98 Best Psychological Horror Movies Of All Time Ranked

What is "psychological horror?" Is it a genre? Is it a broader description of the type of horror a movie evokes? Both? For our consideration of the best psychological horror movies of all time, we're using the broader understanding of horror movies that seek to horrify us with stories that focus on characters' psychology.

Once you start considering horror films interested in their characters' psychology, the range of movies we can look at balloons to all kinds of movies. There are traditional psychological stories that follow characters who struggle to tell the difference between reality and fiction, but there are also sci-fi horror hybrids, ghost stories, slashers, body horror classics, and more than a few movies about serial killers to consider.

But no matter what sub-genre it may fall into, each of these films is fascinated by the psychological effects of terrifying experiences or in some cases, by the horror that a fracturing psychological state can create. Some of these movies are interested in exploring how our brains try to make sense of scary stuff, while others look at how our brains themselves can be the source of our fear. All of them though can be categorized as "psychological horror movies," so let's take a look at the best that this type of horror has to offer.

Unlike any other movie on this list — and unlike most movies, really — "Inland Empire" is a three-hour long, mostly non-narrative exploration of an actor's horror, as her mind begins to struggle with the differences between reality and a movie she's in. The movie dives into a number of different situations, each of which are centered on the actor, but many of which seem to not relate to one another in any way. In true David Lynch fashion, "Inland Empire" is an undeniably challenging movie, but that also makes it one of the most unsettling and horrifying movies ever made. It never lets the audience, or its lead character, rest and try to make sense of things because it's always asking more questions rather than offering clear answers.

• Starring: Laura Dern, Jeremy Irons, Justin Theroux

• Director: David Lynch

• Year: 2006

• Runtime: 180 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

Steven Soderbergh has made movies in almost every genre, and he's had success in almost all of them as well. "Unsane" is one of his forays into psychological horror and he lends his experienced eye to this story of Sawyer, a young woman who is confined to a psychiatric hospital after unknowingly signing a consent form to admit herself into the institution. That would be horrifying enough, but the reason Sawyer is at the hospital at all is because she has been severely traumatized by her experiences with a stalker ... a man who has just been hired as an orderly at the hospital where she is now confined. "Unsane" is a brutally tense movie and Soderbergh's decision to shoot the entire thing on an iPhone gives it a strange, almost too real feeling.

• Starring: Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Jay Pharoah

• Director: Steven Soderbergh

• Year: 2018

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

A very loose remake of the Universal Monster classic 1933 film of the same name directed by James Whale (itself based on H.G. Wells' book of the same name) "The Invisible Man" (2020) re-centers the story from the titular Invisible Man to one of his victims. The film follows Cecilia, who escapes from an abusive relationship and soon after, learns that her ex has died. But she then begins to experience strange things going wrong around the house, and starts feeling like she's being watched. It's a horrifying movie with an incredible performance from Elisabeth Moss that fantastically updates the premise for a new age.

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• Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Storm Reid

• Director: Leigh Whannell

• Year: 2020

• Runtime: 124 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

Brian De Palma is a master of genre cinema, and psychological horror movies are just one of the genres that he's made with his distinct style. Made in 1973, "Sisters" is one of his earliest genre films and helped put his name on the map as a director who deeply understands the psychological nature of horror. "Sisters" follows a model suspected of murder and the reporter who investigates the crime. But when it's revealed that the model has a recently separated conjoined twin, things become more complicated and the reporter's memories begin to become confused. It's a thrilling movie that is difficult to follow in the best way that will leave you scratching your head but eager to discuss with friends and put the pieces together.

• Starring: Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning

• Director: Brian De Palma

• Year: 1973

• Runtime: 92 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

When a Danish family meets a Dutch family on vacation, they quickly become new friends. A few months later, the Dutch family invites the Danes to come visit them at their home in the countryside. But as soon as the Danish family arrives, things feel a bit off: They're offered meat even though they're vegetarians, they're told to leave their daughter with a babysitter they've never met, and they get stiffed with a bill. And that's just the beginning. "Speak No Evil" is almost a comedy of errors except that the entire thing is so tense that it's almost hard to watch. The movie is essentially a cat-and-mouse game, except that it's a mouse that's too polite to get away from the cat.

