Photo: Shutterstock
What makes a horror movie a cult horror movie? In a word: rewatchability. And with Halloween nearly upon us, the question of what frightening, shocking, silly, classic, or demonically camp movies to press play on again (and again) has never been more pertinent. Here at Vogue, of course, we dole out extra cult horror points if a movie can hold its own sartorially. Dario Argento’s Suspiria has inspired everyone from Nicolas Ghesquière to the Rodarte sisters; Yves Saint Laurent designed Catherine Deneuve’s costumes for the blood-soaked romance The Hunger; and Eiko Ishioka’s Japanese-influenced creations for Bram Stoker’s Dracula are just as striking now as they were in the ’90s. Below, Vogue rounds up 47 favorite cult horror movies, ranging from the very new to a few select tried and tested (and especially chic) classics.
Photo: ©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection
Obsession (2026)
Inde Navarrette’s insane, virtuosic performance at the center of Curry Barker’s supremely freaky thriller is one we’d like to rewatch every Halloween from now until the end of time. As Nikki—the colleague and crush of Bear (Michael Johnston), who uses a “One Wish Willow” to transform her from slightly disinterested pal to disturbingly obsessed and murderous girlfriend—she is the mercurial swirling vortex at the center of this bonkers examination of male entitlement and toxicity. Approach with caution.
Photo: ©Mubi/Courtesy Everett Collection
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026)
From its glorious, nostalgia-drenched opening sequence to the endless nods to cult horror movies and copious amounts of free-flowing blood, Jane Schoenbrun’s latest mind-melter is a heartfelt love letter to classic ’80s slashers. Hannah Einbinder stars as a promising young filmmaker hired to revive a flailing horror franchise, while a purring, swooningly glamorous Gillian Anderson is her muse, the final girl of the first film which launched the series, who still lives on its faded, eerie set. When Little Death, the spear-wielding killer from that cinematic universe, returns to greet them, all hell breaks loose.
Photo: Courtesy of A24
Backrooms (2026)
Is it too easy to put the phenomenon that was Backrooms, into the cult canon? Time will tell, but the shocks and unnerving atmosphere of Kane Parson’s box-office triumph are real and the film’s strange mythology rewards rewatches.
Photo: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection
Primate (2025)
Did you say killer chimpanzee? Johannes Robert’s small-budget Primate is an unbeatable late-night blast. The adorable Ben is a pet chimp to a family in Hawaii, but then he gets a case of rabies. And what happens after that makes Primate’s 89 minute run time absolutely race by.
Photo: Courtesy of A24
I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
Even after this year’s excellent Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, we consider Jane Schoenbrun‘s second feature film their best. Not quite horror, but not not horror, this is eerie, yearning, piercingly nostalgic indie filmmaking, a vivid account of youthful alienation full of luridly beautiful, and sometimes extremely alarming, images that you will find hard to shake.
.jpg)
Photo: Courtesy of Neon
Longlegs (2024)
Osgood Perkins has been on a tear of making horror movies (he directed two in 2025 and has another due this year) but it’s his 2024 film Longlegs that you really have to see. In the vein of Se7en, Longlegs gives us a series of occult killings in the gloomy, forest-cloaked Pacific Northwest—and Nicolas Cage is, quite simply, one of the weirdest, scariest movie monsters you’ll encounter. He’s glam-rock grotesque, reedy voiced, and satan-obsessed.
Photo: Courtesy of Everett Collection
Nosferatu (2024)
Come for the sumptuous and eerie costumes, crafted by Oscar nominee Linda Muir and worn by a captivating Lily-Rose Depp, and stay for our leading lady’s career-best turn as the haunted Ellen Hutter—the delicate new wife to an ambitious real-estate agent (Nicholas Hoult) who takes an ill-fated trip to Transylvania to meet with a mysterious client (a growling, campy Bill Skarsgård as the devious Count Orlok) in Robert Eggers’s spine-chilling reimagining of the 1922 F.W. Murnau classic of the same name. Soon, rats swarm the cobblestoned streets of 19th-century Germany, corpses pile up and Ellen’s nightly convulsions grow more demented, as a horrific climax approaches.
