Stephen Roach’s Top 10 Horror Films
Stephen Roach@clarencejboddicker · 2 Oct 2026 · View profile
This list is what i consider to be the greatest horror films of all time! The best of the best at the time of typing this.
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1
The Thing (1982)
In Antarctica, a Norwegian helicopter pursues a sled dog to an American research station. The Americans witness the passenger fumble a grenade and accidentally blow up the helicopter and himself. The pilot fires a rifle at the dog and shouts at the Americans, but they cannot understand him, and he is shot dead in self-defense by station commander Garry. The American helicopter pilot, R. J. MacReady, and Dr.
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2
The Shining (1980)
Jack Torrance takes a caretaker position to look after the remote Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rocky Mountains while it is closed for the winter. On arrival hotel manager Stuart Ullman informs Jack that a previous caretaker, Charles Grady, killed his wife, two young daughters and himself in the hotel a decade prior.
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3
Event Horizon (1997)
In 2047, a distress signal is received from the Event Horizon, a spaceship that disappeared during its maiden voyage to Proxima Centauri seven years earlier. The ship has mysteriously reappeared in Neptune's orbit, prompting US Aerospace Command to dispatch the Lewis and Clark rescue vessel to investigate.
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4
Psycho (1960)
In Phoenix, Arizona, real estate secretary Marion Crane embezzles $40,000 in cash from her employer after hearing her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, complain that his debts are delaying their marriage. She sets off to drive to Sam's home in the town of Fairvale, California, switching cars in Bakersfield after an encounter with a suspicious policeman.
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5
Halloween (1978)
On October 31, 1963, in the suburban Illinois town of Haddonfield, six-year-old Michael Myers brutally stabs his teenage sister Judith to death with a chef's knife. On October 30, 1978, psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis and nurse Marion Chambers drive to the sanitarium, where Michael is incarcerated, to escort him to a court hearing. Upon arrival, they realize the patients have broken out of the hospital.
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6
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Teenager Tina Gray awakens from a terrifying nightmare in which a disfigured man wearing a bladed glove attacks her in a boiler room. Her mother points out the mysterious slashes on her nightgown. The following morning, Tina's best friend Nancy Thompson and Nancy's boyfriend, Glen Lantz, divulge that they too had nightmares about the same disfigured man.
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7
Alien (1979)
The commercial space tug Nostromo is returning to Earth with a seven-member crew in stasis: captain Dallas, executive officer Kane, warrant officer Ripley, navigator Lambert, science officer Ash, and engineers Parker and Brett, along with the ship's cat, Jones. The ship's computer, "Mother", detects a transmission from a nearby exomoon and wakes the crew.
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8
Suspiria (1977)
Suzy Bannion, a young American ballet student, arrives in Freiburg, West Germany, to study at the co-ed Tanz Akademie, a prestigious dance school. She sees another student, Pat Hingle, flee the school in terror. Suzy is refused entry to the school and forced to stay in town overnight. Pat takes refuge at a friend's apartment and tells her that something sinister happened at the school.
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9
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee at Quantico, is recruited by Behavioral Science Unit chief Jack Crawford to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant and cannibalistic psychiatrist imprisoned at the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.
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10
Hellraiser (1987)
In Morocco, a hedonist named Frank Cotton buys a puzzle box said to open the door to a realm of otherworldly pleasure. At home in his bare attic, Frank solves the puzzle, and hooked chains emerge, tearing him apart. Later, Frank's brother Larry moves into the same house. He intends to rebuild his relationship with his second wife, Julia, but is unaware that she had an affair with Frank before their marriage.
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