The 20 Scariest Horror Movies You’re Watching Right Now
Horror Man 3 dominates the box office, bringing creepy pleasure to audiences who haven’t bothered to watch yet another damn Joker movie. The third film in a low-budget, high-grossing series is supposedly about people running out of theaters—I’m too cheap to ever do that, but I guess you can’t blame a person for not wanting to puke in a room full of people trying to eat popcorn.
Since at least the 1960s, horror filmmakers have gone to great lengths to please and/or queasy audiences, from the more sedate, grotesque pleasures of Hammer horror, to the work of Italian directors like Argento and Bava, to slasher films of all kinds. cases of life. In the 1980s, right into the era of torture porn, there were more than enough audiences for films that impressed in their ability to make us squirm. Sometimes the over-the-top splashes are staged with a sense of mischievous glee, and sometimes they’re designed to make us uncomfortably wonder why we haven’t finished our damp, wet basements. At their best, these films are adrenaline rushes that remind us that we are alive, even as they completely terrify us with the prospect of violent death.
This could include endless torture films, zombie films, jali films, etc., so I tried to limit myself to some of the best examples of each specific subgenre.
Tokyo Blood Police (2008)
( Here’s the trailer , which is age-restricted and only available on YouTube.)
They’re not kidding with that title – and isn’t it nice when a movie tells you what it’s about before the opening credits roll? Director and special effects artist Yoshihiro Nishimura tells the story of a future Japan in which surgically and genetically altered “Engineers” are hunted by a special unit of the Tokyo police who act as judge, jury and executioner for the engineers – and everyone else. criminals who get in their way. Among them is Ruka (Eihi Shiina), who has a very big problem on her shoulder after the murder of her policeman father. This is mostly about the plot, but the execution is completely erratic: disturbingly changed people kill and kill in increasingly grotesque and bloody ways. Limbs are replaced with swords and chainsaws; there’s a woman with an alligator (with a vagina inside) where her legs should be; the erect penis becomes a cannon; the sex worker serves as part-time chairperson and is paid to pee on clients. Did you want body horror? Here you go.
Where to watch: Tubi, Crunchyroll.
Evil Dead: Uprising (2023)
You could probably insert any of the Evil Dead films here, but the most recent one is also one of the very best in the series and proudly boasts the scruffy legacy of early Sam Raimi. The film takes place among a family in a high-rise apartment building surrounded by demon-possessed dead. The film opens with a woman’s scalp being torn off and gets even more impressively gory from there. Much of what happens here is cringe-inducing even on the page: a possessed teenager slowly eats a glass of wine, hoping to kill the insects she believes live inside her; a woman and child nearly drown in an elevator full of blood until the weight of all the liquid causes them to fall; and, most memorably, a cheese grater misused.
Where to watch: Max , Netflix, digital rental.
Ichi the Killer (2001)
Director Takashi Miike makes a lot of films for younger audiences these days, but that’s not where he made his reputation: Cruel Audition probably remains his most famous horror film, at least in the West, but Ichi the Killer inherited his penchant for to nastiness even further. In the process, it almost became the poster child for “Asian Extreme,” a subgenre of extremely intense horror and action films. The film opens with a room covered in blood and guts (the remains of a yakuza boss) and a very disturbed Ichi (Nao Omori) being pursued by a yakuza enforcer (Tadanobu Asano) seeking revenge. The violence is almost cartoonish, but the copious amounts of blood and guts have a visceral impact. One of the more disturbing elements here is Ichi’s tendency to become aroused in the presence of violence, so be aware that there is quite a bit of uncomfortable sexual violence involved.
Where to watch: Peacock , The Criterion Channel, Tubi
Hostel (2005)
“James Wan’s Saw ” and “Eli Roth’s Hostel ” were the two pillars that supported the entire “torture porn” subgenre, which saw more and more characters tied up in filthy basements for extended periods of time. All this got boring pretty quickly, but this is not the fault of either of the progenitors of the genre, and of the two, “Hostel” goes a little further. It also deserves credit for taking its time: the film introduces the ill-fated trio of young travelers to Eastern Europe (this film could not have been good for Slovak tourism) and very gradually builds to an impressively unpleasant climax: we get a beheading, drilled in places that should not be drilled and (ulp) cuts the Achilles tendon. Roth goes a step further than most of these films in cultivating our interest in these characters, making their various travails even more unpalatable.
