Numerous excellent horror films can effectively terrify their audience and become a box office success. Horror has always been a popular genre that excels with both horrific monsters and metaphorical, internal terrors. However, one of the most terrifying aspects of a horror flick is a dark cult.
One of the scariest revelations, not just in horror movies, is that the world is much bigger than one expects and that dark forces are pulling the strings. Theories about Illuminati and secret societies run rampant in the world, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that there are some excellent horror films that are fascinated with cults.
10 Rosemary’s Baby Turns The Beauty Of Pregnancy Into A Satanic Sacrifice
Rosemary's Baby is considered to be one of the best cult horror movies of its generation. Roman Polanski's terrifying picture examines the vulnerability of pregnancy but twists it into a Satanic ritual. It's terrifying to learn that the most trusted people in Rosemary's life are actually a part of a grander conspiracy.
Rosemary Woodhouse learns that her husband, her doctor, and whoever she turns to have already pledged their allegiance to dark forces. It's an awful, scary thought that reaches a fever pitch when Rosemary succumbs and accepts her fated role in all of this.
9 Eyes Wide Shut Reveals The Secret Forces That Control Society
Stanley Kubrick remains a revered name in cinema who triumphs in any genre that he tackles due to his meticulous attention to detail. Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick's final film, is a lucid dream that explores fidelity, trust, and the duality that exists in everyone.
Eyes Wide Shut has one of the most iconic cult sequences of all time when Tom Cruise's Bill Harford gains access to an elite group of socialites who indulge in hedonism and skirt civilization’s rules. Less is more with Eyes Wide Shut’s cult, who are led by the ominous "Red Cloak" and truly appear to pull the strings in society.
8 Midsommar’s Hårga Have Endured Through Painful Traditions
Ari Aster shook horror audiences to their cores with his debut feature film, Hereditary. However, his follow-up feature, Midsommar, is a much more haunted tale. Midsommar is a story about cleaning, empowerment, and beginning anew and it's the Pagan Hårga cult that is responsible for these revelations.
Every 90 years, the Hårga celebrate the Midsommar festival, a restorative exercise that involves human sacrifices and the ascension of a May Queen. The arrival of Dani Ardor and company happens to coincide with this important period of transition for the Hårga, which ends in a terrifying, twisted climax.
7 Starry Eyes Shows The Horrors Of A Hollywood Cult
Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer's Starry Eyes is a terrifying indictment of Hollywood that's become a cult hit since its release in 2014. Alexandra Essoe gives a terrific performance as Sarah, an aspiring actor who gets subjected to the casting couch and the many ulterior motives that drive the film industry.
Sarah proves her commitment to her craft when she agrees to a pact with Astraeus Pictures, an Illuminati-like cult who praises a demon of the same name that gets reborn through Sarah. Starry Eyes is a gruesome body horror movie with a poignant message behind it all.
6 Paranormal Activity 4 Unleashes The Midwives To Reclaim What’s Theirs
There are seven Paranormal Activity movies, with at least one more on the way. This found-footage horror franchise was a mainstay of the 2010s and it's a little surprising that this low-budget ghost story develops such an elaborate mythology over the course of its movies.
Paranormal Activity 4 isn't the only movie to capitalize on the Midwife witch cult, who become leading antagonists in the series, but many of the cult's scariest sequences take place in Paranormal Activity 4. The juxtaposition of these determined occultists in suburban areas becomes deeply eerie.
5 Eden Parish In The Sacrament Are Doomed From The Start
Ti West has returned to the horror genre in a major way with X, Pearl, and the upcoming final part of this stylistic horror trilogy, MaXXXine. The Sacrament is arguably West’s first mainstream movie and it cleverly disguises itself as a slick VICE documentary that’s presented through the found-footage format.
The film sees a limited camera crew infiltrate Eden Parish to retrieve a missing loved one, but what plays out is a haunting exercise in mind control and manipulation. The Sacrament mirrors the compliant members of Eden Parish, along with their charismatic “Father,” after the devastating events of the Jonestown Massacre.
4 V/H/S/94 Implores The Cult Of Raatma
The V/H/S found-footage horror anthology series found new life in 2021's V/H/S/94. The first segment, "Storm Drain," is the most memorable of the lot. V/H/S/94 follows a group of sewer dwellers who praise a rat-human hybrid cryptid that's known as Raatma.
The Cult of Raatma also appears to grow at a staggering rate. Beyond this one segment, the frame story for V/H/S/94 also involves a cult of individuals who thrive through videotapes as a form of reckoning for past sins.
3 The House Of The Devil Exploits Satanic Panic Fears For A Bloody Ritual
The House of the Devil’s effortless 1980s stylistic flourishes are meant to intentionally throw the audience back to a time when the Satanic Panic was in full swing. In The House of the Devil, a babysitting gig that seems too good to be true becomes a demonic ritual that coincides with the lunar eclipse.
What’s so upsetting about the Satanist cult in The House of the Devil is that they’re largely left a mystery. Their violent, senseless actions point toward the greater nervousness of the decade. Much like Rosemary’s Baby, The House of the Devil ends on a horrifying, heartbreaking note that implies a dark future for its characters.
2 Kill List Is A Terrifying Flick That Follows Two Contract Killers
Ben Wheatley has crafted several psychological folk horror films and Kill List is a slow-burn nightmare that culminates in a horrifying finale. Dread slowly builds as two contract killers try to carry out their mission and take out the names on the list, only to realize that sinister forces have employed them on the task.
These two killers know that they're being watched and controlled by cultists for most of the film, but these fears become a reality in the final act. At the end of Kill List, the killers are made the target of the cult's rituals and become morbid entertainment.
1 Martyrs Uses Extreme Pain As A Form Of Enlightenment
Martyrs, both the original French film by Pascal Laugier and its American remake, are extreme endurance exercises, but that’s exactly their point. There are many horror films from the early 2000s that delight in needless torture and violence.
Alternatively, Martyrs looks at a secret society that pushes young women beyond their breaking points because they believe that getting this close to death will trigger a form of enlightenment. It’s a macabre experiment all around and Martyrs shows that “Mademoiselle” and the rest of her willing participants also lead normal lives, which makes them even more terrifying.