The heyday of horror movies came in the 70s and 80s when censorship was finally abolished, and special effects became more and more realistic. At that time, many horror films appeared on the screens, which later became classics. At the same time, slashers were born, aimed at a younger audience.

 

What are some of the best horror movies?

 

Unfortunately, by the 90s, horror films almost died out, giving way to thrillers. The popularity of The Silence of the Lambs played a significant role. Horror returned to the screens only after the beginning of the 21st century, slightly changing the plots to more social ones.

 

20. The Shining

USA, UK, 1980.

Horror, thriller, drama.

Duration: 144 minutes.

 

Writer Jack Torrance is in a creative crisis. To earn extra money and at the same time to be distracted, he gets a job as a caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, which is closed for the winter and moves there with his family. Jack plans to spend this time writing a new novel. But soon, terrible things begin to happen in the hotel.

 

The author of the original book Stephen King was dissatisfied with the adaptation by Stanley Kubrick. But still, the director managed to perfectly convey the mystical and frightening atmosphere of the hotel, inhabited by ghosts. Well, the fantastic performance of Jack Nicholson makes the picture a must-see.

 

19. Alien

USA, UK, 1979.

Horror, fantasy, thriller.

Duration: 116 minutes.

 

The spacecraft Nostromo receives a signal from the new planet LV-426. Crew members assume they are being asked for help. But soon, the team encounters a creepy alien who kills the heroes one by one.

 

With the cult film by Ridley Scott, a whole multi-year franchise about xenomorphs began, on which various directors worked. But still, the sequels are more like gloomy action movies. And the first film is a fantastic horror, where a monster hunts for heroes in a confined space.

 

By the way, initially, the author planned to kill all the characters in the film, which would exclude the possibility of a continuation. But the producers opposed this move and forced him to change the ending.

 

18. The Thing

USA, 1982.

Horror, fantasy.

Duration: 109 minutes.

 

In the ice of Antarctica, polar explorers find an alien organism. It soon turns out that he attacks people and can take the form and even copy the behavior of any living creature. Now all the station inhabitants suspect each other, trying to figure out the monster.

 

John Carpenter's film is based on the 1951 Thing from Another World. But the remake managed to surpass the original in terms of visual presentation and psychological tension.

 

17. Rosemary's Baby

USA, 1968.

Horror, drama, thriller.

Duration: 137 minutes.

 

Rosemary and Guy Wodehouse move to an upscale neighborhood in New York. They quickly become friends with their new neighbors, and everything seems to be going well in life. But one day, Rosemary dreams about being raped by a demon. And soon, the girl discovers that she is pregnant.

 

Director Roman Polanski approached the staging of his debut film in Hollywood very carefully, paying attention to the minor details in the plot. The author wanted no one to doubt the realism of what was happening. As a result, the picture perfectly combines the story of a classic horror film about a satanic cult and a reflection of the natural fear of motherhood.

 

16. The Exorcist

USA, 1973.

Horror.

Duration: 122 minutes.

 

Actress Chris McNeil's 12-year-old daughter has strange seizures. Moreover, during attacks, she behaves aggressively, and then she begins to speak in a male voice and move strangely. Doctors do not find any physical problems, and then it becomes clear: the girl is possessed by the devil.

 

William Friedkin's film is widely regarded as a horror classic. The director set it as his task to scare the viewer in every way, for which shaking scenery, terrible makeup, and many special effects were used. And many considered the scene of the exorcism of the devil even too realistic, although the performer of the role of Merrin's father, Max von Sydow, said that he did not believe in evil spirits.

 

Well, the moment where the girl's arms and legs bend has firmly gone down in history: it was copied in dozens of horror films and then parodied in many comedies.

 

15. Jaws

USA, 1975.

Horror, adventure.

Duration: 124 minutes.

 

The sheriff of the local police discovers on the shore the remains of a girl torn to pieces by a massive white shark. The number of victims is growing every day, but the city leadership does not dare to notify residents of the danger. Then the main character teams up with a shark hunter and an oceanologist to catch the monster together.

 

Steven Spielberg's film made a splash at the box office, paying off dozens of times and turning the term "blockbuster" into an independent genre. And all the more surprising is that this is a story about a vast monster devouring people.

 

14. Night of the Living Dead

USA, 1968.

Horror.

Duration: 96 minutes.

 

Barbara arrives with her brother at her father's grave. And right in the cemetery, they are attacked by a creepy man in rags. The girl manages to escape, and soon she finds herself in a house where several more strangers have gathered. And around begins the invasion of the living dead.

 

The film by aspiring director George Romero was the first story in which zombies were shown in their usual form today - before this term was referred only to as voodoo magic. Interestingly, Romero himself did not use it.

