98 Best Psychological Horror Movies Of All Time Ranked

What is "psychological horror?" Is it a genre? Is it a broader description of the type of horror a movie evokes? Both? For our consideration of the best psychological horror movies of all time, we're using the broader understanding of horror movies that seek to horrify us with stories that focus on characters' psychology.

Once you start considering horror films interested in their characters' psychology, the range of movies we can look at balloons to all kinds of movies. There are traditional psychological stories that follow characters who struggle to tell the difference between reality and fiction, but there are also sci-fi horror hybrids, ghost stories, slashers, body horror classics, and more than a few movies about serial killers to consider.

But no matter what sub-genre it may fall into, each of these films is fascinated by the psychological effects of terrifying experiences or in some cases, by the horror that a fracturing psychological state can create. Some of these movies are interested in exploring how our brains try to make sense of scary stuff, while others look at how our brains themselves can be the source of our fear. All of them though can be categorized as "psychological horror movies," so let's take a look at the best that this type of horror has to offer.

Rob Zombie's 2007 remake of "Halloween" is divisive to say the least, and his follow up is no different. But "Halloween II" (2009) is not a remake of Rick Rosenthal's 1981 sequel. Rather, it's Zombie's own story about Laurie Strode's response to the horror of being attacked and losing friends to horrifying violence. It's a movie that tracks Michael Myers on his journey to her without any sense of glee in its violence. Instead, it offers brutal and genuinely painful to watch depictions of Myers' killings and the real and emotional trauma that they inflict. It's still dismissed by many, but there are those like Willow Catelyn Maclay of Mubi, who have made the case for "Halloween II" as a powerful consideration of the "psychological effects of violence" and it's easy to see how.

• Starring: Scout Taylor-Compton, Sheri Moon Zombie, Malcolm McDowell

• Director: Rob Zombie

• Year: 2009

• Runtime: 105 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 23%

Unlike any other movie on this list — and unlike most movies, really — "Inland Empire" is a three-hour long, mostly non-narrative exploration of an actor's horror, as her mind begins to struggle with the differences between reality and a movie she's in. The movie dives into a number of different situations, each of which are centered on the actor, but many of which seem to not relate to one another in any way. In true David Lynch fashion, "Inland Empire" is an undeniably challenging movie, but that also makes it one of the most unsettling and horrifying movies ever made. It never lets the audience, or its lead character, rest and try to make sense of things because it's always asking more questions rather than offering clear answers.

• Starring: Laura Dern, Jeremy Irons, Justin Theroux

• Director: David Lynch

• Year: 2006

• Runtime: 180 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

"Shutter" follows photographer Tun and his girlfriend Jane, who accidentally hit a young girl with their car and leave her behind. Soon, Tun begins to see strange shadows and what appear to be faces in his photos. But that's just the beginning, as friends of theirs begin to die by suicide and Tun learns that the girl may have been someone he knew as a student. The film then follows his and Jane's investigation into the girl's past, and how it overlapped with Tun's. "Shutter" is a movie that offers viewers a story of real horror that's rendered through the lens of what may or may not be a ghost story in a way that makes it one of the best psychological horror movies of all time.

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• Starring: Ananda Everingham, Natthaweeranuch Thongmee, Achita Sikamana

• Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom

• Year: 2004

• Runtime: 97 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 63%

Steven Soderbergh has made movies in almost every genre, and he's had success in almost all of them as well. "Unsane" is one of his forays into psychological horror and he lends his experienced eye to this story of Sawyer, a young woman who is confined to a psychiatric hospital after unknowingly signing a consent form to admit herself into the institution. That would be horrifying enough, but the reason Sawyer is at the hospital at all is because she has been severely traumatized by her experiences with a stalker ... a man who has just been hired as an orderly at the hospital where she is now confined. "Unsane" is a brutally tense movie and Soderbergh's decision to shoot the entire thing on an iPhone gives it a strange, almost too real feeling.

• Starring: Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Jay Pharoah

• Director: Steven Soderbergh

• Year: 2018

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

Based on Ira Levin's biting satirical novel of the same name, "The Stepford Wives" follows Joanna as she moves from an intense and stressful life in New York City to the small Connecticut town of Stepford with her family. Once there, she begins to realize that almost all of the women in the community are slavishly obedient to their husbands and seem to have no interests of their own beyond serving their husbands. She begins to investigate these Stepford wives with a friend, but things become more complicated, difficult, and dangerous as their investigation proceeds. "The Stepford Wives" is a classic of the 1970s, and one of the most potent movies about gender relationships ever made. But more than that, it's a thrilling and genuinely frightening horror movie.

• Starring: Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson

• Director: Bryan Forbes

• Year: 1975

• Runtime: 115 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 68%

A very loose remake of the Universal Monster classic 1933 film of the same name directed by James Whale (itself based on H.G. Wells' book of the same name) "The Invisible Man" (2020) re-centers the story from the titular Invisible Man to one of his victims. The film follows Cecilia, who escapes from an abusive relationship and soon after, learns that her ex has died. But she then begins to experience strange things going wrong around the house, and starts feeling like she's being watched. It's a horrifying movie with an incredible performance from Elisabeth Moss that fantastically updates the premise for a new age.

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• Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Storm Reid

• Director: Leigh Whannell

• Year: 2020

• Runtime: 124 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

"Creep," as you can likely guess, is extremely creepy. The film follows down on his luck videographer Aaron, as he takes a job with a mysterious client named Josef, who wants Aaron to simply film him going about his days at his remote cabin before he passes away from a terminal illness. Josef says he wants these videos to give to his unborn child, whom he will never get to meet. But the longer Aaron stays at the cabin with Josef, the stranger and stranger Josef begins to act, until he's revealing things that are utterly horrific. "Creep" is truly remarkable for how much horror is mined from just two people stuck in a cabin, and how effectively it draws the audience into Aaron's place stuck in the middle of nowhere with, well, a creep.

• Starring: Mark Duplass, Patrick Brice

• Director: Patrick Brice

• Year: 2014

• Runtime: 77 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Brian De Palma is a master of genre cinema, and psychological horror movies are just one of the genres that he's made with his distinct style. Made in 1973, "Sisters" is one of his earliest genre films and helped put his name on the map as a director who deeply understands the psychological nature of horror. "Sisters" follows a model suspected of murder and the reporter who investigates the crime. But when it's revealed that the model has a recently separated conjoined twin, things become more complicated and the reporter's memories begin to become confused. It's a thrilling movie that is difficult to follow in the best way that will leave you scratching your head but eager to discuss with friends and put the pieces together.

• Starring: Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning

• Director: Brian De Palma

• Year: 1973

• Runtime: 92 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

Robert Eggers made a splash with his 2016 feature directorial debut, the psychological folk horror period piece "The Witch," and followed it up with another single location, powder keg horror film. "The Lighthouse" centers on two lighthouse keepers, who begin to see strange things, like mermaids and a possible magic in the light of the wild, remote lighthouse that confines them. It's never exactly clear what's real and what's an isolation-induced hallucination, but the relationship between the two men is enough to make the movie an intriguing and unnerving experience. It also helps that Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are two great and bring everything to their roles here in a movie that makes the most out of a seemingly simple situation.

• Starring: Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe

• Director: Robert Eggers

• Year: 2019

• Runtime: 109 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

When a Danish family meets a Dutch family on vacation, they quickly become new friends. A few months later, the Dutch family invites the Danes to come visit them at their home in the countryside. But as soon as the Danish family arrives, things feel a bit off: They're offered meat even though they're vegetarians, they're told to leave their daughter with a babysitter they've never met, and they get stiffed with a bill. And that's just the beginning. "Speak No Evil" is almost a comedy of errors except that the entire thing is so tense that it's almost hard to watch. The movie is essentially a cat-and-mouse game, except that it's a mouse that's too polite to get away from the cat.

• Starring: Fedja van Huêt, Morten Burian, Sidsel Siem Koch

• Director: Christian Tafdrup

• Year: 2022

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

David Lynch's first feature film immediately marked him as a director to watch. "Eraserhead" is a strange, surreal movie centered on a basic plot about a man who is left to care for a strange, almost alien-looking child. But the real horror comes from the inexplicability of the events in the film and the overbearing aesthetic. There are digressions into other worlds within the larger world of the film, and the near-constant harsh industrial soundscape of the movie makes it impossible to ever feel at ease while watching. "Eraserhead" is a psychological horror movie that is more interested in terrorizing its audience than in delivering a clear narrative, and it certainly succeeds in its goal.