Where to watch: Starz, digital rental.
Hellraiser (1987)
The film is about a man (Frank, played by Sean Chapman) who has been torn apart by these weird sexy hell priests, and now he wants his girlfriend (Claire Higgins) to bring him a fresh supply of flesh and blood so he can slowly regain his humanity body. It’s all impressively gory, but the moment that always makes me cover my eyes is when Frank’s brother, Larry, gets his hand caught on a nail while moving some furniture. If you’ve seen the movie, you know exactly what I’m talking about: it hurts because it’s so entertaining.
Where to watch: Shudder, Tubi, AMC+, Prime Video.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Nightmare is almost certainly not the worst of Wes Craven’s films, and it deserves special mention for being one of the most impressive fountains of gore this side of The Shining . Poor and simple Glen (Johnny Depp), who was dragged into his own bed for no greater crime than being a teenager and falling asleep. The resulting explosion of blood spatter is one of the most memorable in cinema.
Where to watch: Max , digital rental
Martyrs (2008)
At the peak of the wave of the New French Extremity era, where French horror directors shocked and shocked audiences with downright crazy shit (that’s a compliment). “Martyrs” is one of the most extreme of extremes: a young woman who has been imprisoned and tortured returns to exact brutal revenge on those she accuses, only to involve another woman in her brutal quest. AND THEN we meet a death cult that seeks to unlock the secrets of the afterlife using the most brutal torture imaginable. Come for the revenge, stay for the lasting flaying.
Where to watch: Tubi
Maniac (1980)
This cult classic comes from porn director William Lustig, but boasts some early and very impressive special effects from the great Tom Savini (who also plays the victim). Joe Spinell plays Frank Zito, who kills and then scalps women throughout New York City. The scalping is a highlight(?), as is the death of Savini’s character, who takes a memorably erratic shotgun blast to the face. Some cool/slightly cheesy ending where the character gets torn apart by (possibly) mannequins requires even more work from Savini.
Where to watch: Shudder, Tubi, digital rental.
Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
One of the original horror films found is also one of the most effective and horrifying testaments to the power of suggestion, so visceral that it fooled authorities into thinking the filmmakers had committed an actual murder. After a film crew goes missing while filming a documentary about indigenous cannibal tribes in the Amazon rainforest, an anthropologist sent to look for them only discovers absolutely grisly footage of them. Some saw it as a clever commentary on the horrors of the modern world; others think it’s mostly just disgusting (if that’s what it really is). Keep in mind that some real animals were killed during filming, so unless your taste for gore extends beyond cool effects, you might want to avoid this one.
Where to stream: Peacock
Butcher (2007)
You might like creepy torture horror movies (no judgment), but have you ever wanted to be in one? This South Korean film directed by Kim Jin-won is simple in its plot: a snuff film producer wearing a pig mask tortures victims to death, but less so in its execution. Those undergoing various types of torture wear head-mounted cameras, so everything happens from their point of view, and by extension, yours . It’s a little rough.
Where to watch: Kanopy, Fandango at home
Thanatomorphosis (2012)
Laura (Kayden Rose) is a depressed and withdrawn young woman with an abusive boyfriend, but wait, it only gets worse. She wakes up in the middle of the night and discovers a strange spot in her groin. And then one of her nails falls off – did I mention it’s body horror? Laura begins to literally decompose, following the various stages of decay of the human body while she is still alive and conscious. It’s extremely visceral, but the film has greater ambitions than just making us sick; Rose’s impressive performance makes it clear that we’re watching a film about psychological trauma through an extremely gruesome metaphor for body horror.
Where to watch: Tubi
The Human Centipede 2 (Complete Part) (2011)
Writer-director Tom Six’s first film , The Human Centipede, about a German surgeon who unites unsuspecting tourists by sewing one’s mouth to another’s ass, was a strange shocker that didn’t make much money but still earned a brief place in the zeitgeist. for anyone who has the stomach to talk about it. As is usually the case, the sequel (about a wannabe seamstress) had to up the ante to justify its existence—and if you start with a premise about people pooping in other people’s mouths, that’s a question. It’s completely meta: a man obsessed with the first film decided to create his own 12-person centipede, including actress Ashlynn Yennie from the previous film. By all accounts, this is the best (grossest) of the trilogy.
