The Best Horror Movie of Every Decade in the Last Century

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The Shining

Horror hounds have had plenty to chew on in 2024, with the best horror films of the year featuring everything from killer spiders to ballerina vampires. The year also saw films that paid homage to different horror eras, from 1920s German Expressionism to '90s serial killer cinema. It's illustrative of not only the flexibility of the horror genre as a whole but also of how many different kinds of horror movies have infiltrated cinemas since the genre began in earnest.

Every decade has seen a variety of horror trends taking hold, with the best horror films from those decades either the progenitor of the trend or the exception to it. Slashers, cannibals, and supercharged zombies all feature prominently in the finest offerings horror has had to offer over the past eight decades. These are the best horror movies of every decade since the 1930s, illustrating the evolution of one of cinema's greatest genres and explaining why it remains a favorite of critics and audiences.

1 1930s: 'Bride of Frankenstein' (1935)

Directed by James Whale

Frankenstein's Monster looks at his bride, and she looks off camera with a confused look on her face in The Bride of Frankenstein.

While Boris Karloff's iconic take on Mary Shelley's reanimated corpse first debuted in his blazer in 1931's classic Frankenstein, it's the 1935 sequel Bride of Frankenstein that has been rightfully hailed as director James Whale's true masterpiece. Karloff returns to the role of the monster, having survived his fiery grave from the first film's climax and is now joined by Elsa Lanchester as his undead mate, with a makeup design that's equally iconic.

Even though the film negates the original's powerful ending of creator and creation dying together, it makes it worthwhile by crafting an even more tragic relationship. Mixing science fiction, horror, and Gothic romance, Bride of Frankenstein is rife with themes of loneliness, otherness, and the perils of ultimate power. With gorgeous black-and-white cinematography and visual effects that are surprisingly less dated than some more modern films, the film has more than earned its status as one of the pillars of the horror genre. Many different iterations of the Frankenstein characters have graced screens since, with two new versions on the way from both Guillermo Del Toro and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Release Date April 20, 1935

Cast Boris Karloff , Colin Clive , Valerie Hobson , Ernest Thesiger , Elsa Lanchester , Gavin Gordon

Writers Mary Shelley , William Hurlbut , John L. Balderston , Josef Berne , Lawrence G. Blochman , Robert Florey

2 1940s: 'Cat People' (1942)

Directed by Jacques Turner

Black and white still of a woman on the phone in Cat People

The '40s saw Universal franchise the hell out of its monster lineup, bringing Lon Chaney Jr. into the fold as The Wolf Man and multiple sequels released for Frankenstein and Dracula. To combat this genre dominance, RKO decided to begin a new series of horror films, with producer Val Lewton chosen to spearhead the effort. The first film produced under this arrangement was the supernatural horror Cat People.

A more subdued in its approach to horror, Cat People relies more on its fog-filled atmosphere to slowly build suspense. The plot, which follows an immigrant woman with a certain violent feline heritage, challenges horror narratives with its feminist themes. Cat People also holds the distinction of inventing the jump scare, now a common horror device. It also inspired an unhinged, drug-fueled remake that has amassed a cult following, but the original is still the finest example of horror to come out of its decade.

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3 1950s: 'Diabolique' (1955)

Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot

Christina looking terrified against a wall in Diabolique

Gothic horror fell out of fashion in the U.S. during the '50s, with audiences becoming more interested in monsters from science fiction, as in The Thing from Another World or Invasion of the Body Snatchers. England picked up the slack as Hammer Films released their bloody versions of classic monsters such as Frankenstein and Dracula, while other, more human antagonists began to feature in some of the most influential horror releases. The Night of the Hunter was misunderstood at the time but is now regarded as a Southern Gothic masterpiece, while in France, an equally influential thriller was crafted in Les Diaboliques, known in the U.S. as Diabolique.

A psychological horror film of the highest order, director Henri-Georges Clouzot wrings as much tension out of this boarding school set tale of two women plotting to murder the adulterous headmaster as he did with nitro-filled trucks in The Wages of Fear, one of the tensest films ever made. Diabolique has inspired countless imitators in the horror genre, including a couple of lesser remakes, helping it hold its crown as the best horror film of the '50s.