• Starring: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Joseph

• Director: David Lynch

• Year: 1977

• Runtime: 89 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Director Pedro Almodóvar is best known for his melodramas and comedies, but with "The Skin I Live In," he delivered one of the most disturbing horror movies of the 21st century. The movie follows Robert, a plastic surgeon who keeps a young woman named Vera in his home so that he can experiment on her. Following the death of his wife, he has become obsessed in developing skin that is burn-resistant. But as he continues to experiment with different surgeries, Vera comes to look more and more like his dead wife. And when an old flame of Robert's wife arrives at their home, things change dramatically for everyone. "The Skin I Live In" is an incredibly unpredictable and undeniably provocative movie, and for anyone interested in the darker side of an art-house icon's filmography, it's necessary viewing.

• Starring: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes

• Director: Pedro Almodóvar

• Year: 2011

• Runtime: 120 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

Based on the Korean folktale "The Story of Janghwa and Hongryeon," "A Tale of Two Sisters" centers on young teen Su-mi, who returns home after a stay at a mental hospital. When she arrives, she discovers bruises on her younger sister and immediately suspects her stepmother of abuse. Besides the concern of where her sister's injuries came from, there's also the added question of whether or not the home is haunted. Su-mi has visions of her dead mother and at one point, an aunt visits and says that she was attacked by a ghost. But it's unclear whether these ghosts are real or if it's just Su-mi's mind playing tricks on her. The journey the movie takes us on to find out is simultaneously thrilling and beautiful, as there's a real consideration for atmosphere and human emotion within the horror.

• Starring: Im Soo-jung, Moon Geun-young, Yum Jung-ah

• Director: Kim Jee-woon

• Year: 2003

• Runtime: 114 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

Michael Haneke has made a number of unnerving movies, but perhaps the most troubling of them all is his meta take on horror films. "Funny Games" follows a family on vacation, who get terrorized by a pair of young men. It's a fairly standard premise for a horror movie, but what makes "Funny Games" special and more horrifying than other movies with a similar plot is the way that the young men break the fourth wall throughout the film. These nods to the camera involve the audience in the action of the film in a way that's deeply unsettling while also being slyly playful, which moves "Funny Games" from a more standard home invasion movie to one of the most disturbing psychological horror movies of all time.

• Starring: Susanne Lothar, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering

• Director: Michael Haneke

• Year: 1997

• Runtime: 109 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

Based on the novel of the same name by horror master Stephen King, "The Mist" tells the story of a town overrun with a dense mist that seems to house all manner of horrifying creatures. It largely takes place within a single grocery store, where several of the townspeople have congregated after a destructive storm. What makes "The Mist" one of the best psychological horror movies is that it's just as interested in the horror that people stuck in a small space can inflict on one another as it is in the danger posed by the creatures coming out of the mist. It paints a frighteningly believable picture of a community in crisis and the ways that desperate people hurt one another.

• Starring: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden

• Director: Frank Darabont

• Year: 2007

• Runtime: 126 minutes 

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%

"Session 9" follows an asbestos abatement crew who take a job at an abandoned mental institution and slowly begin to experience strange, seemingly supernatural events. While reality begins to blur for many of the crew members, one of them discovers a series of tapes left behind that chronicle a doctor's meetings with a patient, who is terrorized by some entity. Things become even more frightening when the conversations the doctor has with the patient begin to resemble events occurring — or reoccurring — in the movie. "Session 9" is a fantastic psychological horror movie that's made even better by its setting at the real Danvers State Hospital, the asylum that inspired H. P. Lovecraft's Arkham Sanitarium and Arkham Asylum in "Batman" (via Atlas Obscura).

• Starring: Peter Mullan, David Caruso, Josh Lucas

• Director: Brad Anderson

• Year: 2001

• Runtime: 100 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66%

"The Others" take place in the immediate aftermath of World War II on the English isle of Jersey off the coast of Europe. The film follows Grace and her two children, who live in a large estate and begin to suspect that there may be "others" in the house with them. Grace's daughter says that she has seen other people in the home who claim that it belongs to them, and Grace sometimes hears strange sounds in the home but isn't able to find their origin. "The Others" is a gorgeously atmospheric gothic horror story that keeps viewers guessing what exactly is going on in the home.

• Starring: Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston

• Director: Alejandro Amenábar

• Year: 2001

• Runtime: 104 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

Dinner party settings have a long history in movies, and "The Invitation" offers one of the best (or should we say worst?) dinner parties on film. Will and Kira are invited to a dinner party at Will's former home, where his ex-wife Eden lives with her new husband David. Some of Eden and Will's old friends have also been invited to the party. But things quickly feel off, as Will struggles with being in the house where he lived with his ex-wife and their now dead child. Things only get worse once Eden and David begin to tell their guests about "The Invitation," a mysterious group they've joined that helps participants work through grief. The movie does a great job of placing the audience firmly and uncomfortably in Will's headspace, as he struggles with both the past and present of his relationship with Eden and their life together. 

• Starring: Logan Marshall-Green, Tammy Blanchard, Michiel Huisman

• Director: Karyn Kusama

• Year: 2015

• Runtime: 100 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

"Under the Shadow" follows a mother and daughter in 1980s war-torn Tehran during the Iran-Iraq War, who are beset with a malevolent spirit. The movie explores the ways in which the war and the spirit cause psychological and emotional damage to the mother and daughter, highlighting the toll that war takes on those who must live under its constant threats. It's this social aspect of the movie that marks it as a psychological horror movie and not simply a ghost or demon story. While it certainly deals with the supernatural, "Under the Shadow" focuses the psychological nature of these different horrors more than anything else in its exploration of PTSD and the ways trauma can manifest.

• Starring: Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi

• Director: Babak Anvari

• Year: 2016

• Runtime: 84 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%

It's extremely rare, but sometimes an American remake of a non-English movie can be better than the original. That's the case for Gore Verbinski's "The Ring," a remake of Hideo Nakata's Japanese classic "Ringu," which follows the same basic storyline of a woman investigating the mysterious death of her niece, but offers a denser atmosphere and more clearly plotted narrative. The investigation eventually leads the woman to a videotape that is said to be cursed, which then only leads her down a deeper and more disturbing investigation into the tape's origin. "The Ring" explores the horrors that can be born from the mixture of technology and the supernatural, but it remains grounded, as each character expresses doubt about the possibility of any supernatural occurrences.

• Starring: Naomi Watts, David Dorfman, Martin Henderson

• Director: Gore Verbinski

• Year: 2002

• Runtime: 115 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

"Martyrs" is famous as one of the most extreme movies ever made and one of the most difficult horror movies to watch, but while those (inarguably true) assessments of the movie focus mostly on the horrifying violence of the movie, they often ignore just how psychologically disturbing it is. The film centers on Anna, a young woman whose girlfriend Lucie struggles with PTSD after being held captive as a child. So, they decide to take revenge on Lucy's kidnappers. The seemingly straightforward task takes a turn, as we learn that the torture that Lucie suffered was systematically enacted by a secret elite group obsessed with creating martyrs. The detached violence that follows this revelation is all the more horrifying for its matter-of-factness and repetition than for its shock factor.

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• Starring: Mylène Jampanoï, Morjana Alaoui, Catherine Bégin

• Director: Pascal Laugier

• Year: 2008

• Runtime: 99 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 64%

"The Machinist" is the second film from director Brad Anderson on this list besides "Session 9," and where that movie focuses on a group's descent into madness or at the very least violence, "The Machinist" is entirely focused on its individual central character. Trevor hasn't slept in over a year and begins to see a man named Ivan, who eventually leads him to cause an accident at work and lose his job. As his life spirals out of control, Trevor attempts to solve the mystery of who Ivan is and why he seems intent on ruining his life. But things aren't as simple as that, and as Trevor learns more, his sanity begins to slip. "The Machinist" is a fascinating and intellectually exciting movie that's just as scary as it is smart, and it also offers a phenomenal performance from Christian Bale.

• Starring: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, John Sharian

• Director: Brad Anderson

• Year: 2004

• Runtime: 102 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%

"Audition" is an early movie from Japanese horror master Takashi Miike that begins almost like a romantic comedy before transforming into something much more unique and terrifying. The film follows widower Shigeharu whose movie producer friend cooks up a plan to hold auditions for young women, who think they're auditioning for a film role, but really, the "role" is to be Shigeharu's new wife. Shigeharu immediately falls for the beautiful Asami and begins to court her. But Asami remains mysterious, and as the movie goes on, more questions arise about both her past and present. "Audition" is a modern cult classic that deliberately develops its story to a thrilling climax that you won't see coming, but will stay with you for days.

• Starring: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Tetsu Sawaki
• Director: Takashi Miike
• Year: 2001
• Runtime: 113 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

Based loosely on the Greek tragedy "Iphigenia in Aulis" by Euripides, "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" follows surgeon Steven, who befriends a young man named Martin. Martin lost his father in a car accident years ago and Steven wants to be a positive male role model and mentor in the young man's life. But Martin quickly begins to overstay his welcome in Steven's life and makes increasingly strange demands of the surgeon. Things eventually come to a head when Martin reveals a past connection between him and Steven and demands that their history be acknowledged. "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" is an unnerving movie from the beginning due to the strange way the actors speak and move and by the end, it's downright harrowing.

