Watchworthy
The Best Teen Slasher Movies
List Rules
Horror slashers films about teenagers in high school or college
Here is a list of the best teen slasher movies. Almost as long as there have been horror movies, there have been teen slasher films. The genre got a huge surge in the late 1970s and 1980s when nearly every new teen horror movie featured a group of teenagers getting slaughtered by a mysterious and terrifying killer. Although the genre died off a little, it got a huge resurgence with 1980s horror remakes and new good scary films for teens. These stories range from groups of hikers running from a mystifying monster with a chainsaw to high school students dying off one by one. These films are popular because they don’t just include horror elements, but also themes of romance, friendship and endurance. Some even went on to inspire teen horror TV series.
Many of the films on this list have the same sort of characters: the innocent female, the jokester sidekick, the ditzy popular girl, the jock, and the nerd, all playing at the same stereotypical roles. However, the concepts of each movie can be wildly different, from traditional horror to a campy take on the genre.
What are the best teen slasher movies ever made? This list features masked killers that will haunt you in your sleep for years to come, gruesome deaths and badass fighters you will never forget. Vote for your favorite. A lot of these are top Halloween movies for teens too.
Ranked by
- 11996
- Actors: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Skeet Ulrich
- Directed by: Wes Craven
The sleepy little town of Woodsboro just woke up screaming. There's a killer in their midst who's seen a few too many scary movies. Suddenly nobody is safe, as the psychopath stalks victims, taunts ...more - 21978
- Actors: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Kyes, P.J. Soles, Charles Cyphers
- Directed by: John Carpenter
On a cold Halloween night in 1963, six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister, Judith. He was sentenced and locked away for 15 years. But on October 30, 1978, while being ...more - Actors: John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Johnny Depp
- Directed by: Wes Craven
In Wes Craven's classic slasher film, several Midwestern teenagers fall prey to Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), a disfigured midnight mangler who preys on the teenagers in their dreams -- which, in ...more- 41997
- Actors: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jamie Kennedy
- Directed by: Wes Craven
Sydney (Neve Campbell) and tabloid reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) survived the events of the first "Scream," but their nightmare isn't over. When two college students are murdered at a sneak ...more - 51980
- Actors: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson
- Directed by: Sean S. Cunningham
Crystal Lake's history of murder doesn't deter counselors from setting up a summer camp in the woodsy area. Superstitious locals warn against it, but the fresh-faced young people -- Jack (Kevin ...more - Actors: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Freddie Prinze, Muse Watson
- Directed by: Jim Gillespie
A year after running over a fisherman and dumping his body in the water, four friends reconvene when Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) receives a frightening letter telling her that their crime was seen. ...more- 7
- Actors: Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, Kristen Cloke, Daniel Roebuck
- Directed by: James Wong
Alex Browning (Devon Sawa), is embarking on a trip to Paris. Alex experiences a premonition -- he sees the plane explode moments after leaving the ground. Alex insists that everyone get off the plane ...more - 81998
- Actors: Jordana Brewster, Clea Duvall, Laura Harris, Josh Hartnett, Shawn Hatosy
- Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
To the students at Harrington High, the principal and her posse of teachers have always been a little odd, but lately they've been behaving positively alien. Controlled by otherworldly parasites, the ...more - Actors: Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen, Allen Danziger, Paul A. Partain, William Vail
- Directed by: Tobe Hooper
When Sally (Marilyn Burns) hears that her grandfather's grave may have been vandalized, she and her paraplegic brother, Franklin (Paul A. Partain), set out with their friends to investigate. After a ...more- 101998
- Actors: Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Michael Rosenbaum, Loretta Devine
- Directed by: Jamie Blanks
A university is beset by a rash of gruesome murders that resemble old urban legends. When her friend Michelle (Natasha Gregson Wagner) is killed by someone hiding in her car, Natalie (Alicia Witt)Â ...more - 112001
- Actors: Gina Philips, Justin Long, Jonathan Breck, Patricia Belcher, Brandon Smith
- Directed by: Victor Salva