• Starring: Fedja van Huêt, Morten Burian, Sidsel Siem Koch

• Director: Christian Tafdrup

• Year: 2022

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Director Pedro Almodóvar is best known for his melodramas and comedies, but with "The Skin I Live In," he delivered one of the most disturbing horror movies of the 21st century. The movie follows Robert, a plastic surgeon who keeps a young woman named Vera in his home so that he can experiment on her. Following the death of his wife, he has become obsessed in developing skin that is burn-resistant. But as he continues to experiment with different surgeries, Vera comes to look more and more like his dead wife. And when an old flame of Robert's wife arrives at their home, things change dramatically for everyone. "The Skin I Live In" is an incredibly unpredictable and undeniably provocative movie, and for anyone interested in the darker side of an art-house icon's filmography, it's necessary viewing.

• Starring: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes

• Director: Pedro Almodóvar

• Year: 2011

• Runtime: 120 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

Michael Haneke has made a number of unnerving movies, but perhaps the most troubling of them all is his meta take on horror films. "Funny Games" follows a family on vacation, who get terrorized by a pair of young men. It's a fairly standard premise for a horror movie, but what makes "Funny Games" special and more horrifying than other movies with a similar plot is the way that the young men break the fourth wall throughout the film. These nods to the camera involve the audience in the action of the film in a way that's deeply unsettling while also being slyly playful, which moves "Funny Games" from a more standard home invasion movie to one of the most disturbing psychological horror movies of all time.

• Starring: Susanne Lothar, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering

• Director: Michael Haneke

• Year: 1997

• Runtime: 109 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

"Session 9" follows an asbestos abatement crew who take a job at an abandoned mental institution and slowly begin to experience strange, seemingly supernatural events. While reality begins to blur for many of the crew members, one of them discovers a series of tapes left behind that chronicle a doctor's meetings with a patient, who is terrorized by some entity. Things become even more frightening when the conversations the doctor has with the patient begin to resemble events occurring — or reoccurring — in the movie. "Session 9" is a fantastic psychological horror movie that's made even better by its setting at the real Danvers State Hospital, the asylum that inspired H. P. Lovecraft's Arkham Sanitarium and Arkham Asylum in "Batman" (via Atlas Obscura).

• Starring: Peter Mullan, David Caruso, Josh Lucas

• Director: Brad Anderson

• Year: 2001

• Runtime: 100 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66%

Dinner party settings have a long history in movies, and "The Invitation" offers one of the best (or should we say worst?) dinner parties on film. Will and Kira are invited to a dinner party at Will's former home, where his ex-wife Eden lives with her new husband David. Some of Eden and Will's old friends have also been invited to the party. But things quickly feel off, as Will struggles with being in the house where he lived with his ex-wife and their now dead child. Things only get worse once Eden and David begin to tell their guests about "The Invitation," a mysterious group they've joined that helps participants work through grief. The movie does a great job of placing the audience firmly and uncomfortably in Will's headspace, as he struggles with both the past and present of his relationship with Eden and their life together. 

• Starring: Logan Marshall-Green, Tammy Blanchard, Michiel Huisman

• Director: Karyn Kusama

• Year: 2015

• Runtime: 100 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

It's extremely rare, but sometimes an American remake of a non-English movie can be better than the original. That's the case for Gore Verbinski's "The Ring," a remake of Hideo Nakata's Japanese classic "Ringu," which follows the same basic storyline of a woman investigating the mysterious death of her niece, but offers a denser atmosphere and more clearly plotted narrative. The investigation eventually leads the woman to a videotape that is said to be cursed, which then only leads her down a deeper and more disturbing investigation into the tape's origin. "The Ring" explores the horrors that can be born from the mixture of technology and the supernatural, but it remains grounded, as each character expresses doubt about the possibility of any supernatural occurrences.

• Starring: Naomi Watts, David Dorfman, Martin Henderson

• Director: Gore Verbinski

• Year: 2002

• Runtime: 115 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

"The Machinist" is the second film from director Brad Anderson on this list besides "Session 9," and where that movie focuses on a group's descent into madness or at the very least violence, "The Machinist" is entirely focused on its individual central character. Trevor hasn't slept in over a year and begins to see a man named Ivan, who eventually leads him to cause an accident at work and lose his job. As his life spirals out of control, Trevor attempts to solve the mystery of who Ivan is and why he seems intent on ruining his life. But things aren't as simple as that, and as Trevor learns more, his sanity begins to slip. "The Machinist" is a fascinating and intellectually exciting movie that's just as scary as it is smart, and it also offers a phenomenal performance from Christian Bale.

