Maddy's Favorite Scary Movies

“What’s your favorite scary movie?”If you can’t tell me the movie that quote is from, we have some work to do! If you guessed Ghostface from the 1996 Scream movie, you are correct! I can still very clearly remember the first horror movie that my mom let me watch, the 1973 film The Exorcist”. I didn’t sleep for DAYS afterward, all I could see when I closed my eyes was that little girl’s head spinning completely around. I’m not sure what happened, but eventually my love for horror films overcame my fear, because now I find them almost comforting - no I am not a serial killer LOL. I have seen more horror movies than I can count, definitely more than any other genre.

With every movie genre, there are certainly subgenres, and horror films are no exception. You have your schlocky comedy horror, slasher films, straight-up guts and gore, psychological horror, monsters, “found” footage, paranormal, and probably several other categories. I personally think exorcism movies deserve their own subgenre, with how many are out there. Below I am listing my favorites by general subgenre, so you can find the best scary movie suited to you! You can click directly on the title link to watch the trailers on Amazon.

Exorcism Horror Movies

The Exorcist (1973) - If I had to watch this one, then so should you!

The Devil Inside - “Connect the cuts, connect the cuts” (You’ll get it after you watch)

The Taking Of Deborah Logan - When Alzheimer’s turns into something sinister and supernatural….

The Conjuring - BASED ON A TRUE STORY(makes it scarier) a couple of paranormal investigators discover a dark entity terrorizing a family at a secluded farmhouse

The Exorcism of Emily Rose - A lawyer takes on the negligent homicide case of a priest who performed an exorcism on a college student

The Last Exorcism - A troubled evangelical minister agrees to let his last exorcism be filmed by a documentary crew

The Haunting in Connecticut - When the Campbell family moves to upstate Connecticut, they soon learn that their charming Victorian home is a transformed funeral parlor

COMEDY HORROR MOVIES

Scary Movie - IMO, The 3rd, 4th, and 5th are the best, as long as you have seen the horror films they are referring to.

Jennifer’s Body - Starring Megan Fox, a demonically possessed high school student, who kills her male classmates

Zombieland - Just a classic

Cabin in the Woods - Both scary and funny, considering this is a deconstructed horror film! AND…. Chris Hemsworth is in it.

PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR MOVIES

Psycho (1998) - a remake of the classic Alfred Hitchcock film about a troubled man whose victims encounter a grisly fate at the hands of his "mother"

Get Out - From my favorite director, Jordan Peele. A young African American man visits his Caucasian girlfriend's cursed family estate

Us - Also directed by Jordan Peele. Us pits an endearing American family against a terrifying and uncanny opponent: doppelgängers of themselves.

MidSommar - This one is more disturbing/weird than scary, but still worth the watch if you’re into that

Shutter Island - the story of two U.S. marshals who are summoned to a remote island to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island’s hospital for the criminally insane

Disturbia - A teen living under house arrest becomes convinced his neighbor is a serial killer

Silence of the Lambs - The classic story of FBI trainee Clarice Starling venturing into a maximum-security asylum to pick the diseased brain of Hannibal Lecter, a psychiatrist turned homicidal cannibal

Hush - A deaf woman is stalked by a psychotic killer in her secluded home (available on Netflix)

The Strangers - Three masked intruders torture a couple, leaving them struggling to survive.

SLASHER HORROR MOVIES

Scream - This includes the entire series, you can’t be a scary movie fan and not watch every one! (also considered a comedy movie)

Halloween (2018) - Laurie Strode, who comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago

Happy Death Day - Tree must relive the same day over and over again until she figures out who is trying to kill her and why

Prom Night (2008) - Donna's senior prom is supposed to be the best night of her life, though a sadistic killer from her past has different plans for her and her friends

My Bloody Valentine (2009) - A psychopathic Miner unleashes his killing spree on a group of teenagers

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006) - two brothers and their girlfriends get into an accident and are taken to a secluded house of horrors, where a young, would-be killer is being nurtured

The Hitcher - A young couple encounters an off-putting hitchhiker and they bravely fight back when he ambushes them

When a Stranger Calls - “The call is coming from inside the house”

Vacancy - A married couple becomes stranded at an isolated motel and finds hidden video cameras in their room, and realize that unless they escape, they'll be the next victims of a snuff film

GORE HORROR MOVIES

Saw - This entire series is one gory and twisted bloodbath - it consists of nine feature films. The franchise primarily revolves around serial killer John Kramer, or simply "Jigsaw"

The Hills Have Eyes - A family falls victim to a group of mutated cannibals in a desert far away from civilization

The Descent - A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators

House of Wax (2005) - A group of teens are unwittingly stranded near a strange wax museum and soon must fight to survive and keep from becoming the next exhibit

The Human Centipede - A mad scientist kidnaps and mutilates a trio of tourists in order to reassemble them into a human centipede, created by stitching their mouths to each others' rectums

Children of the Corn (1984) - A young couple is trapped in a remote town where a dangerous religious cult of children believes that everyone over age 18 must be killed

Hereditary - A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences

The Ruins - A leisurely Mexican holiday takes a turn for the worse when a group of friends and a fellow tourist embark on a remote archaeological dig in the jungle, where something evil lives among the ruins

PARANORMAL HORROR MOVIES

Dead Silence - A young widower returns to his hometown to search for answers to his wife's murder, which may be linked to the ghost of a deceased ventriloquist

Paranormal Activity (series) - After moving into a suburban home, a couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence

The Grudge - An American nurse living and working in Tokyo is exposed to a mysterious supernatural curse, one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their life and spreading to another victim

The Ring - A journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone one week to the day after they view it

Mama - After a young couple take in their two nieces, they suspect that a supernatural spirit named Mama has latched onto their family

Insidious - A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further

The Possession - A young girl buys an antique box at a yard sale, unaware that inside the collectible lives a malicious ancient spirit

The Witch - A family in 1630s New England is torn apart by the forces of witchcraft, black magic, and possession

MONSTER HORROR MOVIES

Jaws - When a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community, it's up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down

Cloverfield - A group of friends venture deep into the streets of New York on a rescue mission during a rampaging monster attack

IT (2017) - In the summer of 1989, a group of bullied kids band together to destroy a shape-shifting monster, which disguises itself as a clown and preys on the children of Derry

A Quiet Place - In a post-apocalyptic world, a family is forced to live in silence while hiding from monsters with ultra-sensitive hearing

Jeepers Creepers (series) - A brother and sister driving home through isolated countryside for spring break encounter a flesh-eating creature which is in the midst of its ritualistic eating spree