 

The film has many sequels and remakes, and the idea of ​​the mindless walking dead, who are primarily dangerous because of their numbers, has gone into popular culture.

 

13. Halloween

USA, 1978.

Horror, thriller.

Duration: 101 minutes.

 

Since childhood, Michael Myers has been in a hospital because he killed his sister. But one day, an adult criminal escapes, puts on a white mask, and begins to terrorize a group of teenagers.

 

The author work of John Carpenter launched a whole wave of slasher films - horror films where a maniac in a mask hunts teenagers. Such paintings even became a symbol of the eighties. And Halloween itself has evolved into one of the longest-running horror franchises in history. In 2018, another part was released, which continued the events of the very first film, ignoring the sequels.

 

12. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

USA, 1974.

Horror.

Duration: 83 minutes.

 

Girl Sally and her friends go to Texas to visit their grandfather's grave. On the way, they come to a farm where an extraordinary family lives, working in a slaughterhouse. Guests are invited to dinner, but it turns out that the owners are not opposed to hunting people.

 

"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" became the primary prototype of all slashers, anticipating both "Halloween" and other prominent representatives of the genre. The first part may seem rustic to date, although it has enough dark scenes.

 

But the picture also has many sequels, and in 2017 a prequel about the origin of the main villain, nicknamed Leatherface, was released. By the way, this character has an actual prototype - the maniac Ed Gein.

 

11. The Omen

USA, UK, 1976.

Horror.

Duration: 111 minutes.

 

The wife of American diplomat Robert Thorne gives birth to a dead child. Her husband decides not to tell his wife the sad news and takes another baby instead. The child, named Damien, grows up in the family as his own. But in fact, his soul is cursed from birth. After all, Damien is the Antichrist.

 

And another classic horror movie that embodies the idea of ​​fear of children. The contrast between the angelic face of the young actor and his sinister actions hooked the viewer. The picture came out with two more successful sequels, where they talked about Damien's adolescence and his mature years.

 

But the restart of the story of the same name failed, although the film's advertising campaign was built very ingeniously, releasing the picture on 06/06/2006.

 

10.  A Nightmare on Elm Street

USA, 1984

Horror.

Duration: 92 minutes.

 

High school students of one of the schools begin to dream the same dream: they are being pursued by a mutilated maniac Freddy Krueger with metal knives in his glove. And the worst thing is that those he killed in a dream die in reality. The heroes are trying to figure out where this ghost came from. But for this, they need not sleep.

 

One of the most recognizable on-screen maniacs came up with director Wes Craven, and over the years, the image of Freddy Krueger has become firmly established in pop culture. Everyone knows his invariable attributes: a red-green sweater, a hat, a burnt face, and a glove with claws.

 

It is ironic that in the late nineties, when the horror genre was in severe decline, the same Craven made the film Scream, in which he deconstructed the slasher genre and showed all the stereotypes of such movies.

 

9.  The Fly

USA, UK, Canada, 1986.

Horror, fantasy, drama.

Duration: 96 minutes.

 

Scientist Seth Brundle creates a teleportation device. After several successful experiments with objects and animals, he decides to try the invention on himself. But at the moment of teleportation, a fly flies into the device. Because of this accident, Set gradually turns into a giant insect.

 

And again, a remake that surpassed the original in quality and popularity. The fact is that the master of the body horror genre David Cronenberg undertook to shoot it. He was able to very vividly and unpleasantly show the mutations of the human body. Yes, he designed a creepy and cruel plot into a good drama.

 

8. The Conjuring

USA, 2013.

Horror, thriller, detective.

Duration: 113 minutes.

 

Spouses Ed and Lorraine Warren are experienced exorcists. They exorcise ghosts from houses and also give lectures about otherworldly forces. But one day, they have to face such a potent evil that not only the inhabitants of the damned home are in danger, but also the spouses themselves.

 

This film was directed by James Wan - the creator of another famous horror franchise, "Astral." He took as a basis the memoirs of the honest Lorraine Warren, who claims that all these events happened. The result was a great horror movie with many scary scenes, which later turned into a whole franchise with spin-offs like Annabelle.

 

 

7. Carrie

USA, 1976

Horror.

Duration: 98 minutes.

 

Quiet and timid schoolgirl Carrie is constantly intimidated by her fanatically religious mother and offended by her peers. Aggression accumulates inside her, which suddenly manifests itself in supernatural abilities. And at this time, classmates want to play it again right at the prom.

 

The film adaptation of Stephen King's debut novel by the famous Brian De Palma cemented the book's popularity and stimulated many other directors to pay attention to the writer's work. The secret to the story's success is simple: King took a familiar story about bullying at school and turned it into supernatural horror. Well, Palma only managed to adapt all this perfectly.

