Five horror films that fans found the scariest are:
1. THE EXORCIST (1973)
You may take issue that The Exorcist is the scariest film ever made, but it’s probably no surprise that it’s at the top of our list, with a whopping 19% of all votes cast. The adaptation of William Friedkin’s eponymous book about a demon-possessed child and the attempts to exorcise said demon became the highest-grossing R-rated horror film and the first to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Apart from its critical and commercial success, the film is well-known for the widespread hysteria it sparked across the country, from protests over its contentious topic matter to audience reports of nausea and fainting.
2. THE CONJURING (2013)
James Wan has staked out a place among the modern masters of horror, directing films like Saw, Dead Silence, Insidious, and this inspired-by-true-events chiller based on the experiences of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens, best known for their work on the strange case that inspired the Amityville Horror movies (which played a part in The Conjuring 2), were portrayed by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who grounded the effective jump scares and freak-out moments with a believable world-weariness.
3. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)
While the top four movies on this list collectively garnered 42% of the total votes counted, they were followed by six films that earned around 3% of the vote each. In other words, these last six films were separated by no more than 60 votes. The first of them is this low-budget slasher directed and co-written by Tobe Hooper, very loosely inspired by the crimes of Ed Gein.
4. HALLOWEEN (1978)
Coming in at the seventh spot on our list is the film that introduced the world to all-time scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis and put John Carpenter on the map. Halloween is frequently cited as one of the earliest examples of the slasher genre as we know it today. While it may not feature the same kind of realistic gore we’ve expected of films in that category, it packs a lot of tension and some inventive thrills in a relatively small-scale package.
5. INSIDIOUS (2010)
James Wan has already shown up higher on the list. Still, before he and Patrick Wilson made The Conjuring, they worked together on this supernatural thriller about a young boy who falls into a coma and begins to channel an evil spirit. The story’s bare-bones weren’t the most groundbreaking, but frequent Wan collaborator Leigh Whannell infused it with a compelling enough mythology to spawn three more installments.