Top 13 Alien Movies

There are alien movies that are strictly in the fuzzy, feel good Sci-Fi Star-Trekkie sickeningly sweet category and then there are alien movies that scare the living crap out of you because the aliens are ALIEN-- their actions motivations that drive them to kill, maim, consume, abduct and experiment upon our fragile flesh are inconceivable and incomprehensible to our logical, pattern seeking human minds.

For horror buffs that are xenophiles, it's the scary alien movies that matter.

So, here's my list of the top 13 scariest alien movies of all time.


13. Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (1998)

"Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County" aka "Alien Abduction: The McPherson Tape" is a made for TV movie based off the short film "The McPherson Tape" that appeared on the internet in the late 1990's. The movie aired on the now defunct TV channel UPN (United Paramount Network) in 1998. This controversial little film is thought by many to be real footage of an alien abduction.

When this first aired on TV it was called a mockumentary, a type of movie genre that is now called a found footage film. While it is a low budget movie, "Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County" more makes up for it with some very tense scenes that still make me cringe in fear and hold onto my cat like a little girl whenever I see it.

12. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Dr. Miles Bennell's patients are becoming paranoid, and more people are coming to his office, telling him that they believe that their family members or friends are impostors. Is this sweeping mass hysteria, or is something far more sinister actually replacing the townsfolk with duplicates?

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" has been remade several times over the years, but the original is by far the best, with it's ability to create mind numbing paranoia in the viewer. In some ways, it's claustrophobic tone makes it the forefather to the classic alien invasion film "The Thing." This is the movie that invented the term Pod People- you know, the doppelganger copies of people that have all of their memories but just don't act quite right. Those Pod People.

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is a classic alien invasion movie and definitely a must see.


11. Signs (2002)

"Signs" is the only M. Night Shyamalan movie that I like. And it has a great soundtrack to boot.

"Signs" is several movies wrapped up into one-- it's a parable about a priest who lost his faith when his wife dies and manages to regain it, and it's about what happens to a small town in the middle of farm country when aliens invade.

Between the quirky (and at times hilariously funny) characters and the pulse pounding, nail biting climax where the aliens enter the Hess' homestead, this movie covers everything from aliens making mysterious crop circles as a form of communication, to UFO sightings and contact with mysterious alien invaders.

The filming style is breathtaking and clever with the alien's never quite fully coming into view until the very end. Which I just absolutely love, because it heightens the suspense and doesn't ruin the movie with terrible over-done CG.

10. Aliens (1986)

James Cameron's 1986 masterpiece "Aliens" is one of my favorite horror movies of all times.

What makes "Aliens" so great is that it takes the spooky atmosphere of a desolate planet wracked with storms and the panic inducing claustrophobic setting of the terraformer's colony to create one heck of a scary ride. Even better, "Aliens" started the whole concept of space marines in pop-culture, which has been the darling of Sci-Fi video games for many years now.

"Aliens" has a strong female lead character, Ellen Ripley, who manages to find her own place among ;a rag-tag crew of misfit marines and survive yet another encounter with the xenomorphs. This time, Ripley takes on the big momma of the aliens herself, the Queen.


9. Prince of Darkness (1987)

John Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness" is a gem of a Lovecraftian Horror film that covers everything from the nature of evil to the existence of alternate dimensions, atomic theory and theoretical physics.

After the last of an ancient secret order of Catholic priests dies, Father Loomis discovers that they had kept an ancient alien artifact locked up in the basement of an old abandoned church. Concerned with what he has found, he contacts Professor Birack and convinces him to bring some of his graduate students over to the church to investigate it. While staying at the church the students start sharing the same dream; a vision of the future and a dire warning of things to come.

During their investigations, the mysterious neon green protoplasmic substance that is swirling ominously in the artifact begins infecting and possessing them. It is soon revealed that the cylinder contains a dark slumbering alien god that has awoken and is going to bring about the end of the world.

While they may call the evil entity "Satan" or the "Anti-God," the themes present in this film are taken directly from pages of H.P. Lovecraft's stories. There are prophetic dreams of a looming disaster, mirrors used as portals to other dimensions and ancient alien artifacts that drive people mad and turns them into monstrous zombies that collapse into insects. The imagery in "Prince of Darkness" is so surreal and alien, if you haven't given John Carpenter's most under-rated horror movie a try, you certainly should.

