The 30 Best Horror Movies Of All-Time 

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Almost as long as there has been cinema there have been horror movies. While the genre is often branded with the stigma of being low-brow, cheap, and only for hardcore fans of jump scares and gore, it is also responsible for some of the greatest films of all-time, and certainly many of our favorites fall somewhere along the horror spectrum.

Just as there are trashy, forgettable, throwaway horror films every year, there are also those that that play upon our greatest fears to create tension, an ominous atmosphere, and to terrify us to our very core. The history genre is full of monsters, both human and otherwise, horrific events, and chilling scenarios that thrill us, scare us, keep us on the proverbial edge of our seats, and stick around to haunt our nightmares long after we leave the theater.

The list that follows is Cinema Blend�s definitive, once-and-for-all comment on the greatest horror movies ever made, though we can�t help but wish there was room for 50 or 100 entries. Will you agree with all of our choices? Probably not, but we�re willing to bet that some of your favorites made the cut.

A franchise most known for it�s hulking, un-killable, hockey-mask-wearing, machete-wielding villain Jason Voorhees, it�s easy to forget that this iconic antagonist isn�t really a part of Sean Cunninghams�s 1980 original�he only shows up at the very, very last minute. Along with the likes of

Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th helped define the slasher craze of the 1980s, and delivered the definitive kids-at-camp horror film. Full of tension and shocks and a very young Kevin Bacon getting speared through the neck, Friday the 13th is one of the authors of what we have subsequently come to accept as key components of horror, firmly establishing the steps for all of the by-the-numbers genre movies that followed.

Shaun of the Dead is the one movie on this list that works as a comedy first and as a horror second, but it does both so exceedingly well that there was no way this slice of fried gold could be ignored. From the minds of star Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright, 2004�s Shaun of the Dead gave the zombie genre the "hometown bloke" spin and turned Pegg�s Shaun and Nick Frost�s Ed into legitimate movie heroes. With homages galore and weapons ranging from rifles to cricket bats to the Batman soundtrack on vinyl (but not Purple Rain), the movie wisely balances the narrative spotlight between imaginative zombie kills and the pub-loving Shaun fighting to keep his life from spiraling away. As quotable as it is blood-soaked and hilarious, Shaun of the Dead is boosted by a stellar supporting cast of talented Brits, including Bill Nighy, Dylan Moran, Kate Ashfield and Lucy Davis (among many others). Fuck-a-doodle-do, this movie is fantastic.

With the giallo subgenre, Italian filmmakers put their own unique, memorable stamp on horror. None of them left quite the mark that Dario Argento did, and none of his impressive body of work stands quite as tall as 1977�s

Suspiria. When an American ballet student enrolls in prestigious German dance academy, she finds much more than she bargained for, as sinister supernatural forces leave a trail of violent, grisly murders. Glossy and blood-spattered, Suspiria is visually stunning�a virtual nightmare captured on film�violent, shocking, and with a score by the legendary prog rock band Goblin, the finished product is a hallucinatory sensory overload. And I mean that as the highest compliment.

Knife in the Water and Rosemary�s Baby, Roman Polanski has shown that you don�t necessarily need monsters and jump scares to make a truly terrifying film. Case in point: his first English-language feature, 1965�s Repulsion. Starring Catherine Deneuve, the story follows her character, Carol, a woman repulsed by all things sexual, who, when her sister leaves her alone for a holiday, comes unwound, sinks into a depression, and is tormented by horrific visions and hallucinations, all of which culminate in shocking real-world violence. Repulsion is widely regarded as one of the all-time greats in the realm of psychological horror, and that acclaim has rightly remained for more than half a century.

When a married couple (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie), attempting to come to terms with the death of their young daughter, travel to Venice, they�re haunted by a series of mysterious occurrences and reminders of death after an encounter with two elderly sisters comes with warnings from beyond. Clearly wearing Hitchcockian influences on his sleeve, Nicolas Roeg�s 1973

Don�t Look Now employs occult sensibilities, explores the impact of grief on a relationship, and delivers a chilling, menacing story, tinged with melodrama and the supernatural, that sticks with you long after watching. Psychologically and thematically dense, it�s an examination of the human psyche as filtered through the lens of a tense, tight horror thriller.

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