The 13 Best Romantic Horror Movies To Gratify Dark Hearts

Masterfully mixing elements of body horror and dark romance, David Cronenberg's The Fly is a deep, dark, and sadistic horror romance film that showcases true love, and the length that love will push humans.  When a science experiment goes terribly wrong, Seth Brundle played with magnificent brooding sexuality by Jeff Goldblum slowly begins to morph into a horrifying fly, while his romantic partner Veronica Quaife, played with a stoic and powerful presence by Geena Davis must bare witness to his complete and utter physical breakdown. The Fly is arguably one of the best romantic horror movies of all time, because it executes both the horror and romance to utter perfection.

Director Luca Guadagnino manages to find the beauty in the absurd, and there is nothing more absurd than a cannibal love story, but somehow Bones & All manages to thread that line of absurdity and deliver one of the greatest films of the 2020s. Fully embracing the horrific romance that the two lovers of the film find themselves in, this film is utterly bone-chilling with truly disturbing and disgusting scenes but still manages to find empathy and heartfelt moments, even in between all the storage, gory, sadistic, and melancholic romance.

Dracula and vampires as characters have always been overtly sensual, however, Bram Stoker's Dracula truly takes the cake as one of the most sexual and romantic horror movies of all time. A film brought magnificently to life by visionary director Francis Ford Coppola, Bram Stoker's Dracula oozes sexual tension in every romantic minute of the film, leading to some of the strangest and most sadistic instances of gothic romance the world has ever seen. Gary Oldman as the titular Dracula brings a power, grace, and elegance to the character that audiences had yet to see at that point, and his performance as one of the most sensual vampires of all time is legendary.

Lust cannot properly begin to describe the feeling expressed throughout the 134-minute runtime of Thirst, one of the most overtly sexual and sexually-tense horror films of all time. Telling the tale of a priest who undergoes a dangerous procedure to cure a deadly disease, Sang-hyun finds himself turned into a vampire, with a craving for blood and the touch of his childhood friend's wife. While many will point to the infamous feet-licking scene as where this film is at its most provocative, there is simply an outstanding and almost uncomfortable aura that permeates this romantic horror film, in the best possible way.

While the romance in An American Werewolf in London may not take center stage over the transcendental werewolf story being told, it is without a doubt the beating heart that makes the film run. Masterfully mixing elements of horror, romance, comedy, adventure, and drama, the film covers the entire gambit of emotions from start to finish, and delivers one of the most acclaimed and lauded horror films of all time. Love makes the world go round, and with a newfound love in his life, this werewolf will stop at nothing to protect it or die trying.

Zombies and romance movies may seem like a bit of an odd bag, but somehow in Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead, he manages to make this spoof of a zombie film better than nearly any zombie film in history, while having the heart of a romance film. It could be argued that two romances are going on simultaneously throughout this incredible horror film, one with the titular Shaun's girlfriend who wants to leave him, and one with his best friend Ed. A film that highlights the importance of relationships, love, and passion, but also happens to have some of the gnarliest zombie violence of all time, Shaun of the Dead is a miracle film that by all accounts shouldn't work, but miraculously does.