FOF Top 38 (North) American Horror Films
Updated: Nov 22, 2022
HAUNTED HOUSES, DEMONIC POSSESSION, VAMPS, WOLVES, FOUND FOOTAGE, AND MASKED KILLERS - A 60+ YEAR LEGACY OF TERROR ON CELLULOID
SHOCKTOBER 2021 - "THE FIRST LIST" AND A TRADITION BEGUN!
I love horror films. I'll admit it. That's not to say they're my FAVORITE films, or that I love them more than, say, prestigious dramas or indie darlings. I don't. But I find them to often be way more artful than originally supposed, more inventive on smaller budgets, and including disturbing elements which somewhat obscure some of the most creative minds in the industry. Oftentimes these pictures catch nascent stars on the rise before they move on to fuller, more robust productions. Carpenter, Cronenberg, Craven. (To name 3 C's). Romero. Raimi. Tobe Hooper. Hell, even Hitchcock. They all cut their teeth in the genre. Fast forward decades and a new crop has risen with Ari Aster, Jordan Peele, and Robert Eggers today. (Now I'm practically giving away hints like Halloween candy).
So I'm not gonna defend the horror feature to you, dear internet traveler. I'd assume if you're here you either a) really like me (for some odd reason), or b) are already in on the game. "Give me the goods," you'd say. "What are the essentials?"
Leaving behind my inner compulsion to demonstrate how stately and grand these really are against the notion of them as dumb, mindless gorefests for the masculine mind in a state of arrested development, I'd say this started as a list. Candidly, I make lists concerning pieces of art all the time. Rankings and indices. This year I sat in reflection one day, and I came to this conclusion: It's unique and very cool that we have an event every year which allows for us to stop and just bask in a genre for as long as we please.
Out of these ruminations came my first Shocktober film list. As it was my first, I populated it with most of my very favorite pictures in the tradition of terror. Then, I proceeded to just start mowing through horror flicks aaaall month long (No, you WON'T find Lawnmower Man on this list). In truth, I got to a good many pictures. Others I was forced to leave behind for a subheading I called "Year 2," and so the Shocktober lists will live on.
Then it hit me, as I was starting to put a bow on the first Shocktober watchlist, I needed SOMEWHERE to put all these synaptic connections firing around in my brain. "Of course!" I soon concluded. "ANOTHER LIST!" And so here you have it, my friends. A list turned listicle. The vomitus of my inner musings on the 38 greatest horror films (with some disclaimers, which we'll get to momentarily) of all time. One for each year of my mostly UN-horrific existence on Earth.
***DISCLAIMER***
I hate to come out of the gate with some disclaimers. But, when I sat down to put a master list together, it became evident VERY early on that I needed some parameters. The scope is simply too large, the subgenres, the decades too voluminous to catch it all in one fell swoop. A narrower purview was precisely what was needed. So, with that in mind, I'll now tell you specifically some films NOT being included in my greatest horror films list. It is my sincere hope that in future years I can visit some of these and either amend the master rankings or create an entirely new article (Most Underrated/Best Little Seen Horror flicks or the like). Anyway, enough stalling.
-First, there is nothing on this list BEFORE the year 1960. Now, many may say - so what?! Well, it really depends. These rankings essentially eschew all monster movies or creature features that first brought the genre to prominence. Wolf Man, Invisible Man, Dracula, Creatures from the Black Lagoon, early Cat People to name a few. They're all OUT. (I know, it pains me too). And if you ride for Nosferatu or The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, I'm beyond sorry. Again...maybe next year.
-Second, of course this also misses a number of pictures made before 1960 which weren't of the creaturely variety. When I sent my master index to my father, his response was almost immediately along these lines. What about all the Vincent Price flicks, Nick? All the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations? I'm saving them for another day.
-Third, this catalog only contains North American films. This leaves out A TON. Bong Joon Ho's The Host, for example. A LOT of Guillermo Del Toro's work. The Orphanage and Babadook in recent years. Possession, The Vanishing, and Audition in decades past. Let the Right One In...which I'll still maintain is one of the best vampire flicks I've ever seen. At this very moment, there is incredible horror coming out of France, for instance, which deserves recognition. And I'll get there. Just not now. :)
-Fourth, given number three, this index does NOT include what some consider to be the very best foreign films. I'm talking, of course, about Italian Giallo (for "yellow," a reference to the hue of the paperbacks which were often adapted into these films). So, if you're a total stan for Dario Argento (and why wouldn't you be? Suspiria is a dominant force). Mario Bava, or the Fulci trilogy. Yeah, I see all of you. I'm just leaving you on the shelf for a rainy day.
