Horror Movie Franchises, Ranked

Average Metascore: 24.8

It appears that nothing frightens critics more than the prospect of seeing another Friday the 13th film. To date, there have been a dozen releases (plus three seasons of a syndicated television series) in the slasher film franchise—each centering in some way on the character of Jason Voorhees, often wearing a hockey mask and played by a different actor in almost every film—and every one of them has been savaged by reviewers, resulting in an unprecedented string of blood-red Metascores. (Heck, even the dreadful Police Academy franchise had one film with a yellow score.)

But those horrific reviews certainly haven't stopped Friday the 13th from developing one of the most devoted fanbases in the genre. As a result, almost all of the films have been profitable, and, adjusting for inflation, the series has grossed over $800 million to date. A planned sequel to the 2009 reboot was put on hold more due to a conflict between rightsholders than to any lack of performance, though it seems very likely that the franchise will continue once the legalities are sorted out. (If any series was meant to reach 13 films, it's probably this one.) In the meantime, a TV prequel series called Crystal Lake is due, after a series of delays, to arrive on Peacock in the fall of 2025.

The films:
22 Friday the 13th (1980)
26 Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
30 Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
33 Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
16 Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
30 Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
13 Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
14 Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
17 Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
25 Jason X (2002)
37 Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
34 Friday the 13th (2009)

Average Metascore: 32.3

Originating, like many franchises on this list, in the 1970s, this haunted house series has its origins in a 1977 book by Jay Anson, which in turn claims to be based on the real-life experiences of the Lutz family in Amityville, New York. Critics at the time dismissed the original film despite a decent cast (James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger) and an Oscar-nominated score from the great Lalo Schifrin, but audiences took to it, making it one of the highest-grossing independent films in history. (Box Office Mojo estimates its inflation-adjusted box office haul at an impressive $314 million.)

And you can't have a box office hit without a sequel. Two less financially successful titles followed in the ensuing years (including the obligatory third film in 3D), with a remake arriving in 2005, followed by a reboot/reimagining in 2017. (The latter is most distinguished by its domestic box office gross: $742.00.) Not included in our official tally are over a dozen loosely connected films that were released straight to video (or, in the case of 1989's Amityville 4, made for television), many simply borrowing the word "Amityville" in an attempt to drive viewership for a wholly unrelated film. Also not included in the average is a 2013 documentary in which one of the Lutz family members recounts the 1970s events in his home that led to all of the above.

The films:
28 The Amityville Horror (1979)
34 Amityville II: The Possession (1982)
28 Amityville 3-D [aka Amityville III: The Demon] (1983)
33 The Amityville Horror (2005)
42 Amityville: The Awakening (2017)
26 Amityville Prison [aka Against the Night] (2017)
35 The Amityville Murders (2019)

Average Metascore: 35.4

A surprisingly durable horror movie parody franchise, Scary Movie has grossed nearly $900 million across five films—with a sixth film potentially arriving in 2025. Originally developed by three members of the Wayans family—Shawn, Marlon, and Keenen Ivory, with the latter directing films one and two—the franchise eventually came under the control of Airplane! and Naked Gun veterans like David Zucker and Pat Proft. Critics haven't liked any of the films, but fans keep showing up for spoofs of popular horror franchises like Paranormal Activity, The Exorcist, The Ring, Scream, and more.

The films:
48 Scary Movie (2000)
29 Scary Movie 2 (2001)
49 Scary Movie 3 (2003)
40 Scary Movie 4 (2006)
11 Scary Movie 5 (2013)

Average Metascore: 36.8

When vampires and werewolves—excuse us, lycans—battle, everyone's a loser—except maybe for director/series creator Len Wiseman, and studio Screen Gems. (The franchise has grossed nearly $540 million to date.) A sixth film—again starring Kate Beckinsale—has been in development for years, and a potential television series has been in development for a decade, with little progress to show on either front.

The films:
42 Underworld (2003)
36 Underworld: Evolution (2006)
44 Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
39 Underworld: Awakening (2012)
23 Underworld: Blood Wars (2017)

Average Metascore: 38.3

Created by frequent collaborators Leigh Whannell and James Wan—who also teamed for the Insidious and Conjuring franchises, which we'll get to in a few minutes—Saw is not only one of the 21st century's most successful horror franchises but is almost certainly the most lucrative torture series in film history (not including the Ernest movies), grossing $1.1 billion worldwide.

Though the first Saw was an indie feature that debuted at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, critics dismissed it as brain-dead, disgusting torture porn, and reviews got even worse as the franchise progressed. But horror fans loved the gore, creating enough demand that a new installment arrived every October from 2004-2010, generating enormous profits for Lionsgate along the way. Though the franchise then went dormant for a while, it was rebooted by the Spierig brothers (Daybreakers) in 2017, and that film was enough of a box office success to get a sequel (starring Chris Rock, and the only film in the entire franchise not to feature Tobin Bell's Jigsaw) in 2021 before Bell returned for the 10th Saw film last year. Saw XI is due to arrive in the fall of 2025.

