15 Best Valentine's Day Horror Movies for People Who Want Their Hearts Racing
My Bloody Valentine is just one of many.
When it comes time to sit down and watch a movie with your sweetheart on Valentine's Day, you're going to want something that gets your pulse to quicken. Something that makes your hands start to get a little clammy. Something with heart — well, blood at least. No, we're not talking about the most romantic movies (and we're certainly not thinking about funny rom-coms). We're talking that more elusive, niche genre: the Valentine's Day horror movie.
As horror movie fans know, Valentine's Day and big jump scares go together better than you'd expect. In fact, science has shown that love and fear are both ruled by the same hormone, oxytocin. (That's also the hormone that makes people feel bonded to each other, too, for all those out there in new relationships.)
Yet while Christmas-themed horror movies flourish and come out every year, the ones tied to February 14 are far fewer. These are the best Valentine's Day horror movies to watch in 2023. We're not counting movies that were just released on Valentine's Day, like the excellent Silence of the Lambs or the super-fun Happy Death Day 2 U. (Sorry, Dr. Lecter.) Most of these are actually based on the holiday or have some kind of direct connection to it. But since there are so few of those, we've also thrown on a few horror movies that have love or romance as their main motifs. Throw one on if you want a movie that deals with themes of love, possession and obsession — as well as hearts, gore and blood. (So much blood.)
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
If the title weren't enough to signal its status as the best overall Valentine's Day horror movie, My Bloody Valentine also takes place in a mining town called Valentine Bluffs. Decades earlier, an accident in the tunnels caused a miner to go on a killing spree, saying he'd return to kill again if the town ever held a Valentine's Day dance. The mayor thinks it's a superstition and plans to revive the yearly celebration ... and receives a human heart in a candy box as a result. Is it a hoax, or has the miner returned for revenge?
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
This Australian film doesn't rely on gore or slashers, but has more of a moody and psychological horror to it. It takes place at a private school in the year 1900, and the headmistress decides to take a class of girls on a Valentine's Day picnic. After an eerie afternoon, three of the girls and one teacher go missing. If you'd rather see the story unfold across six episodes, in 2018 Amazon made a TV series, starring Natalie Dormer and Samara Weaving, out of the same material.
Raising Cain (1992)
This one is for all the parents out there, looking to sneak in a Valentine's Day horror movie after the kids go to bed. In this Hitchcockian thriller, set on and around Valentine's Day, John Lithgow respected child psychologist Carter Nix. Only his wife is beginning to suspect that he's performing unethical experiments on kids, including their own daughter. It was directed by Brian De Palma and contains all of his fast-paced directorial flourishes.
Bride of Chucky (1998)
The fourth installment of the Child's Play franchise is Valentine's themed in name only — and that name is Tiffany Valentine, the one-time girlfriend of Charles Lee Ray, the serial killer whose spirit possesses the Chucky doll. When Tiffany gets her own doll to inhabit, the two definitely cause mayhem (to put it lightly), and actress Jennifer Tilly strikes the right the horror-comedy tone. Once you become a Tiffany fan, you can watch her in the rest of the sequels, along with the (very good!) Chucky series on Syfy; in many of them Tilly has a dual role as Tiffany and herself.
My Valentine (2020)
Hulu's Into the Dark series split the difference between film and TV, offering a different feature-length horror movie each month that it ran, each one tied to a different holiday. The Valentine's Day 2020 installment follows a pop star, appropriately named Valentine, who had escaped from an abusive relationship with her manager, Royal. Things get intense when Royal shows up with his new artist-girlfriend, Trezzure — a carbon copy of Valentine in look and sound — and locks them all in a club together.
Pontypool (2009)
It's Valentine's Day in the small, Canadian town of Pontypool, and shock jock Grant Mazzy reports to his studio as usual. Only it's not a typical day: Soon, he gets a transmission saying the town is subject to an outbreak that turns people into zombie-like creatures transmits in unexpected ways. The radio staff locks itself into the station, but can anything be done?
Valentine (2001)
Forget arrows — the killer in this slasher film wears a Cupid mask and carries a knife! Katherine Heigl, Denise Richards, Jessica Cauffiel, Jessica Capshaw and Marley Shelton star as former high school classmates who start receiving obscene Valentine's Day cards — and subsequent visits from the mask-wearing killer. Could it be the boy they tormented in high school?
My Bloody Valentine (2009)
Time for another trip through the mines: This movie starts with the same premise as the 1981 version of My Bloody Valentine, but with different twists and turns along the way. When it was released in 2009, this movie was presented in 3D, in case you watch it and wonder why bits of bone and gore always seem to fly straight towards the center of the screen.
Tales from the Crypt (1972)
No, we're not talking about the HBO show with the goofy-but-loveable puppet crypt keeper who introduces each segment with a series of puns. Instead, the 1973 Tales from the Crypt is a five-segment anthology movie (with a human crypt keeper to do the introductions). The third segment in particular, "Poetic Justice," is a Valentine's Day themed story about a neighborhood hell-bent on torturing one of the residents, since they think he's a blight on the block. Things come to a head when a series of poison-pen letters are sent on February 14, kick-starting a grim desire for revenge. Peter Cushing stars in the segment.
X-Ray (1982)
This film has come out under numerous titles, including Hospital Massacre and Be My Valentine, or Else. It's another tale of a spurned high-schooler who returns for revenge. This time, the killer lures his intended into the hospital — on Valentine's Day, of course — and rigs it so she gets detained for observation, leading to a spree of killings throughout the hospital.
Down (2019)
This 2019 episode of Hulu's Into the Dark horror series is a holiday two-for-one, as it takes place over a long weekend that encompasses both Valentine's Day and President's Day. Two people get into an elevator, ready to leave an office for the long weekend — and the elevator gets stuck, leaving them stranded for up to 72 hours. The interactions between the two people start out flirty, but it starts to get ominous. Is there more to this situation than there seems?
Cupid (2020)
Everyone knows Cupid is the god of love, who only wants to spread warm hearts through the world ... or is he? This movie reimagines Cupid as a monster who uses his bow for murder. His powers are unleashed when a high schooler learning witchcraft summons him to get revenge on the mean girls at school. This movie is low budget (and reviews were not kind), so throw it on when you're in the mood for an "awesomely bad" type of experience.
The Love Witch (2016)
While this movie doesn't take place explicitly on February 14, it's got Valentine's feels all over it. Even though The Love Witch was only made a few years ago, it wouldn't look out of place in the '60s, with its bright colors and retro fashions. It follows a witch named Elaine who, after the death of her husband, searches for a new lover. She seduces a string of men, but the romances never end well for them.
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
This also doesn't have a specific Valentine connection, but the vibe is right: Everybody knows that nobody does smoldering horror-romance the way vampires do smoldering horror-romance. (See also: Interview With a Vampire, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Twilight.) In this one, Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton are Adam and Eve (get it?), two married, ultra-cool vampires who have been together for centuries. When Adam is hit with a bout of ennui, Eve tries to bring his spirits up — and then Eve's sister re-enters their lives and starts to cause trouble.
Bones and All (2022)
Though it has no formal connection to Valentine's Day, Bones and All is a bloody horror movie and a coming-of-age romance all rolled into one. In it, Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet star as two young people who fall in love after they realize they both are overcome with the same unsavory urges. It's directed by Luca Guadagnino, who's previously dabbled in both genres before with Call Me By Your Name and the Suspiria remake.
Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; she previously wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found dominating the audio round at her local bar trivia night or tweeting about movies.
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