The 100 best horror movies of all time, according to critics

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100. "Willow Creek" (2014)

100. "Willow Creek" (2014)

Critic score: 86%

Audience score: 33%

What critics said: "A found-footage horror cheapie that turns out to be its creator's warmest, most satisfying work." — The Village Voice

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99. "Split" (2017)

99. "Split" (2017)

Critic score: 76%

Audience score: 78%

What critics said: "A rare, straight-up horror film from Shyamalan, Split is a thrilling reminder of what a technical master he can be." — RogerEbert.com

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98. "Santa Sangre" (1989)

98. "Santa Sangre" (1989)

Critic score: 85%

Audience score: 87%

What critics said: "Visionary and haunting, 'Santa Sangre' is a mixture of blood poetry and gobbledygook that keeps springing astonishingly to life." — Rolling Stone

97. "The Others" (2001)

97. "The Others" (2001)

Critic score: 83%

Audience score: 77%

What critics said: "A thoughtfully chilling movie. It is not the action, but the look, sound and feel that make it nerve-racking." — Orlando Sentinel

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96. "The Conjuring 2" (2016)

96. "The Conjuring 2" (2016)

Critic score: 79%

Audience score: 81%

What critics said: "A freakier follow-up featuring creepy kids, villains who'll keep you up at night and camerawork that puts moviegoers in a state of impending dread." — USA Today

95. "Dressed to Kill" (1980)

95. "Dressed to Kill" (1980)

Critic score: 84%

Audience score: 74%

What critics said: "A nail-biting, seat-squirming, stylish murder mystery with a brain." — Boston Globe

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94. "Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary" (2003)

94. "Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary" (2003)

Critic score: 87%

Audience score: 73%

What critics said: "A dance version that gorgeously captures the Royal Winnepeg Ballet's artistry while razzing the xenophobia and carnal hysteria underpinning Bram Stoker's story." — Minneapolis Star Tribune

93. "Save the Green Planet" (2004)

93. "Save the Green Planet" (2004)

Critic score: 88%

Audience score: 88%

What critics said: "The film oscillates between wild humour, suspense, horror and pathos, sometimes all in one shot. It's quite something." — Time Out

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92. "The House of the Devil" (2009)

92. "The House of the Devil" (2009)

Critic score: 86%

Audience score: 63%

What critics said: "In keeping with his models, West is concerned with not suspense exactly but the ritual withholding and ultimate lavishing of bloody chaos." — Chicago Reader

91. "We Are What We Are" (2013)

91. "We Are What We Are" (2013)

Critic score: 86%

Audience score: 49%

What critics said: "A refreshingly mature genre entry that plants queasy dread and unleashes a good dose of scares, tempering its gruesome bloodshed by wrapping it in serious-mindedness." — The Hollywood Reporter

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90. "The Thing" (1982)

90. "The Thing" (1982)

Critic score: 83%

Audience score: 92%

What critics said: "One of those rare remakes that remains faithful to the premise of the original but does something unique with the concept." — ReelViews

89. "Paranormal Activity" (2009)

89. "Paranormal Activity" (2009)

Critic score: 83%

Audience score: 56%

What critics said: "It's this feeling of vulnerability that Peli's slow-burning supernatural chiller so effectively exploits, fashioning heart-stopping scares out of almost nothing." — Time Out

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88. "Backcountry" (2015)

88. "Backcountry" (2015)

Critic score: 88%

Audience score: 54%

What critics said: "A couple of weekend backpackers face off against man and beast in director Adam MacDonald's accomplished, blunt-force wilderness adventure." — Variety

87. "Gremlins" (1984)

87. "Gremlins" (1984)

Critic score: 84%

Audience score: 78%

What critics said: "A horror-comedy about cute little Christmas toy/pets who turn into murderous monsters wreaking havoc on a Norman Rockwellian town." — Chicago Tribune

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86. "The Autopsy of Jane Doe" (2016)

86. "The Autopsy of Jane Doe" (2016)

Critic score: 86%

Audience score: 69%

What critics said: "A lean indie horror flick that manages to creep us out even before getting to the part that's meant to be truly unsettling." — Boston Globe

85. "Spring" (2015)

85. "Spring" (2015)

Critic score: 88%

Audience score: 70%

What critics said: "While not perfect, low-budget 'Spring' takes welcome risks with the creature-feature genre." — Toronto Star

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84. "Altered States" (1980)

84. "Altered States" (1980)