• Starring: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan

• Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

• Year: 2017

• Runtime: 121 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

"Jacob's Ladder" begins with a visceral sequence during the Vietnam War, as we see a group of soldiers attacked and main character Jacob stabbed by a bayonet. But this extended battle scene is revealed to have just been a dream — or perhaps a memory — when Jacob wakes up on the subway on his way home. It's a striking introduction to a movie that would be effective and thought provoking if it were only about PTSD, but "Jacob's Ladder" is about a lot more, which makes it a classic of psychological horror. Jacob sees visions of demons and there are some indications that he may in fact already be dead or at the very least, subject to government experimentation while in Vietnam. The journey to discover what's real and what's a nightmare is as fascinating as it is horrifying.

• Starring: Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello

• Director: Adrian Lyne

• Year: 1990

• Runtime: 113 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%

Based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, "Misery" follows author Paul Sheldon, who gets into a serious car accident and wakes up to find himself stuck in the home of Annie, one of his biggest fans, who found him by the side of the road. At first it seems that Paul has been extremely lucky, since Annie is a nurse and is more than willing to care for him until he's up and running again. But when Annie learns that Paul plans to kill off her favorite character named Misery, she decides to make him a prisoner rather than a guest and use whatever means necessary to get him to write her favorite character back to life. "Misery" is a thrilling single location film that mines the dynamic between two people and their shifting positions of power for all the tension and horror it's worth.

• Starring: Kathy Bates, James Caan, Richard Farnsworth

• Director: Rob Reiner

• Year: 1990

• Runtime: 107 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Robert Altman's "Images" places the audience so firmly in the place of its protagonist, children's author Cathryn, that it's almost impossible to know what's real and what's part of Cathryn's hallucinations. The film follows Cathryn and her husband Hugh, as they take a trip to a cottage in the countryside to relax and escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. But Cathryn can't escape her mind, which constantly plays tricks on her. A dead lover appears before her, the faces of the men in her lives swap around so often that it's difficult to know who is who, and she receives anonymous phone calls from a woman whose voice sounds suspiciously like her own. "Images" is confusing in the best way and while it leaves you questioning exactly what you just saw, at the end, you're left certain that you're scared.

• Starring: Susannah York, René Auberjonois, Marcel Bozzuffi

• Director: Robert Altman

• Year: 1972

• Runtime: 101 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%

"The Psychic" tells the story of a woman cursed with psychic vision, who sees a murder unfold before her eyes and seeks to uncover the killer. She recognizes the place where the homicide took place as her husband's country home and when she arrives there, she finds a woman's body set into the wall, just as her vision showed her. But when her husband is then taken into custody as a suspect, she must investigate the death to clear his name. As she investigates, it seems that perhaps the gruesome crime she envisioned was not in fact that of the woman discovered in the wall; it may have been of a murder that has not happened yet. "The Psychic" is a beautifully atmospheric and unnerving film from Lucio Fulci, one of the greatest Italian directors of the 20th century.

• Starring: Jennifer O'Neill, Gianni Garko, Marc Porel

• Director: Lucio Fulci

• Year: 1977

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

"The Cremator" is often cited as a major work of the Czechoslovak New Wave of the 1960s and it's easy to see why. Set in the 1930s, the film follows cremator Karel Kopfrkingl, who loves his job and sees himself as freeing the souls of the departed when he cremates them. He is also obsessed with the "Tibetan Book of the Dead" and considers his crematorium as a temple of death. That's enough to make spending time with him frightening, but as the movie goes on, he slips from this adoration of death into an agent of it, and all the while, we are invited to listen to his inner monologue that justifies his actions. It's a horrifying movie that serves as a powerful portrait of madness during the rise of authoritarianism and brilliantly ties the two together thematically.

• Starring: Rudolf Hrušínský, Vlasta Chramostová, Jana Stehnová

• Director: Juraj Herz

• Year: 1969

• Runtime: 95 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

Nicolas Winding Refn has been making some of the most distinct-looking movies around since the beginning of his career and 2011's "Drive" exposed his visual style to a wider audience. His movies are crisp, glossy, and doused in neon lights, but also interested in horrible violence, so it makes sense that he would turn his eye to the dangers of beauty. "The Neon Demon" follows Jesse, who moves to Los Angeles to make it as a model. But she soon discovers that there are all sorts of predators who want to take advantage of her in different ways. It's a movie that's always shifting its attention to new threats, and by the end, it seems that the pursuit of beauty itself is a threat.

• Starring: Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, Keanu Reeves

• Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

• Year: 2016

• Runtime: 117 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 58%

While later movies in the "Saw" series rely on horrifyingly intricate torture sequences and even more intricate plots, the first movie is actually very simple. Two men wake up, chained to the walls of a grimy basement bathroom, and a dead body is in the middle of the room between them. They discover cassette tapes urging each man to kill the other in order to save his own family. The movie expands to follow the police who are investigating the "Jigsaw Killer," but its focus is always on the psychological horror of what desperation can make people do, whether they are in a body-mutilating trap or obsessed with catching a murderer. "Saw" is a thrill ride from start to finish and includes one of the greatest endings of any horror movie ever made.

• Starring: Leigh Whannell, Cary Elwes, Danny Glover

• Director: James Wan

• Year: 2004

• Runtime: 103 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 50%

Inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft and directed by the legendary John Carpenter, "In the Mouth of Madness" follows insurance investigator John Trent, who is sent to find missing author Sutter Cane. Trent is accompanied by Linda, an editor at Cane's publishing house, and the two set off to find the author whose new manuscript is apparently driving its readers mad. Their investigation brings them to a New Hampshire town that in theory only exists in Cane's books. It's full of people, but as the movie goes on, it seems that these people aren't making organic decisions and are instead following already established narratives. The question of where reality ends and fiction begins is asked by a lot of great psychological horror movies, and "In the Mouth of Madness" is one of the best to do so.

• Starring: Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow

• Director: John Carpenter

• Year: 1994

• Runtime: 95 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 58%

The only major noir directed by a woman, "The Hitch-Hiker" follows two friends who, you guessed it, pick up a hitch-hiker. But that hitch-hiker turns out to be a wanted killer, who threatens to kill the men unless they take him to Mexico. "The Hitch-Hiker" is a small scale powder keg of a film, as we see the trio make their way to the border with the threat of violence exploding at any moment. William Talman is phenomenal as the titular hitch-hiker, who takes the friends hostage and brings a real sense of menace to the movie, while Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy honestly and emotionally portray the horror of their situation.

• Starring: Edmond O'Brien, Frank Lovejoy, William Talman

• Director: Ida Lupino

• Year: 1953

• Runtime: 71 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

Many movies explore the dark underbelly of seemingly idyllic suburban life, but none of them do it quite like "Blue Velvet." The film follows college student Jeffrey who takes an innocuous trip back home, only to discover a severed ear in his perfect suburban neighborhood. His curiosity is piqued and he becomes obsessed with discovering whose ear it is and why it was cut off. Teenager Sandy — who also happens to be a detective's daughter — joins his investigation, and the two soon uncover a vast criminal underworld that's much more disturbing than anything they could have imagined. "Blue Velvet" is a deeply horrifying film that is often difficult to watch, but that's part of what makes it one of the best psychological horror movies of all time.

• Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper

• Director: David Lynch

• Year: 1986

• Runtime: 120 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

"Rebecca" is the only movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock to ever win best picture at the Academy Awards, and while we may argue that there are other films that should also have won, there's no denying that "Rebecca" deserved the accolade. The film follows a young woman, who is never given a first name, after she marries a wealthy widower and moves into his estate. There, she is psychologically terrorized by the estate's housekeeper, who loved her husband's first wife Rebecca. We never see Rebecca in the film, but her presence looms large over the entire thing, giving the movie the feel of a ghost story. There's nothing supernatural here, though; the ghost of Rebecca only exists in the characters' minds, but that's in part what makes this a brilliant psychological horror film.

• Starring: Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier, Judith Anderson

• Director: Alfred Hitchcock

• Year: 1940

• Runtime: 130 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

Based on Jeff VanderMeer's book of the same name, "Annihilation" is a high concept sci-fi movie: It follows a group of women, who enter a mysterious area known as the "Shimmer" that has emerged from a meteor crash and seems to be rearranging things on a molecular level. It doesn't take long for that transformation of the familiar into the unfamiliar to begin affecting the women, and as their journey continues, we see how they react to the experience. It's these reactions that make "Annihilation" so psychologically fascinating. Some characters are curious about how they might control the Shimmer, others are horrified and angry, while others still come to terms with their changing bodies. "Annihilation" is a strange movie that's equally disturbing and beautiful.

