Creator of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Reveals His Top 20 Horror Movies

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For this list, we’re diving into the top 20 horror movies handpicked by JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure creator, Hirohiko Araki, as revealed in his book Hirohiko Araki’s Bizarre Horror Movie Analysis. And just so we’re clear – while not every film here fits neatly into the “horror” box, they all carry that dark, thrilling pulse that earns them a rightful place on this list. (Oh, and before you start judging – no, we didn’t make this list. Araki did!)

20. Wrong Turn (2003)

Stranded on a remote Appalachian road, a group of friends realize their wrong turn bit off more than they can chew, and that’s just the beginning. From the moment tires deflate and woods embrace them, the film embraces the kind of brutal simplicity that refuses to apologize. With cannibal-hunters lurking where the moon doesn’t shine, the tension isn’t just survival – it’s dread leaching into every tree-shadow and cracked windshield. The gore is unapologetic, but what sticks is the slow dinner-bell realization that help isn’t coming and the rules don’t apply. If you ever wondered what happens when road-trip meets nightmare, this one lays it out straight. It’s a horror-thriller hybrid that cares more about the atmosphere than the clever twist. | © Summit Entertainment / Constantin Film

19. Hostel (2005)

Backpackers seeking cheap thrills across Europe mistake “adventure” for “very bad idea,” and the film doesn’t waste time letting you squirm. The premise lures you in with holiday plans and friendly locals, then turns the brochure inside-out, exposing the underbelly of tourism and obsession. Every frame feels like a trap slowly snapping shut: the hotel lobby, the tourist smiles, the cameras – all wind up part of the machinery. This movie doesn’t shy from violence, but its real horror comes from human greed and the cruelty we’re capable of when masks come off. It’s a cat-and-mouse game where the mouse doesn’t always survive, and you remember it long after the credits roll. | © Hostel LLC / Raw Nerve

18. Funny Games (2007)

It begins with polite hellos, serene summer home, and then the rules change – and you realise the film is watching you. The remake by Michael Haneke doesn’t just depict violence; it interrogates your role as spectator, your comfort in the cinema seat, and the weird charm of evil when it’s so blandly polite. The terror isn’t the blood (though there’s plenty); it’s the quiet knowing, the rewind of events, the flipping of the script, and your awareness that you’re complicit. This one straddles psychological thriller and horror in a mirror-world of bad faith. You may walk in expecting a home-invasion flick; you leave questioning your own visceral reaction. | © X Filme Creative Pool

17. The Exorcist (1973)

A child starts speaking Latin, her head spins, and priests suit up – you know the basics. But what elevates this classic into something legendary is how it treats horror as both spectacle and spiritual trauma. The set was cursed (or so they say), the effects groundbreaking, and the horror of the unknown stretched into every shot of Georgetown shadows and holy water. It’s not just about demons – it’s about faith, fear, and how far one will go to reclaim what’s lost. The iconography? Unforgettable. The emotional stakes? Monumental. And the movie still haunts decades later because it trusts silence as much as screams. | © Warner Bros. / Hoya Productions

16. No Country for Old Men (2007)

It might masquerade as a crime thriller, but the film’s veins pulse with existential horror: a coin-flipping killer, a man on the run, a sheriff outpaced by time. There’s no supernatural monster, yet the dread feels cosmic, the violence unglamorous and the morality slippery. The Coen Brothers crafted a film where the tension is quiet, the guns roar, and the real fear comes from the world catching up to you. It’s adult, because it doesn’t hand you answers – it hands you emptiness, inevitability and the echo of what comes when justice isn’t enough. A genre-bender that lingers long after the screen goes black. | © Miramax Films / Paramount Vantage

15. Sleeping With the Enemy (1991)

Sometimes horror doesn’t need ghosts or gore – just the realization that the person you love most might be the one who kills you. Julia Roberts plays a woman trapped in a picture-perfect marriage that’s actually a cage, and her escape turns into a slow-burn thriller that’s more suffocating than any haunted house. The dread hides behind white curtains and folded towels, making every small act of rebellion feel monumental. What makes it so effective is how ordinary everything looks, until you realize normality itself is the threat. It’s a film about control, fear, and the quiet courage of running for your life. Sleeping With the Enemy proves that sometimes, the scariest monster wears a wedding ring. | © 20th Century Fox

