Revealed: The top 10 scariest horror films of all time to watch for Halloween (but Gen Z are too scared to watch!)

Spooky season is upon us and, while this time of year is perfect to rewatch your favourite horror films, new research has found Generation Z has a pronounced distaste for the genre.

A study showed that over three-quarters of Gen Z, those born between the late nineties and early 2010s, don't like horror movies.

Additionally, almost 50 per cent of them admitted they were too scared to watch these films.

Their preferences are in stark contrast to Britons over the age of 40, who are the biggest horror fans in the country.

A study of 2,000 film lovers from research agency Perspectus Global revealed the 10 best-loved horror movies over the years, with a Seventies genre-classic bagging the top spot.

If you find yourself in the horror-loving majority, FEMAIL has put together the ultimate list of movies to bookmark for a very scary weekend of binge-watching - ranked from ones to get your spine tingling, to the most freakish films of all.

10. The Ring

The 2002 film The Ring is ranked 10th on the list of Britain's best-loved horror movies, receiving 12 per cent of viewers' votes.

It stars Naomi Watts as journalist Rachel Keller, who discovers a cursed videotape that ends up killing anyone who watches it within seven days. 

The image of dead girl Samara crawling out of a TV set remains deeply ingrained in pop culture, over two decades after The Ring - directed by Gore Verbinski - was released.

The supernatural horror flick is a remake of the 1998 Japanese film Rings, created by Hideo Nakata. It was based on Koji Suzuki's eponymously titled 1991 novel.

Earlier this year, Britney Spears spooked and delighted fans in equal measure, when she posted the contents of the cursed video tape in The Ring as a Reel on her Instagram profile.

Addressing her 42 million followers, the Oops I Did It Again singer captioned the post: 'Does anybody remember this movie where they hold this little girl captive too long and she finally comes out of the TV walking on her hands and knees and destroyed half the nation?'

'Y'all stay cozy! You guys have nothing to worry about at all! Love y'all!'

Spears' post drew strong reactions from her fans, some of whom quipped the singer had 'cursed' 42 million people by making them watch the doomed videotape.

'Imagine if we all die in seven days because Britney Spears posted The Ring video on her Instagram,' one comment read.

“Britney Spears just lobbed The Ring video onto the timeline and I’m obsessed,' another person added. 'Imagine she just casually cursed 42.2 million people with one post? Mother Mayhem.'

9. The Sixth Sense (1999)

M Night Shyamalan's psychological thriller also received 12 per cent votes, with The Sixth Sense breaking into the top 10 list of scariest movies ever made.

The Oscar-nominated film, which was released 25 years ago, followed compassionate child psychologist Dr Malcolm Crowe (played by Bruce Willis) whose patient Haley Joel Osment’s Cole can 'see dead people'.

While some have argued The Sixth Sense doesn't technically qualify as a horror movie, with Shyamalan's masterpiece distinctly lacking the jump scares and gore that define the genre, it delivers an overwhelming feeling of dread that stays with viewers long after the credits have rolled.

The Sixth Sense is also notably one of only six critically-acclaimed creepy films to have ever been nominated for an Oscar, including The Exorcist, Jaws, Silence of the Lambs, Get Out, and Black Swan.

8. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

A sizeable 15 per cent of survey repondents picked The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which was released 50 years ago this October, as the horror movie that most freaked them out.

And for good reason; the film's chainsaw wielding psychopathic killer Leatherface, played by Icelandic-born actor Gunnar Hansen, is truly the stuff of nightmares.

The scrappy indie film follows a group of friends who travel to rural Texas and find a remote house, not realising it's the property of a family of frenzied killers including Leatherface.

The New York Times celebrated the late director Tobe Hooper's most influential work, describing The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as 'a formally exquisite art film, packed full of gorgeously nightmarish images as poetic as they are deranged’.

One such visual that remains impossible to shake - even five decades after the controversial movie was released - is Leatherface torturing teenager Sally Hardesty (played by Marilyn Burns) at his maniacal family's dinner table.

