There are more than 36,000 horror movies on IMDb, so it can be hard to decide which ones to watch. IMDb has made it easier by putting together a list of the highest-rated horror movies based on user ratings. IMDb users say that all of these horror movies have at least 25,000 votes, making them some of the most popular horror movies ever made.
Here are the top thirteen horror movies with the highest ratings on IMDb. They range from great psychological thrillers to classic slasher films.
Changed on April 5, 2023: If you like scary movies, you’ll be glad to know that this article has been updated with new information and movies.
Alien
Alien, a classic from 1979 by Ridley Scott, has an 8.5 rating from IMDb users, which puts it near the top of the list of horror movies. It’s about the people on a spaceship who are sent to explore a planet they don’t know much about, but are attacked by a scary alien creature. Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, is one of the few people left alive, and she has to fight off a creature that won’t give up.
Alien is now a classic science fiction horror movie, and it’s not hard to see why. The combination of suspense and special effects makes for a great atmosphere, and Weaver and the rest of the crew keep you interested the whole time. Ripley has become a famous female character, so any horror fan or feminist should watch this movie at least once.
Evil Dead Rise
Lee Cronin’s 2023 psychological horror hit Evil Dead Rise is the most recent movie to make the list. It is the fifth installment of Sam Raimi’s popular horror franchise and follows sisters Beth and Ellie (Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland) as they try to protect their family from demons after finding a bad book full of unimaginable evil. If they want to make it through the horror, the two people who have been fighting must put their differences aside and fight demons that have taken over their bodies while facing terrifying nightmares.
Evil Dead Rise was a hit with critics and longtime fans of the series. It has an 8.1 rating on IMDb and a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes. In their review, Deadline Hollywood said that the movie was a “feels like a real comeback. It’s funny, weird, bloody, and sad, and it will keep people on edge, which is what fans like.”
Les Diaboliques
Les Diaboliques, also called Diabolique, is a French horror movie from 1955 by Henri-Georges Clouzot. It is also known as Diabolique. In the movie, two women, played by Véra Clouzot (Christina Delasalle) and Simone Signoret (Nicole Horner), plan to kill their lover Michel Delasalle (Paul Meurisse). They try to plan the perfect crime, but when Michel’s body goes missing, they realise it won’t be as easy as they thought.
This classic thriller has an 8.1 rating on IMDb, and people should watch it all the way through. This is a must-see if you want a scary movie with a lot of drama and twists you didn’t see coming.
Psycho
Psycho is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous movies. Set in 1960, it tells the story of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), who steals money, runs away, and ends up at the Bates Motel. Anthony Perkins, the creepy motel owner, is there to meet her. He is hiding a dark secret. Things quickly get worse for Marion and her sister, Vera Miles, who is also in danger.
Psycho is a scary horror movie that still holds up today because the way it was made was so new and ahead of its time. It has an 8.5 rating on IMDb, and it won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture in 1961. It has a lot of suspense and great acting, which shows why it’s often called the model for modern horror.
Rosemary’s Baby
Rosemary’s Baby, which came out in 1968 and is a classic, is another psychological horror film on the list. In the movie, Rosemary Woodhouse, played by Mia Farrow, is a young woman who is pregnant. She and her husband, Guy, move into an apartment building in New York City (John Cassavetes). It’s clear that the other people living in the building aren’t exactly normal, but that’s only the start of Rosemary’s nightmares.
This thriller, which has a rating of 8.0 and has won several awards, is a great example of how danger can be hiding in the strangest places. This is the horror movie to watch if you want something subtle, suspenseful, and creepy that gets scarier as it goes on.
The Blue Elephant
The Blue Elephant is one of the more recent horror movies on this list. It came out in 2014 and got a lot of attention for its unique take on the horror genre. It is an Egyptian movie about a therapist who is trying to get back to work after a tragedy in his own life. When he finds out that one of his friends is a patient at the criminal mental institution where he works, it sets off a chain of events that viewers need to see to get the full experience of The Blue Elephant.