After making a horrific discovery in the basement of an old abandoned church, Trish (Gina Philips) and her brother Darry (Justin Long) watch their routine road trip home from college turn into a ...more - 121981
- Actors: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cyphers, Jeffrey Kramer, Lance Guest
- Directed by: Rick Rosenthal
After failing to kill stubborn survivor Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) and taking a bullet or six from former psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence), Michael Myers (Dick Warlock) has followed ...more - 132011
- Actors: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Emma Roberts, Mary McDonnell
- Directed by: Wes Craven
It has been many years since the Ghostface Killer cut a deadly path through the town of Woodsboro. In order to get over the trauma of those horrific events, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has ...more - 14
- Actors: Ali Larter, A.J. Cook, Michael Landes, Terrence "T.C." Carson, Jonathan Cherry
- Directed by: David R. Ellis
Kimberly (A.J. Cook) has a premonition of a horrible highway accident killing multiple people -- including her and her friends. She blocks the cars behind her on the ramp from joining traffic -- and ...more - 15
- Actors: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams
- Directed by: Drew Goddard
When five college friends (Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams) arrive at a remote forest cabin for a little vacation, little do they expect the horrors that ...more - 161998
- Actors: Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, Adam Arkin
- Directed by: Steve Miner
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (also known as simply Halloween H20) is a 1998 American slasher film directed by Steve Miner. Two decades after surviving a massacre on October 31, 1978, former baby ...more - 172000
- Actors: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Foley
- Directed by: Wes Craven
In the final installment to this trilogy, a murdering spree begins to happen again; this time targeted toward the original Woodsboro survivors and those associated with the movie-inside a-movie, Stab ...more - 182017
- Actors: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Rachel Matthews, Charles Aitken
- Directed by: Christopher Landon
Tree Gelbman is a blissfully self-centered collegian who wakes up on her birthday in the bed of a student named Carter. As the morning goes on, Tree gets the eerie feeling that she's experienced the ...more - 192004
- Actors: Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Monica Potter, Michael Emerson, Tobin Bell
- Directed by: James Wan
Photographer Adam Stanheight (Leigh Whannell) and oncologist Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) regain consciousness while chained to pipes at either end of a filthy bathroom. As the two men realize ...more - 20
- Actors: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ryan Merriman, Kris Lemche, Texas Battle, Alexz Johnson
- Directed by: James Wong
Six years after a group of high-school students first cheated death, another teen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has a premonition that she and her friends will be involved in a horrifying roller-coaster ...more - 212005
- Actors: Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Brian Van Holt, Paris Hilton, Jared Padalecki
- Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra
A gang of college friends, including Wade (Jared Padalecki) and his girlfriend, Carly (Elisha Cuthbert), are en route to a school football game when they wind up with a flat tire in a ghost town. ...more - 221992
- Actors: Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkeley, Kasi Lemmons, Vanessa Williams
- Directed by: Bernard Rose
Skeptical graduate student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) befriends Anne-Marie McCoy (Vanessa Williams) while researching superstitions in a housing project on Chicago's Near North Side. From ...more - 231980
- Actors: Jamie Lee Curtis, Leslie Nielsen, Casey Stevens, Anne-Marie Martin, Antoinette Bower
- Directed by: Paul Lynch
This slasher movie follows a relentless killer who is out to avenge the death of a young girl who died after being bullied and teased by four of her classmates. Now high-school students, the ...more - Actors: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze, Brandy Norwood, Mekhi Phifer, Muse Watson
- Directed by: Danny Cannon
A year after killing vengeful hit-and-run victim Ben Wills (Muse Watson), who gutted her friends with an iron hook, college student Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) is still shaken by the ...more- 25
- Actors: Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, Neil Affleck, Keith Knight, Alf Humphreys
- Directed by: George Mihalka
Friends defy the rules of a legendary murderer and discover he is real when they start celebrating Valentine's Day.
