If you limit things to the past 40 years, when talking about great horror movies, there are inevitably a whole host of titles that just get automatically disqualified, so RIP to those. Psycho, Alien, The Shining, two versions of Nosferatu, Godzilla (1954), and all the original Universal Monster movies… sorry, y’all. This isn’t your time to shine. Go collect some more cobwebs (not necessarily a bad thing, since cobwebs are spooky).
But then focusing on the past 40 years, so everything released post-1985? There are a bunch of iconic titles, and some of them are just old enough to be considered classics (namely, the ones that are more than 25 or 30 years old). And the others will likely be classics, once enough time has passed for them to be defined as such, but either way, all of these are great, and well worth watching if you’re feeling a craving for something scary, be it because it’s Halloween or otherwise.
10
‘Get Out’ (2017)
Seemingly without warning, Jordan Peele decided one day he wanted to move into horror, kind of leaving aside the sorts of comedic projects he’d been known for before 2017, and he hasn’t really looked back since. Maybe Us and Nope are a little more genre-blending than his first horror movie, Get Out, but it’s Get Out that remains the best of the bunch, and will likely continue standing as a tough-to-beat feature film directorial debut for Peele.
Basically, Get Out is about a Black man having to meet the parents of his white girlfriend, and things are a bit off at first, but then awkwardness gives way to genuine malice and threat, and from there, there’s an escalation that’s best experienced/left unspoiled. Get Out is great because it feels original, and approaches some heavy stuff thematically while never forgetting to keep things emotionally engaging, intense, exciting, and occasionally (darkly) funny.
9
‘The Sixth Sense’ (1999)
As far as horror movies from the 1990s go, few are as iconic as The Sixth Sense, but at the same time, it’s also more than just a horror movie. It works as a psychological drama/thriller film with supernatural elements, since it’s about a young boy who claims he can see ghosts, and the way he works with a child psychologist to get to the bottom of what’s going on in his mind.
Also, it’s hard to talk about The Sixth Sense without mentioning how surprising it is, and the twist here… yeah, it’s still not going to be spoiled. Everyone knows it, but if you somehow don’t, then just make it an ASAP watch and enjoy the ride. Though if you do know it ahead of time, or have seen the movie before, there is also something rewarding about rewatching a movie like The Sixth Sense and better appreciating how it might’ve tricked you (or others) the first time around.
8
‘Godzilla Minus One’ (2023)
Look, if you read a lot of articles on Collider, maybe you’re sick of hearing about Godzilla Minus One at this stage, because there’s this one guy who just won’t shut up about it, and seems intent on putting it somewhere in every ranking that it could conceivably go on. Best World War II movies? Like, it’s a stretch, but also maybe? Best Monster Movies, Best Recent Movies, Best Any Movie… look, Godzilla Minus One is there. It’s as inevitable as dying while doing your taxes.
But also, Godzilla Minus One kind of is that good, and it’s also up there among the scarier giant monster movies made in recent memory. You might be new to Godzilla, or kind of indifferent toward some of the earlier ones you might’ve seen, but Godzilla Minus One is still worth checking out, and remains standing as a great gateway film to the series as a whole.
7
‘Black Swan’ (2010)
Black Swan is a psychological thriller/horror movie about a young ballerina trying to achieve perfection, but finding that pursuit slowly driving her mad, owing to personal choices and some of the negative influences she has in her life. There are things that are familiar here, and maybe you could call it a modernized/horror version of The Red Shoes, but it works surprisingly well.
Also, though what’s actually scary differs from person to person, there is a pretty good argument to be made that Black Swan is one of the scarier horror movies of the past few decades. It gets right into its central character’s head, and seeing her world fall apart from that perspective is truly disorientating, even if you’re the sort of viewer who can disconnect yourself from what’s happening, knowing it’s all taking place on a screen. With Black Swan, that barrier just feels a little less stable and secure than usual.
6
‘Scream’ (1996)
By 1996, slasher movies had kind of worn out their welcome, as the sub-genre really picked up in the late 1970s, was exceptionally popular for much of the 1980s, and then felt a bit less exciting by the time the 1990s came around. Wes Craven, who’d previously directed the first A Nightmare on Elm Street movie, seemed well aware of this, and so he sought to revitalize the good old slasher sub-genre with Scream, making it all more meta.
