The goriest horror movies ever made
Ranked on VHSCREAM’s viscera axis, where 0 is restraint over gore and 100 is explicit viscera. These are the 15 highest-scoring of the 61 horror films we have scored. Every number is a human judgment against a published rubric, not an average of votes.
The top of the viscera axis measures how much is shown and nothing else. It does not measure quality and it does not measure how disturbing a film is — several of the hardest things in this index sit mid-axis and do their damage another way. What this list is good for is knowing exactly what you are in for before you start.
The goriest horror movies ever made, ranked
| # | Title | Year | By | Viscera |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Terrifier 2 | 2022 | Damien Leone | 098 |
| 2 | Martyrs | 2008 | Pascal Laugier | 096 |
| 3 | Evil Dead | 2013 | Fede Alvarez | 092 |
| 4 | The Fly | 1986 | David Cronenberg | 092 |
| 5 | Hellraiser | 1987 | Clive Barker | 090 |
| 6 | Re-Animator | 1985 | Stuart Gordon | 090 |
| 7 | Audition | 1999 | Takashi Miike | 088 |
| 8 | The Thing | 1982 | John Carpenter | 088 |
| 9 | Saw | 2004 | James Wan | 082 |
| 10 | Kill List | 2011 | Ben Wheatley | 080 |
| 11 | Dawn of the Dead | 1978 | George A. Romero | 078 |
| 12 | Final Destination | 2000 | James Wong | 076 |
| 13 | Videodrome | 1983 | David Cronenberg | 076 |
| 14 | The Descent | 2005 | Neil Marshall | 074 |
| 15 | Suspiria | 1977 | Dario Argento | 070 |
Scores run 0–100 on a single axis and say nothing about quality. A work can be the bleakest thing here and still be the best on the list.
What the numbers say about this list
The list runs from 098 at number one to 070 at number 15. The median of all 61 films we have scored on this axis is 044, so every entry here is past it — this is a tail rather than the top of a flat curve.
13 of these 15 also place on another of our ranked lists — Terrifier 2, Martyrs, Evil Dead among them. Extremity tends to arrive on more than one axis at a time, which is the most useful thing six numbers tell you that one cannot.
The same axis, over a different shelf
Viscera is scored the same way whatever the medium, so these ask the same question of another medium we score.
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Questions about the goriest horror movies ever made
What is the goriest horror film in your index?
Terrifier 2 (2022), at 098 on viscera. Second is Martyrs at 096, and number 15 on this list scores 070. The full table is above, with the year and the creator for each.
How is this list of horror films ranked?
By one measured axis and nothing else. We score all 61 horror films in the index on six continuous axes against fixed anchor works, then sort by viscera and take the 15 highest. There is no vote, no average of other people's ratings and no overall score — the numbers on this page are the whole ranking, and they run 098 to 070.
What does the viscera axis measure?
Where a work sits between restraint over gore at 0 and explicit viscera at 100. It is a description rather than a verdict: a work can be at either end and be excellent or worthless. Among the films in this index the median on this axis is 044, which is the number worth holding in mind while you read the list — 098 means something only against it.
Are these the scariest horror films?
Not as a claim we would make. Viscera measures one thing, and only the bleak end of tone is simply harder to endure — the other five axes describe a kind of fear rather than an amount. Terrifier 2 tops this list at 098 and scores 044 on tone, which are two separate facts about it. The scariest horror we have scored takes the question apart properly.
Want this ranked against you rather than against the axis?
Build your tape →Every ranked film list → · All 61 films → · How the axes relate →