The films:
46 Saw (2004)
40 Saw II (2005)
48 Saw III (2006)
36 Saw IV (2007)
20 Saw V (2008)
30 Saw VI (2009)
24 Saw 3D (2010)
39 Jigsaw (2017)
40 Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)
60 Saw X (2023)

Average Metascore: 40.0

Originally conceived as an episode of The X-Files, 2000's Final Destination was anything but final, kicking off what eventually became a series of five moderately successful films. All of the films feature different casts and characters, but a similar premise in which a group of characters escape a deadly disaster after one of them has a premonition about it, but wind up unable to escape Death after a series of convoluted (and often gory) plot developments leads to various demises. Critics generally dismissed the films as silly and sometimes poorly acted, though they warmed up a bit to the final Final Destination.

The films:
39 Final Destination (2000)
38 Final Destination 2 (2003)
43 Final Destination 3 (2006)
30 The Final Destination (2009)
50 Final Destination 5 (2011)

Average Metascore: 40.1

There's pretty much no such thing as a good movie based on a videogame, so it would be impossible to have a good film series based on a game franchise. That said, the Resident Evil films—written by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring his wife Milla Jovovich as a character created specifically for the big screen—are especially bad, though they'll keep making them as long as you keep seeing them. And you are seeing them: The series has grossed over $1.2 billion to date.

The newest film, however, is a series reboot without the involvement of Anderson and Jovovich. It's still lousy.

The films:
35 Resident Evil (2002)
36 Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
41 Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
37 Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
39 Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
49 Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2017)
44 Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)

Average Metascore: 40.8

Critics found something to like in the Roger Corman-produced, 1978 B-movie Jaws spoof/homage Piranha, admiring the tongue-in-cheek tone created by director Joe Dante and screenwriter John Sayles (both near the beginning of their lengthy, successful careers). But they found little redeeming qualities in any of the film's three sequels. (There was also a made-for-TV 1995 remake, also called Piranha, not included in our average score.)

The first sequel and worst film in the bunch, 1981's Piranha II, is notable for only one reason: It's the feature-length directorial debut from a man who would go on to become the most financially successful filmmaker in history, James Cameron. His film was so bad that it took 29 years for a third Piranha to surface.

The films:
71 Piranha (1978)
15 Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1982)
53 Piranha 3-D (2010)
24 Piranha 3DD (2012)

Average Metascore: 41.3

The lengthy Hellraiser filmography is split between theatrical releases and straight-to-video titles, and our average score above only reflects the former (plus 2002's Hellseeker, the sole home video title in the series with a Metascore). Of course, if those direct-to-video films (including Inferno, Hellworld, Deader, and Revelations) did have scores, they probably wouldn't make that average any higher.

The decent 1987 original—a low-budget British production—was written and directed by author Clive Barker in his feature film debut, adapting his own novella, which first introduced the enduring supernatural character of Pinhead. Barker would not return as director, though he did write and/or produce the next three films. The series has continued to the present day, including an inevitable reboot from frequent V/H/S contributor David Bruckner that debuted on Hulu in 2022. That film may get a sequel in the future, though plans remain uncertain.

The films:
56 Hellraiser (1987)
41 Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)
50 Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)
21 Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)
46 Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002)
20 Hellraiser: Judgment (2018)
55 Hellraiser (2022)

Average Metascore: 42.9

It's yet another horror franchise that started with a well-reviewed '70s hit but never produced another solid release. Tobe Hooper's at-the-time controversial 1974 film, which introduced the cannibal murderer Leatherface (very loosely based on real-life killer Ed Gein), turned out to be a trailblazer of the slasher genre and is widely considered one of the all-time horror greats. But though it was a financial success—to the point where there was even an Atari 2600 spinoff game—it took a dozen years for the first sequel to arrive.

That film, and the installments that followed (which eliminated the space in "chain saw"), were even more violent, but critics never took to them like they did to the first. Recent installments include 2017's Leatherface, a prequel that barely even reached theaters, and a Fede Alvarez-scripted 2022 entry that is titled like a reboot but instead served as a sequel to The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (and, in turn, the original film). Was it good? Not at all. Might it get a sequel anyway? Probably.

Original director Hooper would go on to spend virtually his entire career in the horror genre, though he would only find critical acclaim one additional time: with 1982's Poltergeist.

The films:
91 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
42 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
30 Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)
50 The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre [aka Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation] (1994)
38 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
30 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)
31 Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)
40 Leatherface (2017)
34 Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

Average Metascore: 43.2

This nearly 50-year-old slasher franchise centering on serial killer Michael Myers (no, not the star of The Love Guru) was originated by legendary horror director John Carpenter and his frequent collaborator, Debra Hill. Their original film—which featured future star Jamie Lee Curtis in her first film role—was a massive commercial hit as well as a critical success.