Critic score: 86%

Audience score: 71%

What critics said: "It opens at fever pitch and then starts soaring -- into genetic fantasy, into a precognitive dream of delirium and delight." — TIME

83. "A Field in England" (2014)

83. "A Field in England" (2014)

Critic score: 88%

Audience score: 58%

What critics said: "This is a deeply, at times exclusively visceral movie. It aims to wring out, mind-eff and visually beat up its viewers, and perhaps cast a malevolent spell in the process." — RogerEbert.com

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82. "Ginger Snaps" (2001)

82. "Ginger Snaps" (2001)

Critic score: 89%

Audience score: 78%

What critics said: "It deserves a cult following among satire-loving, feminist-minded gore aficionados who appreciate a well-made human tail." — Entertainment Weekly

81. "Slither" (2006)

81. "Slither" (2006)

Critic score: 86%

Audience score: 63%

What critics said: "[A] delightfully disgusting comic horror film." — The New Yorker

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80. "The Omen" (1976)

80. "The Omen" (1976)

Critic score: 86%

Audience score: 80%

What critics said: "This apocalyptic movie mostly avoids physical gore to boost its relatively unoriginal storyline with suspense, some excellent acting (especially from Warner and Whitelaw), and a very deft, incident-packed script." — Time Out

79. "The Descent" (2006)

79. "The Descent" (2006)

Critic score: 85%

Audience score: 75%

What critics said: "'The Descent' sustains a level of intensity that most horror films can barely muster for five minutes." — The AV Club

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78. "Goodnight Mommy (Ich seh, Ich seh)" (2015)

78. "Goodnight Mommy (Ich seh, Ich seh)" (2015)

Critic score: 86%

Audience score: 65%

What critics said: "The terror is sophisticated, chilling enough to set the hair of the art-house aficionados' goatees on end, but perhaps not to everyone's taste." — Globe and Mail

77. "Chronicle" (2012)

77. "Chronicle" (2012)

Critic score: 85%

Audience score: 71%

What critics said: "Although it dog-legs into silly mayhem in the homestretch, for a good portion of its quick 83-minute running time Chronicle is a quite clever boys-gone-wild-on-telekinetic-powers fantasy." — The Hollywood Reporter

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76. "This Is the End" (2013)

76. "This Is the End" (2013)

Critic score: 83%

Audience score: 71%

What critics said: "Finds a balanced tone most horror comedies fail to deliver. Grossout humor melds easily with grossout horror, sometimes at the same moment." — Chicago Sun-Times

75. "The Devil's Candy" (2017)

75. "The Devil's Candy" (2017)

Critic score: 90%

Audience score: 64%

What critics said: "A lean and slick homage to occult films, but with a knowing edge that suggests director Sean Byrne is aiming for the critical rafters." — Global and Mail

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74. "Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut" (2004)

74. "Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut" (2004)

Critic score: 91%

Audience score: 89%

What critics said: "Feels like a collision between a John Hughes teen comedy and a David Lynch freakfest." — Minneapolis Star Tribune

73. "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" (1986)

73. "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" (1986)

Critic score: 86%

Audience score: 71%

What critics said: "The film is an honest and disturbing attempt to come to grips with the sort of modern horror that we must -- more urgently every day -- try to understand." — Orlando Sentinel

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72. "Poltergeist" (1982)

72. "Poltergeist" (1982)

Critic score: 86%

Audience score: 78%

What critics said: "Hooper and Spielberg hold our interest by observing the everyday rituals of this family so closely that, since the family seems real, the weird events take on a certain credibility by association." — Chicago Sun-Times

71. "An American Werewolf in London" (1981)

71. "An American Werewolf in London" (1981)

Critic score: 88%

Audience score: 85%

What critics said: "A clever mixture of comedy and horror which succeeds in being both funny and scary, 'An American Werewolf in London' possesses an overriding eagerness to please that prevents it from becoming off-putting." — Variety

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70. "Near Dark" (1987)

70. "Near Dark" (1987)

Critic score: 88%

Audience score: 74%

What critics said: "Bigelow's artful handling of the magic and menace of the night is hauntingly apparent." — Rolling Stone

69. "28 Days Later" (2003)

69. "28 Days Later" (2003)

Critic score: 86%

Audience score: 85%

What critics said: "The movie's craft makes the dread of a killer virus contagious: viewers may feel they have come down with a case of secondhand SARS or sympathetic monkeypox." — Time

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68. "The Orphanage" (2007)

68. "The Orphanage" (2007)

