The 20 Best Horror Franchises of All Time (Ranked)

21.Honorable Mention: Scary Movie

While technically not a horror movie, it's hard to deny that the Wayans' Scary Movie franchise has left its mark on popular culture. Parodying the most prominent horror movies of the time with laughs throughout, the Scary Movie franchise (especially the first two) is a must-watch for any Halloween season if you are looking for something with the spooky spirit but not so scary.

20.The Purge

Notable Entry: The Purge: Anarchy

In a reality that doesn't seem all that unrealistic these days, crime is down almost 100 percent, the general populace seems to be living happy and comfortable lives, all seemingly due to one thing: The Purge.

Every year, all crime, including murder, is legal, so the world basically enters a battle royal where nobody is safe. The Purge has become a fan-favorite franchise over the years, spawning many sequels featuring various forms of chaos and more than unusual forms of murder to satiate gorehounds.

19.Hellraiser

Notable Entry: Hellraiser (1987)

A group of demonic monsters from Hell called "The Cenobites," led by the infamous Pinhead, are called upon whenever someone solves a puzzle box called the Lament Configuration. Whoever solves the puzzle is dragged down to Hell by the cenobites, where they will experience the most extreme methods of torture and sadism for all eternity.

The series started great with the first two movies, but as with many franchises, it lost its way with less-than-stellar entries. However, there was a reboot in 2022 that, to many, saved the franchise and gave us one of the strongest entries in years.

18.Insidious

Notable Entry: Insidious (2010)

Following the horrifying exploits of the Lambert family, the Insidious franchise focuses on demons and ghosts from a spectral plane called "The Further" that haunts the entire family and threatens their souls.

With each entry, we become familiar with new threats and demons from The Further as the Lamberts must figure out a way to contain the spirits and save themselves at the same time.

17.Terrifier

Notable Entry: Terrifier 2

Art the Clown is a ruthless, unrelenting, unfeeling killing machine. With seemingly unending supernatural powers, Art takes extreme pride in the horrible ways he dispatches his victims.

One of the more gory franchises on this list, the Terrifier series is mainly for those who aren't looking for a good story, but for over-the-top, gruesome violence. Starting as a low-budget indie film, Terrifier has become part of the mainstream horror canon, with a fourth movie in the works.

16.Final Destination

Notable Entry: Final Destination: Bloodlines

If it's one thing the Final Destination series tells you, it's that you can't cheat death. Each entry begins with a person experiencing a premonition of an event that results in massive casualties from a grave misfortune.

As a result, the event is avoided, and many lives are spared. Not to be cheated, Death has plans for the survivors as each meets their grisly end in outlandishly creative coincidences.

15.Paranormal Activity

Notable Entry: Paranormal Activity (2007)

Very solid entries in the found-footage horror genre, Paranormal Activity centers on a series of hauntings perpetrated by a demon named Tobi, who possesses people — primarily women — and wreaks havoc on their families. What makes these movies fun is that they're all told from the perspective of security cameras or the actors' own filming methods, which gives these films a sense of creepy realism.

14.Saw

Notable Entry: Saw (2004)

John Kramer attempts suicide, only to survive after being diagnosed with cancer. After his ordeal, Kramer pledges to confront people who seem to be taking their lives for granted and to educate them to be grateful for their existence.

What follows is his victims being placed in elaborate traps that test their will to live, often needing to make enormous sacrifices (such as limbs) to survive and gain a new appreciation for their lives.

The series has become a cult classic for many horror fans as we await each film not so much for the plot but for what Rube Goldberg-inspired death traps we will see in this entry. The franchise seems to be in limbo as of now, but people are vying to bring the series back as we speak.

13.28 Days Later

Notable Entry: 28 Days Later (2002)

After some well-meaning animal rights activists free a monkey infected with the "Rage Virus," an infection spreads throughout the world that makes its victims extremely hostile, violent, and filled with the desire to kill. Each entry in the series focuses on a different group of people attempting to survive this virus outbreak and find some form of haven. You start to learn quickly that the infected aren't the only threats out in this apocalyptic new world.

12.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Notable Entry: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Leatherface is a deformed, skin-wearing psychopath who belongs to a family of cannibals deep in the heart of Texas. Groups of unsuspecting teens stumble upon Leatherface and crew’s compound, and what awaits them is gruesome murder and torture of the likes that will make them wish they were never born.

There have been two sequels with a third on the way, but the series has never reached the peak of the original. However, the franchise still has a lot to offer in terms of Halloween fun, with a new entry coming out very soon.

11.Child’s Play

Notable Entry: Child’s Play (1988)

If there's one thing that's true about horror fans, it's that they can't seem to get enough of Chucky, the killer doll. When an on-the-run murderer is mortally wounded in a police chase, Charles Lee Ray summons a spell that transfers his soul into a doll, which an unsuspecting family then purchases. Once Chucky is free from the clutches of the police, he goes on a murderous rampage that lasts multiple films, reboots, and even a TV series. This killer doll is apparently unstoppable, as after meeting multiple ends in each movie, he always comes back for more violence and depravity.

10.Friday The 13th

Notable Entry: Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter

One summer, a developmentally challenged boy drowned at a summer camp called Camp Crystal Lake, while the counselors were busy "exploring each other" instead of watching the poor boy. His mother, the camp's cook, took revenge on the camp and started murdering the counselors responsible.

One lucky survivor happens to escape Mrs. Voorhees and chops her head off. Unbeknownst to the populace, the boy, Jason, survived and grew up to take revenge against the murderer of his mother and everyone who dares to set foot on Crystal Lake grounds.

