Don’t Watch These Alone: The ULTIMATE MUST-WATCH HORROR FILM LIST

Life can always be exhausting. The same routine of waking up early, going to college/school/office, returning home, just to go to sleep and wake up yet again to head out.

Your brain is bound to get bored. The best way to ease yourself and make your day-to-day life a little more interesting is by watching a film- especially horror films. They pull you right in, make you scared and excited.

You will no longer find yourself thinking about your not-so-fun routine, just what's going to happen in the film. Here’s a list of the top 10 MUST-WATCH best horror films to start your restoration journey.

The Shining

The Shining is a chilling psychological horror about isolation, madness, and unseen evil.

Adapted from Stephen King's popular horror book with the same name, it throws you right into a quiet winter retreat that spirals into terror as the hotel’s dark past awakens.

With haunting visuals, eerie silence, and Jack Nicholson’s unforgettable performance, the film builds slowly, making every small creek dangerous.

• Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
• Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Scatman Crothers, Danny Lloyd
• Duration: 2 hr 24m

Conjuring

The Conjuring is a classic horror film credited with bringing the genre back to the box office.

It is a terrifying true-case inspired horror that follows paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren as they confront a dark, malevolent presence tormenting a family in a remote farmhouse.

The film works well using the classic components of its genre, blending tension, silence, and timed scares. It keeps you on edge, proving that the scariest horrors are the ones that feel disturbingly real.

• Directed by: James Wan
• Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ron Livingston, Lili Taylor
• Duration: 1 hr 52 m

Hereditary

Hereditary is a brilliant film that uses humans’ most vulnerable emotions to build one of the best horror climaxes ever.

The film is based on grief, fate, and inherited evil, opening with a family that has suffered a major tragedy.

Unsettling events soon begin to unravel the family’s sense of reality, revealing something far darker beneath their pain.

It is a slow-burning and relentlessly intense film with raw performances, eerie imagery, and mounting dread that creates a horror that feels extremely personal.

• Directed by: Ari Aster
• Starring: Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd
• Duration: 2 hr 7 m

Tumbbad

Tumbbad is one of the finest horror films ever made in Indian cinema. It uses Indian folklore so beautifully, showing its true potential. The film is deeply rooted in myth, greed, and forbidden desire.

Set in a cursed village, it follows generations of a family drawn into a dark secret buried beneath a decaying mansion.

With striking visuals, haunting VFX, atmospheric storytelling, and a chilling sense of dread, the film explores how obsession consumes the soul.

The second part of the film is releasing soon, so make sure to watch the first part before it hits cinemas.

• Directed by: Rahi Anil Barve and Anand Gandhi
• Starring: Sohum Shah, Aanand L Rai, Anand Gandhi
• Duration: 1 hr 44 m

Bulbbul

Bulbbul is a haunting, poetic folk tale that blends horror with poetic tragedy. Set in rural Bengal, it follows a woman surrounded by whispered legends of a bloodthirsty witch haunting the forests.

As the story unfolds, beauty and brutality intertwine, revealing themes of trauma, patriarchy, and revenge.

The film writes itself off as a slow but haunting feminist movie, a letter to the women who have suffered from the chains created by men around them.

• Directed by: Anvita Dutt
• Starring: Tripti Dimri, Avinash Tiwary, Paoli Dam, and Rahul Bose
• Duration: 1 hr 34 m

The Wailing (The Writer’s Favourite)

The Wailing is one of the most perfect horror films to exist. It gives you no warnings; it throws you right in with no context. It blends horror, folklore, mystery, and supernatural terror so wonderfully.

A quiet village is struck by brutal murders and a strange illness, and a bumbling policeman finds himself pulled into a nightmare beyond logic.

As rituals, possessions, and ancient evil collide, the film builds to a relentless crescendo.

The wailing doesn't let you have a happy ending, it keeps you questioning what’s real and who the true evil is till its haunting end.

• Directed by:  Na Hong-jin
• Starring: Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min, Chun Won-hee, and Jun Kunimura
• Duration: 2 hr 36 m

IT

Another movie adapted from Stephen King’s iconic IT book, set in the town of Derry, it follows a group of kids haunted by a shape-shifting entity that feeds on fear, often appearing as the sinister Pennywise the clown.

Blending terror with friendship and nostalgia, the film delivers eerie madness, intense scares, and emotional stakes.

It reminds you that the scariest monsters are the ones that know exactly what you fear.

• Directed by: Andy Muschietti
• Starring : Finn Wolfhard, Bill Skarsgard,  Jaeden Lieberher
• Duration: 2 hr 15 m

Weapons (2025’s best MUST-WATCH horror film)

Weapons is a dark, unsettling horror that unravels around a cshaken by the disappearance of a class full of kids, who ran out of their homes at exactly 2 am, except one student and their teacher.

As fragmented stories collide, secrets surface, and reality begins to feel unstable. The film builds a dreadful atmosphere, with the points of view of different characters converging on the same event. Disturbing and unpredictable.

Weapons is a silent message to the audience on how abuse works and how mass shootings affect the kids of America without being political.

• Directed by: Zach Cregger
• Starring: Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Amy Madigan
• Duration: 2 hr 9 m

Talk to me (MUST WATCH INDIE horror film)

Talk to Me is a sharp, modern horror about how curiosity surely does kill the cat. When a group of teens discovers a mysterious embalmed hand that lets them communicate with spirits, the thrill quickly spirals into terror.

Blending raw emotions with brutal scares, the film explores grief, peer pressure, and addiction to the unknown. Talking to me proves you do not need a fancy budget to make a gripping film.

• Directed by: Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou
• Starring: Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen
• Duration: 1 hr 35 m

A tale of two sisters

A tale of two sisters blurs the line between memory and reality. Following the return of two sisters to their secluded home, the film slowly reveals buried trauma through eerie visuals and daunting silence.

As tension builds, secrets unravel in devastating ways. Beautiful yet deeply disturbing, the story weaves grief and madness into a chilling experience that lingers.

• Directed by: Kim Jee-won
• Starring: Im Soo-jung, Moon Geun-young, Yum Jung Ah
• Duration: 1 hr 55 m

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The Bottom Line

The next time you crave to watch something fun and interesting that sweeps you off your feet, refer to this list and watch the best horror movies

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