-Fifth, I'm working with a pretty narrow definition of horror here. Supernatural entities. Ghosts. Demons. Hauntings and possession. Interactions with the undead or masked slashers. I'm NOT including psychological thrillers or serial killer tales. There are only six films that fly under the banner of "horror" which were ever nominated for Oscars. Three of them, by this criteria, will not be present in our rankings today - Jaws, Black Swan, and The Silence of the Lambs. Yes, I understand that you can make a kind of argument for each ("Isn't the shark just another creature feature?", "Silence is one of the scariest movies I've ever seen!" etc.) I get it. But to me they're not REALLY horror. Oh, by the way, the other 3 films nominated for Oscars? Yeah, you'll see them down below.
-Sixth, I just want you all to know that I'm not even acknowledging torture porn as a viable horror option for possible best of rankings. If Hostel is your thing, you do you, bro. (Or sis). I've seen a few. I gueeeeess I get the draw. But they're not for me. Consider maybe visiting a garden or walking in a park, journaling or calling a close friend if these flicks are your filet mignon. Just kidding. Kinda.
#38 The Lost Boys
When I was a kid, I spent my summers with my Pops and siblings. It was there that I discovered the great power of a hitherto unknown force - the TNT film rerun. The same few pictures shown OVER and OVER again. So, one day me and the old man happened upon Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys. Dad hit me with the perfunctory - "This is a GREAT 80's vampire flick!" and we were off and running. I had no idea at the time, of course, just how batty this one was (like much of Schumacher's other work). Or that the whole cast look like extras for an 80's hair band MTV music video. All I know is that the Corey's were dominant forces, the vampire effects and lair were cool, and the final battle was epic. Dianne Wiest slumming it doesn't get old here either, and this film contains one of my all-time favorite closing lines. It's about as FUN as horror films get.
-Check out my full review of The Lost Boys here
#37 Paranormal Activity
It was October 31st, 2008 and Laura and I had gone over to visit another young couple. After enjoying dinner and some small chitchat, we stopped over at a movie store (Yes, those still existed then). We decided to grab something scary, and walked away with a little found footage flick called Paranormal Activity. I'll be honest, my mileage varies on this type of filmmaking. When it's good (Host, Cloverfield, Unfriended, a certain film you'll see later down the list), it's really good. But often it can be a kind of shot gimmick for poor plotting and dialogue. Perhaps some of it, like all horror, depends on the amount of investment you're willing to put into the story.
In this case, I was transfixed. Paranormal had me convinced that an actual DEMON was haunting this lovely little couple in their suburban home. By two-thirds of the way through, I was up pacing the room to keep calm. I watched the terrifying final shots through splayed fingers. Then, I spent the next two nights cuddling way TOO close to my wife in bed and trying to convince her that sleeping with the light on was absolutely a fine idea for grownups. (What? Adults do it all the time). There are probably better found footage flicks out there - certainly Cloverfield is in the discussion, and I see you REC and V/H/S fans. I just haven't gotten to these yet. BUT there was none more terrifying for me than Paranormal Activity. I haven't watched it or any of its sequels since.
#36 Saw
It was a random October night my senior year of college when I picked up Saw from a local Redbox, or a kiosk like it. I sat down and watched the whole flick, glued to the screen. Then I did an odd thing...I walked around the dorm and started talking to housemates about it. I was effusive. Couldn't stop mulling over it, my mouth moving a mile a minute. An hour later I had four other guys (at least) in my room watching Saw all over again. That is STILL the only time I've ever watched a picture twice in the same day.
Saw has one of the greatest original conceits and opening sequences of any film in the terror tradition. It's a cold open of two men on opposite sides of a dark, dingy cellar-like room in a factory. Both are chained by the ankles to the walls (or pipes alongside them). In the middle lies a dead man in a pool of blood with a gun nearby. And we're off! Saw is just one heck of an announcement to the world of James Wan's talents. The film moves through flashbacks of grisly murders at the hands of a killer named Jigsaw. His kind of logic for trapping victims via their own immoral devices is enthralling. So too is the way Wan moves the camera frantically, with frequent cuts, whip pans, and a whole bag of tricks. The film is spooky, scary, and has the kind of procedural logic which drew us into incredible thrillers like Silence of the Lambs. The end reveal is an all-time banger, so good you'll question what came before and want to press play all over again.