Photo: Keeper Pictures
Oddity (2024)
The Irish director Damian McCarthy pleased horror fans with his twisty 2026 supernatural freakout Hokum. But it’s his sophomore feature that deserves true cult status. Oddity is scary. It’s set in rural Ireland, at an isolated house with an insane asylum nearby. The wife of an asylum doctor is visited by one of his patients at night, who desperately asks to be let inside. The choice she makes, of whether to open the door, sets off a lunatic story that feels singular and new.
Photo: Nemesis Films
Red Rooms (2024)
This is a stylish, unsettling, and hyper-modern horror story about a fashion model obsessed by a man accused of terrible brutality: acts of rape and murder that he streamed live to devoted followers. Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) attends his trial as a kind of groupie, and is also a hacker who lives in antiseptic luxury high above the city, dipping in and out of online netherworlds she can’t look away from.
Photo: Christine Tamalet
The Substance (2024)
The mind-bending story of an actor (a career-best Demi Moore) deemed to be past her prime, who injects her body with a mysterious substance that promises to release a more perfect version of herself. Cue her collapsing onto her bathroom floor, her spine splitting open, and a younger alter-ego (a sweet and then devilish Margaret Qualley) emerging from inside her.
Photo: Courtesy of Neon
Infinity Pool (2023)
Infinity Pool is a fever dream of a horror film by Brandon Cronenberg, set on a remote island nation, at a tightly guarded luxury resort, where a rich tourist couple—gorgeous, restless—are on holiday. What happens to them when they run afoul of local authorities will make you cover your eyes.
Photo: FlixPix / Alamy Stock Photo
M3GAN (2023)
Forget the subpar sequel; make sure you’re up on the origibnal viral hit about a robot doll who busts out TikTok dance moves between murders. A rollicking good time.
.jpg)
Photo: Courtesy of Shudder and IFC Films. A Shudder and IFC Films release.
When Evil Lurks (2023)
An inventive infection-meets-zombie film from Argentina that packs in the ick-moments and never conforms to expectation or formula. A demonic plague moves from person to person (to animal) in a rural community. Disconcerting in its plot twists and uncompromising in its shocks.
Photo: Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
Barbarian (2022)
When it comes to horror what can’t filmmaker Zach Cregger do? Weapons (2025) is probably his masterpiece, but for cult status check out his debut feature. Best to go into Barbarian cold—without seeing a trailer or even reading a plot description. Cregger’s cult-hit horror debut is genuinely scary but also funny, subversive, and irresistibly well-paced.
Photo Credit: Eric Chakeen
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
With its acerbic script, hallucinatory cinematography, and a cast that includes Industry’s Myha’la, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’s Maria Bakalova, Generation’s Chase Sui Wonders, and Shiva Baby’s Rachel Sennott—not to mention Amandla Stenberg and Pete Davidson—Halina Reijn’s pitch-black comedy horror has all the ingredients of a future cult classic. Just remember to watch it with the lights on.
Photo: ©Searchlight Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Fresh (2022)
Mimi Cave’s stomach-turning thriller will make you seriously consider vegetarianism: the tale of Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a disillusioned singleton who meets and falls for the charismatic Steve (Sebastian Stan). Soon, they’re off on a weekend break—except Steve drugs and imprisons her, revealing that he is in fact a cannibal who also sells fresh human meat to wealthy clients on the side. As Noa befriends her fellow captives and plots her escape, Cave keeps you guessing with her penchant for jump scares and shocking twists.