• Starring: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, John Sharian

• Director: Brad Anderson

• Year: 2004

• Runtime: 102 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%

Based loosely on the Greek tragedy "Iphigenia in Aulis" by Euripides, "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" follows surgeon Steven, who befriends a young man named Martin. Martin lost his father in a car accident years ago and Steven wants to be a positive male role model and mentor in the young man's life. But Martin quickly begins to overstay his welcome in Steven's life and makes increasingly strange demands of the surgeon. Things eventually come to a head when Martin reveals a past connection between him and Steven and demands that their history be acknowledged. "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" is an unnerving movie from the beginning due to the strange way the actors speak and move and by the end, it's downright harrowing.

• Starring: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan

• Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

• Year: 2017

• Runtime: 121 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

Based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, "Misery" follows author Paul Sheldon, who gets into a serious car accident and wakes up to find himself stuck in the home of Annie, one of his biggest fans, who found him by the side of the road. At first it seems that Paul has been extremely lucky, since Annie is a nurse and is more than willing to care for him until he's up and running again. But when Annie learns that Paul plans to kill off her favorite character named Misery, she decides to make him a prisoner rather than a guest and use whatever means necessary to get him to write her favorite character back to life. "Misery" is a thrilling single location film that mines the dynamic between two people and their shifting positions of power for all the tension and horror it's worth.

• Starring: Kathy Bates, James Caan, Richard Farnsworth

• Director: Rob Reiner

• Year: 1990

• Runtime: 107 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

"The Psychic" tells the story of a woman cursed with psychic vision, who sees a murder unfold before her eyes and seeks to uncover the killer. She recognizes the place where the homicide took place as her husband's country home and when she arrives there, she finds a woman's body set into the wall, just as her vision showed her. But when her husband is then taken into custody as a suspect, she must investigate the death to clear his name. As she investigates, it seems that perhaps the gruesome crime she envisioned was not in fact that of the woman discovered in the wall; it may have been of a murder that has not happened yet. "The Psychic" is a beautifully atmospheric and unnerving film from Lucio Fulci, one of the greatest Italian directors of the 20th century.

• Starring: Jennifer O'Neill, Gianni Garko, Marc Porel

• Director: Lucio Fulci

• Year: 1977

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Nicolas Winding Refn has been making some of the most distinct-looking movies around since the beginning of his career and 2011's "Drive" exposed his visual style to a wider audience. His movies are crisp, glossy, and doused in neon lights, but also interested in horrible violence, so it makes sense that he would turn his eye to the dangers of beauty. "The Neon Demon" follows Jesse, who moves to Los Angeles to make it as a model. But she soon discovers that there are all sorts of predators who want to take advantage of her in different ways. It's a movie that's always shifting its attention to new threats, and by the end, it seems that the pursuit of beauty itself is a threat.

• Starring: Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, Keanu Reeves

• Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

• Year: 2016

• Runtime: 117 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 58%

Inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft and directed by the legendary John Carpenter, "In the Mouth of Madness" follows insurance investigator John Trent, who is sent to find missing author Sutter Cane. Trent is accompanied by Linda, an editor at Cane's publishing house, and the two set off to find the author whose new manuscript is apparently driving its readers mad. Their investigation brings them to a New Hampshire town that in theory only exists in Cane's books. It's full of people, but as the movie goes on, it seems that these people aren't making organic decisions and are instead following already established narratives. The question of where reality ends and fiction begins is asked by a lot of great psychological horror movies, and "In the Mouth of Madness" is one of the best to do so.

• Starring: Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow

• Director: John Carpenter

• Year: 1994

• Runtime: 95 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 58%

Many movies explore the dark underbelly of seemingly idyllic suburban life, but none of them do it quite like "Blue Velvet." The film follows college student Jeffrey who takes an innocuous trip back home, only to discover a severed ear in his perfect suburban neighborhood. His curiosity is piqued and he becomes obsessed with discovering whose ear it is and why it was cut off. Teenager Sandy — who also happens to be a detective's daughter — joins his investigation, and the two soon uncover a vast criminal underworld that's much more disturbing than anything they could have imagined. "Blue Velvet" is a deeply horrifying film that is often difficult to watch, but that's part of what makes it one of the best psychological horror movies of all time.

• Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper

• Director: David Lynch

• Year: 1986

• Runtime: 120 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Based on Jeff VanderMeer's book of the same name, "Annihilation" is a high concept sci-fi movie: It follows a group of women, who enter a mysterious area known as the "Shimmer" that has emerged from a meteor crash and seems to be rearranging things on a molecular level. It doesn't take long for that transformation of the familiar into the unfamiliar to begin affecting the women, and as their journey continues, we see how they react to the experience. It's these reactions that make "Annihilation" so psychologically fascinating. Some characters are curious about how they might control the Shimmer, others are horrified and angry, while others still come to terms with their changing bodies. "Annihilation" is a strange movie that's equally disturbing and beautiful.

