The 50+ Best Horror Movies About Hospitals & Mental Asylums
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- 1Heather Langenkamp, Patricia Arquette, Craig Wasson
Widely regarded as the best entry in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors continues the story of Nancy Thompson and introduces young Kristen Parker as they struggle to survive against the never-ending wrath of Freddy Kruger. Centering the film in a mental hospital was utterly brilliant as it gave every character in the film reason to doubt what our protagonists were saying. A man is coming to attack them in their dreams? Doesn't sound like something any rational person would say, so why believe them? This perfect back-and-forth helps turn this stereotypical slasher into a classic paranoid thriller that still manages to have all the bloody charm of its predecessors.
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- 2Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cyphers
The sequel to John Carpenters' revolutionary horror blockbuster Halloween, Halloween II continues the journey of Laurie Strode and The Shape mere moments after the finale of its predecessor, with Laurie hiding from her haunted killer in a hospital. The decision to set Halloween II in a hospital, while at first seeming a bit odd, was an absolutely genius move by Carpenter. A logical and rational location, Laurie was battled and bruised so the hospital marked the ultimate battleground for the two legends of horror to duke it out. The film takes full advantage of its location, giving some of the franchise's most beloved and adored kills thanks to the tools of the trade.
More Halloween II
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- 3Peter Mullan, David Caruso, Stephen Gevedon
When an asbestos cleaning crew picks up a job in an abandoned mental hospital, they soon find out that this haunted hospital has shocking and vile secrets that are coming back to life in the most terrifying and masochistic ways. Session 9 is a masterclass on how to properly make an insane asylum feel real and utterly terrifying in film thanks to a superb sense of realism. Filmed through a gritty, almost cheap lens, audiences nearly forget that they are watching a movie, as Session 9 begins to feel more like forbidden-found footage rather than a big-budget blockbuster. Utterly nerve-wracking from start to finish, Session 9 is undoubtedly one of the realist and scariest haunted asylum movies in history.
- 4Sean Rogerson, Juan Riedinger, Mackenzie Gray
Desperate to find any semblance of the paranormal in the real world, a group of foolish reality television hosts locks themselves in a haunted psychiatric hospital, and soon find terrors they wouldn't have in their worst nightmares. Rapidly gaining cult status and being regarded as one of the most chilling and haunting films of the 2010s, Grave Encounters feels so eerie thanks to a profound sense of realism. Shot in an actual mental institute, the Riverview Hospital in British Colombia, the film feels almost too real for its own good, giving audiences an utterly horrifying experience.
- 5Halle Berry, Robert Downey, Charles S. Dutton
A beautifully dark and twisted psychological thriller, Gothika follows the plight of a woman currently instituted in a mental institution with no semblance of her memories as she must figure out how to both escape and uncover the truth as to why she is institutionalized. Often lumped into the category of “trashy thriller,” Gothika relishes the absurdity of its premise and utilizes its spooky mental hospital to perfection. Using sleazy and absurd doctors in the hospital to only further instill something is wrong and the location of the film feels almost like a battleground, one audiences desperately want to see their protagonist get out on top of.
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- 6Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben KingsleyIn the chilling mystery-thriller Shutter Island, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is dispatched to an asylum set on a remote island, along with his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo). Their mission is to investigate the unexplainable disappearance of a murderess who was a patient there. As they delve deeper into the case, secrets as murky as the surrounding waters begin to surface. The film, directed by Martin Scorsese, weaves a complex narrative that keeps viewers guessing until its final moments. The atmospheric setting and top-notch performances are notable aspects of this gripping cinematic experience.More Shutter Island
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- 7Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Kenneth Cranham
Following in the footsteps of many beloved horror franchises before it, Hellbound: Hellraiser II drastically changes the location of the franchise to a mental hospital where a new patient claims terrible, vile, and masochist creatures killed her family. Of course, the audience knows she is telling the truth, but attempting to convince a hospital full of doctors who would do anything but believe you is a thrilling and wonderful way to keep the threat of Pinhead and the Cenobites alive. The insane asylum isn't just set dressing either, as it gives way to some of the most interesting and horrifying imagery in the series, with blood-written messages and manic patients adding to the dread of what is going to unfold.