8. Super 8 (2011) 

"Super 8" is one of those kid's growing up over summer vacation movies that is sort of in the same vein of "Stand By Me" and "ET," except a lot darker. It's an alien invasion film full of action and suspense, and at the same time a movie about kids that are learning about life and each other. It's also the first movie in quite a while that I've seen that has actually had kids cast to play kids, as opposed to 20 year olds posing at high school students.

It's the summer of 1979 and a group of kids have gotten together to make their own zombie movie, called "The Case" on Super 8 film. While filming on location at a train station, they witness a train crash caused by their science teacher. Scattered all over the ground are weird white cubes, which later are revealed to be sections of an alien spacecraft. Unfortunately, the cubes weren't the only thing that escaped the train during the crash, and now a giant alien is out to recapture the parts of its spaceship in a desperate effort to return home.

The alien in "Super 8" is both menacing and sympathetic at the same time. All it wants to do is go home, but the evil government refuses to let it leave.

This movie not only smartly deals with the movie being filmed within a movie motif, it also has characters that  are well fleshed out and very believable. 

7. Fire in the Sky (1993)

"Fire in the Sky" is based on a novel of the same name by Travis Walton.  

Travis and his logger buddies are working in the forest, cutting trees to clear the area for development. One night while driving home from a long day of work, a strange fiery glow appears in the sky. Travis, compelled by the sight of it, steps out of the truck and is hit by a beam of bright white light. His friends, terrified, drive off, leaving him for dead. 

They report the incident to the local authorities but no one believes them and they are suspected of murdering Travis and dumping his body in the woods.

Five days later, Travis appears at a gas station-- he is naked, deyhydrated and out of his mind with fear. 

The flashbacks to Travis' alien abduction are pretty intense, and there is an awful eye-scare in one of the scenes that to this day makes me cringe. 

6. Alien (1979)

The Nostromo, a commercial towing spaceship, is heading home to Earth with a nice haul of ore. The ship picks up an emergency transmission from a nearby planet, which causes the computer to wake up the crew and bring them out of stasis. 

They land on the desolate planet and several crew members head out to investigate the signal. Before long they find themselves walking up to a long abandoned alien space ship with a chamber full of eggs. As they walk through the chamber, one of the eggs hatches and a face-hugger leaps out and attaches itself to crewman Kane, who passes out. Attempts to remove the face-hugger from Kane reveal that the creature has corrosive acid for blood. Yikes.

Soon, it's revealed that the face-hugger implanted an alien larvae into his chest- well, the alien actually reveals itself when it bursts through Kane's chest and kills him. The alien runs off, and the Nostromo crew is stuck fighting an alien creature without any real weaponry. 

"Alien" is a brilliantly filmed Sci-Fi horror film that uses light and shadow to great effect to build up suspense and dread in the viewer while the xenomorph picks off the crew one by one. 

5. Undead (2003)

"Undead" takes place in the Australian fishing village of Berkley. The sleepy village suffers a barrage of meteors that turn people into the hungry undead. A group of survivors is left to fend for themselves as the ravenous zombies attack them at every turn.

While "Undead" is a zombie movie at heart (and a pretty scary, yet hilarious, movie at that) it is, ultimately, an alien invasion movie. Yep. The aliens made the zombies. Way to go E.T. 

This movie apparently recieved terrible reviews, but I think that it is a wonderfully campy gore fest that has both zombies and aliens in the same film. The characters are stereotypes, but the kick-ass fisherman steals the show, providing both John Wayne-like swagger and highly inventive weapons to two genres that are over-run with trite weapon cliches.

4. The Blob (1988)

Ah yes, "The Blob." Never before has strawberry jello been so terrifying.

This alien creature feature starts out with a meteor crashing near a small town in California. An old old hobo comes across the crash site and finds a strange smoking rocky sphere. The sphere cracks open and a thick pink slime engulfs his hand. Terrified, he runs for help and encounters three college students, who take him to the local hospital. Unfortunately, it's too late for the man and the pink slime grows over him and dissolves his body as it consumes him.

The giant amboa from hell then goes on a killing spree/eating binge as it begins to devour the entire town's enhabitants, growing larger with each person it consumes.

Walking Dead fans will find it interesting to learn that Frank Darabont co-wrote the screenplay for "The Blob" and that Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale) plays Sheriff Herb Geller in the movie. How about that? (Of course, now I have watch "The Blob" again so that I can spot DeMunn in action.)

