Top 10 Nerve-Racking Horror Movies
#10: “It Follows” (2014)
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Well-executed horror films often take fears and anxieties from real life and personify them by turning that fear into a literal killer or monster. “It Follows” is a perfect example. In this supernatural horror film, the nameless entity that pursues the protagonist functions as a metaphor for sexually transmitted diseases. The film also builds horror out of sexual anxieties that come with trusting another person with that level of intimacy. The film preys on the anxiety of deciding to love the wrong person and being hurt by it, and the fear of passing that pain on to the next person you decide to love.
#9: “Halloween” (1978)
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Notable for being a film that helped define and popularize the slasher genre, “Halloween” spawned dozens of sequels, reboots, and imitators. But honestly… none of them scare us quite like the original. That’s in large part due to the relentless nature of its seemingly unstoppable killer, the faceless Michael Myers. What really makes Michael terrifying is that there’s no explanation of his evil. No justification is given for why he’s murdering Laurie Strode’s friends, and no exposition for his invulnerability was provided—at least not in the first film. The seemingly invincible, slow-moving killer with no conscience remains iconic to this day, as does the film’s unnerving score.
#8: “Black Swan” (2010)
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What’s often scarier than the monsters and killers hiding in the shadows? The horrors that exist in the human mind when we push ourselves to dark places. Psychological horror fills us with a special kind of dread, and “Black Swan’s” exploration of the fragmenting mind of an obsessed performer is among the best in the genre. As Nina, a repressed, young ballerina, begins to come into her own by finally earning a spot in the lead role in “Swan Lake,” pressures from her mother, rival, and artistic director cause her to crack. As Nina becomes more confident, she also loses her grip on reality, descending into self-destructive madness.
#7: “Alien” (1979)
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The right environment can create an overwhelming sense of anxiety. Set in the cold emptiness of space, this 1979 sci-fi horror masterpiece sends shivers down our spines. Chased by an alien monster with seemingly no purpose or desire other than to kill, the crew of the Nostromo are confined to their claustrophobic ship, countless miles from any possible help. The titular Xenomorph (and by extension, the film itself) has been interpreted by many as a representation of anxieties about sex and violence. This combination of an isolating setting, grotesque visual metaphors, and duplicitous crew members still creates tension in moviegoers over forty years later.
#6: “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991)
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While slasher films were new and novel in the 1970s, by the 90’s the tropes were beginning to wear thin. While those films had become all about gore and frightening images, “The Silence of the Lambs” arrived and took an entirely different approach. The film is terrifying in its restraint and realism, with much of the horror coming from Anthony Hopkins’s terrifyingly frightening performance as Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Despite his eloquence, the persistent threat of horrific violence comes through in his every word, a threat that culminates in a brutal scene. Lecter is a horror icon for a reason.
#5: “Hereditary” (2018)
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Family can be complicated. With his feature length directorial debut, “Hereditary,” Ari Aster created a film about how pain can be passed down generationally by presenting a family dealing with the death of their manipulative matriarch. As more and more terrible things plague the family, we’re forced to question whether they’re just unlucky or rather doomed to live out this horror. While that fate slowly but surely plays out in the dark, Aster’s follow-up film, “Midsommar,” also deserves mention here. This time around, Aster puts the horror in the light of day and focuses, not on family, but on the anxiety created by a deteriorating relationship.
#4: “The Blair Witch Project” (1999)
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Few films on this list can be said to have popularized an entire sub-genre, but that’s exactly what “The Blair Witch Project” accomplished. While it wasn’t the first found-footage film ever made, it was the first to achieve mainstream success and make a significant cultural impact. Following its release, the sub-genre exploded in popularity in the decades to follow. Found footage excels at putting the audience in the headspace of the characters, making us feel their anxiety. It’s become a staple of horror, but few do it better than this influential film. In essence “Blair Witch” became the film equivalent of an urban legend told by the campfire, using the still-developing Internet to become arguably the first viral hit film.
#3: “The Thing” (1982)
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“The Thing” follows a group of scientists in Antarctica who come across a parasitic alien. It has the unique ability to take on the exact appearance of any life form it assimilates. And so over the course of the movie, the titular Thing multiplies and takes on the appearance of a number of hosts, threatening to spread over the entire planet if not contained. Both the characters in the film and the audience have no idea who’s been replaced by a monster or not and so they inevitably turn on one another. The paranoia-inducing situation is only made more tense by the fact that the film offers up some of the most graphic and disturbing practical effects in cinematic history.
#2: “The Shining” (1980)
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Nothing ever seems quite right in “The Shining,” and it’s this relentless sense of uneasiness—which slowly tips to madness—that puts it so high on our list. Something is off with Jack Nicholson’s character Jack Torrance, something is off with the creepy hotel he’s staying in, and something is off with his peculiar son, Danny. If the audience expects explicit explanations for the unusual happenings at the hotel, there are none to be found in the film. Is the hotel haunted, with residents trapped in some kind of time loop doomed to repeat its violent past? Or has Jack just gone insane, driven to murderous rage by his snowy isolation? You tell us! Before we unveil our top pick, here are some honorable mentions: “The Invisible Man” (2020) What You Don’t See Is Most Frightening Of All “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984) Made Us Afraid to Go to Sleep “Paranormal Activity” (2007) Just Leave That House Already “Misery” (1990) Obsession Is Dangerous “A Quiet Place” (2018) Making Sound Truly Terrifying
#1: “Get Out” (2017)
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Jordan Peele has managed to make us anxious more than once, with his films “Us” and “Nope” doing the trick with doppelgangers and UFOs, respectively. In his first venture into horror however, Peele manages to take fears about racism and racial identity and turn them into pure anxiety-inducing horror. Rather than being about overt racism, “Get Out” is a scathing indictment of white liberals and the tendency to see blackness as a commodity and black bodies as a prize or tool. The film makes this metaphorical fear a literal one as a black man ends up in danger of becoming a prisoner in his own body, watching helplessly from the depths of his mind as someone else takes control. It is pure anxiety.