9.The Living Dead Series

Notable Entry: Dawn Of The Dead

George Romero pioneered the zombie movie genre and, as a result, launched an entire universe of zombie-based horror. When dead bodies start to reanimate and begin hunting the living, groups of survivors must band together to escape the undead horde and find safety and maybe even a cure. The films range in phases of the zombie apocalypse, each focusing on a different point of view in a world unrecognizable to all. The zombies are relentless and can only be defeated by destroying their brains.

8.The Conjuring

Notable Entry: The Conjuring (2013)

The Conjuring franchise is based on the real life exploits of paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren. The series follows the Warrens as they attempt to help families afflicted by different powerful spirits and demons. Not only do we get the main focused films on the Warrens but a series of spinoffs as well focusing on different demons such as the Annabelle Doll and The Nun. A fun franchise with a lot to chew on for any horror fan, and the series doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.

7.Hannibal Lecter Series

Notable Entry: Silence Of The Lambs

Based on the hit book series, the Hannibal Lecter franchise tells the tales of one of the most sophisticated and sadistic murderers in film. A psychiatrist by trade, this genius-level psychopath also kills and eats his victims. It contains a series of stellar movies with the ever-engaged Anthony Hopkins, plus an unfairly cancelled TV series starring Mads Mikkelsen. Throughout the years he has been active, nobody has gotten enough of Hannibal the Cannibal.

6.IT

Notable Entry: IT (2017)

In a town named Derry, every 27 years, people start to disappear. The culprit of these mass murders is a demonic entity simply known as IT or Pennywise the Clown, as it sometimes likes to be called. Nobody knows what Pennywise actually is, but it can shapeshift to embody anyone's deepest fears.

Originally a made-for-TV movie starring Tim Curry as Pennywise, a successful remake and a sequel were made this time with Bill Skarsgard as the murdering clown. One of the rare times a remake improves on the original, the series has become a hit again with a new generation, plus an upcoming prequel series on HBO Max is on the way.

5.Scream

Notable Entry: Scream (1996)

The highly successful and highly self-aware Scream franchise took the 90’s by storm and brought back the slasher flick into a new era. Playing on classic horror tropes and clichés played tongue-in-cheek, the Scream movies follow survivors of the Ghostface Killer and its rotating identities.

What makes the Ghostface killer so unique is that it’s not a specific person; it's an idea and an identity used for revenge, and the killer is never the same person, and sometimes it’s more than one person at the same time.

Wes Craven's genius utilized what made horror movies so fun in the past and applied it to create something new and fresh that brought absolute terror from the 90s into the 2000s. There are Scream movies still being made to this day, and there was even a successful TV series a few years ago.

4.Evil Dead

Notable Entry: Evil Dead 2

The franchise that made director Sam Raimi a household name, Evil Dead, has been scaring and grossing out fans for years and continues to do so today.

Initially focusing on Bruce Campbell's "Ash Williams" and his battle against the Deadites, demons, and spirits that take control of a living creature unleashed by the Necronomicon Ex Mortis, a book of the dead. Known for its gore and gruesome monsters, the Evil Dead movies spared nobody when it came to attacking every sense of moviegoers. After three successful films featuring Ash and a fun TV series, Evil Dead has returned to its dark, gruesome roots with two incredible reboots: The Evil Dead remake in 2013 and Evil Dead Rise, with Evil Dead Burn coming out next year.

3.Alien

Notable Entry: Alien (1979)

The Alien series of movies and TV shows has been going strong for decades now, and we are still getting new entries into the lore of the xenomorphs to this day. Kicking off with Ridley Scott's Alien in 1979, we were introduced to the terrifying Xenomorph. This vicious alien predator starts as a newborn that bursts from its host's chest, becoming an unstoppable killing machine as it matures. Oh, and throw in the fact that it bleeds acid, making this monster nearly unkillable. Spanning many movies, crossovers, spin-offs, and a new hit TV series, it's clear the world can't get enough of the Xenomorph and the people who try and usually fail to stop it.

2.A Nightmare On Elm Street

Notable Entry: A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

Freddy Krueger has become one of the main icons of horror, up there with legends like Frankenstein or Dracula. Freddy started like every other new horror antagonist, but was extremely unlike many other killers before him, making him unique.

In his life, Krueger was a child murderer. After getting off on a technicality, the parents of the town where he prayed trapped him in his house and burned it down, killing him. After making a deal with the devil, Kreuger gained the powers to prey upon children in their dreams; if they died in the dream, they died for real.

What followed the initial movie was a series of sequels (varying in quality), two reboots (one good, one bad), and a crossover where he faced Jason Voorhees. Freddy has lain dormant for a few years now, but the world will assuredly welcome him back with open arms if he chooses to rise from Hell once again.

1.Halloween

Notable Entry: Halloween (1978)

Many movies, many “deaths," many timelines, many actors, and Busta Rhymes' kung Fu to boot, Michael Myers has done it all in the world of horror.

Many people cite John Carpenter's original Halloween as one of, if not the most important, horror movies of all time. Armed with a more than modest budget, a gang of nobodies, except Donald Pleasance, Carpenter gave us what was at the time one of the scariest slasher movies ever to grace the small screen.

Halloween was a gigantic hit, which spawned quite a few sequels —many of which forgo the other movies (it's confusing, we know) — and another successful reboot, which saw John Carpenter and an OG scream queen in Jamie Lee Curtis, rejoin the franchise. In the final movie, Myers may have died, but talks are already showing that the franchise is far from dead.