Thehorrorgenre is as versatile as it is unique. Despite being considered the most detached from other movie genres, it successfully encapsulates a fusion of other genres. Such as thriller, comedy, and most importantly, romance. The addition of romance elevates the experience of a horror film, whether used as a simple plot device or in a complete story arc. Featuring the best of both worlds: the lovely and terrifying, here are some of the best horror romance movies, ranked in no particular order.
Updated on September 4th, 2023 by Federico Furzan:This article has been updated with additional content to keep the discussion fresh and relevant with even more information and new entries.
13Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Anita “Needy” (Amanda Seyfried) is a quiet girl who is best friends with the extremely popular Jennifer (Megan Fox). When an encounter with a shady rock band turns Jennifer into a blood-sucking demon that targets men, it is up to Needy to stop Jennifer’s trail of blood, even if it means jeopardizing their unique bond.
Directed by Karyn Kusama,Jennifer’s Bodyhas recently been perceived in a brand new feminist light, despite the mountains of criticism it has dealt with before.Jennifer’s Bodywas previously mocked for its characters and is now being hailed for its inherent symbolism through gore and a very twisted sapphic relationship that transcends beyond just providing cheap thrills.
12Honeymoon (2014)
Before making the Fear Street trilogy for Netflix in 2021, Leigh Janiak made an indie horror film calledHoneymoon. Starring Rose Leslie and Harry Treadaway, the film tells the story of a couple who decide to go on their honeymoon to a remote cabin in the woods.
Quickly, their leisure trip becomes something else, as Bea starts behaving strangely, and Paul can’t find the reason why. When you finally find out why,Honeymoonbecomes an impressive genre-bending small film with a dramatic backbone that’s relevant up until the end when the truth is revealed, and Paul and Bea’s relationship faces the inexplicable.
11A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)
A Chinese Ghost Storyfollows a young debt collector named Ning Caichen (Tony Leung), who has no money and decides to spend the night at an abandoned temple. Unbeknownst to him, the temple is haunted by various demonic spirits and ghosts, in particular, the alluring Nie Xiaoqian (Joey Wong). Charmed by her beauty, yet too dense to interpret her seduction, Ning Caichen is unaffected by her tricks. Frustrated, Nie Xiaoqian finds herself falling for this ordinary man, despite being forever tied to the demon tree.
Directed by Ching Siu Ting, this Hong Kong film is a classic and the poster child for horror romance cinema. When it was initially aired, it captivated everyone’s hearts by seamlessly merging the realms of Chinese mythology and Wuxia, with simple and tragic romance. Despite numerous attempts to adapt and remake this story, no other work has come this close to maintaining the original spark of horror and innocent romance.
10Crimson Peak (2015)
Set in Edwardian England, the story follows Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), an heiress and aspiring author who, to her father’s dismay, falls in love with the elusive Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston). Despite many objections, the two get married and move to Sharpe’s home, a secluded mansion in the hills.
Stuck between strange in-laws and even stranger supernatural entities, Edith’s sanity is tested beyond its limits. Directed by the Academy Award-winning Guillermo del Toro, this gothic romance is a spooky cautionary tale laced with horror and mystery. With praise received for its grotesquely beautiful cinematography,Crimson Peakis an example of fusion horror at its finest.
9The Odd Family: Zombie On Sale (2019)
The film tells the story of a dysfunctional family that owns a gas station in a village. Man-deok (Park In-hwan) is a crotchety old man who is the father to three children: eldest Joon-geol (Jung Jae-young) who is married to Nam-joo (Uhm Ji-won), middle child and city boy Min-geol (Kim Nam-gil), and the eccentric youngest daughter Hae-geol (Lee Soo-kyung). When a strange young man (Jung Ga-ram) enters the village, everyone fails to see he is a zombie, leading to old man Man-deok coming up with a plan to make a profit by using him.
Trapping the zombie, the family sets up an elaborate scheme, while the lonely Hae-geol forms a romantic bond with Jjong-bi (the name she gives him). In a stunning directorial debut by Lee Min-Jae,The Odd Family: Zombie On Saleis the perfect blend of horror, absurdist comedy, and romance, packed within a two-hour time frame. Featuring an ensemble cast with incredible chemistry, the film breaks away from the formula of the typical zombie movie, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.