#35 The Witch
"Wouldst thou like to live...deliciously???"
Man, what an all-star Robert Eggers has turned out to be. This debut film is a unique wonder to behold. Billed as "A New England Folktale," The Witch allows Eggers to lean into his greatest strengths. If you've not yet taken a ride aboard the Eggers Experience, I'll just say that his facility with the vernacular, with language and its peculiar dialects is entirely sui generis. Moreover, he is a master of slow-building tone and atmosphere. Due to these factors, my recommendation for your first ride is twofold: 1) Stow the phone or any other distraction. His films are short, but you'll need to be dialed into the slow simmer to get the most out of the finale's fearsome boil. 2) Turn on your subtitles. The Witch has some of the most authentic-sounding Puritanical dialogue you'll ever hear. It's downright mellifluous. It's also so particular that you could easily miss some of it.
The story is ultimately about a family in the 17th century who have migrated from England and, having been ousted by their faith community for claiming their peers were not devout enough in their Christian practice, have made their home in a farm near the woods. Unfortunately, for our protagonists, there appears to be other evils lurking in this forestland. We catch brief cutaways of what appears to be a witch consuming livestock. Soon the family's youngest, a baby, goes missing. Then the slightly older twins claim to be holding conversation with a goat they dub Black Philip. Suspicions and divisions begin to emerge between the once tight knit family, until the film cascades in a series of breathtaking episodes of violence, betrayal, and malevolence. It's a story which pits the supernatural evils outside us against the potentially repressive desire for religious perfection dwelling within. Besides housing one of the best final five minutes of any film on this list, The Witch also grants us a first look at the wondrous Anya Taylor Joy, through whose eyes we witness most of this story.
#34 Don't Look Now
I'll admit, this was a recent addition to my own mental horror encyclopedia. My first experience with the intriguing Nicolas Roeg. On the one hand, Don't Look Now moves in a pretty straightforward manner. It's a tale about a couple who recently lost their daughter to drowning and have moved to Venice in an effort to move on with their lives. Oh, did I mention that the couple are Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie? Yeah, now we're on to something.
At the time, Don't Look Now probably garnered as much attention for its almost 3 minute unbroken sex scene, which is somehow inter-spliced with the couple's movements post-coitus. Julie Christie is surely a wonder to behold, but for my own part their performances here are what are most impressive. Couple that with Roeg's fashion of storytelling, where he repeats motifs of colors and shapes - particularly the color red and a circular ball. Soon, we're meeting a blind psychic woman and time starts shifting and bending. We're disoriented as the film progresses, trying to discover whether we're viewing the present moment or a futuristic premonition. This all leads to one of the more shocking conclusions of any film, where the disparate strands of time at last fall into place. We're left a little shattered, a touch wind-blown from all that has befallen our protagonists, and most of all, curious to revisit key shots and sequences where Roeg's use of symbolism are most sharply in focus.
#33 The Howling
I'm not going to say a whole lot in this blurb, because I think my longer review linked below really captures the heart of my views on this film. But, to put it simply, most would argue that there is really only ONE significant werewolf flick in the last 50 years. And, my God no, I'm not talking about Twilight. I'm referencing a film you'll see a little later on this list. But, I would argue that Joe Dante made a little film in the same year which would challenge it in every way. An equally compelling transformation scene (actually several of them!), and remarkable makeup and effects. All in service to a story which has ghoulish werewolf attacks (in other words - it plays the hits) alongside a story that leans into the more prurient aspects of werewolf-dom. (Read: The lustful desire for flesh). Really, this is one of the great B-tinged monster movie flicks. No more, no less.
-Check out my full review of The Howling here
#32 The Ring
Simply put, this is the most harrowing theatre experience I've ever had. What would possess me, an admitted scaredy-cat for nighttime terror viewing in the dark, to see The Ring in a theater with a high school friend is beyond me. Regardless, to say this film left an impression on me would be an understatement.
