As the great Sheriff Leigh Brackett once said in John Carpenter’s Halloween, “It’s Halloween. I guess everyone’s entitled to one ♠ good scare.” It’s a good line, sure. But one good scare? And only at Halloween? Talk about stingy! Here at ♠ Empire, we like to believe that you can have the bejeezus frightened out of you any day of the year, ♠ as many times as you like. Whether it’s seminal slashers, creepy killer clowns, or arthouse works of elevated horror that ♠ cut to the quick of society’s most terrifying taboos that get your heart pounding and your cheeks clenching, of this ♠ much we can assure you – you’ve come to the right place to find your next sleepless night.
At the dead ♠ of night, in an abandoned house along an old Texan dirt road, the Empire team gathered to conjure up a ♠ list of the 50 greatest horror movies ever made. From genre titans, to fun frighteners, or modern masterworks, there’ll be ♠ something here to make even the hardiest of horror connoisseurs among you double-check your doors are double-bolted by the time ♠ you’re done. So draw your salt circles, count the cutlery in your kitchen drawer, take a deep breath, and come ♠ with us as we guide you through the films that thrill us and chill us the most. Here’s Empire’s list ♠ of the 50 best horror movies…
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READ MORE: The 50 Best Horror Movies Of The 21st Century
50) It: Chapters One and Two ♠ (2024 & 2024)
Counting both films as one – which, essentially, they are – gives us an unprecedented single six-hour epic ♠ based on Stephen King's loose, baggy, monstrous novel. Two generations, 27 years apart, share the screen time to relate the ♠ lifelong battle of the Losers' Club against unknowable evil cosmic entity Pennywise, who uses a clown as his avatar. Mad, ♠ exhausting, occasionally terrifying and surprisingly warm, just like its literary source. A future classic.
Read the Empire review for Part 1 ♠ here, and Part 2 here.
49) Saw (2004)
Occasionally forgotten in the wake of its many sequels, the original Saw is a ♠ cracking, gonzo low-budget shocker: stylish, well written and boasting a killer surprise at the end. While the seeds of the ♠ tortuous future instalments are sown by the police investigation happening in the background, the central premise is thrillingly lean: two ♠ strangers, locked together in a room, and they don't know why. Tell us you're not hooked.
Read the Empire review here.
48) ♠ Hellraiser (1987)
It's hard to remember now just how different Hellraiser was when it arrived in the late '80s. In a ♠ horror landscape of teens getting slashed, Clive Barker's debut as a director was an adult domestic drama, albeit with supernatural ♠ underpinnings, violence, gore and glimpses of a fascinating larger universe, the rules of which arrived almost fully formed. The sequel ♠ would dive deep into that, but here, at core, we have a love triangle and a Faustian pact: a sort ♠ of weird mashup of Marlowe and Chekhov, told with low-key visual panache. The S&M demon Cenobites – and chiefly Doug ♠ Bradley's Pinhead, obviously – get all the attention in spite of being only featured briefly. But surely the real triumph ♠ here is Uncle Frank…
Read the Empire review here.
47) Drag Me To Hell (2009)
"You shaaaamed me!" rasps Lorna Raver's Hungarian gypsy ♠ at Alison Lohman's bank employee, who's made the unfortunate mistake of not granting her another extension on her mortgage. Cue ♠ a curse to end all curses: visitations from a demon called the Lamia. While the punishment doesn't seem entirely proportionate, ♠ the results offer a wild, raw and wickedly entertaining ride with Sam Raimi at his funhouse best throughout. Justin Long, ♠ the loyal hubbie on the other side of Lohman's hellish bubble, takes on the horror staple role of disbelieving agnostic. ♠ You'll want to shake him by the end.
Read the Empire review here.
46) Audition (1999)
The film that broke director Takashi Miike ♠ internationally doesn't initially seem like a horror film at all. We follow a widower's attempts to get back in the ♠ dating game with a younger squeeze, via the rather dodgy and disingenuous audition process to which the title refers. And ♠ it's only when we realise the object of his desire has literally been waiting by the phone for days – ♠ apparently in an apartment empty of anything but something ominous in a sack – that we begin to realise something ♠ is very, very amiss. And then there's the foot-sawing and the eye-needles. Kiri, kiri, kiri…
Read the Empire review here.
