track down another serial killer by the name of Buffalo Bill, who kidnaps, kills, and wears his female victims like clothing. But Dr. Lecter has more than a few tricks up his sleeves, while Buffalo Bill moonwalks with his penis tucked between his legs in this acclaimed thriller. —Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

Candyman

(1992)

Director: Bernard Rose

Starring: Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Tony Todd

While the name of the game may change, as a kid you always learn about some mysterious figure who, when their name is uttered in the dark in the mirror, they appear and wreak havoc. Candyman takes that urban legend and breathes life into it. The key? Instead of this taking place in a suburbia, this tale is transported to the Cabrini Green projects in Chicago, adding an entirely new element to the horror. Candyman, with his slow and low voice, hook for a hand, and squad of bees, preys on Helen, making her question her own sanity while effectively doing his bidding. —khal

Leprechaun

(1993)

Director: Mark Jones

Starring: Warwick Davis, Jennifer Aniston, Ken Olandt

Leprechaun was a movie that for all intents and purposes shouldn’t be as enjoyable as it is. Schlocky, and ultimately pretty corny, Warwick Davis’ performance as the titular character makes it one of the most memorable horror movies of the time. The concept is simple enough to get into, as director Mark Jones turns an Irish folk legend into a vehicle to watch teenagers get brutally murdered by a magically endowed little person. Warwick’s devilish performance isn’t the only thing to look out for here, as a young Jennifer Aniston makes her big screen debut in the movie as well. —Justin Davis

Interview With the Vampire

(1994)

Director: Neil Jordan

Starring: Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater, Thandie Newton, Kirsten Dunst

Based on Anne Rice’s novel by the same name, Interview With the Vampire packs in a roster of Hollywood heavyweights, including Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater, and a young Kirsten Dunst. A lonely vampire named Louis (Pitt) shares his centuries-old, blood-stained history with a present day journalist (Slater) who’s looking for a scoop. Primarily told through flashbacks, Louis must come to terms with his own existentialism after years mourning the murder of his adoptive daughter Claudia (Dunst). While even Rice, the film’s screenwriter, admitted that the casting was notoriously bad, Interview With the Vampire is a fan-favorite of the Nosferatu enthusiasts—and the homoerotic relationship between Lestat (Cruise) and Louis at least somewhat makes up for it. —Catie Keck

Se7en

(1995)

Director: David Fincher

Starring: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Gwyneth Paltrow

Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman star in director David Fincher’s gruesome crime thriller about a detective duo investigating homicides that are modeled after the seven deadly sins. Kevin Spacey also makes an appearance in the film as the elusive architect behind the film’s twisted, transgression-themed murders. The hellish scenes for each of the capital vices are enough to turn anyone’s stomach (the “lust” murder perhaps the most grisly of all), but a special delivery for Detective Mills (Pitt) in the film’s final scene brings the murder full circle and leaves us with a Fincher-style punch to the gut. What's in the box!?!?!! —Catie Keck

Scream

(1996)

Director: Wes Craven

Starring: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard

Before horror movies got annoyingly meta, Wes Craven mastered the self-referential concept with Scream, toying with our expectations and kicking off one of the genre's most celebrated franchises. Scream changed the slasher genre by being cleverer than most, by addressing the rules of a horror movie while subverting tropes, like with atypical final girl Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell). It also remains infinitely watchable thanks to its humor, though that shouldn't downplay its scares. It's equally horrifying when Ghostface (today one of horror's most recognizable "faces") starts stabbing through the student body at Woodsboro High. The Scream series is memorable in every aspect, from the killer soundtrack, to its cast and cameos, to Ghostface's brooding voice calling and asking, "Do you like scary movies?" Oh, that we do, but we'd be hesitant to admit it to an unknown caller. —Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

Funny Games

(1997)

Director: Michael Haneke

Starring: Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Mühe, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering

Funny Games is a home invasion movie about two young men who look like they just came from Wimbledon that terrorize a family. That’s no doubt a horrific premise, but the movie is so much worse than it sounds because of Haneke’s chilling direction. Moments unfold painfully slow, negative space is utilized to dreadful effect, and Haneke allows his antagonists to break the fourth wall. The director toys with the viewers' expectations and makes them complicit in the horror playing out. The movie’s closing image, of the murderous duo moving on to another house, hammers home how inevitable the terror is, and how Funny Games is one of the most disturbing movies you will ever see in your life. —Andrew Gruttadaro

Ringu

(1998)