Photo: Courtesy of A24
Pearl (2022)
Ti West’s Pearl (far and away the best in his recent X trilogy) is a period piece about a farm girl (Mia Goth) stranded at home with her controlling mother and paralyzed father while her young husband is off at war. She wants to be a star in Hollywood and nurtures that hopeless dream while she feeds the farm’s geese to an alligator in the pond. The extended monologue Goth delivers at the end—after spiraling into a murderous, pitchfork-wielding rage—has to be seen to be believed.
Photo: © Paramount Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
Smile (2022) and Smile 2 (2024)
Smile and it’s better-than-expected sequel were box-office phenomenons, and if you submit to its straightforward gimmick—a murderous demon possesses victims one by one, giving them a horrific smile—you can see why. These are not a great movies so much as excruciatingly tense ones which seem, in their sly way, to comment on wellness culture, social media virality, you name it. Smile 3 is already in development.
Photo: Profile Pictures
Speak No Evil (2022)
Skip the recent American remake. This Danish critique of middle-class civility is hard-core, a movie that builds and builds into a shocking climax. Two couples—one Danish, one Dutch—with kids meet on vacation in Italy and reunite in the Netherlands for a follow-up visit. The Dutch couple is not what they seem and turn the experience into something excruciatingly tense and violent.
Photo: Searchlight Pictures
The Night House (2021)
The Night House is set on a lake home in the woods of upstate New York, where Rebecca Hall’s character Beth, a local high school teacher, has recently suffered the suicide of her architect husband, Owen. The house she’s left with was his passion project and it’s stylishly made, simple and open—not the kind of place we associate with ghosts. But this is indeed a ghost story, and it is one of the most intense I’ve seen and so well made (sound, production design, lighting) that it will thoroughly fray your nerves.
Photo: Shutterstock
Midsommar (2019)
If you’re longing for a holiday, Ari Aster’s Midsommar might convince you that staying home is, in fact, preferable. Diehard Coachella fans, take note: You will never be able to look at a flower crown in quite the same way again.
Photo: Courtesy of A24.
Hereditary (2018)
This unsettling watch centers on a family who learns about their sinister ancestry that will lead them to a horrific fate. Directed by Ari Aster, Hereditary offers one disturbing scene after the other with layers of imagery and gore to spare.
Photo: A24
In Fabric (2018)
With shades of Dario Argento, Nicolas Roeg, and David Lynch, Peter Strickland’s surreal satire follows a cursed, blood-red dress as it proceeds to destroy the lives of its various owners: a lonely divorcée (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a washing machine repairman (Leo Bill) who is forced to wear it on his bachelor weekend, his impressionable fiancée (Hayley Squires). Watch it for the eye-popping interior design and Fatma Mohamed’s scene-stealing turn as an eerie—and persuasive—sales assistant.
Photo: Justin Lubin / Courtesy of Universal Pictures / Everett Collection
Get Out (2017)
Jordan Peele’s Get Out is one of those films that lingers in the mind for months after you watch it. Avoid reading any spoilers whatsoever beforehand—its chilling, powerful storyline deserves to be experienced blind.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
The Love Witch (2016)
Director Anna Biller shot her beautiful homage to ’60s horror movies on 35mm film, with Samantha Robinson starring as a modern-day witch who uses love potions to attract her victims.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
The Witch (2015)
In 17th-century New England, a baby boy goes missing in the woods, causing a family of settlers to accuse their own daughter (a wide-eyed and utterly extraordinary Anya Taylor-Joy) of witchcraft in Robert Eggers’s ambitious feature debut. Packed with candlelit tableaux, deranged billy goats, and supernatural twists, this is folk horror at its finest.
Photo: Shutterstock
American Psycho (2000)
“I’m into, uh, well murders and executions, mostly,” says Christian Bale as hedonistic banker turned sociopath Patrick Bateman, who goes around committing homicide after homicide in impeccable ’80s suits. It’s worth watching for Chloë Sevigny’s schoolgirl bangs alone.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
The one that started so much…and continues to rattle your senses to this day. Going for a hike in the woods has never been the same.