Though Carpenter (and Hill) produced the first two sequels, he would not direct another film in the franchise. In fact, there have only been two repeat directors in the series. The 2007 remake Halloween and its 2009 sequel were both directed by Rob Zombie, while David Gordon Green directed a recent Blumhouse-produced trilogy of sequels to the 1978 original returning star Curtis. The first of those is the only other film in the series to be greeted by positive reviews—it's also the highest-grossing entry in the franchise by a large margin—though critics had fewer nice things to say about the two follow-ups. There are no further films in development (yet), but a TV reboot is in the works.

The films:
90 Halloween (1978)
40 Halloween II (1981)
50 Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
34 Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
28 Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
10 Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
52 Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
19 Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
47 Halloween (2007) (2007)
35 Halloween II (2009) (2009)
67 Halloween (2018)
42 Halloween Kills (2021)
47 Halloween Ends (2022)

Average Metascore: 43.3

The least successful of Wes Craven's slasher franchises (and we'll get to the others a bit later in this list), the now-dormant Hills includes just four films, but they are spread out over a 30-year period. Craven himself directed the first two, including the sole positively reviewed chapter: the 1977 cult classic about a vacationing family targeted by mutant cannibals. Craven produced but did not direct the inevitable 2006 remake, with Alexandre Aja taking over behind the camera. That film performed well enough to merit a sequel the following year (directed by Martin Weisz, who hasn't worked much since), but the result was a critical and commercial dud, putting an end to the series for now.

An unofficial fifth Hills film, titled Mind Ripper, was made for HBO in 1995. That film was produced by Craven and promoted as a follow-up to The Hills Have Eyes Part II, but it doesn't really share anything with the other films in the series. (Nor does the made-for-cable erotic thriller The Hills Have Thighs, which, apparently, really exists.)

The films:
64 The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
25 The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1985)
52 The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
32 The Hills Have Eyes II (2007)

Average Metascore: 45.0

In addition to introducing the world to a previously unrecognized need for larger aquatic vessels, Steven Spielberg's 1975 thriller (based on Peter Benchley's novel) changed Hollywood forever. An all-time classic that briefly became the highest-grossing film in history, Jaws—along with Star Wars, which replaced it atop the box office chart two years later—helped usher in the era of the summer blockbuster (as well as the entire concept of a "wide release.") If it weren't for that man-eating shark terrorizing a New England town, your summer calendar wouldn't be filled with big-budget action films every year.

Spielberg, of course, moved on to other projects, but Jaws ultimately returned for three sequels, which failed to come anywhere close to matching the financial or critical heights of the original. You're probably better off thinking about Jaws as a single film rather than a franchise.

The films:
87 Jaws (1975)
51 Jaws 2 (1978)
27 Jaws 3-D (1983)
15 Jaws: The Revenge (1987)

Average Metascore: 45.9

Blending sci-fi, horror, and action, directed by John McTiernan (a year before Die Hard), and starring the unassailable action-movie duo of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers, the first Predator film was ... not all that great, at least at the time. (It is retroactively considered a solid action film, though it may benefit from comparisons to some of the other films in the franchise.) A sequel followed three years later, followed by a pair of dreadful crossover films with the Alien franchise and another Predator sequel in 2010.

Not even the normally solid writer-director Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Iron Man 3)—who actually co-starred in the original Predator film—could save the franchise's 2018 reboot, which proved to be another dud. But 2022 brought a welcome surprise: the franchise's first good film. Naturally, that film—Prey, an 18th century-set prequel directed by Dan Trachtenberg—was the only one in the series not to get a theatrical release.

The films:
47 Predator (1987)
46 Predator 2 (1990)
29 AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)
29 AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem (2007)
51 Predators (2010)
48 The Predator (2018)
71 Prey (2022)

Average Metascore: 47.0

We mention 21st century horror specialists Blumhouse Productions a few times on this page, but this is the franchise that gave Jason Blum's studio its first major hit. With a minuscule $15,000 budget, director Oren Peli's found-footage style Paranormal Activity emerged from the festival circuit in 2007 to ultimately gross over $190 million worldwide, kicking off not just a supernatural horror franchise but re-popularizing the use of the found-footage format (after The Blair Witch Project had such success with it nearly a decade earlier).

Subsequent installments didn't impress critics as much as the first film (and the two most recent chapters were out-and-out duds), but the series as a whole was a massive financial success.

The films:
68 Paranormal Activity (2009)
53 Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
59 Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
40 Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)
42 Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014)
30 Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)
37 Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021)

Average Metascore: 47.5

King Kong may have started several decades earlier, but he took a few breaks. Instead, it is his fellow giant monster Godzilla who is widely considered to hold the title of the longest continuous film franchise in history. Created by Japanese studio Toho in 1954, the Godzilla franchise has continued through the decades to the present day, with over 30 films made in Japan alone.