• Starring: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez

• Director: Alex Garland

• Year: 2018

• Runtime: 115 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

The protagonist of "Night of the Demon" (a.k.a. "Curse of the Demon") is a psychologist, but that's not the only reason the movie lands on our list of the best psychological horror movies. The film, based on the short story "Casting the Runes" by M. R. James, follows psychologist John Holden, as he investigates the connection between a friend's death and an Occultist named Julian Karswell. Throughout the movie, there is a tension between Karswell's claims of supernatural power and Holden's skepticism about anything mystical, which comes to a head in the film's final moments. We won't spoil anything here, but horror abounds well before the end and it's not clear until then exactly what kind of horror it is.

• Starring: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis

• Director: Jacques Tourneur

• Year: 1957

• Runtime: 82 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

"American Psycho," based on the book of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis, is a hard film to pin down. It's equally a satirical comedy and a psychological horror movie, as its portrait of the titular psycho Patrick Bateman moves between hilarious and horrifying, and sometimes both at the same time. The film invites us into Bateman's monologue that lets us see how he actually perceives the world, and it's so ridiculous that we want to simply laugh at it until it becomes genuinely dangerous. It's a satire with such a hard edge that it isn't just unnerving because of how close it gets to reality. Rather, it is truly scary because it makes us consider the culture that would create an individual like Patrick Bateman.

• Starring: Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto

• Director: Mary Harron

• Year: 2000

• Runtime: 102 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 69%

The two greatest icons of Universal's monster movies were in a few movies together, but the first and best film to feature Bela Lugosi going head to head with Boris Karloff is 1934's "The Black Cat." The film follows two newlyweds on their honeymoon in Hungary, who are stranded by a storm and must seek refuge in the home of an old Austrian architect. They're with an older World War I veteran that they met on their travels, who says that the architect is an old friend. But it soon becomes clear that the history between the veteran and architect was anything but friendly. "The Black Cat" is one of the first major psychological horror films ever made, as almost all of the scares are built on atmosphere and the cat and mouse game played by the two older men, both of whom give amazing performances.

• Starring: Boris Karloff, Béla Lugosi, David Manners

• Director: Edgar G. Ulmer

• Year: 1934

• Runtime: 69 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

"Irréversible" is infamously difficult to watch for a number of reasons: It contains a graphic extended rape scene, the camerawork is almost constantly chaotic and disorienting, and the film's sound design uses inaudible infrasound to unnerve the audience (via Salon). But for those interested in subjecting themselves to one of the most challenging films ever made, it can be a rewarding experience. The film's narrative, which centers on two men seeking revenge for the assault of a girlfriend, is played in reverse chronological order that makes its horror and tragedy all the more devastating. It's a visceral movie that lands on our list of the best psychological horror films because it's so dedicated to scarring its audience's psyche, and it largely succeeds.

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• Starring: Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel

• Director: Gaspar Noé

• Year: 2002

• Runtime: 97 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 58% (Link includes disturbing image)

While on a vacation in France, a young woman suddenly vanishes at a gas station. Her boyfriend has no idea where she has gone and dedicates himself to finding her. It's a setup that would function well for any psychological horror mystery movie, but what makes "The Vanishing" special is that it answers the question of what happened to the woman early on: She was kidnapped and killed by a sociopath, who wanted to test his ability to commit evil. The rest of the movie then plays as a painfully tense cat-and-mouse game between her boyfriend and her murderer, who cannot help but test the limits of what the boyfriend will do to find out what happened to the woman he loved.

• Starring: Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, Johanna ter Steege

• Director: George Sluizer

• Year: 1988

• Runtime: 107 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

Director Kim Jee-woon has been one of the most exciting filmmakers working out of South Korea for the last twenty years and "I Saw the Devil" may well be his best film in his already impressive filmography. The film follows a spy, who seeks revenge on the serial killer that murdered his wife. But far from being a simple revenge narrative, the film sees the spy catch and attack the killer early on. What makes "I Saw the Devil" remarkable is the ongoing cat-and-mouse game that the spy creates. He repeatedly catches, beats, and then frees the killer — only to do it all again — because this is his desired form of revenge. Over the course of the movie, we begin to question how much of this violence is really justified and whether our hero has crossed the line into sociopathy himself.