• Starring: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez

• Director: Alex Garland

• Year: 2018

• Runtime: 115 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

Director Sergio Martino and actor Edwige Fenech made several films together in the early 1970s (another of which appears even higher up on this list) that dive into the relationships between sex, psychology, and violence. "All the Colors of the Dark" (also released as "Demons of the Dead") follows Jane who finds herself struggling after a miscarriage. So, she accepts an invitation from her alluring new neighbor to visit some people who might be able to help her. Those people turn out to be a sect of Satanists, who perform black masses. At first Jane believes these masses are helping her, but things start to become more sinister, as the line blurs between Jane's waking life and her dreams. Taking a look at the lengths that people will go to deal with their grief and trauma, "All the Colors of the Dark" becomes especially frightening when a threatening man from Jane's dreams appears in her life.

• Starring: Edwige Fenech, George Hilton, Ivan Rassimov

• Director: Sergio Martino

• Year: 1972

• Runtime: 94 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66% (audience score)

The protagonist of "Night of the Demon" (a.k.a. "Curse of the Demon") is a psychologist, but that's not the only reason the movie lands on our list of the best psychological horror movies. The film, based on the short story "Casting the Runes" by M. R. James, follows psychologist John Holden, as he investigates the connection between a friend's death and an Occultist named Julian Karswell. Throughout the movie, there is a tension between Karswell's claims of supernatural power and Holden's skepticism about anything mystical, which comes to a head in the film's final moments. We won't spoil anything here, but horror abounds well before the end and it's not clear until then exactly what kind of horror it is.

• Starring: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis

• Director: Jacques Tourneur

• Year: 1957

• Runtime: 82 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Loosely based on "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce, "Carnival of Souls" tells the story of Mary, who gets into a horrifying car crash with some friends and winds up being the only survivor of the accident. She leaves the town where the accident took place to take a new job as an organist in Salt Lake City. On her way there, she has visions of a threatening, ghostlike man and finds herself oddly drawn to a carnival on the edge of the Great Salt Lake. As the movie goes on, Mary has more strange experiences, such as everyone around her suddenly ignoring her existence. "Carnival of Souls" is a beautiful and haunting movie that hugely influenced directors like David Lynch and George A. Romero and is a must-watch for fans of psychological horror.

• Starring: Candace Hilligoss, Herk Harvey, Sidney Berger

• Director: Herk Harvey

• Year: 1962

• Runtime: 80 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

"American Psycho," based on the book of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis, is a hard film to pin down. It's equally a satirical comedy and a psychological horror movie, as its portrait of the titular psycho Patrick Bateman moves between hilarious and horrifying, and sometimes both at the same time. The film invites us into Bateman's monologue that lets us see how he actually perceives the world, and it's so ridiculous that we want to simply laugh at it until it becomes genuinely dangerous. It's a satire with such a hard edge that it isn't just unnerving because of how close it gets to reality. Rather, it is truly scary because it makes us consider the culture that would create an individual like Patrick Bateman.

• Starring: Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto

• Director: Mary Harron

• Year: 2000

• Runtime: 102 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 69%

While a number of movies serve as portraits of killers and people with serious mental illness that drives them to violence, "We Need to Talk About Kevin" focuses instead on the parent of such an individual. Based on the book of the same name by Lionel Shriver, the film follows Eva, a mother trying to make her way through the world in the aftermath of the violence enacted by her son Kevin. The movie shifts back and forth in time, as we see her attempts to understand and love her son, which are met with rejections and general coldness from him. It's a striking movie full of incredible performances and offers a perspective into a killer's psychology unlike others that we've seen before.

• Starring: Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, John C. Reilly

• Director: Lynne Ramsay

• Year: 2011

• Runtime: 112 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%

The two greatest icons of Universal's monster movies were in a few movies together, but the first and best film to feature Bela Lugosi going head to head with Boris Karloff is 1934's "The Black Cat." The film follows two newlyweds on their honeymoon in Hungary, who are stranded by a storm and must seek refuge in the home of an old Austrian architect. They're with an older World War I veteran that they met on their travels, who says that the architect is an old friend. But it soon becomes clear that the history between the veteran and architect was anything but friendly. "The Black Cat" is one of the first major psychological horror films ever made, as almost all of the scares are built on atmosphere and the cat and mouse game played by the two older men, both of whom give amazing performances.

• Starring: Boris Karloff, Béla Lugosi, David Manners

• Director: Edgar G. Ulmer

• Year: 1934

• Runtime: 69 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

"Possession" is a movie that is, to say the least, difficult to follow. But it's so visceral that its near incomprehensibility becomes a positive. The film follows a man, who returns home from an espionage mission to learn that his wife wants a divorce, but she won't tell him why. He attempts to discover exactly what is going on with her, as beyond the request for a divorce, her behavior is growing more erratic and dangerous both for herself and also their young son. "Possession" is one of the most intense and horrifying representations of the end of a relationship on film, rendered here in various turns as body horror and a strange mystery. It's an incredibly unnerving film from its first moment and only grows more and more distressing as it goes on until its absolutely unforgettable climax.

• Starring: Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen

• Director: Andrzej Żuławski

• Year: 1981

• Runtime: 124 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

"Irréversible" is infamously difficult to watch for a number of reasons: It contains a graphic extended rape scene, the camerawork is almost constantly chaotic and disorienting, and the film's sound design uses inaudible infrasound to unnerve the audience (via Salon). But for those interested in subjecting themselves to one of the most challenging films ever made, it can be a rewarding experience. The film's narrative, which centers on two men seeking revenge for the assault of a girlfriend, is played in reverse chronological order that makes its horror and tragedy all the more devastating. It's a visceral movie that lands on our list of the best psychological horror films because it's so dedicated to scarring its audience's psyche, and it largely succeeds.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

• Starring: Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel

• Director: Gaspar Noé

• Year: 2002

• Runtime: 97 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 58% (Link includes disturbing image)

Although it's one of David Cronenberg's least graphic horror movies, "Dead Ringers" is still incredibly unnerving and disturbing. The film centers on twin gynecologists, who both become involved with an actress. But this isn't a polyamorous relationship — at least not a healthy consensual one — since the twins pretend to be one another with the unsuspecting actress, who doesn't realize she's actually dating two people. The twins' scheme starts to fall apart when one of them actually falls for the actress and tries to separate from his brother with disastrous consequences. "Dead Ringers" is a strange and often uncomfortable movie that hits on a number of taboos without ever pushing into exploitation. It's a movie that examines its characters' psychologies in a way that makes us as viewers feel icky for even knowing about these people.

• Starring: Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold, Heidi von Palleske

• Director: David Cronenberg

• Year: 1988

• Runtime: 115 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

While on a vacation in France, a young woman suddenly vanishes at a gas station. Her boyfriend has no idea where she has gone and dedicates himself to finding her. It's a setup that would function well for any psychological horror mystery movie, but what makes "The Vanishing" special is that it answers the question of what happened to the woman early on: She was kidnapped and killed by a sociopath, who wanted to test his ability to commit evil. The rest of the movie then plays as a painfully tense cat-and-mouse game between her boyfriend and her murderer, who cannot help but test the limits of what the boyfriend will do to find out what happened to the woman he loved.

• Starring: Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, Johanna ter Steege

• Director: George Sluizer

• Year: 1988

• Runtime: 107 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

Based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, "Carrie" follows the titular teenager, as she develops telekinetic abilities and endures bullying from her fellow classmates. It's a surprisingly touching movie about a young woman, who just wants to be accepted by her peers, especially as she struggles with an abusive mother at home. "Carrie" was the first Stephen King book ever adapted to film and perhaps we wouldn't have seen so many King adaptations follow if "Carrie" hadn't been so successful. The film's success and continuing legacy can largely be attributed to director Brian De Palma's incredible eye for style and Sissy Spacek's phenomenal performance as Carrie. It's a film that's equally emotionally moving, visually stunning, and downright horrifying, especially in its final iconic sequence.

• Starring: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, William Katt

• Director: Brian De Palma

• Year: 1976

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

Director Kim Jee-woon has been one of the most exciting filmmakers working out of South Korea for the last twenty years and "I Saw the Devil" may well be his best film in his already impressive filmography. The film follows a spy, who seeks revenge on the serial killer that murdered his wife. But far from being a simple revenge narrative, the film sees the spy catch and attack the killer early on. What makes "I Saw the Devil" remarkable is the ongoing cat-and-mouse game that the spy creates. He repeatedly catches, beats, and then frees the killer — only to do it all again — because this is his desired form of revenge. Over the course of the movie, we begin to question how much of this violence is really justified and whether our hero has crossed the line into sociopathy himself.

