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The Holy Grail of Horror Cinematography

by prestonjarrett • Created 1 year ago • Modified 6 months ago
Not all of these films are "horror" through and through, but for anyone who has an active interest in the visual element of horror, these should provide you with both enjoyment and inspiration.
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  • 1 - 250
  • 624 titles
  • The Shining (1980)

    1. The Shining

    19802h 26mR68Metascore
    8.4 (1.2M)
    A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter, where a sinister presence influences the father into violence. At the same time, his psychic son sees horrifying forebodings from both the past and the future.
    DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJack NicholsonShelley DuvallDanny Lloyd
  • Alien (1979)

    2. Alien

    19791h 57mR89Metascore
    8.5 (1M)
    After investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin, the crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform.
    DirectorRidley ScottStarsSigourney WeaverTom SkerrittJohn Hurt
  • Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, Mary McDonnell, Noah Wyle, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, and Stuart Stone in Donnie Darko (2001)

    3. Donnie Darko

    20011h 53mR88Metascore
    8.0 (888K)
    After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
    DirectorRichard KellyStarsJake GyllenhaalJena MaloneMary McDonnell
  • Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston, and Fionnula Flanagan in The Others (2001)

    4. The Others

    20011h 44mPG-1374Metascore
    7.6 (414K)
    In 1945, immediately following the end of Second World War, a woman who lives with her two photosensitive children on her darkened old family estate in the Channel Islands becomes convinced that the home is haunted.
    DirectorAlejandro AmenábarStarsNicole KidmanChristopher EcclestonFionnula Flanagan
  • Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive (2001)

    5. Mulholland Drive

    20012h 27mR87Metascore
    7.9 (412K)
    After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
    DirectorDavid LynchStarsNaomi WattsLaura HarringJustin Theroux
  • Florence Pugh in Midsommar (2019)

    6. Midsommar

    20192h 28mR72Metascore
    7.1 (456K)
    A couple travels to Northern Europe to visit a rural hometown's fabled Swedish mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
    DirectorAri AsterStarsFlorence PughJack ReynorVilhelm Blomgren
  • Kate Beckinsale, Shuler Hensley, Hugh Jackman, Richard Roxburgh, and Will Kemp in Van Helsing (2004)

    7. Van Helsing

    20042h 11mPG-1335Metascore
    6.1 (300K)
    The famed monster hunter is sent to Transylvania to stop Count Dracula, who is using Dr. Frankenstein's research and a werewolf for nefarious purposes.
    DirectorStephen SommersStarsHugh JackmanKate BeckinsaleRichard Roxburgh
  • Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson in The Lighthouse (2019)

    8. The Lighthouse

    20191h 49mR83Metascore
    7.4 (287K)
    Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.
    DirectorRobert EggersStarsRobert PattinsonWillem DafoeValeriia Karaman
  • Rufus Sewell in Dark City (1998)

    9. Dark City

    19981h 40mR66Metascore
    7.6 (221K)
    A man struggles with memories of his past, which include a wife he cannot remember and a nightmarish world no one else ever seems to wake up from.
    DirectorAlex ProyasStarsRufus SewellKiefer SutherlandJennifer Connelly
  • The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

    10. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

    19741h 23mR91Metascore
    7.4 (201K)
    Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.
    DirectorTobe HooperStarsMarilyn BurnsEdwin NealAllen Danziger
  • Mia Wasikowska in Crimson Peak (2015)

    11. Crimson Peak

    20151h 59mR66Metascore
    6.5 (165K)
    A new bride investigates ghostly visions at a remote gothic mansion that holds dark secrets.
    DirectorGuillermo del ToroStarsMia WasikowskaJessica ChastainTom Hiddleston
  • The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

    12. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

    20031h 38mR38Metascore
    6.2 (158K)
    After picking up a traumatized young hitchhiker, five friends find themselves stalked and hunted by a deformed chainsaw-wielding loon and his family of equally psychopathic killers.
    DirectorMarcus NispelStarsJessica BielJonathan TuckerAndrew Bryniarski
  • Kevin Bacon, Adrienne King, Ari Lehman, Robbi Morgan, Betsy Palmer, and Jeannine Taylor in Friday the 13th (1980)

