Summary

• Supernatural horror movies have featured a wide range of creatures throughout the years, including monsters, demons, witches, zombies, and the Devil.
• Ghost-free supernatural horror has been captivating audiences for over a century, with early films featuring creatures from the darkest corners of writers' imaginations.
• These movies often subvert classic ghost tropes and continue to surprise and scare audiences with new and terrifying movie monsters.

The word "supernatural" immediately invokes images of ghosts, but countless great supernatural horror movies are about other creatures of an otherworldly nature. Monsters, demons, witches, zombies, and the Devil are some of the nefarious beings that have scared audiences witless in supernatural horror movies over the years. They've made for some of the best horror movies of all time.

Ghost-free supernatural horror spans the ages, too. Examples go back a whole century, with early cinematic audiences subjected to the vilest of creatures from writers' imaginations. The genre continues to surprise audiences to this day, with new movie monsters conjured to haunt viewers' nightmares in stories that often subvert classic ghost tropes.

10 A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

The One That Stopped A Generation From Sleeping

Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise tells the story of a child killer, Freddy Krueger, who abused and defiled the children of Elm Street in Springwood, Ohio. The parents of the children came together to avenge their offspring, burning Freddy to death. However, the vile man wouldn't be defeated and reemerged as an undead dream demon to terrorize future Elm Street kids in their nightmares. In the dream world, Freddy has complete control over reality, a horrifying prospect. The original installment is an iconic movie that terrified a generation of cinema-goers and continues to do so.

9 Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Polanski's Atmospheric Satanism Showcase

Roman Polanski's psychological horror Rosemary's Baby tells the story of the eponymous Rosemary Woodhouse, a young woman living in Manhattan with her husband, Guy. Based on Ira Levin's 1967, the film chronicles Rosemary falling pregnant and her neighbors taking an unhealthy interest in the baby. As it turns out, the neighbors are Satan worshipers, and her baby is the spawn of the Devil himself. It's a dark, absorbing movie and a masterclass in suspense. Rosemary's Baby is littered with brilliant performances, including Mia Farrow as Rosemary and Ruth Gordon as Satan-worshiping neighbor Minnie Castevet - the latter who won a Best ing Actress Award for her efforts.

8 The Evil Dead (1981)

Unsettling Occurrences In An Isolated Cabin

The opening installment in The Evil Dead franchise follows five college students to a remote woodland cabin, where they awaken a powerful evil force. Four of the group endure demonic possession, prompting the fifth - the iconic Ash Williams - into action to defend himself from a gruesome onslaught. Sam Raimi's legendary film is an atmospheric, gory, massively energetic movie with a near-perpetual sense of dread. The cinematography of The Evil Dead is the key to its success. The camerawork augments the sense of terror and unease by utilizing strange and unnatural angles. It also features a lot of well-placed black comedy, further enhancing the unsettling viewing experience.

7 The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Seminal Low-Budget Found Footage Film

Arguably the most well-known found footage horror, The Blair Witch Project is a groundbreaking independent movie and one of cinema's most profitable. It wasn't the first of its kind, but it revived the genre and was the first to bring the mockumentary technique to horror audiences in such a mainstream way. It follows three student filmmakers into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland, where they encounter the eponymous Blair Witch and meet a horrible fate. The film's genius is in its minimalism. Audiences see very little, so it relies entirely on suspense and the reaction of its stars. It's a terrifying experience and a perfect demonstration of less being more.

6 Child's Play (1988)

One Of Horror's Most Frightening Dolls

Child's Play, the opening installment in the Child's Play franchise, follows a young boy after he's given a Good Guy-brand talking doll by his widowed mother for his birthday. Unfortunately for the boy, Andy Barclay, dying serial killer Charles Lee Ray had transferred his soul into the doll via a voodoo ritual following a shootout with police in a department store. The possessed doll, Chucky, then goes on a murder spree. Child's Play's mix of comedy and horror is entertaining. Factoring in a fun story, a memorable villain puppeteered in an unsettling way, and bags of energy, it's a modern classic horror movie.

5 Jeepers Creepers (2001)

A Hungry Demon Needs To Eat

The first film in the Jeepers Creepers franchise introduces audiences to the terrifying Creeper. This demonic creature emerges every 23rd spring to feast on human body parts for 23 days, which keeps it alive for an unnatural amount of time. The Creeper is a brilliantly designed movie monster and an inventive concept, and it makes for a thoroughly enjoyable horror flick. Jeepers Creepers is tense and suspenseful, with some sickening scenes that will undoubtedly satisfy gore lovers. ittedly, it gets a little silly in the second half, but the first half of the film is some of the best building up to a horror reveal in recent memory.

4 Hellraiser (1987)

Intelligent Gore-Filled British Offering

The Hellraiser franchise has grown into a somewhat convoluted mess, but the original installment is a classic supernatural horror that's genuinely scary. The British movie, based on Clive Barker's 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart, depicts unfortunate souls using the mysterious Lemarchand's box to summon the extradimensional demonic beings, the Cenobites, who think pain and pleasure are the same. Hellraiser is an intelligent, intense, and incredibly gory movie with some of the most graphic and wince-inducing set pieces in horror history. Its seriousness makes it stand out from other horrors of its era, and the lead Cenobite Pinhead deserves his place among other genre icons.

3 Final Destination (2000)

Death Itself Makes An Awesome Antagonist

Final Destination is a unique movie in that its supernatural antagonist is the concept of death itself. The brilliant first film spawned a Final Destination franchise, which has terrified audiences for two decades. In the opening installment, a teenager cheats death by disembarking a doomed airplane after a premonition shows him its explosive fate. Then, in the following weeks, he and the others who exited the plane find themselves targeted by death, as they were meant to die in the explosion. It's a genius concept that allows for some wonderfully creative death scenes. It's sometimes silly, but Final Destination is a fun and suspenseful thrill ride.

2 Dracula (1931)

The Benchmark For Count Dracula Depictions

Dracula is one of the most iconic supernatural characters in fictional history, and the first movie with his name as the title is a true classic. 1931's Dracula stars Bela Lugosi as the titular Count and is based on Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston's 1924 stage play of the same name, adapted from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel. The film follows Count Dracula from Transylvania to England, where he feeds on his victims and takes a liking to a young man's fiancée. Lugosi is majestic in this creepy, atmospheric, groundbreaking adaptation of Stoker's novel. It cemented Dracula as a horror legend and spawned countless, mostly weaker, imitations.

1 The Omen (1976)

Suspenseful Film About The Antichrist

The Omen focuses on a young boy named Damien Thorn who, having been replaced at birth by his father without his wife's knowledge, following the death of their biological child. Damien turns out to be the prophesied Antichrist, resulting in a series of terrible events occurring in his presence. This horror movie is a dread-filled and perenially suspenseful experience, with one of the most chilling performances from a child - then five-year-old Harvey Stephens - in cinema history. Its excellent cast includes Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, and Patrick Troughton. The Omen spawned a franchise consisting of three sequels and a 2006 remake.