• Starring: Lee Byung-hun, Choi Min-Sik, Oh San-ha

• Director: Kim Jee-woon

• Year: 2010

• Runtime: 141 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

From master Japanese horror filmmaker Kaneto Shindo, "Onibaba" tells the story of a mother and her daughter-in-law trying to survive during a war in the medieval period. In the midst of such chaos, they do what they need to stay alive, like killing soldiers and stealing their belongings. When a male neighbor returns from war and begins to show a romantic interest in the daughter-in-law, the film changes from a story about survival during wartime into a psychological horror film. The older woman does not like that the two young people are seeing one another and decides to stop them by using a Hannya mask to frighten them. But the mask carries unforeseen consequences. "Onibaba" is a small-scale horror story that uses melodrama to draw out emotions and fears around loneliness and desperation to powerful effect.

• Starring: Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Satō

• Director: Kaneto Shindo

• Year: 1964

• Runtime: 102 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

While many may know her as Wanda from the Marvel Cinematic Universe now, Elizabeth Olsen's first feature film performance is a far cry from the MCU, as it's in a small independent movie about a young woman who escapes a cult. After her escape, she moves in with her sister and brother-in-law, who do their best to care for her but struggle to manage due to her severe trauma. The movie moves back and forth in time to show us some of the young woman's experiences while in the cult, and it examines how even in the safety of her sister's home, she can never stop looking over her shoulder out of the fear that members of the cult will find her to bring her back. A powerful and haunting film about the psychology of cults, as well as the effects of trauma, "Martha Marcy May Marlene" rests on Olsen's shoulders and not surprisingly, she delivers here.

• Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, John Hawkes

• Director: Sean Durkin

• Year: 2011

• Runtime: 102 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Based on David Pinner's novel "Ritual," "The Wicker Man" follows a detective, who is sent to an island off the coast of Scotland to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. When he arrives, the locals are not exactly rude, but they are certainly strange, and they deny the existence of the girl. The longer he stays, the more he learns about the islanders' pagan religion. As a devout Catholic, he's horrified by their beliefs, but "The Wicker Man" never takes sides. In fact, it often portrays the locals as much more charming and reasonable than the detective, who's so sure that he knows what's right and true in the world. A classic of the folk horror genre, "The Wicker Man" centers around the question of belief — and what drives our need for it — as it slowly burns its way to its shocking and memorable finale.

• Starring: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland

• Director: Robin Hardy

• Year: 1973

• Runtime: 87 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

David Fincher is now known as one of the greatest directors of films about serial killers thanks to his work on movies from "Zodiac" to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." But it all started in 1995 with "Se7en," which follows a pair of detectives who investigate a series of murders based on the seven deadly sins. It's a horrific movie for its murder set pieces alone, but what makes "Se7en" one of the best psychological horror movies of all time is its consideration of the type of person who would commit such violence. The detectives attempt to understand this kind of person and the viewer goes along with them on that journey, until by the end, we discover that someone like that simply cannot be understand.

• Starring: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow

• Director: David Fincher

• Year: 1995

• Runtime: 127 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

"The Descent" is a horror movie that functions within a variety of sub-genres. But first and foremost, it's a psychological horror movie about the horrors of desperation, which is what threads through its two distinct halves. The film follows a group of friends, who go spelunking in a cave system that has never been explored before, or at least no exploration has been reported, and they soon discover why. The incredible claustrophobia in the film and the increasingly desperate moves that the characters make to escape make "The Descent" one of the most horrifying and memorable movies of the 21st century. Just be sure to watch it with the original ending, rather than the U.S. theatrical cut.

• Starring: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, MyAnna Buring

• Director: Neil Marshall

• Year: 2005

• Runtime: 100 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

"Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key" is remarkable for many reasons besides its fantastic name. Based loosely on Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Black Cat," the film centers on an alcoholic writer, his wife, and the chaos that erupts when his attractive young niece comes to stay with them at their estate. The movie includes a series of double crosses, murders, and intense sexual chemistry that elevate it to the higher ranks of the giallo genre. "Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key" is an erotically charged movie that plays with the connection between sexual desire and violence in a unique way that makes it stand out within the psychological horror genre.

• Starring: Edwige Fenech, Anita Strindberg, Luigi Pistilli

• Director: Sergio Martino 

• Year: 1972

• Runtime: 96 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Some may take issue with one of the foundational slashers being placed on a list of the best psychological horror films of all time. But consider the fact that "A Nightmare on Elm Street" isn't just a movie about teenagers being killed; it's a movie about teenagers being killed in their dreams by a man that their parents thought they had put to rest. Wes Craven's classic examines the ongoing horrors of violence and the fragile relationship between reality and dreams in ways that few purely psychological horror movies have. The fact that it offers some of the most iconic images and kills in horror history just makes it more fun, but there's a lot going on psychologically in "A Nightmare on Elm Street," which is partly what makes it endure as one of the most beloved films of the genre.

• Starring: Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, John Saxon

• Director: Wes Craven

• Year: 1984

• Runtime: 91 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Some of the best psychological horror movies are marked by their incredible atmosphere that draws viewers in and unsettles them. "Personal Shopper" is the strange psychological horror movie that envelops its audience in a disquieting atmosphere that is almost comforting. The film follows personal shopper and medium Maureen, who seeks a sign from her recently deceased brother. Much of the film offers a strangely cozy atmosphere, as Maureen investigates different ways to contact her brother. But that coziness alone is not what makes the film so special; what makes "Personal Shopper" one of the best psychological horror movies are the few powerful breaks in that calm atmosphere that introduce real, visceral horror.

• Starring: Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Nora Waldstätten

• Director: Olivier Assayas

• Year: 2016

• Runtime: 106 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

"The Perfume of the Lady in Black" follows Sylvia, as she begins to lose her grip on reality shortly after learning about black magic. What makes "The Perfume of the Lady in Black" distinct from other movies that center on a character slipping between reality and their imagination is that it draws more heavily on Sylvia's memories than on any current hallucinations. It's a movie that falls into a strange dreamy rhythm but never allows the audience or Sylvia to become comfortable, even (or especially) as we learn more about how she is being manipulated by those around her. But the greatest strength of "The Perfume of the Lady in Black" is its refusal to give the audience any easy answers, instead leaving us with one of the most shocking and thought-provoking endings in horror.

• Starring: Mimsy Farmer, Maurizio Bonuglia, Mario Scaccia

• Director: Francesco Barilli

• Year: 1974

• Runtime: 101 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 50% (Audience score)

"In My Skin" is one of the more forgotten and under-seen films from the New French Extremity movement of the 2000s, but it deserves to find a more significant audience. Writer/director/star Marina de Van helms this film, which tells the story of Esther, who becomes obsessed with exploring her body through self-mutilation after an accident leaves a deep cut in her leg. While the film includes some significant scenes of gore, it's much more interested in Esther's psychology and what drives her obsession than its effects. It's a disturbing but sympathetic portrait of a woman on a quest to learn more about herself in a singular and horrific way.

• Starring: Marina de Van, Laurent Lucas, Léa Drucker

• Director: Marina de Van

• Year: 2002

• Runtime: 93 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66%

"Scream" (2022) confirmed that "The Babadook" is already a modern classic, and when watching the movie, it's easy to see why. The film follows single mother Amelia, who struggles to deal with her troubled son Sam and her own emotions following the death of her husband. One day, Sam discovers a pop up book about a creature called "the Babadook" and he asks Amelia to read it. As she reads, it becomes clear this isn't a story for children and soon after she finishes the book, the terrifying creature begins to make appearances in their lives. But "The Babadook" isn't a creature feature. Rather, it's about the horrors of grief and what that grief can drive us to do, as we see Amelia and Sam lash out in dangerous ways before confronting their loss.

• Starring: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Hayley McElhinney

• Director: Jennifer Kent

• Year: 2014

• Runtime: 94 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

With his feature film debut "Get Out," writer-director Jordan Peele immediately established himself as a master of blending horror with explicit social commentary. While he's released other horror movies like "Us" and "Nope" since "Get Out," so far none have made more of an impact on culture (or been better) than the first. "Get Out" follows a young black man, who goes to the suburbs with his white girlfriend to meet her family. But once they get there, things feel off. The only other black people he meets behave strangely and almost mechanically. The movie feeds his — and our — paranoia, until finally delivering an incredibly unique finale that's like nothing we've seen before or since.

• Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford

• Director: Jordan Peele

• Year: 2017

• Runtime: 104 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

"Oldboy" begins when alcoholic businessman Oh Dae-su is kidnapped and placed in a sealed room from which he cannot escape. The only engagement he has with the outside world is through a television. 15 years later, Oh Dae-su is released and decides to investigate who captured him and why. His journey leads him to uncover things about his past and the pain that he caused others, while his captor teases and torments him in horrifyingly creative ways that we don't fully understand until the film's astounding finale. It's definitely not a movie for the squeamish (you may never look at an octopus the same way again), but "Oldboy" is one of the greatest cat-and-mouse horror films ever made.