• Starring: Lee Byung-hun, Choi Min-Sik, Oh San-ha

• Director: Kim Jee-woon

• Year: 2010

• Runtime: 141 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

While many may know her as Wanda from the Marvel Cinematic Universe now, Elizabeth Olsen's first feature film performance is a far cry from the MCU, as it's in a small independent movie about a young woman who escapes a cult. After her escape, she moves in with her sister and brother-in-law, who do their best to care for her but struggle to manage due to her severe trauma. The movie moves back and forth in time to show us some of the young woman's experiences while in the cult, and it examines how even in the safety of her sister's home, she can never stop looking over her shoulder out of the fear that members of the cult will find her to bring her back. A powerful and haunting film about the psychology of cults, as well as the effects of trauma, "Martha Marcy May Marlene" rests on Olsen's shoulders and not surprisingly, she delivers here.

• Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, John Hawkes

• Director: Sean Durkin

• Year: 2011

• Runtime: 102 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

David Fincher is now known as one of the greatest directors of films about serial killers thanks to his work on movies from "Zodiac" to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." But it all started in 1995 with "Se7en," which follows a pair of detectives who investigate a series of murders based on the seven deadly sins. It's a horrific movie for its murder set pieces alone, but what makes "Se7en" one of the best psychological horror movies of all time is its consideration of the type of person who would commit such violence. The detectives attempt to understand this kind of person and the viewer goes along with them on that journey, until by the end, we discover that someone like that simply cannot be understand.

• Starring: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow

• Director: David Fincher

• Year: 1995

• Runtime: 127 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

"Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key" is remarkable for many reasons besides its fantastic name. Based loosely on Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Black Cat," the film centers on an alcoholic writer, his wife, and the chaos that erupts when his attractive young niece comes to stay with them at their estate. The movie includes a series of double crosses, murders, and intense sexual chemistry that elevate it to the higher ranks of the giallo genre. "Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key" is an erotically charged movie that plays with the connection between sexual desire and violence in a unique way that makes it stand out within the psychological horror genre.

• Starring: Edwige Fenech, Anita Strindberg, Luigi Pistilli

• Director: Sergio Martino 

• Year: 1972

• Runtime: 96 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Some of the best psychological horror movies are marked by their incredible atmosphere that draws viewers in and unsettles them. "Personal Shopper" is the strange psychological horror movie that envelops its audience in a disquieting atmosphere that is almost comforting. The film follows personal shopper and medium Maureen, who seeks a sign from her recently deceased brother. Much of the film offers a strangely cozy atmosphere, as Maureen investigates different ways to contact her brother. But that coziness alone is not what makes the film so special; what makes "Personal Shopper" one of the best psychological horror movies are the few powerful breaks in that calm atmosphere that introduce real, visceral horror.

• Starring: Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Nora Waldstätten

• Director: Olivier Assayas

• Year: 2016

• Runtime: 106 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

"In My Skin" is one of the more forgotten and under-seen films from the New French Extremity movement of the 2000s, but it deserves to find a more significant audience. Writer/director/star Marina de Van helms this film, which tells the story of Esther, who becomes obsessed with exploring her body through self-mutilation after an accident leaves a deep cut in her leg. While the film includes some significant scenes of gore, it's much more interested in Esther's psychology and what drives her obsession than its effects. It's a disturbing but sympathetic portrait of a woman on a quest to learn more about herself in a singular and horrific way.

• Starring: Marina de Van, Laurent Lucas, Léa Drucker

• Director: Marina de Van

• Year: 2002

• Runtime: 93 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66%

With his feature film debut "Get Out," writer-director Jordan Peele immediately established himself as a master of blending horror with explicit social commentary. While he's released other horror movies like "Us" and "Nope" since "Get Out," so far none have made more of an impact on culture (or been better) than the first. "Get Out" follows a young black man, who goes to the suburbs with his white girlfriend to meet her family. But once they get there, things feel off. The only other black people he meets behave strangely and almost mechanically. The movie feeds his — and our — paranoia, until finally delivering an incredibly unique finale that's like nothing we've seen before or since.

• Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford

• Director: Jordan Peele

• Year: 2017

• Runtime: 104 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

"The Witch" is another modern classic that earned cult status almost as soon as it was released. The film follows a family in 1600s New England, who get exiled from their colony because of the father's extreme religious beliefs. They make a home for themselves on the edge of a forest, and soon bad things start happening. Their youngest child goes missing, their crops die, and a son becomes dangerously sick. And because these are religious extremists in the 1600s, their first suspicion is that of witchcraft, but more specifically, that their eldest daughter is a witch. Within this microcosm of a family, a psychological battle ensues over unholiness, belief, and female sexuality in terrifying ways. All of this plus its gut-punch ending make "The Witch" a modern classic that will surely stand the test of time.

• Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Katie Dickie

• Director: Robert Eggers

• Year: 2015

• Runtime: 92 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

When considering the entirety of David Cronenberg's amazing filmography, many still find that his masterpiece is 1983's "Videodrome." TV station head Max Renn is always on the hunt for the next big thing, which for Max means the most salacious, controversial, and disturbing TV programs he can find. One day, a colleague discovers something called "Videodrome," a plotless show that takes place in a bare room and simply shows people being tortured. Max loves it and makes it his mission to learn more about it. But it soon becomes clear that Videodrome has an effect on its viewers and is part of a much larger battle over the place of TV in modern life. "Videodrome" offers some of Cronenberg's signature body horror, but more than that, it's one of the most thought-provoking films about media ever made.

• Starring: James Woods, Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits

• Director: David Cronenberg

• Year: 1983

• Runtime: 89 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%

The oldest movie on this list, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is a silent film that tells the story of the titular Dr. Caligari and the somnambulist Cesare, whom Caligari uses as a carnival attraction. But Cesare isn't just a sleepwalker; he tells people's fortunes, and when a man asks Cesare to tell his fortune, the somnambulist tells him that he won't wake up the next morning. When that man ends up dead, the town is thrown into a frenzy. An investigation into who killed the man and the relationship between his death and the sleepwalker leads to more and more questions. Many — including Roger Ebert — consider "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" to be "the first true horror film," as well as the first movie done in the German Expressionist style. Made during the interwar period and under the dark shadow of WWI, it's a singular movie with some of the most beautiful sets ever built and is just as scary today as it was when it was first released.

• Starring: Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss, Friedrich Fehér

• Director: Robert Wiene

• Year: 1920

• Runtime: 74 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

"Raw" is a coming-of-age tale that follows Justine, who starts her first semester at the same veterinary school that her older sister Alexia attends. After being forced to eat a rabbit kidney during a hazing ritual, Justine — a lifelong vegetarian — begins to crave more and more flesh until finally, she discovers a taste for human flesh and some unexpected truths about her sister. "Raw" is about many things: the horrors of being a fish out of water, the cruelty of hazing, power struggles between siblings, and of course, cannibalism. But unlike other cannibal movies that focus on shock and gore, "Raw" is a movie about self-discovery that centers on Justine's emotional journey of learning how to live with this new craving. Yes, it's gruesome enough to have made people vomit and faint during screenings, but at its heart, "Raw" is about Justine's struggle to maintain human relationships with the people that she cares about but also wants to feed on the most. 

• Starring: Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella
  

• Director: Julia Ducournau

• Year: 2016

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

"Lake Mungo" is the only movie on this list that functions at least partially like a found footage film. It's a mockumentary horror movie about a family reckoning with the death of their daughter, who drowned, and the strange, seemingly supernatural events they begin to experience after her death. It's an incredibly tense movie that does a fantastic job presenting its twist-and-turn-filled story through the mockumentary style and offers some of the scariest found footage scenes ever filmed. What makes "Lake Mungo" so special though is how it plays with time and explores the way that grief can make people see things they want to see. It's a horror movie that sticks with you not just because it's scary (which it certainly is), but because it's also emotionally potent.

• Starring: Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin Sharpe

• Director: Joel Anderson

• Year: 2008

• Runtime: 88 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

"We're All Going to the World's Fair" is as much a movie about horror as it is a horror movie itself. The film follows young teenager Casey, who joins the online "World's Fair Challenge" in which participants go through a ritual and then begin to experience changes. It's not clear whether or not these stories are real or fake at first, as it seems that some players are just making up stories to create a multi-creator narrative of the game. But there's a disturbing undercurrent to the entire film, and Casey's behavior does seem to change erratically, which some viewers (and the director) read as an expression of dysphoria and the trans experience. Either way, "We're All Going to the World's Fair" is a striking movie about horror stories and horror communities online, which looks at the ways the internet can be as much a tool for connecting with helpful people as with harmful ones.