This movie is a beautiful adaptation of the 2012 book of the same name, which also has an 8.0 rating on IMDb. It has the right amount of suspense and mystery and is a great addition to the best horror movies.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The 1920 German silent horror film is often thought to be the first real horror movie ever made. In The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Werner Krauss plays the crazy hypnotist Dr. Caligari, who uses the sleepwalker Cesare (Conrad Veidt) to commit a series of terrible murders. The groundbreaking movie paved the way for German cinema and also helped arthouse films get started. It was known for its dramatic and gothic style and its new and chaotic way of shooting movies.
The influential movie has an 8.0 rating on IMDb, and when it was shown all over the world, women reportedly screamed and even passed out when Cesare made his spine-tingling reveal. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is thought of as a classic movie and is one of the most praised and well-known German movies from the silent era.
The Exorcist
The Exorcist is one of the most famous and well-liked scary movies ever made. In the 1973 classic, Regan (Linda Blair), a young girl, plays with a Ouija board and gets possessed by the devil. Her mother (Ellen Burstyn) and two priests, Father Karras (Jason Miller) and Father Merrin (Max von Sydow), are determined to save her from the evil forces that have taken over her body.
The Exorcist has an 8.1 rating on IMDb and won two Academy Awards and four Golden Globes. It has been praised for its iconic 1970s soundtrack, acting, and special effects, which have helped make it one of the most famous horror movies ever made.
The Shining
In the 1980 horror film The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) and his family move into a remote hotel in the Colorado Rockies. Jack is the winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel, but the longer he stays there, the more he starts to lose his mind. The Shining seems like a typical thriller at first glance, but its deeper themes of evil and family tragedy, as well as the many conspiracy theories about it, make it a classic.
The Shining has an 8.4 rating on IMDb, and both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes have given it awards and nominations. It’s another scary movie that will stay in your mind for a long time after you’ve seen it. It’s been a part of the cultural vocabulary for almost 50 years.
The Silence of the Lambs
Jonathan Demme’s 1991 psychological horror masterpiece The Silence of the Lambs is known as one of the best and most influential movies of all time. It follows FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) as she is forced to seek the help of the crazy, cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to catch a murderer who is terrorising the country.
Only three movies in history, including It Happened One Night in 1934 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1975, have won all five major categories at the Academy Awards. Hopkins and Foster won Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively, for their roles in this movie. With an IMDb rating of 8.6 from nearly 1.5 million users, the horror hit is without a doubt one of the most respected and awarded movies in its genre.
The Thing
The Thing The Thing, a classic horror movie from 1982, was directed by John Carpenter. It was a loose remake of the original story, which was about a group of scientists in Antarctica who find an alien life form that can take the shape and form of its victims. The alien can spread quickly, so the group needs to figure out how to stop it quickly. This movie will keep you on the edge of your seat with its tension and suspense, and the grotesque special effects are amazing for the 1980s.
The Thing has an 8.2 rating, and Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, and Keith David all do great work in it. It’s a great example of how horror remakes can be done right, and fans of science fiction and horror consider it a masterpiece.
Tumbbad
Tumbbad, an Indian horror-fantasy film that came out in 2018, is another new horror movie. It tells the story of Vinayak, played by Sohum Shah, who is obsessed with finding the source of wealth that is said to be hidden in his family’s home. He goes to the house with his son, Pandurang, and they get caught up in a web of lies, greed, and danger as they try to figure out the mythological secrets of the place.
Tumbbad is one of a kind because of the way it looks on film and how it feels. It has a rating of 8.2 from users on IMDb and has won 17 awards and been nominated for more than 22. It’s a great movie for anyone who likes horror and fantasy from around the world.
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
This classic movie from 1962, which stars Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, is about two old sisters who live together. “Baby” Jane Hudson, played by Davis, is a former child star who is slowly going crazy, while her sister Blanche, played by Crawford, is in a wheelchair because of an accident. In an exciting rivalry that touches on jealousy, loneliness, and mental illness, the two are scared of each other.
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane has an 8.0 rating on IMDb and was nominated for many awards. The film’s big stars helped it move out of the horror genre and into the mainstream. Overall, the movie is now known as one of the most famous psychological thrillers ever made.
