Horror Films You Should Watch

I've compiled a list of horror films that I love a lot, and that have had an impact on me in one way or another. Hopefully there's a bit of a mix here! I'll put a little skull rating after each one which is based on not only how much I loved it, but how much I would recommend this! And, by no means is this a list of all films I love, just films I would recommend wholeheartedly to others, or force my loved ones to watch.

In the immortal words of Henry Zebrowski: every horror movie is my child.

Creature From the Black Lagoon - 💀💀💀 - A true classic! Regularly touted by myself as the first horror movie I ever saw, possibly inaccurate as I started around age four...

House on Haunted Hill - 💀💀💀💀 - Vincent Price and the beautiful Ennis House, what's not to love?

Rose Red - 💀💀💀💀 - Technically a miniseries, but you can find a long-cut of it. I love it! So many creepy little stories and a nice bit of history.

Psycho - 💀💀💀 - An obvious classic. The book is better though.

Night of the Living Dead - 💀💀💀💀 - Love this movie. So many great moments and quotes. I especially love how fancy you sound when you hit them with your discourse on race and society.

Dawn of the Dead - 💀💀💀💀💀 - I expect some flak here, but I stand by it. Zack Snyder's version is better. I've seen it maybe over 500 times, without exaggeration. It helps me sleep. I don't want to talk about why, that's a problem for my counsellor.

Lake Mungo - 💀💀💀💀💀 - If I think about Lake Mungo, I get shivers. Tense story, a tiny bit of gory imagery, properly chilling ending. I had to sit and digest it for a few minutes when it was finished.

Wolf Creek (One & Two) - 💀💀💀💀 - I really thought this was going to be an alien movie to begin with, and not the Ivan Milat nightmare it became. One of the best movie villains of all time.

House of Wax - 💀💀 - Strong points of this movie: My Chemical Romance 's amazing song Helena features, which really excited 12 year old me. And, Paris Hilton is impaled with a pipe and no brains come out, which is a fun joke that I hope she was in on.

Cooties - 💀💀💀 - Perfect horror comedy. Elijah Wood belongs in horror, no more comedy or drama for him. Lord of the Rings can suck it.

Hereditary - 💀💀💀💀 - Emotionally exhausting. Tensely creepy. Based in true demon lore!

Midsomar - 💀💀💀 - Proper cult sentimentality. Beautiful, colourful, true aesthetic dream! Really would consider running away and joining the cult for the flower crowns alone, but I don't like it when bees get near me.

Invisible Man - 💀💀💀 - I haven't seen the original, so I can't compare them. I thought this was a modern feminist tale of revenge and strength. Again, emotionally exhausting because the portrayal of an abusive relationship was so accurate.

Train To Busan - 💀💀💀💀 - I cried. I was tense the whole way through. Zombies are my favourites!

Rec (One & Two) - 💀💀💀💀💀 - I'm a bitch for found footage.

Halloween - 💀💀💀💀💀 - Classic! The true pumpkin aesthetic.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre - 💀💀💀💀 - I spent a long time looking at the sleeve of our Laserdisc copy of this. Absolutely wonderful. Laying it out there: I love Ed Gein.

Housebound - 💀💀💀💀💀 - A twist, after a twist, after a twist. Hilarious, and a wonderful female main character!

Poughkeepsie Tapes - 💀💀💀💀 - So thoroughly terrifying. I'm a sucker for mockumentaries as well as found footage. Special mention to the crawling scene and the balloon scene.

Long Pigs - 💀💀💀💀 - Absolutely marvellous. Long Pig is such a fun title, and this suits the mockumentary style so well.

Session 9 - 💀💀💀💀 - Stellar cast, really good plot, super twist. Deeply disturbing and features one of my favourite buildings, the Danvers State Hospital.

Pet Sematary - 💀💀💀 - This checks a lot off my list: Native American lore, creepy kids, "don't go down that road", Stephen King cameo.

Shaun of the Dead - 💀💀💀💀 - I could do a fucking immaculate one woman fringe show. I wouldn't need to waste time learning all the lines. I already know them. When I was 12 I choreographed the dance scene to "Don't Stop Me Now" with my sister.

The Descent - 💀💀💀💀 - A masterclass in female representation in film.