Critic score: 87%

Audience score: 86%

What critics said: "A creepily effective exercise in gothic technique." — NPR

67. "Bone Tomahawk" (2015)

67. "Bone Tomahawk" (2015)

Critic score: 90%

Audience score: 72%

What critics said: "Equal parts charming, strange, goofy, unpredictable and genuinely horrifying." — Time Out

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66. "Gerald's Game" (2017)

66. "Gerald's Game" (2017)

Critic score: 91%

Audience score: 73%

What critics said: "When the movie arrives at a phenomenal, breakneck climax, and then keeps going with a totally implausible twist, it's adhering to the unwritten rule: No matter who's driving, everyone must bow to the King." — IndieWire

65. "Cronos" (1994)

65. "Cronos" (1994)

Critic score: 90%

Audience score: 70%

What critics said: "Surprises with its sophisticated and spirited look at a tale straight from the crypt." — Los Angeles Times

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64. "The Shining" (1980)

64. "The Shining" (1980)

Critic score: 86%

Audience score: 93%

What critics said: "Kubrick has made a movie that will have to be reckoned with on the highest level." — Time

63. "Misery" (1990)

63. "Misery" (1990)

Critic score: 89%

Audience score: 89%

What critics said: "Reiner captures just the right level of physical tension, but for the most part wisely emphasises the mental duels. Terrific." — Time Out

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62. "The Dead Zone" (1983)

62. "The Dead Zone" (1983)

Critic score: 90%

Audience score: 76%

What critics said: "The Dead Zone does what only a good supernatural thriller can do: It makes us forget it is supernatural." — Chicago Sun-Times

61. "The Conjuring" (2013)

61. "The Conjuring" (2013)

Critic score: 86%

Audience score: 82%

What critics said: "In 'The Conjuring,' the scary casts out the spirit of the silly, permanently, and with a vengeance." — The Washington Post

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60. "The Exorcist" (1973)

60. "The Exorcist" (1973)

Critic score: 86%

Audience score: 87%

What critics said: "The movie that launched a new era in horror films, and which, for one generation, remains one of the scariest experiences of their lives." — New York Daily News

59. "The Blair Witch Project" (1999)

59. "The Blair Witch Project" (1999)

Critic score: 87%

Audience score: 56%

What critics said: "Whenever night falls, the movie takes off, but in a slow creep, with all your childhood fears of the dark suddenly revealing themselves as absolutely reasonable." — CNN

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58. "Frankenweenie" (2012)

58. "Frankenweenie" (2012)

Critic score: 87%

Audience score: 70%

What critics said: "The best thing about an animated monster movie with this much heart is: It's alive. In the best possible way." — Miami Herald

57. "Let Me In" (2010)

57. "Let Me In" (2010)

Critic score: 88%

Audience score: 76%

What critics said: "One of the few horror films that will trouble you long after the credits roll." — Newsday

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56. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974)

56. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974)

Critic score: 88%

Audience score: 81%

What critics said: "Despite the heavy doses of gore in 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,' Tobe Hooper's pic is well-made for an exploiter of its type." — Variety

55. "Little Shop of Horrors" (1986)

55. "Little Shop of Horrors" (1986)

Critic score: 90%

Audience score: 79%

What critics said: "With its toe-tapping cadences, its class cast and its king-sized cabbage, it's destined to become a classic of camp comedy." — The Washington Post

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54. "The Wicker Man" (1973)

54. "The Wicker Man" (1973)

Critic score: 90%

Audience score: 82%

What critics said: "Like many of the best horror/thrillers, 'The Wicker Man' works because it surprises audiences, relying on carefully-nurtured suspense rather than cheap, theatrical shocks." — ReelViews

53. "Don't Breathe" (2016)

53. "Don't Breathe" (2016)

Critic score: 88%

Audience score: 78%

What critics said: "A breathless, visceral, nerve-racking thrill ride that doesn't stop coming at you until its final gasps." — Detroit News

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52. "We Are Still Here" (2015)

52. "We Are Still Here" (2015)

Critic score: 95%

Audience score: 48%

What critics said: "The haunted house genre has been done to death (pardon the pun) but this one has some genuine chills. The plotting is aggressive." — Observer

51. "Phantom Of The Opera" (1925)

51. "Phantom Of The Opera" (1925)

Critic score: 91%

Audience score: 83%

What critics said: "Lon Chaney's performance as the hideous organist prowling the sewers beneath the Paris Opera is still a cornerstone of gothic horror." — Chicago Reader