• Starring: Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jung

• Director: Park Chan-wook

• Year: 2003

• Runtime: 120 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

"The Witch" is another modern classic that earned cult status almost as soon as it was released. The film follows a family in 1600s New England, who get exiled from their colony because of the father's extreme religious beliefs. They make a home for themselves on the edge of a forest, and soon bad things start happening. Their youngest child goes missing, their crops die, and a son becomes dangerously sick. And because these are religious extremists in the 1600s, their first suspicion is that of witchcraft, but more specifically, that their eldest daughter is a witch. Within this microcosm of a family, a psychological battle ensues over unholiness, belief, and female sexuality in terrifying ways. All of this plus its gut-punch ending make "The Witch" a modern classic that will surely stand the test of time.

• Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Katie Dickie

• Director: Robert Eggers

• Year: 2015

• Runtime: 92 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

"Suspiria" is iconic for its bold bright colors and incredible practical gore sequences, but it's also a fantastic psychological horror film. The story centers on young dancer Suzy Bannion, who arrives at a ballet academy in Germany on the same night that another student goes missing. The longer Suzy stays at the academy, the more that strange and scary things happen. Eventually, she begins to investigate these events with her friend Sarah, and the two learn that the academy may not be entirely what it seems. "Suspiria" is a gorgeous movie with incredible horror sequences and the entire film is an atmospheric and paranoia-fueled nightmare.

• Starring: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci

• Director: Dario Argento

• Year: 1977

• Runtime: 99 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

When considering the entirety of David Cronenberg's amazing filmography, many still find that his masterpiece is 1983's "Videodrome." TV station head Max Renn is always on the hunt for the next big thing, which for Max means the most salacious, controversial, and disturbing TV programs he can find. One day, a colleague discovers something called "Videodrome," a plotless show that takes place in a bare room and simply shows people being tortured. Max loves it and makes it his mission to learn more about it. But it soon becomes clear that Videodrome has an effect on its viewers and is part of a much larger battle over the place of TV in modern life. "Videodrome" offers some of Cronenberg's signature body horror, but more than that, it's one of the most thought-provoking films about media ever made.

• Starring: James Woods, Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits

• Director: David Cronenberg

• Year: 1983

• Runtime: 89 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%

"It Follows" opens with a bang: A young woman runs from an unseen threat before accepting her fate and ending up mangled on a beach. The movie then introduces us to Jay, who goes on a date with a jumpy guy. After she sleeps with him, he informs her that he has passed a demon on to her, which takes the form of any person, at any time, following her. But no one can see it except for her. And it will catch her unless she gives it to someone else. The funny — but true — way to describe the premise of "It Follows" is that it's about a sexually transmitted demon. The real horror and the film's psychological aspect don't come from the violence of the demon though. Rather, it comes from Jay and her friend's attempts to understand how they can try to defeat it or simply live with the demon constantly following them.

• Starring: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Olivia Luccardi

• Director: David Robert Mitchell

• Year: 2014

• Runtime: 100 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

The oldest movie on this list, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is a silent film that tells the story of the titular Dr. Caligari and the somnambulist Cesare, whom Caligari uses as a carnival attraction. But Cesare isn't just a sleepwalker; he tells people's fortunes, and when a man asks Cesare to tell his fortune, the somnambulist tells him that he won't wake up the next morning. When that man ends up dead, the town is thrown into a frenzy. An investigation into who killed the man and the relationship between his death and the sleepwalker leads to more and more questions. Many — including Roger Ebert — consider "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" to be "the first true horror film," as well as the first movie done in the German Expressionist style. Made during the interwar period and under the dark shadow of WWI, it's a singular movie with some of the most beautiful sets ever built and is just as scary today as it was when it was first released.

• Starring: Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss, Friedrich Fehér

• Director: Robert Wiene

• Year: 1920

• Runtime: 74 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

While "Audition" gets most of the attention (and it certainly deserves a lot of it), we actually think that director Takashi Miike's greatest psychological horror film is this 2003 story about a gangster who loses and then has to find a body. That simple set up doesn't at all prepare you for how bizarre the movie gets though. It's a dive into a strange world of even stranger characters, including a woman obsessed with her breast milk, a man claiming to be a ghost (which he may well be), and a creature resembling a minotaur (which may or may not be real). It's an absurd movie that melds humor, horror, and some gangster story elements to create one of the most unique psychological horror movies you'll ever watch.

• Starring: Hideki Sone, Show Aikawa, Keiko Tomita

• Director: Takashi Miike

• Year: 2003

• Runtime: 129 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%

"Raw" is a coming-of-age tale that follows Justine, who starts her first semester at the same veterinary school that her older sister Alexia attends. After being forced to eat a rabbit kidney during a hazing ritual, Justine — a lifelong vegetarian — begins to crave more and more flesh until finally, she discovers a taste for human flesh and some unexpected truths about her sister. "Raw" is about many things: the horrors of being a fish out of water, the cruelty of hazing, power struggles between siblings, and of course, cannibalism. But unlike other cannibal movies that focus on shock and gore, "Raw" is a movie about self-discovery that centers on Justine's emotional journey of learning how to live with this new craving. Yes, it's gruesome enough to have made people vomit and faint during screenings, but at its heart, "Raw" is about Justine's struggle to maintain human relationships with the people that she cares about but also wants to feed on the most. 

• Starring: Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella
  

• Director: Julia Ducournau

• Year: 2016

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

"Black Swan" follows demure ballerina Nina, as she attempts to secure the dual role of the white and black swans in her company's production of "Swan Lake." The production's director knows that Nina can dance the part of the sweet and innocent white swan, but has doubts about her abilities to dance the wild and sensual black swan. Nina is determined to prove him wrong, but things take a turn when another ballerina joins the company, who seems to be perfect for the chaotic black swan role. Nina starts having visions of the other ballerina, and soon, she struggles to tell what's real and what's not, as her obsession with getting the role drives her to more and more destructive behavior towards herself and others.

• Starring: Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis
• Director: Darren Aronofsky
• Year: 2010
• Runtime: 108 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

"Lake Mungo" is the only movie on this list that functions at least partially like a found footage film. It's a mockumentary horror movie about a family reckoning with the death of their daughter, who drowned, and the strange, seemingly supernatural events they begin to experience after her death. It's an incredibly tense movie that does a fantastic job presenting its twist-and-turn-filled story through the mockumentary style and offers some of the scariest found footage scenes ever filmed. What makes "Lake Mungo" so special though is how it plays with time and explores the way that grief can make people see things they want to see. It's a horror movie that sticks with you not just because it's scary (which it certainly is), but because it's also emotionally potent.

• Starring: Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin Sharpe

• Director: Joel Anderson

• Year: 2008

• Runtime: 88 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

"Under the Skin" follows a nameless woman, who picks up men around Glasgow and brings them back to a strange house. There, the men are enveloped in a black void that leaves them as nothing but hollow skin sacks. That setup sounds more gruesome than "Under the Skin" actually is, since it's an atmospheric and unnerving movie more than it is a shocking or violent one. The unnamed woman is in fact an alien in human form and eventually, the movie shifts its focus from her man-eating to her curiosity about humanity: What does it mean to be a human and particularly a human woman? It's a stunning movie that asks some difficult questions while drawing viewers in with a distinct visual style and sound design.

• Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Dougie McConnell

• Director: Jonathan Glazer

• Year: 2013

• Runtime: 108 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

"We're All Going to the World's Fair" is as much a movie about horror as it is a horror movie itself. The film follows young teenager Casey, who joins the online "World's Fair Challenge" in which participants go through a ritual and then begin to experience changes. It's not clear whether or not these stories are real or fake at first, as it seems that some players are just making up stories to create a multi-creator narrative of the game. But there's a disturbing undercurrent to the entire film, and Casey's behavior does seem to change erratically, which some viewers (and the director) read as an expression of dysphoria and the trans experience. Either way, "We're All Going to the World's Fair" is a striking movie about horror stories and horror communities online, which looks at the ways the internet can be as much a tool for connecting with helpful people as with harmful ones.

• Starring: Anna Cobb, Michael J. Rogers

• Director: Jane Schoenbrun

• Year: 2021

• Runtime: 86 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Based on "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James, and adapted in part by Truman Capote, "The Innocents" has significant literary credibility that's apparent when watching. The film deals with issues of class, mental illness, and innocence deftly without ever feeling like its plot is slowing down to consider these thematic interests. The movie follows Ms. Giddens, who takes a job caring for two orphaned children at an estate owned by their uncle, who cannot be bothered to spend time with them. But as soon as she arrives, she begins to hear and see things. A question arises as to whether the estate is haunted by ghosts or Ms. Giddens is mentally ill and beginning to hallucinate. The film never offers any specific answers and that ambiguity is part of what makes it so great and disturbing.