Us - 💀💀💀 - Everything about this is absolute perfection, and I don't want to talk about the plot holes. It's called suspension of disbelief, look it up! Also, credit to the perfect use of Luniz's "I Got Five On It".

The Ring and Ringu - 💀💀💀💀 - Absolutely perfect. Technology gone wrong with the beauty of Japanese horror.

The Grudge and Ju-on - 💀💀💀 - A wonderfully spooky way to learn more about Japanese beliefs.

Dark Water (and original) - 💀💀💀💀 - Why is Tim Roth in this? I don't know, but I'm happy about it!

The Eye and Gin Gwai - 💀💀💀💀 - A great concept for a horror film, with really good visuals and distinct differences in lore behind both versions.

One Missed Call and Chakushin Ari - 💀💀💀 - Super unsettling. And yet another pale gal with long black hair.

A Tale of Two Sisters and The Univited - 💀💀💀💀 - A really great twist!

Secret Window, Secret Garden - 💀💀 - This is the only role I will even tolerate Johnny Depp in.

The Shining - 💀💀💀 - What kind of list would it be without this? Stanley Kubrick directs this so well, for what is essentially a secret confession to faking the moon landings. Can't discuss how much I like this with Stephen King because he would be ashamed of me.

The Mist - 💀💀💀 - But I think both Stephen and I can agree that this is a really good movie, with the saddest ending ever.

Noroi: The Curse - 💀💀💀 - This is weird...but I like it. Mockumentary again, I'm a slut for it.

VHS (One & Two) - 💀💀💀💀 - I don't think there's any of these shorts that don't hit hard.

Creepshow (One & Two) - 💀💀💀💀💀 - Creepshow is my childhood. I live it, I breathe it, I love everyone in it and everyone who created it. George A. Romero, Stephen King, Adrienne freaking Barbeau! *MWAH*

Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon - 💀💀💀💀 - Such an adorable little film, part pastiche but so original!

The Amityville Horror - 💀💀💀 - I remember reading about the Amityville story in a book by old grumpy guts himself, Terry Deary. The film totally lives up to that original fascination.

The Fog - 💀💀💀💀 - Spooky pirate ghosts!

Poltergheist - 💀💀💀💀 - There's not a part of this movie that isn't scary. Static, clowns, wardrobes, skeletons, the revenge of a people traumatised by white people. The complete list.

The Exorcist - 💀💀 - I waited a very long time to watch this movie, and I have to say it didn't live up to the hype. It wasn't as scary as I had always hoped. But the story is terrifying, and the book really spooked me!

The Omen - 💀💀 - Very good reason to get a hysterectomy and to never adopt any dodgy kids either.

The Blair Witch Project - 💀💀💀💀 - I didn't appreciate this when I was younger, but the older I get the more I fall in love with it. A perfect ending, and I won't hear otherwise.

The Last Broadcast - 💀💀 - The true beginnings of found footage horror.

Hell House LLC - 💀💀 - I thought this was going to be another Bad Ben scenario, but it really surprised me!

The Crazies - 💀💀 - "Hi, my name is George A Romero and I want to stray from the zombie genre to prove my worth in other genres of cinema, so here is my take on biological warfare which features some crazy people acting beyond their control because they've contracted a virus. You're welcome."

Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane - 💀💀💀💀 - Excellent additions to the Cloverfield universe. Let's pretend they're the only additions to the Cloverfield universe.

Creep - 💀💀💀 - Sparked my interest, and fears, of the London Underground. And to a lesser extent, the Glasgow Subway...but there's plenty of real things to be scared of on the Subway.

Creep (One & Two) - 💀💀💀💀 - Hectic energy, really kicks the shit out of you, but you'll come back for more.

Rosemary's Baby - 💀💀💀 - I don't want to get started on how on Mia Farrow's side I am. Her performance in this film is super, and it's just unsettling throughout.

The Vault of Horror - 💀💀💀💀 - Wonderful anthology with a great cast and some amazing vignettes.

Saw (Franchise) - 💀💀💀💀 - The franchise as a whole is definitely worth it for the developing plots, but to be honest it suffers a bit from hiring actors who look too similar. White people all kind of look the same, I said it.

Final Destination (Franchise) - 💀💀💀💀 - If we pretend that only One and Two exist, this is an amazing franchise. If we count them all, it's a fun set of films!

