45 of the Best Horror Fonts for Your Creepy and Scary Designs

The Silence of the Lambs, Zombieland, Friday the Thirteenth, Halloween…one thing these all have in common…horror, suspense, and thriller all come to mind.

Graphic designers like to utilize tools that help to evoke emotion from their finished product. The horror genre is one that uses grunge styles in order to give a raw and graphic feel to the text. Creepy fonts are a stand-alone typographical element that makes a poster or book cover pop. There are unlimited creative ideas that can be used in these raw and hand-drawn typefaces.

Below are 45 of the best horror fonts created by amazing designers that create the raw elements in horror-themed typography to finish their creative projects that scare their audience.

Emotion is key in design projects. Typefaces, especially ones emphasizing horror themes need to gravitate to the handwritten typefaces as if they have been carved onto a wall by a chainsaw or drawn as a warning sign from a helpless victim.

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The Best Horror Fonts

Choosing the best design options and being budget conscious is possible now for so many graphic designers. A freelance designer can use so many options now such as websites like Envato Elements and other free or low-priced font sites to help create an individualistic design look. Take a look below at each font represented and how each collection of letters is different but shares a common expression of a horror feeling in their look.

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Another Danger

This chaotic typeface gives a raw and retro design feel as it scratches its way across the page with a rough, yet distinct style. There is no mistaking this as a typographical showpiece with thriller written all over it. This font has a basic brush stroke that is rough and grunge in nature.

Earthen Parasite

As if hand-scratched across a wall in a horror movie, these all-caps letters help to accentuate the scary movie title feel that is fit for in the design. When you see this classic typeface you think of the classic horror flick ‘Scream’. The dry brush strokes give the edges a rough look that imitates hand-drawn hatch pattern strokes.

American Frights

With over 45,000 downloads of this classic horror font style, this is an avid designer’s dream font. It has a blade-like look that is clean and cutting. This font would be ideal for any contemporary project that still needs a scary design to solidify the point of a classic horror design. American Frights is definitely in the top 10 for a perfect horror movie poster font!

The Sonnyfive Typeface

The epitome of ’80s horror comes to mind when this bold font in all caps is used with color, especially the color red! Scary fonts beware of this front-runner with its brush strokes and horror touch added to any movie poster. This compelling horror film font is used on well-known movie posters such as ‘John Wick’, ‘Kong: Skull Island’, and the forever B-Movie horror films classic ‘Gremlins’! A solid choice to professional designers in the business of the horror film industry.

Stranger Creature

This font has the extra-terrestrial feel with an all-caps typeface and eerie dripping letters for a ‘fit for horror books’ look like the ’90s abandoned in the woods and something is chasing me ambiance of horror! As a newer player to the game, it still respects the design elements of horror book covers worldwide making it to the list of top 45 horror fonts!

Vampliers

Vampliers is a motion font, to say the least. It moves off the baseline and in bold presentation helps to give a block-printed horror design that is utilized by many designers for bold headlines. The energetic brushstrokes help a freelance designer create a cover masterpiece on the scene or in print. The easy readability helps with the fact that it is not on a gravity plane in design since the baseline moves to excite the viewer’s senses.

Goosepimple

This font is dripping with anticipation of the next horrific moment to jump out at you. It is alive. The chilling element to all-caps with the font literally bleeding down the page helps to energize any design. Goosepimple helps use design principles of the element through the font’s approach in capturing a feeling or an emotion in the design.

Midnight Terror

That immediate sensation you feel in a nightmare is present with stunning characters and glyphs included in this font. It is a bold and powerful typeface that helps to accentuate the terror sensation you feel when not fully awake in a drifted-off state. Perfect for the next fun invitation for a Halloween party.

Horrible Brush

Is it on fire? Is it residue left after a grizzly scene? We are unsure with this cool brush script font. There’s a strong presence of an unstable and emotional connection to the horror category that keeps the designer’s job to evoke emotion from the typeface easy. It is easily in the category of cool horror fonts on this list!

Freaky Story

This horror display typeface is one that captivates the mystery, the suspense and the darkness of a horror moment in a novel or on the screen. With the elements of glyphs incorporated within the typeface, it adds its own sense of design with no added graphic or message needed. The typeface communicates by itself with the words. A freelance designer could add this to their arsenal of weapons and be ahead of the game with typography being the weighted element to their attention-grabbing headlines.

Abnormal

Abnormal has simple yet stunning characters in four different weights that when combined together in one design project can be horrifically delightful. A branding design would be a great choice with this sans serif font. you can work with your design in color and typography alone on a solid background to create chilling effects.

Zombie Punks

Familiar elements combined with this retro font helps to capture the classic horror font in one typeface. The oozing font can be colored with any color palette by avid freelancers and still capture the essence of horror and terror. It could be a great element to an invitation or story book line with its handwritten script brush stroke.