    13. Friday the 13th

    19801h 35mR22Metascore
    6.4 (168K)
    A group of teenage camp counselors attempt to re-open an abandoned summer camp with a tragic past, but they are stalked by a mysterious, relentless killer.
    DirectorSean S. CunninghamStarsBetsy PalmerAdrienne KingJeannine Taylor
  • Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg in Antichrist (2009)

    14. Antichrist

    20091h 48mNot Rated49Metascore
    6.5 (142K)
    A grieving couple retreat to their cabin in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage, but nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.
    DirectorLars von TrierStarsWillem DafoeCharlotte GainsbourgStorm Acheche Sahlstrøm
  • Jack Nance in Eraserhead (1977)

    15. Eraserhead

    19771h 29mNot Rated87Metascore
    7.3 (139K)
    Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newborn mutant child.
    DirectorDavid LynchStarsJack NanceCharlotte StewartAllen Joseph
  • Derek Mears in Friday the 13th (2009)

    16. Friday the 13th

    20091h 37mR34Metascore
    5.5 (123K)
    A group of young adults visit a boarded up campsite named Crystal Lake where they soon encounter the mysterious Jason Voorhees and his deadly intentions.
    DirectorMarcus NispelStarsJared PadaleckiAmanda RighettiDerek Mears
  • Jennifer Lopez in The Cell (2000)

    17. The Cell

    20001h 47mR40Metascore
    6.4 (114K)
    An F.B.I. Agent persuades a social worker, who is adept with a new experimental technology, to enter the mind of a comatose serial killer in order to learn where he has hidden his latest kidnap victim.
    DirectorTarsem SinghStarsJennifer LopezVince VaughnVincent D'Onofrio
  • Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922)

    18. Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror

    19221h 34mNot Rated
    7.8 (120K)
    Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter's wife.
    DirectorF.W. MurnauStarsMax SchreckAlexander GranachGustav von Wangenheim
  • Elle Fanning, Bella Heathcote, and Abbey Lee in The Neon Demon (2016)

    19. The Neon Demon

    20161h 57mR51Metascore
    6.1 (108K)
    An aspiring model, Jesse, is new to Los Angeles. However, her beauty and youth, which generate intense fascination and jealousy within the fashion industry, may prove themselves sinister.
    DirectorNicolas Winding RefnStarsElle FanningChristina HendricksKeanu Reeves
  • Suspiria (1977)

    20. Suspiria

    19771h 32mR79Metascore
    7.3 (113K)
    An American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.
    DirectorDario ArgentoStarsJessica HarperStefania CasiniFlavio Bucci
  • Jessie Buckley in I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)

    21. I'm Thinking of Ending Things

    20202h 14mR78Metascore
    6.5 (106K)
    Full of misgivings, a young woman travels with her new boyfriend to his parents' secluded farm. Upon arriving, she comes to question everything she thought she knew about him, and herself.
    DirectorCharlie KaufmanStarsJesse PlemonsJessie BuckleyToni Collette
  • Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters in The Night of the Hunter (1955)

    22. The Night of the Hunter

    19551h 32mApproved97Metascore
    8.0 (104K)
    A self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.
    DirectorCharles LaughtonStarsRobert MitchumShelley WintersLillian Gish
  • House of 1000 Corpses (2003)

    23. House of 1000 Corpses

    20031h 29mR31Metascore
    6.0 (98K)
    Two young couples traveling across the backwoods of Texas searching for urban legends of murder end up as prisoners of a bizarre and sadistic backwater family of serial killers.
    DirectorRob ZombieStarsSid HaigKaren BlackBill Moseley
  • Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Ingrid Pitt, and Edward Woodward in The Wicker Man (1973)

    24. The Wicker Man

    19731h 28mR87Metascore
    7.5 (101K)
    A puritan police sergeant arrives in a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl, who the pagan locals claim never existed.
    DirectorRobin HardyStarsEdward WoodwardChristopher LeeDiane Cilento
  • Nicolas Cage, Ned Dennehy, and Andrea Riseborough in Mandy (2018)

    25. Mandy

    20182h 1mNot Rated83Metascore
    6.5 (96K)
    The enchanted lives of a couple in a secluded forest are brutally shattered by a nightmarish hippie cult and their demon-biker henchmen, propelling a man into a spiraling, surreal rampage of vengeance.
    DirectorPanos CosmatosStarsNicolas CageAndrea RiseboroughLinus Roache

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