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- 8Kate Beckinsale, Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess
A classic tale of forbidden love, Stonehearst Asylum tells the tale of a Harvard Medical School graduate who falls helplessly in love with a patient at a mental institution, only to realize she is locked away for a reason. A fascinating twist on the typical mental hospital movie, Stonehearst Asylum feels like a gothic romance more than a straight horror story, but it is in the shocking twists and turns that it thrives. The said mental hospital playing the perfect background, soon audiences realize that nothing is quite as it seems, and locked behind these walls, you can't always trust the things you see.
- 9Elizabeth Banks, Emily Browning, Arielle Kebbel
While The Uninvited may not be the stereotypical scary asylum movie, it blends together elements of the horror subgenre with the classic 2000s-era horror charm fans expect to deliver a unique and interesting story. When Ann returns home after spending time in a psychiatric facility following her mother's tragic death to uncover his father is dating his mother's nurse, she is suddenly visited by the ghost of her mother who warns of nefarious deeds. The idea of having our main protagonist clinically insane while also dealing with ghosts makes us doubt anything they say, but as time passes on in The Uninvited, audiences can't help but begin to wonder if maybe, just maybe, she is right.
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- 10Amber Heard, Lyndsy Fonseca, Danielle Panabaker
The last feature film from horror master John Carpenter, The Ward follows a troubled young woman forced into a mental hospital after burning down a local farmhouse. Wonderfully using the paranoid angle throughout, audiences are forced to watch the struggles of a mentally ill person as she dives deeper and deeper into madness. With an unreliable narrator, audiences are unsure of what to believe, as everything everyone says in this hospital seems like it could be a lie. Carpenter uses his location of an insane asylum wonderfully to invoke a sense of doubt in every character right away, and down to the rolling of the credits, fans still don't quite know who or what to believe.
- 11Calista Flockhart, Richard Roxburgh, Elena Anaya
Mixing creepy hospitals, terrifying ghosts, and helpless children is a surefire way to get any horror fan interested, and Fragile manages to use all of these elements to create an utterly terrifying nightmare. The plot is fairly simple, a nurse takes a job at a hospital for children, and strange things being to happen, and while horror fans have heard this story dozens of times before, Fragile manages to keep things fresh and entertaining with a hauntingly gorgeous environment and terrifying characters. Showcasing some truly shocking and vile imagery, the film makes the audience feels as helpless as the children in the hospitals by creating a tense, painful, and spine-chilling environment.
- 12
The Invisible Man
Elisabeth Moss, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Aldis HodgeAfter staging his own suicide, a crazed scientist uses his power to become invisible to stalk and terrorize his ex-girlfriend. When the police refuse to believe her story, she decides to take matters into her own hands and fight back.More The Invisible Man- #129 of 396 onThe Best Horror Movies Of All Time
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- 13George C. Scott, Ed Flanders, Brad Dourif
Set 15 years after the original genre-bending film, The Exorcist III follows an investigation of grisly murders that leads police to a psychiatric hospital where strange, demonic, and otherworldly events are transpiring. Arguably the scariest film on this entire list, The Exorcist III is the blueprint for making an insane asylum movie the absolute scariest it can possibly be. With an eerie and haunting playground, the film relishes its ability to make audiences uncomfortable by showcasing some bizarre and haunting imagery. While the entire film doesn't take place in the mental hospital, some of the best scenes in horror history are all showcased within their white walls.