3. Communion (1989)

"Communion" is based on a book of the same name by Whitley Strieber. 

Whitley Strieber is played by Chrisopher Walken, whose family experiences run ins with aliens during their vacation in the woods. Whitley is abducted from the cabin by aliens and his life changes forever. Tramatized by the events, he goes to a psychiatrist and undergoes hypnotic regression where he has flash-backs of his abduction that are absolutely horrific. 

"Communion" is one of the most trippy, and at the same time terrifying, alien movies I have ever seen. 

2. Altered (2006)

"Altered" was directed by Eduardo Sanchez, the co-director of "The Blair Witch Project."

15 years ago, five teenage boys went on a hunting trip that they would never forget. While in the woods, the boys were abducted by aliens and became the subjects of cruel experiments that killed one of the boys.

Wyatt distanced himself from his friends and now lives in constant fear and paranoia away from civilization. Unfortunately for him, two of his friends have taken it upon themselves to hunt down the aliens that tortured them, and they've just caught one.

"Altered" is a suspenseful, scary horror movie that does well with a small budget. This movie is definately a sleeper hit that will one day be a cult classic.


1. The Thing (1982)

John Carpenter's "The Thing" is a remake of "The Thing From Another World" that was based on the novella "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell. And is a more faithful interpretation of the pulp fiction alien story than "The Thing From Another World."

"The Thing" is a movie that is just oozing paranoia and dread. Between the desolate Antarctic landscape, the eery minimalistic soundtrack, and the utterly alien Thing that transforms into creatures that Should Not Be, this movie is one of the best alien movies ever made.

Although it was filmed in 1982, "The Thing" has aged quite well, and the recent Blu-Ray release has brought new features on the Thing back to life. There are details on the monsters that were lost in the low resolution VHS and DVD versions of the movie (such as all of the eyes that open up on the Thing after it assimilates the dogs and becomes that towering monstrosity in the kennel. I didn't even know they were there until I saw it on Blu-Ray), and the new HD digitally remastered version of the movie on Blu-Ray reveals the monster in all it's unearthly glory. If you get a chance to watch "The Thing" on Blu-Ray, you really should.

Top 13 Extreme Horror Movies

To further expand upon my definition of extreme horror movies I've put together a list of the top 13 extreme horror movies that aren't strictly torture porn. All of these movies have a plot, character development and emotional depth to a story that adds to the overall terror provided by the no-holds barred, renegade approach to filmmaking, where everything and anything occurs on-screen and the audience is forced to witness the entire bloody process of terrible mutilation, dismemberment, rape and even the most brutal of murders.  While some of these may shock you, all of them have a good amount of blood and gore, and most will definitely be nightmare fuel for days to come.


13. Hellraiser (1987) 

"Hellraiser" is based on "The Hellbound Heart", a novella by Clive Barker, who also wrote the screenplay and directed the movie. This extreme horror movie is actually a really complex tragedy, a story about a named woman Julia and her illicit affair with her husband Larry's brother, Frank.

A sexually depraved man, Frank stumbles upon a puzzle box in the search for the ultimate pleasure. He solves the puzzle box and it opens a gateway to hell, of which hooked chains whip out of and rip him apart. The Cenobites, including the infamous Pinhead, appear to collect the remains of their latest plaything/victim.

Frank finds a way to escape the Cenobites sadomasochistic hell and makes his way to the attic of Julia and Larry's new home. Larry cuts his hand on a nail in the attic and when his blood drips on the floor Frank uses it start his hideous and painfully slow resurrection. When Julia's step-daughter Kirsty discovers that she is murdering lonely men in her attic, all hell breaks loose. Can Kirsty save her father from Julia and his resurrected brother, or will the Cenobites drag them all into hell?

12.  The Last House on the Left (1972)

"The Last House on the Left" by Wes Craven used the slogan on the poster above "To avoid fainting, keep repeating, it's only a movie...only a movie... only a movie..." to stir up public interest. It was based on Ingmar Bergman's "The Virgin Spring."

According to Adam Rockoff in his book "Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978-1986"  "The Last House on the Left" tore through theaters, alternately attracting and disgusting audiences. It was one of the earliest rape-revenge films and among the first to broach the question whether cinematic violence, no matter how debase, could have any socially redeeming value."

