Top 10 Horror Movies
By Cinema Sugar
We gotta be honest: this was a brutal undertaking. Narrowing down our favorite horror films to only 10 meant killing a lot of our darlings. But because all work and no play makes Cinema Sugar a dull website, we thoroughly enjoyed writing about the ones that survived.
So without further ado, we present our Top 10 Horror Movies.
10. The Thing
The titular Thing is a transmogrifying, celestial entity from a different planet that migrates from one biological anchor to another with stunningly bloody and agonizing consequences. The creature shows up in a dog that is taken in at the Antarctic base of an American science crew and then shifts amidst the bodies of the people at the complex, one at a time, modifying with each transformation into a fresh terror never once observed in your lowest demented nightmare. In its most blistering ocular manifestation, the Thing breaks out of Norris (Charles Hallahan), twists the deceased guy’s decapitated noggin bottom-side-up, grows horrific insect/crustacean limbs, and scuttles ahead. Palmer is the voice of all of us: “You gotta be fucking kidding me!” —Natalie Bauer
9. The Blair Witch Project
In the summer of 1999, movie culture was yet to be consumed by the Internet. The latest trailers were still debuted in theaters; there were no Reddit boards or Twitter threads overflowing with gossip, hot takes and spoilers; and our favorite actors could not be found doing some quirky song and dance with their kids on TikTok. So when The Blair Witch Project was released, featuring three people the world had never seen before, we were left to our imaginations about what we just saw. Was it real? For months, if I recall, that question permeated our culture, ushering in a widespread feeling that could only be described as one thing: haunted. As a young consumer of culture, I’ll never forget that feeling and I Heather-cry at the sad fact that we’ll never experience it again. —Kevin Prchal
8. A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Pioneer Freddy-executioner Nancy allies with Dr. Neil Gordon to advise teenagers in a psychiatric facility who are experiencing Krueger nightmares. The dreams onscreen—feats of heinous imagery and vivid practical-effects implementation—consist of Freddy tugging at nerves and ligaments from a boy’s arms and forcing him to move like a marionette; the notorious knife gloves converting into syringes to administer numerous drug injections to a rehabilitated narcotics addict; and a magnum opus that commences with Dick Cavett morphing into Freddy and ambushing Zsa Zsa Gabor, concluding with a Krueger-ified television set sprouting limbs, grabbing hospital resident and Hollywood-hopeful Jennifer, and “welcoming her to prime time” while he smashes her face through the screen. In the third installment of this classic series, Freddy is a villain but he’s also the specter of suicide, something that attacks these kids in deliberate ways in their minds. How these teenage characters were mistreated in life (written off, stereotyped, dismissed) was replicated in their deaths, and it is both terrifying and painful to watch. Dream Warriors is one of the most creative horror sequels as well as a visceral representation of the essence of the horror genre earmarked in the 1980s. —Natalie Bauer
7. Cabin in the Woods
At its heart, Cabin in the Woods is a love letter to horror fans. It takes what some consider eye-roll horror movie tropes and weaves them into deep mythologies—most obviously the classic “cabin in the woods” setting. But here’s the twist: our heroes are put into a Truman Show-like scenario, completely orchestrated by a run-of-the-mill corporate office that has to sacrifice the group to ensure their own work bonuses. It’s one of the most brilliant screenplays ever written and the cast totally nails it with impeccable timing and notable comedic performances from Fran Kranz and Bradley Whitford. Part sci-fi and part comedy, the movie finds the best ways to pay homage to all the great horror monsters that came before—and makes a nice gateway drug for non-horror fans as well. —Natalie Pohorski
6. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Five teenagers are on their way to visit a family member’s grave when they pick up a strange hitchhiker, who leads them to a slaughterhouse occupied by cannibals. One of the scariest movies ever made, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was ahead of its time and still rivals its modern successors, while the grittiness of the cinematography, production design, and special effects keep this waking nightmare grounded. Add to it Marilyn Burns’ Oscar-worthy portrayal of the final girl Sally Hardesty and it’s hard to poke holes in this horror classic. The film’s brilliance lies in its simplicity, with scant dialogue, limited locations, and a small cast. There aren’t any big plot twists, just a steady descent into madness with no escape. —Natalie Pohorski
5. Suspiria (1977)
Nobody is the same after Suspiria wraps up, certainly not you. You stagger off bewildered, interrogating your own state of mind and helpless to comprehend what you’ve just gone through, every time. Dario Argento’s dreamlike, pigment-saturated barbarism—in flawless dovetail with Goblin’s beautifully discordant, uniformly loud musical arrangement—mangles and leaves behind lacerations that are both unforgettable and disturbing. Much like learning to play guitar requires cultivating calluses on your fingertips, recurrent viewings of Suspiria (and, yes, you ought to watch it more than one time) reinforce tough components on the exterior of your psyche, all the better to approach the fiery reality on the inside—and then to escape it. Suspiria is thoroughly, confusingly wild, a reputation that purely amplifies its influence. —Natalie Bauer
4. The Descent
Evoking despair from its confined atmosphere, gruesome ambiance, and chilling surroundings rather than relying on typical jump-scares (though the jump-scares here are literally some of the best I’ve ever seen), The Descent is a clear-cut rendering of fear in its most primal form. With its ruinous narrative and harrowing spelunking adventure at its core, it effortlessly measures up as one of the most frightening horror movies beyond compare. Its story centers on Sarah, an adventure junkie who joins five of her thrill-seeking friends on a cave-exploring expedition after enduring a devastating tragedy one year prior. But their trip quickly shifts into an abyss as their subterranean excursion goes disturbingly off-course and they discover themselves being preyed upon by sequestered, blood-thirsty troglodytes. Neil Marshall’s direction is a complete upheaval, gradually clambering to the utmost limit before falling into a realm of grisly anarchy and dark vengeance. It’s as if the movie itself regresses back in time, with the primordial impulses and indigenous cave paintings loosening a pent-up animosity buried inside the collective unconscious. —Natalie Bauer
3. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
A lo-fi, genre defining classic, George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead arrived in 1968 and endures to this day. A film overflowing with social and political allegory in the wake up the Civil Rights movement in America, it offers up plenty of material for conversation both in a historical and modern context. What do the zombies represent to you? Was the film’s casting of Duane Jones, a young black actor, coincidental or deliberate? Does the past ever really die? Decades of imitators and films inspired by Romero’s revelatory vision have built on its success, proving that great stories and brilliant minds don’t need a big budget to move the needle. Just a camera, an idea, and a swarm of flesh-eating zombies clawing at your door. —Kevin Prchal
2. The Ring
Seeing this Gore Verbinski joint in early high school did three important things: it initiated my undying love of Naomi Watts, it showed me how artful scary movies can be, and it scarred me so deeply that I subsequently swore off horror for a long time. So congrats to The Ring for killing both the VHS tape and my desire for cinematic scares—but also for remaining a shining (and hella scary) example of a remake done right. —Chad Comello
1. The Shining
The brilliance of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is two-tiered. On one level, it’s a purely visceral experience—an immaculate gallery of images that hypnotize and manipulate, all synced together like a ticking doomsday clock. On another level, it’s something far more challenging and involving—like a crossword puzzle I can’t quite crack. The bewildering detail and hotly debated conspiracies twist and tangle with every viewing, elevating this film to the God-tier halls of horror it forever resides. And central to it all is Jack Nicholson, whose mind-blowing transformation from irritable family man to ax-murderer occurs without a bloody flinch. —Kevin Prchal