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11 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time
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Just in time for Halloween and exclusively for The Daily Beast, the man who brought you Taxi Driver and The Departed shares his favorite horror movies of all time. Plus, watch clips of the scariest scenes.
1. THE HAUNTING
“You may not believe in ghosts but you cannot deny terror!” was the tagline for this absolutely terrifying 1963 Robert Wise picture about the investigation of a house plagued by violently assaultive spirits.
2. ISLE OF THE DEAD
There’s a moment in this Val Lewton picture, about plague victims trapped on an island during the Greek civil war, that never fails to scare me. let’s just say that it involves premature burial.
3. THE UNINVITED
Another, more benign haunted house picture, set in England, no less atmospheric than The Haunting—the tone is very delicate, and the sense of fear is woven into the setting, the gentility of the characters.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Hopefully "Shutter island" will make everybody's list next year!
John Carpenter's original "Halloween" should be on there.
See the re-make of "The Hunting" and watch a list of everything that's wrong with Hollywood.
Actually, I hate to disappoint you -- but "Shutter Island" isn't a horror film. It's a mystery by Denis Lehane -- the same guy who wrote "Mystic River." However, it definitely has horror elements, and has a sense of creeping dread throughout. I'm really hoping they get it right, because it's a really awesome book. In fact, I'm currently reading it again for the third time -- and it never gets boring. Check it out.
Martin is showing his age. He has too many British films listed. The Brit's give all Horror films an X-Rating so they always tone down their flicks. The first modern Horror film is Night of the Living Dead. The 70's was the great era for Horror so Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Dawn of the Dead or Alien should definitely be included. If you want to really be disgusted and disturbed to the point where you can't sleep you will want to examine recent Japanese Horror like Audition or the grand-daddy of disgust I Spit On Your Grave.
No he's showing his taste in film- the article isn't about age....filmmakers view film according to style and often aesthetic. Probably as opposed to stating the obvious and typical standard run of the mill general submissions, Mr.Scorsese decided to add a bit of diverse culture. I could add "Eyes Without A Face" here to add to "his" list although black and white isn't my preference, I also didn't direct "Taxi Driver". Your age and culture obviously shows, "I Spit On Your Grave" was pathetically cheap and trashy, Korean horror films are the winner as opposed to Japanese- for some reason people can't read subtitles or understand which group of Asians dominate a genre.
Hmm. I think it was a list of the *scariest* movies not horror. Anyway, I think 13 would have been a nice number and I would nominate Blue Velvet and second others' nomination of Aliens to round out the list - two films that are scary in very different ways. I'm glad Scorcese picked The Uninvited - but when will it be available on DVD?
Kathie
He forgot FUNNY GAMES, the European version. When my husband and I talk about it we get repulsed all over again. I forgot the director's name. The same director recently made a version for American audiences. We would never see it again it was so scary.
You forgot the director's name?
Hmmm I wonder if there is some device or interconnected network that you could look up something like that on? Wouldn't that be great?
Thank you!!!! I have seen what I remember as THE scariest movie ever when I was a teenager. Since I saw it in Europe the title has been translated and changed and I have not been able to find it. I have been thinking about this movie for over 25 years thinking that I will never be able to share it with anyone. Well, Mr. Scorsese you just named it in this article. It is The Changeling, I do not think that it was big in the USA but I cannot recommend it any higher. Thank you, I feel like I recovered a bit of my youth. I could not sleep for a week after watching this movie.
Scariest movie this year: "Capitalism, a love story." It's not so much what you see....but what what you were never the hell aware of until seeing the movie, that scares the pants off you.
that's true, Michael Moore in love with his own voice and his own bullsh*t is pretty scary. Especially when people still believe his shlock.
I'd go with Jeepers Creepers and Alien.
Jeepers Creepers? Seriously?
Yeah, Jeepers Creeper is awful...so many glaring mistakes in the editind that it REFUSED the opportunity to be scary. Alien, on the other hand, still scares the jeepers creepers out of me!!
The monster in it was spooky. Kind of like that creepy inbred family in one of the episodes of the X-Files.
ALIEN, MOST DEFINATELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHIPMA: that is a great point...now THAT was scary...those creepy inbred X-files folks were the Partridge Family.
Yes!!~ Jeepers Creepers is one of my favorite scary movies!