There are several things that are really worthy of recommendation in this one. For starters, its source material is airtight. In fact, I think it could be argued pretty convincingly that the Japanese film, Ringu, upon which this is based is an even better work. But, as I've said previously, placing it here would be inauthentic to my own viewing experience. Beyond this, the film utilizes jump scares and stealth kills to maximal effect. Yet, to my mind, the single greatest device of The Ring is the VHS tape at its center. Its mandate is pretty clear: You watch it. You pass it on. Or you die. So the film expands out from that point, shows some crazy images of a house and a well, and ends with one of the craziest moments you'll ever see on celluloid. (No spoilers beyond this hint - it involves a TV set). There's nothing creepier than young girls with their hair obscuring their face. The Ring learned this well from another film higher on our list.
#31 The Brood
Again, I'll give deference to my fuller review on this one. If you didn't know it before - Hi, I'm Nick. I'm a Cronenberg stan. The Brood finds Crone at a particularly delectable moment. He's cut his teeth on a couple low budget horror flicks which are great in their own right (think Shivers, Rabid), but with The Brood he really starts to find his sea legs. He brings along his crew, most notably his scorer, and takes full advantage of the bigger budget he's given this time around.
The result is a film which is a masterclass in tone and atmosphere. Incredible cinematography contributes toward this end. Oliver Reed gives a stunning turn as the doctor, and Cronenberg is back to his wily tricks of examining the connections between mind and the corporal body. In this case, it's about psychic energy, inner RAGE, and it's demented physical manifestations. And what a wild, jaw-dropping finale it is when those concepts collide in the denouement.
-Check out my full review of The Brood here (But be warned, there are spoilers in the final paragraph)
#30 The Wicker Man
The original Wicker Man is a kind of wonder. It's a film that seems to be one thing, something that we would know all too well, but so subverts and turns familiar tropes on their head that it leaves us in all new territory. We think we're getting a missing persons tale, complete with a devoutly Christian, Scottish police detective coming to save the day. He will take down those crazy neo-pagans who appear entirely peaceful and convivial, but give responses that are just a little TOO rote. The Wicker Man is a film that could have only been made in the time in which is was released. It took the elements of the day and set them ablaze.
This film is really about a collision of worldviews. The constable Howie is a chaste believer in the old Christian tradition. The occupants of this little island, aptly named Summerisle, however, are total hippies on celluloid. They challenge popular conventions, embracing nature worship, practicing sexual fertility rites in broad daylight, and engage in all other manner of occult behaviors. On the one hand, The Wicker Man is a kind of folktale. On the other, it's a daytime occult thriller. Standing watch over this clash of value systems is the powerful Lord Summerisle, played just chillingly by Christopher Lee. Summerisle disputes both the convenience and depth of Sergeant Howie's faith, sending his daughter as a kind of siren temptress, and decrying the Christian God as dead. Soon the clash of ideas and person reaches its apex in perhaps the darkest ending of any film in history.
#29 Friday The 13th
Alright, I'll admit it. Of all the masked murderers, Jason is my least favorite. His stories just feel the most hacky (no pun intended) and inane of all of the franchises. Fortunately for me and those like me, the original Friday the 13th is quite unlike its progeny. I'm not sure that it's a great movie, even as it mimics another film which came just a few years before it, but we can say pretty positively that this was the spark that ignited the blaze of slasher flicks which followed in its wake. It does have its own allures, with its quaint, woodsy setting of Camp Crystal Lake. The lake's bucolic serenity stands in contrast to the superstitious belief of many locals that campers who show up often disappear and meet grisly ends.
This, of course, doesn't stop five young, vibrant, prurient teenagers from starting up a camp (this won't be the last time we hear this trope on our list) next to old Crystal Lake. One of these crazy kids just happens to be a very game and randy Kevin Bacon, years before he turned on the dance moves. Soon, the youth are getting laid and getting laid out, which is to say, hacked, stabbed, etc. The first Friday the 13th is actually quite light on the Jason character, and it may just be better for it. Whatever else can be said about this film positively or negatively, it's ending is one of the all-time "Oh no, they didn't's!"
