The official list of 25 best scary movies of all time – ranked

Because it’s the month of October, many of us are binging on terror with shows such as Netflix’s gory hit series Squid Game, as well as classic horror films.

If you’re still trying to figure out what horror movies to watch to bring in the spooky season, you’re in good hands.

Here at indy100, we’ve compiled a list of 25 of the best scary films of all time, based on having a rank higher than 7.7 on IMDB with more than 25,000 viewer reviews throughout the decades.

Check them out below.

1. The Shining (1980)

Rating: 8.5/10 stars.

The Shining  delves into the story of Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson),  a writer and recovering alcoholic who becomes an off-season caretaker of the isolated historic hotel with his wife Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall), and son  Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd).

Danny ends up having the  "the shining", which are psychic abilities to see the horrors that went on in the hotel.

The eerie presence also influenced his father into violence.

The film was directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on a Stephen King novel of the same name.

2. Psycho 1960

Rating: 8.4/10 stars.

This classic film produced and directed by Albert Hitchcock is about an encounter between an embezzler on the run named Marion Crain (played by Janet Leigh) and a shy motel owner Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins).

Then something happened after the encounter that’s troubling.

A private investigator (played by Martin Balsam), sister Lila (Vera Miles), and her lover Sam Loomis (John Gavin) investigated her disappearance.

The film was also based on a 1959 novel of the same name.

3. Alien (1979)

Rating: 8.4/10 stars.

A crew on the commercial space vessel Nostromo, who received an unidentified transmission as a distress call, come across the eponymous Alien, a deadly extraterrestrial being causing mayhem on the ship.

4. Tumbbad (2018)

Rating: 8.3/10 rating.

Tummbad is a Hindi-language mythological period film about a goddess of prosperity responsible for creating the universe. It also delves into the consequences when a temple is built for her first-born child by humans.

The film is directed by Rahi Anil Barve, Adesh Prasad as the co-director and Anad Gandhi as the creative director.

5. The Blue Elephant (2014)

Rating: 8.1/10 stars.

Marwan Hamed produced and directed The Blue Elephant, a 2014 Egyptian drama/horror/mystery film set in Cairo.

It centres around Dr. Yehia, a man who, after five years of seclusion, reluctantly returns to work at El-Abbaseya psychiatric hospital, where he is in charge of assessing the mental health of the criminally insane only to discover that his friend is one of the patients.

In a pursuit to help his friend, his life falls to shambles.

SequelThe Blue Elephant 2 was released in 2019.

6. The Thing (1982)

Rating: 8.1/10 stars.

A team conducting research in Antarctica is pursued by shape-shifting alien beings that assume the appearance of their victims.

The film stars Kurt Russell as the helicopter pilot for the team and is based on the novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr.

7. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

Rating: 8.1/10 stars.

Robert Aldrich directed and produced the film, which was adapted from Henry Farrell’s 1960 novel of the same name. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford star in the film, which also marks Victor Buono’s significant cinematic debut.

In an antique Hollywood home, an aged former child star terrorizes her paraplegic sister, also a former movie star.

8. Diabolique (1955)

Rating: 8.1/10 stars.

Diabolique is a French psychological horror-thriller film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot about a woman and her husband’s lover who plot to murder the man; however, when the crime is completed, his body vanishes, and a series of weird events transpire.

It is based on Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac’s novel She Who Was No More (Celle qui n’était plus).

9. The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari (1920)

Rating: 8.1/10 stars.

Robert Wiene directed this silent German horror film, which was scripted by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. It depicts the narrative of a deranged hypnotist (Werner Krauss) who exploits someone with a sleep disorder (Conrad Veidt) to execute murders. It is considered the definitive work of German Expressionist film.

Sharp-pointed forms, oblique and twisting lines, structures and landscapes that contort in unexpected angles, and shadows and streaks of light painted directly onto the sets characterize the film’s gloomy and twisted visual design.

10.The Exorcist (1973)

Rating: 8.0/10 stars.

Based on the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty, a  mother seeks help from two priests to free her 12-year-old girl who is possessed by a frightening and mysterious entity.

It is also the first part of The Exorcist film series.

11. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Written and directed by Roman Polanski, Rosemary Woodhouse (played by Mia Farrow), a pregnant wife in Manhattan believes that her elderly neighbors are a part of a Satanic cult, and are grooming her to use her baby in a ritual.