Photo: ©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
Forget the Amazon Prime-produced reimagining—it’s the original ’90s blockbuster that deserves your time, with its satisfying jump scares and sense of ever-increasing dread. Best of all, it’s also the project that first brought Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. together.
©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
The Craft (1996)
Andrew Fleming’s supernatural ’90s drama features a teenage coven, a memorable game of Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board, and some of the best school uniforms in Hollywood history.
Photo: Shutterstock
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
The inspiration for Rodarte’s fall 2020 collection, Francis Ford Coppola’s take on Bram Stoker’s gothic novel is still eerily brilliant—and also happens to be the movie that cemented Winona Ryder’s friendship with Keanu Reeves.
Photo: Shutterstock
Heathers (1989)
“What’s your damage, Heather?” Winona Ryder in her goth phase may have inspired a number of fashion collections—but the Beetlejuice star is at her most disturbing as the classically preppy Veronica Sawyer in Heathers, a tale of murder, young love, and giant shoulder pads.
© Warner Bros / Courtesy Everett Collection
The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
Read John Updike’s brilliant 1984 novel before watching George Miller’s adaptation—which stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Cher, and Susan Sarandon as the most beautiful coven imaginable, whose quaint New England lives are turned upside down by the arrival of warlock Daryl Van Horne (Jack Nicholson).
Photo: Shutterstock
The Shining (1980)
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy…” If any movie highlights the dangers of prolonged isolation, it’s Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s thriller. Jack Nicholson’s performance is brilliant, as are the interiors at the Overlook Hotel.
Photo: Courtesy of Archive Photos/Getty Images
Halloween (1978)
When murderous Michael Myers escapes from prison the night before Halloween, he sets out for his hometown to wreak havoc on unsuspecting civilians, one of whom is a ‘70s-era Jamie Lee Curtis. Although the coveralls and emotionless white mask are a bit much, Myers’ ability to keep getting up after each hit is almost inspirational and most certainly terrifying.
©United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection
The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
One for those who prefer their horror with a sci-fi twist, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers has it all, including a standout performance from a young, mustachioed Donald Sutherland.
.jpg)
Photo: Shutterstock
Suspiria (1977)
Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Suspiria is good; Dario Argento’s original is truly great—following an American ballerina who transfers to a prestigious German academy that’s secretly a front for a coven. Somehow, the witches’ demure pastel frocks make their behavior even more terrifying.
Photo: Shutterstock
Carrie (1976)
Sissy Spacek famously wore Carrie’s blood-splattered prom gown for three days straight while in character as the titular murderess. No matter how many times you watch the final scene, it remains horrifying.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
Don’t Look Now (1973)
After the accidental drowning of their young daughter, a grief-stricken couple—embodied by a raging Donald Sutherland and a fragile Julie Christie—travel to Venice in Nicolas Roeg’s gripping thriller about the crippling effects of loss. Cue psychic premonitions, ghostly apparitions, heartbreaking flashbacks, and a truly shocking final act.
Photo: Shutterstock
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Rosemary’s Baby is a cult film for myriad reasons, from Mia Farrow’s ridiculously covetable wardrobe to Ruth Gordon’s Oscar-winning turn as tannis root-obsessed neighbor Minnie Castevet.
Photo: Shutterstock
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Watch Bette Davis and Joan Crawford face off on screen, then prepare to lose hours reading about the Hollywood legends’ hysterical diva-like behavior and rivalry on set.
Photo: Shutterstock
The Innocents (1961)
None other than Truman Capote helped translate Henry James’s most famous ghost story, The Turn of the Screw, to the big screen, with Deborah Kerr starring as a potentially mad governess.
Listen to The Run-Through with Vogue, a weekly podcast featuring the most exciting stories and hot takes from the worlds of culture, politics, sports and–of course–fashion
The Vogue Runway app has expanded! Update to the latest version to see all Vogue content, as well as new features like our Runway Genius quiz, Group Chats, and posts from Vogue contributors.