With the recently released Insidious: The Red Door, fans have another taste of the astral realm known as The Further. This dark dimension from the Insidious franchise is just one of many alternate realities, parallel universes, and demonic realms that have terrified fans in horror movies over the years.

These movies have proven especially disturbing to some fans, opening their minds to the possibility of so many otherworldly frights. Sometimes, the horror comes through exploring a dark parallel reality; other times, it’s a terrifying villain from another dimension. Classics like A Nightmare on Elm Street made the dream dimension a reality, while hidden gems like Coherence shocked fans with a multiversal crisis at a dinner party.

Updated November 10th, 2023, by Anthony Jeanetta. The success of Amazon Prime’s Totally Killer has brought time-travel horror movies and those about alternate dimensions into the spotlight. This list is updated to include more of the best horror movies about alternate dimensions or parallel universes.

15 The Void Is A Hair-Raising Throwback to 1980s Horror Films

The Void, released in 2016, is a throwback to horror films of yesteryear, like those from genre legends like John Carpenter or David Cronenberg. The movie begins with police officer Daniel Carter taking a bloodied man to the hospital after spotting him off a country road. From there, Daniel’s night only gets stranger as threats both inside and outside the hospital confront him.

In The Void, Carter must rally everyone available to defend it from a nefarious, knife-wielding cult that has surrounded them. Unfortunately for Daniel and the hospital's minimal staff, this creepy cult is only one of many threats. The partially abandoned hospital holds a dark secret that links it and the mysterious cult to a dangerous alternate dimension.

14 Last Night In Soho Explores A Frightening Parallel Reality

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While director Edgar Wright has dabbled with elements of the horror and thriller genres (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), he hadn't made a film that was purely in these genres until Last Night in Soho. The 2021 thriller follows Eloise, a fashion student new to London, who finds a room with an elderly landlord.

Eloise soon starts seeing visions of a parallel universe, set in 1960s Soho, through the eyes of an aspiring singer, Sandie (Ana Taylor-Joy). Unfortunately for both women, these visions rapidly descend into nightmares. Like the rest of Wright's filmography, every frame in Last Night in Soho is composed with a visual panache that matches the quality of any modern auteur. This dazzling direction results in one of the best parallel universe horror movies in recent memory.

13 Oculus Is As Emotionally Poignant As It Is Spooky

Before making dramatic horror series like the recently released The Fall of the House of Usher, Mike Flanagan made low-budget yet effective scary movies like Oculus. In Oculus, two siblings, Kaylie and Tim, return to their childhood home, where their parents died, in an attempt to clear Tim's name.

As with other Flanagan films, Oculus bases ties its frights to real-world horror. While the children are ostensibly reuniting to face down what Kaylie believes is a haunted mirror, the movie serves as an allegory for the helplessness of children experiencing domestic violence or any childhood trauma. This structure gives Oculus an emotional poignancy that matches the scares from the alternate dimension-opening haunted mirror.

12 A Demon From Another Dimension Haunts Sinister

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Sinister, from the dark mind of Scott Derrickson, is scientifically one of the scariest movies ever made. According to a 2020 study from Broadband Choices, Sinister raised the average viewer’s heart rate more than any other film tested that year. Starring Ethan Hawke as true crime author Ellison Oswalt, Sinister tracks Oswalt and his family’s move into a new home.

Sinister kicks into gear when Oswalt discovers a box of home movies in his new house's attic that is related to his latest subject, a serial killer whose suspected killings span decades. Oswalt eventually learns the killer is no man, but a pagan god named Bagul. Using supernatural manipulation, Bagul convinces children to kill their families before luring them into his dark alternate dimension to eat.

11 Hellraiser II Explored The Torturous Dimension Ruled By Pinhead And The Sadistic Cenobites

Clive Barker's Hellraiser featured the first appearance of the other-dimensional Cenobites, led by the terrifying Hell Priest known as Pinhead. Hellraiser II further explored the Cenobite's dark dimension accessed by the Lament Configuration puzzle box. This sequel featured the origin of one of the scariest horror movie villains and continued the hero's storyline from the first film.