45) Cat ♠ People (1942)
With Universal knocking out horror films like there was no tomorrow, RKO tasked producer Val Lewton with creating some ♠ similar action. The results were not what the studio expected. Far from the monster mash they'd asked for, Cat People ♠ opted for more psychological chills, and a still surprising concept centred on a woman who's afraid to consummate her marriage ♠ because of her belief that sexual climax will turn her into a panther. Paul Schrader's '80s remake took full advantage ♠ of the modern potential for FX and erotica, but Tourneur's more subtle scares are all about stalking and shadows.
Read the ♠ Empire review here.
44) The Devil Rides Out (1968)
The Devil Rides Out marked a new direction for Hammer horror, swapping classic ♠ gothic fantasy for a modern Dennis Wheatley occult potboiler. Richard Matheson's cracking screenplay streamlines and improves the novel; the pacing ♠ and dialogue are sharp; and the performances, particularly from the incomparable Charles Gray and, as always, from Christopher Lee, are ♠ top notch. The studio would return to Wheatley with To The Devil A Daughter a couple of years later, but ♠ they missed a trick by never bringing back Lee's Duc de Richleau: the paranormal investigator – who brings hell down ♠ on his unsuspecting friends here – featured in eleven of the author's novels. His cases could have run and run.
Read ♠ the Empire review here.
43) A Quiet Place (2024)
When you have kids, your whole perspective shifts – there's a big bad ♠ world out there, and the best you can hope for is to protect your children from it, or prepare them ♠ for what they'll eventually face. John Krasinski's high-concept monster movie – you make noise, you die – takes that central ♠ notion and channels the terror into a series of near-unbearably tense sequences. It's the emotional hook of Krasinski's Lee and ♠ wife Evelyn (played by Krasinski's real-life wife Emily Blunt), and their attempts to keep their kids safe, that becomes A ♠ Quiet Place's secret weapon. A film to leave you breathless, in every sense.
Read the Empire review here.
42) Kill List (2011)
Kill ♠ List begins like a fairly straightforward thriller. Two hit men take on an assignment. They have the kill list. They ♠ have to kill them. Bish bash bosh. But as you watch, small hints of the film's true nature slowly appear. ♠ An odd symbol is scratched on a bathroom mirror. A doctor offers bizarre, medically dubious advice. The soundtrack broods like ♠ a rumbling storm cloud overhead. Ben Wheatley's masterful grip on slow-building tension – informed by his love of 1970s Brit ♠ folk-horror – crescendos to an almost unbearable, shocking finale.
Read the Empire review here.
41) Nosferatu (1922)
Roger Ebert once said, "To watch ♠ Nosferatu is to see the vampire movie before it had really seen itself." This is Dracula before it became cinematic ♠ legend; before Christopher Lee, before Gary Oldman, before Count Duckula. Though technically not Dracula at all – Bram Stoker's estate ♠ refused to grant the production rights – it's perhaps the quintessential incarnation of the Transylvanian vampire. But its influence, from ♠ technical innovations to Expressionistic lighting style, spreads far beyond the horror genre. The imposing shadow of Max Schreck – whose ♠ surname means "fright" in German, and whose unique visage led to all sorts of rumours about his origin – is ♠ as iconic as movies are ever likely to get.
Read the Empire review here.
40) Poltergeist (1981)
Moving into a family home on ♠ an ancient burial ground presents the kind of real estate conundrum even Kirstie and Phil would be hard-pressed to help ♠ with. The problems faced by the Freeling clan in this much-mimicked Tobe Hooper/Steven Spielberg horror involve supernatural beasties, vortexes on ♠ the landing, floating objects and some major interdimensional child-napping. That's just about every supernatural domestic catastrophe in the handbook, short ♠ of finding the Dyson is haunted and the guinea pig is Satan. Despite the restriction of its PG rating (it ♠ was initially R-rated but changed on appeal), the result remains a refreshingly scary brew.
Read the Empire review here.
