High body counts tend to be a trademark of slasher and exploitation films, which are popular horror subgenres, but there are all kinds of movies with shocking death tolls. From crime tales like The Purge to zombie movies like Dawn of the Dead, a high tally makes perfect sense in the context of these stories. Add an apocalypse into the mix, and that could very well be the end of humanity entirely.
Some of the greatest high-body-count horror movies leave a lot to the imagination, while others revel in the bloody display. Regardless of viewer preference, there’s something to be said for horror movies that leave a trail of bodies in their wake that fans of the genre won’t ever forget.
Updated on March 28, 2025, by Arthur Goyaz: Most horror movies feature a high body count, but some films go to unbelievable lengths to depict catastrophic massacres – some of them leading to the end of all humanity. This list was updated to include more horror movies with high body counts and to reflect CBR’s current formatting standards.
15
A Town Falls Victim to Colossal Beasts in The Mist
50+ Kills
A day like any other breaks in the town of Bridgton, Maine after a heavy thunderstorm. Except for the thick mist that approaches, concealing all sorts of deadly, colossal beasts. A father and a son see no option but to seek shelter in a supermarket alongside other members of the local community.
Related
20 Underrated Horror Movies That Are Flawless From Beginning to End
Many horror films, though flawless, slip under the radar due to overshadowing by mainstream hits or limited marketing.
If the problem were solely the monsters out there, the characters in The Mist would’ve probably made it out alive. But humanity’s wicked nature causes an internal war to break out among the remaining survivors. Danger comes from all sides in the movie, and the result is an escalating kill count. As if that weren’t enough, The Mist ends on a devastating, hopeless note with a succession of events that will haunt viewers at night.
14
Us Might Be Jordan Peele’s Bleakest Horror Film
60+ Kills
Jordan Peele’s revolutionary film Us features a dark experiment that leads to a full-scale attack across the country. After a young girl discovers an abandoned underground facility filled with dark clones of humanity, she kicks off a violent uprising years later. The result is an impressive horror movie body count.
The Tethered initially target their doubles, who live on the surface, in a series of violent attacks. This raises the on-screen body count quite a bit, though the off-screen potential continues to climb as well. As each member of the Tethered successfully takes out their double, they move on to kill more people across the country while the survivors equally take out the Tethered.
13
The Belko Experiment Has Ordinary Workers Fighting for Their Lives
84+ Kills
Greg McLean directed 2016’s The Belko Experiment from a script written by the new head of the DCU, James Gunn. Employees arrive for work to discover they have been selected to take part in a dark experiment. Once the building is locked down, a disembodied voice lets everyone know they will have to kill their coworkers or die themselves until only one remains.
The Belko Experiment features a number of inventive kills as everyday office workers turn on each other. The experiment uncovers the monsters potentially hiding in the next cubicle. While the numerous kills within the office building earned The Belko Experiment‘s high body count, it’s further increased with the reveal that the same experiment was occurring at other sites as well.
12
30 Days of Night is an Action-Packed Vampire Movie
100+ Kills
30 Days of Night is one of the scariest vampire movies out there. The film is set in Barrow, a town in Alaska where the sun disappears for a whole month, attracting bloodthirsty creatures of the night. As a gang of vampires decimates the town’s inhabitants one by one, the sheriff and his wife unite forces the remaining survivors to strike back.
30 Days of Night is a horror-action mash-up filled with grisly violence. In one of the film’s most intense sequences, at least 40 Barrow citizens are annihilated by vampires in a single attack. The contrast between the white snow and the red of the bloodshed is as entrancing as it is chilling.
11
Slither Sees the Ruin of a Small American Town
100+ Kills
James Gunn wrote and directed another memorable horror sci-fi with a huge body count in 2006’s Slither. The cult favorite takes place in a small town, where an alien parasite arrives on a meteor. It quickly infects one of the town’s most influential residents before it starts to breed an even larger invasion force.
Slither features a number of incredibly gross kills as the alien slugs infect and take over their hosts. However, the town fights back and violently kills a number of hosts before they strike back. The final attack led by the town’s sheriff — played by cult favorite actor Nathan Fillion — takes out every single infected citizen and even features a record-breaking shot of dead bodies.