Craven shows the brutal rape, mutilation and murder of two college girls without cutting away even once from the realistic violence in order to shock and horrify the audience. This movie has aged quite well and isn't for those sensitive to violence towards women. Seriously. You will become emotionally disturbed by watching it.




11. Cabin in the Woods (2012) 

When a group of five college kids go on vacation at a cabin in the woods, they soon discover that they are not alone and that monsters are real.


"The Cabin in the Woods" is a perfect deconstruction of the extreme horror movie genre. It has everything, from crazy zombie rednecks that want to mutilate and kill you to an end scene with every single movie monster you can imagine in it and buckets of blood. Joss Whedon's tongue in cheek humor and over the top violence puts "The Cabin in the Woods" in the extreme horror movie category.



10.  Suspiria (1977)

Suzy Bannion is a new arrival at a famous ballet academy in Freiburg Germany. One by one, students are being viciously murdered by an evil monstrous entity. Suzy soon learns that the academy is run by witches that are hellbent on killing anyone that stumbles upon them. Can Suzy stop the coven of witches from killing anyone else, or will the evil Black Queen of the witches, the Mother of Sighs, consume her soul?


This is the first movie in Dario Argento's Three Mothers trilogy, and one of the best movies Argento has ever done.

"Suspiria" shows off Argento's unparalleled ability to make dead women look beautiful and yet grotesque at the same time. Rotten Tomatoes calls it a "candy-colored nightmare" and states that "Suspiria weaves a menacing tale of witchcraft as a fairy tale gone horribly awry."

9. Zombi 2 (1979) 

"Zombi 2" (aka "Zombie," "Island of the Living Dead," "Zombie Island," "Zombie Flesh Eaters") by Lucio Fulci has some of the more memorable scenes of carnage and violence of any of the zombie movies that came out of Italy during the late 1970s including zombie vs. shark and a slow excruciating "eye scare" where the victims face is shoved towards a large sharp splinter of wood and is shoved on it, eye first.

A boat drifts ashore the New York coastline belonging to Ann Bowles' scientist father that has a zombie on board. Soon afterward, Ann finds herself on a trip to the tropical island of Matool where her father was working and has fallen ill. A terrifying disease has been unleashed on the island that is turning people into zombies that are seemingly indestructible.


8.  Dagon (2001)

"Dagon" happens to be one of my favorite Lovecraft films. It ranks up there with "Necronomicon" and "Re-Animator" on my list of the best Lovecraft movies of all times. It keeps all of the weird strangeness and terrifying moments of the original Lovecraft story, while still providing enough gore to satisfy even the most bloodthirsty splatter hound. The violence and blood shed in this horror classic is definitely true to Gordon Stuart's style of filmmaking. You won't be disappointed.

Paul Marsh has been having strange dreams of swimming in the deep ocean with a mermaid. And lucky him, he and his girlfriend Barbara have gone boating for vacation. Things begin to go horribly wrong when the boat is shipwrecked off the coat of Spain. Paul and Barbara find themselves in the abandoned fishing village of Imboca, desperate for help. But, there is something wrong with the people in the village and nothing is as it seems. A cryptic warning from the town's drunk turns out to be true as inhuman fishmen come out after dark and try to kill them all.


7.  Dead Alive (1992)

"Dead Alive" aka "Brain Dead" is a gore fest masterpiece by none other than Peter Jackson. Yes, that Peter Jackson, the very same one that made the fantastic Lord of the Rings trilogy. Before Peter Jackson became a big name in movies, he made cheesy ultra-violent horror films. "Dead Alive" is an extreme horror comedy that holds nothing back.


Loinel Cosgrove's domineering mother is bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey while he is on a date with the love of his life at the zoo. His mum soon falls ill and dies. Shortly thereafter, she returns to life and goes on a huge eating binge, starting with the neighbor's dog. Every person she bites, becomes infected and the zombie disease quickly spreads throughout the town. Some of the more memorable scenes include attacking a mob of zombies with a lawnmower, a creepy doofy headed infant on the loose and a melting zombie head.



6.  Dead Snow (2009) 

"Dead Snow" is a brilliant gem of a Norwegian horror movie full of unbridled violence and frenetic blood sprees the likes of which haven't been seen on-screen since Ash took up his chainsaw in "Evil Dead."

