Every year, there are plenty of horror movies released, and some of them are not only good, but better than they sometimes get credit for. After all, the genre is infamously underrepresented when it comes to award shows, like the Oscars, as there’s only ever been one horror movie that won Best Picture (and even that one – which will be mentioned in a bit – functions as a crime/thriller movie as well as a horror one).
So, the following intends to highlight years in cinema history when a horror movie stood tall and proud as arguably the greatest of any film released in its respective year. Doing this means some great horror movies have to get passed over, as The Shining, while incredible, might not be as good as The Empire Strikes Back or Raging Bull (1980 was a good year for cinema), but those are the rules, and they’re going to be followed.
8
‘Psycho’ (1960)
If you only ever watch one Alfred Hitchcock movie, don’t. That’s silly. You should watch a bunch, seeing as he made numerous great ones, including Psycho. This is his best pure horror film, and memorable for having one of the best plot twists in cinema history; the kind so iconic that you probably know what happens before you sit down to watch the movie, if you’re coming to Psycho 60+ years late, but oh well.
It’s still unnerving, at times, by today’s standards, and its influence is also undeniable. Now, as for the rest of 1960, Psycho does have to compete against some other excellent movies like The Apartment and La Dolce Vita, but it being so radical, as well as able to reshape the genre it belonged to, makes it debatably beat out the other great movies that came out in 1960 (just).
7
‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991)
This is the easiest movie to include for present purposes, since it was that previously alluded to horror movie that won Best Picture: The Silence of the Lambs. Now, that’s not to suggest that every Best Picture winner should be considered the best movie of its year, since there have been some fairly contested picks in the history of the Academy Awards, but the voters got it right in 1991. Well, technically, they got it right in 1992, because that was the year the ceremony for the movies released in 1991 came out, if you want to get technical.
Anyway, The Silence of the Lambs is about a young FBI agent in training striking up a strange dynamic with an imprisoned serial killer, all in an attempt to get insight that might help in finding another killer at large. It’s incredibly well constructed and paced, and though not always focused on delivering scares, it can undeniably count itself among the most exciting horror (or semi-horror) movies of all time.
6
‘Nosferatu’ (1922)
If you look up all the movies released in 1922, the one that’s easily the most well-remembered nowadays is Nosferatu, since it was one of the most significant silent era horror movies, and one that has quite the legacy thanks to various remakes and updates over the decades. 1922 also saw the release of the underappreciated Fritz Lang two-part crime epic, Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, but even then, Nosferatu is probably a little better.
So, there isn’t much competition here; not like 1975 or anything, which will be another year featured here (spoilers, oops). Nosferatu is still creepy and kind of cool, even when you watch it over 100 years on from its initial release, and it more than deserves its reputation for being one of the most historically important horror movies released during cinema’s first few decades.
5
‘One Cut of the Dead’ (2017)
Now, One Cut of the Dead is right on the line of being considered a horror movie, since it’s probably more of a comedy, and it also gets oddly endearing to a greater extent than it ever got scary. But to outline just how it goes from being a one-take zombie movie to something else would be to diminish how much fun it is to watch, and it’s almost like Psycho in the sense that the narrative shake-up is what really makes it great.
If you don’t want to count One Cut of the Dead as a horror movie, then pretend this entry was for Get Out, which also came out in 2017 and was much more easily definable as a horror film. Some would argue that was the best movie of that particular year, and yeah, that wouldn’t be a terribly hard argument to make.
4
‘Jaws’ (1975)
1975 was a great year for movies, and also one where a true variety of great movies came out. You’ve got a legendary comedy with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, an all-timer of a crime/thriller film with Dog Day Afternoon, the excellent drama One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, an amazing epic with Barry Lyndon, and what could well be the definitive cult classic (of all time) with The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Jaws is the shark movie to end all shark movies, and if you want to count the big (and violent) shark here as a monster, then it’s about as good as monster movies get, too.
Still, it might be Jaws that stands as the greatest movie in that impressive line-up, though it’s a contested one, admittedly. This is the shark movie to end all shark movies, and if you want to count the big (and violent) shark here as a monster, then it’s about as good as monster movies get, too. Jaws is simple and very easy to get swept up in, not to mention immensely rewatchable, since every time you hop back in the water, it’s somehow just as frightening as the first watch.
3
‘Faust’ (1926)
It comes down to a battle between two very different – but groundbreaking and remarkable – movies when looking at 1926. The runner-up here is a movie that sort of helped invent (or at least partially define) the action genre before it was really a thing: The General. That’s a movie that showcases Buster Keaton at his best, and it’s still surprisingly entertaining, funny, and spectacular a century later.
But then there’s also Faust, which can be compared to the aforementioned Nosferatu, only it’s even more impressive and ambitious. Narratively, it’s a take on the tale of the wager over the soul of the titular Faust, so the story is familiar, but the execution here puts the film on a whole other level entirely. Few films that are this old still look this striking and timelessly dreamlike, and it’s the kind of movie that’s worth checking out even if you’re not particularly into silent cinema.
2
‘Sinners’ (2025)
It’s cheating a little, since at the time of writing, one still technically has to say “Sinners is the best movie of 2025 so far,” rather than the outright/definitive best, but Sinners is worthy of being called that at the moment. That does mean snubbing the also excellent One Battle After Another, which isn’t done here easily, but there is just something even more special about Sinners, though it’s likely both movies will age equally well and (hopefully) continue being remembered once 2025 is long over.
Sinners is also more than just a horror movie, having characters dealing with a supernatural threat for most of the film’s second half, but also doing very interesting and emotionally engaging things on a narrative front before everything turns bloody. It’s easily one of the best horror movies of the century so far, and calling it the best movie (again, so far) of 2025? Yeah, why not?
1
‘The Exorcist’ (1973)
One of those horror movies you probably get sick of hearing about, at a point, The Exorcist is deserving of that hype nonetheless. It has a reputation for being one of the scariest movies of all time, and it’s also notable for being one of those horror movies that makes you actually care about the people wrapped up in the horrifying situation depicted. In that sense, it works surprisingly well as a drama.
It’s about a young girl who might be possessed by a demon, and all sorts of bad things happening before two priests attempt to carry out an exorcism. It’s kind of simple, when you think about it, but it’s the patience of it all – and the way it builds so expertly – that makes The Exorcist special. It’s a shame about some of the sequels, though. You’re best off bowing out after The Exorcist III (1990).
The Exorcist
- Release Date
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December 26, 1973
- Runtime
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122 minutes
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