If you haven't already done so, work up the courage to see Tobe Hooper's criminally underrated classic, Texas. It is the scariest movie ever made.
Suspiria (1977)
Dario Argento's grim fairy tale about a timid American dancer who enrols at a spooky European ballet academy has some gnarly death scenes and a hair-raising score.
Poltergeist (1982)
In this punishing suburban smash, a possessed toy clown will eat you. It was 'ghost-directed' by family-friendly producer Steven Spielberg.
The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter's brilliantly paranoid remake of The Thing is superior to the 1951 version, and features the grossest special effects ever committed to film.
Hereditary (2018)
Ari Aster's debut feature about a family collapsing under the weight of its own buried secrets is a modern horror classic.
Creepshow (1982)
George Romero's lurid homage to EC Comics is also his most enjoyable film, filled with broadly funny appearances from up-and-coming actors.
Alien (1979)
Ridley Scott's chest-bursting horror landmark turns men into pregnant hosts, and Sigourney Weaver into the most iconic hero in genre filmmaking.
The Shining (1980)
Stanley Kubrick's movies are horror films, but when he made a proper thriller, he paradoxically produced the ultimate comic satire on the American family.
28 Days Later (2002)
Danny Boyle's epic portrait of post-traumatic stress-disordered Britain is near perfect, with real poetry in the movie's empty London.
Get Out (2017)
Jordan Peele's enormously confident directorial debut did more for the reputation of horror—as a vessel for sociopolitical commentary—than any movie since Night of the Living Dead.