# List of horror films set in academic institutions

Academic institutions, including high schools, boarding schools, colleges, and university campuses, have historically been recurring settings for horror films. Film scholars have noted the prominence of educational institutions in the development of horror cinema, particularly in the subgenre of the slasher film. Critics such as Andrew Grunzke have cited the themes of bullying, sexuality, social acceptance, parent-child relationships, academic performance, and the development of morality during teenage and young adult life as primary reasons that many horror films have historically used the backdrop of high schools and colleges. Additionally, the universalization of education during the twentieth century, which coincided with the development of the horror film, helped foster a public audience for films set amongst students.

## Colleges and universities
### Campuses

| Year | Title | Director(s) | Premise | Notes |
| 1945 | The Body Snatcher | Robert Wise | A college professor and his student find themselves continually harassed by a sadistic cabman to supply bodies. | |
| 1946 | The Brute Man | Jean Yarbrough | A college student becomes deformed. | |
| 1957 | I Was a Teenage Frankenstein | Herbert L. Strock | A guest professor from England at an American college begins to build his own Frankenstein. | |
| 1958 | Monster on the Campus | Jack Arnold | A university professor begins to devolve into a caveman after coming in contact with blood from a coelacanth. | |
| 1962 | Burn, Witch, Burn | Sidney Hayers | A college professor is tormented after discovering his wife has been practicing witchcraft. | Originally titled Night of the Eagle |
| 1981 | Final Exam | Jimmy Huston | A man stalks the remaining students on a college campus just before summer vacation. | |
| 1981 | Night School | Ken Hughes | A serial killer is stalking and decapitating the women at a Boston night college. | Released in the United Kingdom as Terror Eyes |
| 1981 | The Prowler | Joseph Zito | College students hosting a graduation dance are targeted by a killer in World War II G.I. gear. | Released internationally as Rosemary's Killer |
| 1982 | Girls Nite Out | Robert Deubel | A killer in a bear costume with razored claws murders students during an overnight campus scavenger hunt. | Originally titled The Scaremaker |
| 1982 | The Dorm That Dripped Blood | Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow | Students cleaning an abandoned dormitory during Christmas break are stalked by a killer with a baseball bat encrusted in nails. | Released in the United Kingdom as Pranks |
| 1982 | Pieces | Juan Piquer Simón | A serial killer dismembers young women on a Boston college campus with a chainsaw. | |
| 1984 | Splatter University | Richard W. Haines | An escaped mental patient terrorizes a local university. | |
| 1985 | Blood Cult | Christopher Lewis | A small town sheriff investigates ritualistic murders at the local college. | First direct-to-video horror film |
| 1988 | Fright Night Part 2 | Tommy Lee Wallace | Charley Brewster, now a college student, encounters a group of vampires on his campus. | |
| 1989 | After Midnight | Jim Wheat and Ken Wheat | A horror anthology film framed through college students taking a course on the "psychology of fear." | |
| 1995 | The Addiction | Abel Ferrara | A philosophy graduate student in New York City is bitten by a vampire, which has major implications on her studies and personal life. | |
| 1997 | Scream 2 | Wes Craven | California teenager Sidney Prescott and her friends are stalked by a copycat killer dressed as Ghostface on their college campus in Southern California. | |
| 1998 | Urban Legend | Jamie Blanks | A serial killer murders students at a New England college via methods based on urban legends. | |
| 2000 | Urban Legends: Final Cut | John Ottman | A killer stalks students of a film school and murders them according to urban legends. | |
| 2001 | Ripper | John Eyres | A massacre survivor believes a Jack the Ripper copycat is stalking her college campus. | Also known as: Ripper: Letter from Hell |
| 2001 | Soul Survivors | Stephen Carpenter | A college student's grip on reality weakens after the death of her boyfriend. | |
| 2002 | American Psycho 2 | Morgan J. Freeman | An ambitious criminal psychology student resorts to murder vying for a prestigious teaching assistantship. | |
| 2004 | Decoys | Matthew Hastings | Two male students vying to lose their virginity suspect the women on campus are not human. | |
| 2005 | House of the Dead 2 | Michael Hurst | A zombie outbreak occurs on a university campus. | |
| 2011 | The Roommate | Christian E. Christiansen | A college student finds that her dormitory roommate is violently dangerous. | |
| 2014 | Kristy | Oliver Blackburn | A young woman is pursued by a cybercult of killers while alone on an empty campus during Thanksgiving. | |
| 2015 | Chain Mail | Adolfo Alix | A group of people receiving a cryptic and unknown message from the internet, while others are ignoring it. Suddenly imminent danger follows them making them realize that this unknown chain letter is cursed by a demonic creature. | |
| 2017 | Happy Death Day | Christopher Landon | A college student is forced to relive her own murder in an endless time loop until she can solve it. | |
| 2018 | Truth or Dare | Jeff Wadlow | A group of college friends travel to Mexico before graduation. Playing a game of Truth or Dare awakens a demon that follows them home. | |
| 2019 | Happy Death Day 2U | Christopher Landon | A young woman, previously trapped in a loop of her own murder, is transported to another dimension where a killer is on the loose. | |