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- 14Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Anthony Michael HallThe nightmare isn't over as unstoppable killer Michael Myers escapes from Laurie Strode's trap to continue his ritual bloodbath. Injured and taken to the hospital, Laurie reunites with Tommy Doyle, the boy she was babysitting on the night Michael began his reign of terror. As Laurie continues to fight through the pain, Tommy leads an angry mob of vigilantes to rise up against Myers and destroy the evil once and for all.More Halloween Kills
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- 15Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson
One of the most bizarre, haunting, and confounding films released in the 2000s, The Jacket is a wicked and winding journey of the human condition and insanity in the minds of a sane person. Sentence to spend time in a mental hospital after being found on the scene of a murder, Jack Starsk discovers he can travel to the future and investigate his strange fate while never truly leaving the horrors of the mental hospital. A film that needs to be seen to be believed, the mental hospital aspects of the story are some of the most painful and gut-wrenching as audiences are forced to see devastating treatments unfold on our titular character, making his quest for answers all the more potent.
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- 16Charlie Shotwell, Lili Taylor, Max Martini
Eli, the titular character of the film, has a rare autoimmune disorder and is sent to a special experimental clinic for treatment, when suddenly he begins to feel a supernatural presence, or does he? The 2019 horror thriller is part hospital horror movie and part haunted house movie, and while it may not be the finest work of art, it does one fascinating job getting under audiences' skin and making them doubt what is real. All the terrifying events revolving around this special experimental clinic make viewers suspicious if something more nefarious isn't afoot, and as the paranoid thoughts enter the mind, only more bizarre events begin to unfold.
- 17Richard Harmon, Leanne Lapp, Sean Rogerson
The follow-up to the smash 2010 hit Grave Encounters, Grave Encounters 2 manages to find a way to introduce an entirely new cast of dumb characters into the same psychiatric hospital where the events of the first film unfolded, and this time ramp the danger to eleven. Audiences know the danger that is held in the walls of this stark insane asylum, and part of the fun of watching this film is seeing new eyes uncover the danger for themselves. Filmed in the same found footage style as its predecessor, the film is again given a sense of realism and the enhanced effects make the world feel all the more real.
- 18Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs, Mia GothA Wall Street stockbroker (Dane DeHaan) travels to a remote location in the Swiss Alps to retrieve his company's CEO (Harry Groener) from an idyllic but mysterious wellness center. He soon suspects that the miraculous treatments are not what they seem. His sanity is tested when he unravels the spa's terrifying secrets and finds himself diagnosed with the same curious illness that keeps all of the guests there longing for a cure.
- 19Sam Worthington, Lily Rabe, Stephen Tobolowsky
A mind-bending thriller that will leave audiences' heads spinning, Fractured tells the tale of a man who checks his wife and daughter into the hospital, and after falling asleep awakens to the knowledge that he never had a family checked in at all. While the film isn't necessarily scary in the jump-scare and scream sense, the feeling of dread and anxiety rising when hearing your family doesn't exist is chilling to the bone. The vast majority of the film takes place in a hospital, and the film uses audience's unease and predetermined fear of the location as a wonderful backdrop to unwind this chilling tale.
- 20Sosie Bacon, Jessie T. Usher, Kyle GallnerAfter witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can't explain. As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.More Smile
- 21Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Jay Pharoah
While it may be remembered more so for its strange “filmed on an iPhone” gimmick, Unsane is an utterly brilliant and masterful trip down insanity and the demons in our own heads. Sawyer Valentini is working at a mental hospital, but when her new facility begins to question her own sanity, she unwittingly signs in for a 24-hour hold which seemingly never ends. The journey to find out if our protagonist is actually insane or if she is part of a more nefarious plan is played out magnificently by Steven Soderbergh, and Claire Foy gives the performance of a lifetime in a shocking, disturbing, and terrifying insane asylum.
More Unsane - 22Barbara Hershey, Ron Silver, George Coe
A horrifying case of hysteria or a demonic presence looking to accomplish the most heinous of acts, The Entity thrives as a horrifying paranoid thriller that will keep audiences guessing until the credits roll. After being sexually assaulted by someone, or something, Carla Morgan reaches out for psychiatric help to uncover what is happening to her. An uneasy and stomach-churning watch, The Entity deals with elements of sexual assault and psychological trauma viewed through the eyes of a paranormal film that will send shivers down viewers' spines. A wonderful twist on the traditional insane asylum movie, the film gives viewers every reason to trust and believe our protagonist, and the doctors in the film want to believe, but they simply can't, delivering a heartbreaking tale.