Seven college kids travel to a remote cabin owned by one of their friends. It's party time on the snowy hills of Oksfjord until a mysterious hiker appears and tells them a grim warning tale about the Nazis that came and tortured the local townsfolk. The people fought back and drove the Nazis into the mountains where they froze to death. Soon, the kids are being stalked by the evil Nazi undead who are out to recapture what was stolen from them, a stash of gold coins that they hoarded and hid in the floorboards of the cabin that the college kids uncover when they go to stash their beer.


5.  The Evil Dead 2 (1987)

"Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn" or just "Evil Dead 2" is a retcon of the first "Evil Dead" movie. Ash Williams, (a role that would make Bruce Campbell a horror household name) and Linda, his girlfriend, head out to a cabin in the woods for a romantic weekend. In the basement of the cabin is an audio tape left by an archeology professor. When the tape is played, it is revealed that the professor found the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis aka the Book of the Dead and he reads an incantation from the book which summons the evil spirits of the Deadites which possess Linda, animate the trees and wreak unholy havoc upon Ash and his friends.


4. Cabin Fever (2002)

"Cabin Fever" is about a group of college kids that head to a cabin in the woods for summer vacation. Something vile is in the water supply. A local hunter contracts a flesh eating virus. When he approaches the kids for help, he becomes violently ill and begins vomiting blood all of the place and one by one the kids contract a virulent flesh eating virus that consumes their bodies whole.


3.  Mother of Tears (2007) 

The last member of the trio of ancient black witches, Mater Lachrymarum, is out for revenge and world domination. A whirlwind of violence is engulfing the world as white witch Sarah strives to uncover the secret of Mater Lachrymarum and stop her before it is too late.

The last installment of the Three Mothers trilogy by Dario Argento, "Mother of Tears" is full of scenes that use actual torture devices to kill people and a very memorable final death scene where Mater Lachrymarum is impaled quite spectacularly.

2.  Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993)

"Return of the Living Dead 3" is far darker and grim than the other two Return of the Living Dead installments and by far the goriest. I like to think of "Return of the Living Dead 3" as Romeo and Juliet of the Undead.

Military brat Curt Reynolds is madly in love with his girlfriend Julie. They break into a military base to look in on what his dad has been working on, and discover that they are reanimating the dead to use as soldiers in the Army.

Julie is tragically killed in an accident. Curt's grief drives him to take her corpse to the military base and resurrect her. Unfortunately, she soon begins to crave human flesh and starts to spread the zombie infection to all those she attempts to consume. In order to stave off her cravings, she begins piercing her flesh with shards of glass and sharp pointy pieces of metal, as pain is the only thing that stops her from eating her beloved Curt.


1. Splinter (2008)

"Splinter" won six Screamfest Horror Film Festival Awards and was nominated for the 35th Annual Saturn Awards in the Best Horror Film category. And yet it is one of the most underrated extreme horror movies ever made, which always surprises me, because it's so good. 

Polly and Seth are setting up their tent for a nice romantic camping trip. When clumsy brainiac Seth ruins the tent, they have no choice but to go find a cheap motel to spend the night at. While on their way into town, they come across a distressed woman, Lacey, walking along the side of the road. Polly decides to stop and let her in the car, which results in them being hijacked by Dennis, the Lacy's partner in crime, who forces them to drive to Platt.

While they are driving Polly runs over something and pops a tire. As they frantically work to fix it without angering their captors, Dennis inspects the odd and sinister splinter filled corpse of road kill that popped their tire.

They are soon back on the road and stop at a gas station to refuel. Lacey is attacked by gas station attendant, who was taken over by the splinter creature, which soon takes over her body as well.

One by one the characters are killed and absorbed by the parasite as they become trapped in a lone gas station at the edge of the forest.

As it takes over more bodies, the parasite melds them together into a huge clumsy monstrosity that oozes black ichor and flings splinters at its victims like a berserk porcupine. This creature feature has it all; dismemberment; mutilation; ambulatory corpses being controlled by a fungus-like splinter parasite that can puppet the flesh of any creature that is living or dead. I've never seen anything like it, it is morbid and utterly fantastic in its grotesque imagery. 

