Halloween isn’t complete without cavity-promising sweets, slaying group costumes and pulse-racing movies.
In honor of Friday the 13th, here are 13 must-see scary movies that diverge from the mainstream horror classics.
When a dangerous, larger-than-life great white shark terrorizes Amity Island, three men come together to form an unlikely team. They must fight tooth and nail to destroy the beast, or else their efforts will end in a bloodbath.
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Rating: PG
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Category: Gory Horror
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Movie Length: 2h 3m
After a young woman is left in charge of her sick brother, she’s in desperate need of funds… and a night off. She agrees to attend a dinner party in hopes of winning a large sum of money, as do seven others. However, the get-together quickly turns into a deadly winner-takes-all parlor game and only the most sadistic will survive.
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Rating: NR
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Category: Slasher/Serial Killer
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Movie Length: 1h 33m
3. The Loft
Five married men share a secret apartment where they carry on discrete affairs. When a murder takes place in their luxury hideaway, the blood is on all their hands… and wedding bands. Everyone’s a suspect, and the men’s double lives are tested, as is their trust in one another.
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Rating: R
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Category: Crime Thriller
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Movie Length: 1h 42m
4. The Shining
An aspiring writer moves into a deserted hotel to make progress with a novel. He slowly goes mad as the hotel’s off-season legend gets to his head, leaving him no other option than to turn on his wife and young son.
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Rating: R
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Category: Critically-Acclaimed Thriller
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Movie Length: 2h 23m
After a married man has an affair with a co-worker, he finds himself unable to get rid of her. She does anything to keep him around, and her pursuit slowly becomes violent… even deadly. By the end, he realizes saving himself and his family is more important than saving his reputation.
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Rating: R
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Category: Thriller, Drama
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Movie Length: 1h 59m
6. Us
A woman and her family take a vacation in the same city a traumatic childhood event happened. With each passing day, she becomes more protective of her husband and children as she notices strange occurrences around her. Their getaway trip is halted when four intruders break into the family’s home and terrorize them. The twist? The intruders are the family’s doppelgängers.
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Rating: R
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Category: Thriller, Horror
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Movie Length: 1h 56m
7. Zodiac
A killer is stalking the streets of San Francisco and methodically causing chaos by leaving behind newspaper clues that use peculiar symbols. A newspaper cartoonist teams up with law enforcement to identify the murderer coined the Zodiac, and the investigation eventually consumes him whole.
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Rating: R
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Category: Crime Thriller
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Movie Length: 2h 37m
8. Midsommar
In hopes of rekindling their relationship, a couple travels to Sweden to attend a friend’s hometown mid-summer festival. What starts as an friendly retreat slowly turns into a nightmare when visitors realize they’re imprisoned by cult members. The holiday concludes with a violent competition, and the crowned decides who of the remaining visitors survive.
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Rating: R
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Category: Drama, Horror
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Movie Length: 2h 28m
9. The Sixth Sense
A child psychologist is assigned to care for a nine-year-old boy who claims he has a secret: he can see dead people. The psychologist, however, has a secret of his own.
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Rating: PG-13
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Category: Critically-Acclaimed Thriller
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Movie Length: 1h 47m
10. Sinister
A true-crime writer moves his family into a home where a mass murder happened earlier. When he begins researching the crime for his next book, he finds footage of previously killed families dating back to the ’60s, suggesting this is the work of a serial killer. The more home movies he watches, however, the more vulnerable he and his family are. Helping his career becomes his last priority once he surpasses the point of no return.
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Rating: R
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Category: Supernatural Horror, Mystery
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Movie Length: 1h 50m
11. The Ring
A female journalist watches a videotape that kills viewers exactly one week later. With only seven days to investigate the urban legend and save her and her son’s lives, she must turn to the video itself for clues. The devil’s in the details, and time’s running out.
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Rating: PG-13
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Category: Supernatural Horror
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Movie Length: 1h 55m
12. The Collector
An ex-con desperate to pay off a debt decides to break into his new employer’s country home and heist their safe. When he arrives, however, he isn’t alone. A second criminal has rigged the place with a series of deadly booby traps, and the ex-con must be careful with his next step if he wants to live.
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Rating: R
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Category: Gory Horror
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Movie Length: 1h 30m
13. Friday the 13th (2009)—(of course I had to include this one)
A young man sets out to Crystal Lake to look for his missing sister. The summer camp is not only home to many rotting cabins, but also hockey-masked killer Jason Voorhees, who waits for the chance to use his machete on any trespassers.
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Rating: R
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Category: Slasher/Serial Killer
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Movie Length: 1h 46m