#28 Fright Night
I put this one in the same class as The Lost Boys, i.e. an awesome vampire flick from the mid '80's. Probably the worst thing Fright Night has going for it is the godawful remake with Colin Ferrell that came decades later. But the original has none of that self-serious, hamfisted brow beating. It sends up all of these vampire tropes delightfully, sometimes even with tongue firmly planted in cheek. In a way, it's a response to the slasher flicks which were beginning to take center stage in horror culture. Fright Night recognizes that all the old vampire tropes have begun to appear prim to modern audiences. So what's it do? It sends them up! The closest line to a thesis in the film reads as follows- "The kids today don't have the patience for vampires. They want to see some mad slasher running around and chopping off heads."
This is found on the mouth of a vampire hunter, who is a clear Vincent Price callback. But the real star here is Chris Sarandon, who makes explicit the sangfroid and even sexiness more latent in the Dracula character. The machinations of plot and story are established pretty early on in this one - begging the question, what do you do when you're just an awkward, hormonal teenager and a vampire moves in next door? Moreover, how do you respond when said vampire is just about the coolest cat in town, and he parades all of his devious activities around in broad daylight?! In William Ragsdale's case you get some assistance from an entirely game Roddy Mcdowell. In ours, well, I guess you just sit back and enjoy the ride.
-Check out my full review of Fright Night here
#27 The Descent
The elevator pitch for The Descent goes simply enough - So you have a few friends who decide to explore a cave. The trouble is that these particular subterranean spaces happen to house some truly freaky looking, monstrous humanoid creatures. What this fails to mention, however, is the most important detail of them all - all of the hikers are women. Now, this is not some woke declaration. Go perusing the interwebs for all-female horror casts, I dare you. You simply won't find it. They don't exist. Yet here we have a masterful ensemble, full of complex, fully orbed feminine tough girls who find themselves in a fight for their lives.
The performances may be what elevate The Descent to horror heights in direct opposition to the depths to which these caverns, um, descend. But the work of director Neil Marshall is equally deserving of praise. First, he has created a truly claustrophobic world. The further the ladies descend, the tighter the corridors become, and with they're constriction comes a tightening in our own chests. With each drudging step, palpable dread heightens, and we grow more certain that disaster is inevitable. Second, because the characters are so well drawn, we get into the psychological differences and one upmanship of the ladies at the film's center. We watch them unravel as the apprehension seeps in. And finally, well this one just becomes a great old-fashioned creature feature under the ground! It's simply one of the best horror flicks of the last quarter century.
#26 It Follows
It Follows just has so many different things going for it. For starters, it's kind of an STD monster in its own unique way. The film takes the oldest horror trope in the book, namely the fact that most of these babies start with a young couple rolling around together and sends it to the moon. "It" in the story is a nameless evil. When you do the horizontal polka, it comes for you. It stalks you in the night and even in the day. It can take the form or presence of any human being who happens to be near you. It's the ubiquitous killer. And the only way to stop it is to...you guessed it..."pass it on." We're not talking about VHS tape watching a la The Ring here. Oh no. This calls for more copulation all the way. (#STDmonster. See, I told you).
To this INSANE conceit, David Robert Mitchell adds an incredible color palette and pulsating synth score. The picture is captured in these hues of blue and darker shades which make even the daytime scenes terrifying. In my fuller review (linked just below), I do some deconstruction of how you mold the perfect villain. I'll just say in this brief space that I think It Follows does it better than just about any other film around. When any nameless face can pick up the chase at any moment and pursue you, having the speed to get away ceases to be a viable option. Where do you go when the whole world seems to be coming for you, and all you can do is watch in horror as they "run" you down?
-Check out my full review of It Follows here
#25 The Amityville Horror
Truthfully, I have a love/hate relationship with this film. I thought #25 was a nice spot for it, because that's a number for a big reputation. And that is exactly what The Amityville Horror has going for it. Amityville may be the very biggest in a long lineage of "Oh no, there's something wrong with the house!" films. Moreover, one of the biggest things in its favor was the real life story which surrounded that town and home. What the audience was supposed to be getting was the tale of a demon in a house driving a young couple and their children away in terror. What Amityville is instead is a horse of a different color.
In typical Hollywood fashion, this ordinary couple is portrayed by the strapping James Brolin sporting one of the all-time perm-like mops (or is it a bouffant?) and Margot Kidder off a real Superman heater. The film wants to be really scary, but instead it's mostly pretty staid. Rather than offering a kind of gritty portrayal tied to the realism of the headline news story, Amityville often turns to the theatrical. This is accomplished by the two leads, to be sure, but also MOST emphatically by Rod Steiger as a besieged priest in a hanging chad of a side plotline if ever there was one. So why is Amityville even here, you say? Well, I respect tradition, and quite frankly this film got their first in a lot of ways. More importantly, this flick just goes for it. Steiger overacts in each and every scene he's in, Kidder dials up the hysterics, and Brolin looks tremendous as an ashen chia. But most of all, there are several sequences (bees, anyone?) which stick with you and a finale which is simply FIRE. And that's enough, in my book.
