Top 10 scariest horror movies revealed ahead of Halloween
With Halloween this Saturday, the entertainment experts at playcasino.com have identified the scariest movies for the season. The site examined 98 highly rated horror films and ranked them by the percentage of IMDb users who described their frightening and intense scenes as severe.
Hereditary from 2018 leads the list. Ari Aster's family nightmare set in Utah earned severe ratings from 89.8 percent of 994 voters on its intense scenes. Spanish found-footage film REC from 2007 follows at 89.7 percent, and French horror Martyrs from 2008 ranks third at 89.4 percent.
The full ranking of the ten scariest films places Hereditary from 2018 first with 89.8 percent, followed closely by the Spanish found-footage entry REC from 2007 at 89.7 percent and the French Martyrs from 2008 at 89.4 percent. Four titles among the leaders originate from the United States. Bring Her Back, the 2025 release from Danny and Michael Philippou who previously directed Talk to Me, arrives in fourth position with 87.7 percent as the most recent production. The Descent from 2005 takes fifth at 87.3 percent. Bone Tomahawk, Kurt Russell's 2015 American western, and The Mist from 2007, based on a Stephen King tale set in small-town Maine, tie at 87.2 percent for sixth and seventh. The Conjuring 2 from 2016 is eighth with 87.0 percent. Ninth place goes to Funny Games from 1997 scoring 86.7 percent, while Audition from 1999 rounds out the list at 86.6 percent.
Several well-known horror classics rank lower. The Exorcist from 1973 is 18th at 84.3 percent, and The Shining from 1980 sits 26th with 81.5 percent. John Carpenter's Halloween from 1978 is 74th at 54.6 percent, while Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho from 1960 is 82nd with 45.5 percent.
Army of Darkness from 1992 is the least frightening in the study at 2.8 percent severe. Other milder choices include The Rocky Horror Picture Show at 8.6 percent, The Lost Boys at 12.0 percent and Gremlins at 16.8 percent. The playcasino.com experts stated that Hereditary really gets under people's skin, with nearly nine in ten viewers rating its frightening scenes severe. They noted that newer films like Hereditary and Bring Her Back go all out to shock while older ones build scares more slowly, and recommended horror comedies such as Zombieland or Gremlins for a gentler night.
The figures were calculated by analyzing IMDb Parents Guide ratings for horror feature films with at least 50,000 user ratings. For each title the share of votes rating Frightening and Intense Scenes as severe was determined. Films required at least 100 such votes and an IMDb score of 7.0 or higher, leaving 98 movies. The votes were collected on September 30, 2026.