#### Fraternities and sororities

| Year | Title | Director(s) | Premise | Notes |
| 1932 | Thirteen Women | George Archainbaud | Thirteen sorority sisters have their futures foreseen by a psychic paid to manipulate them into committing suicide. | |
| 1974 | Black Christmas | Bob Clark | Sorority sisters are stalked and harassed by an unseen killer during Christmastime. | See note |
| 1976 | Sisters of Death | Joseph Mazzuca | A man whose daughter died during a sorority prank takes revenge on the sorority seven years later. | |
| 1978 | The Initiation of Sarah | Robert Day | A shy woman with psychic powers joins a college sorority. | Television film |
| 1981 | Hell Night | Tom DeSimone | Sorority and fraternity pledges must stay in a reportedly haunted house near their campus. | See note |
| 1983 | The House on Sorority Row | Mark Rosman | Sorority sisters are murdered by a killer during their last night in their sorority house. | |
| 1984 | The Initiation | Larry Stewart | Sorority pledges are murdered by an unseen assailant during an initiation ritual. | |
| 1984 | Silent Madness | Simon Nuchtern | A serial killer returns to the sorority house where he committed previous crimes. | |
| 1986 | Killer Party | William Fruet | Sorority pledges are murdered during a party at an abandoned fraternity house. | |
| 1986 | Night of the Creeps | Fred Dekker | Alien parasites that turn humans into murderous zombies infiltrate a college fraternity. | |
| 1986 | Vamp | Richard Wenk | Two college students hire a stripper for their fraternity party who turns out to be a vampire. | |
| 1986 | Sorority House Massacre | Carol Frank | A sorority pledge experiences déjà vu while visiting a sorority house, followed by the appearance of a psychotic killer. | |
| 1987 | Blood Sisters | Roberta Findlay | Sorority pledges are forced to spend the night in an abandoned brothel. | |
| 1988 | Rush Week | Robert Bralver | A student reporter uncovers a series of murders and disappearances on her college campus. | |
| 1990 | Sorority House Massacre II | Jim Wynorski | Five women restoring an old home as their new sorority house are murdered one by one. | |
| 1992 | Happy Hell Night | Brian Owens | A psychotic priest stalks pledges during pledge week at a rural college. | Released in the United Kingdom as Frat Night |
| 2004 | The Hazing | Rolfe Kanefsky | Sorority pledges are stalked by a deranged professor during pledge night. | Also released as Dead Scared |
| 2006 | The Initiation of Sarah | Stuart Gillard | Twin sisters with psychic powers join a sorority. | Remake of The Initiation of Sarah (1978) |
| 2006 | Black Christmas | Glen Morgan | Sorority sisters trapped in their sorority home during a Christmas snowstorm are stalked by a serial killer. | Remake of Black Christmas (1974) |
| 2007 | The Haunting of Sorority Row | Bert Kish | A sorority ritual leads to a ghost seeking revenge on sorority members. | |
| 2009 | Sorority Row | Stewart Hendler | Sorority sisters graduating from college are stalked after covering up the death of a fellow sorority sister. | Remake of The House on Sorority Row (1983) |
| 2019 | Pledge | Daniel Robbins | Freshman outcasts pledge a fraternity where each task turns increasingly more dangerous and a secret motive is revealed. | |
| 2019 | Black Christmas | Sophia Takal | Sorority sisters are targeted by a psychotic killer during Christmas. | Second remake of Black Christmas (1974) |
| 2020 | Initiation | John Berardo | Multiple fraternity brothers are murdered by an unknown assailant, including a sorority sister's brother. | |

## Secondary institutions
### Academies

| Year | Title | Director(s) | Premise | Notes | Ref. |
| 1977 | Suspiria | Dario Argento | An American ballerina arrives at a German dance academy plagued by disappearances and deaths. | | |
| 2008 | The Haunting of Molly Hartley | Mickey Liddell | A teenager struggles at her new preparatory school after her mentally-ill mother attempts to murder her. | | |