39) The Conjuring ♠ (2013)
The birthplace of the TCU – The Conjuring Universe – it’s easy to forget just how great James Wan’s The ♠ Conjuring really is. Disinterested in subverting the ‘demonic possession’ subgenre, Wan instead delves into the casefiles of real life paranormal ♠ investigators Ed And Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga – perfectly paired) to tell a character-driven story about a ♠ family whose farmhouse home has been invaded by the devil. The plot may be nothing new, but Wan’s approach – ♠ gently guiding us into the Warrens’ world, establishing their love for one another, and then pitting their faith in each ♠ other and God against an entity tearing their family apart – is nothing short of masterful. A precision-tooled exercise in ♠ tension and release, by the time the resident evil does surface at the film’s climax, it’s almost a relief.
Read the ♠ Empire review here.
38) Day Of The Dead (1985)
George Romero originally conceived this as "the Gone With The Wind of horror ♠ movies" before slashed budgets swiftly torpedoed his dreams of a zombie epic. No matter, the doyen of the undead merely ♠ served up another chewy allegory for humanity's doom laden with gory moments enhanced by Tom Savini's magisterial make-up designs. Following ♠ on from Dawn Of The Dead with the world in the grip of a full-scale zombie infestation, the survivors head ♠ south (in practically every sense) to a bunker in a swampy corner of Florida. There, a crazed doctor tries to ♠ turn the shufflers – including the iconic 'Bub' (Sherman Howard) – back into productive members of society. The subtext, again, ♠ is clear: the zombies are the least of our problems in a world driven by violence and greed.
Read the Empire ♠ review here.
37) Dracula (1958)
Directed by the incomparable Terence Fisher, written by Jimmy Sangster, pairing Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee (with ♠ Lee getting actual lines for the first time), and going all out for colour, glamour, sex and blood, Hammer's Dracula ♠ aligns the elements and distils the formula that powered the studio for the next two decades. Sangster's bold screenplay at ♠ once eviscerates Bram Stoker's novel and sets the narrative free. With the locations transposed and limited to Romania and half ♠ the 'dramatis personae' excised, we're left with a lean adventure. The Lugosi film is an eerie slow-burn, but Hammer's is ♠ a swashbuckler. Lee, of course, gets to be urbane and darkly seductive, but there's also genuine savagery to the moments ♠ when he gets to bare his teeth.
Read the Empire review here.
36) It Follows (2014)
A strong contender for the best horror ♠ film of 2014, It Follows runs with its brilliant central concept and never drops the ball. We never really learn ♠ what the 'It' is, except that it's a mysterious entity that's somehow sexually transmitted, manifesting as a variety of shuffling ♠ injured strangers, or sometimes as people known to the victims it inexorably pursues. It's an interesting twist on the slasher ♠ movie ‘promiscuous teens get killed’ trope, with the wrinkle that if you find yourself affected, you can just shag someone ♠ else and get rid of it, like a chain letter. That rule takes the film to some very dark places.
Read ♠ the Empire review here.
35) Hereditary (2024)
There are some traditional frights in Hereditary – jumpy moments, squirmy tension, and unsettling imagery. ♠ But it’s the gut-wrenching emotional horror that stays with you – the very worst possible thing happening, the guilt of ♠ it, the devastation that ripples out and affects everyone around you. Aster delivers a heart-crushing rug-pull in his debut feature ♠ that is genuinely unforgettable – and from there he ramps up the bumps in the night, the body-horror, and the ♠ spine-tingling creepiness like a nightmare that just won't end. Its ending has proven divisive, but whatever your thoughts on the ♠ final reel, it's a shattering experience along the way.
Read the Empire review here.
34) The Fog (1980)
A chilly yarn about ghost ♠ pirates exacting their revenge on a small coastal town, The Fog is so explicitly a campfire tale that it even ♠ begins with a scout troop sitting around a seaside blaze, with time for just one more story. Carpenter's follow-up to ♠ the classic Halloween saw some post-production tinkering to make the scares more explicit, and when you know that you can ♠ definitely spot the reshoot joins. But it doesn't affect what remains perhaps Carpenter's most purely atmospheric film.
Read the Empire review ♠ here.
33) The Babadook (2014)
Slightly mis-sold by a trailer that made it look like a standard – though impressive – monster ♠ movie, The Babadook's greatest trick is in not really being about the titular thing at all. Rather, it's a film ♠ about a mentally-unravelling mother's difficult relationship with her young son. The 'dook itself is just another spanner in the works. ♠ Subverting expectations, the film seems to set up Amblin-style hijinks from a resourceful kid, but those elements never come to ♠ pass, and his backpack of tricks is ultimately useless. The rules are right there in creepy storybook: you can't get ♠ rid of the Babadook. The eventual solution for its defeat – but not eradication – is something like genius.