No wonder The Texas Chain Saw Massacre continues to rank among the most terrifying movies ever made, 50 years after Hansen's Leatherface became one of the genre's most recognisable mascots.

7. Saw (2004)

The movie that spawned one of the most successful horror franchises in history, Saw tells the story of serial killer John 'Jigsaw' Kramer who tests his victims will to live by entrapping them in deadly 'games' that often involve terrible self-harm.

In the first instalment, two of the Jigsaw Killer's victims wake up to find themselves in a dilapidated bathroom - on opposite sides of a dead body - with instructions on how to kill each other or face his murderous consequences.

The latest edition of the franchise, Saw X, was released last September and left horror fans cowering in fear over the extreme levels of violence and gore depicted on-screen.

Some moviegoers also shared examples of the Jigsaw Killer's (played by veteran actor Tobin Bell) goriest traps on X, including a clip that features a man who had to saw into the top off his head.

Directed by Australian filmmaker James Wan, Saw became one of the most profitable horror movies when it was released, earning over $100 million at the box office in 2004.

Two decades later, the Jigsaw Killer continues to draw horror fanatics to movie theatres in droves, with an 11th franchise film currently in the works.

6. Scream (1996)

Another successful franchise was created in 1996, when Wes Craven’s slasher film Scream was released. In 2024, it continues to be one of the most popular horror movies ever made, earning 17 per cent of the votes cast.

The film is set in the fictional American town of Woodsboro, California, and follows high school teenager Sidney Prescott who, on the anniversary of her mother’s brutal rape and murder, becomes the target of a serial killer known as Ghostface.

On a Reddit channel dedicated to Craven’s film, users weighed in on which of Ghostface’s killings was the most brutal, with the original query receiving nearly 300 responses.

Most Redditors picked Sidney’s classmate (and Scream’s false protagonist) Casey Becker’s demise as the goriest, with one person writing: ‘It's the little details like the sound of her gasping for air and trying to call out that still makes it hard to sit through.

‘Other deaths have been bigger and gorier but they don't hit the same way.’

The original film has turned into a six-part franchise, with the most recent edition being released last year.

5. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Receiving nearly a quarter of the votes cast, Eighties hit A Nightmare on Elm Street comes in at No. 5.

Another supernatural slasher hit from Craven, it is the first in a franchise series and stars Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Johnny Depp (in his debut) and Robert Englund as the film’s terrifying antagonist Freddy Krueger.

In it, the undead knife-wielding murderer Krueger murders children in their sleep as revenge against their parents who burned him alive.

The film is so brutal that when the British Board of Film Certification decided to reclassify A Nightmare on Elm Street as being suitable for younger children, Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes said the decision was akin to ‘child abuse’.

Oscar-winner Mr Fellowes said: 'I should have thought that showing A Nightmare On Elm Street to a 15-year-old constituted child abuse. I can't help feeling that these people should get out more’

4. The Shining (1980)

Next in the horror Hall of Fame is The Shining, the psychological thriller based on Stephen King’s bestselling novel. One of Jack Nicholson’s most famous roles saw him play recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance, whose decision to take a job as winter caretaker for a haunted resortl becomes his unraveling.

The film starred the late legendary Hollywood actress Shelley Duval as Nicholson’s on-screen wife and Danny Lloyd as the couple’s clairvoyant son.

Since its release, the movie has been watched by millions across the globe, with 22 per cent of surveyed Brits picking The Shining as their favourite horror film. 

Even if you haven’t seen the movie, chances are you’ve encountered The Shining’s famous ‘Here’s Johnny’ scene that, in of itself, is rather terrifying.

In fact, in 2013, Japanese-owned website Rakuten's Play.com asked people to vote on which horror films they considered to be the most terrifying. They then wired a selection of viewers up to heart monitors and tracked changes in their pulse to determine exactly which of the top movie moments got their hearts racing the most.

The winner was the iconic 'Here's Johnny' clip from The Shining which increased pulse rates by nearly 30 per cent.