The splinter creature is described by director Toby Wilkins in an interview with Wild About Movies as not being a creature at all, but more of a substance, like sea urchin spines that puncture skin and break off inside, only to burrow its way deep into your body and expands using your blood and nutrients to grow its own tendon or musculature under your skin, around your skeleton. It takes over your body before you're dead, and kills you from the inside out. 

The best part about this movie? It doesn't use one lick of CG to animate its monsters. It's all puppets and awesome prosthetics made by an extremely talented people at Quantum Creation FX.

What is Extreme Horror?

The term Extreme Horror is a bit ambiguous and it means different things to different people. Merriam Webster Dictionary defines extreme as "A. Existing in a very high degree B. Going to great or exaggerated lengths, or C. Exceeding the ordinary, usual, or expected."

After looking at a bunch of different lists online put together by movie buffs, I have found that many movies that are listed as extreme horror are actually fit in the Splatterpunk or torture porn category. To help define extreme horror I have come up with five elements that most, if not all extreme horror movies have in common.

5 Things that Extreme Horror Movies have in Common:

1. More Gore!

Extreme horror movies often contain literal buckets of blood on their sets. In fact, the more blood and guts, the better. Most extreme horror movies actually fall under the splatterpunk category. According to the New York Times, splatterpunk is a horror term that was created by David J. Schow and refers to horror fiction or movies that are graphic and contain gory depictions of violence. Splatterpunk is not the art of subtly creating an atmosphere of dread and suspense, but of bringing everything out into the open and showing in as much detail as possible (whether it is factual or not) how a person is dismembered, or the amount of blood that can actually spray out of a jugular vein when it is cut wide open. Nothing is off limits as far as the gore factor is concerned. "Evil Dead" is an example of extreme horror that is Splatterpunk.


2. What Taboo Do You Do?

Some extreme horror movies tackle social or cultural taboos and sexual taboos, such as incest, sexual molestation or fetishes. The underlying theme of sadomasochism in "Hellraiser" (which is considered by some people to be a sexual taboo) is represented by Julia and Frank's relationship and the fact that the Cenobites worship pain and pleasure. Even the Cenobites costumes are based on leather fetish gear used in bondage play.

3. Controversies Abound

Controversial topics that make most people uncomfortable to discuss, are played out in graphic detail and often serve as a sort of catharsis for the audience. For instance, "The Last House on the Left" provides an unflinching view of the kidnapping and rape of two young college girls, and the brutal retaliation and murder of the rapists by on of the girl's parents. "Teeth" is about chaste girl living with her sexually aggressive step-brother who has the one thing men fear most: vagina dentata.

4. Eww! Gross!

What would you do if you found your flesh rotting while shaving your legs?
Me? I'd scream like a little girl and run to the hospital.

Many extreme horror movies contain gross-out scenes. Gross-out scenes often involve body mutilation, insect or animal infestations and eating exotic foods or items that are not meant to be eaten-- the latter is usually forced on the victim by the sadistic killer. Gross-out scenes can also include graphic depictions of horrific diseases, such those found in "Cabin Fever."

5. Torture for the Sake of Torture

So, anyone else up for a trip to the hostel?

In extreme horror movies, there usually isn't a motive for the sadist that is torturing the victim, which more often than not is a woman. If there is a motive or a reason why the killer is slowly cutting off the victim's limbs, it's often trite or shallow and typically unbelievable, and not something that impacts that actual story in any way. This is also why extreme horror movies are often called torture porn, because porn movies tend not to have a real plot other than pizza guy "delivers" to frisky house wife.

The original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" for instance, has no real motive for why those crazy rednecks love choppin' up them crazy college kids other than the fact that they are cannibals. The extreme horror movie "Saw" on the other hand, does have a motive for the Jigsaw killer, he wishes to make suicidal people and others want to live by throwing them into elaborate death traps.

Top 13 Psychological Horror Films

To further understand and get a better grasp on what makes a good psychological horror film, I've compiled a list of the best and scariest psychological horror movies I have ever seen. Some of these movies use monsters to create the overall mood of horror and dread, some only hint at the monster's existence and it's unclear if it is real or not, while others make you question the perceptions of the characters as the story unfolds. Some of these movies use elements of psychological horror, others may be considered psychological thrillers, but all of them explore the inner workings of our minds to scare us to death.

But be warned, these scary movies will stay with you for a lifetime.



13. The Uninvited (2008)

"The Uninvited" is actually the title of two different movies that came out in consecutive years. The 2008 version is more of an independent film and should not be confused with the trite 2009 movie "The Uninvited."

