All 4 Hayden Panettiere Horror Movies Ranked

Actor Hayden Panettiere's death at age 36 is likely causing many of her fans to revisit her movie and TV roles in the upcoming days and weeks. This means that before long, fans who may chiefly know her from shows like "Nashville" and "Heroes" will find out that Panettiere also had a significant body of work in the horror genre. Over the years, the star appeared in no fewer than four horror movies, and as tends to be the case with this particular genre, the quality varies from project to project quite wildly.

A completionist will probably want to watch all four films, but in case you only want to focus on Panettiere's greatest hits, it's good to know in advance just what each and every one of these films has in store for the viewer. To help you with this, we've taken a look at all four Hayden Panettiere horror movies, and then ranked them from worst to best, based primarily on their Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer ratings.

Hayden Panettiere's final movie, "Sleepwalker," unfortunately isn't one of her best. Brandon Auman's 2026 film stands at just 14% on the Tomatometer critic score at Rotten Tomatoes, and as such, can probably be skipped by those who would prefer to remember Panettiere at her absolute best. If you want to check it out, Looper's sister site /Film has a guide on how to watch "Sleepwalker." 

It's a shame that "Sleepwalker" didn't work out, really. The movie is about artist Sarah Pangborn, who loses her daughter in a car accident that also leaves her less-than-exemplary husband comatose. If all this wasn't enough, Sarah begins to sleepwalk, and there's a chance that all of the awful things she dreams while doing so are far more real than she'd like.

Panettiere, who also experienced plenty of traumatic events in her life, was drawn to the project precisely because of the difficulties her character had to go through. "I'm really drawn to characters that have been through trauma," she said in an interview with Moviefone. "It's something that I relate to."

A remake (of sorts) of Wes Craven's 2006 horror film "The Breed," Griff and Nathan Furst's "A Breed Apart" is more comedic in tone than the other entries on this list. The film has the intriguing premise of following a group of attention-seeking influencers finding themselves on a remote island. There's just one minor hurdle between them and viral fame and fortune: The island is actually a death trap populated by monstrous dogs that are hungry for human flesh. 

"A group of fish-out-of-water types stuck in an isolated location with something terrible" is a great, classic premise for a horror film. Unfortunately, "A Breed Apart" doesn't quite match its title, and only has an 18% Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer rating. Also, unfortunately for Hayden Panettiere fans, her role in the movie isn't particularly big.

Better news for Panettiere fans, however, is that her moments are actually quite impressive. Panettiere plays fearless action star Hayden Hurst, who gets some fun fights against the killer dogs, and she generally comes across as the person who best understands the assignment. You can tell that Panettiere had a blast, and she said as much in an interview with Far Out Magazine. "I loved that character. [She's] a character that I don't think people have ever really seen me play," she said. "I'd love to do more action films in the future. I love that combination of physicality and acting."

The "Scream" franchise was always a touch meta, but "Scream 4" got an extra scoop. Standing at a solid 61% on Rotten Tomatoes, the Wes Craven-directer 2011 film brings habitual Ghostface survivor Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) back to Woodsboro for a promo tour of her book about trauma. Of course, the newest incarnation of the Ghostface killer is waiting in the shadows to provide plenty more for her therapist to unpack. If she survives. 

As old hands Sidney, Gale Weathers-Riley (Courteney Cox), and Dewey Riley (David Arquette) get drawn back into the latest series of murders, a new generation of youngsters is stalked by the slayer. Hayden Panettiere's Kirby Reed is an integral part of this crowd as the horror-obsessed best friend of Sidney's cousin Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts). Despite initial appearances, Kirby ends up being far more resilient than she seems, and lives on to fight another day in one more installment of the franchise.

During pre-production, "Scream VI" producer Kevin Williamson originally couldn't find Hayden Panettiere to cast her for a reprisal of her role as Kirby Reed. It's a good thing that he did, though, because Panettiere is great in her return to the screen franchise. The "Scream" film responds to her efforts in kind, giving Panettiere her far and away best-rated horror movie.

With a 77% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes, all bets are off in "Scream VI." It's a great horror flick that's just as subversive as any of the franchise's finest films, and it uses the previous installment's gimmick of combining franchise veterans with newcomers like Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera — both on their second outing here — to great effect. 

As for Panettiere's Kirby Reed, she's now a law enforcement agent. Her role is far from a brief blink-and-you-miss-it cameo, too. She plays a pivotal role in revealing the identity of a Ghostface killer, and gets a wonderful punch-the-air moment at the film's climax. "Scream VI" combines a great Hayden Panettiere performance in a great Hayden Panettiere horror film, and as a result, it's a must-watch for fans of the star's horror career.