The 10 Scariest Movies Ever

I know that any top 10 list is debatable and subject to personal preferences. So when I think of the top 10 scariest movies of all time, I am going by what personally impacts or affects me. For me, it is not only what makes me scared during the viewing of the movie, but more importantly, what stays with me afterwards. Do I watch with my hands over my face, and do I get nervous if I have to walk to the bathroom afterwards and fear looking in the mirror and hoping I don’t see the reflection of something out to get me!

With that said, below are my top 10 scariest movies...EVER

10. Scream (1996):

Scream is an interesting movie and one that some say revitalized the horror genre as it exploited clichés that films in the genre had become reliant upon. Scream is about a high school girl who becomes the target of a mysterious killer known as Ghost Face. While overall, I wouldn’t say the movie is in my top 10 scariest, if I just look at the first 10 minutes of the movie, I have to say that that sequence definitely ranked up there. In the introductory scene, a girl is home alone getting ready to watch a movie and she receives a phone call from a stranger that gets more and more intense. At one point the caller asks the girls name. The girl innocently asks why. As soon as we hear the response “Because I want to know who I am looking at” all bets are off. This scene is also why people need to know that Jason was not the killer in Friday the 13th.

9. The Omen (1976)

In the omen, a couple’s newborn dies shortly after birth and, at the urging of a priest, the father, without telling his wife, substitutes an orphan baby whose mother dies shortly after childbirth. This baby, which they name Damien, may or may not be the Antichrist.

Any movie which can take a name (Damien) and basically turn it into a cultural synonym for devil child or Antichrist has to make my list. Even to this day, over 35 years later, people still refer to misbehaving kids as “Damien”. Watch the movie (the original) and you will know why.

8. The Ring (2002)

This is a remake of a Japanese horror film that centers around a cursed video tape. After watching the tape, the viewer receives a phone call in which a voice announces that the viewer will die in 7 days. In all actuality, I am not sure if I really followed the storyline aside from the basic premise, but I do recall that after watching the movie and then an hour or so later my phone rang at home, I was hesitant to answer it. That, in and of itself, is enough to get the Ring on my top 10 list.

7. Friday the 13th (1980)

One thing you will notice is that traditional slasher/horror films are not necessarily the types of movies I find scary. Friday the 13th (the original) is 1 of 2 exceptions to my top 10 list.

Friday the 13th is about a group of teenagers (the typical horror movie victims) who are murdered one-by-one while attempting to re-open an abandoned campsite. Yes, the now clichéd story of rambunctious teens getting slaughtered in different methods has been done to death (see what I did there!), but at the time, this to me was a frightening experience. It is also funny (see Scream) that most people think the killer in Friday the 13th was Jason Voorhees, which is not true of the original movie.

6. Psycho (1960)

Psycho (the original again!) is about a secretary who steals money from her employer and goes on the run. She stops at a secluded motel and runs into a disturbed owner and manager named Norman Bates. Norman mentions that he rarely has guests and mentions that he lives with his mother in the house overlooking the hotel.

One of the things that shocked me is that the woman, who we think is one of the main characters, get murdered pretty early in the movie. The murder itself, stabbed in the shower, is a scene that has been embedded in our memories over the year (as well as the shrieking sound that we all have made when mimicking a fake stab). The scary part of the movie is really the “relationship” between Norman and his Mother (who he thinks stabbed the girl). Without giving away the ending, it resolves itself in an interesting twist.

5. Halloween (1978)

Halloween is my second (and last) “Slasher” film on the list. The movie starts on Halloween back in 1963 and follows six year old Michael Myers who murders his older sister by stabbing her with a kitchen knife. Fifteen years later, Michael escapes from a psychiatric hospital and returns home to stalk a teenager and her friends. Michael's psychiatrist follows him to try to prevent him from killing.

I also remember something that, today, wouldn’t seem such a big deal, but at the time was scary. At that was watching the Dr. Shoot Michael and watch him fall out a window and thinking that it is over. The camera then pans out the window as the viewer expects to see Michael’s body and seeing nothing. He was shot “6 times” and he walked away. Scary back in the day!

4. The Thing (1982)

The Thing is an alien that basically takes over and imitates people (and other living things). The Thing infiltrates a research station taking the appearance of each of the researchers that it kills. The remaining researchers find out and undergo paranoia trying to figure out who is real and who is “imitated”.

When I list this movie, I refer, of course, to the 1982 version and not the original “Thing from another world” nor the most recent prequel. The scary parts of the movie are not about the Alien, but how quickly people turn on friends they have known for years. It is as if we feel the same paranoia as the movie characters as we interpret each look or comment as we try to decide who we can trust.

3. The Shining (1980):

In the Shining, a writer takes a job as an offseason caretaker at an isolated hotel. Soon after settling in, the family is trapped in the hotel by a snowstorm and the man gradually becomes influenced by a supernatural presence; goes crazy, and attempts to murder his wife and son.

Yes, “Here’s Johnny” is now rather an amusing catch phase. However at the time watching Jack Nicholson descend into madness was terrifying. I don’t know if I ever understood the visions he had in the movie, but I do recall the young boy saying REDRUM (murder spelled backwards) and flashes of the twin girls sending chills down my spine.

2. Paranormal Activity 1 & 3:

The 1st movie is about a couple who are haunted by a supernatural presence in their home. The movie is in the style of found footage from camera’s set up around the house by the couple in an attempt to find out what is haunting them. The 3rd movie (I’ll skip the 2nd) is a prequel of sorts and follows the woman when she was a young girl (and her sister) growing up. The movie follows the same premise of her parents setting up a video camera to understand the strange happenings going on in the home and also trying to uncover the young girls “imaginary friend” who happens to be an evil spirit.

When I first saw paranormal activity, I said that it was the scariest movie I have seen since (the movie that is #1 on this list). It’s really the simplicity of the movie that is scary. Similar to Jaws which basically played some music and showed the ocean, the scares are in the imagination of wondering “what is going to happen”. In addition, because of the style of the movie and the amateur actors, you find yourself watching, and forgetting it’s a movie and thinking “this really could happen”. The 3rd movie adds in the element of a camera strapped to a ceiling fan. This adds the element of panning from room to room and knowing that something may be there. I literally watched these movies with my hands firmly over my eyes.

The Exorcist (1973):

The story centers on a young girl who may or may not be possessed by the devil and the priests who come to perform an exorcism.

I saw this movie decades ago and it is one that kept me up for days afterwards. To this day I still don’t re-watch it (granted that means I am not sure if the scares hold up over time). The transformation of the girl into a possessed monster was disturbing, not to mention some of the obscene things she said and did which I can only assume were extremely shocking during the early 70’s for movies. However, I wouldn’t say the scares came from shock value or gore, but rather how this innocent girl gradually gets taken over by possession and, again, the feeling that there is some level of “this could happen”.