Heeere’s a collection of iconic genre quotes!
While horror movies are best known for their masked slashers and paranormal activity, sometimes there's nothing scarier than a single, spine-shilling sentence coming out of the mouth of one of the characters. Victim or villain, some characters have uttered some of the eeriest lines that wound up becoming the film's catchphrase.
From some classic questions to spooky statements to wary warnings, some horror movie lines are forever quotable and will never be forgotten for how frightened they made the viewer feel that very first time they heard them.
Other than a knife, Ghostface's biggest weapon in Scream is an AT&T 3850, or at least a 1990s cell phone resembling it. The killer would use this phone to first call his victims, making conversation that included one, dire sentence.
While it may not be the scariest of quotes, Ghostface uttering the words, "What's your favorite scary movie?" led to a whole round of horror movie trivia that would result in the victim's death whether they won the game or not.
During their time at The Overlook Hotel, The Torrance family is met with plenty of haunting quotes, like The Grady Twins uttering, "Come play with us" and Danny's imaginary friend Tony continuously muttering, "Redrum, redrum, redrum."
But the scariest line of The Shining came from Jack Torrance himself when he barges his head through the chopped door, a crazed look in his eyes when he announces, "Here's Johnny!" While it's all of two words, the line – which was improvised by Jack Nicholson, as Showbiz Cheat Sheet reports – remains the most memorable from the Stephen King film.
The black-and-white monster classic Frankenstein was one of the films that launched the horror genre, telling the story of Dr. Frankenstein of the creation of his monster. And after all of Dr. Frankenstein's hard work pays off, he exclaims a simple phrase in both disbelief and celebration.
When the monster awakens on the table, Dr. Frankenstein jumps for joy over his success, repeating, "It's alive! It's alive!" This line turned into a horror classic which, while not necessarily scary, kicks off Frankenstein's monster's rampage.
Freddy Krueger is known for his wise-cracking one-liners throughout A Nightmare on Elm Street, but it's a warning given by the famous final girl Nancy Thompson that became a memorable quote from the slasher.
When a razor-handed killer is on the loose in dreamland and your life depends on whether or not you stay awake or doze off, the most frightening thing someone could say to you is, "Whatever you do, don't fall asleep."
While the phrase, "You'll float, too," seems to be Pennywise's mantra in It, it's Georgie's voice that hollers the famous phrase. When Bill is lured to the flooding basement by Georgie's presence, he finds his deceased brother standing in the water where he repeats those cryptic words over and over as his young voice turns monstrous.
In a movie filled with red balloons and children's corpses hovering around a sewer, the line "You'll float, too" best fits Pennywise's threat of luring children in and then devouring them in order to fuel his murderous entity.
Games play a big part in horror films, and in the Saw franchise, games are taken to a whole new deadly level. Once the victims discover their surroundings, Jigsaw will appear on a screen and his muffled voice will state, "I want to play a game."
There's nothing scarier than realizing you've been kidnapped and your captor voices the words, "I want to play a game," forcing your mind to race with thoughts of what exactly this game is, and how you can win.
When serial killer Charles Lee Ray transports his soul into a children's doll, he speaks plenty of phrases a Good Guy doll doesn't typically say. But of all the eerie things Chucky says in Child's Play, the creepiest of all is one said by the Good Guy doll.
When the doll isn't introducing himself and asking Andy if he wants to play, another phrase he says is, "I'm your friend to the end." What's normally a sweet sentiment turns sinister when you know an end may be in sight.
Psycho may be best remembered for its horrifying shower scene, but it served up an ominous quote said by the film's villain Norman Bates. After overhearing a fight between Norman and his mother, Marion suggests he put her "someplace," causing Norman to go on a rant about mental institutions.
As Norman goes on and on about "mad houses" and his mother's spiraling, he calmly says to Marion, "We all go a little mad sometimes," foreshadowing his impending breakdown that leads to him killing her.
Poltergeist is creepy enough without ominous, spine-chilling quotes, but throw in a two-word phrase said by a little girl and you've got yourself a horror movie you can't watch with the lights off.
It's when the television goes static and the ghosts fly out in front of a mesmerized Carol Ann that she turns to her parents and announces, "They're here…" This phrase not only spooks in the film, but has been quoted in several other works for its ability to unnerve the viewer.
Of all the quotable lines in horror films, it's Cole Sear's four-word phrase in The Sixth Sense that wins for being the absolute scariest. While talking to his psychologist, Cole finally admits his secret, revealing in a choked whisper, "I see dead people."
The concept of one seeing dead people is scary enough, but when you've got a little boy uttering those words to who we later find out is a dead man, it makes for the most chilling line to be said in a horror film.
Ashley Amber is a Senior List Writer and Peer Mentor at Collider. Ashley also writes for MJ's Big Blog and The DIS, as well as authored a self-published fantasy/romance series of novelettes, and made her poetry debut in 2021's LGBTQIA+ anthology Deviant: Chronicles of Pride by InkFeathers Publishing. As a former pro ballroom dancer, when she's not writing, you can find Ashley on Youtube and TikTok where she posts dance videos featuring her own choreography and tutorials.
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