- 23Milla Jovovich, Will Patton, Elias Koteas
Widely viewed as one of the scariest films of the 2000s, The Fourth Kind takes a deep and devastating look at abductions and the realization that we might not be alone in this vast universe. An alien abduction film is always incredibly unique as Hollywood rarely deals them out, but putting them in the guides of a realistic and psychological terror was incredibly unique to this film. Witnessing the deep trauma that falls upon individuals as these nightmarish events unfolds is utterly devastating, and being right in the doctor's chair will undoubtedly send shivers down the spines of even the most hardcore horror fans.
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- 24Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold, Heidi von PalleskeElliot (Jeremy Irons), a successful gynecologist, works at the same practice as his identical twin, Beverly (also Irons). Elliot is attracted to many of his patients and has affairs with them. When he inevitably loses interest, he will give the woman over to Beverly, the meeker of the two, without the woman knowing the difference. Beverly falls hard for one of the patients, Claire (Geneviève Bujold), but when she inadvertently deceives him, he slips into a state of madness.More Dead Ringers
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- 25Stephen Dorff, Vanessa Grasse, Sam Strike
The origin of one of the greatest horror characters of all time, Leatherface introduces the titular character long before his Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a child held in a mental hospital on a mission to escape. The film offers an incredibly interesting point of view, as we are following these utterly despicable characters locked in even worse environments. While the actual mental hospital in question is only in the first act of the film, the effects of it way heavily on the minds and souls of each character until bitter and terrifying realizations begin to unfold.
- 26Peter Cushing, Britt Ekland, Herbert Lom
An utterly bizarre and mystifying experience, Asylum is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma that will melt the minds of all who view it. Following a young doctor as he interviews at a local mental hospital, Asylum begins relatively normal but ventures into the absurd in a hurry. The titular Asylum plays a massive role in the unnerving story of uncovering who are patients and who aren't as the halls seem to come alive and warp perception until even the viewers think they may be the ones losing their minds. An utterly original and wonderful film, getting through it without having your own nervous breakdown will be quite the accomplishment.
More Asylum - 27Lee Sin-Je, Lawrence Chou, Yut Lai SoAfter 18 years of blindness, 20-year-old violinist Wong Kar Mun (Lee Sin-Je) regains her vision when she undergoes a corneal transplant. She's overjoyed with the procedure, but Mun's elation dissipates when she begins experiencing ghostly encounters. Desperate to discover why she now sees ghosts, Mun turns to a psychologist, Dr. Wah (Lawrence Chou), who believes the new corneas are causing the problem. When Mun and Wah travel to her cornea donor's hometown to investigate, her symptoms worsen.More The Eye
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- 28Tenika Davis, Kristen Harris, Dean ArmstrongWrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings is a 2011 American horror film written and directed by Declan O'Brien and the fourth installment in the Wrong Turn film series. The film serves as a prequel to the previous three films. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 25, 2011.
- 29Doug Jones, Richard Herd, Tim RussThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 2005 American independent film, and a remake of the 1920 silent film of the same name. It was directed by David Lee Fisher and released in the U.S. at the ScreamFest Film Festival on October 22, where it won three prizes - the Audience Choice Award, Best Cinematography and Best Special Effects.
- 30
Phobias
Alexis Knapp, Lauren Miller Rogen, Charlotte McKinneyPhobias is a 2021 American horror thriller anthology film directed by Camilla Belle, Maritte Lee Go, Joe Sill, Jess Varley, and Chris von Hoffmann. Five dangerous patients, suffering from extreme phobias at a government testing facility, are put to the ultimate test under the supervision of a crazed doctor and his quest to weaponize fear.
