America at 250: 10 of the best American horror movies and where to stream them

Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in John Carpenter's Halloween- Courtesy of Getty

America turns 250 this July 4th, and since its founding in 1776, the country has survived a Civil War, two World Wars, Jim Crow, COVID, and much more. The country is always striving to reach its ideals, and though we're not there yet, we've certainly made a lot of progress. The United States has also given us art, culture, and literature, including jazz, blues, and hip-hop, as well as first wave punk from within walls of CBGBs.

We've also had so many culture-defining horror movies. It was no easy task to decide what I think are the most influential American horror movies, and these movies are not necessarily all my favorites, but I can't deny their influence. First, here are the ones that didn't make my top 10 but came close.

Please note that all films are listed in the order they were released.

Runner-ups for the best American horror movies

Freaks (1932)

Tod Browning's Freaks was incredibly controversial because Browning used real circus performers. Additionally, it has a transgressive final act that remains haunting today. This movie isn't just influential for the censorship and controversy surrounding it, however, but also for the way it challenges where our sympathies lie as viewers and who the real monsters are.

Freaks is available to rent on most major digital platforms.

Alien (1979)

Ridley Scott's Alien very much feels like a response to the massive blockbuster Star Wars. This is essentially a slasher movie set in space, and all these decades later, it remains so effective because of Scott's camera work, the questions the film raises about labor and the workers' relationship to a corporation, as well as the old concept that less is often more with a monster. This is the film that also introduced the world to Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and the Xenomorph.

Alien is currently streaming on Hulu and Disney+ and available to rent on other digital platforms.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Like Freaks, The Silence of the Lambs is one of the few American horror movies in the Criterion Collection. Make of that what you will. This movie has unforgettable performances by Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter and Jodie Foster as FBI agent Clarice Starling. It also swept the Oscars in 1992, winning Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Sound Mixing, Best Director, and Best Picture. This movie also predates the true crime era that would come later.

The Silence of the Lambs is available to stream on MGM+, and it's available to rent on other digital platforms.

Sinners (2025)

It was a tough choice whether or not to include Sinners on my top 10 list, but ultimately, I think a little more time needs to pass before we judge its influence. That said, writer/director Ryan Coogler's movie is a film that contends with America, specifically the beauty and pain of Black history. This is a movie that shows the importance of the blues as an emotional release and act of resistance against segregation, as well as the role of juke joints in the Jim Crow South. It also has an unforgettable cast and a hell of a dual performance by Michael B. Jordan as the twins Smoke and Stack. The role earned him an Oscar this year. This is the perfect movie to watch every July 4th, and it has one hell of a soundtrack.

Sinners is available to stream on HBO Max and available to rent on other digital platforms.

The best in American horror (in order of their release date)

Frankenstein (1931)

It was really difficult to pick one Universal Monster movie for this list. They marked the first golden age of American horror, and director James Whale helmed several of them, including The invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein, both influential in their own right. However, I picked Frankenstein because it really set the template for the sympathetic monster, a trope that would return in American horror time and time again. Along with Tod Browning's Dracula, released the same year and often featured on a double bill with Whale's masterpiece, Frankenstein really kicked off this first golden age. Of all the scenes in this movie, the one where Borfis Karloff's Monster accidently throws Maria (Mariyn Harris) into the pond and she drowns underscores the Monster's innocence and capability to do harm. It's also one of the most censored scenes in American horror history and wasn't restored until the 1980s. Whale's movie kicked off the age of gods and monsters.

Frankenstein is currently streaming on Peacock and available to rent on other digital platforms.

Psycho (1960)

Alfred Hitchock's Psycho is the movie that film students study over and over again, especially its editing and narrative structure. Hitchcock had the guts to kill off starlet Janet Leigh, who plays Marion Crane, by the film's halfway point in that iconic shower scene while Bernard Herman's score plays. After that point, the narrative shifts and it becomes Norman Bates' (Anthony Perkins) movie. Perkins gives such a phenomenal performance in this film, and my favorite scene isn't the infamous shower sequence, but rather the moment when Norman and Marion sit in the parlor and discuss their own private traps. Everything about the sequence, from the dialogue to the framing, shows Hitchcock's skill. It also illustrates how desperate these two characters are, but how they'll never escape their fates. This is the movie that essentially kicked off the modern horror era in the 1960s and made people check twice before taking a shower.

Psycho is available to rent on major digital platforms.

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

George A. Romero would go on to become of the most important American horror filmmakers, and it all started with his little indie movie shot in Pittsburgh on the cheap called Night of the Living Dead. This is the movie that introduced the modern zombie and would later be read as a metaphor for the turbulent 1960s and Civil Rights Movement, especially the fate of its Black male lead, Ben (Duane Jones). It also established Romero's long-running theme that in a crisis, humans will often turn on each other and they're much worse than the monsters. Like The Silence of the Lambs and Freaks, Night of the Living Dead is also one of the only American horror movies in the Criterion Collection.

Night of the Living Dead is available to stream for free on Tubi.

The Exorcist (1973)

If the Universal Monster movies of the 1930s and early 1940s were the first golden age of American horror, then the second golden age occurred in the 1960s and 1970s and William Friedkin's The Exorcist is one of the crowning jewels of that era and the New Hollywood Movement more generally. Based on William Peter Blatty's best-selling novel, The Exorcist explores the timeless theme of good and evil, as two priests, Father Karras (Jason Miller) and the older Father Merrwin (Max von Sydow), battle a demon to save the soul of the young Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair). This movie had great special effects and absolutely terrified audiences. I'm sure it scared a lot of theater-goers into church pews on Sunday morning. The Exorcist spawned countless possession movies, but no other one quite captured the culture like Friedkin's classic.

