Shivers and goose bumps give us all a bit of a thrill, and so I decided to find the movie most likely to make me jump or embarrass myself by screaming like a girl in a crowded theater. Choices for top horror films range from the classics – complete with cardboard sets and dazzling clay-animation special effects – to the more common version of horror with gratuitous gore and occasional nudity.

So which are the best? Sorting through the genre became tricky as so many movies seem to overlap into horror from other categories. For the sake of my sanity I decided to look specifically at movies intended to frighten the audience rather than offer deep-seated theological discussion or heavy plot dissimilation. Basically, I picked the kinds of movies you watch anticipating at least one popcorn choking incident and more than a few jumps and eye-hiding episodes in the theater.

What I Found

As horror is not a category often noted by the Academy (with some very notable exceptions) I didn’t spend a great deal of time debating character development or interpersonal communications on the screen. We ranked the movies based on;

• Amount of gore,
• Quality of the special effects,
• The presence of a minimal plot,
• The scare factor

By judging the quality of special effects, I quickly eliminated many of the horror movies produced more than ten or fifteen years ago. While some have stood the test of time, others simply fail to compete with the graphics available today. Many other horror movies fell quickly out of the running simply because they don’t have a plot – at all. If I couldn’t tell who or why or even what was killing or coming back from the dead, I just moved on.

And the Winner Is?

After careful examination, it was plain to see that the movie that started the modern wave of celluloid horror is still on top. No movie, with the exception of its own re-release, has come close to the blind terror and disturbing images of The Exorcist. Of course, there are many other fine horror movies in our list below – and even more that didn’t make the list – but none of the modern thrillers would have been where they are today without the high standard set by the first round of convincing demonic possession.