Summary
- The best jump scare movies rely on careful buildup and attention to detail, earning the scares they deliver and surprising viewers.
- Movies like Hell Fest, The Descent, and The Nun are examples of films that effectively use jump scares to create terrifying experiences.
- Jump scare movies, such as Sinister, Paranormal Activity, and A Quiet Place, use tension and silence to enhance the impact of their scares and keep audiences on edge.
Some of the best jump scare movies are the ones that have little going on in the frame for most of the time, allowing the viewer to effectively scare themselves with the power of their own imagination. But this doesn't mean that the art of the jump scare is beneath great filmmakers, quite the opposite. The best jump scare movies demonstrate that horror masters throughout cinematic history have used the jump as a powerful tool to pull the audience deeper into their terrifying worlds, and while there are often cheap scares, the best ones are the scares that really take viewers by surprise.
The best jump scare movies are the ones that don't feel cheap to the audience, building up each scenario carefully and methodically over long periods of time to earn the scare. Finding the best jump scare horror movies on places like Netflix is not an easy task, as it requires the film to be both crowd-pleasing in a broad sense and highly attentive to small details at the same time. However, when horror fans find the movies with the best jump scares, they provide something special that elevates the movie to another level.
20 Hell Fest (2018) - 28 Jump Scares
- Stream on Tubi
In 2018, Hell Fest brought a throwback horror movie to the big screen, and it quickly joined the ranks of the best jump scare movies with an impressive 28 jump scares in its running time. The film focuses on a traveling theme park and a masked man known as "The Other" who lives there and kills people visiting the event. When a group of young adults heads out to the carnival, The Other starts to hunt them down, kill them, and leave some of them lying around as trophies. This allowed the perfect chance for a lot of jump scares throughout the movie when dead bodies pop up out of nowhere, making the killer's appearances often a surprise.
19 The Descent (2005) - 16 Jump Scares
- Stream on Max
Neil Marshall directed one of the best horror movies of the 2000s with The Descent. This was a British horror movie that started off with a shocking moment that came as a jump scare when a car accident killed the main protagonist's husband and daughter. The movie picks up a year later when she goes spelunking with her friends and ends up trapped in caverns where there are mutated creatures that start hunting the women down. Being in a dark cavern with monsters hiding in the shadows, there was room for very effective jump scares, with 16 in the movie. The Descent made several top 10 lists in 2005.
18 The Nun (2018) - 21 Jump Scares
- Stream on Max
The Nun was a spinoff from The Conjuring universe, and it was popular enough that it warranted a sequel in 2023. The sequel explained how the new franchise was connected to The Conjuring and Lorraine Warren. However, the first Nun movie was a very effective example of a jump scare movie with 21 different jump scares in it. The movie had a young nun named Sister Irene who ends up face to face with an ancient evil demon named Valak who takes the form of a demonic nun. The Nun was well-reviewed and provided horror fans with a scary film regardless of its connection to the overall Conjuring franchise.
17 Candyman (1992) - 16 Jump Scares
- Stream on Peacock
In the 1990s, slasher movies were going out of style, and those were possibly the bottom of the barrel when it came to jump scare movies as far as doing them respectfully. However, in the 90s, there was one more new slasher icon that arrived before they died out and this was Candyman. The movie is based on an old legend similar to Bloody Mary where a person says the name of the demon three times in a mirror, and he comes to life and kills people. By doing this form of conjuring a demon, it opens things up to some great jump scares, and there are 16 total in this movie.
16 Talk To Me (2023) - 3 Jump Scares
- Stream on Fandango
In 2023, a new horror movie hit theaters that was an immediate hit and might go down as a modern-day classic. This was Talk to Me, which followed a group of young friends who found an embalmed hand that they found out lets them communicate with the dead if they grasp it. However, those who grasp it too long find themselves falling prey to the dead, who want to bring more to their side. It doesn't have nearly as many jumps as the best jump scare movies, but it has three of them total and one of the jumps is better than just about any other horror movie. The movie was a huge success and Talk to Me 2 is in development.
