The Greatest Horror Movie From Each of the Last 5 Decades

The days are gone in which horror cinema is treated as “lesser,” as the genre is now recognized for its historical and cultural importance. Horror films have been paving the groundwork for innovations in cinema as far back as the 1920s, and they continue to speak to important themes and topics today. The horror genre is where many of the finest filmmakers of all-time got their start, particularly in the late 20th century when Roger Corman gave so many up-and-coming filmmakers a chance to test their abilities on a broad canvas. The fans of the horror genre tend to be incredibly loyal, as they’re willing to celebrate new and exciting ideas that aren’t necessarily connected to a specific franchise or property.

Horror films are helping to keep the theatrical market afloat today during a time in which the box office is under duress. Hollywood can’t continue to put massive budgets into superhero and action films that might not make their money back, but low-budget horror films have the potential to be word-of-mouth successes. When looking back at the past half-century of horror films, there are countless classics, but a few that stand out as essential to the history of cinema. Here is the best horror film from each of the last five decades.

5 ‘The Shining’ (1980)

The Shining is one of the many masterpieces by the great Stanley Kubrick, a genius director who may very well be the best in history. Kubrick’s brilliance was his ability to interweave disconcerting psychological ideas into seemingly straightforward stories that end up becoming far more complicated than what they initially may have seemed; while Stephen King’s novel is a powerful expose on a man wrestling with his dark side, The Shining was Kubrick’s way of reckoning with an external force of evil that has stood the test of time. Unsurprisingly, Kubrick’s obsessive attention-to-detail has meant that the film has spawned countless interpretations and conspiracies, including theories about the Moon landing and commentary on the history of American racism.

The Shining has remained iconic thanks to the legendary performance by Jack Nicholson in one of his most unhinged roles ever. Nicholson worked with many amazing directors, but Kubrick gave him the most terrifying role of his career, allowing him to create a performance that set the template for all sociopathic father figures moving forward. Even if King came to despise what Kubrick did to invert the original novel, The Shining is an adaptation that both expands upon and potentially improves upon material that was already great to begin with.

4 ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991)

The Silence of the Lambs is the only horror film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and one of the very best classics of the ‘90s. Released at a time in which media coverage of serial killers was beginning to grow more speculative, The Silence of the Lambs masterfully adapted the novel of the same name into a cat-and-mouse thriller between Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) and Dr. Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins). While few would have expected the director of Married to the Mob and Something Wild to be the right person to helm a terrifying manhunt thriller, Jonathan Demme ended up having the perfect human touch to make Silence of the Lambs all the more unnerving.

The Silence of the Lambs is a shocking, dark film, but it's not quite as graphic as some may remember it as being; one of Demme’s most brilliant tricks was deceiving the audience into thinking that they had seen more violence than was actually onscreen. Although there are now countless television shows that have drawn from the template set by The Silence of the Lambs, including the prequel series Hannibal, the film still stands out for its perfect pacing and shocking ending. Although both Ridley Scott’s sequel Hannibal and the Brett Ratner prequel Red Dragon are worth watching, The Silence of the Lambs is a definitive classic that may never be surmounted; if nothing else, no one will be able to listen to “Goodbye Horses” the same way again.

3 ‘28 Days Later’ (2002)

28 Days Later emerged at a time in which zombie films needed an upgrade, as the genre had not been able to innovate very much since the groundbreaking work in George Romero’s first three Living Dead films. Armed with a brilliant screenplay by Alex Garland, Danny Boyle decided to create a zombie film that examined a very realistic global crisis in which institutions broke down and people were forced to begin questioning one another out of fear; even before the film served as a perfect parallel to the realities of the COVID-19 crisis, 28 Days Later felt haunting and plausible in a way that most supernatural horror films did not. The film was also keen to point out that in a time of crisis, mankind was often its own worst enemy, a theme that would become the basis when The Walking Dead turned into a phenomenon nearly a decade later.

28 Days Later used groundbreaking digital photography to look, feel, and move like no other zombie films; while there were some filmmakers who were not able to adjust to the changes between classical film projection and digital cameras, Boyle understood the characteristics of the new medium and created a voyeuristic, fly-on-the-wall feel that made 28 Days Later even more disturbing. It’s a property that has proven to be more valuable than nearly any other horror franchise currently running. While 28 Weeks Later was a satisfying sequel that featured a horrifying opening scene, Boyle’s return to the series with 28 Years Later created a new masterpiece that tackled isolationism, survivalism, and Brexit through the eyes of a gripping family drama, and pushed the experimentation of digital expressionism to its most fulfilling extremes.

2 ‘Black Swan’ (2010)

Black Swan was the horror film that Darren Aronofsky was born to make, as there isn’t another filmmaker who has a better handle on self-loathing, obsession, and torment. Aronofsky may be best known for making dark, disturbing dramas, but Black Swan is as beautiful as it is frightening. Natalie Portman put in extensive effort to perform the real ballet in the film, which gave her character even more authenticity in showcasing the search for obsession that haunts all artists. It’s rare that a horror film is recognized in major categories in awards ceremonies, but Portman’s Oscar win for Best Actress couldn’t have been more deserving.

Black Swan is a film that improves on rewatches because of the attention-to-detail that Aronofsky poured into the process of recreating “Swan Lake” and exploring its thematic implications. Portman is obviously the reason to seek out the film, but Black Swan also features stunning work from Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, and Sebastian Stan in one of his first roles. The fifteenth anniversary re-release of Black Swan in theaters last summer not only confirmed that the film had stood the test of time and aged gracefully, but that it is best experienced on the biggest and most immersive screen possible.

1 ‘Weapons’ (2025)

Weapons instantly cemented itself as a modern horror classic thanks to the enigmatic nature of its story and construction. Contemporary horror films might have become obsessed with being “about” something in the broadest and most obvious way imaginable, but Weapons takes its time in dissecting the tension within a community before it collapses upon the presence of a supernatural terror. Choosing to tell Weapons in a non-linear way that mirrors Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia may have been a risk, but writer/director Zach Creggar emphasized the importance of recognizing that not everything is what it might seem. As far-fetched and horrific as the presence of Amy Madigan’s Aunt Gladys is, the notion of people’s grief turning them into monsters feels very real. Weapons is more potent because it tackles a universal idea through a modern prism; even if the paranoia of a literal “witch hunt” is a concept that belongs to history, Weapons is primed to hit even harder when America feels more divided than ever.

Weapons are unafraid to be funny, weird, and relatable, as the scariest horror films tend to be those that reflect the totality of the human experience. There’s not a single character that doesn’t have some sort of endearing trait, regardless of what faults they may have shown otherwise, even in a supernatural setting. Julia Garner makes another case for herself as one of the greatest contemporary scream queens, and Alden Ehrenreich showed once more why he’s one of Hollywood’s most underrated leading men. Josh Brolin may have been in the midst of one of the best years of his career thanks to The Running Man and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, but Weapons allowed him to show the pain experienced by a grief-stricken, frightened father in a way that was surprisingly moving. Weapons will certainly continue to evoke speculation, theories, and analysis in the years to come, but as it stands, there isn’t another horror film in the young decade that is as satisfying, entertaining, and rewarding.