3. Psycho (1960)

One of Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous movies, Psycho follows Marion Crane, a woman who steals a large sum of money from her boss and seeks refuge at the remote Bates Motel, run by the mysterious Norman Bates.

After Marion vanishes, her family and a detective start to investigate, uncovering unsettling truths about Norman and the motel.

Over six decades after it was released, horror enthusiasts are hard-pressed to find a better embodiment of the genre - with nearly a quarter of Brits picking Hitchcock's Psycho as their favourite film. 

Oddly enough, the veteran filmmaker revealed he was 'horrified' when moviegoers took his subversive 1960 classic seriously.

In a 1964 sit-down uncovered in the BBC archives, the director says he intended the film to be a dark comedy made 'rather tongue-and-cheek', comparing the experience of watching Psycho to 'screaming and yelling' on a rollercoaster. 

Speaking on English television show Monitor, Hitchcock recalled: 'I once made a movie, rather tongue-in-cheek, called Psycho.

'The content was, I felt, rather amusing and it was a big joke. I was horrified to find some people took it seriously.

'It was intended to make people scream and yell and so forth – but no more than screaming and yelling on a switchback railway (rollercoaster). 

'I'm possibly in some respects the man who says in constructing it, "How steep can we make the first dip?"

'If you make the dip too deep, the screams will continue as the car goes over the edge and destroys everyone.

'Therefore you mustn't go too far because you do want them to get off the switchback railway, giggling with pleasure.'

2. Halloween (1978)

Brits ranked Seventies slasher Halloween at the second position, with 24 per cent of people picking the movie as the scariest thing they’ve watched.

It follows mental patient Michael Myers (Donald Pleasence) who murdered his teenage sister one Halloween night. Fifteen years later, he escapes and returns to his hometown, where he stalks teenage Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends.

A fan of the franchise series posted a clip of the audience reaction to watching Halloween at a 1979 screening on Reddit thread Obscure Media, with people in the theatre screaming and gasping at the sight of Myers. 

One person commented under the video: 'This almost makes me want to cry. Halloween has been my favorite movie for as long as I can remember. 

'I finally got to see it in theaters on Halloween a few years ago and people were laughing through all of the scary parts. It was infuriating. 

'Literally every time Michael would appear on screen the crowd would erupt in laughter. I was so frustrated and depressed and it sucks because I would love to see it in a theater with an audience taking it seriously, but I don't know if that's possible these days.'

 1. The Exorcist (1973) 

Brits decided The Exorcist was the greatest of all time, with William Friedkin's film receiving over a third of their votes. 

In the 1973 film, Ellen Burstyn's character enlisted the help of two priests – played by Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller – to exorcise a demon, named Pazuzu, from her daughter. 

When it was initially released, The Exorcist's graphic scenes led to many viewers fainting. 

Some cinemas in the United States reportedly had ambulances on call because moviegoers at screenings of The Exorcist were constantly collapsing and throwing up. 

The Exorcist was also banned in some parts of the UK and the film was not distributed on video until 1999 - over 20 years after it was released - to keep it out of the hands of children. 

The horror film is also renowened for being one of the most tragedy-stricken movies of all times - with everything from fires on set and deaths during filming contributing to the myth of a curse.  

Based on a book of the same name by William Peter Blatty – who adapted it for screen himself – the film was beset by problems during production.

An unexplained fire at one point burnt down most of the set — delaying filming by six weeks — but curiously spared the bedroom where Blair's character, Regan, endures her demonic possession.

Meanwhile both Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn suffered painful back injuries during filming. Their real screams of pain can be heard in the film.

Linda reportedly developed a long term spinal injury after landing on her coccyx.

In addition to the many controversies that have plagued The Exorcist, some claim a series of fatal events associated with the film's cast amounts to a 'curse'.

Actors Vasiliki Maliaros and Jack MacGowran, whose characters perish or are already dead in the film, died in real life during the post-production stage.

Seven others associated with the cast and crew - including close family members of the stars - died of natural or unexplained causes before the film's release.

Linda's grandfather died during the first week of production.

Others, such as Lee J. Cobb, who played a police detective, passed away within a few years of the film's release.