10 Horror Movies That Got Scarier YEARS Later

These horror films only got more terrifying with age.

By Jack Pooley /

The passage of time is a funny thing with how it relates to cinema - it can end up making some films look howlingly dated in record time, while others end up inexplicably ageing like the finest of wines.

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And horror is an especially interesting beast in this regard. It's incredibly common for horror films to fumble the test of time due to poorly aged effects and social mores that are unpalatable to modern audiences.

But at the same time, there are those rare horror films which actually become scarier with time.

Perhaps they tap into an aspect of society which has only become more relevant years or decades later, or maybe their aged visuals actually only enhanced the spooky, lived-in feel of the entire movie.

And so, inspired by this recent Reddit thread on the very subject, here are 10 horror movies that somehow managed to get scarier years later.

From grotty classic horrors that only got grottier with time, to those which clearly foresaw where the societal winds were blowing, these horror films have all become more impressively relevant - and terrifyingly so - as the years have come and gone...

10. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is one of the greatest horror movies of all time, and unquestionably one that actually benefits from its scuzzy, low-rent production values.

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The grotty central location, ultra-grainy 16mm film stock, and unvarnished performances contribute to a movie that truly feels less like a work of cinema than a grotesque curiosity we weren't ever supposed to see.

It is perhaps cinema's quintessential "you'll want to shower after watching this movie," and in an era where even low-budget modern horror films have relatively sharp, polished visuals, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre feels like an artefact from another time.

It's a rarest instance of a film whose garishness only enhances its effectiveness, and so one can imagine that when horror fans watch it 50 years from now, they'll find it even more discomfortingly off-piste than we do now, if that's even possible.

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