Director: Hideo Nakata

Starring: Nanako Matsushima, Miki Nakatani, Yuko Takeuchi

Japan’s original Ringu is a horror film that benefits from lacking the budget and visual sheen that its American remake had. The narrative is built around a possessed piece of film of which the creepy visage can actually kill the person who sees it. Ringu’s simple aesthetics make it feel more like you’re watching people watch a snuff film, until it literally steps out of the TV set that contains it. Ringu’s visual choppiness perfectly replicates the tracking problems of a VHS tape that needs a good clean. And the draped hair that hides the face of its murderous vision is the spookiest slow-walker this side of The Walking Dead. Japan had been making great horror films for years, but this is the film that finally pushed through the fringe and into more living rooms than ever before. —Brian Formo

The Blair Witch Project

(1999)

Director: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez

Starring: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard

The Blair Witch Project has become as synonymous with pure, unadulterated terror as much as any of its cult classic contemporaries. Pioneering the found footage medium and becoming one of the first films to utilize viral marketing ahead of its theatrical release, The Blair Witch Project is a terrifying experiment in raw human emotion. Filmmakers Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick went to great lengths to assure their actors’ performances were improvisational. And while we’re never really shown tangible evidence of any actual threat (save Heather’s discovery of what appears to be Josh’s teeth, tongue, and hair neatly bundled in scraps of his own t-shirt), the image of Mike facing a stone wall in the corner of an empty basement before the film cuts out is enough to terrify even the most seasoned horror creeps among us. —Catie Keck

American Psycho

(2000)

Director: Mary Harron

Starring: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas

Watch 'American Psycho' on Shudder.

Part black comedy about the shallow circles of wealth within 1980s New York City, part graphic horror film taking us into the mind of a demented sociopath, it was no surprise that American Psycho has become such a revered cult classic. Christian Bale shines as Patrick Bateman, an investment banker who’s obsessed with showing up his coworkers while also dabbling in a bit of the ultraviolence. His inner monologues are as hilarious as they are grotesque, and as the murder symphony plays out, one has to start examining their own dealings with hyper consumerism...and with people we just can’t stand. —khal

The Others

(2001)

Director: Alejandro Amenábar

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston, Fionnula Flanagan

The Victorian aged haunted house gets a nice twist in The Others. Generally, the traditional horror period piece exposed the puritan limitations of the living in that era, but The Others deliciously details the spiritual insecurities that ghosts have themselves. Embracing the sub-genre’s tendency for mist, floorboard creaks and dancing flames on a candlestick, Alejandro Amenábar crafts a delicate spookfest with a perfectly executed ending that holds up after repeated viewings. —Brian Formo

28 Days Later...

(2002)

Director: Danny Boyle

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston

At this point, it’s easy to say that zombies are played out with the mad popularity of The Walking Dead. But the origins of our recent modern-day zombie obsession can be traced back to 28 Days Later, directed by Danny Boyle. Surface wise, it seems to tell a pretty standard zombie story—an infection stems from some animals, one gets out, someone gets infected and pretty soon everyone is. But what 28 Days Later does to differentiate itself, with help from stars Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris, is ground this zombie attack in utter realism. From the gruesome ways that the infections go down to the dwindling of necessary supplies, the scariest revelation of the film is that you can’t trust the good guys. —Kerensa Cadenas

High Tension

(2003)

Director: Alexandre Aja

Starring: Cecile De France, Maiwenn, Philippe Nahon

You know those movies you love showing to first-timers because you get such a kick out of seeing their reactions? That's High Tension for you. Alexandre Aja's gory French horror film is about two college students, Marie and Alex, who go to the latter's home for a quiet study getaway, when a killer brutally murders Alex's entire family and then kidnaps Alex. Marie must save her best friend before it's too late, while the killer leaves a gory trail behind. By the time the movie is over, though, you may find yourself wanting to watch it a second time, just to search for answers. —Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

Saw

(2004)

Director: James Wan

Starring: Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, Danny Glover, Tobin Bell

The first movie in the seven-part Saw series was applauded as gory psychological horror film that appeared to either break the mold entirely, or at the very least inspire a number of copycats to ramp up their gore and twisted plot mechanics. While the subsequent films lacked the punch that the original did, Saw won when it stayed cerebral, making the players in its sadistic game question just how far they’d go in order to save themselves. —khal

The Descent

(2005)