14. Basket Case (1982)

In the age of glossy remakes and sanitized horror, Basket Case remains a defiantly grimy classic. Frank Henenlotter’s tale of brotherly love gone wrong follows a young man and his horribly deformed twin, Belial, who lives in a wicker basket and occasionally goes on murder sprees. Equal parts horror, tragedy, and dark comedy, the film captures the desperate spirit of ‘80s New York – cheap, dirty, and alive with underground energy. Beneath the gore, it’s about belonging, acceptance, and the grotesque things we hide away to be loved. It’s a cult film that thrives on its rough edges, turning shock value into soul. No amount of remastering could make it less weird – or less perfect. | © Analysis Film Corporation

13. 28 Days Later (2002)

It starts with silence, and that’s what makes it terrifying. Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later doesn’t just reinvent zombie horror – it injects it with rage, chaos, and unnerving humanity. Cillian Murphy wakes up in an empty London, the streets still and the dread creeping in from every echo. The infected aren’t the only danger; the survivors, stripped of order and morality, might be worse. The film captures the loneliness of apocalypse with handheld grit and a feverish pulse, proving that horror doesn’t need monsters when despair itself can kill you. It’s a rare blend of poetry and panic, drenched in adrenaline and heartbreak. | © DNA Films / Fox Searchlight Pictures

12. The Blob (1958)

It’s the kind of premise that should never have worked – a giant red goo from space eating its way through a small town – but The Blob made it iconic. With Steve McQueen in one of his earliest roles, the film delivers that perfect mix of drive-in nostalgia, small-town panic, and low-budget brilliance. It’s campy, sure, but also strangely eerie, especially in how it turns a simple blob into a metaphor for creeping paranoia. Every scream, every scramble, feels genuine in its absurdity. It’s the rare B-movie that knows it’s ridiculous and runs with it – full tilt, no apologies. To this day, it’s still devouring the hearts of cult film fans everywhere. | © Paramount Pictures

11. Deliverance (1972)

There are no ghosts or monsters in Deliverance, just the kind of horror that feels disturbingly human. Four city men venture into the wild for adventure and end up uncovering something primal, both in nature and in themselves. The tension builds like a fever, turning the beautiful river into a nightmare that tests every ounce of their civility. It’s survival stripped to its ugliest core, where instinct and morality collide. The banjo duel may be iconic, but it’s the quiet aftermath – the broken stares, the silence – that lingers longest. You don’t walk away from Deliverance entertained; you walk away unsettled, maybe even changed. | © Warner Bros.

10. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

There’s something hypnotic about how The Texas Chainsaw Massacre starts out almost documentary-like before turning into pure madness. Tobe Hooper’s low-budget nightmare doesn’t rely on gore – it’s the sound, the sweat, and the sense that you’re trapped in someone else’s hallucination that makes it unbearable to look away. The heat of Texas feels suffocating, the sun too bright to hide what’s coming. When Leatherface bursts onto the screen, it’s not just a killer showing up – it’s civilization collapsing in a single scream. This movie redefined horror by stripping it down to bone and panic, and it’s never stopped echoing through the genre since. | © Vortex / Bryanston Distributing Company

9. Final Destination (2000)

The great cosmic joke of Final Destination is that the villain isn’t a monster – it’s math (which is equally terrifying for some). Death has a schedule, and everyone’s just waiting their turn. What begins as a freak accident quickly spirals into one of the most inventive premises in horror: you can’t cheat fate without it getting creative. Each kill feels like a cruel puzzle, a Rube Goldberg device of inevitability that turns everyday life into paranoia. It’s both darkly funny and morbidly poetic, a slasher movie with no slasher. The early 2000s never gave us anything quite as sleekly absurd again, and honestly, that’s part of the charm. | © New Line Cinema

8. The Mist (2007)

Frank Darabont’s The Mist starts small – a grocery store, a storm, a fog rolling in – and then slowly descends into one of the bleakest, most gut-wrenching horror stories ever filmed. The monsters lurking outside are terrifying enough, but the ones forming inside are even worse. It’s a slow erosion of sanity, wrapped in claustrophobia and lit by flickering fluorescent lights. The tension builds until that ending – one of the most devastating gut-punches in horror history – reminds you that real terror isn’t about what’s in the dark, but what hopelessness can make you do. It’s tragedy, horror, and moral collapse all in one choking breath. | © Dimension Films / Darkwoods Productions

