A defining component of the cinematic horror experience is the immediate, heart-pounding fright that only a great jump scare can provide. The abrupt onslaught on the senses can sometimes be viewed as a cheap trick to startle audiences, they can also be used to enhance truly great horror movies and leave lasting impressions on audiences, with such genre classics as The Conjuring and A Quiet Place utilizing jump scares flawlessly.
Appearing in everything from psychological thrillers to horror comedies, slasher flicks, and even PG-13 rated scary movies, jump scares are a prolific feature of horror cinema due to not only their effectiveness, but their versatility. These 11 scary movies, ranging from old classics to modern masterpieces, are among the best when it comes to an effective, rewarding, and frequent use of jump scares throughout their runtimes.
Updated on October 28, 2023, by Ryan Heffernan:
In the interest of celebrating a happy and haunted Halloween, horror cinema has almost always been a go-to for film fans looking to get into the spirit of the spooky season. In this pursuit, nothing gets the heart pumping quite like a fantastic jump scare, with these films among the very best when it comes to frightening the life out of audiences.
11 ‘Talk to Me’ (2023)
Over the course of the past decade, A24 has made itself one of the most recognizable and captivating brands in modern horror cinema. That startling reputation was only enhanced with the release of Talk to Me, an Australian demonic possession horror film that was a hit at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and has become an instant horror classic following a group of friends as their toying with an embalmed hand which can conjure spirits inadvertently leads to a terrifying supernatural force being unleashed.
It marked a very impressive directorial debut of Danny and Michael Phillipou, the twin brothers behind the hit YouTube channel RackaRacka. It was heralded by many critics, filmmakers, and fans as being one of the best horror movies the industry has seen in years and is loaded with jump scares which not only excel at frightening the audience initially, but add to the terror of the story as well.
10 ‘Evil Dead II’ (1987)
Even more so than its famous predecessor, Evil Dead II has come to be remembered for the perfection with which it meshed effects-driven visual horror with hilarious slapstick comedy. However, it should not be forgotten how effective Sam Raimi could be with a great jump scare, which is something this iconic sequel shows in spades throughout its duration.
The horror hit follows Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) as his battle against the Deadites continues, with the film bombarding the audience with jump scares throughout. Evil Dead II has 27 jumpy moments jammed into its snappy 85-minute runtime, making it one of the movies with the most jump scares in the history of horror cinema.
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9 ‘Candyman’ (1992)
Starring one of the all-time great yet criminally underrated horror movie actors Tony Todd, the 1992 hit Candyman became a cult classic slasher sensation. The film follows a Chicago graduate student who decides to write her folklore and urban legends thesis about a ghost known as the Candyman, the knife-wielding spirit of the son of a slave who some believe is responsible for a recent murder in the Cabrini-Green Homes public housing project.
The film has come to be celebrated in the horror genre due to its mounting sense of dread, its gory effects, its iconic titular character, and its penchant for great jump scares. One particular jump scare, involving a medicine cabinet, has never lost its edge and can still make audiences scream aloud today.
8 ‘The Conjuring’ (2013)
The paranormal investigations conducted by Ed and Lorraine Warren have inspired films such as The Conjuring, Annabelle, The Nun, and more which take place within The Conjuring Universe. Staring with The Conjuring, the story follows Roger and Carolyn Perron (Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor), along with their five daughters and a dog, who move to a farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island. Within the first few nights of staying in the farmhouse, the Perron family experiences strange encounters, such as finding their dog Sadie dead one morning.
The Warrens (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), who are asked to come to the house, later conclude that the spirit of Bathsheba haunts the house. Though The Conjuring consists of many well-executed and timed jump scares, the reveal of the evil entity of Bathsheba is considered one of the film’s most effective scares.
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7 ‘Sinister’ (2012)
Sinister follows a true crime writer Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke), who moves his family to the fictional town of Chatford into a home which, unbeknownst to his wife and kids, was where the Stevenson family were killed by hanging. Ellison’s plans to use the grisly history of the house to relaunch his career as a best-selling author quickly turns sour when he discovers a hidden stash of home videos which reveal the cursed truth of the past family’s demise.
While Sinister 2 did have more jump scares throughout, the original film made more of an impression on audiences with its gripping intensity. In 2020, Broadband Choices conducted a study where it sampled 50 of the highest-rated horror movies based on sites such as IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes and measured the participants’ heart rates while watching the said films. The study deemed Sinister as the scariest movie ever made.
