In time for October viewing, Boston.com has compiled a list of the top 50 scariest movies of all time. The whole list of 50 is presented here so you don’t have to click through 50 pages — Yep, that’s right one movie per page. The plot outlines are from IMDb, the comments are ours.

1. The Thing (1982) – Scientists in the Antarctic are confronted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people that it kills.
2. Ju-on (2000) – Jealous of his wifes love for another man, a teacher from her high school, a man brutally kills his wife and young son.
3. The Ring (2002) – A young journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone in a week of viewing it. The Japanese original, Ringu, is much better in our opinion.
4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) – In San Francisco, a group of people discover the human race is being replaced one by one, with clones devoid of emotion.
5. Alien (1979) – A mining ship, investigating a suspected SOS, lands on a distant planet. The crew discovers some strange creatures and investigates. While Aliens was good, it was Aliens that combine top-notch space marine action and edge of your seat scares. Only downside to Aliens was that child screaming, “RIPLEEEEEEEEEEEEEE” the whole time.
   
6. Dawn of the Dead (1978) – Following an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia SWAT team members, a traffic reporter, and his television-executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.
7. Evil Dead II (1987) – The lone survivor of an onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits holds up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack. One of our favorite horror films – gory, campy, and chock-full of Bruce Campbell.
8. Halloween (1978) – A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood escapes on a mindless rampage while his doctor chases him through the streets.
9. The Shining (1980) – A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.
10. Quartermass and the Pit (1967) – An ancient Martian spaceship is unearthed in London, and proves to have powerful psychic effects on the people around.
11. The Exorcist (1973) – Landmark of horror films, based on an enormously popular novel: A troubled cleric sees a means of redemption in helping a [demonically posessed] teen.
12. Jaws (1975) – When a gigantic great white begins to menace the small island community of Amity, a police chief, a marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to stop it.
13. Jacob’s Ladder (1990) – A traumatized Vietnam war veteran finds out that his post-war life isn’t what he believes it to be when he’s attacked by horned creatures in the subway and his dead son comes to visit him.
14. The Changeling (1980) – A man staying at a secluded historical mansion, finds his life being haunted by the presence of a spectre.
15. In the Mouth of Madness (1994) – An insurance investigator begins discovering that the impact a horror writer’s books have on his fans, is more than inspirational. H.P. Lovecraft at his finest.
16. Hellraiser (1987) – An unfaithful wife encounters the zombie of her dead lover, who’s being chased by demons after he escaped from their sado-masochistic Hell. Clive Barker is one messed up dude. The first Hellraiser is scary and gory, the second is just an over-the-top gorefest.
17. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) – Five friends visiting their grandpa’s old house are hunted down and terrorized by a chainsaw wielding killer and his family of grave-robbing cannibals.
18. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) – A young FBI cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims.
19. Janghwa, Hongryeon (A Tale of Two Sisters) (2003) – Two sisters who, after spending time in a mental institution, return to the home of their father and cruel stepmother. Once there, in addition to dealing with their stepmother’s obsessive and unbalanced ways, an interfering ghost also affects their recovery.
20. Event Horizon (1997) – A rescue crew investigates a spaceship that disappeared into a black hole and has now returned…with someone or something new on-board. Visceral and gritty, Event Horizon is a great ‘haunted house’ in space film.
21. Saw (2004) – With a dead body laying between them, two men (Whannell and Elwes) wake up in the secure lair of a serial killer who’s been nicknamed “Jigsaw” by the police because of his unusual calling card.
22. War of the Worlds (1953) – The film adaptation of the H.G.Wells story told on radio of the invasion of Earth by Martians. A classic sci-fi film. The 2005 remakes with Tom Cruise is terrible tripe — but a fanedit, War Of The Worlds – The Extinctive Cut, goes a long way toward fixing the most glaring problems.
23. Se7en (1995) – Police drama about two cops, one new and one about to retire, after a serial killer using the seven deadly sins as his MO.
24. Videodrome (1983) – A lowly cable TV operator begins to see his life and the future of media spin out of control in a very unusual fashion when he acquires a new kind of programming for his station.