Covenant

This font is purely graphical in nature. It captures the elements of design that the type is your design. Absolutely breaking the design rules in classic horror typefaces and breaking away from the handwritten fonts that usually plague the horror design world, this futuristic font brings the terrestrial world into the horror playing arena.

Spookhaus Horror Brush Font

Scary designs always need a clean brush stroke that builds on the element of surprise. Spookhaus works with a minimal effect of brushstroke while still working in line with other gripping fonts of the same nature. Picking up a paintbrush and creating a message on a poster or novel cover is the best use for this superscript and subscript style typeface.

Scary Things

Cartoon elements. Bold Letters. This serif font is one that utilizes capital letters to create a strong prominent feel on the page or screen. Horror stories need bold titles and this font is bold. The weight helps to make it designer-friendly for headlines, titles, and subtitles. This font could be easily used in a children’s horror storybook to be an introductory element to new horror fanatics everywhere. It is a designer’s must-have tool in the toolbox of digital design.

Creepshow

Nothing speaks horror more than something that’s worn out and leaves questions of why the typeface is fractured or eroding. Creepshow is a single true type font that works on the parameters of mystery. The typewriter style gives it a strong sense of consistency, but the interrupted appearance helps to create that chilling effect of what is missing or who has disturbed this area. Horror design is meant to have a touch of mystery and this font embodies that element. Its extra grunge helps to create a dirty, warn effect.

Death Stinger

This font looks like the picturesque design element to bone-chilling autumn projects such as haunted house media and Halloween midnight movie viewing. Harsh strokes with a slanted feature help to hold fundamental horror design at the center while boldly gripping the audience in suspense and fear. The perfect horror font to be included on this amazing list!

Nightscary

Remember ‘Scream’? Well this font is one that splatters onto the page after your ideal slasher encounter. This font is unconventional and the energetic brushstrokes help create a sense of urgency and panic that is pivotal in horror design elements.

Black Night

This is a fancy horror typeface where medieval suspense and horror collide. A designer can utilize this font in so many ways and transport you back to Transylvania immediately in the emotion, stroke, and style of this typeface.

The Night Lamp

The elements it contains from all-caps to grunge to edgy to unsettling are all packaged into one. This font helps to bring to life the historic eighties horror film feel. Cool horror fonts start with this retro classic right here.

Horror Joys

A freelance designer can use this font for suspense, graphical pull, mystery, and bold presentation in design. The additional element of blood splatters brings together the disturbing unrest a designer wants in every design. Title pages and a gripping horror movie poster font are what Horror Joys is to a tee.

Smackdead

Energetic brush strokes help to create a flame feel to this horror font. It is unsettled and creates movement through the design. Like many horror typefaces, it is all in caps again to demand attention from the audience.

Dark Graves

Children love creativity and graphical representation. This font is a cartoon font that would work perfectly in a school setting for themed events around Halloween. Horror theme-based banners are one example of how this font’s bold and thick lines could be showcased.

Chemical Machines

Pushing the limits of retro horror design, this typeface is one that can work in a monochromatic field or on that is colorized. Adding a gradient to blend down to the tips of this grunge stroke would help to accentuate the feeling of uneasiness in the design overall.

Chapters

Based on the top-selling Haze Typeface, this font is one that access to letters is limitless with horror essence. It is one that is ideal for headlines or chapter headings. The added underline built into the font gives the gravity and weight needed from these freestyle strokes.

Okami

These handcrafted letters are bold and clean cut. The individualistic aspect of this font from its hand-drawn roots helps to keep the style unique, yet creatively blends with the horror theme. This is a Japanese inspired font for the avid designer’s horror typeface collection.

Malabo

Pick up a brush and just paint with blood across the screen! This font is one that the ambiance of horror is readily available in every way this is used. Invitations, postcards, posters, and headings for a Halloween event; this font can be used in every setting. Malabo is in the classic cool horror fonts category on this list of favorites.

Horror Night

Every design theme needs a font that is tailored to the childhood horror story side of the coin. This typeface emulates slime oozing over the large, bold molded letters. Children love creativity and this font gives them an element design of horror that every graphic designer needs to pull out of their bag of tricks for a storybook or an adorable invitation for a kids Halloween party.

The Midnight

With two font files to choose from this scary font helps to bring to life a real horror scenario. This can be used more so in digital design for horror games designs on the screen to give that element of mystery and surprise. Brand designs are looking for a certain horror brush typeface that gives their project a unique look. There are just so many options and this is a great digital design element to use.

Kosan Murah

When you want something that is unstable and uncertain, this true type font is one to use. It has a fading and blotted look to it. Kosan is a horror font that is a design element all itself. When used with complementary color schemes it adds to the wheelhouse of dramatic horror designs. The splattering effect eludes to the gore that happens most often in true classic horror films.

