From Hater to Hooked: 25 Horror Films That Linger in Your Nightmares

Throughout most of my life, I was convinced I hated horror films. When I was a child, my dad told me he had to sleep with the lights on for a month after bearing witness to the first Friday the 13th back in 1980, which put me off watching them altogether. Then, a few years ago, my boyfriend put on John Carpenter’s Halloween. I was expecting the mere sight of the film’s psychopath antagonist, Michael Myers, to leave me cowering behind the covers. Instead, it captivated me – this man had murdered his entire family as a child for no apparent reason. I was horrified. And gripped. I devoured the whole franchise over one weekend, and my love for horror films was born. Horror films are often dismissed as being lowbrow, but to make a good horror film takes artistry. To me, the truly scary horror films are the ones that serve as metaphors for the hidden truths we bury deep within ourselves – the ones we are afraid to confront. The films I’ve watched that aren’t scary are usually the ones devoid of purpose other than to shock or entertain, like Final Destination and Scream, which are both so over-the-top in their premise that they verge on being comedic. So a friend challenged me to watch as many horror films as possible in one month. Out of the 25 I watched, these, in my opinion, are the ones guaranteed to stay in your thoughts (and nightmares) long after the film ends