13 Sins - 💀💀 - I'm only including the remake here, because I'm certain that it's the original that features someone eating very convincing looking shit and I am not here for that.

Last Shift - 💀💀💀💀 - I think I watched this two or three times when I had access to American Netflix in our hotel room. I loved it. I'm considering purchasing it. That's how dedicated I am to this Manson family inspired film.

1408 - 💀💀💀💀💀 - One of Stephen King's better short stories. It actually eclipses The Shining as far as I'm concerned. And I think that the film has a lot better scares than The Shining too.

The House of the Devil - 💀💀💀💀 - Ti West is one of the best modern horror directors, and this is his best film.

Deliver Us From Evil - 💀💀💀 - This is the kind of standard horror movie you put on when your mum says "let's watch something spooky as a family". What, your family don't do that?

Sinister - 💀💀💀 - I do not like the tape segments. I do not like them Sam I Am.

As Above So Below - 💀💀💀 - I own this on DVD! I love the catacombs. I love anything underground with a skeleton aesthetic. And I love the mythology behind this film.

Candyman - 💀💀💀 - Tony Todd's voice can get it.

Banshee Chapter - 💀💀💀 - Numbers stations! Numbers stations! Numbers stations!

Trick R Treat - 💀💀💀💀 - Cult classic! Sam is exactly the kind of identifying product mascot that helps me know you, too, are a spooky bitch.

Devil's Backbone - 💀💀 - A Guillermo del Toro masterpiece.

The Orphanage - 💀💀💀 - This movie mixes scary and sad so well.

Splinter - 💀💀💀💀 - Creature feature? It's an amazing movie, underappreciated but very worth a watch! One of my favourites of the 2000s.

Maniac - 💀💀💀💀 - Again, I hate to repeat myself, but Elijah Wood should only do horror. Typecast the man now, before it's too late.

The Others - 💀💀💀 - This some MR James shit, and I'm here for it.

Summer of '84 - 💀💀💀💀 - I watched this recently, and it really gave me the tension anxieties.

Dead Silence - 💀💀 - Creepy puppets and James Wan. Come through.

The Fourth Kind - 💀💀💀💀💀 - Milla Jovovich can do no wrong, and I say that as a huge fan of the Resident Evil video game franchise so you know I'm not shitting you.

Cabin Fever - 💀💀💀 - I think Cabin Fever is a great disease flick.

Alien Abduction - 💀 - Found footage sci-fi! This film has some really great tension building.

Dark Skies - 💀💀💀 - Coming of age, meets sci-fi. I liked the twist here too, and it was fun to see a family go completely insane.

The Thing - 💀💀💀 - I had an intense fear of Huskies for a very long time in my childhood, and this is to blame. Although, to be fair, I also had a fear of the DVD of Twister. Not the film. I just didn't like it when the cow flew past. We had to put it in the cupboard.

Shutter - 💀💀💀 - I really like the story in this one!

The Sacrament - 💀💀💀 - "I've loved you all. How very much I've tried..." I love me some true crime, and this was a great narrative for it. Not enough Mr Muggs for me though.

Paranormal Activity (One & Two) - 💀💀💀💀 - The franchise itself is worthy of a mention, but in terms of reinventing the genre of found footage, the first two have to get special credit.

The Last Exorcism - 💀💀💀 - I made my husband watch this film, and as someone who hates supernatural and organised religion, he really enjoyed it. Very good review there.

Scream (Franchise) - 💀💀💀💀 - Every scream is good, but the first one is the tits. Big ol tiddies. Absolutely amazing, immaculate, perfect, smashing. The most meta.

Silent Hill - 💀💀💀💀 - Again, an amazing cast, filled with tough women! I haven't played the Silent Hill franchise (though I have watched my sister play some), but the film has really stuck with me.

Insidious - 💀💀💀 - So the franchise might have gone a bit wonky, but the first one is still a stand out horror film.

Ghost Ship - 💀💀 - Totally dumb, guilty pleasure!

The Hills Have Eyes (One & Two) - 💀💀💀 - I haven't seen the original, sue me! But these remakes are pretty good. Perfect backgroundhorror for teenage smooching. I say that from experience, but maybe not fondly. Teenagers can't kiss.

Autopsy of Jane Doe - 💀💀💀💀 - Very good, chilling, well-paced. I love the cast, I love the twists, I love the ending!