another film for the list is The House That Jack Built, a film that I think will really divide opinion, due not only to its violence but also its more arty nature, which is something that is to be expected when talking about a Lars Von Trier film.

Not part of the 10s but I just saw the new invisible man film today and would highly recommend any horror fans to see it, a very original take on a well known story.

The trailers remind me of the early 80s film called The Entity. Rapist ghost terrorizes a woman in her home. Even with the disturbing invisible rape scene where she's pinned down in the bed and see finger imprints in her breasts being massaged. The practical effects have not held up all that great tho.

I'm going with the 2010s followed by the 1970s. The 2010s are severely underrated because they're so close to current times. The sheer volume of fantastic horror films from the last decade, is unrivaled at any other decade. I think it's going to take years for enthusiasts to unpackage it all and have a semi-accurate view of how they all rank and hold up to films of other decades.

The 80s were good up until The Thing in 1982 because it was basically the end of 1970s horror films. But then came a wave shitty slasher flicks that were more or less horror-slapstick comedy.

But basically, my favourite horror films of all time are as follows (In reverse chronological order):

* Hereditary
* Conjuring 2
* Conjuring 1
* Insidious
* The Thing
* The Shining
* Dawn of the Dead
* Invasion of the Body Snatchers (78)

But there are A TON of other films I like. The only slasher films I think are good were Candyman, Halloween, and Child's Play. I felt Nightmare on Elmstreet and Friday the 13th as a franchise were terribly overrated, and aged even worse.

Sometimes Silence of the Lambs gets counted as a Horror film - I consider it a suspense thriller; Psycho is another suspense thriller often labeled as horror - although it did have a profound influence on the horror genre. The worse mislabel I have come across is American Psycho as a horror film (and I think it's because of the cover and name alone) when it is a dark comedy that satirizes the yuppie scene, it has much more in common with films like Fight Club, Pulp Fiction, and Natural Born Killers - and is probably more light-hearted than any of them:

Here's the most brutal murder scene in American Psycho, it doesn't show anything except blood splatter and a swinging axe... but first, the setup clip for the context of why Patrick Bateman killed Paul Allen (Paul Owen in the book):

The film isn't horror, but it's still great! And I think horror film fans will enjoy it because we tend to have sick senses of humour =)

I don't consider myself a horror buff but I can't get enough of them. Midsommar and Hereditary were not only some of the best horror movies of all time but also two of the best movies in general of all time. Cool to see this list and the few that I overlooked.

80's for me, as someone else said being a kid when these came out has an effect.
Very few movies make me jump and outside of seeing Fall of the house of Usher when I was 3 or 4 (I'm told I had nightmares for a short period after) only one movie has really scared me. That would be In the Mouth of Madness. The special effects weren't good even for their day but something about the twisting of the mass perception of reality really got to me.

Notable mention for the end of Prince of Darkness when he turns over in bed. An 11 year old me and my mother were watching this alone in the house together on the love seat. That scene causes her to scream out, I screamed out, and the dog who had been sleeping on the floor beside the couch jumped up there with us. Wish someone would have been filming that sequence, I'm sure it looked as stupid as it felt.

Might I suggest The Shining to you.

First thing you'll notice is that Hereditary pays homage to it at multiple points; especially the beginning. The influence is also apparent. Unlike most horror films of that era, The Shining almost begins like another genre and gradually morphs into horror. Like Hereditary, it's a slow burn. Like Hereditary, there's also some really fucked up shit in it. I don't recommend Hereditary or The Shining to everyone, because many viewers of Horror are much more interested in the Jaws "Let's get to the killing and fear NOW!" formula. Also, The Shining holds up a lot better than past horror films because I'd say it has had the most profound influence on the genre in the past 10 years... It was ahead of its time in that way, because it took nearly 30 years before it became the biggest influence on the genre as a whole of any film released prior to 2004's The Grudge - hated by some, still revolutionized horror by returning the creepiness factor to the mainstream; although, I think it's 2010's Insidious that really kicks off the current era proper.

While The Grudge did have violence in it, it wasn't a great deal. There were 6 deaths total outside of flashbacks, and most of them were assumed and not actually shown; Slasher films typically showed the deaths in graphic detail and generally in the range of 10 to 30. Insidious created a truly terrifying film with almost no violence in it whatsoever - it was an experiment of James Wan, responding to criticism of his Saw films where critics claimed "People only find them scary because of the violence." Insidious was made to show that the art of horror in his films is more than just violence. It's noteworthy to mention he did the film for under 1 million US dollars, which is incredibly low compared to most films. 1970s horror films often had little violence in them either: look at Dawn of the Dead and the Shining... IMO, Dawn of the Dead 78 still has the best story ever in a horror film (it's basically a rise and fall story, and the 2006 remake, while good, relative to its time, falls WAY short of the original in terms of storytelling and atmosphere; although, admittedly, the 1978 film is actually difficult to call a horror film, it's more of a post-apocalyptic drama with horror themes and strong Verhoevenian satirical elements - its a huge commentary on consumerism).

Hey, Dawn of the Dead is public domain? Anyway, the whole film has been on Youtube since just before Romero's death. IMO, this is one of those must watch films (Although, if you can find it on DVD it'll be better quality, but this one is adequate). Especially in the era of coronavirus.

1970's and 80's would certainly have some of the best iconic films.
But in terms of actual scares, I'd go with 2010's.

Go with 1990's as being the worst of the last 50 years.