Where to watch: AMC+, digital rental.
Necromantic (1987)
What is a little necrophilia when the two people involved actually love each other? West German director Jörg Butgereit’s film is almost pure shock, featuring endlessly gross (if inventive) scenes of splatter and sex with corpses. It starts with a threesome between a man, his girlfriend and a corpse he found on the street, and then gets more overtly murderous. It’s a wild subject, but the gory footage is shot in a soft-porn style, which makes the whole thing even more impressively sleazy.
Where to watch: Shudder, AMC+.
Raw (2016)
A vegetarian veterinary student develops a taste for meat. Lots of meat. All the time. In many ways it is human. Human cannibalism is alarming, but hardly unheard of. Raw takes the graphical steps a few more steps further, making even the most jaded viewers feel queasy, though it’s also a coming-of-age story. Its director, Julia Ducournau, who went on to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes for The Titan , seems destined to make the Fucked-Up Films film a classic.
Where to watch: Digital rental via AppleTV
Opera (1987)
Director Dario Argento had already made a career out of shocking audiences when Opera came out, but here he goes as far as he’s ever gone, or perhaps ever will go. A game of cat and mouse set in the opera house of the title during a production of the avant-garde Macbeth (shades of The Phantom of the Opera ). In the film, Betty (Christina Marcillah) is pursued by a mysterious man from her past. and one who is determined to subject Betty to maximum psychological torture before he gets what he wants. It is built throughout, but at the same time includes some of the most gruesome images in the master’s work; The most memorable image here is of Betty, with razor blades taped under her eyelids to prevent her from blinking, and forced to watch a murder.
Where to watch: Shudder, Tubi
Inside (2007)
Another New French Extremity classic (well, it was new in 2007), Inside shocked audiences but performed surprisingly well with critics, who couldn’t help but be impressed by the film’s visceral charm and the performances of leads Béatrice Dalle and Alisson Paradis . On the verge of giving birth, Sarah is visited by a mysterious woman who has been stalking her and soon makes it clear that she is here for the sake of the child. And she has scissors handy to make sure she gets it done. It so happens that the woman (as she is called) has a good reason to lay claim to Sarah’s child – at least in her own mind. Stick around for the absolutely insane final act.
Where to watch: Tubi, digital rental.
Dead Alive (1992)
Peter Jackson’s Early Zombie Fest (aka Braindead ) is, simply put, a gory fun ride at the movies. Lionel loves his rather difficult mother Vera, even after she is bitten by a rat-monkey hybrid creature and slowly turns into an undead creature infecting people all over South Wellington. It’s a hell of a good time, if your idea of a good time involves endless buckets of blood and guts being hurled at the screen with complete nonchalance.
Where to watch: digital rental
Beyond (1981)
Often, excessive blood becomes cartoonish and easier to digest. Lucio Fulci, on the other hand, pushes the envelope but never winks at the audience, resulting in a heartbreaking work of art about a woman who inherits a hotel in rural Louisiana that contains an unopened gateway to Hell. There’s a theme of blindness, and characters lose their sight in a variety of ways: sometimes with acid, sometimes by being gouged out, and once with a nail driven through the head so brutally that an eye just pops out. . Dogs eat meat, like tarantulas, and zombies are shot and killed endlessly. This is a terrible triumph for the giallo master Fulci.
Where to watch: Peacock , Tubi, digital rental.
Day of the Dead (1985)
When George Romero and effects master Tom Savini join forces, they are unstoppable. The third of Romero’s zombie films, Day of the Dead is both an underrated classic that has as much plot and biting social commentary as ever, as well as one of the most brutal human zombie action films you’ll find this side of hell.
Where to watch: Shudder, Peacock , The Criterion Channel, Tubi, digital rental
Street Trash (1987)
A cult film that may be intended as social commentary, but for the most part is simply an awesome time. Street Trash is directed by James Cameron protégé J. Michael Muro. It follows a Brooklyn bodega that begins selling expired booze found in the basement. Not good! Anyone who drinks an outdated liquor melts in increasingly graphic ways (The Melting Movie was a small but venerable subgenre of ’80s horror). Come for the dissolving people, stay for the dismembered genitalia games that make up several scenes throughout the film.
Where to watch: Tubi, AMC+