The film industry prides itself in its ability to not just create engaging movies, but to craft projects that the audience wants to see multiple times. There are many factors that can make a movie more rewatchable. However, horror movies have become extremely popular in this regard due to the twists, scares, and surprises that so often dominate the frightening.
There's an extra level of invincibility that the audience feels when they rewatch a horror movie and are privy to its tricks. There are other times where a horror film throws so much at the viewer that it simply needs to be seen more than once to be fully understood. Several horror movies operate at their very best when the audience is experiencing them for a second or third time.
10 Us Lays Its Brilliant Bread Crumbs Out For The Audience To Discover
Jordan Peele is quickly becoming one of the most exciting filmmakers in the horror genre. His ability to pair together terrifying ideas with prescient social commentary culminates in incredibly powerful horror movies. Peele's second film, Us, crafts a more complex story that lends itself to multiple viewings.
Us presents a harrowing premise where a revolution takes over the Earth, and endless doppelgängers rise to the surface to rebalance the karmic scales. Us has haunting cinematography and unnerving performances, but there are so many little hints to what's going on that can only be properly appreciated on a rewatch.
9 Cabin In The Woods Is A Subversive Genre Love Letter To Horror
One of the most exciting things about modern horror movies is how they can embrace the past and subvert expectations. Cabin in the Woods is a stylistic delight that initially paints itself as an Evil Dead-esque horror romp in the wilderness.
Cabin in the Woods progressively pulls back the veil and reveals itself to have an infinitely larger scope that's guaranteed to please hardcore horror fans. Cabin in the Woods is deeply enjoyable, but subsequent viewings allow the audience to properly take in the rampant chaos. There's something new to notice on each rewatch.
8 It's Easy To Get Lost In The Blair Witch Project The First Time Around
The horror genre has come a long way since the late 1990s and early 2000s, but some movies from the time are still influential on the genre. The Blair Witch Project is one such foundational movie that is largely responsible for the low-budget boom of found-footage horror that's followed and remains popular to this day.
The Blair Witch Project completely embraces its "factual" presentation and hides the fact that it's a piece of fiction. The Blair Witch Project is such a visceral experience the first time that it's watched that it's easy to get lost in it all. A subsequent rewatch makes it easier to appreciate the movie's full depth.
7 The Sixth Sense's Twist Turns Rewatches Into A Treat
One of the most obvious ways to add more value to a movie is with a clever twist. M. Night Shyamalan has had a successful, albeit polarizing, career that sometimes gets reduced purely to the twists that conclude his stories.
The twists can weaken many of Shyamalan's movies and make audiences not want to revisit them, but the opposite occurs with his magnum opus, The Sixth Sense. The storytelling in The Sixth Sense is so precise that its big reveal almost seems painfully obvious in retrospect. It's a completely different movie on a rewatch.
6 Scream Becomes A Deeper Movie When The Audience Knows The Killer's Identity
The Scream franchise is responsible for the rejuvenation of slashers during the 1990s and 2000s, as well as a more self-aware tone to horror films. The Scream movies are extremely satisfying on a horror level, but also have so much to say on the state of the genre, sequels, and franchises in general.
Each of the movies in the series operates as satisfying whodunnits regarding the killer's (or killers) identity. This, in turn, makes any rewatches much more fun when the audience knows who is responsible for this carnage and can better trace their actions.
5 Last Night In Soho's Trippy Bifurcated Narrative Is Easier The Second Time Around
Edgar Wright is a filmmaker who just oozes cinema out of his pores. Each of his movies are wildly different genre celebrations that demonstrate such a passion and understanding of the medium. Last Night in Soho, Wright's latest movie, is also his scariest movie, and the director embraces classical Giallo sensibilities with his time-displaced tale.
Last Night in Soho has a heft twist that will immediately make the audience want to watch the movie again to look for clues. However, the horror film is so visually aggressive that it's almost impossible to fully appreciate the cinematography on the first watch.
4 Paranormal Activity 3's Hopelessness Is More Palpable On A Rewatch
The Paranormal Activity movies arrived at the perfect time for the horror genre, and they became a yearly tradition that helped push the found-footage genre to some impressive places. An intricate story gets told across the Paranormal Activity franchise, many of which end in bleak ways that connect the dots to previous installments.
Paranormal Activity 3 is the most successful in this regard due to its prequel nature and how much it manages to set up in the other Paranormal Activity films. The movie is even more effective once the audience knows what's in store for poor Katie and Kristi.
3 Ready Or Not Rewatches Make It A More Valuable Character Study
Horror has seen a wealth of home invasion and hunt movies dominate the genre for the past decade. Ready or Not plays into the era's reputation with these types of films, but then radically spins the structure on its head as Samara Weaving's Grace gets indoctrinated into a very unorthodox family.
A massive turn at the end of the movie strengthens the Ready or Not's story on the second go. Samara Weaving's performance and character development are so captivating, and it's hard not to constantly watch her and every single one of her micro-gestures on a second viewing.
2 Saw's Elegant Simplicity Grow Stronger Once Its Secrets Are Revealed
The Saw franchise dominated the 2000s and helped with the proliferation of a very violent and extreme new era of horror. There's still strength in the Saw brand, and the movies pride themselves in twisted conclusions that often push for a recontextualized rewatch.
Accordingly, there's additional value in the rewatch of each Saw sequel, but the original becomes an even more sublime experience. The first Saw is a masterpiece in minimalism, but there are still big secrets present that make the movie even more enjoyable when the audience is in on it all.
1 Lost Highway Is A Confounding, Surreal Experience That Needs To Be Finished First
David Lynch is such a unique and surreal auteur that his trademark brand of weirdness has even become its own "Lynchian" subgenre of storytelling. Lynch has zero interest in spoonfeeding his audience, which means that each of his esoteric cinematic experiments benefits from a rewatch.
Lost Highway is one of Lynch's most challenging and aggressive features. It's a Möbius strip of a horror film that's nearly impossible to unpack on the first watch, but it deserves to be started over again as soon as it's over. Lost Highway is much easier to understand when the audience has some idea of where it's all headed.