15 It Follows (2014) - 5 Jump Scares
- Stream on Paramount+
It Follows is a high-concept horror movie that's driven by very simple–yet very effective–scares. The premise is that a curse transmitted through sexual intercourse dooms a person to be followed for the rest of their lives by a slow-moving–but constantly pursuing–entity that will kill them when it catches up to them. The best jump scare movies have a never-ending sense of unease to them and, like the main character, the audience never feels safe from this petrifying monster as it can take the form of anyone and appear at just about any moment.
14 Sinister (2012) - 17 Jump Scares
- Stream on Prime Video
An experiment conducted in 2020 found that Sinister was the scariest horror movie of all time due to its ability to raise the heart rate of viewers, and it's fairly easy to why that was the case. The plot sees an author discover a box of old home movies in the attic of his new house that show various gruesome murders. As the audience is forced to watch each of the movies with him and unravel the disturbing mystery behind them, it becomes impossible to look away from the pulse-pounding horror on display.
13 Paranormal Activity (2007) - 10 Jump Scares
- Stream on Paramount+
Showing only grainy home video footage might seem like it would minimize the impact of a horror movie. However, Paranormal Activity actually does the opposite as the audience is always looking out for the tiniest movement or listening out for the smallest noise right before the movie delivers a loud shock out of nowhere. Fans of this type of horror will be glad to know that the Paranormal Activity franchise would build numerous sequels around this simple technique. The first film centers on a young couple who are haunted by a supernatural presence in their home, and they set up cameras to document the phenomena with terrifying results.
12 Brightburn (2019) - 20 Jump Scares
- Stream on Fubo
Exploring the idea of an evil Superman-type figure, Brightburn not only comes with an exciting and original premise, but it comes with a hefty collection of jump scares as well, not to mention one of the highest horror movie kill counts of all time. The movie's villain has no need for machetes, hatchets, or elaborate traps to bring the terror, all he needs is a well-aimed gaze. Mighty and merciless, Brightburn is certainly one superhero who won't be joining the Avengers Initiative any time soon and can offer a unique kind of scare to fans of the MCU or DCEU.
11 The Conjuring (2013) - 12 Jump Scares
- Stream on Max
The Conjuring is a supernatural horror film based on a true story. After the Perron family is terrorized by a dark entity in their secluded Rhode Island home, they look to paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren to shed some light on what they're dealing with. While it may not be much of a unique storyline in terms of horror movies, there's a lot of creativity behind each shock, with each sudden appearance of a ghostly figure outdoing the last. The movie was so effective with its jump scares that it spawned a massive Conjuring franchise.
10 Creep (2014) - 9 Jump Scares
- Stream on Netflix
Creep is a found footage horror film that shows the footage of a videographer named Aaron who agrees to work for Josef, a terminally ill man who says that he wants to make a series of videos for his unborn son. As their day of filming progresses though, Josef becomes increasingly unsettling in his behavior, and it soon becomes clear that his main aim is to scare Aaron, whose perspective the viewer is always forced to look through. To top it off, Creep holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is rare for a horror film.
9 Hush (2016) - 7 Jump Scares
- Stream on Netflix
Total silence makes jump scares in movies all the more frightening, which Hush capitalizes on throughout as the film follows a deaf woman who finds herself being hunted like prey in the middle of nowhere by a masked killer. There are several times when the main character remains completely oblivious to the fact that the killer is right behind her but tenser still are the moments when she enacts her plans to fight back, with the audience never quite knowing where the movie is going to go next. It comes from the great horror mind of Mike Flanagan too.