It's good because it's so out of place in the current slew of gore-porn.
It reminds me of a 60's B movie crossed with Twilight Zone episode.
Sort of like Drag Me to Hell without the wink wink nudge nudge factor.
@ jjaytn: you missed the point.
I'd like to add two candidates of my own to Scorcese's "scariest" list:
1--Howard Hawks' "The Thing (from another world)" - 1951.
The first movie I remember that really scared me (@ age 8). When the title monster (James Arness) smashed through the barricade at the arctic research station and headed toward its terrified occupants, I ran to the back of the RKO Marble Hill and hid behind the low wall that separated the last row of seats from the lobby;
2--Mark Pellington's "The Mothman Prophecies" - 2002.
Here's, I think, an underrated, scary movie. It was the last film I saw that really scared me, and I was a lot older than 8!
One suggestion: try not to watch it when you're home alone at night, especially if there's a storm outside.
We must be of a same age. I remember having the shit scared out of me when I saw "The Thing" at age 8. I checked my closet and under my bed for the monster before going to bed for a couple of days after!
I agree absolutely with The Mothman Prophecies. It was underrated, but a movie that still gives me the "creepies" every time I watch it..."Wake up, number 37." I get chills! Honorable mention to the music score as well on this one.
Mothman Prophecies was boring as hell!
When Martin speaks . . .the world listens.
Well, I wish I could be more eloquent, possibly even impress Mr. Scorsese, and yet when I am anywhere near him, hear about him, think of him, I'm lost in an unusual state of celebrity awe.
"Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer"
Sometimes there really *are* monsters among us.
I watched it in a downtown NYC near-empty theater. It made me fear the people watching it along with me there. Never happened before or after.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer makes you fear your fellow man like no other movie.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer-was SO freaky-and scary, that just seeing the DVD cover makes me physically ill..... I do tend to lean toward the "old" spooky movies-from the '40's-70's....Two on a Gulliotine, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte, The Changeling, Picture Mommy Dead, Carnival of Souls---anyone remember these??
Scorsese is a Radical Leftist! Where's the Conservative list?
LOL...
well then omen, ya know. Rich political family raises a son who going to wield all the power in the world; only to find out his best interests isn't the family money. scary...
You're kidding! Right?
What about The Omen (the scene in the abandoned Italian cementary with the jackals bones in the grave)?
Yeah, I jumped about three feet into the air when I saw that scene in the theater when the killer dogs show up.
While "The Changeling" has always been on my top 10 list, it was secondary to another incredibly creepy film: "The Haunting of Julia" starring Mia Farrow (aka "Full Circle"). It too deals with the loss of a child and a vengeful ghost. Is the house haunted? Is Julia possessed? Has the death of her daughter unhinged her mind? Or is it all of the above? I have never seen a film that better expressed the horror of loss while conveying a pervasive mood of supernatural dread. This eerie and heart-wrenching film will stay with you long after you see it.
Thank goodness someone put the original 'The Haunting' on here. I think most scary movies are pretty funny (especially recent ones, meaning last...two/three decades or so), even when they aren't trying to be.
The Haunting from 1963 terrifies me. Blair Witch Project? Take a hike. Paranormal Activity? Eat your heart out. The Haunting = too freaked out to go to sleep after.
I totally agree with you on "The Haunting." Saw it when I was a kid and it still scares the heck out or me today. But don't be to hard on some of our modern horror/scary flicks; I think some of them are pretty good. You're right about "Blair Witch..." That's 2 hours of my life I'd like to have back. But I think "The Descent" and "Silence of the Lambs" are two pretty damn scary flicks.
One more thing: Mr. Scorsese put "The Shining" on his list and says he hasn't read it. I know a lot of folks who haven't; I didn't before I saw it. But after reading it (twice), I'm torn on how I feel about the movie version. It's by far the scariest book I've ever read. And VERY different.
Yeah "Descent" was surprisingly good!
The Haunting of Hill House scares me to this day. It was a classic subtle movie, no blood, no saws.
I agree, who could sleep after seeing this movie?
Count me in...both the movie and Shirley Jackson's novella are terrifying. I am so pleased Scorsese rated this film the scariest. Very, very frightening.
