Spoilers ahead!
5. Saw, dir. James Wan (2004)
Saw is a psychological thriller. The movie begins with two men, Lawrence and Adam, who wake up chained to a wall and locked in a room with no way out. They are given various instructions, promising their escape, but only if they confess their “sins”. Jigsaw’s torture methods have spawned a gruesome franchise with 8 gory and intense movies. There aren’t necessarily any jump-scares in this movie, but it does rely heavily on the gore aspect of the horror genre to make its name on this list. There’s also something horrifying about being forced to think about our own humanity through the eyes of a deranged psycho killer wherein the audience is supposed to think about their own morality.
4. Final Destination 3, dir. James Wang (2006)
Another early 2000s movie makes its way onto this list, but this time for all the wrong reasons. The Final Destination franchise was the main reason I was terrified to drive next to construction trucks while I was learning how to drive. The movie itself is another psychological thriller turned slasher movie. The premise of the movie relies on a vision that Wendy has right before going on an intense roller coaster of the gruesome death she might encounter. 6 other people follow her off the ride and watch in horror from the ground as their coaster train falls off the track and kills its passengers in a terrible death. The rest of the movie, fate tries desperately to catch up with the 7 lucky survivors and does so in increasingly gruesome manner. Again, this movie is an inherent ad for stage blood and liquid latex- its gore levels are through the roof. However, there is something even more horrifying about trying to wrap a teenage romance around a plot designed solely for its gore factor. The protagonist and designated “final girl” who survive until the end try desperately to make their relationship work, but ultimately fail to make a believable storyline wherein fate is just dying to greet them.
3. The Cabin in the Woods, dir. Drew Goddard (2012)
A slasher movie just had to make its way onto this list. However, this slasher movie is unlike most others due to its satiric nature. The plot follows five college friends who embody their character archetypes (the bad boy, the nerd, the hot girl, the comedic relief, and the final girl) in an over the top, exaggerated manner. They have decided to “get away for the weekend” in a secluded cabin in the middle of nowhere with no cell service. What could possibly go wrong? A cultish program is interspersed throughout the movie, analyzing the deaths of each unwilling participant and scheduling horrific circumstances to satisfy an angry god by sacrificing them. The movie exaggerates the horror portion of its genre in a series of gruesome deaths. However, the final girl becomes increasingly suspicious that someone is playing games with their lives and discovers the compound that has been taking her friends’ lives and begins an iconic scene you’ll just have to see to believe.
2. Patchwork, dir. Tyler MacIntyre (2015)
An indie movie has to have a lot of heart to sell its status onto this list. The movie follows three women whose night on the town has gone awry as they awake to find themselves stitched together (consciousness and all) by a madman with a vision for the perfect woman. The movie plays heavily with its comedy genre status and makes an effort to remind the audience of the importance of their own bodily autonomy by showing the struggle between the Frankenstein’d women and their struggle to figure out just what kind of monster would do this to them. The plot follows their investigation into their personal lives, analyzing what made them morally ambiguous enough to land them in the clutches of bad karma in the first place. The plot has a lot of heart and is genuinely funny in these instances. The characters are likable and the villain is hilariously awful.
1. It, dir. Andy Muschietti (2017)
As someone who is not afraid to admit that they’re terrified of horror movies as a genre, this thriller was too fantastically designed to pass up. Based off Steven King’s novel and previous mini-series, Pennywise the soul sucking clown has become an iconic villain in the horror genre. The plot follows the Losers, a group of extremely intelligent and self-aware kids who have noticed that the kids in their hometown of Derry, Maine have been periodically going missing over the course of 27 year intervals. They investigate the deaths and ultimately end up in the sewers of the town searching for their friend Bev and Bill’s younger brother Georgie who has also unfortunately gone missing. The movie relies on the audience’s fear and makes a horrifying monster out of the character’s personal fears as well as ours. But to be fair, who wouldn’t be terrified of a cannibalistic clown with Bill Skarsgård’s acting prowess behind it?