André Øvredal’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is based on the book series written by Alvin Schwartz. Set on Halloween in 1968, a group of teenage friends find the book written by the daughter of Bellows family, Sarah, in a secret room. One of the children, Stella, takes the book home, and as she reads the book, new stories appear and play out on the screen. Sarah is sending a message, but what is it? You have to watch the movie to find out. The film stars Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Gil Bellows, and Dean Norris.

Kevin S. Tenney’s Night of the Demons is a fun 80s horror comedy movie set on Halloween night when friends go to a party in an abandoned mortuary. Why? Because it’s spookier, that’s why. It stars Cathy Powell as goth queen Amelia Kinkade, horror darling Linnea Quigley, and Hal Havins. The film is perhaps most famous for Angela Franklin’s seductive dance to Bauhaus’s song Stigmata Martyr as she turns into a demon. Angela is the only character appearing in the entire series; the second film is also set on Halloween.

Trick ‘r Treat is a 2007 American anthology horror film written and directed by Michael Dougherty (in his directorial debut) and produced by Bryan Singer. The film stars Dylan Baker, Rochelle Aytes, Anna Paquin, and Brian Cox. It relates four Halloween horror stories with a common element in them: Sam, a trick-or-treating demon wearing orange footie pajamas with a burlap sack over his head. The character appears in each story whenever one of the other characters breaks a Halloween tradition. Despite being delayed for two years and having only a limited number of screenings at film festivals, the film received positive reviews and has since garnered a cult following.

The Coven is a 2015 United Kingdom fantasy horror feature film directed by John Mackie (director) and starring Dexter Fletcher. It is stated that the film is based upon actual events. The plot revolves around a Wiccan group, whose leader Uri Clef, and seven followers disappear. They were last seen at The Coven, a ring of trees in Queens Wood once used as a meeting place by practitioners of Cochrane’s Craft. Some schoolkids are drawn to visit Queen’s Wood in Highgate on Halloween.

Ginger Snaps is a 2000 Canadian supernatural horror film directed by John Fawcett and written by Karen Walton, from a story they jointly developed. The film stars Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle  as Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald, two morbid teenage sisters whose relationship is tested when Ginger (who has started her period for the first time) is attacked and bitten by an unknown animal, and then later, during the next full moon, slowly starts to transform into a werewolf. The supporting cast features Kris Lemche, Jesse Moss, Danielle Hampton, John Bourgeois, Peter Keleghan, and Mimi Rogers.

The top 10 most successful horror movie franchises, based on their cultural impact, box office success, and lasting popularity, are:

1. Halloween: Starting in 1978, this franchise introduced the iconic Michael Myers. With 13 films, it remains one of the most influential horror series, known for its suspense and slasher elements?.
2. Friday the 13th: Debuting in 1980, this franchise made Jason Voorhees a household name. It has 12 movies, including various reboots and sequels, that have left a significant mark on the slasher genre??.
3. A Nightmare on Elm Street: Wes Craven’s 1984 creation introduced Freddy Krueger. With 9 films, including a crossover with Jason Voorhees, it became a staple of horror with its blend of supernatural elements and slasher tropes??.
4. Saw: Beginning in 2004, this series is known for its elaborate traps and psychological horror. With 10 films, it has maintained a strong following due to its intricate plot twists and brutal scenarios??.
5. The Conjuring: Launched in 2013, this franchise includes the main Conjuring films and spin-offs like Annabelle and The Nun. Known for its paranormal themes, it has become a major player in modern horror?.
6. George Romero’s Dead Series: Starting with “Night of the Living Dead” in 1968, this series is foundational for zombie horror. Romero’s films like “Dawn of the Dead” and “Day of the Dead” set the standard for zombie apocalypses?.
7. Scream: Debuting in 1996, this franchise revitalized the slasher genre with its meta-commentary on horror films. It continues to be popular with both critics and audiences.
8. Child’s Play/Chucky: Starting in 1988, this series features the murderous doll Chucky. It remains notable for its mix of horror and dark humor, spawning several sequels and a TV series??.
9. Final Destination: With its first film in 2000, this series revolves around characters cheating death. Known for its creative and gruesome death scenes, it has five films with more potentially in the works??.
10. Alien: Starting in 1979, this sci-fi horror franchise has made significant contributions to both genres. With iconic characters like Ripley and terrifying creatures like the Xenomorph, it includes several sequels and spin-offs??.

These franchises have shaped the horror genre in various ways, from introducing iconic villains to setting new standards for horror storytelling.

The Lodge (2020) : This movie doesn’t have a ton of Christmas cheer — no Santa, no elves — but it is incredibly chilling. Riley Keough stars as a woman who is going to take her fiancé’s kids to his vacation cabin for a few days over the Christmas break before he can join them. When she starts to experience supernatural events, seemingly connected to her past, she has to figure out if it’s her mind playing tricks on her, or if the scares are real.