Release Date January 29, 1955

Cast Véra Clouzot , Simone Signoret , Paul Meurisse , Charles Vanel , Jean Brochard

Runtime 117 Minutes

Writers Henri-Georges Clouzot , Jérôme Géronimi

4 1960s: 'Psycho' (1960)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

The silhouette of the killer raises a knife in the shower scene in 'Psycho'

The '60s was a decade of radical upheaval, and that was certainly true for the horror genre. Rosemary's Baby brought devil worship into the modern world, while George A. Romero invented the modern cinematic zombie in Night of the Living Dead. The decade kicked off with legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock planting the seeds for decades worth of knife-wielding killers in his essential horror film Psycho.

When Janet Leigh's Marion Crane first checked in to the Bates Motel and decided to take a shower, audiences had no idea they were about to witness horror history and be introduced to one of the most benignly sinister villains in Anthony Perkins' Norman Bates. Long gone were the cape-wearing monsters of folklore and black-eyed beasts from outer space, now replaced with a killer that looked and sounded like the boy next door. Along with Michael Powell's lesser-known Peeping Tom, which was released just a few months earlier, Hitchcock's classic was a foundational film for the slasher genre. Psycho helped define the horror landscape of the '60s and for many decades since.

Psycho

Release Date September 8, 1960

Cast Janet Leigh , Martin Balsam , Anthony Perkins , John Gavin , Vera Miles

Runtime 109 minutes

Writers Joseph Stefano , Robert Bloch

5 1970s: 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' (1974)

Directed by Tobe Hooper

Leatherface holds a chainsaw in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).

The '70s was a golden age of classic horror. Hollywood studios amped up the terror to match the cynicism audiences felt in the wake of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal with unyielding films like The Exorcist and Alien, and Steven Spielberg changed cinema with Jaws, the first summer blockbuster. Yey, none of those studio efforts can quite compete with the visceral horror of Tobe Hooper's gnarly, nasty indie terrifier, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Despite its title implying otherwise and critics lambasting it for it, the film is far less gory than many may remember. It isn't bloodless, but by the standards of modern horror and even the sequels that would follow, the original massacre is far more restrained and uses atmosphere and the audiences' imagination to fill in the gruesome blanks. Hooper's sweat-drenched classic still manages to be one of the most intense horror viewing experiences without resorting to buckets of blood. The simple premise of Texas teens who get far more than they bargained for when visiting a rural farmhouse scared a generation of city-dwellers from ever taking road trips, and more than fifty years on, this trailblazing film still cuts deep.

Release Date October 11, 1974

Cast Marilyn Burns , Allen Danziger , Paul A. Partain , William Vail , Teri McMinn , Edwin Neal

Runtime 83 minutes

6 1980s: 'The Shining' (1980)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Jack Torrance standing outside in the cold and staring menacingly into the camera in The Shining

When Stanley Kubrick's landmark adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel The Shining first premiered in the summer of 1980, critics were mixed to downright negative in their opinions of the film, and King himself famously disliked it as well. The film, much like the haunted Overlook Hotel itself, has ever since lingered in the nightmares of audiences, growing into one of the most monstrous masterpieces of the horror genre.

King's personal story of a writer and father struggling with alcoholism as he and his wife and son act as winter caretakers for the remote Overlook Hotel was transformed into a surreal, slow-burn haunter filled with ambiguity that has fueled several dozen different interpretations by film scholars. The iconic production design, cinematography, and score all work in perfect, horrific harmony. The Shining doesn't so much scare audiences but instead sneaks up on their sense of security and swings an ax into its heart.

Release Date May 23, 1980

Cast Jack Nicholson , Shelley Duvall , Danny Lloyd , Scatman Crothers , Barry Nelson , Philip Stone

Runtime 146 minutes

7 1990s: 'The Silence of the Lambs' (1991)

Directed by Jonathan Demme

Hannibal Lecter in his muzzle looking intently ahead in The Silence of the Lambs - 1991

The '90s were a transitional time for horror. The big bad slasher icons of the '80s had faded from popularity, only to be reinvigorated by Wes Craven's postmodern Scream. Supernatural threats would also take a backseat for most of the decade until J-horror films like Ringu and M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense brought them back. Audiences had become more well-versed in the profiles of real-life serial killers and needed movie monsters that matched the methodology. Luckily, they were provided with two of the most iconic in film history, David Fincher's Seven and Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs.

Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the fictional cannibal created by author Thomas Harris, had actually been introduced years earlier in Michael Mann's Manhunter, based on Harris' novel Red Dragon, which featured Brian Cox as the intellectual serial killer with cool detachment. That film would eventually gain a cult following but, at the time, was a failure, leaving the door open for Demme and Anthony Hopkins to give the character one of the best villain introductions in movie history. Though Hopkins is only featured on screen for less than a quarter of the film's runtime, that didn't stop his performance from becoming iconic, earning him an Academy Award to go along with the four others the film won for Best Picture, Director, Actress, and Screenplay. The Silence of the Lambs has courted acclaim since its release and remains a feast for horror fans.

The Silence of the Lambs

Release Date February 14, 1991

Runtime 118 Minutes

Writers Thomas Harris , Ted Tally

8 2000s: '28 Days Later' (2002)

Directed by Danny Boyle

In the aftermath of 9/11, horror films had their work cut out for them. Audiences in America and beyond were facing a darker world than they had ever contemplated, and the slow, lumbering horror villains of old just wouldn't cut it in the scare department anymore. Enter director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, who would inject pure adrenaline into the genre with 28 Days Later. It's set in England after a viral epidemic has left the majority of the population either dead or, worse, as rage-filled murder monsters.

Though technically not about zombies, 28 Days Later shares many of the tropes of the genre and is considered one of the most perfect zombie movies. The film also introduced Cillian Murphy to the world at large as a survivor who awakes in a hospital to find the world gone to hell. Shot on digital video cameras, the visuals have a grainy, visceral quality that remains unique to this day. Boyle and Garland would go on to have many more successes in their respective careers, but now are poised to return to the world of the infected with a belated sequel 28 Years Later, hoping to recapture some of the intense magic that made the original so memorable.

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9 2010s: 'Hereditary' (2018)

Directed by Ari Aster

Milly Shapiro as Charlie Graham staring into the camera in "Hereditary"

The 2010s saw the rise of so-called elevated horror movies. These are films that deal with deeper themes, often related to some form of trauma, through monsters and other tropes of the genre. The Babadook dealt with grief and depression, The Witch focused on fanaticism and female pubescence, and Get Out deconstructed white liberal racism. And then there's Hereditary, Ari Aster's directorial debut about motherhood, the occult, and familial trauma.

Toni Collette delivers a haunting performance as the matriarch of a dysfunctional family torn apart by tragedy that is teased out in the plot to have much deeper and sinister machinations behind it. In a sane world where awards groups don't ignore horror films, Collette would've been thanking the Academy for bestowing her with a gold statue. Her gut-wrenching portrayal of a mother in the throes of grief anchors what is a harrowing, dark and sometimes darkly comic horror viewing experience.

Release Date June 8, 2018

Runtime 2h 7m

10 2020s: 'Talk to Me' (2022)

Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou

Sophie Wilde with mouth open and pitch black eyes while being possessed by a spirt in Talk to Me.

The current decade is almost half over but has provided numerous chilling horror films that could rightfully vie for best of the decade. Ti West's horror X trilogy was an unexpected hit critically and commercially; Jordan Peele continued to craft original horror mythologies with his spectacular Nope, and When Evil Lurks is gleefully mean-spirited. One that took everyone by surprise was Talk to Me, the debut film from Australian YouTubers and brothers Danny and Michael Philippou.

What looks on the surface to be another standard horror movie about teens being stalked by supernatural forces is instead a dark, twisted thrill ride about the perils of grief and letting the dead take control. Sophie Wilde gives a terrifically grounded performance that makes the latter sections of the film, where the lines between the land of the living and the dead are double dutch-ing over each other, even more impactful. The directors' use of practical effects and clever cinematography also keeps the audience on the edge with the characters as reality slips away. Talk to Me is one of several horror films to come from a new generation of filmmakers and is hopefully a herald of even greater films to come in the decades to follow.