Here are ten of the best horror films that keep it lean and lethal.

10. Creep (2014)

(82 min)

A found footage nightmare built on awkwardness, forced intimacy, and Mark Duplass being way too good at playing “guy who should absolutely not be trusted.” It’s basically a Craigslist transaction from hell, and it never wastes a second getting weird.

9. The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

(86 min)

A locked-room mystery with a corpse at the center of it. The deeper they go into the autopsy, the stranger the body becomes. It turns morgue work into something almost ritualistic and keeps tightening the screws until the last minute.

8. Hush (2016)

(82 min)

A minimalist home invasion thriller where silence becomes the entire strategy. Mike Flanagan knew exactly how to use stillness, darkness, and a single location to crank up dread. It’s clean, efficient terror.

7. Lake Mungo (2008)

(87 min)

A grief-soaked mockumentary that gets under your skin without raising its voice. It feels like watching a real family trying to understand something impossible, and the slow drip of uncanny details turns the whole thing into a quiet nightmare. The final images stay with you in that uncomfortable, late-night way where you suddenly don’t want to look at reflective surfaces.

6. The Descent (2005)

(US Theatrical Cut - 89 min)

Yes, this absolutely counts. One of the scariest cave horror films ever made. Claustrophobic, sweaty, and lit like someone forgot to pay the electric bill. The creatures are great, but the real terror is the rock pressing in around you.

5. Host (2020)

(56 min)

The shortest film on the list and one of the most effective. Shot entirely during lockdown on a series of Zoom calls, it manages to squeeze a full haunting into less than an hour. No fat, all fright.

4. It Follows (2014)

(Festival cut - 89 min)

The under-90 festival version deserves its own spot because the pacing is even more relentless. A curse that simply walks toward you forever. It feels dreamy, strange, and absolutely unforgettable.

3. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

(81 min)

A perfect storm of improvisation, paranoia, and the illusion of reality. It’s messy and anxious in a way scripted horror rarely achieves. Three people, a camcorder, and a forest that feels genuinely malevolent. Still one of the most effective lo-fi scares ever made.

2. The Evil Dead (1981)

(85 min)

A whole generation of indie horror owes something to this movie. Bruised actors, gallons of slime, and an energy that feels like a dare. It is noisy, chaotic, and exactly as short as it needs to be.

1. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

(83 min)

A sweaty, grimy sprint through rural terror. The kind of movie that feels like it crawled out of a real crime scene. No score, no breathing room, no escape. Just raw fear and the sound of a chainsaw echoing through your brain.

Wrapping Up

Short horror films hit different. They don’t build a world so much as drop you into one, let you panic for a while, and pull the plug before you can recover. If you want a quick jolt, a late-night scare, or something to watch in the time it takes your food to arrive, any one of these will do the job.

Looking for something even faster? Try a Creepix request. You might find your next 80-minute nightmare.