Lee is agoraphobic-- she is terrified of wide open spaces. Her phobia is so intense that at times she has to face a wall and block her peripheral vision with her hair to shut out the open space of a room. Lee was traumatized as a child when she looked into her childhood friend's bedroom window at night and saw an old woman looming over his bed. The old woman turns around and smiles directly at her and took her breath away (in the bad way) and Lee believes this is the source of her agoraphobia. Unfortunately for Lee, she moved into a haunted house full of malevolent spirits that aim to possess her body.

When her husband (and former therapist) leaves on a trip, Lee slowly begins to fall apart and her phobia resumes it's grip upon her mind as the ghosts in the house make their presence known. She begins seeing the old woman and hears a baby crying in the house. Lee begins to believe that she had a baby that her husband stole from her and things go downhill from there. The end of this movie was a little ambiguous, but in the unsettling way.


12. Rebecca (1940)

Alfred Hitchcock's Oscar Award winning gothic ghost story is a psychological horror film about a young woman who marries a rich man and soon learns that his first wife, Rebecca died in a suspicious boating accident. Some believe that Rebecca has not moved on and that her ghost haunts the servants and her husband at his Manderley Estate. Just what happened to Rebecca, and what is her husband really hiding from her?

11. Repulsion (1965)

Roman Polanski's "Repulsion" is about Carol Ledoux, a Belgian manicurist living in London with her sister Helen. Coral is painfully shy and incredibly awkward around men, to the point of being terrified of them. When her sister goes on vacation with her boyfriend Michael, Carol begins to slowly lose her mind. She is terrified of losing her sister to a man, and soon stops going to work and becomes a shut-in. Her world seems to close in on her as she begins to hallucinate and mentally fall apart. This movie has some very trippy scenes in it, such as the walls cracking and pulling apart and hands reaching out to grab Carol. "Repulsion" is definitely one of Polanski's greatest films.

10. Paranoia 1.0 (2004)

"Paranoia 1.0" aka "One Point O" is a dark cyberpunk psychological movie with a plot that is drowning in heavy atmosphere. Simon, a computer programmer, begins to receive mysterious empty packages in his apartment. (They are delivered even though the door to his apartment is locked.) His investigation into the source of these empty packages takes him on a downward spiral into madness as he meets his odd neighbors, receives phone calls from an android head named Adam, and uncovers a creepy corporate conspiracy to control what consumers buy by infecting them with cravings, such as Simon's indescribable addiction to Nature Fresh milk.

9. Spider (2002)

David Cronenberg's "Spider" is about a paranoid schizophrenic man, Dennis Cleg aka Spider, who as a boy came to believe that his mother was replaced by a whore, and that she and his father killed his mother. When Dennis is released from the mental hospital he goes to live at a desolate halfway house that is near his childhood home. There he begins to relive the events of his childhood and his fragile grasp on reality is utterly shattered as his delusions take hold of his mind once again.



8. In the Mouth of Madness (1995)

"In the Mouth of Madness" is one of the best examples of a Lovecraftian psychological horror movie that I have ever seen.


Sam Neill plays an insurance fraud investigator John Trent, who is hired to find Sutter Cane- the insanely popular and best seller modern horror writer. Sutter Cane's books have been known to driver readers mad, which at first Trent believes is just hype, until he starts looking into things and learns that nothing is as it seems. Trent's reality quickly unravels as he travels to a town not found on any road map called Hobb's End, where he comes across characters from Sutter Cane's books and soon learns that the madness in the town is infectious as he goes insane and suffers from a psychotic break.



7. Stir of Echoes

Working class family man Tom is a skeptic that allows himself to be hypnotized by his wife's sister Lisa, who gives him the post-hypnotic suggestion to be more open-minded. Her suggestion accidentally opens a door in his mind and allows him to see the dead. Tom begins to suffer from horrifying visions of a local missing girl, Samantha Kozac, being murdered. Samantha continues to torment him and he is slowly driven mad as he tries to unravel her cryptic messages. Is Tom losing his mind, or is the missing girl actually a ghost trying to get Tom to help solve her murder?

"Stir of Echoes" is loosely based on the novel "Stir of Echoes"by Richard Matheson. I highly recommend the book as well.