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50. "Dawn of the Dead" (1979)

50. "Dawn of the Dead" (1979)

Critic score: 93%

Audience score: 90%

What critics said: "Undoubtedly the zombie movie to end 'em all." — Time Out

49. "The Fly" (1986)

49. "The Fly" (1986)

Critic score: 91%

Audience score: 83%

What critics said: "Wildly imaginative, gut-wrenchingly scarifying and profoundly primal (not to mention funny), David Cronenberg's 'The Fly' is a movie that whacks you in the solar plexus and leaves you gasping." — Philadelphia Inquirer

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48. "Eraserhead" (1977)

48. "Eraserhead" (1977)

Critic score: 91%

Audience score: 83%

What critics said: "What a masterpiece of texture, a feat of artisanal attention, an ingenious assemblage of damp, dust, rock, wood, hair, flesh, metal, ooze." — Village Voice

47. "Suspiria" (1977)

47. "Suspiria" (1977)

Critic score: 92%

Audience score: 83%

What critics said: "Mr. Argento's methods make potentially stomach-turning material more interesting than it ought to be." — The New York Times

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46. "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962)

46. "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962)

Critic score: 92%

Audience score: 92%

What critics said: "A lurid melodrama of hate, revenge and murder, a high-class horror film, in the Hitchcock vein." — The Hollywood Reporter

45. "It Comes At Night" (2017)

45. "It Comes At Night" (2017)

Critic score: 88%

Audience score: 44%

What critics said: "Scored intensely and photographed vividly, the electric film imagines a small slice of doomsday with horrific believability." — Globe and Mail

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44. "Dracula" (1931)

44. "Dracula" (1931)

Critic score: 91%

Audience score: 81%

What critics said: "A sublimated ghost story related with all surface seriousness and above all with a remarkably effective background of creepy atmosphere." — Variety

43. "Zombieland" (2009)

43. "Zombieland" (2009)

Critic score: 90%

Audience score: 86%

What critics said: "It's a black-blood-spitting mugging of a movie, but it's also relentlessly funny and innovative, the sort of film that makes you writhe and laugh at the same time." — Detroit News

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42. "Shaun of the Dead" (2004)

42. "Shaun of the Dead" (2004)

Critic score: 92%

Audience score: 93%

What critics said: "Mixing horror and humor is no mean feat, but Shaun Of The Dead tightens throats in fear without making the laughs stick there in the process." — The AV Club

41. "The Host" (2007)

41. "The Host" (2007)

Critic score: 93%

Audience score: 72%

What critics said: "Rarely plays out the way you expect. Director Bong is careful to deliver the promised scares, but he is also willing to overlook plot formulas to explore his own interests." — Miami Herald

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40. "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984)

40. "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984)

Critic score: 94%

Audience score: 83%

What critics said: "A highly imaginative horror film that provides the requisite shocks to keep fans of the genre happy." — Variety

39. "Train to Busan (Busanhaeng)" (2016)

39. "Train to Busan (Busanhaeng)" (2016)

Critic score: 95%

Audience score: 88%

What critics said: "A zombie movie content not to aspire to any loftier subtextual readings needs little more than a skilled choreographer of action, and there's plenty of evidence that this film had one in Yeon." — The AV Club

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38. "Re-Animator" (1985)

38. "Re-Animator" (1985)

Critic score: 94%

Audience score: 82%

What critics said: "Re-Animator is splatter heaven. Based on the sci-fi novel by H.P. Lovecraft, Re-Animator's gore is exceeded only by its wit" — The Washington Post

37. "Room 237" (2013)

37. "Room 237" (2013)

Critic score: 94%

Audience score: 55%

What critics said: "There's enough real evidence supporting the theory that Kubrick was a genius, and that's pretty entertaining all by itself." — Newsday

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36. "The Love Witch" (2016)

36. "The Love Witch" (2016)

Critic score: 95%

Audience score: 60%

What critics said: "A modern feminist horror tale that rewards deep exploration beneath its admittedly beautiful surface." — Detroit News

35. "Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (Nosferatu the Vampyre)" (1979)

35. "Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (Nosferatu the Vampyre)" (1979)

Critic score: 94%

Audience score: 83%

What critics said: "This is a pinnacle of horror cinema: atmospheric, rhapsodic and -- especially in the slow-burn confrontations between Lucy and her otherworldly inamorato -- achingly transcendent." — Time Out

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34. "Halloween" (1978)