Black Christmas (2019) : You can actually choose between three versions of Black Christmas: There’s the (excellent) 1974 original with Margot Kidder and Olivia Hussey, the 2006 remake directed by X-Files alum Glen Morgan or the most recent take on the material, the 2019 remake, with a female writing/directing team of Sophia Takal and April Wolfe. All versions of the film follow a group of sorority girls as they’re stalked by a terrifying stranger during their Christmas break. I’ve only watched the 2006 version which is ok.

Saint (2010) : What if instead of a kindly old man, Santa Claus was blood-thirsty, murderous bishop? That’s the reimagining you can expect from this Dutch horror-comedy, also subtitled, which says that  Sinterklaas turns evil when St. Nicholas Day coincides with the full moon. I got a bit bored watching this movie. It promised a lot more but fails in the end. I actually watched this on Christamas Eve 2011.

Dead End (2004) : A family tries to take a shortcut on the way to their Christmas Eve dinner — which turns out to be a grave mistake. Some supernatural/paranormal things seem to happen, but the true horror might be the extended time spent in close quarters with family. I remember feeling very uncomfortable as the mother, played by Lin Shaye, loses her mind.

Gremlins (1984) : Don’t be fooled by Gremlins’ seemingly warm and fuzzy exteriors — these little creatures are not as sweet as they look. (If you’ve seen this 1984 Joe Dante classic, you know.) Gremlins is a Christmas movie the way Die Hard is a Christmas movie, where the holiday is mostly a backdrop for a lot of mayhem. Of all of these films, Gremlins is my favourite and it also falls in my list of favourite films and nostalgic movies. I’ve watched it many times and watched it with my cousins as well. Gizmo is so cute!

Escape Room (2019)

Thanksgiving is a time to think about what you are thankful for. For the characters in Escape Room, they are tricked into participating in a deadly game that, in a way, should make them feel thankful for their lives (if they manage to escape with them). Escape Room takes place in late November during Thanksgiving break for college student Zoey Davis (Taylor Russell). At first, Zoey and five other people think they are playing an escape room for a cash prize, but they quickly realize that losing means death. They also realize that they were picked for a reason because the trapped rooms each represent a moment in one of the players lives when they were probably incredibly thankful to be alive.

Kristy (2014)

Justine (Haley Bennett) is a college student who spends the Thanksgiving break almost entirely alone on campus, with the only other two humans who haven’t gone home for the holiday being a security guard and a groundskeeper. Justine suddenly finds herself targeted by a cult of killers who are obsessed with murdering religious people, whom they refer to as “Kristys”—with “Kristy” being derived from a Latin phrase meaning “follower of God.” In the face of constant cyber-harassment and real-life threats, Justine is forced to battle the cult single-handedly.

Black Friday (2021)

The day after Thanksgiving, popularly known as the shopping holiday Black Friday, is awful. You have to get up way too early and fight crowds of people in stores for limited merchandise when you should really be sleeping and resting after a hard day of eating turkey and stuffing (or dressing). Instead of participating in Black Friday, why not stay home and watch the Bruce Campbell horror comedy Black Friday? You’ll witness shoppers turned into zombie-like monsters by alien parasites which is way better than anything a real store has to offer.

Rotten Tomatoes held a little poll on the site to try and determine the Scariest Movie Ever. Based on other lists and suggestions from the RT staff, they listed together 40 of the scariest movies ever made and asked people to vote for the one that terrified you the most. Here is their list 10 Scariest Horror Movies Ever, 1-5

1. THE EXORCIST (1973)

You may not agree that The Exorcist is the scariest movie ever, but it probably also isn’t much of a surprise to see it at the top of our list — with a whopping 19% of all the votes cast. William Friedkin’s adaptation of the eponymous novel about a demon-possessed child and the attempts to banish said demon became the highest-grossing R-rated horror film ever and the first to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars (it earned nine other nominations and took home two trophies). But outside of its critical and commercial bona fides, the film is well-known for the mass hysteria it inspired across the country, from protests over its controversial subject matter to widespread reports of nausea and fainting in the audience. Its dramatic pacing and somewhat dated effects may seem quaint compared to some contemporary horror, but there’s no denying the power the film continues to have over those who see it for the first time.

2. HEREDITARY (2018)

Writer-director Ari Aster made a huge splash with his feature directorial debut, a dark family drama about the nature of grief couched within a supernatural horror film. Toni Collette earned a spot in the pantheon of great Oscar snubs with her slowly-ratcheted-up-to-11 performance as bedeviled mother Annie, but the movie’s biggest shock came courtesy of… Well, we won’t spoil that here. Suffice it to say Hereditary struck such a nerve with moviegoers that it instantly turned Aster into a director to watch and shot up to second place on our list.

3. THE CONJURING (2013)

James Wan has staked out a place among the modern masters of horror, directing films like Saw, Dead Silence, Insidious, and this inspired-by-true-events chiller based on the experiences of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens, best known for their work on the strange case that inspired the Amityville Horror movies (which played a part in The Conjuring 2), were portrayed by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who grounded the effective jump scares and freak-out moments with a believable world-weariness. Together, Wan and his co-leads found fresh terror in familiar genre tropes, and the end result is a sprawling cinematic universe that only continues to grow.

