Do you like scary movies? These 10 horror flicks are the scariest of all time, guaranteed to leave you shaking, sleepless, and utterly creeped out — just in time for Halloween!
How did we pick these, you ask? A few SheKnows Editors and SK Entertainment writers weighed in and voted on what we thought were the scariest and freakiest horror films of all time. We present them here in no particular order; and oh, by the way, the following GIFs may just be enough to give you nightmares. Good luck!
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
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“You know how in Halloween Michael Myers is all slow and stumbling? Well, Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw Massacre is like a rabid bunny hopped up on cocaine. That’s why he’s so scary: You can’t get away, no matter if you were the track star at your high school. He’s a super-fast serial killer. Plus, all the lobbing off of limbs and when that dude is suspended from the ceiling and gets chopped in half … starting at the groin. Sick.” – Sara Dobie Bauer
The Exorcist
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“I had to watch The Exorcist for a class I took in college called The Monster & Detective in Film & Literature and basically sat in the auditorium the professor screened it in crying through about 30 percent of the whole stupid thing. I grew up way too Catholic to deal with that movie. When I got back to my apartment, my roommate was furious with me because I had to sleep with the lights on for the next three nights in a row.” – Molly Shalgos
The Blair Witch Project
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“The Blair Witch Project and The Shining are probably two perfect examples for why I’m not a horror fan. I still can’t go camping without worrying some satanic something in the woods might get us. Also, just thinking about The Shining makes me want to hide under a blanket somewhere.” – Tiffany Antone
“The Blair Witch Project freaked me out so badly, I couldn’t even walk alone at night on city streets. I can’t imagine what wouldn’t happened to me if I lived in a rural area. I saw it on Halloween night years ago because a friend talked me into it, and after it was over, I had to walk about three blocks alone at around 3 a.m. to my car. I was surrounded by buildings and cars and street lights, but my mind immediately went to those damn woods, and I thought I was going to be killed any second. Longest walk of my life.” – Michelle Carlbert
The Amityville Horror
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“The GIF above should be enough to not watch this film. In fact, why don’t you just conduct a simple Google search of ‘Amityville Horror GIFs.’ and you’ll convince yourself watching that movie is a horrible idea.” – Kristine Cannon
The Shining
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“Two things: creepy, twin British ghost girls are not okay, especially when you’re all alone in a huge hotel in a mountain; and Jack Nicholson (who’s creepy anyway) is your father. The part that gives me marble-sized goosebumps just thinking about it, though: when the little kid keeps saying ‘Redrum, redrum, redrum’ and Mom wakes up to see the reflection in the mirror that spells MURDER! Or the part where the corpse/ghost guy is suddenly standing in the hallway and says, ‘Lovely party!’ GAH! Great, now I’ll never get to sleep tonight.” – Sara D.
“I saw The Shining such a long time ago that I don’t have any specific memories about it, except for the scene where Jack uses an ax to break through the door. I know it’s been used over and over for comedy, but that scared the bejeezus out of me.” – Michelle C.
The Descent
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“You’re trapped. Underground. With alien monsters. The Descent is one of those movies that makes you suddenly understand suicide, because seriously, if I was neck-deep in bloody slime, surrounded by creatures that wanted to eat me, I would probably just be like, ‘Go ahead, get it over with.’ And no, I will never go spelunking, thank you.” – Sara D.
Insidious
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“That red-faced creature-thing! The hell is that? I will never get over it. Ever. It was so tough closing my eyes after seeing that movie. This was just all around creepy and frightening.” – Kristine C.
“I LOOOOVED Insidious. I saw it last year around Halloween. A friend and I rented it one afternoon and watched it while eating popcorn and Halloween candy. It was awesome. It was also scary as heck. There are two scenes I won’t forget – the moment when the boy/creature/thing appears over the father’s shoulder (google any image from that movie and it’s usually the first or second one to pop up – you won’t soon forget it either) and the end when you realize not everyone came back from that “other” world the way they should. Eek!” – Michelle C.
The Conjuring
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“You couldn’t PAY me to watch The Conjuring! #HellNo” – Nantale Muwonge
“I saw this in the morning with a cup of coffee and spit it out as I screamed bloody murder. Not only scary, the film is also a wonderful homage to Lorraine Warren, a real-life paranormal investigator who’s still ghost hunting at the age of 87. She’s my hero.” – Shanee Edwards
“I saw The Conjuring as part of a film festival, so it was all industry people and the director and some of the actors were there. It was one of the best movie audience experiences of my life. My friend and I screamed our hearts out through the entire thing as did the rest of the audience. I can recall hearing one particularly loud man in the row behind us who kept yelling ‘Oh HELL NO!!!’ when things got really bad. I had brought a hoodie with me, and I kept using it to cover my eyes. At one point, my friend grabbed for it, too, and yelled, ‘Give me a sleeve! Give me a sleeve!’ until we both couldn’t stop laughing. Best. Night. Ever.” – Michelle C.
The Conjuring movie review: Got demons?
Paranormal Activity
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“Um, I purposely only bought an old-fashioned audio baby monitor instead of the video monitors everyone else seems to have nowadays because of Paranormal Activity.” – Caroline Goddard
“I was an intern at MTV and saw a screening to give my opinion of the film before it was released. They didn’t give us any forewarning or synopsis of the film, so the entire time I was sweating bullets and nearly sh*tting my pants because I thought the whole thing was REAL and actual footage. I didnt find out it wasnt real until it was released in theaters. I was convinced it was real and didn’t sleep much for the next couple months. Worst. Experience. Ever.” – Lauren Joskowitz
“The thing that got to me the most about Paranormal Activity is that it’s based in current time and uses equipment we all have. It’s so bloody real, it’s hard to say to myself, ‘Oh, this could never happen’ like I can with other films. I, too, couldn’t sleep for a while after that one. Though the movie that truly had me awake at 3 a.m. was The Conjuring.” – Michelle C.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
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“If ever you hear a strange noise in the night and get the inclination to go check it out, don’t. Just don’t. In the case of Emily Rose, it is precisely that kind of idle nocturnal curiosity that gets her possessed by not one but six demons. Because the 3 a.m. hour was a motif in this movie — it’s believed to be the devil’s hour — I swear I couldn’t sleep through that hour for, like, a month. See also: Frantically shaking my husband out of deep sleep if ever I happened to randomly wake up anytime between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. OK, so I still do that to this day. And since we’re confessing, I couldn’t even bring myself to watch the trailer for this movie to help write this review. I think knowing that it is loosely based on a true story makes it that much more terrifying to me.” – Julie Sprankles
Don’t agree with our picks? Then tell us in the comments!
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