Unexpected 2009 Animated Film Is the Top Fan-Favorite Horror Movie on Letterboxd
When we think of horror movies, children's movies may not be the first ones that come to mind - unless, of course, we're talking about Coraline.
The 2009 animated film, which is rated PG for its dark themes and visuals, sits somewhere between a children's Halloween movie and a straight-up horror flick, and apparently, it's one of the top fan-favorited films for the movie junkies that love a good spine-tingling scare.
According to Letterboxd, Coraline is ranked at No. 1 on their list of the Top 250 Horror Films with the Most Fans. (Letterboxd defines fans as members with a particular film as one of their four favorites on their profile.) The stop-motion animated film outranks some of the most iconic and grotesque horror movies in history, like The Shining, Silence of the Lambs, Psycho - even The Exorcist.
But the list is not to be confused with Letterboxd's Top 250 Horror Films, which simply ranks movies in the horror genre by their average member rating. (Coraline is ranked #15 on that list.) It only holds the No. 1 position on the "Most Fans" list, which counts the number of Letterboxd users who have given Coraline a spot in the "favorites" section on their profile. (Users are limited to four movies to be displayed as their "favorites.")
Fans who love Coraline seem to really love Coraline, as it is "favorited" more than any other horror film on the platform. But it even ranks highly on Letterboxd outside of just the horror genre, as it's placed at No. 37 on the platform's Top 250 Animated Films list. (Parade has it ranked at No. 41 on our list of the 53 Best Animated Movies of All Time.)
The 2009 movie from Laika Studios was directed by Henry Selick, the same filmmaker behind similar dark animated films like James and the Giant Peach (1996) and Disney's The Nightmare Before Christmas. Coraline was based on Neil Gaiman's 2002 dark fantasy novella of the same name.
Related: This 'Below Average' Film Is Still Ranked as a Fan-Favorite Movie
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This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 11:45 PM.