The 56 Most Terrifying Slasher Flicks of All Time

Masked killers, bladed weapons, summer camps, innocent teens, and tons and tons of blood. Slasher flicks are the ultimate thrill-ride. Unlike the twists and turns of so many modern scary flicks, slashers' sinister beauty lies in their simplicity.

And in that simplicity lives a genre that has lasted decades and decades, and will certainly continue for decades more. Is there not something comforting in flipping on a horror movie where you may not know what exactly is going to happen, but you kind of know? We love Halloween (1978), and the entire Friday the 13thseries, and we fully know what's coming. It doesn't matter; it's just fun. But in those familiar themes in old movies come the occasional twist; movies (included on the below list) like The Cabin in the Woods or The Final Girls bring a self-awareness and sense of humor that only works within a genre that has its own built in frame of reference. And again, it comes down to that sense of familiarity.

A slasher, seeking revenge, hunts down a group of young people in their nightmares. A family, desperate to maintain the status quo, hunts down a new member of the clan. A serial killer, inhabiting the body of a children's doll, wants out. Slashers have one goal in mind: to kill. And we, as viewers, have another goal: to throw popcorn at the screen whenever our protagonists just can't seem to do anything right. So join us as we survive some of the most terrifying horror flicks out there. Below, 56 of the best slasher movies of all time, beginning with a classic: