The 50 best scary movies of all time, ranked by critics

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 91%

Equal parts stylish and terrifying, this 1993 films focuses on a mysterious device that grants the user eternal life. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 91%

'80s aesthetics and lots of gore feature prominently in this campy horror classic. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 92%

"Shaun of the Dead" follows an ordinary man in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, and doesn't hesitate to poke fun at horror tropes. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 91% 

In "Gerald's Game," a woman trapped in bed after a sex game gone wrong starts to hallucinate, encountering people who may or may not be real. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 92%

After they become lost in the wilderness, things take a terrifying turn for the inexperienced lovebirds. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 92%

Smart, stylish, and hilarious all at once, "The Devil's Candy" focuses on a painter and his family, who move into a haunted house. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 92% 

Increasingly bizarre yet surprisingly down-to-earth, "The Endless" focuses on two brothers, who escaped a deadly cult. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 92%

Two sisters' decaying relationship is the focus of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 92%

Jeff Goldblum is the victim of an insect experiment gone terribly, terribly wrong in "The Fly." 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 92% 

An old woman evicted from her home makes the loan officer's life a living hell in "Drag Me to Hell." 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 92% 

A bloodthirsty deity, horny teenagers, and a young Chris Hemsworth are all featured in "Cabin in the Woods," which follows a group of friends as they struggle to survive terrifying attacks. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 93%

Combining elements of slasher films with the terrors of home invasion, "Hush" is thrilling from start to finish. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 93%

A successful cam-girl's online identity slowly takes over the rest of her life in this psychological thriller. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 93%

This horror classic follows survivors of a zombie outbreak as they shelter in a shopping mall. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 93%

Based on an HP Lovecraft story, this horror film follows a medical student, who's discovered how to re-animate bodies. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 93% 

A vicious river monster threatens a South Korean community in "The Host." 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 93%

A young American dancer gets more than she bargained for after she joins a German ballet school plagued by murders in "Suspiria." 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 93% 

Aliens invade a small town and slowly begin to replace all of the residents in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 93%

A quiet young girl named Carrie uses her latent telekinetic powers for evil in this heartbreaking horror film. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 93% 

In "Us," a woman (Lupita Nyong'o) with past trauma is on vacation with her family when their doppelgängers show up and begin killing people. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 94%

Murdered by a vindictive group of parents, the ghost of child killer Freddy Kruger returns via dreams to kill again in "A Nightmare on Elm Street." 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 94%

This Korean zombie thriller follows a father and his young daughter as they try to fight off the undead on a high-speed train. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 94% 

Deborah Kerr stars in this spooky British ghost story that's based on Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw." 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 94% 

Set in Venice, "Don't Look Now" follows two parents who befriend an elderly pair of psychic sisters — one of whom might have a warning from the parents' recently-deceased daughter. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 95%

Vengeful spirits, grieving parents, and some seriously sinister undertakers are the focus of "We Are Still Here." 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 95%

A dangerously cunning but lonely witch tries to find true love in this campy, Technicolor film. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 95%

The sole survivor of the original "Evil Dead," Ash returns to a cabin in the woods in this gory follow-up. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 95% 

Things go terribly awry for a group of friends alone in the woods after they summon bloodthirsty demons in "Evil Dead." 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 95% 

While the 1986 version with Jeff Goldblum is more well-known, the original also follows a scientist, who slowly morphs into a giant housefly. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 95%

A vengeful wax museum owner terrorizes a town after his collection is burned to the ground — with him inside. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 95%

Tippi Hedren fends off killer birds in "The Birds," another horror staple by Alfred Hitchcock. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 95%

This surreal film follows Ofelia, an isolated young girl who finds solace amongst forest monsters during the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 95%

Polanski's movie follows a repressed young woman who's tormented by images of violent sexual assault after her sister starts dating a new man. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 95% 

After an unprotected sexual encounter, a young woman is haunted by an eerie spirit, who will only leave her alone if she has unprotected sex with someone else. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 96% 

This Iranian horror movie follows a lonely, skateboarding vampire in the fictional Bad City. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 96% 

Cults and devil-worship abound in "Rosemary's Baby," which follows a young, pregnant mother as she grows more and more paranoid about the wellbeing of her baby. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 96%

A deranged and violent young man escapes from a mental hospital and returns to his hometown to wreak havoc on unsuspecting, horny teenagers in this horror classic. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 96% 

Anthony Hopkins stars as a cannibalistic but cultured murderer in this quintessential horror film. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 96% 

Alfred Hitchock's horror classic focuses on a young professional on the lam who winds up in a motel run by a very disturbed mama's boy. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 96% 

John Krasinski's horror masterpiece focuses on the Abbott family as they attempt to survive in a world overrun with monsters who hunt by sound. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 97%

In "Harpoon," three friends stuck on a boat in the middle of the ocean struggle to overcome underlying tensions and hidden dangers. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 97% 

This follow-up to the 1980s sci-fi hit follows Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) as she's rescued in deep space — only to find that her run-ins with the titular alien might not be over after all. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 97% 

Zombies roam the east coast and the uninfected are left to fend for themselves in George Romero's horror classic. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 98%

Focusing on a desolate Hungarian town and a mysterious circus that arrives one night, "Werckmeister Harmonies" was first released in 2000. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 98% 

Combining elements of teen scream films with twisted body horror, "The Loved Ones" follows a teenager, who kidnaps her prom date and tortures him. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 98% 

After his girlfriend goes missing on a roadtrip, Rex searches for her obsessively, eventually coming to some very terrifying conclusions. 

Rotten tomatoes critic score: 98% 

First released in the early '60s, this horror film follows Dr. Génessier as he attempts to find a new face for his daughter Christiane — with disastrous results. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 98% 

This heartwarming yet terrifying Swedish film follows a young, socially-awkward boy named Oskar as he befriends a mysterious girl with a terrible secret. 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 98% 

After the death of her husband, an overworked and exhausted single mother struggles to keep it together after she and her young child begin to be tormented by a mysterious entity called "The Babadook." 

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 98% 

Timely, thrilling, and unforgettable, "Get Out" follows a young Black man (Daniel Kaluuya) as he visits his white girlfriend's family for the first time, only to become entrenched in a trippy and violent experiment.