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 40 favorite cult horror movies, ranging from the very new to a few select tried and tested (and especially chic) classics.
- Red Rooms (2024)
- I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
- Infested (2024)
- Oddity (2024)
- Out of Darkness (2024)
- Starve Acre (2024)
- The Substance (2024)
- The Devil’s Bath (2024)
- Longlegs (2024)
- The First Omen (2024)
- M3GAN (2023)
- Evil Dead Rise (2023)
- Talk to Me (2023)
- When Evil Lurks (2023)
- Infinity Pool (2023)
- Pearl (2022)
- Smile (2022)
- Speak No Evil (2022)
- Barbarian (2022)
- Lamb (2021)
- The Night House (2021)
- Midsommar (2019)
- In Fabric (2018)
- Hereditary (2018)
- The Love Witch (2016)
- The Witch (2015)
- American Psycho (2000)
- The Blair Witch Project (1999)
- Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
- Heathers (1989)
- The Hunger (1983)
- The Shining (1980)
- The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
- Halloween (1978)
- Suspiria (1977)
- Carrie (1976)
- Don’t Look Now (1973)
- Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
- Blood and Black Lace (1964)
- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
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What makes a horror movie a cult horror movie? In a word: rewatchability.
No, that isn’t what makes a movie a cult horror movie. Standing the test of time does, and that requires at least a decade to have passed.
Unless the movie is about a cult, which I was hoping the list would be about.
That’s a weird list and being in chronological order really hammers home the recentish bias. Which is an issue because time is the test of a cult film - Longlegs, Barbarian, The Substance and I Saw the TV Glow will likely make the grade but… Evil Dead Rise over the first films? The Last Omen over The Omen? That’s borderline perverse.
And no The Thing? 1 from the noughties? 2 from the nineties? 3 from the eighties? They might be showing their age there. And virtually no foreign films? 🤷♂️
How many horror movies do you (or they) think people generally watch around Halloween? Imma guess it’s no where near 40 on average.
I know people who religiously watch at least 1 a day in October. There’s at least 1 person in here who has been watching more than one a day for the last month as a warm-up.
I may boost my viewing but there are also non-horror movies out, so I may not hit 1 a day.