34. "Halloween" (1978)

Critic score: 93%

Audience score: 89%

What critics said: "Halloween is an absolutely merciless thriller, a movie so violent and scary that, yes, I would compare it to Psycho." — Chicago Sun-Times

33. "Young Frankenstein" (1974)

33. "Young Frankenstein" (1974)

Critic score: 93%

Audience score: 92%

What critics said: "More about the myth of Karloff than the monster, this Mel Brooks pastiche is probably his best early film." — Chicago Reader

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32. "The Loved Ones" (2012)

32. "The Loved Ones" (2012)

Critic score: 98%

Audience score: 74%

What critics said: "It's a terrifying masterpiece that turns high school drama into a literal dead zone." — IndieWire

31. "The Evil Dead" (1981)

31. "The Evil Dead" (1981)

Critic score: 95%

Audience score: 84%

What critics said: "Sam Raimi maintains suspense and a nightmarish mood in between the showy outbursts of special effects gore and graphic violence which are staples of modern horror pictures." — Variety

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30. "Carrie" (1976)

30. "Carrie" (1976)

Critic score: 93%

Audience score: 76%

What critics said: "More superpowers from Brian De Palma, this time in high school, in a screen version of a Stephen King novel that's become a horror classic." — The Wall Street Journal

29. "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978)

29. "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978)

Critic score: 94%

Audience score: 81%

What critics said: "Set at the intersection of post-Vietnam paranoia and the myopic introspection that became hippiedom's most lasting cultural contribution, the Philip Kaufman-directed Invasion alternates social commentary with impeccably crafted scares." — The AV Club

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28. "Drag Me to Hell" (2009)

28. "Drag Me to Hell" (2009)

Critic score: 92%

Audience score: 62%

What critics said: "The dichotomies director Sam Raimi presents within that familiar genre are what make this such a kick." — Associated Press

27. "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" (2014)

27. "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" (2014)

Critic score: 96%

Audience score: 75%

What critics said: "Combing horror, film noir and westerns, Ana Lily Amirpour's debut feature, 'A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night,' is a refreshing take on vampire lore." — Globe and Mail

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26. "The Innocents" (1961)

26. "The Innocents" (1961)

Critic score: 96%

Audience score: 86%

What critics said: "Based on Henry James' story 'Turn of the Screw' this catches an eerie, spine-chilling mood right at the start and never lets up on its grim, evil theme." — Variety

25. "The Vanishing (Spoorloos)" (1988)

25. "The Vanishing (Spoorloos)" (1988)

Critic score: 98%

Audience score: 88%

What critics said: "Mr. Sluizer, whose direction has the spooky precision of nonfiction crime writing and whose matter-of-factness makes the characters seem quite real, builds a disturbing horror story from seemingly modest beginnings." — The New York Times

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24. "Don't Look Now" 1973)

24. "Don't Look Now" 1973)

Critic score: 96%

Audience score: 77%

What critics said: "A devastating portrait of grief, a master class in disjunctive editing and a haunting disquisition on the use of the color red." — Los Angeles Times

23. "The Cabin in the Woods" (2012)

23. "The Cabin in the Woods" (2012)

Critic score: 92%

Audience score: 74%

What critics said: "A horror movie embedded in a conspiracy flick embedded in another horror movie-the most inventive cabin-in-the-woods picture since 'The Evil Dead' and the canniest genre deconstruction since 'Scream.'" — The Atlantic

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22. "The Birds" (1963)

22. "The Birds" (1963)

Critic score: 96%

Audience score: 83%

What critics said: "Arguably the greatest of all disaster films -- a triumph of special effects, as well as the fountainhead of what has become known as gross-out horror." — Village Voice

21. "Godzilla" (1956)

21. "Godzilla" (1956)

Critic score: 93%

Audience score: 89%

What critics said: "It's a terse, lean terror with a big, swinging tail." — Dallas Morning News

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20. "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991)

20. "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991)

Critic score: 95%

Audience score: 95%

What critics said: "Has everything you want in a popular thriller. It's stylish, intelligent, audacious rather than shocking, and stolen by a suave monster you'll never forget." — Boston Globe

19. "Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn" (1987)

19. "Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn" (1987)

Critic score: 98%

Audience score: 89%

What critics said: "Evil Dead 2's rampant inventiveness and manic energy have ensured that it will endure as a cult classic." — The AV Club

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18. "The Witch" (2016)

18. "The Witch" (2016)