Spookies Identity

Spookies Identity is listed on this top 45 list simply because it is bold, title-worthy horror typography at its best! As a title element used for cool posters or novel covers, it demands respect and presents a solid weighted element to the design frame. The pointed end to your title or word helps to mirror the effect of a blade in many slasher films.

Slasher Flick

Painted on the design, this handwritten horror note on any wall is the perfect font for the designer to use. It is writing with paint (or blood) in the horror design elements that leave it unsettling. The art of horror is not just the message, but how the message is left. This font’s brush strokes do just that, leaving a message in a disturbing way that captivates the audience.

Hantu

You cannot have an amazing horror design unless the font looks zombie-ish. This bold typeface pulled out the elements of oozing, creeping, and crawling effects within the design. As sticking to tradition this is a customize all-caps font that works within the elements of horror design.

Dead Night

This custom handmade typeface is one that can be used in full Halloween spirit. It is scripty yet formulaic by design. Cool posters could showcase this font for an event. Freelance designers need a go-to fun, creepy font and this font has a horror touch like no other to hit on the list of the top 45 horror fonts!

Upjohn

Extra grunge font up-and-coming right here! This demo font is one that stays true to cool horror design basics in that there are usually not lots of variations to a font. The large brush strokes and all caps are a cornerstone to fundamental horror design. It is meant to be singular in its look and custom-made for designers of horror posters or a horror movie poster font. Upjohn is bold and grabs attention even in a smaller font size so it works well as a headline on many different adaptations and sizes of products for designers.

Story Brush

Two font files both in all caps with a regular file and slanted version of the font are available to help with creative designs in the horror persuasion. The rough edges keep to that classic horror feel. This choice for horror design helps to make a bold statement with a subtitle in typography. Using one to two options of fonts to create dynamic looks while designing a specific feel, and that feel being horror here, helps this font be versatile.

Gallow Tree

Horror film poster fonts such as Gallow Tree are bold and edgy. This brush-style typeface is bold and grabs attention. Bold headlines can be created by an avid designer and its uppercase letters throughout the typeface have headline material written all over it.

Deep

This thin stroked design is freestyle and almost has a mysterious feel that these handmade letters were from a pen that bleeds too much onto the paper. With only one family and one styled look, this font would be great in horror comic books for the speaker bubble. It is easy to read, but still captures the audience by being a part of the cool horror font category!

Nightmare

This fancy horror classic is on edge and gives its own ambiance of horror within the design itself. The font has creepier characters than most because it does not follow a baseline and is fractured within the design. Definitely, a designer’s top choice to strike fear into their audience.

The Best Free Horror Fonts

Here is a short list of free font finds that every freelance designer likes to use in order to design on the fly for projects with minimal budgets. However, always be sure to check on the font usage licensing for each font you download (many fonts are free only for personal use). Every font site will have the licensing agreement attached to the font file you are interested in downloading. Creativity is priceless and typography designers work hard to bring you new and innovative design elements!

Friday13

This classic movie has a classic typeface to go with it! This horror-inspired type comes in flat, outline, and shadowed effects. This typeface is a foundational element with a horror touch for that movie poster you need to finish.

Deadly Killers

This free-for-personal-use font is an energetic design that looks to be carved out of something. It is inspired by the exorcist horror display typeface that you see in classic witchcraft and sorcery.

Feast of Flesh

The large bold brush stroke is a handmade display horror typeface that is a great header for the upcoming portion of a book. The font is not fully cartoonish, but not fully realistically grotesque. It is a bold font that can be used in many ways depending on the mood.

You Murderer

Just like this cut-to-the-chase font shows, it is truly a bleeding typeface that drips down over any design element. Designers can use this font in many ways to convey a message of foreshadowing or point-blank give the story away design for a horror flick.

True Lies

Narrow and rough with brush strokes, this font is a clean horror design font. It is one that can be used on a monochromatic canvas and give a stark contrast to a project.

28 Days Later

This sans serif font is one that mirrors the go-to Impact font but with razor cuts and aging added in for effect. These subtle lines in fading and distressing this typeface made it a great must-have for a designer on their free font list.

Plasma Drip Font

Cartoon like in nature the ooze runs down of the bold letters. This font comes in two different styles of a solid and outline option. This font is different from most horror fonts in that you have the option for lower case and upper case letters.

Final Thoughts on the Best Horror Fonts

Horror fonts are an amazing design element for designers. This list of the best horror fonts helps you to narrow down a large portion of your design planning when it comes to horror design for digital or print use. To be successful you must do your research and know your project’s emotion and meaning in order to download a mysterious typeface that fits the bill.

Remember to always check the license agreement for each font that you are interested in using. Many font sites have different levels of usage agreements for each font. Some fonts are free as you see above in our list and others you need to have a subscription. Budget is important, but never let it be the driving factor for a successful project.

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