Rarely released in the United States—for example, the 1954 original didn't officially screen here until 50 years later—those Japanese titles are not included in our average score displayed above. (But if you want to seek a few out, the 2016 series reboot Shin Godzilla and 2023's Godzilla Minus One are excellent recent examples.) Instead, we are including only English-language American releases.

The first three of those were dubbed and heavily edited versions of various Toho productions rather than original films. The first original American production came decades later courtesy of Roland Emmerich, but that 1998 film was a critical disaster, though it performed well at the box office. Still, several proposed sequels never progressed past the story treatment stage. In 2014, Gareth Edwards directed a reboot of the franchise which proved much more successful. That film kicked off Warner Bros.'s "MonsterVerse" universe which has featured Godzilla and/or King Kong in five movies so far.*

* We have opted not to list MonsterVerse as a separate franchise here because it is so similar to our Godzilla list below, but for those of you keeping score at home, the five MV films on their own average 55.6 .

The films:
61 Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)
40 King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963)
31 Godzilla 1985 (1985)
32 Godzilla (1998)
62 Godzilla (2014)
48 Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
59 Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
47 Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Average Metascore: 47.6

Australian filmmakers James Wan and Leigh Whannell are responsible for three of the 21st century's biggest horror franchises. (By "responsible," we mean sometimes writing, sometimes directing, sometimes producing, and even occasionally starring.) Of the three, Insidious—their collaboration with low-budget experts Blumhouse Productions—falls in the middle of the pack both in terms of both average score and financial success. The films are not as despised by critics as the Saw series (which Insidious also slightly out-grosses on a per-film average), and not nearly as praised as the Conjuring films, many of which, like the Insidious films, star Patrick Wilson.

Wilson also made his directorial debut with the most recent Insidious entry, 2023's The Red Door, which became the highest-grossing installment in the franchise to date in spite of lackluster reviews. A sixth film could arrive as soon as next summer, while a spinoff called Thread is also in development.

The films:
52 Insidious (2011)
40 Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
52 Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)
49 Insidious: The Last Key (2018)
45 Insidious: The Red Door (2023)

Average Metascore: 48.9

It took nearly 30 years, but the Child's Play franchise finally landed some positive reviews with installment number seven—not something that you usually see in ongoing franchises. Created by Don Mancini, the slasher series about a serial killer (Brad Dourif in each of the films) named Chucky whose soul is transferred into a toy doll (via voodoo, of course) is known for its dark, sometimes campy, humor, though some of the installments are more serious than others.

Though there have been no films in the series since a poorly received 2019 reboot (made without Mancini's involvement), a Mancini-created TV series—intended to serve as a sequel to 2017's Cult of Chucky—recently concluded a three-season run on USA and Syfy. Like the film that inspired it, the TV show received positive reviews from critics. A new film sequel is in the early stages of development.

The films:
58 Child's Play (1988)
37 Child's Play 2 (1990)
27 Child's Play 3 (1991)
48 Bride of Chucky (1998)
46 Seed of Chucky (2004)
58 Curse of Chucky (2013)
69 Cult of Chucky (2017)
48 Child's Play (2019)

Average Metascore: 49.0

Yet another franchise to follow the by-now-familiar template of great first movie in the 1970s and not much to speak of after that, The Exorcist's first film really is great. Directed by William Friedkin (with writer William Peter Blatty faithfully adapting his own best-selling book), 1973's The Exorcist is an all-time classic of supernatural cinematic horror, collecting 10 Oscar nominations (including one for best picture, marking a first for the horror genre) following a massively successful run in theaters.

But after that? Yeah, not much to speak of. The first sequel, arriving four years later from director John Boorman, is a truly terrible movie and a commercial disappointment. It would take another 13 years for the third film to arrive, and that one (directed by Blatty himself) was a bit better, though a conflict between the director and the studio over the final edit probably didn't help the final product. The following century, Paul Schrader was brought in to direct a prequel, but he was fired toward the end of filming and replaced with Renny Harlin, who wound up re-shooting the entire film. Eventually, each of their visions would find their way to the big screen, and while Schrader's (Dominion) was by far the better of the two, neither was good. Nor was a 2023 sequel to the original film from writer-director David Gordon Green (who could not duplicate the success of his recent Halloween revival). In fact, the only Exorcist follow-up to secure decent reviews was a television series spinoff, which ran for two seasons on Fox.

