10 Best Horror Movie Scripts to Download, Read & Study

David Cronenberg’s The Fly is considered by many to be one of the crowning achievements of the entire body horror subgenre. The script, which Cronenberg co-wrote alongside Charles Edward Pogue, is a loose retelling of the 1958 film of the same name.

The two tellings utilize the same premise of a scientist accidentally fusing himself with a common house fly and mutating as a result. But the 1986 version ups the ante on every level possible. The Fly is an extremely gory film but it is also intelligent and is heartfelt and even somewhat profound in the right moments. All of which stems from the excellent screenplay.

David Cronenberg made it onto our list of the best directors of all time, find out who else made the cut.

Rosemary’s Baby became something of a phenomenon when it was released in 1968. It was a landmark horror film and could be considered an important film in the new-Hollywood shift the film industry was experiencing.

Roman Polanski directed the film and also wrote the screenplay as an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ira Levin. The novel was a bestseller in its own right, and a film was quickly rushed into production, with the book and film releasing just one year apart.

It might seem a little tame in terms of what we actually see on screen, but that’s because Rosemary’s Baby is all about what we don’t see; the creeping fear of the unknown.

Get Out is a perfect example of a ‘social horror film,’ meaning a horror film with a strong social-commentary message coursing through its veins. Horror has long been an effective method for conveying effective social commentary themes. As you can see from the opening scene of the script included above, Get Out changed quite a lot between pre-production and production.

Though many details between the opening of the script and the opening of the film are different, they both carry the same sense of atmosphere and tension and both succeed in setting up the themes of the film to follow. For more on this topic, check out our rundown of the best opening scenes of movies.

As far as horror scripts go, 1978’s Halloween is rather simple. But, it’s precisely in that simplicity that the film excels. Halloween is a perfect example of writing within your means and setting yourself up for success with a low budget.

Director John Carpenter co-wrote the script alongside Debra Hill, who also produced the film. What they crafted, simple though it may be, became one of the defining slasher films. It also inspired dozens of copycat movies, a litany of sequels, and multiple remakes with their own sequels as well.

After a deluge of slasher films from the late '70s through the '80s, the subgenre had begun to wear out its welcome by the '90s. This particular type of slasher film was beginning to feel stale, and it seemed like all the joy and originality had been sucked from the genre… until Scream came along in 1996.

Originally titled Scary Movie, which is where the parody film took its name, Scream was written by Kevin Williamson. And the resulting film was directed by Wes Craven whose very own A Nightmare on Elm Street is referenced right in the opening scene.

Scream made the slasher genre feel fresh again by skewering horror tropes with razor sharp satire alongside the effective plot and suspense.

Directed by Edgar Wright and co-written with its star Simon Pegg, Shaun of the Dead is a zombie comedy of the highest order. Told with Wright’s signature directorial flair, this screenplay is hilarious from start to finish.

It's packed with memorable callbacks, clever twists on genre tropes, and fun references to the great zombies films of the past, including the title which is a cheeky play on George A. Romero’s seminal Dawn of the Dead.

Find out where Shaun of the Dead ranks amidst Edgar Wright’s filmography.

Ari Aster immediately established himself as one of the most interesting voices in modern horror with the one-two punch of Hereditary and Midsommar released in 2018 and 2019 respectively. As a feature-film debut, Hereditary could hardly be any more impressive.

The script delivers major surprises at multiple points throughout the narrative and succeeds in crafting a haunting atmosphere and memorably horrific set pieces. The Hereditary screenplay stands out from similar horror scripts by delving into heavier familiar drama and crafting more complex characters than many horror films are apt to do. The end result is something truly special.

While it might not technically be the first zombie film, the larger zombie genre as we know it today was born with Night of the Living Dead in 1968. The script— co-written by director George A. Romero and John A. Russo — did more than just tell a compelling and frightening story.

It also essentially created a new breed of horror creature that permeated throughout the larger horror genre for decades to come. Due to mistakenly excluding the copyright notice in the film print, Night of the Living Dead was never properly copyrighted, meaning the film wound up in the public domain.

Romero and Russo only earned a fraction of what they would have otherwise received from this global sensation of a film. For other freely available films, check out our rundown of the best movies in the public domain.

William Friedkin’s The Exorcist is often afforded the highly-lauded title of ‘the most terrifying film ever made,’ and that sense of terror was first born in the writing. The screenplay for 1973’s The Exorcist was written by William Peter Blatty, who adapted the script from his own novel published in 1971. 

Similar to the film, Blatty’s novel is frequently granted the title of ‘the most terrifying novel ever written.’ In the script, we can see how William Peter Blatty handled writing dialogue for the multiple voices and personalities that come out of the possessed 12-year-old Reagan.

Never before had "the Devil" been given such a grounded and explicit presentation. Apparently, the novel and film inspired a significant increase in church attendance and it's easy to see why.