I recommend the very last scene in "The Tingler," where the super scared guy says, "They're coming for me now," and then he grimaces for a full three minutes.
Pricelessly scary.
Isn't that the name of a sex toy?
Thank you Mr. Scorsese for listing the Univited. It has been a favorite of mine for many years. Maybe you could use your powers to get it on DVD.
My scariest movie ever was "All That Jazz," a dramatic musical about heart disease and sclerotic arteries, and a guy whose lifetime of living it up with drugs, alcohol and cigarettes has brought him to death's door.
Heart disease and sclerotic arteries as a subject are about people BECOMING DEAD, which is way more scary than people who actually are dead.
Thank you Mr. Scorsese for listing the Univited. It has been a favorite of mine for many years. Maybe you could use your powers to get it on DVD.
Ooooh, "The Entity"...much overlooked, much maligned by (some) critics, and freakishly scary for its time. This concept inspired (was stolen by) Tobe Hooper and was used effectively in "Poltergeist." In a scene late in the movie where the mom, JoBeth Williams, is assaulted in her bedroom (held down and slid across the ceiling) was originally scripted as a rape scene but scrapped as too over-the-top. Imagine that: too over-the-top for Hooper!
No Rosemary's Baby?
I second this one.
They are old movies not any new movies at all? is it because younger film makers are not as talented as the older ones??? only teens running around screaming there is nothing else left to find out.
I think Martin Scorsese is a brilliant man- "After Hours" is one of his most underrated films- it also shows how uncreative and pathetic American art and culture has regressed into, as a knock-off commercially driven bunch of bullshit a Re:Invention if you will, from a definitely prolific and interesting time, when intellect and interest were prevalent.
My 2 picks for scary films ( I am going to see both "Isle Of The Dead" and The Uninvited" thanks to his recommendation)
are:
"Ice From The Sun" - (an extremely schizoid indie flick made by a punk rocker on an "Evil Dead" budget)
and
"Suspiria" (Dario Argento's warped juvenile perversion of film on witch craft and glamor with a dance of death)
-Hollywood Kisses from MikeAlike (recording artist)
Here, here on Suspiria. The soundtrack alone is enough to give me nightmares!
GOBLIN-
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
My mother would have been thrilled to see The Uninvited listed as No. 3. She loved it so much that she lifted the entire seance scene for a high school English composition.
I agree that The Haunting is the scariest movie, and yet one never sees anything happen, proving that the mind creates its own fears.
Lists like these always elicit "How could you leave off ____?" responses. What I'd like to point out is the implicit message from Scorsese to those of us who enjoy horror movies: review older films.
I'm an old timer who has actually seen every one of these films, but I would add a fe newer ones as well. there's a little gem that scared the hell out of me called "Session 9" that you all should check out. I also found "Silence of the Lambs" quite frightening before all the Hannibal hype that followed it. "Jacob's Ladder" was also, for most of its length, quite unnerving."The Orphanage", "Pan's Labyrinth" and "the Devil's Backbone" are also recent films that filled the creep factor for me without going too over the top as we see in Hostel and Saw. And, for what it's worth, I just saw "Paranormal Activity" and, yes, it had me clutching my armrests. there actually is some good scary stuff out there that certainly stands up to the classic stuff mentioned by Mr. Scorcese. At least in my opinion.
"Jacobs Ladder" was BRILLIANT!! Very overlooked film.
Although, I wouldn't call it horror, even though much of it was truly horrifying.
Overlooked? Don't think so.
Loved "Session 9"! I wasn't even that scared when I actually watched it,but I woke in the middle of the night with an overwhelming sense of dread,scared sh*tless! I haven't been able to watch again.I thought Rob Zombie's "House of A 1000 Corpses" sucked at the theater but that night I woke up screaming from nightmares.Never watched that again either.Funny how these films embed themselves in your subconscious.
The Exorcist is the only movie I have ever seen that has kept me up at night. I have probably seen it 10 times, but it still disturbs me to an incredible degree, and I don't even believe in demon possession... I'd say that's an effective film.
I really agree. Not only is it ultra disturbing, it's just an incredibly good film. So well acted by everyone. I also think Rosemary's Baby should be on this list. And I'm sorry, but Psycho might be the best of all time. Don't tell me it's not a horror flick---if it scares you to death, it qualifies.
Thank you.
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