The films:
83 The Exorcist (1973)
39 Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)
48 The Exorcist III (1990)
30 Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
55 Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)
39 The Exorcist: Believer (2023)

Average Metascore: 49.8

One of the least gory of the franchises on our list, The Omen nevertheless follows a familiar pattern: great first film in the '70s, and not much to speak of after that (with a notable exception we'll get to in a moment). That first film was directed by Richard Donner and stars Gregory Peck, whose son, Damien, happens to be the Antichrist. Neither Donner nor Peck (nor the original Damien, Harvey Spencer Stephens) returned for the inevitable (and inevitably inferior) sequels in 1978 and 1981, though the third film did feature a then-unknown Sam Neill as Damien, marking his first major role outside of Australia. The inevitable remake arrived in 2006 courtesy of director John Moore (A Good Day to Die Hard), but not even a 06/06/06 release date could help it achieve more than very slight success. But, nearly two decades later, an unexpectedly good prequel (and feature film debut) from director Arkasha Stevenson somehow achieved the highest score in the franchise's history. But it grossed only $53 million, leaving the franchise's future in doubt.

The franchise has crossed over to the small screen twice. In 1991, the nascent Fox network aired a made-for-TV sequel (Omen IV: The Awakening) that served as the fourth and final film in the original series. (It's not included in our average score, but it's safe to say it wasn't any good.) In 2016, the A&E network, as part of a short-lived move into drama programming, aired the TV series adaptation Damien. That show received poor reviews and was canceled after one season.

The films:
62 The Omen (1976)
45 Damien: Omen II (1978)
34 The Final Conflict (1981)
43 The Omen (2006)
65 The First Omen (2024)

Average Metascore: 50.3

One of the most iconic horror series in history thanks to its memorably terrifying central figure, the burnt, razor-fingered serial killer turned dream-invading demon Freddy Krueger (played usually by Robert Englund), Elm Street might be Wes Craven's most successful (or at least most prolific) creation, ultimately spanning nine feature films and one television series (Freddy's Nightmares, which ran in syndication for two seasons from 1988-90).

Craven himself directed only two of the films (and co-wrote a third). Unsurprisingly, those were the only two in the entire series to receive positive reviews from critics. The two most recent chapters, a 2003 crossover with the Friday the 13th series and a Michael Bay-produced 2010 remake of the original film with Jackie Earle Haley playing Freddy, were both panned by reviewers and longtime fans. The series is likely to return in the future, though none of the projects pitched so far has been put into active development.

The films:
76 A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
43 A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)
49 A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
56 A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
54 A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)
39 Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
64 Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
37 Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
35 A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Average Metascore: 50.6

Depicting a near-future, alternate-history America where citizens are permitted to commit all crimes during a 12-hour period each year (much like the inhabitants of Beta III), the James DeMonaco-created franchise was, for a while, trending in the right direction. Each of the first four films grossed more than the previous one, while reviews also improved slightly for a while. But the fifth film took a sharp downturn at the box office (not helped by lingering pandemic woes), and plans for a sixth film appear to remain on hold.

The franchise also took a detour onto the small screen with a spin-off television series, also titled The Purge, that ran for two seasons on the USA Network. It's mediocre at best.

The films:
41 The Purge (2013)
50 The Purge: Anarchy (2014)
55 The Purge: Election Year (2016)
54 The First Purge (2018)
53 The Forever Purge (2021)

Average Metascore: 53.6

A short-lived collaboration between Blumhouse Productions and Amazon, the "Welcome to the Blumhouse" series consisted of eight films (released two at a time) that debuted on Prime Video over a two-year period earlier this decade. The low-budget films from a diverse group of filmmakers blend horror with other genres, and though the franchise ranks relatively highly on this list, it does so more by being less terrible than some of the better-known horror brands than by being good. Only one of the eight films received mostly positive reviews: the Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr.-directed Black Box, about an amnesiac who seeks out an unusual treatment to recover his memories after a trauma.

The films:
45 The Lie (2020)
62 Black Box (2020)
54 Evil Eye (2020)
58 Nocturne (2020)
55 Bingo Hell (2021)
53 Black as Night (2021)
43 Madres (2021)
59 The Manor (2021)

Average Metascore: 53.8

They're here—the Poltergeist films, that is. And, really, there's only one Poltergeist film that anyone should care about. Directed, nominally, by Tobe Hooper (of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre fame), 1982's Poltergeist will forever be followed by rumors that it was in fact made mostly or entirely by Steven Spielberg, who is credited only as a writer and producer and was contractually forbidden from directing a second film while at work on E.T. (which was released during the same month—we should be so lucky these days). Either way, the film was a hit, and is a beloved classic of the haunted house genre.

The "hit" part of that equation means that sequels inevitably followed. And, without any involvement from Spielberg or Hooper (or, really, anyone else of note), they were inferior to the original in every way. In 2015, Gil Kenan then directed a wholly unnecessary remake of the original film. The only good thing to say about that film is that none of its stars have yet succumbed to the "Poltergeist curse."

The films:
79 Poltergeist (1982)
49 Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)
40 Poltergeist III (1988)
47 Poltergeist (2015)

Average Metascore: 53.9

The best new horror franchise of the previous decade, The Conjuring recently started billing itself with the trendy "cinematic universe" tag to better encompass its various spinoff properties, including the Annabelle series and recent addition The Nun. All of the films in the series are in some way related to real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, played in the Conjuring films by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. Each of the first two, James Wan-directed, Conjuring films received a positive reception from critics, as did (weirdly) the second but not the first Annabelle feature.