8 The Babadook (2014) - 11 Jump Scares
- Stream on Hulu
The Babadook's story may seem simple enough at first: a widowed mother named Amelia reads a mysterious pop-up storybook called Mister Babadook to her son, who soon becomes convinced that Mister Babadook is real, with the eerie figure invading their lives. As the movie develops, however, it becomes clear that the true horror lies within Amelia's own subconscious as her struggles with her grief and her trials as a single parent begin to overwhelm her. It's true psychological horror that forces Amelia, and the audience along with her, to face horrific thoughts that burst into her life at the worst–and sometimes most unexpected–moments.
7 Insidious (2010) - 24 Jump Scares
- Stream on Max
Insidious, directed by James Wan, is the first installment in the Insidious franchise and the third in terms of series chronology. In the film, a couple's son falls into a coma and becomes a vessel for ghosts who want to inhabit his body. Things get progressively darker and darker throughout the plot, and the unexpected twists and turns, particularly at the end, guarantee non-stop shocks until the credits roll. While there are plenty of jump scares, the most iconic is easily the Red-Faced Demon appearance that comes during a seemingly casual conversation, catching audiences off guard.
6 Scream (1996) - 19 Jump Scares
- Stream on Paramount+
Scream is both a subversively seminal slasher film and one of the best jump-scare horror movies ever made. The movie follows the life of high school student Sidney Prescott as she becomes the target of an elusive masked killer. Though effectively a parody of the slasher genre, Scream won over horror movie fans by analyzing and subverting tropes like jump scares rather than just making fun of them or recreating them. As a result, even seasoned horror fans can be left clueless as to what's going to happen next.
5 A Quiet Place (2018) - 14 Jump Scares
- Stream on Paramount+
Simple silence is what makes jump scares all the more effective, and there are few horror movies that are as quiet as A Quiet Place. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, the plot revolves around a family coping with life now that humanity is constantly hunted by alien creatures that hunt by sound. Any sound the family makes, however small, can be detected by the creatures from great distances, so their silence is crucial to their survival. As all horror enthusiasts know, the secret to a good jump scare is tension, and this movie is positively fraught with it.
4 The Blair Witch Project (1999) - 18 Jump Scares
- Stream on Paramount+
The Blair Witch Project tells the fictional story of three student filmmakers who set out on a hiking expedition to film a documentary about a rural legend known as the Blair Witch. Like many of the best horror movies of all time, The Blair Witch Project has a constant feeling of dread throughout it, and that's what really primes the viewers for a good jump scare. Whether it's the snapping of a twig in the darkness or an unexpected scream, viewers of the film become just as hyper-sensitive as the characters.
3 Drag Me To Hell (2009) - 23 Jump Scares
- Stream on Prime Video
After the huge mainstream success of his Spider-Man movies, Sam Raimi returned to his roots and delivered one of the most acclaimed horror movies of the past 20 years with Drag Me To Hell, a story about a woman who is cursed to be tormented by a demon for three days before it comes to take her to Hell. The sound design in the movie goes a long way in making each jump scare powerful enough to really rattle the audience, especially as the demon remains mostly unseen throughout, but its malevolent presence is still felt very strongly.
2 It (2017) - 23 Jump Scares
- Stream on Max
Adapted from Stephen King's iconic novel of the same name, It depicts the horrifying ordeal of a group of children living in a small town in Maine during the 1980s as they are mercilessly terrorized by a murderous entity that appears in the form of a clown named Pennywise. Pennywise's appearances throughout the movie in his many unsettling forms put the viewer constantly on edge, with the opening scene establishing that nobody is safe from this horror movie monster.
1 Evil Dead II (1987) - 27 Jump Scares
- Stream on Tubi
When it comes to jump scare movies, there are few movie directors who have racked up the numbers over the years quite like the legendary Sam Raimi. With his Evil Dead series, Raimi effectively became the undisputed king of intense and in-your-face horror movies. While his first film in the series was revolutionary for the horror genre, it's the second one that truly earns its place as one of the best jump scare movies ever. Though it's generally remembered for its wild sense of humor, Evil Dead II never forgets that it's a horror movie first.