25. Mothman Prophecies (2002) – A reporter is drawn to a small West Virginia town to investigate a series of strange events, including psychic visions and the appearance of bizarre entities.
26. Scream (1996) – A psychopathic serial killer is stalking a group of teens just like in the movies.
27. Session 9 (2001) – Tensions rise within an asbestos cleaning crew as they work in an abandoned mental hospital with a horrific past that seems to be coming back.
28. Altered States (1980) – A Harvard scientist conducts experiments on himself with a hallucinatory drug and an isolation chamber that may be causing him to regress genetically.
29. Gates of Hell (1980) – A reporter and a psychic race to close the Gates of Hell after the suicide of a clergyman caused them to open, allowing the dead to rise from the grave. The actual name for this Lucio Fulci film is City of the Living Dead.
30. Salem’s Lot (1979) – A small town is infested by vampires. TV mini-series
31. The Fly (1986) – A brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong. An intense remake of Vincent Price’s 1958 original. Jeff Goldblum makes an excellent fly-brid.
32. Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) – In the dreams of his victims, a specteral child murderer stalks the children of the members of the lynch mob that killed him.
33. Open Water (2003) – Based on the true story of two scuba divers accidentally stranded in shark infested waters after their tour boat has left. Like Jaws (#12), this is not a film to watch before heading out to the ocean.
34. Pet Sematary (1989) – The Creeds have just moved to a new house in the countryside. Their house is perfect, except for two things: the semi-trailers that roar past on the narrow road, and the mysterious cemetary in the woods behind the house. The Creed’s neighbours are reluctant to talk about the cemetary, and for good reason too.
35. Jeepers Creepers (2001) – A brother and sister driving home for spring break encounter a flesh-eating creature in the isolated countryside that is on it’s last day of it’s ritualistic eating spree.
36. The Devils Backbone (2001) – Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro conjures up scares-a-plenty in this tale of a young boy secluded in a haunted orphanage during the Spanish Civil War. Original title: Espinazo del diablo, El.
37. Amityville Horror (1979) – Newlyweds move into a house where a murder was committed, and experience strange manifestations which drive them away.
38. Eraserhead (1977) – Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.
39. The Brood (1979) – A husband tries to uncover a shady psychiatrist’s therapy techniques on his institutionalized wife, while a series of brutal attacks committed by a brood of mutant children coincides with the husband’s investigation.
40. Rosemary’s Baby (1968) – A young couple move into a new apartment, only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbors and occurrences. When the wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of her unborn child begins controlling her life.
41. Ghost Story (1981) – Four successful elderly gentlemen, members of the Chowder Society, share a gruesome, 50-year old secret. When one of Edward Wanderley’s twin sons dies in a bizarre accident, the group begins to see a pattern of frightening events developing.
42. 28 Days Later (2002) – Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.
43. The Blob (1988) – A strange lifeform consumes everything in its path as it grows and grows. A good sci-fi film, but nobody can beat Steve McQueen’s performance in the 1958 original. Not to mention the utterly out of place – yet marvelously groovy – Blob theme song, written by Burt Bacharach and Mack David:
    [audio:http://www.goozlepipe.com/audio/bewareoftheblob.mp3]
44. The Wicker Man (1973) – A police sergeant is called to an island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed. Stranger still, however, are the rituals that take place there.
45. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) – A poor boy wins the oppurtunity to tour the most eccentric and wonderful candy factory of all. I have no idea why this made the list. Last time it scare me, I was 6 years-old. Now when we watch it, we sit an crack jokes about how emo Charlie is.
46. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) – College students at a Boston college become fascinated by the events of the three missing filmmakers in Maryland, so they decide to go into the same woods and find out what really happened.
47. Freaks (1932) – A circus’ beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.
48. The Other (1972) – Down in the farmcountry of the US two twins are born. One of them turns out to be good, while the other becomes rather evil.
49. The Innocents (1961) – A young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted.
50. Arachnophobia (1990) – South American killer spider hitches a lift to the US in a coffin and starts to breed and kill.

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