The Exorcist is available to rent and stream on major digital platforms.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

I can't imagine what it would have been like to see director Tobe Hooper's masterpiece The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 1974. Even decades later, the movie still looks and feels so real. There are so many layers to this movie, including the fact Leatherface and his family have been displaced from their factory jobs. This movie can also be read as a commentary on the failures of the 1960s and the peace and love movement. After all, the hippie kids in this movie all meet a terrible fate. Sure, final girl Sally (Marilyn Burns) survives, but in that last sequence, when she laughs manically on the back of a pick-up truck, it's clear she's never going to be the same after what she endured. All these years later, Hooper's film remains incredibly effective as a response to a one of the most violent chapters of American history, and like Night of the Living Dead, it was made on the cheap and shows the power of indie filmmaking, especially within the horror genre.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is available to watch for free on Pluto TV and Tubi.

Jaws (1975)

It's hard to believe Steven Spielberg was only 27 when he filmed Jaws, and that the mechanical shark Bruce kept failing. That forced Spielberg to show less of the shark, and that, coupled with John Williams' iconic score (you know the one), makes for a pulse-pounding movie. Heck, you can even consider this movie a slasher, where the killer lurks underwater, waiting to attack. Jaws is also the movie that essentially created the summer blockbuster. It's the perfect movie to watch this July 4th, especially since it takes place during that timeframe.

Jaws is currently streaming on Peacock and available to rent on digital platforms.

Halloween (1978)

John Carpetner's Halloween wasn't the first slasher. That credit goes to Peeping Tom and Psycho, which both released in 1960, and the Canadian film Black Christmas, which came out in 1974, but it is maybe the most influential slasher other than Psycho. Like other horror movies from the era, Halloween was shot on a shoestring budget and went on to gross millions. It established Carpenter and his writing partner, Debra HIll, as major forces within the genre, and it gave us Michael Myers and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Without Halloween, there probably wouldn't have been the Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street franchises. This movie is also a masterclass in building tension. Like the Universal Monsters, Michael Myers became and still remains the face of American horror, especially in autumn.

Halloween is streaming on Shudder and AMC+ and available to rent on other digital platforms.

Scream (1996)

Like Carpenter and Romero, Wes Craven is one of the most influential American horror filmmakers. He had a long career that kicked off in the 1970s with the grindhouse movies The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes, before 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street. Craven would change the genre in a big way in the 1990s with Scream, the meta slasher that knew the rules and broke the rules. This movie is incredibly smart, has so many quotable lines, and gave us a stellar final girl in Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and a killer in Ghostface. Years later, the Scream franchise is still going strong and still pulling in a lot of money at the box office, even years after Craven passed in 2015.

Scream is streaming on Paramount+ and available to rent on other digital platforms.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

I distinctly remember seeing The Blair Witch Project the summer of 1999 with my sister. I've never quite had a moviegoing experience like that. The marketing for this movie was genius, from the website to the fact the filmmakers handed out missing person flyers at Sundance, making everyone think The Blair Witch Project was a true story about Mike (Michael C. Willaims), Josh (Joshua Leanard), and Heather (Heather Donahue), who went into the woods to find and film a witch and never returned. This movie hit at just the right time, during the early days of the internet, and it became one of the most successful indie movies of all time. It also spawned countless other found footage movies, but none captured the attention of the zeitgeist quite like this one.

The Blair Witch Project is streaming on HBO Max, Hulu, and Prime Video, and available to rent on other digital platforms.

Hereditary (2016)

It seems like every week, or heck, every day, someone brings up Hereditary on a horror social media page or discussion forum. If I had to pick one movie that exemplifies the A24 brand of horror that dominated the last decade, I'd go with writer/director Ari Aster's feature debut. Very few horror movies sparked discourse as much as Hereditary, and even today, horror fans either love it or hate it. That said, you can't deny Toni Collette's phenomenal performance as a mother trying to keep it together after her family suffers a horrific tragedy. I'm sure most readers know the scenes I'm referring to.

Hereditary is available to rent on most major digital platforms.

Get Out (2017)

What movie captures the post-Obama/Trump era better than better than Jordan Peele's Get Out? Daniel Kaluyaaa's gives a hell of a performance as Chris, a photographer who visits his girlfriend Rose's (Allison Williams) family at their swanky estate. There, he's pulled into the upside down in what's essentially a metaphor for a slave auction. This movie has so much to say about race and Black history, and it's loaded with symbolism regarding such history. This is another movie that's a great watch on July 4th for the way that it reckons with American history and also has an unlikely hero in Chris and of course, his wisecracking friend Rod (Lil Rey Howery). Peele was careful to craft a movie where another Black man wasn't going to die in American streets. There's a lot to be said for that.

Get Out is streaming on Max and available to rent on other digital platforms.

So, there you have it, my picks for the most influential American horror movies, going back nearly 100 years. It's also an exciting time for the genre, with more directors of color and women making movies, and the recent success of Obsession and Backrooms perhaps ushering in a Gen Z era of filmmaking, with fresh ideas. Just think about how young Spielberg was when he shot Jaws, or Hooper when he crafted The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, for that matter. American horror has always allowed room for new voices in its space, and the genre continues to evolve in exciting new ways that reflect our deepest fears and anxieties.