The Best Slasher Movies

Updated December 22, 2020 92.1k votes 4.9k voters 123.3k views183 items

List RulesTop slasher flicks and horror splatter films

Here is a list of the best slasher movies. These are some of the best slasher films ever made, but if you feel we've missed one, please feel free to add it to the list yourself. Some of the films listed here could well be considered among the greatest horror films ever made. Which ones are your favorites? Vote them up, and don't forget that you can always re-rank this list, too.

Slashers took off like a fire storm after the late 70s when Halloween became the highest grossing independent film of its time. Few thinly sliced genres can boast the sheer amount of icons slasher movies have given us: Freddy, Jason, Mike Myers, and other supernatural serial killers. In a lot of cases, these good slasher films have become incredibly successful movie franchises, raking in millions over a period of decades.

From A Nightmare on Elm Street to Friday the 13th to the wildly popular Scream series, these films have some serious staying power. Fans of slasher films are pretty darn loyal. Once you find a great horror movie franchise they love, they rarely waver from it.

Most of these movies are horror films, but there are a few on this list of the best slasher films that are comedic. That said, they're still not for kids... unless your kid enjoys blood, guts, and inappropriate amounts of gore. So put down your knife and grab your popcorn, because if you like slasher films then the movies on this list are for you. If you're looking specifically for splatter film, we have a list on that too.

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Halloween
Jamie Lee Curtis, Kyle Richards
Released: 1978
Directed by: John Carpenter
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Halloween II
Jamie Lee Curtis, Dana Carvey
Released: 1981
Directed by: Rick Rosenthal
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The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Gunnar Hansen, Marilyn Burns
Released: 1974
Directed by: Tobe Hooper
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Friday the 13th
Kevin Bacon, Tom Savini
Released: 1980
Directed by: Sean S. Cunningham
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Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock, Janet Leigh
Released: 1960
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
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Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Jamie Lee Curtis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Released: 1998
Directed by: Steve Miner
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The Hitcher
Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rutger Hauer
Released: 1986
Directed by: Robert Harmon
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You're Next
Sharni Vinson, Barbara Crampton
Released: 2011
Directed by: Adam Wingard
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The Strangers
Liv Tyler, Gemma Ward
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Sleepaway Camp
Mike Kellin, Katherine Kamhi
Released: 1983
Directed by: Robert Hiltzik
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The Hills Have Eyes
Dee Wallace, Michael Berryman
Released: 1977
Directed by: Wes Craven
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The Burning
Holly Hunter, Jason Alexander
Released: 1981
Directed by: Tony Maylam
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A Nightmare on Elm Street
Johnny Depp, Robert Englund
Released: 1984
Directed by: Wes Craven
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Candyman
Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd
Released: 1992
Directed by: Bernard Rose
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Halloween
Malcolm McDowell, Danny Trejo
Released: 2007
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Child's Play
Brad Dourif, Catherine Hicks
Released: 1988
Directed by: Tom Holland
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The Funhouse
Elizabeth Berridge, Kevin Conway
Released: 1981
Directed by: Tobe Hooper
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The Collector
Daniella Alonso, Madeline Zima
Released: 2009
Directed by: Marcus Dunstan
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I Know What You Did Last Summer
Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar
Released: 1997
Directed by: Jim Gillespie
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The Slumber Party Massacre
Robin Stille, Michael Villella
Released: 1982
Directed by: Amy Holden Jones
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Halloween II
Malcolm McDowell, Octavia Spencer
Released: 2009
Directed by: Rob Zombie
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Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Robert Englund, Zelda Rubinstein
Released: 2006
Directed by: Scott Glosserman
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Scream
Drew Barrymore, Rose McGowan
Released: 1996
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Hostel
Eli Roth, Ashley Robbins
Released: 2005
Directed by: Eli Roth
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The Last House on the Left
Martin Kove, Steve Miner
Released: 1972
Directed by: Wes Craven
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