Only a True Horror Fan Has Seen All of These Movies

Halloween is right around the corner, and it's time to watch some spooky movies. It's the time of year to get together with some friends and be scared for fun. Time to explore the creaky haunted houses, shaky amateurish camera work, and sawed-off legs of Hollywood's cheaply produced, high entertainment gore-fests. However, you won't know the best and most effective scary movies to watch if you're a horror novice. You can't just go around calling yourself a big horror movie fan if you haven't seen the essential works of the genre. Have you ever seen a Halloween costume that you didn't get? What you were witnessing was a true fan of the horror genre, a person who has read every single 1,000 page Stephen King book, seen every black and white Italian horror movie, read The Walking Dead comics before the show even started, has a life-size xenomorph from Alien in their bedroom, and can quote the film that gave Black Sabbath their name. Prove yourself as one of them by taking this quiz. Tell us which of these classic and terrifying horror movies you've seen and we'll determine whether or not you deserve to call yourself a true horror fan.

Question 1

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Long before Christopher Nolan did the exact same thing with Inception, Wes Craven made a little movie starring a young unknown actor named Johnny Depp about what happens in your dreams. In this one, a burn victims murders teenagers in the nightmares. Have you seen A Nightmare on Elm Street?

Question 2

Psycho

It was Alfred Hitchcock's black and white masterpiece that proved to Hollywood studios that horror movies could actually be good movies that found big success with critics and audiences alike. It's him that we have to thank for pretty much every great horror movie of the past half a century. Its jump scares, effective tension building, unnerving visual style, and unconventional narrative structure ensure a timeless classic that will be terrifying viewers for years to come. But have you seen it?

Question 3

Halloween

John Carpenter is one of the most important and influential horror directors of all time. Everyone who has dabbled in horror since the 1970s owes a debt to him. He inspired every last one of them by proving that just because something is a horror movie, it doesn't mean it can't be a well-crafted piece of cinema. And with Halloween, he gave us the first example of the modern slasher movie. But have you seen it?

Question 4

The Blair Witch Project

Every horror movie these days, or at least the large majority of them, is presented in the found footage format. A camera crew goes off into the woods or a haunted house and all that remains is their equipment and the police or the government have decided to screen it in movie theaters. It adds an element of realism to a mostly BS genre. Some budding young filmmakers invented the genre with their revolutionary hit The Blair Witch Project. Have you seen it?

Question 5

Saw

James Wan and Leigh Whannell changed the face of the horror genre with Saw. They proved that you can have torture porn and horrific gore and a sadistic, psychopathic, murderous antagonist, and still have an engaging and clever plot with an interesting twist at the end. Have you seen it?

Question 6

Friday the 13th

In Friday the 13th, the original one before all those terrible sequels and remakes and reboots and the like, you get to see a young Kevin Bacon get killed by a man wielding a machete and wearing a hockey mask. It’s worth it just for that, to be honest, but it’s also one of the all time horror classics. Have you seen it?

Question 7

Night of the Living Dead

George A. Romero tragically passed away recently, but he left behind a hell of a legacy, namely that he created the modern zombie. Sure, the undead existed before Romero, with Mary Shelley and Frankenstein's monster and what have you, but Romero gave us the slow walking and the groaning and the massing hordes and the "BRAAAIIINS!!!" And the great thing about it is that he wasn't even trying to create a genre; he was making a study of racism in America. Horror should always be about something else. It's an allegorical genre. Have you seen Night of the Living Dead?

Question 8

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Though it’s notorious for its violence, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is more disturbing than gory. It does feature a man going around and killing people with a chainsaw, but the focus is more on that dinner scene and the threat of violence than the actual violence itself, and that’s what makes it groundbreaking. But have you seen it?

Question 9

REC

The Spanish get horror. Not trying to stereotype or anything, but Spanish horror films tend to be a hell of a lot scarier than anything Hollywood churns out. If anything, the stereotype would be that Americans make bad horror movies. America gives us The Haunted Mansion, Spain gives us REC, a found footage zombie movie set in a quarantined apartment building as a news reporter struggles to survive the spread of a virus that's turning everyone into flesh eaters. Have you seen it?

