These Are The Five-Star Horror Films That Everyone Should Watch

Looking for a film that will scare the hell out of you? Then check out some of these horror movies that Ask Reddit users have given five star ratings.

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1. The Shining

“I visited Overlook last summer with my host family. I got scared the shit out of me, when we were on the top floor and the guide was talking about people hearing piano playing. I laughed with myself, buy suddenly I heard music that was kinda like piano playing.

Cold sweat comes to my skin and the my host bro asks to try the old elevator with him. I was so fucking scared and I told him I heard music and he was like, ‘I haven’t heard anything.’ Well, then we go to wait for the elevator and then I hear the sound for the third time and I start to realize what’s happening: the music that I heard was the sound that comes when the elevator stops. Fuck those were the scariest 2 minutes of my life.” — fikkomikko

2. Get Out

“I just saw it the other night and it is that type of horror that doesn’t rely on the paranormal but the fucked up human mind and it uses jump scares like it should, to put the audience on edge.” — _Little-Kid-Lover_

3. Wolf Creek

“It’s kind of your Texas Chainsaw or High Tension. The isolation of the countryside is a pretty common theme in horror but i don’t think many people outside of Aus understand just how extreme it is in the outback. There are plenty of places in the US where no one is within earshot of your screams but not many where you can drive for even a couple of hours and not see a soul. And those places are fewer every decade.

That’s one of those movies that just pops into my head at random when I’m trying to sleep. And I haven’t seen it since like 2010. Specifically the vertebrae thing. Fuck that.” — AnotherDeadWeirdo

4. 10 Cloverfield Lane

“John Goodman’s performance on its own is a five star performance.” — GoldlessDragon

5. Event Horizon

“Well, it is arguably a sci-fi movie, but I found it to be one of the most terrifying movies I ever watched.” — wernermuende

6. Alien

“The original Alien – such a simple concept, a classic haunted house tale set in space, yet so terrifying.” — VictorBlimpmuscle

7. Inbred

“Didn’t know what to expect going in. This one is just thoroughly wrong on so many levels. Think Friday the 13th 4 mixed with The Hills Have Eyes… sort of.” — AnotherDeadWeirdo

8. Let The Right One In

“This is my go to anytime someone asks for horror recommendations.” — Hembloche

9. VHS

“I refuse to be anywhere nearby if that’s going to be playing.” — aDeadArmadillo

10. Funny Games

“This movie genuinely disturbed and unnerved me.

Anyone who hasn’t seen it, don’t look up anything about it or watch a trailer, just watch it.” — buriedcompass

11. Candyman

“Why?

  1. Outstanding and creepy performance from Tony Todd. Equally good and measured performance from Virginia Madsen.
  2. The unforgettable, beautiful score from Phillip Glass. Yes, a famous minimalist composer made compositions for a horror film that everyone thought was a straight-up slasher film.
  3. Clive Barker wrote the story. He also created Hellraiser. It’s a urban legend story in an urban environment with love being the major theme….but more importantly….
  4. Candyman’s backstory deals with segregated racial past and how it still haunts us in this country. The antagonist is imposing black man, the protagonist is a pretty white woman. It is literally and figuratively about the legacy of slavery – which is a pretty daring and unique subject to covering in a horror film.
  5. The twist ending is spectacular, scary and sad.

This is a beautiful, five-star horror film if there ever was one.” — louholtzslopmouth

12. Hush

“It’s on Netflix. It’s a really great thriller/horror home invasion with a twist. Definitely a good modern horror movie.” — KoreLee

13. Split

“I suppose not technically a horror (though the line between horror and thriller is blurred sometimes), but I’d say Split.

Best movie I have seen in a while now and you realize watching that some of the most horrifying scenes in movies don’t necessarily have to be blood and gore.” — GreybrahamLincoln

14. Nightmare On Elm Street

“You really can’t mention Horror without mentioning the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Seriously a fantastic premise at it’s core that haunted me as a child. The original film is easily a 5 star horror film. Freddie put the Boogieman back on the map, and basically propelled the production company – New Line Cinema – into the stratosphere.” — RyanMcCartney

15. Texas Chain Saw Massacre

“Just watched the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre last night and wow that movie is terrifying. Highly disturbing and it holds up 100%, it’s easy to see why it became such a classic.” — iamnotfat69

16. The Thing

“The Thing (1982). Hits all the marks and holds up to this day.” — Shins_Like_Diamonds

17. Jacob’s Ladder

“I saw Jacob’s Ladder in theaters when I was 19. It’s my favorite film to this day.” — Comedian70

18. Martyrs

“A French horror movie that doesn’t rely on jump scares to make you shit yourself. I don’t wanna give anything away, but the plot premise is amazing.” — alldayerrdaym8

19. Paranormal Activity

“I know after more and more sequels and popularity it started getting shit on but I really liked Paranormal Activity. It likely helps that I love found footage style films a lot.

The overall story was good, it didn’t give too much or too little info just the perfect amount given the context of the film. The pacing was well done and the events that happened progressively got worse and worse in a way that made the film not start to drag out or get old. So despite it just being increasingly worse bits of haunted activity over and over, it never felt repetitive or hurt the suspense. Which that film had some really good suspense to it.

And the ending was solid I think. There’s 2-3 different endings (one of the three has been shown before at very early showings but I have never found it online) and they are all pretty fine for the film.

It’s too bad it caught so much hype and they milked it for sequels. I liked most of the sequels too but really the first film as itself didn’t really need follow up films.” — Alchyreddit

20. Bone Tomahawk

“It’s a good western (this coming from someone who doesn’t really care for westerns), that will scar your psyche forever. Some movies have scenes that stay with you throughout your life. Bone Tomahawk is one of them.” — bobbydville

21. As Above So Below

“A lot better than most found footage I’ve seen.” — Trust_me_ima_priest

22. The Conjuring

“When that came it out, it was the first horror flick I had seen in a while that really fucked with me.” — Offended_Christian

23. The Exorcist

“If you are a lapsed Catholic like me, The Exorcist will fuck your shit up for weeks.

That’s amazing actually. That movie is coming up on it’s 45th anniversary. Soon enough it will be half-a-century old and it can still give a lot of people some really bad nightmares. None of today’s horror flicks like Thirteen Ghosts and certainly none of those pathetic ‘found footage’ flicks can even make me yawn. Exorcist though… jesus, sometimes I fear running into just by accident while scrolling through the channels on cable tv.

That’s brilliant.” — starstarstar42

24. The Babadook

“The Babadook should go down as a classic. Terrifying on many levels, especially when exploring the idea of latent anger and violence.” — wermbo

25. Evil dead 2: Dead By Dawn

“The perfect blend of scary and funny. Sam Raimi’s best work.” — dick_beverson

26. Kairo

“Some truly terrifying scenes and unnerving scenes. Gives one a sense of impending dread and doom that few other movies in the genre pull off this well.” — rammyWtS

27. The Descent

“The Descent is so fucking good. Only seen it once a couple of years ago, but it’s really stuck with me. Need to revisit that.” — Mukor Thought Catalog Logo Mark 

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