As Halloween approaches, film enthusiasts often indulge in horror film rankings to celebrate the spooky season. This year, we've decided to shake things up with a tier list of the highest-grossing horror movies at the box office, both adjusted and unadjusted for inflation.
The criteria for movie selection involved clear metrics: besides box office performance, three out of four sources (IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, and Letterboxd) had to classify a film as a horror movie for inclusion. Some classics didn't qualify, like 'The Sixth Sense,' but others did, including personal favorites 'Jaws' and 'Psycho.'
Starting with 'Jaws,' it's clear this film terrifies as effectively today as when it was first released, earning it an S-tier placement among horror films. Meanwhile, films like 'Jaws 2' received a C-tier designation, not for lack of quality, but because of its overshadowing predecessors.
The 'Conjuring' series highlighted how franchises can evolve, with 'The Conjuring' sitting comfortably on the B tier due to its nostalgic scares, while its sequel, 'The Conjuring: Last Rights,' slid to the D tier due to less than stellar endings.
The 'A Quiet Place' franchise demonstrated solid cinematic craft, with the original film earning an A tier and successive films maintaining lower, yet respectable placements.
Adaptations of Japanese horror like 'The Ring' and 'The Grudge' showcased how cultural shifts affect horror perception—and their tier rankings varied accordingly, with 'The Ring' on the C tier and 'The Grudge' falling to the D tier.
Genre busters like 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'Psycho' justified their rankings with strong narratives and cultural impact, landing at the A and S tiers respectively. The former thriller-horror hybrid leans more suspenseful. In contrast, 'Psycho' remains an archetype for psychological horror, maintaining intrigue for over six decades.
Steven Spielberg’s 'Poltergeist,' an S-tier film, exemplifies classical haunted house suspense blended with suburban unease, while 'The Blair Witch Project' defined found footage horror but settled at a B tier for its divisive legacy.
Franchises like 'Scream' maintained high tier placements for revitalizing slasher genres, while newer entries like 'It Chapter 1' found an A tier spot, outperforming its sequel which earned a B tier.
In conclusion, this tier list reflects both the box office prowess and enduring cultural impact of horror films, offering insights into which ones have stood the test of time and those that have struggled or soared in recent memory. As the nature of horror continues to evolve, these rankings might shift, but the thrill of the scare remains unchanged.