 

The movie's tagline is "If The Exorcist made you flinch, Carrie would make you scream." And this is not an exaggeration: at first, many viewers were seriously frightened by the terrible bloody scene at the school.

 

6. Suspiria

Italy, 1977

Horror, drama.

Duration: 98 minutes.

 

Young American ballerina Susie Bannion travels to Germany to study at the famous dance school. Soon, girls begin to die mysteriously there. And then Susie realizes that the school has become the site of a coven of witches.

 

Dario Argento is a recognized master of the Giallo genre, which combines a crime thriller, explicit scenes, and cruelty. But in Suspiria, he went further, combining dark mysticism with a beautiful musical film.

 

And in 2018, a remake of the same name was released. The new version turned out to be more ambiguous and even philosophical. However, there are enough beautiful and scary scenes in it too.

 

5. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers

USA, 1978.

Fantasy, thriller, horror.

Duration: 115 minutes.

 

Alien plants appear in an American town. Gradually, they turn into absolutely exact copies of people and take the place of the originals. The only difference is that the aliens are entirely emotionless.

 

The classic film of the same name came out in 1955 when the US went through a hysteria about foreign spies. Then the film set the fashion for the story of the alien invasion.

 

The 1978 remake was even more interesting than the original. The atmosphere of horror and creepy scenes of the appearance of copies from cocoons were added to the unusual plot. And the gloomy ending of the picture went down in history as one of the most sinister scenes.

 

4. Poltergeist

USA, 1982.

Horror, thriller.

Duration: 114 minutes.

 

The Freeling family moves into a new house, where strange things soon happen: objects move on their own, and appliances turn on. Then the tree outside the window tries to kidnap the son of the Freelings, and while his parents are getting him out, their daughter disappears.

 

The creator of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper, years later released another cult horror film, only now in a completely different style. Based on a script by Steven Spielberg, the story has become one of the best examples of haunted house horror.

 

3. Ringu

Japan, 1998

Horror, thriller, detective.

Duration: 96 minutes.

 

There is a legend among teenagers about a creepy videotape. As soon as someone watches the tape, the phone rings in his house, and a week later, he dies. And after the mysterious death of his niece, reporter Reiko Asakawa decides to look into the origin of this tape.

 

This film gave us a creepy girl with black hair crawling out of the TV. First, she turned into one of the most famous and frightening images and then into the object of many parodies.

 

The popularity of the original film was also noticed in Hollywood, and three years later, they released their version of the picture in the United States. Curiously, later the continuation of the American version was directed by the director of the Japanese original, Hideo Nakata.

 

2. The Babadook

Australia, Canada, 2014.

Horror, mystic.

Duration: 93 minutes.

 

Amelia, who has lost her husband, brings her young son Sam a children's book called The Babadook. But the monster of history becomes tangible. It inhabits the heroine and tries to kill the child.

 

Australian actress Jennifer Kent in her directorial debut, was able to talk about the deep feelings of a single mother. Therefore, if you oversee the film, you can see not only cool screamers but also the expression of a woman's grief over her dead husband. And the ending hints that secret fears cannot be eliminated - they can only be controlled.

 

1. The VVitch: A New-England Folktale

USA, UK, Canada, Brazil, 2015.

Horror.

Duration: 93 minutes.

 

The action took place in the 17th century. The family of William and Katerina are expelled from the settlement. She and her four children set up a home near the forest, but a witch steals their newborn child. The family blames the eldest daughter Thomasin for all the troubles, who did not keep track of her brother, and this becomes the beginning of even more significant problems.

 

Rookie director Robert Eggers tried to shoot the whole picture as naturalistically as possible: most of the shots here are shown in natural light in rather pale colors. And in fact, the meaning of the picture is not witchcraft. Much more frightening is that each hero hides something even from his loved ones.

 

 

What’s the best movie for Halloween and why?

 

Even though the coronavirus restrictions canceled all plans for a massive Halloween celebration, you can always celebrate October 31st at home. You just need to stock up on food, turn on the scariest horror movies and arrange yourself a night marathon. We've put together tips from filmmakers to help you decide on your Halloween horror movies.

 

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

 

One of the most creative comedy slashers of recent years is based, in fact, on one extended joke: two main characters - harmless rednecks, who nevertheless look like typical horror villains - is mistaken are by a group of students for maniacs due by a series of misunderstandings. And then it begins stupid deaths, absurd situations, go to the people "students have arrived and committed suicide in the fresh air." "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil" is a Homeric genre shifter that deftly walks through the most worn clichés of slashers and turns them against themselves.