• Starring: Anna Cobb, Michael J. Rogers

• Director: Jane Schoenbrun

• Year: 2021

• Runtime: 86 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Based on Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac's novel "She Who Was No More," "Diabolique" tells the story of the wife and mistress of the same man, who hatch a plan to kill him. But that's just the beginning. The real horror begins after they kill him: His corpse disappears and he continues to appear to them and to others. "Diabolique" beautifully mixes noir and horror filmmaking to deliver one of the most exciting and terrifying psychological horror mystery movies ever made. In fact, in an interview for L'Ecran Fantastique, "Psycho" novel author Robert Bloch called "Diabolique" his "favorite horror film of all time," which is "the epitome of what the horror film should be" due to its lack of bloodshed.

• Starring: Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse

• Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot

• Year: 1955

• Runtime: 117 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

A few years before "Rosemary's Baby," Roman Polanski made his first English-language feature film "Repulsion." The film follows Carol, a young woman who is beset by men and their attempts to court her. When her sister leaves Carol alone in their apartment to go on a trip, Carol begins to spiral out of control. She doesn't leave the apartment and has visions that make it difficult for her to tell the difference between reality and her imagination, as she feels the presence of men all around her. "Repulsion" looks at these threats — both real and imagined — that stem from Carol's experiences with men, which have created a sense of fear and repulsion that envelop her and for many viewers, it's a harrowing exploration of a woman's psyche fractured by a society that can only objectify her.

• Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Yvonne Furneaux, Ian Hendry
• Director: Roman Polanski
• Year: 1965
• Runtime: 105 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

While Martin Scorsese's remake of "Cape Fear" is great, nothing beats J. Lee Thompson's original 1962 movie. In Thompson's film, Max Cady is released from prison after serving an eight year sentence for rape and begins a cruel game with Sam Bowden, the lawyer who put him in prison. Robert Mitchum is horrifying as Max Cady, he's able to be charming while also being disgusting and threatening. It's an incredible performance and one that won't leave you after the movie ends. The movie also offers an amazing finale that delivers a surprising amount of action for a movie that's otherwise so psychologically driven.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

• Starring: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen
• Director: J. Lee Thompson
• Year: 1962
• Runtime: 106 minutes
• Rating: Not Rated/Passed
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

"The Seventh Victim" follows Mary, who leaves her boarding school and moves to New York city to find her older sister Jacqueline, who has mysteriously disappeared. As she learns more about her sister's life in the city, she discovers that Jacqueline may have been involved with an occult group. The film never takes a supernatural turn, but rather, it considers what drives people to become fascinated with darkness and death. This representation — along with its message that these things may not be inherently bad — is astounding. "The Seventh Victim" is a movie that remains shocking for its honest consideration of our relationship to death and what that relationship can look like.

• Starring: Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Kim Hunter

• Director: Mark Robson

• Year: 1943

• Runtime: 71 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

After the accidental death of their son, a couple known only as He and She go to their cabin in a stretch of woods called Eden to begin the healing process. He is a therapist and wants to help her with her grief, but She is inconsolable. As the film continues, He begins to have visions of talking animals and She becomes increasingly violent, until things explode in one of the most disturbing and memorable finales of any horror movie. But it's the interplay between the two in the build up to that finale that makes "Antichrist" one of the best psychological horror movies of all time. The push and pull of their relationship and his attempts to (sometimes literally) wrestle the grief out of her, are impossible to look away from.

• Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe

• Director: Lars von Trier

• Year: 2009

• Runtime: 108 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 54%

Based on the book of the same name by Thomas Harris, "The Silence of the Lambs" isn't the first film to bring Hannibal Lecter to the big screen (that would be 1986's "Manhunter") but it still remains the best film to do so. The movie follows FBI recruit Clarice Starling, as she enlists the infamous cannibal's help to catch the serial killer known as Buffalo Bill. There is certainly horror in the scenes of Bill with his victims, but the heart of the movie are the scenes between Starling and Lecter that dig deep into Starling's past and questions of human nature itself. Lecter toys with Starling in a way that's insidious and uncomfortable, but impossible to look away from and impossible to forget.

• Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn
• Director: Jonathan Demme
• Year: 1991
• Runtime: 118 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Inspired by Clive Barker's short story "The Forbidden," "Candyman" tells the story of graduate student Helen, who becomes fascinated by the urban legend of Candyman, a killer that appears if you say his name in front of a mirror five times. She begins to research the stories and their connection to the location of Cabrini Green in Chicago. But her academic interest soon becomes something more when the urban myth proves to be real. "Candyman" asks questions about race, class, and the power of stories in American culture that are just as vital today as they were when the movie came out. The fact that it looks amazing and is still deeply unsettling is just a bonus.