7. Ring (TV version) (1998)

Before cursed VHS tapes became pop-culture shorthand for supernatural doom, Japan’s Ring had already mastered the slow-burn terror that seeps into your bones. The 1998 TV version may not have the same fame as the theatrical release, but it’s got an eerie, stripped-down intensity that feels uncomfortably real. The mystery unravels with patience – each clue more unsettling than the last – until the fear becomes less about the ghost and more about what knowledge itself costs. It’s a story that thrives on silence, static, and suggestion. You don’t just watch this version – you feel it watching you back. | © NHK / Kadokawa Shoten

6. Alien (1979)

No one can hear you scream in space – but Ridley Scott made sure we heard Ripley loud and clear. Alien is horror at its most elegant: a haunted house movie dressed in chrome and starlight. Every hiss of steam, every shadow in the corridor, tightens the tension until the creature finally shows itself, and then you realize the waiting was the real terror. It’s sleek, cold, and utterly merciless, turning industrial science fiction into something gothic and visceral. Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley remains the gold standard for survival horror, proving that strength in fear is still strength. Few films have ever made isolation feel so alive. | © 20th Century Fox / Brandywine Productions

5. The Ninth Gate (1999)

Mystery, obsession, and the faint smell of sulfur hang over The Ninth Gate, a film that feels like wandering through a cursed library at midnight. Johnny Depp drifts through dimly lit bookshops and smoky European streets, chasing a rare tome said to summon the Devil. It’s less about demons and more about the arrogance of curiosity – how far someone will go to feel enlightened, or important. Every encounter oozes unease, every page turned sounds like a warning. Polanski plays it cool, stylish, and slow, crafting a horror film that whispers instead of screams. It’s temptation in cinematic form, and it knows exactly how to keep you hooked. | © Artisan Entertainment / Canal+ / TF1 Films Production

4. I Am Legend (2007)

There’s something bone-deep lonely about watching Will Smith talk to mannequins in an empty Manhattan. I Am Legend isn’t your typical monster flick – it’s a study of isolation wrapped in a survival story. The desolate cityscapes, the faded sunlight, the quiet – all of it feels more haunting than the creatures lurking in the dark. What makes it hit harder is how the film treats survival as a kind of punishment: the world’s gone, but guilt and grief refuse to die. Between bursts of action and aching stillness, it builds a world that’s both broken and strangely beautiful. You don’t just watch his fear – you feel the echo of it long after the credits roll. | © Warner Bros. Pictures / Village Roadshow Pictures / Weed Road Pictures

3. Misery (1990)

You can’t help but wince every time Kathy Bates smiles in Misery. The film turns a cozy cabin into a psychological torture chamber, where obsession feels more claustrophobic than any set of handcuffs. Rob Reiner directs it like a slow suffocation – every polite conversation teetering between care and cruelty. James Caan’s writer doesn’t face a monster from the woods but something far scarier: unconditional love with conditions. It’s intimate, terrifying, and darkly funny in its absurd devotion. There’s no escape scene more memorable, no fan letter more horrifying. Sometimes, the real horror is being adored too much. | © Castle Rock Entertainment / Columbia Pictures

2. Jaws (1975)

What’s genius about Jaws isn’t the shark – it’s the space around it. Spielberg crafts fear out of absence, letting tension fester in every shadow beneath the water. The result is primal and strangely elegant: a battle between man and nature that feels both mythic and modern. The editing rhythm, the music, the sunburned faces of small-town panic – it all clicks into place with the precision of a nightmare you can’t wake from. It’s a film that made people afraid of something as ordinary as swimming, and that’s real cinematic power. Decades later, the ocean still hums with that same low note of dread. | © Universal Pictures

1. Zombie (‘78 Director’s Cut) (1978)

Blood, satire, and shopping malls shouldn’t mix this well, but Zombie – the European title for Romero’s Dawn of the Dead – turns the apocalypse into performance art. The director’s cut trims the noise and lets the grotesque humor breathe, revealing a movie that’s as much about human behavior as it is about the undead. Every scene walks the line between absurd and prophetic, showing consumers turned literal consumers. It’s messy, funny, and uncomfortably sharp, the kind of film that chews on society while pretending to just bite necks. There’s no moral lesson here – just a mirror held up to the chaos we call normal life. | © Laurel Group / Dawn Associates / United Film Distribution Company