Read the ♠ Empire review here.
32) The Bride Of Frankenstein (1935)
James Whale's sequel to his own original Frankenstein reunites the director with Boris ♠ Karloff's classic monster and with Colin Clive's hapless scientist: this time tasked with creating a mate for the creature. As ♠ before, there's immense pathos in the monster's plight – ultimately rejected by his stunning, shock-haired "bride" Elsa Lanchester. But there's ♠ more mischievous wit in the second outing, largely thanks to Ernest Thesiger's cherishably waspish Doctor Pretorius. "Yes," he observes dryly ♠ at the reveal that the monster can now speak. "There have been developments..."
Read the Empire review here.
31) Raw (2024)
A French ♠ flesh-munching art-horror that really sticks in your teeth, Julia Ducournau's film manages to be a full-blooded horror, a darkly funny ♠ family drama, and a coming-of-age film all in one. When Justine begins a veterinary course at university – where her ♠ older sister also studies, and where her parents first met – she's battered and bewildered by a series of initiation ♠ rituals. It's not long before her stringent vegetarianism is replaced by an unstoppable craving for meat, leading to some truly ♠ nauseating developments. Shocking, unrestrained, and strikingly original, Raw is a rich, layered meal of a film for anyone who can ♠ stomach it.
Read the Empire review here.
30) Dracula (1931)
Though perhaps creaky by today's standards, Tod Browning's Dracula remains seminal for its ♠ place in horror history, as well as for its eerie central performance by Bela Lugosi and the scene-stealing of Dwight ♠ Frye. The film is strongest in its opening stretch, as Frye's Renfield visits the stunning, colossal set of Dracula's castle, ♠ meets the sombre count – dwarfed by his cobwebbed surroundings – and falls foul of the vampire's ethereal brides: a ♠ sequence of exquisite beauty. Subsequently it's a bit more plodding, and the ending is oddly rushed. But there are still ♠ unforgettable elements along the way. Well worth watching with Philip Glass' 1999 score – unless you prefer the almost-silence of ♠ the original.
Read the Empire review here.
29) Midsommar (2024)
After the sheer, unrelenting darkness of Hereditary, just one year later, writer-director Ari ♠ Aster stepped out into the bright sunlight – and made that utterly terrifying too. Midsommar's sun-bleached visuals are just as ♠ nightmarish, pitching everything into the realm of the uncanny as Florence Pugh's grief-stricken Dani loses her grip on reality at ♠ a festival hosted by Swedish cultists. As with his previous film, Aster grounds the horror in emotional devastation – this ♠ time in a searing deconstruction of a toxic relationship, as Jack Reynor's cowardly boyfriend Christian backs out of breaking up ♠ with Dani when she suffers a sudden family tragedy. Creepy, deeply unsettling, with brutally gory jolts – and an undeniable ♠ sense of beauty. Just bear witness to its instantly iconic flower-wreathed finale.
Read the Empire review here.
28) Don't Look Now (1973)
Nic ♠ Roeg's hugely influential take on Daphne du Maurier's short story is more than just a simple horror movie. It's also ♠ a moving and insightful study of marriage, particularly the way it creaks like the hull of a ship under the ♠ duress of loss and grief. But, yes, ultimately it's scary in a way that's cranked up several notches by its ♠ eerie backdrop of Venice in off-season, weird encounters with spiritualists, and that red-coated hobgoblin. Julie Christie (lost in her grief ♠ for her drowned daughter) and Donald Sutherland (adrift in his) are note-perfect as the central couple, but Roeg's direction and ♠ editing – particularly in the famous sex scene – lend the movie the feel of a beautiful but shattered mosaic.
Read ♠ the Empire review here.
27) Let The Right One In (2008)
We all know children are terrifying, but Let The Right One ♠ In takes spooky kids and makes them almost too relatable for comfort. Simply trying to survive like countless vampires before ♠ her, Eli (Leandersson) strikes up a bittersweet friendship with social pariah Oskar (Hedebrant), offering him salvation from his less-than-ideal home ♠ situation. Based on John Ajvide Lindqvist's bestseller and set in Stockholm, it's not just the threat of being offed by ♠ a vampire that make this an incredibly effective Scandi scarefest, with themes of loneliness, anxiety and alcoholism helping it slip ♠ effortlessly into your bloodstream. It's no surprise Hollywood clamoured for a remake.
