The first horror movie a kid ever watches can trigger two sorts of emotions — either instant happiness, excitement and gratification, or blatant fear, discomfort and never-ending night terrors. Wanting to watch horror movies at a young age is pretty natural; the constant warnings from parents to stay away from them is almost 100% guaranteed to make a child want to watch them. Prohibition creates desire, and when children hear from a parent that they shouldn't watch something, they're just more eager to try it. For many millennials, in the early to mid-2000s, the AMC (American Movie Classics) television channel was very popular for playing groundbreaking horror movies like John Carpenter's Halloween and any of the fun Nightmare on Elm Street movies; having to hunt down horror movies and their airtime or channels on TV was part of the secret thrill of growing up.
Nowadays, kids have it much easier. Instead of attempting to hide from parents (who always seemed to walk past the television screen like clockwork), present-day kids can now stream content for free from their phones and laptops without parents even noticing. A public service announcement — don't forget, millennials crawled, so Generation Z and all the kids today can walk. Kids know where to find some movies for free, or at least for a few bucks without having to sign up for a monthly streaming service, but if you don't, YouTube streams a wide range of popular horror content, along with movies to cheaply rent and other free movies to watch with ads. These movies are a part of YouTube's official initiative to add thousands upon thousands of movies from the past century available for rent or purchase, in addition to the free movies they are frequently putting up. These are some of the most important classic horror movies on YouTube, available for rent.
7 Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Met with endless amounts of controversy after its theatrical release, Night of the Living Dead sparked outrage due to the film's excessive portrayal of shocking violence and a Black male as its lead protagonist. Actor Duane Jones as Ben doesn't directly mention race during the film's duration, mainly because his character was initially written for a white male; however, his presence alone sends a powerful message, especially considering it was released the same year as Martin Luther King's assassination. In addition, the independent horror film was the first of its time to modernize the zombie subject, creating a world where an apparent apocalypse takes effect. As an influx of corpses abruptly leave the graveyard in pursuit of human flesh, a group of people take asylum in an abandoned Pennsylvania farmhouse as Ben, at first passing through town until he noticed the zombies attacking a local diner, attempts to keep everyone safe. This is actually one of the free movies on YouTube, thanks to the Public Domain.
6 Frankenstein (1931)
If any other Frankenstein fans ever pondered the theory that Frankenstein's creation was kind of attractive once resurrected, it's kind of because he was really just a sad, strong victim. His constant classification as "a monster" by other pivotal characters betrays the internal fear and unawareness he's actually experiencing being brought to life as a human-like experiment. The classic horror film centers on obsessive and distraught scientist, Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive), as he attempts to bring an experimental creature to life, assembled from a series of body parts of past deceased individuals. Frankenstein's experiment ultimately succeeds, resulting in the inimitable Boris Karloff who, confused and scared, quickly escapes into the countryside, wreaking havoc and instilling fear (to anyone who doesn't think he's hot, or at least sympathize with him, that is.)
5 Carrie (1976)
Carrie serves as a reminder to all high school bullies who believe it's ok to taunt their classmates, somewhere down the line it will catch up to you. In this spin-tingling adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel, introverted teen Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) faces layers of abuse at the hands of her school classmates, along with her religious mother (Piper Laurie) while at home. As a multitude of strange occurrences begin to happen around Carrie, she suspects that she must have supernatural powers. Things later become worse once classmate Tommy Ross (William Katt) invites her to the prom, as a set-up to further embarrass Carrie, the evening takes a sinister turn.
4 The Shining (1980)
Shout-out to all the men who regularly undergo a series of traumas just being a husband and father alone, but somehow still manage to keep it all together. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is not one of those men. The aspiring writer becomes a winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado as he attempts to overcome his writer's block, in Stanley Kubrick's classic The Shining. Settling in with his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), Jack becomes mentally tormented by a series of premonitions. Jack's writing falls flat as his visions become greatly disturbing, uncovering the hotel's horrendous secrets and falling into a homicidal spiral, terrorizing his family.
3 Psycho (1960)
Anthony Perkins plays Norman Bates, one of the most fascinating characters in the history of cinema, in Psycho. On the run after stealing $40,000 from her employer and traveling through the back roads to avoid the police, secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) stops for the night at the decrepit Bates Motel during a rainstorm, meeting its manager Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Throughout the film we see Bates' turbulent relationship with his mother, Norma Bates, who possesses split personalities. Psycho gained much attraction among its viewership due to the appalling nature of violence and sexual content for the time. Directed by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock, and most often noted as the biggest hit film of his career, the movie's events are loosely based on the real-life killings at the hands of Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein.
2 Hellraiser (1987)
Pinhead's charismatic and charming yet sinister presence is appreciated through the film's duration. As soon as Doug Bradley hits the screen, his presence and depiction of Pinhead is so enticing to the point where it's difficult to look away, in fear of missing any of his mystery and violence. The premise revolves around a paranormal puzzle box with the ability to summon the Cenobites, a group of sadomasochistic beings who cannot distinguish the difference between pain and pleasure. Most of its members, once human, have been disfigured and brainwashed into torturing human beings for the rest of eternity. Hellrasier somewhat enables viewers to look at these villains as victims themselves.
1 Dracula (1931)
Based on the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, the 1931 motion picture is still surprisingly enticing and smooth. The debonair Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) travels to London and resides in a remote castle, wreaking mass-chaos, sucking the blood from young beautiful women and turning them into vampires. Dracula eventually preys on the daughter of a prominent doctor Mina (Helen Chandler), and famed vampire-hunter Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) is called to put an end to the carnage taking place by Dracula. While Nosferatu solidified vampires in cinema history, Tod Browning's classic Dracula gave the character life and a sinister kind of romanticism, making him popular enough to still receive reboots today.