• Starring: Deborah Kerr, Martin Stephens, Pamela Franklin
• Director: Jack Clayton
• Year: 1961
• Runtime: 100 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Based on Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac's novel "She Who Was No More," "Diabolique" tells the story of the wife and mistress of the same man, who hatch a plan to kill him. But that's just the beginning. The real horror begins after they kill him: His corpse disappears and he continues to appear to them and to others. "Diabolique" beautifully mixes noir and horror filmmaking to deliver one of the most exciting and terrifying psychological horror mystery movies ever made. In fact, in an interview for L'Ecran Fantastique, "Psycho" novel author Robert Bloch called "Diabolique" his "favorite horror film of all time," which is "the epitome of what the horror film should be" due to its lack of bloodshed.

• Starring: Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse

• Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot

• Year: 1955

• Runtime: 117 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

"Melancholia" is one of the most unique psychological horror films in that its plot is never exactly scary, but its considerations of depression and anxiety are so authentic that it draws us into the headspace of the characters. The film is split into two distinct halves, each focusing on one of two sisters. The first half centers on Justine on the night of her wedding, as she struggles to overcome her apathy and acts out in self-destructive ways. The second half focuses on her sister Claire, as another planet nears Earth and she struggles to accept that the planet will pass Earth by. While the second part of "Melancholia" is such a literal take on anxiety that it's almost silly, the film takes itself and its characters emotions seriously in a way that makes it work effectively.

• Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander Skarsgård

• Director: Lars von Trier

• Year: 2011

• Runtime: 130 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%

A few years before "Rosemary's Baby," Roman Polanski made his first English-language feature film "Repulsion." The film follows Carol, a young woman who is beset by men and their attempts to court her. When her sister leaves Carol alone in their apartment to go on a trip, Carol begins to spiral out of control. She doesn't leave the apartment and has visions that make it difficult for her to tell the difference between reality and her imagination, as she feels the presence of men all around her. "Repulsion" looks at these threats — both real and imagined — that stem from Carol's experiences with men, which have created a sense of fear and repulsion that envelop her and for many viewers, it's a harrowing exploration of a woman's psyche fractured by a society that can only objectify her.

• Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Yvonne Furneaux, Ian Hendry
• Director: Roman Polanski
• Year: 1965
• Runtime: 105 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

"Perfect Blue" follows pop idol Mima Kirigoe, as she attempts to make the transition from singer to actress. This already difficult transition in careers is made more so by someone writing a blog that purports to be her diary. The anonymous poster has surprising insight into her life, and she receives threatening letters from fans, who want her to go back to being a sweet singer instead of acting in an often morbid crime drama on TV. As the movie goes on, Mima begins to have visions of her past self, which tell her she is not the real Mima but simply an imposter. "Perfect Blue" is a gorgeously animated movie that's thrilling from start to finish, which has directly influenced the style of "Requiem for a Dream," a horrifying psychological film in its own right.

• Starring: Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shinpachi Tsuji

• Director: Satoshi Kon

• Year: 1997

• Runtime: 81 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

While Martin Scorsese's remake of "Cape Fear" is great, nothing beats J. Lee Thompson's original 1962 movie. In Thompson's film, Max Cady is released from prison after serving an eight year sentence for rape and begins a cruel game with Sam Bowden, the lawyer who put him in prison. Robert Mitchum is horrifying as Max Cady, he's able to be charming while also being disgusting and threatening. It's an incredible performance and one that won't leave you after the movie ends. The movie also offers an amazing finale that delivers a surprising amount of action for a movie that's otherwise so psychologically driven.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

• Starring: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen
• Director: J. Lee Thompson
• Year: 1962
• Runtime: 106 minutes
• Rating: Not Rated/Passed
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

For many, Hitchcock's most iconic film also remains his best. "Psycho" is primarily remembered for its shower scene, but it's what happens afterwards that lands it high on this list. Marion Crane steals money from work to pay off her boyfriend Sam's debts and stops by the Bates Motel for the evening to rest before making her escape. Things don't go according to plan and after Marion's shocking murder, the film shifts its focus to Sam's investigation of what happened to her, and what exactly is going on at the Bates motel. It's this investigation along with Sam's scenes with Norman that really get under your skin. Anthony Perkins is fantastic throughout, embodying a murderer like few others have on-screen. He's impossible to look away from, as we just can't quite figure out what's going on with him.

• Starring: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles
• Director: Alfred Hitchcock
• Year: 1960
• Runtime: 109 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

"The Seventh Victim" follows Mary, who leaves her boarding school and moves to New York city to find her older sister Jacqueline, who has mysteriously disappeared. As she learns more about her sister's life in the city, she discovers that Jacqueline may have been involved with an occult group. The film never takes a supernatural turn, but rather, it considers what drives people to become fascinated with darkness and death. This representation — along with its message that these things may not be inherently bad — is astounding. "The Seventh Victim" is a movie that remains shocking for its honest consideration of our relationship to death and what that relationship can look like.

• Starring: Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Kim Hunter

• Director: Mark Robson

• Year: 1943

• Runtime: 71 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Detective Kenichi Takabe has been tasked with investigating a series of murders in which each victim has an X carved into their necks. It's a gruesome M.O. for a serial killer, but what makes it more alarming and difficult to understand is the fact that the killer is a different person each time. The killers all say the same thing: They can't explain exactly what drove them to kill. Takabe's investigation takes a strange path, one that leads him to consider the possibility that these murders are being orchestrated by a single person somehow using other people to do their bidding. "Cure" is an atmospheric and hypnotic film that draws viewers into its world, but never offers clear answers. Instead, it offers even more questions as it approaches its finale, leaving us uncertain and disturbed in a way that lingers.

• Starring: Kōji Yakusho, Masato Hagiwara, Tsuyoshi Ujiki

• Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

• Year: 1997

• Runtime: 111 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

After the accidental death of their son, a couple known only as He and She go to their cabin in a stretch of woods called Eden to begin the healing process. He is a therapist and wants to help her with her grief, but She is inconsolable. As the film continues, He begins to have visions of talking animals and She becomes increasingly violent, until things explode in one of the most disturbing and memorable finales of any horror movie. But it's the interplay between the two in the build up to that finale that makes "Antichrist" one of the best psychological horror movies of all time. The push and pull of their relationship and his attempts to (sometimes literally) wrestle the grief out of her, are impossible to look away from.

• Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe

• Director: Lars von Trier

• Year: 2009

• Runtime: 108 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 54%

"Thelma" follows the titular Thelma, a young woman, who arrives at university and encounters a new unknown world of independence away from her religious parents. Things become more difficult when she begins to experience seizures and develops feelings for the kind and beautiful Anja. Thelma struggles with her attraction, and as the film continues, begins to show signs of telekinetic abilities that she cannot control. She begins to investigate her past to see if she can find out what is happening to her and whether her parents have been honest with her about who — and what — she is. Blending the supernatural with the dramatic, "Thelma" is a beautiful coming-of-age romance that's also one of the most insightful psychological horror movies about repression.

• Starring: Eili Harboe, Kaya Wilkins, Henrik Rafaelsen

• Director: Joachim Trier

• Year: 2017

• Runtime: 116 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

Based on the book of the same name by Thomas Harris, "The Silence of the Lambs" isn't the first film to bring Hannibal Lecter to the big screen (that would be 1986's "Manhunter") but it still remains the best film to do so. The movie follows FBI recruit Clarice Starling, as she enlists the infamous cannibal's help to catch the serial killer known as Buffalo Bill. There is certainly horror in the scenes of Bill with his victims, but the heart of the movie are the scenes between Starling and Lecter that dig deep into Starling's past and questions of human nature itself. Lecter toys with Starling in a way that's insidious and uncomfortable, but impossible to look away from and impossible to forget.

• Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn
• Director: Jonathan Demme
• Year: 1991
• Runtime: 118 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Co-written by its star Joe Spinell, "Maniac" is one of the most disturbing horror movies ever made thanks to its commitment to offering viewers a glimpse into the mind of a killer. As a child, Frank Zito was physically abused by his mother. Since her death a few years ago, he has taken to keeping her memory alive by talking to himself, often channeling her in his one-sided conversations. He also does so in a gruesome way, as he kills women and then uses parts of their bodies as stand-ins for their mothers, so he can talk to them as if they were her too. Frank wants to make sure that no other woman will leave him the way his mother did and his methods for ensuring that are horrifying to say the least.

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.

• Starring: Joe Spinell, Caroline Munro, Gail Lawrence

• Director: William Lustig

• Year: 1980

• Runtime: 88 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 37%

Inspired by Clive Barker's short story "The Forbidden," "Candyman" tells the story of graduate student Helen, who becomes fascinated by the urban legend of Candyman, a killer that appears if you say his name in front of a mirror five times. She begins to research the stories and their connection to the location of Cabrini Green in Chicago. But her academic interest soon becomes something more when the urban myth proves to be real. "Candyman" asks questions about race, class, and the power of stories in American culture that are just as vital today as they were when the movie came out. The fact that it looks amazing and is still deeply unsettling is just a bonus.

