Top 10 Best Horror Movies That Engage All Your Senses

WatchMojo

Get ready for your skin to crawl. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top-tier spooky favorites that use any of the five senses to scare you silly.

Transcript

00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top tier spooky favorites

00:10that use any of the five senses to scare you silly.

00:17Number 10.

00:18The Descent

00:19In the depths of an unexplored cave system, these six spelunkers soon realize there's

00:31no light, no exit, and no hope for survival.

00:33To make matters worse, they've got company, and not the friendly kind.

00:36But there's one silver lining.

00:38Having lived in the dark for so long, the cannibalistic crawlers are completely blind,

00:41and can only track their prey by sound.

00:43Sarah and the others try to navigate the pitch black tunnels without drawing any attention,

00:47but that's a lot easier said than done when you're stepping over all kinds of body parts,

00:51including some from your recently deceased friends.

00:53After stripping both sight and sound from our cast, only one feeling remains.

00:57Pure dread.

01:05Number 9.

01:06Fresh

01:07A quick word of advice, this is not a good pick for dinner and a movie.

01:15What starts as an innocent romance turns bad, fast, when boyfriend Steve reveals he

01:20sells meat for a living, and not from animals.

01:22As the movie's name implies, he gets it right from the source, too.

01:25Unfortunately for Noah, that means she's on the chopping block, or rather, the meat cleaver.

01:37Noah's plight is as thrilling as it is stomach-churning, especially when she's let out of her cage

01:41for a few select meals.

01:42Yes, it's as unpleasant as it sounds.

01:45Altogether, Fresh is a squirm-inducing recipe that's all but guaranteed to leave a bad

01:49taste in your mouth.

01:50Literally.

01:51Number 8.

01:52Wait Until Dark

02:05There's an old horror adage that says what you can't see is often scarier than what

02:09you can, and no movie puts that to the test more than Wait Until Dark.

02:12Chronicling a group of robbers tormenting a blind woman named Susie, the film hinges

02:16upon its characters' perspectives, and their lack thereof.

02:20For most of the movie, Susie doesn't even realize she's speaking to criminals.

02:25It's no hyperbole to say she's left in the dark, and the result is a film that plays out like

02:29a slow car crash you're helpless to stop.

02:32By mixing dramatic irony with white-knuckled thrills, Wait Until Dark becomes a sight to

02:36behold in more ways than one.

02:41Number 7.

02:42Bird Box

02:47There's no escaping these entities.

02:49Once you see them coming, it's already too late.

02:51Luckily, Mallory has a plan, and it involves a whole lot of blindfolds.

02:55Outside of that, Bird Box is pretty straightforward.

02:57Mallory and her kids need to float down the river and find the fabled refugee camp before

03:01it's too late.

03:06But selectively blinding the characters adds an incredibly engaging wrinkle to their post-apocalyptic

03:11journey.

03:12After all, without sight, even the slightest threat could spell doom for Mallory and her

03:15family.

03:16The high-concept premise turned Bird Box's familiar narrative into a bona fide internet

03:20sensation.

03:21If that doesn't prove its effectiveness, we don't know what will.

03:36Number 6.

03:38You can't do this to me.

03:39There's nothing a man cannot do once he accepts the fact that there is no God.

03:44These guys chose the wrong house to loot.

03:46They probably thought that since the homeowner is a blind old man, he wouldn't put up much

03:49of a fight.

03:50Boy, were they mistaken.

03:51When things go sideways, Rocky and her pals are left with two options.

03:55Stay quiet and undetected, or face the wrong side of a gun.

03:58It's a nail-biting game of cat-and-mouse that uses silence and subtle movement to keep you

04:01on your toes.

04:03Okay.

04:04Yes.

04:05Shoes off.

04:07The homeowner shuts off the lights entirely, making the intruders and the audience as blind

04:10as he is.

04:11Fulfilling the promise of its title, this movie will have you forgetting to breathe

04:14right alongside Rocky and the others.

04:26Number 5.

04:27See no evil.

04:28Tom?

04:29Don't worry, Mother.

04:30I'll take care of everything.

04:32You know the saying, what you don't know can't hurt you?

04:35Well, apparently, the same thing applies to what you see.

04:37When the newly-blinded Sarah isn't home for her family's murder, she comes back completely

04:41oblivious, and crawls into bed like nothing's wrong.

04:44Little does she know that the killer's not finished just yet.

04:46There was a man in the doorway.

04:50The kitchen doorway.

04:51See no evil pushes its premise to the limit by placing the viewers into Sarah's limited

04:55view, mostly obscuring the killer's face until the very end.

04:58It's more than just a gimmick, though.

04:59It truly makes you feel as lost, scared, and hopeless as Sarah does.

05:03There's a lot of evil to be seen here, that's all we're saying.

05:12Number 4.

05:13Hush.

05:14There's no need to sifle your screams during this one, Maddy's deaf and mute, meaning

05:27she doesn't hear when the phone rings.

05:29Or when her friend's banging on the window, screaming for help.

05:32Or even when the same masked killer breaks into her home and starts harassing her.

05:46Squaring off against a home invader is tough enough as it is, let alone when you're down

05:49one of your most important senses.

05:51And yet Maddy's limitations are exactly what make Hush such an addictive watch.

05:55Turns out, seeing a deaf woman outwit a cocky killer makes for a bloody good slasher flick.

06:00As they say, silent but deadly.

06:15Number 3.

06:16The Invisible Man.

06:24As Cecilia learns the hard way, out of sight does not always mean out of mind.

06:28Especially when you're escaping a dangerous romantic partner.

06:31A breath here, a turned page there, and you have a textbook recipe for extreme gaslighting.

06:35But whether it's lingering trauma or Adrian haunting her from beyond the grave, the things

06:39Cecilia sees or doesn't see are still frightening.

06:51By hiding its true villain, the Invisible Man turns into a thoughtful allegory for domestic

06:55violence.

06:56A villain that just so happens to come with some downright shiver-inducing scares.

06:59It's not an easy watch, even by horror standards, but that's also why the Invisible Man is

07:03a must-see.

07:09Number 2.

07:10It Follows.

07:20After a date gone wrong, Jay's ordinary life becomes a classic tale of man versus monster.

07:24The catch?

07:25Only Jay can see the creature, and even then, her own eyes are unreliable.

07:28The monster can take any form.

07:30Sometimes it'll be someone she knows.

07:31Sometimes it'll be a stranger.

07:32And sometimes it'll be a tall man appearing out of a dark hallway.

07:47The unseeable threat adds a shiver of tension to every single scene, no matter how innocent.

07:52There's no way of knowing when, how, or under what guise the monster will strike.

07:56Only that it will, eventually.

07:57At some point, the unbearable dread becomes worse than anything the creature could actually

08:01do.

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08:261.

08:27A Quiet Place

08:28It's not every day a horror film is scarier without sound than with it.

08:40But then again, that's kind of the whole point of A Quiet Place.

08:43In a world where aliens hunt anything they hear, sign language and silence are the only

08:47ways to survive.

08:53Smartly, the movie follows suit.

09:04A Quiet Place shows incredible restraint with its sound design, and the lack of background

09:08music makes the alien threat feel more visceral than a shrill score ever could.

09:12Throw in a clever script full of intuitive, sound-based sequences, and you have a movie-going

09:17experience like none other.

09:18Suffice it to say, A Quiet Place is bound to get you talking.

09:32What's a horror movie that sent your senses into overdrive?

09:34Let us know in the comments below!

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