50 Unmissable Horror Movies

36. Hellraiser (1987)

In 1984, Clive Barker began to release his short story anthologies, “The Books of Blood”. This six-part series contained stories that would eventually become Rawhead Rex (1986), Candyman (1992), Lord of Illusions (1996), and The Midnight Meat Train (2008). Following his new success, he wrote a novella titled “The Hellbound Heart”, and was invited to direct a film adaptation. With usual Barker vivacity, he roped in his old friend Doug Bradley to play one of the lead monstrosities, transported the location from England to the USA for the studios, and then proceeded to create a shocking yet beautifully gothic piece of filmmaking. That film was Hellraiser (1987).

In Hellraiser, the killers aren’t the evil beings from an alternate dimension, they’re three-time Olivier Award-winning actress Clare Higgins as Julia. She kills innocent men to help her former lover Frank (Sean Chapman) reconstruct his body and escape the dimension of the Cenobites. This aspect makes Hellraiser more than the average slasher; it makes it a personal drama, a Shakespearean tragedy with supernatural elements. Barker’s vision for Bradley’s Lead Cenobite (who would eventually be nicknamed Pinhead) was more in line with Dracula than with Michael Myers. Throw in Christopher Young’s gorgeous orchestral score with big sweeping strings and deep brass, and it becomes an urban-gothic thriller for the ages.

With ten sequels and remakes following the original film, Bradley’s Pinhead has joined the pantheon of iconic figures in horror. The mix of gore and dread continues to resonate with fans around the world. Stylish, in-your-face, and uncompromising at its lowest ebb, Hellraiser lives up to its name. KJ


37. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The Silence of the Lambs Review

Horror movies don’t do well at the Oscars. Only six have ever been nominated for Best Picture, and only one has ever won: The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Young Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), trainee at the FBI Academy, is brought in to help track down the serial killer Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). In doing so, she must match wits with the incarcerated Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) and defeat her own inner demons if she is to save Bill’s latest victim.

The second Hannibal Lecter novel by Thomas Harris to be filmed (the first, “Red Dragon”, was adapted into Mindhunter by Michael Mann in 1986, with Brian Cox in the cannibal’s shoes), this interpretation had a complete cast and crew overhaul. With many big names turning away due to the graphic nature of the story, the ones that did pick it up made it their own. Everything about the story and its direction is pitch-perfect, from the lighting to the score. The main focus of praise, however, is surely Clarice and Hannibal. Both performances are the best of their careers, their chemistry unmatched. Their tension is such that at the end of the film you release a breath you never knew you were holding.

The Silence of the Lambs, in the face of genre-bias within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, went on to make history by becoming only the third film ever (following It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), to win the big five Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Sequels and variants and adaptations would come along in the coming years, but none could touch the quality of this interpretation. Foster’s take as Clarice largely influenced the vision for Dana Scully in ‘The X Files’, which in turn created ‘The Scully Effect’, inspiring a swelling of young women to pursue STEM subjects and law enforcement work. There is no greater impact than that.

Recommended for you: Hannibal Movies Ranked


38. Scream (1996)

Nobody liked slasher films in 1996. At the time, the slasher subgenre was almost exclusively made up of sequels and derivative versions of better movies. Many claimed the horror genre was dead.

When all seemed lost, Kevin Williamson wrote a script titled ‘Scary Movie’ and started a bidding war for it. Wes Craven was brought back into the horror genre after claiming to be tired of it. Big names like Drew Barrymore, Rose McGowan, and Courteney Cox, were cast in leading roles for a story of a killer stalking teenagers based on the rules of horror movies, testing his victims with slasher film trivia. It was a film that would become famous for satirising the cliches of its genre, and for being a truly exceptional time at the movies. That film was Scream (1996).

Horror films had examined themselves before. Craven himself had done it only four years earlier with the metafictional Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. But nothing had the sharp wit, the fine line between horror and hilarity, that Scream would showcase. Littered with references, rooted in incredible performances and impeccable direction, and starring the instant icon that was the killer Ghostface, Scream was a whodunnit unlike anything anyone had seen before.