Read the Empire review here.
26) The Innocents (1961)
The title's ♠ different, but The Innocents is otherwise an elegant and extremely faithful adaptation of Henry James' perennial classic chiller The Turn ♠ Of The Screw. A governess takes charge of two creepy children who appear to be being haunted by previous incumbents ♠ of their rackety estate. But the film preserves James' crucial ambiguity: are the children really in danger from ghosts, or ♠ from a sort of supernatural Munchausen-by-proxy stemming from their hysterical guardian? The answer's up to you.
25) The Descent (2005)
Somewhat like ♠ Aliens, Neil Marshall's masterstroke here is in keeping the monsters off screen for a good hour. And after the almost ♠ unendurable cave-bound claustrophobia of the first half, it's almost a relief when they finally show up to provide a more ♠ solid, familiar focus for the audience's fear. Before that comes an unbearably tense series of character clashes and potholing injuries: ♠ a pressure-cooker building to a head of steam that brutally climaxes with a shocking accident and the full reveal of... ♠ well, we won't spoil it for those who haven't explored the depths themselves. From then on it's intense action all ♠ the way to a devastating conclusion. American audiences got an upbeat ending from which the sequel continues. Here in the ♠ UK, the final moments are horrifyingly bleak.
Read the Empire review here.
24) The Witch (2024)
With its meticulous period setting and language, ♠ The Witch comes across as much like The Crucible as it does your average demonic possession horror. But in actual ♠ fact, there's really nothing average about The Witch at all: a devastating psychological ordeal that works as well taken at ♠ face value (the goat IS the Devil) as according to more complex theories. The cryptic events are never fully explained, ♠ leaving The Witch ambiguously unsettling.
Read the Empire review here.
23) 28 Days Later (2002)
Debates raged in some corners of the horror ♠ community about whether the fast-moving "infected" were zombies or not. Seriously, who cares? That's not the meat of why Danny ♠ Boyle and writer Alex Garland's tale of a destroyed society is so effective. Like all great horror movies, it's about ♠ us rather than "the other", and peers into the dark heart of humanity. How far would you go faced with ♠ such a situation? You may not love the answer. And there's so much to admire visually, with a Day Of ♠ The Triffids–esque emptied London, shot guerrilla-style in early mornings.
Read the Empire review here.
22) Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
Whenever you ♠ watch an episode of The Walking Dead or read a Max Brooks novel or even fiddle with your smartphone on ♠ Plants vs Zombies, you have George A. Romero to thank. Nobody else has contributed more to the modern conception of ♠ zombies than the bearded genius from the Bronx, and no film has kickstarted a subgenre so enduring or fruitful. Night ♠ Of The Living Dead is scary, sure (its violence caught audiences by surprise at the time) but it's also surprisingly ♠ witty: a socially cognisant satire from a politically loaded time. Little wonder that Quentin Tarantino once claimed the "A" in ♠ George A. Romero stood for "A Fucking Genius".
Read the Empire review here.
21) Get Out (2024)
Few horror films have had as ♠ instant and seismic an impact in recent years as Get Out. Jordan Peele's hugely entertaining and incredibly potent satire portrays ♠ societal horrors in clear-sighted, direct style through the story of Chris – a young Black American who prepares to meet ♠ his white middle-class girlfriend's parents over a nightmarish weekend. It's a concept that Peele plays out perfectly, needling the awkward ♠ areas of social interaction and (barely) amplifying the Black experience in the contemporary US, with fantastic performances from Daniel Kaluuya, ♠ Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener and Alison Williams. So sharp and smartly-made, it even caught the Oscars' attention, winning Best Screenplay ♠ for Peele and earning nods in Best Picture, Director, and Leading Actor.
Read the Empire review here.
