From Halloween and Scream to Alien and Final Destination, these are the best horror franchises ranked from 15-1.
Horror is the best genre, which is why it’s responsible dedicated festivals all over the world, a month-long holiday in October, the most memorable icons in all of cinema, and 102 superb scary movies.
Horror also spawns series’ that span decades, with each new generation creating their own terrifying horror villains, or re-inventing the monsters that have come before.
The following are our favorite horror franchises, with each series scoring points for quality, longevity, consistency, and above all, scares.
15. Terrifier
Number of Movies: 3
What it’s about: The Terrifier trilogy revolves around Art the Clown, a silent, sadistic, seemingly supernatural killer who takes pleasure in murdering those he encounters in ever-more violent and disgusting ways.
Why we love it: Terrifier is the horror franchise that could, with mastermind Damien Leone spotting a gap in the market for extreme horror, and filling it with low-budget movies that are big on blood and gore. The trilogy is also anchored by a spellbinding David Howard Thornton performance that ensures Art elicits laughs while giving audiences nightmares.
14. Psycho
Paramount PicturesNumber of Movies: 6
What it’s about: Norman Bates loves his mother, so-much-so that he keeps her rotting corpse in the attic of his motel, and kills unsuspecting guests while dressed in her clothes.
Why we love it: ‘Master of Suspense’ Alfred Hitchcock pretty much invented the slasher genre through his outrageous adaptation of Robert Bloch’s lurid novel. It was followed by sequels and prequels of varying quality – as well as a pointless shot-for-shot remake – but aside from the excellent Bates Motel TV series, Psycho only really worked when the incomparable Anthony Perkins was playing Norman.
13. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
BryanstonNumber of Movies: 9
What it’s about: Inspired by real-life serial killer Ed Gein – like multiple movies on this list – the Chainsaw Massacre franchise concerns a family of cannibals who torture, kill, and sometimes eat their unfortunate victims.
Why we love it: Tobe Hooper’s original Massacre movie turned antagonist Leatherface into an immediate horror legend, while introducing horror tropes that filmmakers have been aping aver since. It was followed by a blackly comic sequel that masterfully undercut the original – as well as a new instalment every few years – but nothing has come close to that first masterpiece.
12. Chucky
United Artists/UniversalNumber of Movies: 8
What it’s about: The soul of a serial killer ends up in a children’s doll called Chucky who continues his rampage, first setting his sights on a boy called Andy, before hooking up with ‘Bride’ Tiffany, and having a kid called Glen/Glenda.
Why we love it: The brainchild of Don Mancini, the Child’s Play series – which is now better known as the Chucky franchise – effortlessly blend horror and humor. Brad Dourif is suitably deranged as the voice of Chucky, while the worse the doll says and does, the more people love him. An attempted reboot illustrated how forgettable this story could be without Mancini’s involvement, while his TV series was a worthy successor to the movies, in which proceedings get even more bat-sh*t crazy.
11. The Exorcist
Warner Bros.Number of Movies: 6
What it’s about: When a young girl is seemingly possessed by a devil called Pazuzu, a priest who has lost faith is brought in to perform an exorcism, and so begins a long-running battle between good and evil.
Why we love it: The Exorcist is a series that’s all over the place, kicking off with a bona fide classic that has evil dropping from every frame, which was followed by one of the worst sequels in film history. Part 3 was truly terrifying, there were two Part 4s – both of which were bad – while recent prequel ‘Believer‘ was a critical and commercial hit, suggesting the there’s life in the Exorcist yet.
10. Friday the 13
Paramount PicturesNumber of Movies: 12
What it’s about: Set in and around a camp at Crystal Lake, the Friday the 13th films are powered by Jason Voorhees, an unstoppable killer in a hockey mask, who spends his summers murdering both counsellors and kids. Though of course he wasn’t the killer in the first movie…
Why we love it: Friday the 13th has a formula and sticks to it, with promiscuous teen hoping for summer fun, and instead finding themselves butchered by a homicidal maniac. That repetition is why the franchise isn’t higher on this list, though there’s something comforting in knowing exactly what you’re going to get, so if you like your horror simple yet effective, the F13 movies are endlessly watchable.
9. Hannibal
Orion PicturesNumber of Movies: 5
What it’s about: The first Hannibal Lecter movies concerned a brilliant serial killer (who sometimes eats his victims) helping the FBI to catch other mass-murderers, while sequels and prequels saw him out in the wild.
Why we love it: The Hannibal Lecter movies kicked off with two very different approaches to Thomas Harris novels, with Manhunter a cold, dark, and brooding adaptation of Red Dragon starring a brilliant Brian Cox, and The Silence of the Lambs a perfect thriller that became a global phenomenon which won Anthony Hopkins an Academy Award. Forgettable films of further novels followed, with the best Lecter adaptation in recent years the gory Hannibal series on NBC.
