5 Best Gothic Horror Movies

If you are looking for scary Gothic horror movies with a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting, you should definitely check our picks for the best Gothic horror movies.

We hope you will enjoy the following ranking. Please let us know your favorite in the comments.

5. Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Director: Tim Burton

Loosely based on Washington Irving’s 1820 short story, this film follows police constable Ichabod Crane (Depp) sent from New York City to investigate a series of murders in the village of Sleepy Hollow by a mysterious Headless Horseman.

Starring:

• Johnny Depp
• Christina Ricci
• Miranda Richardson

4. The Orphanage (2007)

Director: J.A. Bayona

The Spanish gothic supernatural horror film follows Laura (Belén Rueda), her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo), and their adopted son Simón (Roger Príncep). The film centers on Laura, who returns to her childhood home, an orphanage. Laura plans to turn the house into a home for disabled children, but after an argument with Simón, he goes missing.

Starring:

• Belén Rueda
• Fernando Cayo
• Roger Príncep

3. Dracula (1992)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola  

This is a 1992 American Gothic horror film, based on the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. The film tells the story of the centuries-old vampire Count Dracula who comes to England to seduce his barrister Jonathan Harker’s fiancée Mina Murray and inflict havoc in the foreign land.

Starring:

• Gary Oldman
• Winona Ryder
• Anthony Hopkins

2. Interview with the Vampire (1994)

Director: Neil Jordan

Based on Anne Rice’s 1976 novel of the same name, this film focuses on Lestat (Cruise) and Louis (Pitt), beginning with Louis’s transformation into a vampire by Lestat in 1791. The film chronicles their time together, and their turning of ten-year-old Claudia (Kirsten Dunst) into a vampire. The narrative is framed by a present-day interview, in which Louis tells his story to a San Francisco reporter.

Starring:

• Brad Pitt
• Tom Cruise
• Antonio Banderas

1. The Others (2001)

Director and Writer: Alejandro Amenábar

This English-language Spanish gothic supernatural horror film follows a woman who lives in her darkened old family house with her two photosensitive children and becomes convinced that the home is haunted.
 

Starring:

• Nicole Kidman
• Christopher Eccleston
• Fionnula Flanagan