But, more importantly, making it meta and self-aware without treating things entirely like a joke. Scream is quite funny and clever at times, but it does also function quite well as a horror/mystery movie, if that’s what you’re after. You get a bit of both, and somehow, there’s still a decent enough balance to the whole thing. Some conventions are stuck to, while others are thrown right out the window, and so the whole ride is, as a result, an undoubtedly fun one.
5
‘Sinners’ (2025)
It’s quite recent, as at the time of writing, but Sinners does already feel like something special, and is about as likely as the aforementioned Godzilla Minus One to endure (and remain cool) many years after the 2020s have officially drawn to a close. Sinners is great for many reasons, but perhaps the most obvious one is just how confidently put together it is, with the pacing being deliberate, and not necessarily fast all the time, but done in a way that ensures the film’s always engrossing.
It could be the best thing Ryan Coogler has directed to date (which is saying quite a bit), and it takes various familiar horror conventions and ideas before remixing them into something that feels singular. It’s got so much going for it, and it’s also incredibly hard to fault. Sinners is absolute sinema, no doubt about it.
4
‘Misery’ (1990)
Though it’s pretty twisted what happens in Misery, there is also something darkly fun and undeniably entertaining about the whole thing. Some parts are wince-inducing, and there for sure wouldn’t be anything actually fun about being a writer taken hostage by a way-too-passionate fan, but it’s fun to watch it all play out on screen, and root for the guy to make it out of the whole situation alive.
Kathy Bates delivers her best-ever performance here and really commits to it for every second she’s on-screen.
Also, Kathy Bates delivers her best-ever performance here and really commits to it for every second she’s on-screen, and it’s hard not to get some kind of enjoyment out of seeing her play such a love-to-hate character. It’s based on one of Stephen King’s best books, and really does the source material justice… though it’s very much worth experiencing both, since there’s some stuff in the book not in the movie, and vice versa.
3
‘Let the Right One In’ (2008)
Let the Right One In is a movie about how tough growing up is, especially when you’re something of a social outcast, but how it’s possible to persevere if you can find like-minded people your age. That’s something the young protagonist, named Oskar, thinks he’s done when he befriends a young girl named Eli, but then there are certain things about her and her past that… uh… complicate things.
Yeah, “complicate” is the best word. Most people probably know the sort of horror sub-genre Let the Right One In belongs to, but in case you don’t, it’s good to watch it and be surprised. And the important thing to know is that it’s a coming-of-age movie, in a way, but a dark and sometimes scary one, going beyond the usual dark and scary stuff that comes with being young. It’s also easily one of the best horror movies of the 21st century to date, and there aren’t enough good things one can say about it.
2
‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991)
Not only was The Silence of the Lambs nominated for Best Picture (as a horror movie), but it also broke ground by being, to date, the only horror movie to actually win Best Picture at the Oscars. It was well-deserved here, and maybe it happened because The Silence of the Lambs is just as much a crime/thriller/mystery movie as it is a horror film, with much of the plot revolving around the hunt for a serial killer at large.
But it’s also a good deal more complex than just another “we gotta find the serial killer” sort of movie, but not complex in a way that becomes confusing or frustrating. Once more, it’s one of those movies that’s just incredibly well-balanced, and though it’s not as non-stop with the scares as some other horror movies, when The Silence of the Lambs wants you to squirm and feel unease, it’ll more than likely succeed at just that.
1
‘The Fly’ (1986)
At no point does The Fly try to overextend itself or go too far on a narrative/thematic front. The story itself is fairly simple, and it’s easy to come up with some interpretations as to what the horrific transformation that happens here could be representing, allegorically. Or, it’s just a simple thing about science going too far and paying the consequences, in a Frankenstein or Jurassic Park sort of way.
And hey, speaking of Jurassic Park, Jeff Goldblum is also in The Fly, and he’s genuinely incredible, managing to be funny and quirky at times, but also really delivering when the film needs to be more tragic. The Fly is technically perfect, with special effects that are still remarkable almost 40 years later, and it’s the sort of film that doesn’t waste a second for its entire runtime. It’s something special, and it only seems to get better – and more surprising, somehow – the older it gets.
The Fly
- Release Date
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August 15, 1986
- Runtime
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96 minutes
