Best Chainsaw Movies
Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of chainsaw cinema — measured across 1,019 indexed frames from 13 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.
Chainsaw films over-index on chainsaw, blood and teeth — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.
- 1
Army of Darkness (1992)
Sam RaimiDP Bill PopeIMDb 7.4TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →
Ash is transported with his car to 1,300 A.D., where he is captured by Lord Arthur and turned slave with Duke Henry the Red and a couple of his men. When Ash is thrown into a pit, he defeats two monsters and wins respect of Arthur's army and vassals. The Wiseman points Ash as The Chosen One that will retrieve the Necronomicon but Ash is only interested in returning home. When he learns that the only way to return to his time is using the Necronomicon, Ash decides to travel to the unholy land of the Deadites. The Wiseman advises that he must say the words "Klaatu Barada Nikto" to safely get the evil book. However, Ash forgets the last word and an army of the dead resurrects to attack Arthur fortress and recover the Necronomicon. The battle between the living and the dead is about to start and the support of Henry the Red is the only way to help Ash and Arthur to defeat the army of darkness.
- 2
Jonathan LiebesmanDP Lukas EttlinIMDb 5.8TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →
In August, 1939, a worker goes into labor while working in a slaughterhouse and dies after a complicated labor, though the deformed child survives. The possibly orphaned baby is dumped in a garbage container and found by a beggar later, who brings him home. Along the years, the mentally retarded and disturbed boy called Thomas is raised by the Hewitt family in spite of having psychological problems as well as suffering from an unnamed skin disorder, later working in a meat packing plant. In July, 1969, when the facility is closed, the inhabitants move to other places, but the deformed, mentally childlike Thomas flies into a rage after being insulted and kills the foreman. His deranged brother (considered his uncle due to their age difference) executes the sheriff that is going to arrest Thomas, and assumes his identity, wearing his clothes,driving his car though the roads in Texas and entitling himself as Sheriff Hoyt. Meanwhile, the brothers Eric and Dean are traveling in a Jeep with their girlfriends Christie and Bailey, Eric to serve in Vietnam and Dean escaping to Mexico. When the group has a car accident, Hoyt arrests Eric, Dean and Bailey and brings them to his house. Christie follows them trying to rescue the trio, trapped in the house of sadistic and insane cannibals, in a trip of horror and gore.
- 3
31 (2016)
Rob ZombieDP David DanielIMDb 5.1TMDB 5.4See in full on FrameThrower →
The day before Halloween, five carnival employees are kidnapped & held hostage in an isolated compound known as "Murderworld". On Halloween, they are thrown into a sadistic game called "31" where they must survive 12 hours against a gang of maniacs dressed like clowns. It's time to play 31.
- 4
Haute Tension (2003)
Alexandre AjaDP Maxime AlexandreIMDb 6.7TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →
Alexia travels with her friend Marie to spend a couple of days with her family in their farm in the country. They arrive late and are welcomed by Alexia's father. Late that night, a sick, sadistic killer breaks into the farmhouse, slaughters Alexia's family--including their dog--and kidnaps Alexia. Marie hides from the criminal and tries to help terrified, hysterical Alexia, chase the maniac, and disclose his identity in the end.
- 5
Evil Dead II (1987)
Sam RaimiDP Peter DemingIMDb 7.7TMDB 7.5See in full on FrameThrower →
Ashley Williams travels to a secluded cabin in the woods with his girlfriend Linda where they find a tape recording of a professor and a book of evil. This unleashes a bunch of evil spirits that constantly terrorize Ash. Meanwhile a journalist comes to the area to study the book of evil. Ash and her end up having to survive this swarm of evil until morning comes.
- 6
American Psycho (2000)
Mary HarronDP Andrzej SekulaIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.4See in full on FrameThrower →
It's the late 1980s. Twenty-seven year old Wall Streeter Patrick Bateman travels among a closed network of the proverbial beautiful people, that closed network in only they able to allow others like themselves in in a feeling of superiority. Patrick has a routinized morning regimen to maintain his appearance of attractiveness and fitness. He, like those in his network, are vain, narcissistic, egomaniacal and competitive, always having to one up everyone else in that presentation of oneself, but he, unlike the others, realizes that, for himself, all of these are masks to hide what is truly underneath, someone/something inhuman in nature. In other words, he is comprised of a shell resembling a human that contains only greed and disgust, greed in wanting what others may have, and disgust for those who do not meet his expectations and for himself in not being the first or the best. That disgust ends up manifesting itself in wanting to rid the world of those people, he not seeing them as people but only of those characteristics he wants to rid.
- 7
Terrifier 3 (2024)
Damien LeoneDP George SteuberIMDb 6.2TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →
Five years after surviving Art the Clown's Halloween massacre, Sienna and Jonathan are still struggling to rebuild their shattered lives. As the holiday season approaches, they try to embrace the Christmas spirit and leave the horrors of the past behind. But just when they think they're safe, Art returns, determined to turn their holiday cheer into a new nightmare. The festive season quickly unravels as Art unleashes his twisted brand of terror, proving that no holiday is safe.
- 8
Freaky (2020)
Christopher LandonDP Laurie RoseIMDb 6.3TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →
Seventeen-year-old Millie Kessler spends her days trying to survive high school and the cruel actions of the popular crowd. But when she becomes the latest target of the Butcher, the town's infamous serial killer, her senior year becomes the least of her worries. When the Butcher's mystical dagger causes him and Millie to magically switch bodies, the frightened teen learns she has just 24 hours to get her identity back before she looks like a middle-aged maniac forever.
- 9
Mandy (2018)
Panos CosmatosDP Benjamin LoebIMDb 6.5TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →
Taking place in 1983, Red is a lumberjack who lives in a secluded cabin in the woods. His artist girlfriend Mandy spends her days reading fantasy paperbacks. Then one day, she catches the eye of a crazed cult leader, who conjures a group of motorcycle-riding demons to kidnap her. Red, armed with a crossbow and custom Axe, stops at nothing to get her back, leaving a bloody, brutal pile of bodies in his wake.
- 10
Gremlins (1984)
Joe DanteDP John HoraIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.1See in full on FrameThrower →
Minature green monsters tear through the small town of Kingston Falls. Hijinks ensue as a mild-mannered bank teller releases these hideous loonies after gaining a new pet and violating two of three simple rules: No water (violated), no food after midnight (violated), and no bright light. Hilarious mayhem and destruction in a town straight out of Norman Rockwell. So, when your washing machine blows up or your TV goes on the fritz, before you call the repair man, turn on all the lights and look under all the beds. 'Cause you never can tell, there just might be a gremlin in your house.
What chainsaw films are made of
How much more often each element appears in a chainsaw frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — chainsaw is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.
- chainsaw157.3×
- blood8.1×
- teeth5.3×
- skin2.5×
- shadow2.1×
- eyes2.0×
- hair1.9×
- stubble1.7×
How chainsaw films are shot
Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate chainsaw from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.
- 14%low anglevs 5% baseline
- 21%naturalvs 43% baseline
- 22%dayvs 42% baseline
- 69%nightvs 43% baseline
- 63%low keyvs 40% baseline
Method
Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,019 frames from 13 films carrying the chainsaw label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (408,752 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.
Machine-readable: /api/list/chainsaw
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