### Boarding schools

| Year | Title | Director(s) | Premise | Notes |
| 1955 | Les Diaboliques | Henri-Georges Clouzot | A woman conspires with her husband's mistress to murder her husband, the principal of a boys' boarding school. | Released in the United States as Diabolique |
| 1969 | The House That Screamed | Narciso Ibáñez Serrador | At a 19th century boarding school for girls, students have begun to disappear under mysterious circumstances. | Also released as La Residencia. |
| 1972 | Fear in the Night | Jimmy Sangster | A woman is tormented by an assailant at an empty boarding school where her husband has taken a job. | |
| 1973 | Satan's School for Girls | David Lowell Rich | A new student at a girls' school suspects her peers of witchcraft. | Television film |
| 1975 | Picnic at Hanging Rock | Peter Weir | The populace of an Australian women's boarding school is shaken by the disappearance of several students. | |
| 1977 | The Possessed | Jerry Thorpe | Female students at a boarding school are plagued by satanic forces. | Television film |
| 1978 | Jennifer | Brice Mack | A poor student at an elite boarding school takes revenge on the students who torment her. | |
| 1980 | To All a Goodnight | David Hess | A group of girls at a finishing school are murdered by a killer in a Santa Claus suit during Christmas. | |
| 1985 | Phenomena | Dario Argento | A girl who can communicate with insects helps solve a series of murders at a boarding school in the Swiss Alps. | |
| 1987 | Zombie High | Ron Link | A teenager suspects her boarding school classmates are under a mysterious influence. | |
| 1998 | Halloween H20: 20 Years Later | Steve Miner | Laurie Strode, now the principal of a prestigious California boarding school where her son attends, is stalked by her brother, Michael Myers. | |
| 2005 | Cry Wolf | Jeff Wadlow | An e-mail chain inspires pranks and potentially murder among students at a rural boarding school. | |
| 2006 | The Woods | Lucky McKee | An outcast teenager in 1965 suspects sinister goings-on in the woods surrounding her new boarding school. | |
| 2011 | The Awakening | Nick Murphy | A paranormal debunker arrives at a boys' boarding school to disprove alleged hauntings. | |
| 2012 | The Moth Diaries | Mary Harron | A female boarding school student suspects a new peer is a vampire. | |
| 2015 | The Blackcoat's Daughter | Oz Perkins | Two young women encounter a mysterious demonic force while alone at their boarding school during a winter break. | Also released as February |

### High schools

| Year | Title | Director(s) | Premise | Notes |
| 1957 | I Was a Teenage Werewolf | Gene Fowler Jr. | A troubled high school student transforms into a werewolf. | |
| 1976 | Carrie | Brian De Palma | A bullied female student unleashes telekinetic powers at her high school prom. | |
| 1976 | Massacre at Central High | Rene Daalder | A high school is plagued by revenge killings involving bullied students and their oppressors. | |
| 1978 | The Redeemer: Son of Satan | Constantine S. Gochis | A group of people trapped inside their high school during their ten-year reunion are killed off by a psychopath. | |
| 1980 | Prom Night | Paul Lynch | A killer stalks the teenagers of a local high school to avenge the death of a young girl years earlier. | |
| 1981 | Fear No Evil | Frank LaLoggia | A teenage outcast realizes he is the Antichrist, and seeks revenge against his high school classmates. | |
| 1981 | Student Bodies | Mickey Rose | A killer stalks the students of a high school. | |
| 1981 | Graduation Day | Herb Freed | The students on a high school track team are stalked and killed leading up to their graduation. | |
| 1981 | Happy Birthday to Me | J. Lee Thompson | Students at an upper-class academy are stalked by a killer leading up to a popular student's birthday. | |
| 1984 | A Nightmare on Elm Street | Wes Craven | A group of teenagers are targeted by Freddy Krueger, an undead child killer who murders teenagers through their dreams, as retribution against their parents who burned him alive. | |
| 1985 | Teen Wolf | Rod Daniel | A small-town high school student transforms into a werewolf. | |
| 1986 | Slaughter High | George Dugdale | Eight people are invited to a ten-year high school reunion by a killer seeking revenge over his disfigurement in a prank gone wrong. | |
| 1987 | Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II | Bruce Pittman | The ghost of a woman killed at her prom in 1957 possesses a current student. | |
| 1987 | Return to Horror High | Bill Froelich | The staff of a film company making a movie about real-life murders on location at a high school are stalked and killed. | |
| 1989 | Cutting Class | Rospo Pallenberg | A problematic teenager's return to his high school coincides with a string of serial murders. | |
| 1990 | Prom Night III: The Last Kiss | Ron Oliver | A high school student meets a female ghost at his high school and begins a relationship with her. | |
| 1996 | Scream | Wes Craven | A high school student is stalked by a masked killer who begins murdering her friends. | |
| 1998 | Disturbing Behavior | David Nutter | Three outcasts at a Washington high school suspect their too-perfect peers may be under a sinister influence. | |
| 1998 | The Faculty | Robert Rodriguez | Students at an Ohio high school suspect an alien life force is taking over their school. | |
| 1999 | The Rage: Carrie 2 | Katt Shea | An outcast teenager (and half-sister of Carrie White) takes revenge on her tormentors during a high school party. | |
| 2000 | Cherry Falls | Geoffrey Wright | A serial killer stalks virgin students at a small-town high school. | |
| 2002 | Carrie | David Carson | A female bullying victim unleashes her telekinetic powers during a high school dance. | Television film |
| 2007 | Someone Behind You | Oh-Ki Hwan | A young female student is stalked by a lethal curse, causing her family and friends to attempt to kill her. | Released in the US in 2009, retitled as Voices |
| 2009 | Jennifer's Body | Karyn Kusama | A high school girl must stop her demonically possessed friend from killing her male classmates. | |
| 2013 | Carrie | Kimberly Peirce | A female bullying victim unleashes her telekinetic powers during a high school dance. | |
| 2024 | Lisa Frankenstein | Zelda Williams | A misunderstood teenage girl meets and develops a relationship with a reanimated Victorian era corpse. | |
| 2024 | I Saw the TV Glow | Jane Schoenbrun | Two troubled high school students bond over their favorite television show, which drives them to question their reality and identities. | |