With Halloween right around the corner, people find themselves running into the older, classic horror movies. Though they are older movies, it is hard to not give them credit for how they were made. Many know these movies as some of the best horror movies of all time, and if not still some very good films. The ranked list of the top five classics on ranker.com are as follows:

5. Alien (1979)

This horror film has both sci-fi and horror genres embedded in it. It takes place in 2122, and the ship Nostromo is on its way back to Earth. On its way, the ship crashes and they are forced to repair the ship in unknown territory. The crew finds a chamber containing hundreds of large egg-like objects. A crew member touches one of them, and a creature pops out and attaches it to the member’s face. The crew takes the member back to the ship, and takes off with it only somewhat repaired. The crew member wakes up, seemingly unharmed. However, at a meal later that evening, he chokes and dies as an alien creature bursts out of his chest, and escapes the Nostromo. The crew tries to track the creature down and kill it. As they keep searching for this alien, they find something that could impact them for the rest of their lives. Senior Harley Mikkelson says “it was an okay movie, a lot of the jumpscares were cheap, it was kind of gimickey.”

4. Silence of the Lambs (1991)

This thriller movie blends together the aspects of criminal behavior and the horror genre. It is about an FBI trainee, Clarice Starling,  who is sent on a mission to interview a former psychiatrist and incarcerated cannibalistic serial killer, Hannibal Lecter, in order to help them get more information on Buffalo Bill. She travels to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane to talk to Lecter. She finds someone who is in contact with Buffalo Bill, and seeks him out. Meanwhile, Buffalo Bill abducted the Senator’s daughter, and Starling seeks him out to make a fake deal with Buffalo Bill, to transfer him into another prison, as Lecter said she should. As this is going on, Lecter kills his guards at his cell, and disappears. The Starling then takes all of the notes she had and analyzes them, finding something she never thought she would find out. Mrs. Clifford says “there’s a ton of iconic scenes from it, I find it terrifying so I haven’t seen the entire movie, but Lecter is such an iconic but creepy guy, but he’s also really cultured and intelligent. It’s a great movie, it just creeps me out but in all the right ways.”

3. The Shining (1980)

The Shining is a psychological horror movie that is based off a novel by the same name, by Stephen King. It is about a boy who possesses psychic powers to be able to see the ghosts that haunt his father’s hotel. The boy sees these beings, and thinks they’re just people in the hotel. This helps him and his mother fight off the boy’s father, who tries to murder them with an axe. The boy leads his father a false trail to him, and of course his father follows it. Senior Jacob Leonard “I don’t think it was scary, but I think it was kind of weird, but a really cool movie. The ending was really good though.”

2. Psycho (1960)

Psycho is about a secretary named Marion Crane who steals  $40,000 from her employer, so she could run off to be with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis. On her way to surprise him, she is stopped by a storm and is forced to stay the night at the Bates Motel. Marion goes missing, and a private investigator is sent to find her and the money. As the investigator searches for Marion, he goes to the motel. He doesn’t make it out again. Senior Ashley Goudreault stated, “I think this movie is definitely a landmark in the horror movie genre. Hitchcock made a huge jump in this movie to kill the main character off midway through, which was unheard of during that time. It doesn’t seem like too big of a deal as of right now, but it must have been a huge shock back when the film was released. I love this movie.”

1. The Exorcist (1973)

The Exorcist was the best of its time. The special effects were not only advanced for what they had in that decade, but with it’s actors the movie was a success. It is a supernatural movie about a 12 year old girl named Reagan who gets possessed in her home. Her mother tries to figure out what is wrong with her, as they do not expect her to be possessed. When her mother finds out about her daughter’s possession, she called two priests to rescue her from evil spirits. Senior Tyler Partenio says “I think it’s a riveting success in the film industry. My favorite part was the end when the older priest dies, it was really shocking, and then when the other priest gets possessed and takes the demon from her, I thought it was genius and just overall insane.”

Other than these movies, there are a lot of other classics out there that lots of people love. Kassidy Sharp states “I liked Scream because it’s a classic, and the spoofs to make fun of it make it more entertaining, because you can either watch it for the horror aspect or watch it to make fun of it.”