What Are The Scariest Movies Of All Time?

Halloween comes once a year, but there’s always time for a good horror flick or two to up the adrenaline and really get that heart beating. What are the scariest movies of all time? Well, that all depends on who you ask - and what you find scary, of course.

Still, there are some films that have always outshone the rest when it comes to their horror rating, even if it sometimes takes years for fans to really understand just how much of a classic they witnessed. From instant classics to those that have stood the test of time, there’s nothing quite like a good horror movie.

The Strangers saw a home invasion go to new levels

2008’s ‘The Strangers’ was always going to get off to a spooky start when the words “based on a true story” flashed onto the screen. Of course, how much of this is true has long been debated, but that didn’t stop people from watching this movie from behind their couches when the masked strangers took over Kristen and James’ vacation house in a home invasion with a twist. The wilderness and a fight to survive - ‘The Strangers’ really has it all.

Hellraiser was the one to bring Pinhead into our world

A man with pins in his head is always going to be terrifying, and it’s something we get to see in more ways than we imagined in 1987’s ‘Hellraiser.’ The movie starts with the famous trope of entering an old, scary house with a mysterious puzzle box. Oh, and it just so happens to be where someone lost their life. It might sound like something we’ve seen before, but the scenes in ‘Hellraiser’ and Pinhead are unlike any horror antagonist we’ve seen before.

Sinister shows us that being curious can have dangerous consequences

‘Sinister’ hit the big screen in 2012 with the time-old tale of a creepy house where weird things seem to happen. However, true-crime writer Ellison Oswald thinks moving into a haunted house is the perfect idea as he hopes to write a best-selling book about the place where they never solved the crime. The problem? Being curious comes at a price - and that’s a lesson learned the hard way.

The Ring is a horror movie classic for a reason

It might have been a remake of the Japanese movie of the same name, but ‘The Ring’ had all it needed to stand out on its own in 2002. The idea is simple: watch this videotape and lose your life. Samara is the one who will eventually club out of a well and through the TV screen, but there’s something about the horror character that is more terrifying than most we have seen in a long, long time.

The Grudge took Japanese horror and gave it to the mainstream world

The early 2000s really were a time for Japanese horror movies. ‘The Grudge’ launched an entire franchise in 2004 with the original, with possessed and monstrous people crawling out of every corner of the house. Under the sheets, in the shower, even coming down the stairs - nowhere is safe when you step foot in this haunted house. The question that was on everyone’s lips - who would make it out the other side, and why are kids in horror movies so terrifying?

Talk to Me is one of the latest horror hits to come to life

Hitting the big screen in 2023 has already seen ‘Talk to Me’ go down as an instant classic. The movie is the Philippou brothers’ first dance with the big screen, but horror is nothing new to the twins. What happens when you use an old hand to bring ghosts into our world? If you’re anything like Mia, trying to reconnect with your late mother might have more consequences than it seems on the surface.

Event Horizon has gone on to become a cult classic

It’s not every day you get a sci-fi horror that works, and ‘Event Horizon’ initially didn’t. When it was released in 1997, the movie was critically panned, but it’s since earned a cult following for a reason. A team of astronauts is tasked with finding a missing spaceship that spontaneously reappears at Neptune, only to find out something else has returned, and it doesn’t have good intentions.

Saw sparked an unstoppable franchise

The traps, Jigsaw, that terrifying puppet, and a twist that no one saw coming. Sure, ‘Saw X’ might have us falling back in love with the franchise in 2023, but it’s also had us thinking about just how great the original was when it hit the big screen in 2004. If gore horror is your thing, ‘Saw’ should check just about every box. Of course, it’s not just the horrific scenes that make this film so terrifying - it’s the fact it could happen to anyone bad.

What are the scariest movies of all time? Of course, that depends on who you ask and what gets your heart racing, but it’s hard to deny that some of them become legends in the genre for a reason.