But nun none of the "Conjuring Universe" films since that Annabelle sequel were greeted by positive reviews, though they all grossed $200 million or more, bringing the franchise's cumulative grosses to over $2.2 billion. So don't expect the highest-grossing horror series in cinema history to stop anytime soon. Future plans include another Conjuring sequel, Last Rites, now slated for a September 5, 2025 release.

The films:
68 The Conjuring (2013)
37 Annabelle (2014)
65 The Conjuring 2 (2016)
62 Annabelle: Creation (2017)
46 The Nun (2018)
53 Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
53 The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
47 The Nun II (2023)

Average Metascore: 54.3

Originated by Brad Miska, founder of the horror film website Bloody Disgusting, V/H/S is a series of found-footage style horror anthology films. Directors who have contributed segments to the seven V/H/S-branded films (including the just-released Shudder exclusive V/H/S/Beyond, the best of the bunch according to critics) include Adam Wingard, Jason Eisener, Scott Derrickson, Flying Lotus, Joe Swanberg, Ti West, and the duo of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.

Two of those segments were later spun off into stand-alone full-length films: 2016's SiREN from Gregg Bishop (based on a David Bruckner-directed segment in the first anthology film), and last year's Kids vs. Aliens, which Eisener adapted from his own segment in the second V/H/S feature.

The films:
54 V/H/S (2012)
49 V/H/S/2 (2013)
38 V/H/S: Viral (2014)
54 SiREN (2016)
63 V/H/S/94 (2021)
58 V/H/S/99 (2022)
53 V/H/S/85 (2023)
51 Kids vs. Aliens (2023)
69 V/H/S/Beyond (2024)

Average Metascore: 55.3

This Spanish, found-footage-style zombie horror franchise launched with an impressive opener in 2007 from directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza. Both men returned for 2009's lesser sequel, and then each one took a solo turn behind the camera with the third and fourth installments.

The original REC was remade in the U.S. the following year as Quarantine, which didn't impress critics and was only a modest financial success at best. That film received a straight-to-video sequel, Quarantine 2: Terminal, in 2011.

The films:
71 REC (2007)
52 [Rec] 2 (2010)
45 [REC] 3: Genesis (2012)
53 [REC] 4: Apocalypse (2015)

Average Metascore: 56.5

With a climax that features a giant ape climbing the Empire State Building, swatting at planes, and clutching a woman (Fay Wray) in his oversized paw, RKO's 1933 film King Kong is one of the most iconic movies in cinema history as well as one of the best-reviewed horror films of all time.

Kong would return to the big screen for an immediate (inferior) sequel that same year, but his further cinematic adventures would occur sporadically after that, with lengthy dormant periods. The ensuing films were often remakes of the original that would take advantage of the latest special effects technology, though they also include some productions from Japan's Toho, including a crossover with the Godzilla franchise. The best film following the 1933 original is Peter Jackson's expensive 2005 remake, which featured a motion-capture Kong played by Andy Serkis.

Beginning with 2017's Jordan Vogt-Roberts-directed Kong: Skull Island—the last King Kong movie to receive approval from critics—all recent Kong films have been part of the aforementioned "MonsterVerse" franchise.

The films:
50 The Son of Kong (1933)
92 King Kong (1933)
40 King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963)
41 King Kong Escapes (1967)
61 King Kong (1976)
32 King Kong Lives (1986)
81 King Kong (2005)
62 Kong: Skull Island (2017)
59 Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
47 Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Average Metascore: 57.3

Dating back to 1910 (!), Mary Shelley's 19th century creation Frankenstein—and, more importantly, Frankenstein's monster—have appeared on screen in one form or another far too many times to count. (It's easily north of 100.) The monster has met Abbott and Costello, appeared in one of the most iconic horror films of all time, and, of course, staged a flawless performance of "Puttin' on the Ritz."

One of the most prolific producers of Frankenstein films in the 20th century was Britain's Hammer Film Productions. Starting in 1957, the horror-focused studio made seven features, all (with one exception) featuring Peter Cushing (well before he was a Grand Moff) as Baron Victor Frankenstein. Cushing wasn't the only future Star Wars franchise regular to appear in the series; Christopher Lee (the future Count Dooku) and David Prowse (Darth Vader) played Frankenstein's monstrous creation in one and two of the films, respectively. Four of the first five Hammer-produced Frankenstein films received surprisingly solid reviews from critics, but the sixth film—a weirdly comedic remake of the first with Ralph Bates replacing Cushing—was a dud. Cushing returned for the final film in the series, but that one, set in an insane asylum where Frankenstein experiments on the inmates, was even worse.

