# The 18 Greatest Horror Movie Franchises of All Time

> Slashers, hauntings, demonic possessions and undead outbreaks square off — from black-and-white originals to modern box-office monsters, with a few cult favorites lurking. Which will win?

*By YPB Team · Published August 23, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-18-greatest-horror-movie-franchises-of-all-time*

---

## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **The Exorcist** — score 1000/1000
   The landmark demonic-possession franchise sparked by the 1973 classic widely called the scariest film ever.
2. **Halloween** — score 1000/1000
   John Carpenter's slasher saga built around the masked killer Michael Myers, a genre cornerstone since 1978.
3. **Hellraiser** — score 801/1000
   Clive Barker's dark series about a puzzle box that summons the sadistic Cenobites led by Pinhead.
4. **It / Stephen King's It** — score 633/1000
   The two-part adaptation series featuring the shape-shifting, child-devouring clown Pennywise.
5. **The Evil Dead** — score 633/1000
   Sam Raimi's cult splatter-comedy series following Ash Williams and the demonic Necronomicon.
6. **Friday the 13th** — score 548/1000
   The long-running slasher franchise centered on hockey-masked killer Jason Voorhees at Camp Crystal Lake.
7. **Final Destination** — score 548/1000
   The inventive series in which characters cheat death only to be hunted down by elaborate accidents.
8. **Insidious** — score 548/1000
   James Wan's supernatural series about a family haunted through an astral realm called The Further.
9. **The Texas Chain Saw Massacre** — score 448/1000
   The raw, influential series introducing the chainsaw-wielding cannibal Leatherface.
10. **Paranormal Activity** — score 448/1000
   The found-footage franchise that turned static home-camera hauntings into a box-office phenomenon.
11. **Night of the Living Dead / Living Dead** — score 448/1000
   George A. Romero's foundational zombie series that defined the modern undead genre.
12. **Child's Play** — score 448/1000
   The franchise built around Chucky, a killer doll possessed by a serial murderer's soul.
13. **Alien** — score 329/1000
   Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror saga pitting humans against a lethal extraterrestrial xenomorph.
14. **Saw** — score 329/1000
   The grisly franchise built around the moral traps of the Jigsaw killer, a byword for torture horror.
15. **The Conjuring Universe** — score 329/1000
   The interconnected series of based-on-true-events hauntings led by paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.
16. **A Nightmare on Elm Street** — score 183/1000
   Wes Craven's dream-stalking series starring the burned, razor-gloved Freddy Krueger.
17. **Scream** — score 183/1000
   Wes Craven's self-aware slasher series featuring the Ghostface killer and meta commentary on horror tropes.
18. **The Ring** — score 183/1000
   The chilling franchise about a cursed videotape that kills its viewers in seven days.

Tags: movies, franchises, horror, classics