From a budget of $14million, Scream raked in $173million at the worldwide box office, despite being released on December 20th, when the screens are usually filled with holiday films. A slow starter that spread through strong word of mouth, the film ended up as one of the highest-grossing films of the year, and kickstarted the neo-slasher cycle of films, which included I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Urban Legend (1998), and Cherry Falls (1999). Every horror film released now must understand that its characters have an awareness of the cliches of the genre they find themselves in – they talk back and they second guess themselves. The horror film had truly become a part of the tapestry of everyday life, both for fictional characters and the general public, in a way that it had never done before. Five sequels and three seasons of a TV show later, Scream’s influence shows no sign of stopping.

Recommended for you: Scream Movies Ranked


39. Ringu (1998)

Ringu Review

In director Hideo Nakata’s Ring, based on the1991 novel by Koji Suzuki, Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) is a journalist who begins investigating an urban legend involving a cursed video tape after several teenagers who watched the tape, including her niece Tomoko (Yuko Takeuchi), end up dead. Reiko soon learns that everyone who watches the tape, which contains a series of seemingly random phrases and images, including that of a little girl with long black hair, receives a mysterious phone call and then dies seven days later. Upon finding the tape during her investigation and watching it, Reiko begins to fear that she is next on its list of victims. She enlists the help of her ex-husband Ryūji Takayama (Hiroyuki Sanada), who has psychic abilities, to help her uncover the origins of the curse and break it before it’s too late. It is a race against time, their efforts made all the more desperate by the fact that their young son, Yōichi (Rikiya Ōtaka), has also seen the tape.

Released at the tail end of the 1990s, Ring is notable for its lack of blood or gore and its intimate, slow-burn pacing. Ring’s restrained approach to horror stood in stark contrast to the slasher films that dominated the latter half of the decade thanks to Scream’s revitalization of the genre. Led by strong performances from both leads, especially Hiroyuki Sanada, Ring is a thoughtful exploration of motherhood, anxiety over changing technologies, and the cycle of abuse.

It’s hard to overstate just how influential Ring eventually became, both in Japan and the West. Not only did it revitalize Japanese horror and inspire countless other films, like the Ju-On series, but it also triggered a flood of English-language adaptations of popular Japanese horror films including 2002’s The Ring, 2004’s The Grudge, and 2005’s Dark Water. Ring also spawned eight sequels, plus a television series and a manga adaptation. In Western media, the image of the little girl in the well, with her long black hair covering her face, is instantly recognizable and was notably parodied in Scary Movie 3. MR


40. Audition (1999)

Following the release of Ringu the year prior, horror was becoming hot in Japan. Companies wanted to take advantage of its success, but not all of these films would conform to the same trappings. Takashi Miike, a director known for swift and competent direction, pumping out five or six films per year at the height of his career, adapted Ryu Murakami’s 1997 novel “Audition”, a dark satirical thriller about a man (Ryo Ishibashi) who sets up a fake casting call for a film in order to find himself a new wife. He soon becomes intoxicated with the young and shy Asami (Eihi Shiina), but he is unaware of how dark her secrets get and how much they have disturbed her.

Most film adaptations dial down the madness and violence in their source materials, but in true Miike fashion, everything in Audition is dialled up to eleven. It’s a film film that sneaks up on you as it transitions from a slow and romantic beginning, to the pitch-dark blackness of its gruesome finale. With a pair of compelling leads in Ryo Ishibashi and Eihi Shiina, the twisted romance turns into what many have seen as a feminist revenge tale, with a woman bringing her wrath on those who have wronged her in life.

The subject of critical attention and awards on the festival circuit, Audition has gone on to influence many horror directors over the years. Eli Roth cited it as an influence on Hostel, with Miike making a cameo appearance in the film. Quentin Tarantino has likewise described it as the best film of 1999, starting a friendship leading to a cameo in Miike’s Sukiyaki Western Django, which was released several years before Tarantino’s own Django Unchained (2012). All these years later, Audition’s horrific power is undiminished.

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