4. THE SHINING (1980)

Literally dozens of Stephen King’s novels and stories have been adapted for the big screen, and several of those films are considered classics today, like Carrie, Misery, and Pet Sematary (and that doesn’t even account for non-horror stuff like The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me). But the mother of them all is easily Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining. A marvel of set and production design and a genuinely unnerving take on the traditional haunted house story, The Shining features a host of memorable images and an iconic Jack Nicholson performance. The film’s relatively few jump scares are still absolutely chilling, but its true power lies in the way it crawls under your skin and makes you experience Jack Torrance’s slow descent into madness. It’s rightfully considered one of the greatest horror films ever made, and it ranked fourth in our poll.

5. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)

While the top four movies on this list collectively garnered 42% of the total votes counted, they were followed by six films that all earned around 3% of the vote each. In other words, these last six films were separated by no more than 60 votes. The first of them is this low-budget slasher directed and co-written by Tobe Hooper, very loosely inspired by the crimes of Ed Gein. Texas Chainsaw’s grimy aesthetic helped lend it an air of authenticity, which made it all the more frightening (“This could actually happen, you guys!”), and the massive, menacing presence of Gunnar Hansen’s Leatherface paved the way for other brutes like Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees. Multiple attempts have been made to breathe new life into the franchise, but none have equaled the original in sheer, over-the-top, power tool-inspired terror.

6. THE RING (2002)

It’s always a tricky proposition to take something that works well for one culture and try to translate that formula successfully for another, but Gore Verbinski managed that with The Ring. A remake of Japanese director Hideo Nakata’s acclaimed thriller about a cursed videotape, Verbinski’s take kept the original film’s striking visual imagery — the ghost of a young girl in a white dress with long black hair covering her face — and found that it scared the hell out of audiences no matter where they were from. While the film wasn’t as well-regarded as its predecessor, it features a committed performance from a then up-and-coming Naomi Watts, and for many, it served as an introduction to East Asian horror cinema.

7. HALLOWEEN (1978)

Coming in at the seventh spot on our list is the film that introduced the world to all-time scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis and put John Carpenter on the map. Halloween is frequently cited as one of the earliest examples of the slasher genre as we know it today, and while it may not feature the same kind of realistic gore we’ve come to expect of films in that category, it packs a lot of tension and some inventive thrills in a relatively small-scale package. The film’s legacy is also fairly untouchable: Michael Myers’ mask has become the stuff of legend, and the giant, unstoppable killer and the “final girl” have become ingrained in the horror lexicon. There’s a reason the franchise is still going after more than 40 years.

8. SINISTER (2012)

For those who didn’t read the “scientific study” mentioned at the top, we’ve finally come to the film it crowned the scariest. Before he joined the MCU with 2016’s Doctor Strange, director Scott Derrickson had racked up a few horror films, a couple of which earned cult followings. One of them was this small-scale haunted house/possession story about a true-crime writer (Ethan Hawke) who moves his wife and kids into a house where a family was murdered, only to discover the new place might already have a rather evil tenant. Writer C. Robert Cargill was reportedly inspired to pen the script based on a nightmare he had after watching The Ring, and the story does share a minor similarity with that film, what with the creepy snuff film angle. But for many who saw it, the dramatic reveals and creepy set pieces far outweighed any recycled genre tropes that might have been present. Plus, there’s at least one report out there that says it’s the scariest movie ever made, so that has to count for something.

9. INSIDIOUS (2010)

James Wan has already appeared higher on this list, but before he and Patrick Wilson made The Conjuring, they worked together on this supernatural thriller about a young boy who falls into a coma and begins to channel a malevolent spirit. The bare bones of the story weren’t the most groundbreaking, but frequent Wan collaborator Leigh Whannell infused it with a compelling enough mythology that it spawned four more installments. Wan also stated that Insidious was meant to be something of a corrective to the outright violence of Saw, which compelled him to craft something on a more spiritual level, and the end result is an effective chiller featuring what is frequently regarded as one of the best jump scares ever put on screen.

10. IT (2017)

The fear of clowns is a very real thing, even if it’s become so commonplace to announce it that it feels disingenuous. If you needed any further evidence, we direct you to the box office haul of 2017’s IT, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, which went on to beat The Exorcist’s 44-year record as the highest-grossing horror film ever. Oh, and of course, its 10th-place finish on this list. Andy Muschietti’s big-budget adaptation drew on nostalgia to tell its story of children scarred by trauma, while Bill Skarsgard’s take on Pennywise the evil, shapeshifting clown was bizarre and unsettling in all the right ways. Add a healthy dose of jump scares, a handful of impressive set pieces, and some top-notch CGI, and you’ve got a recipe for a horror film that’s both fun and full of scares.