In Hellraiser II, a doctor obsessed with the Lament Configuration forces Kirsty Cotton to open the puzzle box. This sequence allows fans of the horror series to get their first in-depth look at the Cenobite’s labyrinthine dimension of Hell. There, fans learn Pinhead isn’t the only horrifying monster in Hellraiser’s torturous dimension.

10 A Passing Comet Caused Parallel Realities To Merge Together During A Dinner Party In Coherence

Coherence, from director James Ward Byrkit, is a hidden horror gem that surprised many fans who didn’t know what to expect from the film. The movie focuses on a group of old friends who gather for a dinner party on the night a comet passes Earth. During the dinner, the friends share an unforgettable experience as a multiversal event traps them within several different parallel realities.

Coherence expands this multiversal scope even more by showing audiences other houses with parallel dinner guests who’ve also discovered their other selves. Coherence showcases the extremes humanity can go to when threatened in a mind-bending exploration of parallel timelines. While it isn’t the most horrific film for fans of parallel realities, it will shock new viewers nonetheless.

9 Event Horizon Briefly Teased A Hellish Alternate Dimension Aboard A Haunted Ship In Space

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Event Horizon, by director Paul W. S. Anderson, is a hair-raising horror movie that's also one of the best sci-fi movies from the '90s. The film follows the crew aboard a rescue ship searching for the titular Event Horizon, another spaceship that went missing seven years ago. When this rescue team arrives, they discover an abandoned ship. More importantly, every crew member begins to experience horrifying visions that tap into each individual's darkest regrets and fears.

The crew eventually learns that the Event Horizon was an experimental ship that used a wormhole device to test and utilize a faster means of space travel. Unfortunately for the original crew and the rescue team, this experimental engine opened a portal to another hellish dimension. Fans can see this ghastly reality briefly in the final cut of Event Horizon, but it was enough to torment the crews of both ships and every fan watching.

8 Silent Hill Is A Video Game Adaptation About A Town Connected To Multiple Dark Dimensions

Fans of the Silent Hill video game franchise have explored frightening dimensions across each entry in the hit series. So, it was exciting when movie fans got a taste of these other worlds in one of the best video game adaptations in 2006's Silent Hill. This adaptation explored the town of Silent Hill and its connections to multiple alternate dimensions.

In the Silent Hill movie, a woman looks for her missing daughter alongside a police officer who, during their search, discovers several versions of the titular small town as it shifts between dimensions. The mist-shrouded Fog World initially confuses their senses and gets the duo lost. These two find themselves in mortal danger in the nightmare dimension, Otherworld, home to monstrous creatures like the unforgettable Pyramid Head.

7 Poltergeist Opened The Door To A Dark Spirit Dimension That Unleashed Paranormal Horror

Poltergeist has some of the best behind-the-camera talent of any scary movie ever, as it was directed by horror auteur Tobe Hooper and produced by one of the greatest directors alive, Steven Spielberg. The original film follows a family moving into a new home in an empty housing development. They soon experience paranormal activity and discover a poltergeist in their house.

Poltergeist's titular ghost focuses its attention on the family's young daughter and eventually takes her through a portal into a spiritual dimension that exists outside the normal plane of reality. While fans didn't get to explore this mysterious reality in depth, its existence and the dark spirits residing within were enough to spook fans of haunted house films in an exciting new way.

6 The Phantasm’s Tall Man Was Able To Move Between Dimensions Which Forever Altered Him

The Phantasm franchise tells an ongoing story about a group's continuing battle against a dangerous mortician known as the Tall Man. The Tall Man is a powerful, inhuman being with an army of shrunken bodies and deadly spheres under control. The first film features a portal to a hellish alternate dimension, while later entries in the series further explore this realm and its connection to the Tall Man.