10
The Invisible Man is a Classic Horror Movie
105+ Kills
While it’s much more common for horror fans to see a movie with a high horror count in modern theaters, some classic films pushed the limits as well. 1933’s The Invisible Man introduces Dr. Jack Griffin, a scientist who creates a formula that makes him completely invisible. Thus is born one of Universal Studios’ earliest horror monsters.
Related
10 Amazing Horror Movies That Leave You With More Questions Than Answers
Effective horror is full of the unknown, drawing you in with fear and mystery. But some scary movies go all in, leaving viewers with more questions.
Griffin clothes himself in bandages in dark glasses when he wants to be seen, but removes them to commit a few diabolical murders to test his new form. The Invisible Man‘s body count skyrockets after the titular killer causes a train derailment, taking over 100 lives in one fell swoop.
- Release Date
-
November 3, 1933
- Runtime
-
71 minutes
- Director
-
James Whale
- Writers
-
Philip Wylie, Preston Sturges
9
Vampires Terrorize a Bar in From Dusk Till Dawn
130+ Kills
Robert Rodriguez directed the 1996 horror hit From Dusk Till Dawn, based on a script by Quentin Tarantino. The film follows a pair of murderous bank-robbing brothers as they take a vacationing family hostage and force them across the Mexican border. They spend the night in a Mexican trucker bar that is unknowingly run by a den of vicious vampires.
From Dusk Till Dawn features and mentions a number of kills before the group even reaches the bar. However, once the vampires trap the truckers and bikers inside the place, the carnage really kicks off. As vampires kill their victims, they turn and create more vampires who feed on more unsuspecting innocents. The survivors then have an escalating amount of vampires to confront throughout the long night.
8
The First Purge is the Franchise’s Bloodiest Movie
130+ Kills
2018’s The First Purge is the fourth film in the hit horror series. It’s a prequel that explores the beginning of the dark dystopian American event known as the Purge. 2016’s The Purge: Election Year racks up haunting numbers as well, but The First Purge comfortably outdoes the previous entry.
The First Purge follows the birth of the New Founding Fathers of America. The new government tests the Purge on Staten Island and offers money to anyone who’s willing to participate. The government outfits those who choose to purge with contact lens cameras, which serves to increase the number of brutal kills caught on video during The First Purge.
7
Dawn Of The Dead Follows the Downfall of Humanity at the Hands of Zombies
140+ Kills
While George A. Romero’s original Dawn of the Dead features a high body count as well, Zack Snyder’s 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead ups the threat level quite a bit. The remake features one of the scariest movie zombie outbreaks, which forces a group of survivors to barricade themselves inside a mall.
Almost any zombie film is going to have a high body count. However, Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead features incredibly fast and unrelenting zombies, as opposed to the usually slow Romero counterparts. Even without counting the sheer number of living undead in the film, the zombies and the survivors each tally up a number of kills as the living struggle to find a safe place in a dark new world.
6
Carrie Carries Out a Shocking Massacre at School
230+ Kills
Stephen King’s Carrie has been adapted to the big screen four times, but the 1976 version directed by Brian De Palma stands out as one of the best horror movies of all time. However, it is the 2002 adaptation that features the highest kill count with over 200 kills. The movie follows a bullied high school student with telekinetic powers who, after a humiliating prank on prom night, unleashes her vengeful instinct on her classmates.
Soaked in blood, enraged, and humiliated, Carries engages in a deadly killing spree without lifting a finger. With the power of her mind, she kills over 200 high school students and teachers when she starts a fire and locks everyone in there. Then she sets out on the street to hunt down the people who played the prank on her.
5
Brightburn Follows the Dark Side of Having Superpowers
274 Kills
2019’s Brightburn is a dark take on the iconic origin story of Superman. After an alien ship crashes in Kansas, a couple raises the infant they find inside as their own. When young Brandon Breyer reaches a certain age and finds the ship that brought him to Earth, it unleashes in him incredible alien abilities and dark thoughts of death and conquest.