8. Saw
LionsgateNumber of Movies: 10
What it’s about: A serial killer called Jigsaw sets traps for those he believes to be morally bankrupt, often giving his victims a chance to live, by testing their will to survive.
Why we love it: The brainchild Australian filmmakers Leigh Whannell and James Wan, Saw started out a serial killer thriller in the style of Se7en, but then the traps became the focus, with annual entries featuring ever-more-elaborate challenges. It loses points for a confusing timeline, but there’s fun to be had watching all 10 instalments, which can’t be said of some series’ on this list.
7. The Conjuring
Warner Bros.Number of Movies: 3
What it’s about: Based on supposedly true stories, The Conjuring movies revolve around Ed and Lorraine Warren, a husband-and-wife team who investigated the supernatural and paranormal.
Why we love it: The Conjuring universe is another James Wan creation, with the central trilogy consisting of big-budget blockbusters that consistently deliver scares. Wan also used the Warrens’ work to spin-off into equally lucrative territory revolving around Annabelle and The Nun. But it all began with Frank and Lorraine, and this iteration ends with their fourth and final film – Last Rites – coming this September.
6. Evil Dead
New Line CinemaNumber of Movies: 5
What it’s about: A group of youngsters vacation at a cabin in the woods, where they accidentally summon demons through via the Book of the Dead, who systematically kill them until it’s just hero Ash vs the Evil Dead.
Why we love it: Evil Dead is another franchise that’s all over the place from a narrative perspective, but the quality remains high throughout, the first film a low-budget wonder, the second a remake that might be the best horror-comedy ever, and the third a weird sojourn to Medieval times. And while Evil Dead is director Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell, reboots in 2013 and 2023 managed to capture some of that early magic.
5. Halloween
Universal PicturesNumber of Movies: 13
What it’s about: A boy called Michael Myers murders his sister and gets sent to an asylum for the crime. 15 years later he escapes and returns to his hometown to kill again. Then keeps returning in sequels that tell much the same story.
Why we love it: John Carpenter and Debra Hill’s first Halloween movie is the perfect slasher, with Myers a memorable villain, and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) a worthy opponent. Follow-ups featured curses, cults, and – in the wild third instalment – deadly masks that kill kids. While Laurie’s story drew to a fitting close in the most recent Halloween trilogy.
4. A Nightmare on Elm Street
New Line CinemaNumber of Movies: 9
What it’s about: Freddy Krueger is a child killer who was murdered by the parents of those kids, only to return as a malevolent supernatural force with a razor-sharp glove that he uses to terminate teens in their dreams.
Why we love it: The first Nightmare on Elm Street movie introduced horror’s greatest icon in the shape of Freddy Krueger (played by the amazing Robert Englund), while the dream conceit enabled writer-director Wes Craven to make it the most visually interesting of all the slasher movies. Sequels followed that were entertaining, but increasingly silly, until New Nightmare put a postmodern spin on the series that influences horror movies to this day.
3. Final Destination
New Line CinemaNumber of Movies: 6
What it’s about: In the first Final Destination, a teenager has a premonition that the plane his school trip is on will explode, so they disembark, only for the aircraft to then blow. But that goes against Death’s plan, so the Grim Reaper stalks and kills the survivors, via a formula that was used time-and-time again in the sequels.
Why we love it: Death being the antagonist means the Final Destinations lacks a memorable villain. But that ingenious concept also results in creative kills can come in any shape or form, with complicated chain reactions eliminating victims in tense scenes that play like bloody Rube Goldberg machines. And following a lengthy hiatus, the franchise is back via Final Destination: Bloodlines.
2. Alien
20th Century FoxNumber of Movies: 9
What it’s about: Spaceship the Nostromo encounters an extraterrestrial being on a derelict craft, and the crew is first impregnated, then killed by the predator, whose only goals are to survive and propagate.
Why we love it: The first Alien movie is an all-timer, with incredible production/creature design, and Ridley Scott direction that wrings every drop of tension out of the premise. It was followed by one of the great action movies in the shape of James Cameron’s Aliens, and while the Predator crossover didn’t do the “xenomorph” justice, Premtheus and Romulus took Alien to strange and unexpected places that have kept the franchise fresh.
1. Scream
MiramaxNumber of Movies: 6
What it’s about: A masked killer called ‘Ghostface’ murders teenagers on the anniversary of Sidney Prescott’s mother death, while his (their) actions are duplicated by copycats in the Scream sequels.
Why we love it: The Scream movies are as funny as they are scary, poking fun at slashers while also being the best example of that sub-genre. From Drew Barrymore’s memorable murder in the opening scene of the first film, the kills remain resolutely brutal. And while most series’ feature the same villain going through the motions, the identity of Ghostface is usually a mystery, and that whodunnit approach keeps audiences guessing until the final few reels, a tradition that’s set to continue in 2026’s Scream VII.
For more scary stuff, these are the best found footage horror movies, the best films to get your kids into horror, and the best horror movies based on true stories.