• Starring: Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkeley
• Director: Bernard Rose
• Year: 1992
• Runtime: 98 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%

Based on the book of the same name by Davis Grubb, "The Night of the Hunter" follows zealous preacher Harry Powell, as he kills a woman and chases her children across West Virginia in the hopes of learning where their father hid a stash of money. Charles Laughton was primarily an actor and "The Night of the Hunter" was his first and only directorial effort. It's a fairly straightforward story but Laughton injects the film with atmosphere and psychological insight about Powell's misogyny and greed, as well as the fear and desperation of the children. It's an incredibly beautiful movie visually and one that examines the complexities of our psyches, as it takes a deep look at the darkness in humanity, while also offering hope in the end.

• Starring: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
• Director: Charles Laughton
• Year: 1955
• Runtime: 92 minutes
• Rating: Not Rated
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

Based on the novel of the same name by Jean Redon, "Eyes Without a Face" follows a doctor, as he desperately attempts to literally find a new face for his disfigured daughter Christiane. The film offers some of the most shocking on-screen surgery for its time and certainly, there is horror in the doctor's experiments and his methods of finding victims whose faces he can steal. However, the depth of the movie and some of its real horror lies in the loneliness of Christiane, who struggles in her imprisonment. She's locked away from the world, unable to contact her fiancé or even go outside the walls of her home. It's a deeply sad movie that draws horror from sadness and loneliness in a powerfully moving way.

• Starring: Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Édith Scob
• Director: Georges Franju
• Year: 1960
• Runtime: 84 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

A remake of 1951's "The Thing from Another World" (itself based on the novella "Who Goes There?" by John Campbell), John Carpenter's "The Thing" updates the story to include some of the most gruesome body horror and intense psychological horror ever set to film. "The Thing" follows a group of men holed up at an Antarctica research center, who are infiltrated by an alien organism that can mimic all other biological things, including humans. The body horror scenes are striking and unforgettable, but what makes "The Thing" one of the best psychological horror films of all time is the paranoia that sets in. The men realize that they can't trust each other because anyone could be the alien disguised as a human and the film's examination of what happens when a fear of an other sets in makes it one of the most powerful and horrifying around.

• Starring: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David
• Director: John Carpenter
• Year: 1982
• Runtime: 108 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

"Persona" tells the story of nurse Alma, who is hired to care for actress Elisabet. Elisabet has stopped speaking but it's not clear why. Doctors can't find anything physically wrong with the actress and believe that she is simply choosing to remain silent, so they send her to the sea with Alma to recuperate from this seeming breakdown. This allows Alma to share stories about herself with Elisabet, but as time goes on, Alma begins to lose sense of where she ends and Elisabet begins. "Persona" is one of the most fascinating movies ever made about identity and the ways in which it can slip away from us. While it's not strictly horror in a classic sense, its unsettling look at a fracturing identity makes it stay with you long after it ends.

• Starring: Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand

• Director: Ingmar Bergman

• Year: 1966

• Runtime: 84 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

"What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" is the only movie to bring together classic Hollywood icons Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Sisters Jane (Davis) and Blanche (Crawford) were both once stars of stage and screen. Jane was a child star in vaudeville, but her fame faded as she got older because she didn't adapt well to the new medium of cinema. The initially shy Blanche then became a movie star, who stopped acting after a car accident confined her to a wheelchair. Now, the two sisters live together, as Jane takes care of Blanche. The movie centers on Jane's psychological torture of her sister and her desperate attempts to regain some of her former glory. "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" is a classic of psychological horror, thanks to its performances from these Hollywood legends — particularly Bette Davis as one of the great villains of all time — and its look at the realities of aging for women in Hollywood.

• Starring: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono
• Director: Robert Aldrich
• Year: 1962
• Runtime: 132 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

While Stephen King notably dislikes Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of "The Shining," the movie's effectiveness and imprint on culture is impossible to dispute. The film follows a family, who move into the remote Overlook hotel in the Colorado mountains. Dad Jack has taken a job there as a caretaker for the winter, but shortly after the hotel is shut for the season, horror sets in. Both Jack and his son Danny begin to have visions, but while the visions are threatening to Danny, they are inviting to Jack. Soon Jack begins to lash out at his family. That story itself is enough to make the film horrifying, but it's Kubrick's attention to atmosphere and the unnerving score that make "The Shining" an unforgettable viewing experience and the best psychological horror movie of all time that explores alcoholism, abuse, and the capacity for darkness within.

• Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
• Director: Stanley Kubrick
• Year: 1980
• Runtime: 142 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%