The 20 best horror movies for beginners

Director Edgar Wright’s first major film was the 2004 zombie flick satire Shaun of the Dead . Starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the film follows Shaun, a dead-end retail worker who lives an uneventful life with no direction. When a zombie apocalypse breaks out, he must battle the undead and become an unlikely hero. While Shaun of the Dead features the usual gore and guts found in zombie movies, its comedic tone and characters will result in more laughs than scares.

Happy Death Day is a slasher film that mixes horror and mystery with the concept of Groundhog Day. It follows college student Tree, who must relive the day of her murder over and over again. The only way to break the time loop is to discover the identity of her masked killer. Happy Death Day has fun with the absurdity and creativity of its concept and features jokes and a campy tone that help balance out the film’s darker elements, such as the creepy killer and violent kills. 

Poltergeist is one of the most prominent horror movies from the 1980s. It follows a family who become tormented by evil spirits in their home, where their innocent daughter is possessed. While Poltergeist has a generally eerie tone and a few scares here and there, it feels quite tame and outdated compared to a lot of modern horror movies, and this is mostly due to the film’s visuals. However, anybody with a clown phobia still might want to avoid this one.

After all these years, The Sixth Sense still remains director M. Night Shyamalan’s magnum opus. Bruce Willis stars as psychologist Dr. Malcom Crowe, who starts treating a young boy who can see dead people. The film has some memorable and spooky moments, such as the encounters with the dead, but the focus is certainly more on the characters and storytelling. The film’s plot twist ending is also so shocking that viewers won’t have time to be scared once the credits roll.

The Black Phone is directed by Scott Derrickson, who also directed Sinister. That film is considered to be one of the scariest movies ever made, so The Black Phone is a much safer bet. This 80s-set ghost story follows a young boy who is abducted by a serial killer known as The Grabber. After he is locked in his basement, he starts getting phone calls from previous dead victims. The film falls more within the thriller category than the straight-up horror genre, making it easier to sit through.

The Fog is directed by horror legend John Carpenter, and features an iconic mother-daughter scream queen duo: Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis. Set in the small coastal town of Antonio Bay, the film sees its residents get ready to celebrate its centenary. A mysterious fog rolls into the town, which contains the vengeful spirits of victims of a planned shipwreck that also took place one hundred years ago. The Fog relies on its chilling atmosphere over gore and scares to tell this ghost story.

The Others is a psychological horror starring Nicole Kidman and is famous for having one of the biggest plot twists in movie history. Without giving too much away, Kidman plays Grace, who lives with her photosensitive children in a darkened family estate. When strange occurrences begin to take place, she starts to believe the house is haunted. The Others is a film that focuses on the unseen, providing plenty of atmosphere and suspense, but nothing overly explicit. 

Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning Get Out is often considered to be one of the greatest modern horror films ever made. The story follows Chris, an African-American man, who goes on a weekend getaway with his girlfriend to meet her Caucasian parents. While things seem normal at first, uncomfortable horrors start to reveal themselves. Get Out uses horror as a tool to explore racism in the United States, so while it is thematically disturbing, it is not so much in the conventional horror sense. 

Like Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland is another zombie film within the comedy genre. Strangers Columbus and Tallahassee, along with sisters Wichita and Little Rock, band together while trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. Like most zombie films, Zombieland is very gory and gooey. However, a lot of the gore is played for laughs and is balanced out with the film’s lighthearted energy. It stars Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin.

One of the earliest examples of a mainstream horror film is the Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho. The iconic movie follows Marion Crane, who is on the run for embezzlement. She spends the night at Bates Motel, owned by the creepy Norman Bates and his dominating mother. At the time of release, Psycho terrified audiences because they had never seen anything like it. Today, it’s not so scary, but it's still a brilliant example of suspense and psychological thrills. 

Real-life couple John Krasinski and Emily Blunt star in A Quiet Place, which Krasinski also directs. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has been overthrown by blind but sound-sensitive creatures, who kill anything in their path. The only way to stay alive is to stay quiet. While A Quiet Place has plenty of tension and frightening moments, it also leans more towards the way of sci-fi, making it not too overbearing for those looking to get into horror. 

In 1988, audiences were first introduced to killer doll Chucky in Child’s Play. When a mother buys a popular doll for her young son’s birthday, he discovers that it is possessed by the spirit of a serial killer. For those who are afraid of dolls, Chucky may not be your cup of tea. However, he’s definitely no Annabelle, and his physical design is much less threatening. His foul mouth and crude cursing also bring a darkly comedic tone to the film, which will probably make audiences laugh rather than jump.

Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic Alien is one of the most famous movies ever made and spawned an entire franchise. It follows the crew of a spacecraft as they encounter a deadly alien life form after investigating a mysterious transmission. Let’s get one thing straight: Alien is not for those with a weak stomach, and if you’ve seen the famous chest-bursting scene, you’ll know this. Besides that element, however, it leans much more into the sci-fi genre, making it less scary than all-out horror films.

The very first film to ever reach blockbuster status was Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, which has become one of the most monumental films ever made. It follows the beach community of Amity Island, who a vicious great white shark terrorizes. Jaws will definitely have you questioning whether you ever want to set foot on a beach again, but it is hardly the stuff of nightmares. It’s a highly accessible entry point for those looking for thrills and excitement.

One of the most influential slasher films ever made is John Carpenter’s Halloween , starring Jamie Lee Curtis as the famous final girl Laurie Strode. In the film, her character and the town of Haddonfield are hunted down by masked killer Michael Myers, who has escaped from a mental hospital. While Halloween is undoubtedly a terrifying film, it is a lot easier to watch in today's day and age than it was when it was first released, due to its slightly outdated feel and retro tone. 

Based on the novel by Stephen King, Carrie is a great starting point for those looking to delve into horror without pushing themselves too far. Teenager Carrie White is bullied at school and lives with her fanatically religious mother. When she discovers she has telekinetic powers, she uses them against those who have humiliated her. While the famous prom scene is always difficult to watch, Carrie is more sad than scary, and viewers will just want her to be happy.

Totally Killer combines the concept of a typical slasher film with elements of time travel. When an infamous serial killer known as the “Sweet Sixteen Killer” returns after thirty-five years, teen Jamie travels back in time to 1987 so she can stop him before he ever starts his murdering spree. While Totally Killer is a slasher film with the sort of kills you would expect, it is a highly comedic adventure, too, with lots of ‘80s nostalgia and fun around Jamie befriending her parents as teens. 

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Presence is a ghost story shot entirely from the perspective of a spirit that haunts a suburban family home. When new owners move in, they can sense that they are not alone. Presence relies on atmosphere and stillness to conjure its supernatural elements, rather than any violence or monsters. It works more as a family drama that is deeply focused on its characters, making it incredibly minimal compared to other films within the genre. 

M3gan, the titular AI robot doll, has become something of a pop culture icon. In the film, a robotics engineer creates M3gan for her orphaned niece, but the robot goes rogue and starts committing violent and shocking acts. M3gan might make audiences worry about the very real dangers of advanced AI, but the film has a campy tone and chooses to embrace its silliness. As a result, M3gan became a social media and queer icon, known for slaying in more ways than one.

From Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon, Freaky combines the body-swap concept of Freaky Friday with a slasher film. When Millie, a high school student, swaps bodies with a deranged serial killer, she must reverse it in less than twenty-four hours before it becomes permanent. Like Happy Death Day, Freaky is very playful and creative with its concept, making for many comedic moments despite the looming sense of danger and death.