6. Pan's Labyrinth

"Pan's Labyrinth" by Guillermo del Toro is a period piece set in Spain five years after the Spanish Civil War in May of 1944. Ofelia is a young girl who is obsessed with fairies and the Underworld. She lives in a vibrant fantasy world of her own imagination. Her indifferent stepfather, Captain Vidal, is a ruthless fascist who dotes on her pregnant mother but could care less if Ofelia died. Ofelia finds a labyrinth near her new home and meets the Faun, who tells her that she is the Princess of the Underworld and that she must undergo three tasks and complete them before the moon is full in order to return to her father, the king.

The movie is full of vivid imagery and covers many themes about the human mind (labyrinths are common symbols for our psyches). At times it is often unclear is Ofelia is actually interacting with magical creatures, or if they are all in her mind.

A word of warning though, this isn't a cute fairy tale, it's a bitter-sweet tragedy with an ending that will make even the most stalwart of movie watcher tear up and reach for a tissue.



5. The Changeling (1980)

Dr. John Russel is a classical composer that moves into an large, long abandoned estate after his wife and daughter are killed in a traffic accident. Strange things start to happen to John after he moves in, and he becomes obsessed with composing a song that he hears in his head. Later, he finds a music box that plays the exact same song that he composed on his piano.

John is plagued by nightmares while his waking hours are filled with terror and dread as he slowly unravels the mystery behind the ghostly presence of a boy in the house, and how the boy died.

The atmosphere of this movie will stay with you long after you've watched it, it's one of the best ghost movies I've ever seen; it really manages to get inside your head to create a tense feeling of terror that you really have to experience for yourself. "The Changeling" also uses the creepy imagery of an empty wheelchair to great horrific effect.


3. Black Swan (2010)

Nina wants to be both the White Swan and the Black Swan, but soon has difficulty separating her own thoughts and actions from those of the darker character.

"Black Swan" is about a dancer, Nina Sayers, who is a member of the New York City ballet company. The ballet company is producing Swan Lake, in which a sensual Black Swan steals the prince from the innocent and virginal White Swan.

Nina lives with her controlling mother, and is struggling to compete with a rival in the ballet company. The director wants the same dancer to portray the White Swan and the Black Swan. Nina forces her way into the role and sends her rival into early retirement. The pressure of performing soon starts to affect Nina's mind and she starts to hallucinate as her behavior becomes erratic and violent. Nina believes that her body is sprouting black feathers as her personality takes on more of the Black Swan's bolder, more sinister qualities. "Black Swan" covers the theme of the doppelganger, or evil twin, and the dangers of high stakes performance arts.

2. Jacob's Ladder (1990)

Jacob Singer is a traumatized Vietnam Vet who survived the war. While on tour in Vietnam the soldiers in his unit started behaving erratically and he was attacked. Now, he struggles with living an ordinary life and suffers from war flashbacks and hallucinations of his dead son and ex-wife. As his hallucinations become increasingly surreal and terrifying, Jacob learns that the Army's chemical warfare division released an agent called BZ, code named "The Ladder" on his unit during the Vietnam War. "The Ladder" was supposed to increase people's primal fears and base anger and make them highly aggressive in combat. Unfortunately, it makes them hallucinate and attack each other instead of the enemy. The labyrinthine journey of "Jacob's Ladder" has a shocking conclusion that you won't believe until you see it.


1. Session 9

"Session 9" is one of the most underrated and least talked about psychological horror movies, which really surprises me because it the best one I have ever seen. It may be a slow burner, but that is done on purpose, as the atmosphere and paranoia needs to be developed for it to have a huge impact during the climax of the story. Even better, it was actually filmed in an abandoned mental hospital that was about to be torn down.

Gordon's cleaning crew has landed a lucrative job removing asbestos from an abandoned mental hospital. One of his men uncovers a box labeled "Evidence" in a tunnel of the mental hospital. Inside the box are nine taped sessions with patient number 444, Mary Hobbes. As the tapes are listened to, the men split up to cover more ground while they clean up the hospital. One by one, they are attacked by an unseen assailant, while Mary's split personalities talk about Simon, the violent personality.

It slowly becomes clear that Simon represents the darkest parts people's psyches, and that Gordon is being affected by him. Is Simon one of Mary's personalities, or is he the evil spirit of the mental hospital that is now influencing Gordon's mind and driving him insane?