20) Suspiria (1977)
Nobody makes horror ♠ quite like Dario Argento. With Suspiria, the Italian genio set the Video Nasties era of censorship and moral panic ablaze, ♠ and set the template for his "Three Mothers" trilogy. All his hallmarks are there: dark supernatural elements at play; bravura ♠ camera acrobatics; bloody, extreme violence; themes of obsession and sexual aberration; and a vibrant, hyperreal technicolour palette. Think The Umbrellas ♠ Of Cherbourg, but with witch-demons instead of umbrellas. Luca Guadagnino’s remake – with its Thom Yorke soundtrack and multi-roling Tilda ♠ Swinton – is well worth a look, too.
Read the Empire review here.
19) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Five years after ♠ Scooby-Doo first aired, Tobe Hooper similarly put some teenagers in a blue van to endure a scary mystery. Their experience ♠ was rather different. Maybe they should've brought a dog, although it's doubtful it would have helped them. Actually quite light ♠ on gore, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre nevertheless remains a uniquely gnarly, punishing experience, from its grotesque production design to ♠ its family of cannibal freaks and its stand-out villain Leatherface. Some have suggested an intriguing Vietnam-era subtext about America eating ♠ its young, but the film functions perfectly well without it on a pure, primal level. Burns' screams ring in your ♠ ears long after the exhausting last act is over, and the final shot of Leatherface dancing with his saw is ♠ an indelible image.
Read the Empire review here.
18) The Omen (1976)
Boys, eh? Muddy-kneed, conker-smashing little blighters... all running around and falling ♠ over and, in Richard Donner's timeless chiller, turning out to be the Antichrist. The unwitting adoption of devil child Damien ♠ (Harvey Spencer Stephens) has horrifying consequences for parents Gregory Peck and Lee Remick in one of the bleakest collisions of ♠ faith, religion and superstition in the genre. It's not held in quite the same critical esteem as The Exorcist or ♠ Rosemary's Baby these days, but make no mistake, The Omen is still a powerful potion.
Read the Empire review here.
17) Psycho ♠ (1960)
Imagine a trip to see Psycho in 1960. Its deliberately oblique marketing, fronted by Hitchcock himself, would have prepared you ♠ for a motel to feature prominently but not much else. The opening 20-odd minutes must have seemed like a pretty ♠ standard noir set-up, with Janet Leigh eloping with a bunch of money and the tantalising possibility of a new life ♠ that lasts precisely as long as her next trip to the shower. Then came the full-bore shock of that brutal ♠ knifing, each stab driven home by Bernard Herrmann's jarring score, unexpected and almost entirely without precedent. Audiences must have wondered ♠ if it wasn't Hitch himself who, in the nicest possible way, was the real psycho here. (Also, don’t sleep on ♠ Psycho II, one of the most unexpected, underrated gems in sequel history!)
Read the Empire review here.
16) Ring (1998)
Not the first ♠ adaptation of Kōji Suzuki's novel, but the one that brought the terrifying Sadako Yamamura to international attention. Suzuki's sci-fi tinged ♠ material is jettisoned in favour of more horrifying ambiguity, and Nakata's film is an intriguing collision of Japanese folk horror ♠ (the well-dwelling, black-haired, chalk-skinned Sadako is clearly descended from the ghouls of Japanese tradition) and more modern concerns about viral ♠ media and moral panic. It's a slow burn, but worth the unsettling journey to its most famous set piece.
15) The ♠ Blair Witch Project (1999)
It wasn't the springboard its director and crew might have hoped after bankingR$250 million from their nano-budget ♠ horror, but the legacy of The Blair Witch Project continues apace. It's instructive to see how little Adam Wingard's surprise ♠ sequel deviated from the set-up and formula of the original (bunch of kids head into the Black Hills, record the ♠ results on the shakiest of shakycams) 17 years later. At the time, it sparked a revolution in the genre. Since ♠ then have come dozens of imitators, although even the best of them struggle to replicate the original's disorientating chills. Twigs ♠ and bits of foliage have never been so scary, and that ending? Still one of the movie scenes that scared ♠ us the most.
Read the Empire review here.
14) Dawn Of The Dead (1978)
Building exponentially on the bedrock of 1968's Night Of ♠ The Living Dead, Dawn Of The Dead sees Romero firing on all cylinders a decade later. Largely confined to an ♠ abandoned (well, almost) shopping mall as the undead pandemic rages outside, this is as much a tense, base-under-siege action thriller ♠ as it is a horror movie. But there are creepy scares and gonzo gore by the bucketful, while Romero takes ♠ sly philosophical swipes at class and racial politics and mindless consumerism. A Day, a Land and a Diary would follow, ♠ but never quite reclaim these horror heights.