Related
10 Most Powerful Horror Movie Villains, Ranked
The horror genre has produced a long list of memorable villains, many of whom are forces to be reckoned with.
Breyer creates a terrifying masked identity and begins testing his powerful abilities by taking out members of the town. Eventually, he turns against his own family. Brightburn is a dark superhero movie with jaw-dropping kills, showing how power can be both a gift and a curse.
- Release Date
-
May 24, 2019
- Runtime
-
90 Minutes
- Director
-
David Yarovesky
- Writers
-
Mark Gunn, Brian Gunn
4
Final Destination Sets Up the Formula of the Franchise
290+ Kills
The most distinctive aspects of the aforementioned Final Destination franchise are the multiple creative kills and a horrifying opening scene featuring a disaster premonition. The first movie opens with high student Alex Browning boarding a plane with his classmates before having a vivid vision of the plane exploding mid-flight. Alex manages to save himself and a few of his friends, but it doesn’t take long before Death comes looking for them.
It’s very symbolic that the Final Destination movie with the highest kill count is the film that opens the franchise. The plane explosion in the beginning leaves over 280 people dead, and with Death going after Alex and the other survivors, Final Destination‘s kill count almost reaches the 300 mark. Hopefully, Final Destination: Bloodlines will finally break the franchise’s record.
- Created by
-
Jeffrey Reddick
- First Film
-
Final Destination
- Latest Film
-
Final Destination 5
- Upcoming Films
-
Final Destination: Bloodlines
3
Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth
350+ Kills
While Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth may not be the best entry in the horror franchise, it is far from the worst. For horror fans looking for high body counts, the third Hellraiser surprisingly includes a few incredibly gory scenes that drastically increase the franchise’s kill count. The movie is centered around an erratic Pinhead, who’s determined to wreak havoc on the streets of New York.
Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth features a few flashbacks to the Vietnam War that racks up over 50 kills. However, it’s Pinhead’s unrestrained spree of violence after he’s freed from hell that really adds to the film’s body count. Pinhead proves he’s one of the most capable slasher villains when he decimates a packed nightclub, tallying nearly 250 brutal kills there alone.
2
Dude Bro Party Massacre III is an Outrageously Hilarious Horror Movie
4200+ Kills
Different from what its name suggests, Dude Bro Party Massacre III isn’t part of a franchise. Instead, the movie markets itself as a lost media that was banned in the 1980s, adhering to an old-fashioned filmmaking style and analog imagery. Dude Bro Party Massacre III has a raunchy flavor to it. It follows the absurd story of underdog Brent Chirino, who must climb the ranks of a fraternity to find out more about a serial killer nicknamed Motherface.
Dude Bro Party Massacre III features a number of deadly pranks that reflect the film’s baffling body count. Characters cause planes to crash and blow up entire dams, causing the deaths of thousands of people. It’s the kind of movie that shouldn’t be taken too seriously — its commitment to a genuinely self-aware approach to horror comedy borders meta-fiction, and that’s what makes it such a special hidden gem. It also happens to be the horror movie with the highest kill count of the past years.
1
Cabin In The Woods Takes Apocalyptic Proportions
All of Humanity
It might be surprising to some horror fans to see a movie like Cabin in the Woods sit so high above other iconic films. While Cabin in the Woods features impressive monsters and creative kills, it’s the shocking twist ending that potentially takes out every single person on planet Earth. The majority of the film sees a group of friends fighting against a dark government operation.
Related
10 Dumbest Decisions in Horror Movies
If characters only made smart decisions in horror movies, things would be boring. But, some choices are so dumb they’re actually frustrating.
The survivors eventually learn that the ancient organization sacrifices innocent people in the style of horror movies to fulfill an ancient pact with Eldritch monsters. When that pact goes unfulfilled, a giant smoldering hand rises out of the ground. It presumably ends the world and oblitearates all of humanity.
- Release Date
-
April 13, 2012
- Runtime
-
95 minutes
- Director
-
Drew Goddard
- Writers
-
Drew Goddard, Joss Whedon
