What is the best horror film set in New York?
- Rosemary’s Baby
- American Psycho
- Scream 6
- Amityville Horror
- Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
- Cloverfield
- Get Out
- Jacob’s Ladder
A good starting place might be the 1968 psychological horror film Rosemary’s Baby, hailed as “the best horror movie set in New York” by The Hard Times.
The award-winning film, based on Ira Levin’s 1967 novel of the same, stars Mia Farrow as an expectant wife living in Manhattan who begins to suspect that her neighbors are members of a Satanic cult who have sinister plans for her baby.
It was directed by Roman Polanski, whose pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate, was murdered in the Hollywood Hills alongside four friends by members of the Manson Family in August 1969.
Considered by many to be the greatest horror film of all time, Rosemary’s Baby made over $33 million worldwide at the box office.
The movie received several Golden Globe Award nominations, including best supporting actress for Ruth Gordon, which she won. It also snagged an Edgar Allan Poe Award for best motion picture.
“After seeing this movie for the first time tonight, I can tell you that this is, without question, one of the greatest classic horror films of all time,” reads a YouTube comment on the movie’s official trailer.
Another commenter praised Polanski for creating what they described as “the most positively inescapably claustrophobic prisons” they’d ever seen on film.
“I mean, it’s New York City. It’s no haunted house, creepy forest, or abandoned asylum and yet it just feels like she’s trapped, and you’re trapped with her,” they wrote.
Rosemary’s Baby is available for streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video.
Other spooky flicks set in the Empire State include:
- American Psycho (2000)
- Scream 6 (2023)
- Amityville Horror (1979)
- Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
- Cloverfield (2008)
- Get Out (2017)
- Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
View the complete list of the best horror films set in each state on The Hard Times website.
What’s your favorite scary movie set in New York? Sound off in our poll above.
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