Read the Empire review here.
13) Carrie (1976)
Carrie was among the first films to utilise ♠ that most terrifying supernatural force: puberty. Stephen King's novel recognised the trials of adolescence as ripe ground for horror, and ♠ found a worthy suitor for his first cinematic adaptation in director Brian De Palma, who brings the tale to life ♠ with sadistic relish and intelligent, daring camerawork. Sissy Spacek, meanwhile, imbues Carrie with childlike innocence and genuine pathos, blotted only ♠ by mild bouts of, erm, telekinetic murder. It's a testament to her range that, come that prom finale, you find ♠ yourself feeling simultaneously sympathetic and scared shitless.
Read the Empire review here.
12) An American Werewolf In London (1981)
A comedy-horror that skimps ♠ on neither, American Werewolf manages to be properly scary, blackly funny, and, in the relationship between lycanthrope David Naughton and ♠ nurse Jenny Agutter, genuinely moving. It's a deft juggling act, confidently performed by director John Landis who, while he remains ♠ immensely likeable, was arguably never this good again. An American director in England, his sense of the country never descends ♠ into twee American En-ger-land clichés, and even the stock lines and characters – "Stay off the moors!" – are performed ♠ in such a way that they never grate. It's a loving homage to bygone scares that nevertheless feels entirely modern ♠ almost 40 years later.
Read the Empire review here.
11) Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Like a twisted cross between The Exorcist and What To ♠ Expect When You're Expecting, this occult classic is no movie to watch when you're considering settling down to family life ♠ or planning a foray into the property market. Neighbours, quite literally, are a hellish proposition for Mia Farrow and John ♠ Cassavetes' newly-weds as they settle into their new Manhattan brownstone. Outside their four walls, dark forces swirl – and we're ♠ not talking about the velour furniture. The film's commanding tight interior scenes and mood of slowly-building paranoia make what follows ♠ claustrophobic and endlessly creepy.
Read the Empire review here.
10) The Wicker Man (1973)
The Wicker Man shouldn't really work. An outsider's view ♠ of a mythical Scotland, written and directed by Englishmen and scored by an American, replete with songs to the extent ♠ that it's practically a musical, it's a minefield of elements that could all have gone horribly wrong. And yet, it's ♠ all so right: that weirdness is a crucial part of the unsettling whole; Edward Woodward's hapless investigations leading inexorably to ♠ that final, devastating reveal. There's plenty of humour, but it never feels like Woodward isn't in real, frightening trouble; the ♠ climax is as inevitable as it's horrifying. It's easy to laugh at the remake, but even Hardy himself failed to ♠ recapture the dark magic with his belated Wicker Tree. The Wicker Man is unrepeatable.
Read the Empire review here.
9) A Nightmare ♠ On Elm Street (1984)
There have been, at time of writing, nine film entries in the Nightmare On Elm Street series, ♠ including a reboot, a crossover, and a sequel rather prematurely titled The Final Nightmare (which it was not, obviously). None ♠ quite compare to Wes Craven's remarkable original. Taut, witty, and nightmarish (clue's in the title), Elm Street stands out on ♠ the map during a decade hardly short of horror hits, and, in Freddy Krueger, presented the most terrifying boogeyman ever ♠ to don knitwear.
Read the Empire review here.
8) Jaws (1975)
It followed shorts, Duel and The Sugarland Express, but Jaws truly announced ♠ the arrival of Steven Spielberg as a major talent. Massive production issues became the mother of real invention and needing ♠ to keep the toothy villain off screen as much as possible just ratcheted up the tension that much more. Primal ♠ fears fuel a thriller that also feels human thanks to Scheider, Shaw, Dreyfuss and the rest. Not forgetting John Williams' ♠ iconic, simple and terrifying score. Jaws sticks in the brain and makes the heart beat that much faster.
Read the Empire ♠ review here.