Question 10

Suspiria

This Italian horror movie from the 1970s, directed by horror movie legend Dario Argento, tells the story of a woman who travels to Germany to attend ballet school. When she arrives late at night, another student is running away from the school and gets murdered. Our hero uncovers a dark secret as more and more of the school’s students die. Have you seen it?

Question 11

Scream

You’ll never be able to fully understand the coding of horror movies, their conventions and the way they’re wired and how they make very little sense, without watching this satirical slasher movie starring Neve Campbell. It satirizes horror movies, while being a classic of the genre in its own right. So, have you seen it?

Question 12

The Exorcist

The Exorcist was the highest grossing horror movie of all time before the monster that is Stephen King’s It came along last month. It’s the story of a pair of priests who are brought in to exorcize the demon that has possessed a young girl, and it revolutionized horror the way The Godfather revolutionized drama. Have you seen it?

Question 13

The Shining

Stephen King disagrees with Stanley Kubrick’s bleak interpretation of his book. King sees The Shining as “fire,” and believes that Kubrick’s interpretation was more like “ice.” But still, it’s a brilliantly made, beautifully shot, effectively executed horror film by one of the greatest directors of all time. Have you seen it?

Question 14

Rosemary’s Baby

What would happen if a woman became pregnant with Satan’s baby? That’s the question that convicted pedophile Roman Polanski set out to answer with his adaptation of Ira Levin’s frightful novel. Ignore the sexual crimes that Polanski has committed and you’ll find that what he’s crafted here is in fact one of the finest horror films ever made. Have you seen it?

Question 15

As Above, So Below

This film took the genre and spun it on its head. The whole thing literally gets topsy turvy halfway through, flipping the expectations and becoming the type of movie that's scary to watch at noon, on a good day, on an ipad, with people chatting in the next room. Serious horror movie fans know that this cult classic is a must-watch. So, have you seen it?

Question 16

Jaws

Steven Spielberg changed the face of cinema with his suspenseful aquatic thriller based on the novel by Peter Benchley. A huge great white shark terrorizes a seaside town. Now, every big movie is delegated to a summer release and whittled down to a high concept premise thanks to that. Have you seen it?

Question 17

The Ring

Movie Monster Quiz - The Ring

You watch a video tape of a girl with a long fringe climbing out of a well and a week later, you die. That’s the premise of The Ring, and yes, it sounds really stupid and far-fetched. But still, it’s an effective horror movie with a lot of interesting happenings and jump scares. Have you seen it?

Question 18

The Silence of the Lambs

This serial killer thriller directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster didn’t give us the first big screen portrayal of infamous cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter – that award goes to Manhunter years earlier – but it did give us the best. Anthony Hopkins won an Academy Award for his performance as Lecter. Have you seen it?

Question 19

The Evil Dead

Sam Raimi’s career eventually led him to the original Spider-Man movie trilogy and Oz the Great and Powerful, but before that, his movies were a lot more disturbing, most notably his indie film debut, The Evil Dead, which sees Bruce Campbell battling demonic spirits in a cabin in the woods. Have you seen it?

Question 20

Alien

Sir Ridley Scott took on what could have easily been a simple movie done to get a hefty paycheck for an extra wing on his LA mansion. But he’s an artist. He took this premise of haunted house setup transplanted into a space setting and he made a horrifying masterpiece. Have you ever seen it?

Question 21

The Omen

Satan often manages to make his way into horror movies. If there’s an evil house, it’s possessed by the Devil. If there’s an evil doll, it’s possessed by the Devil. He’s a scapegoat for the horrors of the silver screen. He’s easy to blame, and easy to fear. In The Omen, we see a truly evil child: the Antichrist. Have you seen The Omen?

Question 22

The Last House on the Left

The Last House on the Left is a horrific movie. It was produced on a shoestring budget by horror legend Wes Craven and its story of two teenage girls being dragged out into the middle of the woods to be tortured by a gang of bad apples was inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s Swedish film The Virgin Spring. Have you seen it?

