A little poll we were conducting on the site to try and identify the Scariest Movie Ever may have caught your eye if you were browsing RT a week and a half ago. We put together a list of 40 of the scariest films ever made based on other lists and recommendations from the RT staff, and we asked you to vote for the one that made you the most nervous. Coincidentally, a British broadband service comparison website decided to perform a science experiment to find out the same thing, and their findings were, to put it mildly, unexpected. Did Rotten Tomatoes users concur with the conclusions? Discover the top 5 scariest horror films ever according to our fans by reading on.
Even if you disagree that The Exorcist is the scariest movie ever, the fact that it came in first on our list with a whopping 19% of the votes cast probably isn’t much of a surprise. The first R-rated horror film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, as well as the highest grossing one, was William Friedkin’s adaptation of the same-named novel about a child who is possessed by a demon and the attempts to drive the demon from the child (it received nine other nominations and won two awards). But aside from its reputation among critics and audiences, the movie is well-known for the widespread hysteria it caused across the nation, from protests over its contentious themes to reports of audience members fainting and feeling queasy.There’s no denying the impact the movie still has on people who see it for the first time, despite its dramatic pacing and slightly dated effects when compared to some modern horror.
Dark family drama about the nature of grief wrapped up in a supernatural horror movie, written and directed by Ari Aster, made a big impression with his feature directorial debut. Toni Collette’s performance as troubled mother Annie earned her a place in the pantheon of great Oscar snubs, but the biggest surprise in the film came from… Well, we won’t reveal that right now. Let’s just say that Hereditary was such a hit with viewers that it immediately elevated Aster to second place on our list and made him a director to watch.
With films like Saw, Dead Silence, Insidious, and this chiller based on the experiences of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, James Wan has established himself as one of the modern masters of horror. The Warrens were portrayed by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who gave weight to the scares and freak-out moments with a convincing sense of weariness. The Warrens are best known for their work on the bizarre case that served as the basis for the Amityville Horror films and was a factor in The Conjuring 2. Together, Wan and his co-leads discovered new terror in well-known genre clichés, and the result is a vast cinematic universe that only keeps expanding.
Numerous Stephen King books and short stories have been adapted for the big screen, including Pet Sematary, Misery, and Carrie. These adaptations don’t even take into account non-horror works like The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me. But without a doubt, Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining is the best of them all. The Shining is a masterpiece of set and production design, a genuinely unsettling retelling of the classic haunted house tale, and it stars an iconic Jack Nicholson performance. Even though there aren’t many jump scares in the movie, they are still incredibly terrifying, but its real strength comes from the way it gets under your skin and causes you to feel Jack Torrance’s gradual descent into madness.It is legitimately regarded as one of the best horror films ever produced, and it came in fourth in our poll.
5. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)
Six films that each received around 3% of the vote came after the top four films on this list, which together received 42% of the votes cast. In other words, there were no more than 60 votes separating these final six films. This low-budget slasher, which Tobe Hooper directed and co-wrote, is the first of them. It is loosely based on the crimes of Ed Gein. The gritty aesthetic of Texas Chainsaw gave it an air of authenticity that made it more terrifying (“This could actually happen, you guys!”), and Gunnar Hansen’s Leatherface paved the way for other brutes like Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees.There have been numerous attempts to revitalise the franchise, but none have come close to matching the first film’s level of outrageous, power tool-inspired terror.