Note that (among other works) Hammer also produced a similar series of Dracula films. Many of those films lack reviews from our critics and as a result that series is not included in our rankings here.

The films:
65 The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
68 The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
54 The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
63 Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
74 Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1970)
40 The Horror of Frankenstein (1971)
37 Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)

Average Metascore: 59.5

Wes Craven's most critically successful franchise was also a wild box office success, a feat made even more impressive by happening during a downturn for the genre. In fact, the 1996 original—like its sequels, a darkly humorous, often "meta" take on the genre featuring characters aware of horror film conventions and using them to attempt to escape their own terrifying dilemma—was the highest-grossing slasher film in history until being surpassed by 2018's Halloween. The financial success of the Scream films was no doubt helped by the then unconventional decision (for a horror film) to cast recognizable TV and film stars like Drew Barrymore, Courteney Cox, and Neve Campbell.

The original film also served as the debut for screenwriter Kevin Williamson, who would also go on to write the 2nd and 4th films in the series but would achieve even greater success in television, creating such long-running shows as Dawson's Creek and The Vampire Diaries. Scream itself would later become a television series without the involvement of Craven or Williamson, airing three seasons on MTV before ending in 2019. The franchise then moved back to the big screen with a pair of films in 2022 and 2023 that featured a mix of old and new characters and performed much better than the lackluster Scream 4 at the box office. A seventh film, this time with Williamson directing, is due in 2026.

The films:
66 Scream (1996)
62 Scream 2 (1997)
56 Scream 3 (2000)
52 Scream 4 (2011)
60 Scream (2022)
61 Scream VI (2023)

Average Metascore: 60.6

With direction from Ridley Scott, creature design from H.R. Giger, and a star turn from then-unknown Sigourney Weaver, the 1979 classic Alien not only kicked off an ongoing multimedia franchise, it effectively created a new genre: the outer space horror film.

What followed can be broken down into three distinct groups. Alien itself received three (somewhat belated) sequels featuring Weaver's character, Ripley. Emphasizing action a bit more than horror, James Cameron's Aliens quickly established itself as another classic, and is widely regarded as one of the best sequels ever made. David Fincher made his directorial debut with the third film—the only one of the sequels without a green Metascore—while French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's fourth film received slightly better reviews though was a box office disappointment.

Overall, those first four Alien films averaged an impressive 73.5 . A pair of crossover films with the Predator franchise, however, each scored a lowly 29 . Director Scott later returned to the franchise with a pair of decently reviewed prequels, while this year brought the Fede Alvarez-directed Alien: Romulus, which is set between the events of the first two films. The latter has performed well enough at the box office that a sequel isn't out of the question. Before that, though, comes a TV series: Alien: Earth, an FX-produced prequel to the original film from Fargo's Noah Hawley, is due to launch on Hulu next year.

The films:
89 Alien (1979)
84 Aliens (1986)
59 Alien 3 (1992)
62 Alien: Resurrection (1997)
29 AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)
29 AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem (2007)
64 Prometheus (2012)
65 Alien: Covenant (2017)
64 Alien: Romulus (2024)

Average Metascore: 62.6

There are only two good films in what ultimately became a five-film (and one television show) series based on the novels by Thomas Harris, but those two are very good indeed.

Jonathan Demme's 1991 classic The Silence of the Lambs is the only thing close to a horror film to ever win the Oscar for Best Picture. And the excellent though little-seen at the time 1986 thriller Manhunter, directed (appropriately enough) by Michael Mann, is one of only two films in the series not to star Anthony Hopkins as the serial killer Hannibal Lecter. In Mann's film, Lecter is portrayed by future Succession star Brian Cox, while in the dreadful prequel Hannibal Rising, Gaspard Ulliel steps into the role.

The films:
75 Manhunter (1986)
86 The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
57 Hannibal (2001)
60 Red Dragon (2002)
35 Hannibal Rising (2007)

Average Metascore: 64.0

You won't find a higher Metascore anywhere on this list than that 97 for Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece Psycho, a low-budget, black-and-white adaptation of Robert Bloch's 1959 novel starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. Shocking for its time (and still highly effective today), Psycho is perhaps the first slasher film in history and contains a shower scene so iconic that it received its own documentary.

After Hitchcock's death, Psycho received two belated sequels. Of course they weren't as good, though they are surprisingly decent—especially Psycho III, directed by Perkins himself. That film, however, was a commercial dud, which meant the fourth film (1990's Psycho IV: The Beginning, not included here) was a made-for-television affair. Then, in one of the most inexplicable moves in film history, director Gus Van Sant decided to film a shot-for-shot remake of Hitchcock's classic. The result, released in 1998 to tepid reviews and little interest from moviegoers, featured Vince Vaughn in Perkins' role as Norman Bates and Anne Heche taking Leigh's role as Marion Crane.