• Starring: Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkeley
• Director: Bernard Rose
• Year: 1992
• Runtime: 98 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%

Released the same year as "Psycho," "Peeping Tom" is often forgotten in the shadow of that more famous film. But for many, it's actually the better serial killer movie from 1960. The film follows Mark, who is obsessed with the idea of capturing someone's genuine expression of terror in the final moments of their life. It's a troubling premise, especially as the film goes on and we see that it's not just fear that Mark feels the need to capture: It's every waking moment of his life. "Peeping Tom" isn't just a portrait of a disturbed young man; it's also a movie about movies, our relationships to cameras, and voyeurism.

• Starring: Carl Boehm, Moira Shearer, Anna Massey
• Director: Michael Powell
• Year: 1960
• Runtime: 109 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

Based on the book of the same name by Davis Grubb, "The Night of the Hunter" follows zealous preacher Harry Powell, as he kills a woman and chases her children across West Virginia in the hopes of learning where their father hid a stash of money. Charles Laughton was primarily an actor and "The Night of the Hunter" was his first and only directorial effort. It's a fairly straightforward story but Laughton injects the film with atmosphere and psychological insight about Powell's misogyny and greed, as well as the fear and desperation of the children. It's an incredibly beautiful movie visually and one that examines the complexities of our psyches, as it takes a deep look at the darkness in humanity, while also offering hope in the end.

• Starring: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
• Director: Charles Laughton
• Year: 1955
• Runtime: 92 minutes
• Rating: Not Rated
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

It's easy to think about "The Exorcist" as the controversial horror movie that depicts blasphemous and taboo acts committed by a child, but the real heart of the film is the crisis of faith that priest Father Karras struggles with. The film, based on the book of the same name by William Peter Blatty, follows the possession of young girl Reagan and the horrors that attend her experience. But it spends just as much time with Father Karras, as he suffers from doubt both about his faith and his vocation as a priest. "The Exorcist" is ultimately a movie about faith and belief and the psychological difficulties that attend faith in the face of real evil.

• Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Max von Sydow
• Director: William Friedkin
• Year: 1973
• Runtime: 122 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

Based on the novel of the same name by Jean Redon, "Eyes Without a Face" follows a doctor, as he desperately attempts to literally find a new face for his disfigured daughter Christiane. The film offers some of the most shocking on-screen surgery for its time and certainly, there is horror in the doctor's experiments and his methods of finding victims whose faces he can steal. However, the depth of the movie and some of its real horror lies in the loneliness of Christiane, who struggles in her imprisonment. She's locked away from the world, unable to contact her fiancé or even go outside the walls of her home. It's a deeply sad movie that draws horror from sadness and loneliness in a powerfully moving way.

• Starring: Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Édith Scob
• Director: Georges Franju
• Year: 1960
• Runtime: 84 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Clearly, David Lynch knows a thing or two about psychological horror and for many, his best work in it is 2001's "Mulholland Drive." Actress Betty arrives in Los Angeles, bright-eyed and ready to make it as a star. But Betty soon meets a woman with amnesia who calls herself Rita and becomes embroiled in an investigation to discover who Rita is. Their investigation leads them to strange and surreal places that harbor a threatening presence. Theirs is only one of several threads that the film follows, as it takes a look at a variety of bizarre horror stories in Hollywood. "Mulholland Drive" is Lynch's masterpiece, which looks at the Hollywood machine and its effect on the psyches of those within it. In many ways, it's the most unsettling film he has made to date and it's also perhaps the most visually beautiful.

• Starring: Justin Theroux, Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring
• Director: David Lynch
• Year: 2001
• Runtime: 146 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

A remake of 1951's "The Thing from Another World" (itself based on the novella "Who Goes There?" by John Campbell), John Carpenter's "The Thing" updates the story to include some of the most gruesome body horror and intense psychological horror ever set to film. "The Thing" follows a group of men holed up at an Antarctica research center, who are infiltrated by an alien organism that can mimic all other biological things, including humans. The body horror scenes are striking and unforgettable, but what makes "The Thing" one of the best psychological horror films of all time is the paranoia that sets in. The men realize that they can't trust each other because anyone could be the alien disguised as a human and the film's examination of what happens when a fear of an other sets in makes it one of the most powerful and horrifying around.

• Starring: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David
• Director: John Carpenter
• Year: 1982
• Runtime: 108 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

There have been many movies made over the years — including "Raw" and "Thelma" on our list — that explore the horrors of sexual repression through allegory, but the greatest of all time remains one of the first: 1942's "Cat People." The film follows Serbian immigrant Irena, who meets a young man and falls in love. But she is scared to become physically affectionate with him because she believes that she may turn into a cat. Her ancestors had stories about cat people and she fears that if she is sexually excited, she will transform into a panther and kill. "Cat People" could have become a creature feature, but instead it's a moody exploration of a woman's fear of her own body and the psychology of desire and sexuality, which makes this classic resonate decades after its release.

• Starring: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph

• Director: Jacques Tourneur

• Year: 1942

• Runtime: 73 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

"Persona" tells the story of nurse Alma, who is hired to care for actress Elisabet. Elisabet has stopped speaking but it's not clear why. Doctors can't find anything physically wrong with the actress and believe that she is simply choosing to remain silent, so they send her to the sea with Alma to recuperate from this seeming breakdown. This allows Alma to share stories about herself with Elisabet, but as time goes on, Alma begins to lose sense of where she ends and Elisabet begins. "Persona" is one of the most fascinating movies ever made about identity and the ways in which it can slip away from us. While it's not strictly horror in a classic sense, its unsettling look at a fracturing identity makes it stay with you long after it ends.

• Starring: Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand

• Director: Ingmar Bergman

• Year: 1966

• Runtime: 84 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Based on the novel of the same name by Ira Levin, "Rosemary's Baby" tells the story of the titular Rosemary, who moves into a New York apartment with her husband Guy. Shortly after moving, Rosemary has a dream in which a demon rapes her. It's a horrifying sequence, but what makes "Rosemary's Baby" one of the greatest psychological horror movies of all time is what comes after. As Rosemary attempts to discover the truth of what has happened — and why her developing pregnancy is taking an abnormally large toll on her body — she is blocked at every turn by her husband, their neighbors, and even doctors. It's a terrifying movie to watch, as Rosemary cannot regain any sense of control over her own life or body, and it explores various aspects of femininity — like motherhood and female bodies — in an unsettling way that few other films have since.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

• Starring: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon
• Director: Roman Polanski
• Year: 1968
• Runtime: 136 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

"What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" is the only movie to bring together classic Hollywood icons Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Sisters Jane (Davis) and Blanche (Crawford) were both once stars of stage and screen. Jane was a child star in vaudeville, but her fame faded as she got older because she didn't adapt well to the new medium of cinema. The initially shy Blanche then became a movie star, who stopped acting after a car accident confined her to a wheelchair. Now, the two sisters live together, as Jane takes care of Blanche. The movie centers on Jane's psychological torture of her sister and her desperate attempts to regain some of her former glory. "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" is a classic of psychological horror, thanks to its performances from these Hollywood legends — particularly Bette Davis as one of the great villains of all time — and its look at the realities of aging for women in Hollywood.

• Starring: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono
• Director: Robert Aldrich
• Year: 1962
• Runtime: 132 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

Based on the short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier, "Don't Look Now" follows John and Laura, a couple who moves to Venice, Italy, where John has taken a job of restoring an old church. It's supposed to be a fresh start for them, as their daughter recently died by accidental drowning. Both parents are lost in their grief: John believes he sees their daughter in her red coat around the city and he tries to follow her but can never catch her, while Laura befriends a psychic, who says that she can reach Laura's daughter in the beyond. "Don't Look Now" doesn't offer many distinctly scary moments, but that's part of what makes it so great, as the entire movie is infused with a dreamy sense of dread. By the end of the movie, we aren't sure that the world around us is what it seems and in many ways, it's one of the best horror films about grief ever made.

• Starring: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland, Hilary Mason
• Director: Nicolas Roeg
• Year: 1973
• Runtime: 110 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

While Stephen King notably dislikes Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of "The Shining," the movie's effectiveness and imprint on culture is impossible to dispute. The film follows a family, who move into the remote Overlook hotel in the Colorado mountains. Dad Jack has taken a job there as a caretaker for the winter, but shortly after the hotel is shut for the season, horror sets in. Both Jack and his son Danny begin to have visions, but while the visions are threatening to Danny, they are inviting to Jack. Soon Jack begins to lash out at his family. That story itself is enough to make the film horrifying, but it's Kubrick's attention to atmosphere and the unnerving score that make "The Shining" an unforgettable viewing experience and the best psychological horror movie of all time that explores alcoholism, abuse, and the capacity for darkness within.

• Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
• Director: Stanley Kubrick
• Year: 1980
• Runtime: 142 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%