Question 23

An American Werewolf in London

The John Landis horror comedy An American Werewolf in London, with a screenplay by Landis and music by Elmer Bernstein, is a master class in switching between genres. It’s visually stunning, terrifying, hilarious, romantically engaging, shockingly violent, and basically every other word you could use to describe an entertaining piece of cinema. Have you seen it?

Question 24

Carrie

The 2013 remake of Carrie was a joke. It was unfaithful to the book, it shoehorned in scenes needlessly, it wasn’t scary at all, and the lead actress is way too pretty to be a convincing Carrie White. But Brian De Palma’s 1976 original is a perfect translation of the novel. Have you seen it?

Question 25

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

This black and white Robert Wiene movie from 1920 is one of the earliest examples of a filmmaker using the medium of film to scare audiences. It is chock full of spooky imagery and creepy characters soaking up the scenery of a skewed, frightful vision of a doctor who hypnotizes people. Have you seen the movie?

Question 26

The Wicker Man (original)

Forget the Nicolas Cage remake with the bees and focus on the freaky deaky original starring Edward Woodward as a cop who heads to a small, remote island to investigate a girl’s disappearance, only to find that the locals deny that the girl ever existed. It only gets stranger from there. Have you seen it?

Question 27

28 Days Later

Before he made Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle took to the streets of London with a shoestring budget to tell the story of a man who wakes up in a deserted hospital and finds himself being one of the only survivors (completely by fluke) of a zombie epidemic. Have you seen 28 Days Later?

Question 28

The Thing

Directed by horror legend John Carpenter, The Thing stars Kurt Russell in a remote Arctic facility as he battles a force of evil like no other. It can shapeshift into any form, including that of a horrifying monster or your best friend, so you don’t know who to trust. It’s a classic of the sci-fi horror subgenre. Have you seen it?

Question 29

The Descent

Imagine you’ve gone deep down into a cave and you’re wiggling your way through tight tunnels and then all of a sudden it caves in and you’re trapped down there. That’s scary enough, right? Now imagine that while you’re trapped down there, you find a whole species of mutants just waiting to feast on your flesh. Then it gets knocked into fifth gear. Have you seen The Descent?

Question 30

Cannibal Holocaust

Long considered to be the goriest, vilest, and most disgusting movie ever made, Cannibal Holocaust has been through every X-rated horror movie ringer, from an investigation into just how real its effects were to a ban in just about every country in the world at some point. Have you seen it?

Question 31

Hellraiser

Pinhead Hellraiser

A man buys a box abroad, has a little play around with it, opens a portal to Hell, unleashes the spirits within, gets his body ripped apart by them, and then dooms his brother and sister-in-law to a similar fate when they move into his house. Hellraiser is not your typical movie. Have you seen it?

Question 32

Re-Animator

The brain trust behind Re-Animator was seeing countless versions and reimaginings and interpretations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula story, but saw a gap in the market for someone to do a similar thing with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. So, what did they do? They made it very, um, adult. Have you seen Re-Animator?

Question 33

Drag Me to Hell

Sam Raimi revolutionized horror when he made The Evil Dead, a riotously entertaining and ludicrously messed up demonic horror picture. And then, with a greater budget, he made Drag Me to Hell, the story of a gypsy who curses a young woman and the subsequent downfall of her life. The Raimi twist? It’s a hilarious black comedy. Have you seen it?

Question 34

The Strangers

A couple head out into the middle of nowhere to stay at a remote house. They think they’re totally alone and isolated, one of the hallmark themes of the horror genre. But then there’s a knock at the door. It’s a really terrifying movie, because the plot is kind of plausible. Have you seen it?

Question 35

Sinister

One of the darkest and most grisly horror movies in recent memory, Sinister tells the story of a true crime writer played by the wonderful Ethan Hawke who gets a little too close for comfort to his latest research project, and it places his family’s lives in danger. Have you seen Sinister?

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