Sunday Special: The 10 Best Horror Movie Franchises

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

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Summary

The only thing Gilbert Cruz loves more than celebrating Halloween is watching scary movies. And between the classic horror franchises that span decades and the prestige original films of the current moment, he has seen hundreds of them. On today’s episode, Gilbert puts his knowledge to use in conversation with his fellow horror aficionados Jason Zinoman and Erik Piepenburg. They comb through a century of spooks, frights and screams to crown the Top 10 franchises in cinema history. Horror franchises discussed on this episode: “A Nightmare on Elm Street” “A Quiet Place” “Alien” “The Amityville Horror” “Candyman” “Child’s Play” “The Conjuring” “The Exorcist” “The Evil Dead” “Final Destination” “Friday the 13th” “Halloween” The Hannibal Lecter films “Hellraiser” “The Hills Have Eyes” “Insidious” “Jaws” “Night of the Living Dead” “The Omen” “Paranormal Activity” “Phantasm” “Poltergeist” “Psycho” “The Purge” “The Ring” “Saw” “Scream” “Terrifier” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” The Universal monster films “V/H/S”

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Gilbert Cruz and this is the Sunday special. I could not be more excited about today's
0:08.1	episode. Producers, cue the spooky music. I love Halloween. I love the spooky vibes. I love
0:19.6	candy. I specifically love like like, mini Heath bars.
0:23.8	But maybe more than all of that, I am obsessed with scary movies. And that is what we are talking about today.
0:31.0	Here with me is Eric Pippenberg. He is the horror movie columnist at the Times. Hi, Eric.
0:36.6	Hello, Gilbert.
0:42.9	And our first returning guest, what an honor, Jason Zineman, a critic at large and the author of the book, Shock Value, How a Few Eccentric Outsiders, Give Us Nightmares,
0:48.1	conquered Hollywood, and invented modern horror.
0:50.9	Why is this subtitle so long?
0:52.5	It's way too long.
0:53.3	I was young.
0:53.8	But I just sold the French rights. It's coming out in France.
0:59.2	Literally today, I sign the rights.
1:01.1	Zoot d'allor. Welcome, Jason.
1:04.4	Good to be here.
1:10.2	Okay. I brought the two of you on here for a very particular reason.
1:17.6	Today, we're going to come up with the definitive list of the greatest horror franchises in cinema history, according to us three.
1:27.6	We're going to make this list. We're all going to agree. We're going to get along. And then we'll all hug at the end. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. We'll say. I've got to keep some suspense, Gilbert. You're right. You're right. Okay. Before we jump into this task and it is a hearty task, I want to know how you all are feeling about the currency to horror movies.
1:47.3	Like how are we feeling about the currency of horror movies.
1:47.4	Like, how are we feeling about where the genre is right now in this year 2025?
1:54.4	Eric.
1:55.1	I'm feeling good about it.
	...

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