Critic score: 91%

Audience score: 57%

What critics said: "In the tradition of William Friedkin's 'The Exorcist,' this chilling low-budget horror movie taps into the same temporal fear that sparks religious feeling." — Chicago Reader

17. "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006)

17. "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006)

Critic score: 95%

Audience score: 91%

What critics said: "Guillermo del Toro has crafted a masterpiece, a terrifying, visually wondrous fairy tale for adults that blends fantasy and gloomy drama into one of the most magical films to come along in years." — Associated Press

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16. "Eyes Without a Face" (1962)

16. "Eyes Without a Face" (1962)

Critic score: 98%

Audience score: 87%

What critics said: "One of those rare horror films that induces discomfort by showing practically nothing." — Entertainment Weekly

15. "Night of the Living Dead" (1968)

15. "Night of the Living Dead" (1968)

Critic score: 97%

Audience score: 87%

What critics said: "The immediate, quasi-documentary feel, a result of budgetary constraints, actually served the film's horror, jolting audiences because it all seemed just a little too real." — Village Voice

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14. "Freaks" (1932)

14. "Freaks" (1932)

Critic score: 94%

Audience score: 88%

What critics said: "Some of the most terrifying scenes ever consigned to film." — The Wall Street Journal

13. "Aliens" (1986)

13. "Aliens" (1986)

Critic score: 98%

Audience score: 94%

What critics said: "Action thrillers assail but rarely test us; this is the tautest, most provoking, and altogether most draining example ever made." — The New Yorker

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12. "Let the Right One In" (2008)

12. "Let the Right One In" (2008)

Critic score: 98%

Audience score: 90%

What critics said: "Lovelier than most bloodsucker flicks, but it doesn't quite transcend its well-chewed genre." — NPR

11. "It Follows" (2015)

11. "It Follows" (2015)

Critic score: 97%

Audience score: 66%

What critics said: "It Follows represents a compelling evolution in how studios and audiences can (and should) conceive of its monsters." — The Atlantic

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10. "Frankenstein" (1931)

10. "Frankenstein" (1931)

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 87%

What critics said: "The most influential horror film ever made, this stark and stylish work has a weird fairytale beauty." — Village Voice

9. "Rosemary's Baby" (1968)

9. "Rosemary's Baby" (1968)

Critic score: 99%

Audience score: 87%

What critics said: "Weird obstetricians, mysterious night noises and even Farrow's improvised stroll into actual oncoming traffic add up to a bustling nightmare that's spawned many a Black Swan since." — Time Out

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8. "The Babadook" (2014)

8. "The Babadook" (2014)

Critic score: 98%

Audience score: 72%

What critics said: "A deftly inventive and psychologically charged horror story that trades on the ways in which the prospect of maternal failure can be just as fearsome a boogeyman as any monster under the bed." — Buzzfeed

7. "The Bride of Frankenstein" (1935)

7. "The Bride of Frankenstein" (1935)

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 87%

What critics said: "Has an in-your- face audacity that hasn't dimmed all that much after 63 years." — San Francisco Chronicle

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6. "Repulsion" (1965)

6. "Repulsion" (1965)

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 86%

What critics said: "Roman Polanski's first English-language film is still a creepy little horror masterpiece." — Entertainment Weekly

5. "King Kong" (1933)

5. "King Kong" (1933)

Critic score: 98%

Audience score: 86%

What critics said: "'King Kong' as spectacular a bolt of celluloid as has thrilled audiences in a couple of sophisticated seasons, is the product of a number of vivid imaginations." — New York Daily News

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4. "Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror (Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens) (Nosferatu the Vampire)" (1922)

4. "Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror (Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens) (Nosferatu the Vampire)" (1922)

Critic score: 97%

Audience score: 87%

What critics said: "So this is it: ground zero, the birth of horror cinema." — Time Out

3. "Psycho" (1960)

3. "Psycho" (1960)

Critic score: 97%

Audience score: 94%

What critics said: "Hitchcock is the most-daring avant-garde film-maker in America today." — Village Voice

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2. "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari)" (1920)

2. "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari)" (1920)

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 89%

What critics said: "Undoubtedly one of the most exciting and inspired horror movies ever made." — Time Out

1. "Get Out" (2017)

1. "Get Out" (2017)

Critic score: 99%

Audience score: 86%

What critics said: "'Get Out' is the satirical horror movie we've been waiting for, a mash-up of 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?' and 'The Stepford Wives' that's more fun than either and more illuminating, too." — Vulture

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