It’s also based on a novel of the same name by Ira Levin.

12. Let the Right One In (2008)

Rating:7.9/10 stars.

Let the Right One In is a Swedish horror film directed by Tomas Alfredson and based on John Ajvide Lindqvist's 2004 novel of the same name, which he also wrote the script for.

The film follows a mistreated 12-year-old boy in Blackeberg, a Stockholm suburb, in 1982 as he forms a connection with a peculiar child.

13. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Rating: 7.9/10 stars.

Edgar Wright directed the horror-comedy Shaun of the Dead in 2004. Wright and Simon Pegg, who plays Shaun, collaborated on the screenplay. Shaun is caught off guard by the zombie apocalypse, and he and his friend Ed, played by Nick Frost, attempt to seek sanctuary in a local bar with their loved ones.

Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy, and Penelope Wilton also star in the film. The film is the first in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, which includes Hot Fuzz and The World’s End.

14. Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Rating: 7.9/10 stars.

After an influx of zombies arose from the dead, two Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  S.W.A.T. team members, a traffic reporter, and his television executive girlfriend seek protection in a shopping mall.

15. Night of the Living Dead ( 1968)

Rating: 7.9/10 stars.

A group of people in Pennsylvania seek safety in an old farmhouse as a horde of flesh-eating ghouls ravage the US’ East Coast.

16. King Kong (1933)

Rating:7.9/10 stars.

A film crew voyages to an exotic destination and discovered a massive ape who took a liking to their female lead. Ultimately, King Kong is captured and taken back to New York City for the public to witness.

17. Freaks (1932)

Rating:7.9/10 stars.

Freaks follows ​​a trapeze artist who joins carnival sideshow performers with the hopes of seducing and murdering the leader of the group to get his inheritance. But her plan has consequences.

The film is based on elements from the short story Spurs by American horror and mystery author Tod Robbins.

18. Nosferatu (1922)

Rating: 7.9/10 stars.

Nosferatu is a silent German expressionist film,  directed by F. W. Murnau and focuses on  Count Orlok, a vampire who is interested in a new residence and the wife of his estate agent in Transylvania.

The film is also based on Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula.

19. The Innocents (1961)

Rating: 7.8/10 stars.

The Innocents is a psychological horror film about a governess who cares for two children but becomes fearful of the large estate, believing it’s haunted by ghosts and that the children are possessed.

The film, directed by British film director Jack Clayton,  is based on the 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw by the American novelist Henry James.

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20. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Rating:7.8/10 stars.

Frankenstein is back! But now he’s in the hands of an even more unhinged scientist who builds him a companion.

21. Frankenstein (1931)

Rating:7.8/10 stars.

Based on the novel The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein is about Dr. Henry Frankenstein playing around with life and death by creating a monster out of lifeless parts of the body.

22. Get Out (2017)

Rating:7.7/10 stars.

Directed by Jordan Peele, Get Out is about an African American man (played by Daniel Kaluuya) who visits his caucasian girlfriend’s( played by Allison Williams) parents' home for the first time for a weekend getaway.

But throughout the course of his stay, a bunch of uneasiness about people’s feelings about him reached a point of no return.

23. What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

Rating: 7.7/10 stars.

What We Do in the Shadows is a  New Zealand mockumentary comedy horror film that chronicles four vampire flatmates, Viago, Vladislav, Deacon, and Petyr who are navigating modern life through paying rent, getting into nightclubs and conflicts with others.

The film is written, acted and directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, and is the first part of What We Do in the Shadows franchise.

24. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000)

Rating: 7.7/10 stars.

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is a horror dark fantasy anime film produced by madhouse and chronicles the story of a young girl who is abducted by a vampire, and an iconic bounty hunter who was hired to free her.

The film is based on Japanese horror novelist  Hideyuki Kikuchi’s third novel in the Vampire Hunter D series, Demon Deathchase.

25. Evil Dead II (1987)

Rating: 7.7/10 stars.

Evil Dead II, is about the sole survivor of skin-possessing demons (called Kandarian Demons) who hides out in a cabin with strangers while the spirits continue their rampage of evil.

The film was also directed by Sam Raimi, who directed the 2002 film, Spider-Man.