7) The Exorcist (1973)
There are horror movies with infamous reputations – and then there's The Exorcist. This is a ♠ film which prompted cinema exhibitors to routinely offer 'barf bags' for queasy patrons; which had St John's Ambulance on standby ♠ at screenings to aid the regular fainters; which was accused of corrupting young minds with subliminal imagery. Amid the noise ♠ and furore, William Friedkin's achievements were almost ignored – how he deftly blended the religious and psychological with themes of ♠ unconditional faith and maternal love. And yes, it's head-spinningly frightening.
Read the Empire review here.
6) Evil Dead II (1987)
Sam Raimi's eternally ♠ groovy cult favourite Evil Dead II has an energy and a spirit that is entirely its own. After a reported ♠ rights kerfuffle from his original film, Raimi set about half-retelling the 'Book of the Dead' legend, revisiting Ash (Campbell) and ♠ his cabin in the woods – this time with a sparkier tone and more opportunity for Raimi's hyper-kinetic camera-gymnastics. The ♠ tightrope between supernatural horror, badass action and genuine spooks has never been walked so confidently, and it forever cemented Campbell ♠ as a cult hero. Good... bad... he's the guy with the chainsaw for a hand.
Read the Empire review here.
5) Scream ♠ (1996)
Genre deconstruction had been done before, but Kevin Williamson's canny, clever, extra-meta screenplay in the hands of Wes Craven made ♠ Scream that much more special. Taking the slasher film apart didn't stop the bloody tide of rip-offs and spoofs that ♠ followed, but it gave audiences a fresh eye with which to view them. Added to that, great work from the ♠ likes of Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette and scary phone voice maestro Roger L. Jackson means that it functions ♠ as an effective scarefest within its own self-referential trappings.
Read the Empire review here.
4) The Thing (1982)
Who can you trust? And ♠ when you rely on other people to survive, what does that do to the paranoia levels? That's the key to ♠ John Carpenter's freezing chiller, set at a remote Antarctic research station. An otherworldly discovery brings blood, guts, body horror and ♠ twisty storytelling, all anchored by Kurt Russell's charisma and Rob Bottin's exemplary effects work. It'll make you itch with suspicion ♠ and recoil at the more gruesome scenes. The Thing deserved a fairer shot on release; thank goodness it has long ♠ since earned cult status.
Read the Empire review here.
3) Halloween (1978)
Many have tried to imitate John Carpenter's style and mood in ♠ the years since he carved his way into the horror pantheon, but few, if any, can match him. Inspired by ♠ Hitchcock, he found the scares lurking within suburbia, making them instantly relatable to the audience. And he's helped by a ♠ combination of the simple horror of Michael Myers and the naive-yet-tough charm of Jamie Lee Curtis' heroine. You can largely ♠ ignore the sequels and reboots: stick to the original to see a true master of the creepy, tension-building story at ♠ work.
Read the Empire review here
2) Alien (1979)
It's not easy to make a film that can rank among the best in ♠ both the horror genre and the world of science fiction, but Scott and writers Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett make ♠ it look easy. It wasn't simple to wrangle everything together on a relatively tight budget, but the results are all ♠ up there on the screen. The sterile environment of the Nostromo might not seem like the most inviting place for ♠ terror, but space is dark, cold and horrifying and H.R. Giger's icky creation upped the fright levels. And then there's ♠ that cast, topped by Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, one of the greatest characters in movie history. In the cinema, ♠ or at home, everyone will hear you scream.
Read the Empire review here.
1) The Shining (1980)
Stephen King hates it, of course. ♠ Contemporary critics were lukewarm. Initial box-office returns were middling. The Academy Awards flatly ignored it. Stanley Kubrick, unbelievably, was even ♠ nominated for a 'Worst Director' award at the inaugural Razzies. (He 'lost' to Robert Greenwald's Xanadu). It wasn't a fun ♠ shoot either, by all accounts. Kubrick forced Shelley Duvall to do 127 takes of one scene, a record according to ♠ The Guinness Book Of Records. The infamous "Here's Johnny!" scene took three days and 60 doors. Both lead actors left ♠ the shoot exhausted and resentful. What a difference a bit of hindsight makes. As with a lot of Kubrick's work, ♠ time has been kind, and it now seems blindingly obvious that The Shining is a masterpiece without parallel: precise, meticulous, ♠ surreal, visually astonishing, a shimmering study of a descent into madness. The ultimate horror movie.
