The 21 Best Classic Horror films of All Time 

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Before Jigsaw and Pennywise, there was Dracula and the Wolf Man. The horror genre dates back to a time before talkies, when directors relied on set design, story, and really efficient fog machines to get the goosebumps rising. Herewith, nothing after 1979, and everything you want in a scary movie.

It’s German. It’s silent. But Robert Wiene’s monochromatic chiller still delivers the screams. Arguably the first horror movie ever in the can, it’s a highly-stylized nightmare about murder, madness, and somnambulism. You\'ll recognize its influences all over Tim Burton’s resume.

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is the one to thank for the “I vant to suck your blood” camp we crave.

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Before Christopher Lee donned the infamous collared cape, Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi sank his fangs into the role of the “epitome of evil” in Tod Browning’s haunter. Not only did this Dracula establish the aesthetics of the villain, but he and Browning helped catapult the supernatural genre to American soil.

The tale of the godless Dr. Frankenstein and his Monster who goes on a rogue killing spree dates back to 1831, a century before director James Whale adapted Mary Shelley’s fright fest for the screen. But its influence remains alive and continues to breed contemporary reduxes.

Bushy yak hairs, a fog machine, and a perfected moon howl, and the wooliest of the Universal Monsters was born. The film that launched a thousand lupine transformations had a release date that fell just two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and despite critical finger-wagging, it achieved blockbuster status.

Touted as the greatest thriller Hitchcock didn’t direct,

is French suspense with a famous final twist. More “who’s doing that?” than whodunit, the plot follows two scorned women after they drown the sadist who wronged them in the bathtub—then go mad thinking he’s still alive.

Released during the Cold War ‘50s, Don Siegle’s essential paranoia classic, about a town whose community is slowly and unassumingly replaced by aliens, is a reflection of its times, its subtext often regarded as a metaphor for McCarthyism or groupthink. It also has pod-people remakes aplenty.

Maestro Hitchcock perfected the technique of the power of suggestion with his infamous shower scene starring Janet Leigh. Though graphic in nature, we never actually see blade penetrating flesh, and yet it’s impossible to shower without worrying a rube with mommy issues is on the other side of the curtain.

The horror buff’s horror film, Jack Clayton’s ghost story goes beyond tropes to turn co-writer Truman Capote’s script into an esteemed film that, when watched today, shatters the low-grade reputation plaguing the genre. And it doesn’t do it with violence—just a nanny who might or might not be mad.

The doctor is in, but he’s gone a little mad in Georges Franju’s Cronie-esque noir. A bizarre trip through guilt, science, and body horror that, for its time, was groundbreaking, the story is about a father reconstructing his daughter’s burned face with grafted skin from women he’s lured into his home. Pedro Almodovar directed an inspired retelling in 2011.

Roman Polanski’s brooding slow-burner about a Manhattanite who gives birth to Satan’s spawn is no-joke occult viewing. Eerie in all manner of the word, it breaks tropes by not keeping its audience in the dark. Instead, we know the devil is in the details, and there’s not a thing we can do to stop him.

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No matter how you prefer your nightwalker—staggering, high energy, foaming at the mouth—the late George Romero is the genius who broke ground in the subgenre by morphing the voodoo urban legend into the flesh-eating mob we know and love today. The result: arguably the best zombie thriller OAT.

movie, with the did-they-or-didn’t-they love scene between Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. However, that’s about as graphic as things get. Nicolas Roeg doesn’t exploit cheap tricks or special effects to send chills down the spine. Rather, just a narrative of grief, clairvoyance, and murder.

Forty-plus years on and William Friedkin’s attack on the senses is still king of the demon subgenre, if not the genre as a whole. Based on the “true”-story possession of a kid named Ronald Hunkeler, Friedkin’s tale of a little girl, her demon, and the filth she spews sets the mold few can live up to.

It’s definitely not the most wonderful time of year for the sorority girls being linguistically assaulted over the phone in this Canadian classic that gave way to modern-day slasher flicks like

. Sure, it has a third-act twist you’ll see coming thanks to its subsequent lookalikes, but that doesn’t make it any less horrifying.

Tobe Hooper’s Southern-fried fete of swine, cannibals, and high-octane power tools is an exercise in endurance. Though it lugs around a hard-core slasher reputation, it actually serves up very little gore, instead leaning on an immersive atmosphere to jangle the nerves. Even today, it’s lost zero effect.

Don’t wear white while watching Brian De Palma’s blood-soaked terror adapted from Stephen King’s tale. It’s essentially about a bullied telekinetic teen who finally snaps, and when it comes to the genre, mainstream culture, and our very own psyche, this one hasn’t just left a mark—it’s left a permanent stain.

Dario Argento’s magnum opus is a symphony of witches, prog rock, and primary colors oozing with giallo influences. It follows an American who joins a German ballet company harboring a coven of witches, and though it’s perfect as is, we can’t help but be curious about Luca Guadagnino’s remake.

Billed as experimental comedy horror, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s gonzo surrealism with a massive body count is midnight madness at its best. From the disembodied floating heads to the fluffy white witch cat, there really are no words to describe it. Just see it for yourself.

, writer, director, and composer John Carpenter took a shoestring budget, a William Shatner mask, and a whole lotta creativity to deliver a massively successful slasher flick that would eventually become the pinnacle of teen screams.

Ridley Scott’s jarring trip about a crew of cosmonauts battling a creepy life form in deep space didn’t invent the interstellar horror, but it did set the bar for all who traveled in its footsteps. Not to mention it innovated special effects (chest scene, anyone?) and defied convention, all with a woman (Sigourney Weaver) in the driver’s seat.

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