Director: Neil Marshall

Starring: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid

If you're claustrophobic and hate outdoor activities, The Descent may be your very worst nightmare. Neil Marshall's film follows six ladies who go on a caving expedition, when suddenly they get trapped and lose their way. Not only do their inner squabbles and tests of friendship pose some very real-life terrors, but in the depths of darkness lie savage, subhuman creatures hungry for human flesh with no inkling of moral consciousness. The chance of escape gets narrower every minute, and the possibility of survival merely a crevice, while down below awaits a giant pool of blood. —Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

The Wicker Man

(2006)

Director: Neil LaBute

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Ellen Burstyn, Leelee Sobieski

2006 was a strange yet prolific year for horror. There were your typical cash-grab sequels (Saw III, The Grudge 2), your strangely enjoyable genre-benders (Slither, The Host) and a glut of remakes that literally no one asked for (The Hills Have Eyes, The Omen). It’s this latter category that produced what might be the most fascinatingly puzzling horror movie of the last decade: Neil LaBute’s The Wicker Man, featuring a Nicolas Cage performance that can only be described as a holy-shit-this-is-peak-Nicolas-Cage-what-did-we-do-to-deserve-this. LaBute’s 2006 update preserves the original “cop searching for missing girl” plot, yet weirdly reworks the cult to be an evil matriarchal community with a violently obsessive devotion to bees and honey production. Its non-sequitur, nonsensical screenplay invites an air of surrealism and some disturbing, unintentional hilarity that otherwise may not have been there if it weren’t for that manic, unpredictable Cage performance. His death-by-bees has to be considered horror iconography by now, right? —Erik Abriss

Paranormal Activity

(2007)

Director: Oren Peli

Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs

If The Blair Witch Project helped create the “found footage” genre, Paranormal Activity redefined it. One of the most memorable horror movies in recent memory, Paranormal builds upon the tropes that defined the genre and the series as a whole (multiple room camera shots, night vision, long tracking shots) and packages it with a simple yet devastating story. After experiencing strange events in their house, Katie and her tech-savvy boyfriend Micah attempt to find the root of their other worldly problem...by doing idiotic things. You’ll gasp in horror as the Ouija board gets broken out, but the third act of the movie is some of the most frightening shit you’ll ever see. Paranormal Activity is scary, but more than that—it’s incredibly well made. Watch this movie immediately. —Justin Davis

The Strangers

(2008)

Director: Bryan Bertino

Starring: Scott Speedman, Liv Tyler, Gemma Ward

Watch 'The Strangers' on Shudder.

The Strangers opened our eyes (and ears) to how terrifying a Joanna Newsom song can be, especially when played on an old record player, in an isolated cabin, while being visited by a group of murderous strangers. Whether soundtracked by an eerie folk tune or blanketed by silence, Bryan Bertino's home invasion film stays unbearably tense throughout, even from the very beginning, which starts with an inescapably awkward marriage proposal rejection. Things get even worse than the on-the-outs couple (Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) could ever imagine, when a disturbance late at night keeps them up and fighting for their lives against three strangers who like to kill for fun. —Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

Drag Me to Hell

(2009)

Director: Sam Raimi

Starring: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Ruth Livier, Lorna Raver

After directing the first great superhero film, Spider-Man 2, and then promptly tearing down that edifice with the abysmal and laughable Spider-Man 3, Sam Raimi went back to his horror roots with Drag Me to Hell. But don’t let that PG-13 rating fool you. Hell might not be as bloody, but it’s filled with bile and some of the grossest but funniest moments of physical comedy in a horror film. An upstart loan officer (Alison Lohman) goes to a hexing gypsy’s funeral and knocks over the casket, causing the body-preserving liquids pore out of the dead woman’s mouth, all over our protagonist. As a horrified audience pulls her off, the corpse’s hand also rips her hair from her head. You’ll laugh and grimace at the same level you did during Evil Dead 2, regardless of MPAA rating. —Brian Formo

I Saw the Devil

(2010)

Director: Jee-woon Kim

Starring: Byung-hun Lee, Min-sik Choi, In-seo Kim

The body count in I Saw the Devil is surprisingly low, but that makes this Korean revenge horror film even more unforgiving. After having his fiancée brutally murdered by a serial killer who dismembers young women, a secret agent (Lee Byung-hun) avenges her death by going after her murderer (played by Oldboy's Min-sik Choi). But instead of just killing or arresting him, he sadistically, repeatedly maims him and then lets him go free so he can hunt him down again in a demented game of cat-and-mouse. I Saw the Devil pits a predator against a predator with unrelenting violence, so while some scenes are hard to watch, it'll be hard to turn away from the masterful camerawork from director Jee-woon Kim. —Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