6 ‘A Quiet Place’ (2018)
A Quiet Place follows the harrowing journey of a couple, Lee and Evelyn Abbott (John Krasinski and Emily Blunt), and their children in their journey of surviving a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by blind monsters with an extremely sharp sense of hearing. The Abbott family has taken all the necessary means to survive, including laying and walking on sand paths to avoid stepping on crunching leaves and using American Sign Language to communicate.
Jump scares work best in silent scenes as the viewers’ anxiety builds up during the anticipation process for the jump scare. For this reason, they heavily worked in A Quiet Place, as not much noise nor spoken dialogue are present in the film. On the contrary, any presence of noise moves the plot forward and warns the audience that something is about to happen.
Watch on Fubo
5 ‘Insidious’ (2010)
From legendary horror director James Wan, Insidious was a heart-pounding success as it followed a family whose move to a new house for a fresh start is disrupted when their son falls into a coma and a series of bizarre paranormal events begin to transpire. After months with no improvement in their son’s state, Renai (Rose Byrne) and Josh (Patrick Wilson) enlist the help of paranormal investigators who reveal that the child has the ability to “astral travel” and has ventured into a hellish realm called “The Further” where the tortured souls of the dead reside.
As the family experiences many frightening supernatural encounters in the house, there are many intense jump scares throughout the film. Insidious has earned a reputation as one of the movies with the best and most unpredictable jump scares in the history of horror.
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4 ‘Drag Me to Hell’ (2009)
A Romani woman, Sylvia Ganush (Lorna Raver), goes to a bank loan officer, Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), to request a third mortgage extension. As Christine denies this request, the woman becomes increasingly angry and accuses Christine of shaming her. Christine does not think too much of this situation until she gets attacked by the same woman in her car in a parking lot. The woman rips a button from Christine’s coat and curses it.
Christine and her boyfriend, Clay Dalton (Justin Long), visit a fortune-teller Rham (Dileep Rao). He tells them that she is cursed and that a powerful demon, Lamia, will torture her for three days before dragging her to hell for eternity.Drag Me to Hell proves that PG-13 movies can still be terrifying.
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3 ‘Lights Out’ (2016)
A technically exemplary horror film, Lights Out was a 2016 demon possession movie which mixed fantastic thrills with strong performances and a solid story about family drama. It follows Rebecca (Teresa Palmer), a young woman as she realizes her mother has been possessed by a spiritual entity which hunts in the dark and is compelled to take action when a spree of murders unfolds and her half-brother’s safety is threatened by a series of bizarre events which mimic what Rebecca endured in her youth.
With an incredibly sharp 77 minute runtime, Lights Out operates at a brisk pace which is precise in hitting all the major plot points it needs to with the reverence those moments deserve. That, of course, also entailed plenty of jump scares with the film’s astute use of darkness and creepy imagery making for a heart-pounding viewing experience which could rattle even the most hardened horror fans.
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2 ‘Annabelle: Creation’ (2017)
Dolls have long been a chilling source of cinematic terror, and The Conjuring franchise’s demented play thing Annabelle is one of the scariest. The best example of the horror she could expel was presented in Annabelle: Creation, the second of her title films which served as a prequel/origin story following a doll-maker and his wife as they embed the soul of their dead daughter inside the doll, a decision which has drastic consequences when they later take in a nun and six orphaned girls.
Wisely utilizing the creepy doll as the centerpiece of the film, it emits an eerie suspense which permeates throughout the film and refuses to let up, with atmospheric dread and plenty of startling jump scares defining the viewing experience. Annabelle: Creation still stands as one of the horror franchise’s scariest entries and is the best film it has produced outside the two original The Conjuring movies.
1 ‘The Exorcist III’ (1990)
1973’s The Exorcist is rightly regarded as one of the most terrifying horror movies of all time, able to disturb viewers on a visceral level, but it didn’t do so with much in the way of jump scares. Ignoring the events of the ill-fated sequel, The Exorcist III takes place in 1990 and follows a police officer investigating a serial killer known as The Gemini Killer as he is lead to question the patients in a psychiatric ward where he uncovers far more than he ever thought possible.
While The Exorcist III received only mixed reviews upon release, it has come to be viewed as something of a cult classic. It also contains plenty of terrifying moments including an eerie hallway scene which leads into one of the most devastating jump scares in horror history.
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