The Best Back To School Horror Movies Of All Time

As the dog days of summer beat down on us, it’s hard not to lament the end of late nights and lazy hot days by the pool. For many, this time of year marks the beginning of school functions, homework, teachers’ conferences, and school parties. For horror lovers, it means the start of the spooky season. Fall isn’t just good for pumpkin spice lattes and soup. It is also for haunted houses, horror movies, and a very specific sub-genre of film. The school-themed horror movies are not for everyone but for those who love them; they are everything. This time of year, as teachers prepare their classrooms and students prepare their backpacks, is the perfect time to revisit the terror of education with the top horror movies that celebrate school.

Carrie

The OG of school horror is also an enduring message about cruelty, coming-of-age uncomfortableness, and oppression. Stephen King’s masterpiece has been remade and sequeled more times than I can count, but the Sissy Spacek original is by far the best.

The Faculty

Pretty teens and impossibly attractive teachers make high school a nightmare in this surprisingly funny late nineties gem. Clea DuVall, Jordana Brewster, and Josh Hartnett headline this stellar cast in this often overlooked film. It is my favorite guilty pleasure on the back to school horror list.

Disturbing Behavior

The disaffected youth in me loves the rebellious nature of this late 90s horror movie. As a goth troublemaker, Katie Holmes is to die for, and the weird sci-fi tie-in twist was ahead of its time. I think there can never be too many Stepford Wives-type movies.

Tragedy Girls

Two teenage girls with a YouTube channel and an obsession with death and fame use their platform to become the next slasher queens. It is smartly written and more on the nose than is comfortable. Bonus points for costarring Jack Quaid from Amazon’s brilliant The Boys.

Knives and Skin

I once described this as “if Twin Peaks was a panty-sniffing musical,” Although that sounds insane, the movie is dark enough and weird enough to be mesmerizing. It is hyper-serious and bleak as night, but if you like things bizarre and moody, you can’t go wrong with this look inside a troubled high school.

Prom Night

Jamie Lee Curtis is a horror goddess, and Prom Night is a super fun romp through back to school horror. Like the hundreds(if not thousands of films like I Know What You Did Last Summer) of revenge horror films that came after it, the story is straightforward. A couple of kids do something terrible and try to cover it up. That has disastrous results. This is one prom that is not Pretty in Pink.

Jennifer’s Body

Come for Amanda Seyfried and Megan Fox but stay for the razor-sharp script. Director Karyn Kusama(The Invitation) and writer Diablo Cody team up to provide one of our time’s best feminist horror stories. This is black comedy at its best, and Fox and Seyfried are perfect together. It doesn’t take itself seriously, and neither should you. Just enjoy!

The Craft

The 1996 original is far superior to the recent remake. The entire ensemble cast is fantastic, including Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, and Rachel True. Another back to school essential Scream’s Skeet Ulrich gets what is coming to him, which is entertaining. These burgeoning witches are tired of being picked on and fight back until they start fighting each other.

Kristy

Everyone who has headed off to college has heard the stories about that one hall you never want to go alone. This back to university story capitalizes on the lonely coed who is stalked by something dangerous while staying over for Thanksgiving break. In terms of survival thrillers, it isn’t groundbreaking, but Haley Bennett is good, and the film is a quick watch.

The Blackcoat’s Daughter

This hotly debated chiller is perfect for those who love to dissect the film after watching it to find all the clues they missed the first time. Sabrina’s Kiernan Shipka and American Horror Story’s Emma Roberts are very good in Oz Perkins’s underrated classic.

Scream

The film that gave us the rules to surviving a modern horror movie is still the best. The cast is full of talent, and the killer’s reveal is amazing no matter how many times you have seen it. The recent reboot was fun, but Neve Campbell deserves to be paid. Nuff said!

I know What You Did Last Summer

The cast is excellent and so achingly late 90’s it’s hard not to reminisce about the good ole days of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Party of Five, and Scooby Doo. Of course, there was a bevy of these sorts of teen movies, but it remains one of the best. There are a few tense scenes, and it’s a thrill ride that never lets up.

Cooties

In this twist on the familiar story, a band of teachers must fight for their lives when their students turn into feral monsters. Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, and the incomparable Alison Pill from Amazon’s Them are tremendous. This is a must-see and essential viewing for all parents and teachers of elementary school teachers.

Black Christmas

The Awakening

Before Rebecca Hall freaked us out in Resurrection and The Night House, she was creeping us out in this period piece set in an English boarding school. This school horror movie is overlooked and underappreciated. It is a suspenseful ghost story with a great sense of atmosphere.

Happy Death Day 1 and 2

Blumhouse’s brilliant horror comedies are two of the best back to school horror movies of all time. Tre is a heroine we can all get behind as she is smart, sassy, capable, and genuinely grows as a person, which is rare in horror films and especially horror comedies. I could watch these movies a million times and never stop laughing.

Ginger Snaps

If you are a horror lover and a werewolf fan, in particular, you not only know this film that launched Katharine Isabelle’s career, you have it memorized. It’s another coming of age story that doesn’t fall into the same traps as lesser films. It would be easy to be trite or cheesy with this feminist tale. Instead, Karen Walton and John Fawcett’s story remains quintessential viewing for horror aficionados.

Raw

You won’t find a more disturbing coming of age story than this cautionary tale of repression and repulsion. It is gross and haunting and cemented director Julia DuCournau as one of the top modern voices in horror. You won’t look at veterinarians the same ever again.

The Loved Ones

Wow, the lengths one would go to for their child. Another prom night debacle gets a bloody splash of visceral that wouldn’t be complete without a nail gun. This is a wild ride for sure that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Just when you think it can’t get even gorier, it does.

Picnic At Hanging Rock

This story of deception, fear, abuse, and metaphysical dangers is as heady as they come. The 1975 unwashed dreamscape from director Peter Weir is beautifully shot and meticulously paced to honor the source material. Amazon’s limited series starring Game of Thrones Natalie Dormer is slightly different but almost as good.