The Roommate

(2011)

Director: Christian E. Christiansen

Starring: Minka Kelly, Leighton Meester, Cam Gigandet

Didn’t expect to see this one here, did you? The Roommate, starring look-a-likes Minka Kelly and Leighton Meester, takes and updates a pretty well worn horror trope—the single white female. Sara (Kelly) has just started her freshman year of college and Rebecca (Meester) is her roommate. The two immediately bond, but once Sara meets a new guy, Rebecca gets jealous of him and Sara’s ever growing social life, and begins to threaten anyone who dares get in the way of their friendship. Meester is surprisingly menacing as Rebecca, who comes off harmless at first. Most of all though, this film will forever make you question body jewelry. —Kerensa Cadenas

Cabin in the Woods

(2012)

Director: Drew Goddard

Starring: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Jesse Williams

Director/writer Drew Goddard and writer Joss Whedon offered an alternative to the found footage trend with Cabin in the Woods. It was a slick, big budget, high concept movie that was executed stunningly well. On paper, the film seemed like just another stock-characters-get-murked-on-a-spring-break-trip slasher. I mean, the title alone screams "you've seen this before." But Cabin takes those stock characters (Chris Hemsworth’s jock; Jesse Williams’ nerd; Franz Kanz’s stoner; Anna Hutchison’s mix; and Kristen Connolly’s ingénue) and all of the expected tropes of the genre and dismantles them in such a brazen, brilliant, and bloody original way. Plot twist: the whole movie is a plot twist. It’s wickedly smart, includes the funniest opening scene of any horror movie, and explodes with a bloodbath climax that leaves us both laughing and pondering the film even years later. —Erik Abriss

You're Next

(2013)

Director: Adam Wingard

Starring: Sharni Vinson, Joe Swanberg, AJ Bowen

Director-writer duo Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett may be responsible for the flop that is the Blair Witch sequel/reboot this year, but they're off the hook from the merit of You're Next, an unexpectedly incredible and subversive work of horror. They took the overused concept of a home invasion premise and completely turned it around on its head, essentially throwing a giant middle finger at the whole formula. It's best if we don't spoil it, but what starts out as a bunch of masked killers interrupting a tense family dinner goes off the rails and then stabs you in unexpected places when you're not even looking. Best of all, it's so fun to watch, and warrants repeat viewings. —Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

The Babadook

(2014)

Director: Jennifer Kent

Starring: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall

The directorial debut from writer and director Jennifer Kent, The Babadook brilliantly straddles the line between psychological thriller and all-out horror. Kent has always been coy about whether the film’s antagonist—the eponymous storybook monster terrorizing a widow, Amelia, and her hyperactive 6-year-old, Sam—is an invention of their own making or a real, palpable threat. After a harrowing night of confronting the proverbial monster in the room by facing it head-on (an event that leaves the beloved family dog Bugsy dead), Amelia is able to confine the Babadook to the home’s basement. But as we’re reminded by Sam, “If it's in a word, or it's in a look, you can't get rid of the Babadook.” —Catie Keck

It Follows

(2015)

Director: David Robert Mitchell

Starring: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Olivia Luccardi

One of the biggest tropes in horror films is how the “naughty” kids who sneak off to secluded areas to have sex end up being murked by the killer. In It Follows, that idea is turned up to the nth degree, where a mysterious supernatural entity passed from person to person through sexual contact literally follows a person until he or she is killed or passes the entity on. The film is true minimalist horror, earning all of its jump scares while Maika Monroe runs the gauntlet, trying to escape a killer that no one else can see. —khal

The Witch

(2016)

Director: Robert Eggers

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie

The directorial debut from writer and director Robert Eggers, The Witch jumped from festival favorite to critical darling seemingly overnight. Centered on a God-fearing family exiled from their settlement in 17th century New England, The Witch explores the real-life religious hysteria that plagued the region's earliest settlers. The film stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Thomasin, the family’s eldest daughter who goes through hell after her baby brother is kidnapped by a purported witch living in the neighboring woods. With her mother in an unconsolable state, Thomasin’s situation soon takes a turn for the worse, as even more supernatural phenomena descend on the helpless family—and for which she is ultimately blamed. An endorsement from the Satanic Temple helped build the hype ahead of the film's theatrical release, but Eggers’ heavily researched Puritan-era horror did all the legwork for establishing itself as a masterful cult classic. —Catie Keck