A better tribute to the original came on the small screen in the form of Bates Motel, a prequel series centering on a young Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) that ran for five seasons on A&E.

The films:
97 Psycho (1960)
54 Psycho II (1983)
58 Psycho III (1986)
47 Psycho (1998)

Average Metascore: 65.6

Well before he would achieve major success directing Spider-Men (Spiders-Man?) 1, 2, and 3, Sam Raimi got his start with a few low-budget indies. His second feature was just such a film: a humorous and inventive supernatural horror tale starring Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, a man forced to repeatedly battle his friends and loved ones after they become possessed by a demon. That film, and Raimi's two slightly higher-budget sequels, are now considered the primary example of the phrase "cult classic."

Following Army of Darkness, Raimi's plans for a fourth film never came to fruition, though he did continue Ash's story in the well-reviewed television series Ash vs. Evil Dead, which starred Campbell and ran for three seasons on Starz. Campbell also briefly appeared as Ash in 2013 in Fede Alvarez's bloodier but less humorous franchise reboot Evil Dead, which mainly focused on the new character of Mia, played by Jane Levy. A decade later, relatively unknown writer-director Lee Cronin added a fifth film to the franchise. That entry, Evil Dead Rise, was surprisingly good despite the involvement of Raimi and Campbell in name only (as executive producers). Multiple additional films are in the early stages of development.

Though it's not part of the franchise, 2008's My Name Is Bruce found Campbell playing off of his fame as the star of Evil Dead in his own meta horror comedy. And does the Evil Dead franchise have a bunch of unlicensed Italian "sequels," (aka knockoffs) including one starring David Hasselhoff and Linda Blair? Why yes, it does.

The films:
71 The Evil Dead (1983)
72 Evil Dead II (1987)
59 Army of Darkness (1993)
57 Evil Dead (2013)
69 Evil Dead Rise (2023)

Average Metascore: 66.7

While the zombie movie has been around since the 1930s, that horror subgenre didn't get started in earnest until George Romero's 1968 breakthrough Night of the Living Dead, which established the template that pretty much every zombie film has followed in the 50 years since. (An oversight by the studio, by the way, means that Romero's film is in the public domain, so you can easily find it online anytime you wish to watch it.)

Over the next four decades, Romero would direct five more films in his Dead series, each one in a different setting with its own characters and self-contained zombie story that served as social commentary on issues of the day. Most of the films in the series were greeted with positive reviews from critics, which, as you know if you have scrolled through this gallery, is a rarity, indeed.

We are including only Romero's films in the average above, since they exist as a discrete series. Excluded are non-Romero remakes of several of the Dead films. This group includes 1990's lackluster Night of the Living Dead from director Tom Savini, Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead in 2004, Steve Miner's effectively straight-to-video Day of the Dead in 2008, 2018's Day of the Dead: Bloodline, and even a 2021 animated remake of the original film.

That original 1968 film was co-written by Romero and John Russo, and a falling out between the two men led to Russo writing his own sequel (as a novel) to the original film, titled Return of the Living Dead. Little of that novel remained in the decently reviewed film version directed by Dan O'Bannon and released in 1985. A sequel to that film, Return of the Living Dead 2, followed three years later, with a third film in 1993. Two additional straight-to-video titles arrived in 2005 (but do not have enough reviews to allow us to include ROTLD as a separate franchise here).

The films:
89 Night of the Living Dead (1968)
71 Dawn of the Dead (1979)
60 Day of the Dead (1985)
71 Land of the Dead (2005)
66 Diary of the Dead (2008)
43 Survival of the Dead (2010)

Average Metascore: 69.3

Not so much a franchise as a series of remakes, the Body Snatchers films blend sci-fi and horror (and, for some observers, social commentary) with their tales of secret alien invasions that find plant-based alien invaders slowly replacing humans with emotionless, alien clones grown in pods. (Yes, that's the origin of the phrase "pod people.") Typically, the film's hero discovers the plan but finds it hard to convince others that it is indeed happening and is not just a paranoid delusion—perhaps because Reddit hadn't been invented yet.

Based on a novel by Jack Finney, Don Siegel's black-and-white 1956 original is widely regarded now as an all-time classic. Surprisingly, a larger-scale 1978 remake (starring Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, and a very young Jeff Goldblum) from director Philip Kaufman is also quite good, with the story proving to be a perfect match to the 1970s trend toward paranoid conspiracy thrillers.

While Kaufman's film is frequently cited as an example of a great Hollywood remake, Abel Ferrara's Body Snatchers is not, though it received fairly good reviews upon its release in 1993. His film switched the setting from California to an Alabama army base and made some changes to the characters but otherwise retained elements from the earlier films and the book. In 2007, Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall) directed yet another remake that featured major stars (Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig) and a drastically different story. Critics dismissed the result as boring, brain-dead, and inept.

The films:
92 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
75 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
65 Body Snatchers (1994)
45 The Invasion (2007)