Phantasm's evil mortician was originally a man obsessed with learning more about death and the afterlife. He discovered an alternate realm he believed held secrets about these topics, only to discover it horrifically altered him upon entering it. The Tall Man then returns to his original reality and begins to claim undead victims to enslave in the dark realm. The franchise also explores alternate timelines and dimensions in later sequels.

5 Freddy Krueger Attacked His Victims In The Dream Dimension From A Nightmare On Elm Street

The paranormal serial killer Freddy Krueger first appeared in 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street. In that film, Freddy preys on teenage victims, attacking them in their dreams, which he can manipulate. In this other-dimensional realm of nightmares, Krueger is incredibly powerful.

Still, as the teens in A Nightmare on Elm Street eventually learn, if a dreamer can bring Freddy Kruger into the real world, he loses his ability to manipulate reality. Fans can further explore the Dream World in 1987's A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. The third entry in the franchise revealed that the dreamer could also develop their own powers to fight back against Freddy Krueger in his Nightmare World.

4 The Mist Depicts A Bleak Battle Against Lovecraftian Dimensional Monsters

Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption) put his own dark spin on a horror legend's story with his adaptation of Stephen King's The Mist. The movie kicks off with a dense fog enveloping a small town. This mist, which holds a terrifying secret, traps a group of survivors in the local grocery store. The survivors quickly realize the mist hides various deadly monsters from another dimension. Meanwhile, inside the store, a pack of religious extremists threatens to tear the group apart from within.

While The Mist explains the monsters and where they came from, the mist itself remains a mystery to fans. The movie and TV adaptations of the King story focus on the survivors' struggle with the monsters and each other. Still, the mist may seem familiar to fans of King's The Dark Tower franchise. In that series, the Todash Darkness, a monster-filled void between various dimensions, sounds much like The Mist.

3 A Writer Opened A Portal To A Dark Dimension In John Carpenter’s In The Mouth Of Madness

The work of H.P. Lovecraft inspired 1994's In the Mouth of Madness by legendary horror director John Carpenter. The film tracks a man named John Trent as he investigates the disappearance of a horror novelist. During his search, Trent finds himself in the fictional town from the author's novels, where he encounters its gruesome mutated citizens.

In the Mouth of Madness takes a turn when Trent discovers the author, only for him to reveal his books helped open a portal to the dark dimension filled with monstrous creatures known as "Old Ones." Trent attempts to stop the release of the final book as he struggles to maintain his sanity in an ever-shifting world that might not even be real. Ultimately, In The Mouth of Madness is one of the best horror movies about another dimension.

2 A Scientist Was Transformed Into A Monster When He Entered A Dark Dimension In From Beyond

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Director Stuart Gordon rose to fame with his twisted romp, Re-Animator, one of the most disturbing horror films of the '80s. He then reunited with his Re-Animator stars for 1986's From Beyond, based on a short story from H.P. Lovecraft. In the movie, two scientists create a device called the Resonator, which allows humans to achieve extrasensory perception. Unfortunately for these two, it also permits a dark realm of horror to gain access to their minds.

From Beyond's protagonist, Dr. Pretorious eventually ascends to another realm, where his mind expands, and he mutates into a terrifying new form. Meanwhile, his partner and others interested in the Resonator turn it on again, only to unleash even more monstrosities from a paradimension. The device affects everyone's mind it comes into contact with before ultimately changing their bodies, too.

1 A Man Works To Escape The Sunken Place In Get Out

Get Out, from writer and director Jordan Peele, is one of the strongest directorial debuts in recent memory. The former comedian turned auteur surprised audiences when Get Out, while featuring some funny moments, was as terrifying as almost any recent horror movie.

Get Out follows Chris, a young Black man, who accompanies his white girlfriend, Rose, to her parent's home in an affluent, suburban area. During the visit, Chris experiences a chain of unsettling moments that surpass the typical racial discomfort he expected. Eventually, Chris learns that Rose and her parents are stealing Black people's bodies and trapping their souls in an alternate dimension called the Sunken Place. Get Out is a taught thriller that's as scary as it is socially relevant, even six years later.