Related:The Best Cinematography in Horror Movies From the 1990s
8Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
In 1462, Vlad the Impaler (Gary Oldman) returns home from war to find that his wife Elisabeta (Winona Ryder) has killed herself, her soul being damned to hell. Overcome by grief, Vlad vows to avenge Elisabeta, giving in to the dark side and becoming an immortal. In 1897, Vlad, now referred to as Count Dracula, sees the photo of his solicitor Jonathan’s (Keanu Reeves) fiancée Mina (Winona Ryder) and believes she is the reincarnation of Elisabeta.
Thus follows a series of trials, tribulations, and deaths, as Dracula tries to reunite with his long-lost love. Directed by the Academy Award-winning Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather),Bram Stoker’s Draculapays homage to the 1897 novel with its creative liberties. Hailed as a cult classic in horror and romance, the film boasts incredible performances and does not hold back with its most important agenda: that the ruthless Dracula always had a heart.
7The Shape of Water (2017)
Once again, Guillermo del Toro with an incredible affinity to find love in the most inexplicable of places.The Shape of Watertells the story of a mute girl who works in a government facility where she detects something sketchy: one of the men in charge has brought a humanoid creature from South America and intends to weaponize the amphibian to fight in the Cold War.
Of course, Elisa finds a way to communicate and connect with the creature, and they end up falling in love. For a film that has a love scene between two different species,The Shape of Waterremains very sober, serious, and extremely compelling. It is also an extremely disturbing and violent film.
6Thirst (2009)
Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho) is a Catholic priest who volunteers for an experiment for a vaccine cure for a deadly virus. When the experiment goes wrong, Sang-hyun is the only survivor, but his life takes a supernatural turn when he finds himself craving human blood. Sang-hyun proceeds to volunteer at a hospital to quench his thirst, where he comes across Tae-ju (Kim Ok-bin), the wife of his childhood friend.
What starts as kindness becomes something more sinister as Sang-hyun struggles to hide his desire for her. Directed by the Cannes Award-winning Park Chan-wook (Old Boy),Thirstexplores the blurred lines between right and wrong, weaving its tale of romance into an otherwise gory horror movie. With stellar performances from the award-winning Song Kang-ho(Parasite)and Kim Ok-bin (The Villainess), the film is dark and moody, yet with a carnal innocence in its otherwise illicit affairs.
5Let the Right One In (2008)
Tomas Alfredson’sLet the Right One Inis, above all, an extremely beautiful film. Yes, it is a vampire film with an iconic and unnerving scene that involves children being beheaded, but at the core of the film, there’s a love story to be told. It tells the story of Oskar, an outcast who befriends a strange girl who’s just moved into the apartment next to him. Eli only lives with another man. But he’s not her father. She treats him badly.
Oskar begins noticing strange things about his new friend. Her movement is… improbable. And she can’t come inside his house without being invited. We know where this goes, right?Let the Right One Inis a riveting tale of love in the coldest of places as two children find themselves connected by their inability to cope with the outside world. Beyond gender, time, or rules, Oskar and Eli thrive.
4Warm Bodies (2013)
The story is told from the perspective of R (Nicholas Hoult), a young zombie with incredible taste in music. When he comes across a group of humans out on a scavenger hunt, he senses a strange, instant connection with Julie (Teresa Palmer). With the rule being to shoot every zombie in sight, Julie struggles to keep R safe from humans, while he tries his best to keep her safe from other zombies, igniting a tale of innocent love that knows no bounds.
Adapted from the novel of the same name by Isaac Marion, and directed by Jonathan Levine,WarmBodiesis like the light at the end of a horror tunnel. A tale of timeless romance in a world that has been destroyed by a zombie virus. The film offers redemption to the villain, an act of deliberate subversion that explores discrimination and love beyond the boundaries set by nature in a Shakespearean take on a classic horror film.
