What scares us is revealing—and as society evolves, so do our nightmares. The best horror films capture the anxieties of their time while tapping into fears so primal they remain terrifying decades later. Here are five that changed the genre forever.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Framed as a film studies project, The Blair Witch Project popularized found-footage horror. The mainstreaming of digital handheld recording devices offered an authentic new framework and POV to produce scares. The wobbly, clipped-together footage unsettles movement over the story arc, jerking between calm and distressed emotional states—from fading light to the pitch-black dark—provoking deep empathy for protagonists and their frightening experiences. Actors Heather Donahue, Michael Williams, and Josh Leonard used their real names with mostly improvised dialogue, creating authenticity that is still compelling today.
Watch this if: you are into true crime podcasts.
Favourite quote: “I’m afraid to close my eyes, I’m afraid to open them.”
Scream (1996)
This meta-horror transformed slasher cinema forever, with protagonist Sydney Prescott as the ultimate “final girl.” Jammed with horror references, the hyper-reflexivity of Scream’s dialogue and narrative solidified the standard of measuring horror while evaluating itself in real time. By both playing into and subverting the criteria it lays out, Scream executes highbrow slasher satire while simultaneously scaring your socks off with one of the most culturally pervasive horror villain personas of all time. This cult classic sent ripples across the horror timeline—and the sequel is even better.
Watch this if: you like the talkative, sarcastic antics of Deadpool—but make it scary.
Favourite quote: “What’s your favourite scary movie?”
Get Out (2017)
A psychological thriller and Oscar-winning screenplay, Get Out utilizes “post-racial” American society as a fertile setting for horror storytelling. This film demonstrates the viability of social horrors and subverts genre-based expectations likely to echo across horror for decades. Chris, the protagonist, is characterized by perceptions related to his race, stirring deep emotional responses from audiences who witness social horrors from his point of view. The film’s provocative terror is amplified by director Jordan Peele’s genius ability to turn tables back on viewers.
Watch this if: you’re drawn to thoughtful psychological thrillers like Black Mirror.
Favourite quote: “I want your eye, man. I want those things you see through.”
Carrie (1976)
The coming-of-age horror is refined in this iconic Stephen King adaptation. Female character growth through girlhood is portrayed at the crossroads of agency and vulnerability. Carrie transforms women’s roles in horror by outgrowing the “final girl” archetype and developing into a highly complex character, with Sissy Spacek earning a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Empathy remains a critical function of horror, yet this is toyed with as expectations of villains and victims are repeatedly subverted. In Carrie, becoming a woman can be a deeply powerful and terribly frightening period.
Watch this if: you like the teen classic Mean Girls—but you like your revenge telekinetic.
Favourite quote: “It has nothing to do with Satan, Mama.”
Evil Dead 2 (1987)
Evil Dead revolutionized the horror-comedy, with the sequel enhancing its genre-bending contributions by amplifying the over-the-top gore and campy slapstick humour. In an action-adventure narrative that spoofs the Indiana Jones franchise, our protagonist Ash blunders to defeat the Deadites—parasitic demons that don’t give up easily. Intricate stop-motion scenes of rolling heads and dancing dead are juxtaposed with biting humour and gory chainsaw zombie kills. Ironically, laughter scenes offer some of the deepest terror.
Watch this if: you’re a fan of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice.
Favourite quote: “Groovy.”