To be fair, any list of my very favorite horror films would be significantly longer than ten titles. But these are the ones that I find myself returning to time and again. These are also the films I would shove into the hands of those who just don’t “get” horror. Atmospheric and memorable, this collection of titles demonstrates that what is deemed horrific is often dependent upon the time in which the film was made.
* Descriptions come from IMDB
Freaks (1932)
A circus’ beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.
Cat People (1942)
An American man marries a Serbian immigrant who fears that she will turn into the cat person of her homeland’s fables if they are intimate together.
The Night Of The Hunter (1955)
A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid $10,000 he’d stolen in a robbery.
The Innocents (1961)
A young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
A group of people hide from bloodthirsty zombies in a farmhouse.
Don’t Look Now (1973)
A married couple grieving the recent death of their little daughter are in Venice when they encounter two elderly sisters, one of whom is psychic and brings a warning from beyond.
Carrie (1976)
A young, abused and timid 17-year-old girl discovers she has telekinesis, and gets pushed to the limit on the night of her school’s prom by a humiliating prank.
Eraserhead (1977)
Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Several people are hunted by a cruel serial killer who kills his victims in their dreams. When the survivors are trying to find the reason for being chosen, the murderer won’t lose any chance to kill them as soon as they fall asleep.
Scream (1996)
A masked killer begins killing teenagers in the small town of Woodsboro. One young girl and her friends realize that as the number of deaths go up, to survive they must follow the rules or horror movies.