-Check out my full review of The Amityville Horror here
#24 The Sixth Sense
Whenever anyone talks about The Sixth Sense, they start at the end. And, if we're honest, it's really no wonder that this is the case. This film contains the single greatest "Oh shit!" end reveal of any film since Psycho. It is at the same time SO disorienting and SO clarifying that it leaves our minds jumbled like a ball of yarn. "What did I just see?!" we ask ourselves. Then we resist the urge to press play all over again.
So yeah, dang it, I did what everyone else does with this one. But where I actually want to start is at the BEGINNING. This film opens on a Nolan Ryan fastball that sets the scene for the rest of the entire film. People can say what they will about M. Night, his writing, style, whatever, but he reveals himself to be a maestro of tone and suspense in the course of this film. And it starts from the very first frames. I'll add to this that the film features a number of powerful performances from Bruce Willis, of course, to Toni Collette as a mother desperately trying to assist her ailing son. Speaking of the son, Haley Joel Osmont's performance is among the very best child actors you'll see on this list or anywhere. Beyond that, The Sixth Sense is just, well, scary! It features several remarkable sequences which are truly chilling - from undead in an attic of sorts, to a kid suffering under Munchhausen's, and the aforementioned, jaw-dropping finale. M. Night always dreamed of being like Old Alfred Hitchcock, and with The Sixth Sense, he may have come the very closest to touching that greatness.
#23 An American Werewolf in London
What do you get when you cross the director of Animal House and Blues Brothers with a creepy tale about backpackers wandering the British countryside? Well, you get a film that is uproarious and petrifying in equal measure. It is almost (well, see #19 below) the only film on this list which boasts such a delicate balance. (Sidenote: I often sit and wonder if it was in watching this performance that Marty decided to cast Griffin Dunne in After Hours a few years later. Maybe you know. I'm not looking it up). In any case, the story really takes shape after the two men are attacked by a werewolf. While David Naughton manages to escape the ordeal with some of himself intact, Dunne is not so lucky.
As luck would have it though, Dunne's character begins re-emerging in Naughton's dreams. So An American Werewolf offers viewers sights of silly hallucinations and gnarly ghosts. The film is rightly lauded for its special effects and makeup (Read: Baker, Rick), seen most notably in the transformation scene to end all transformation scenes. But I think it's greatest delights are in the peculiarity of its "comedy horror" sensibilities.
#22 Hereditary
Well, you know what they say about families and demonic possession? Oh, you don't? You'd better pull up a chair and watch Ari Aster's Hereditary stat. I've always felt like Aster was the filmmaker who made horror pics for artheads. His eye is just unbelievable. The work of cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski is really pretty spectacular here. So many shots are so terrifying, even without being complete jump scares, that it's easy to miss how well conceived, staged, and executed they are. These sequences are, in fact, like the perfect little miniature dollhouse scenes that Toni Collette's character constructs as means of income in the story. Welded tightly to that visual prowess is an absolutely haunting score from Colin Stetson.
It probably seems odd to say this, but this really is one of Collette's more moving performances. See, as the plot progresses, it seems the Graham family is under siege by dark forces intent on ripping apart the very threads that bind them. One sequence captures an untimely death in eidetic detail. Another a faceoff with a vision of a darker, more sinister altered self. Ann Dowd offers tremendous support to the proceedings, as with her assistance, Annie Graham begins to untangle her often hermetic, recently deceased mother's former connections to the outside world. But the real kicker here is the film's finale, where the demonic and occult-like finally comes center stage, and we at last gain clarity on all the goings on of the Graham family. Here's a hint: It's batsh*t crazy! These final moments are just about as high art as the sickly lowdown can ever get.
#21 Rosemary's Baby
Here lies one of the OG's. They just don't make horror films like Rosemary's Baby anymore. You know, ones with long runtimes that move at a slow to moderate pace. The film features a story that is a tad soapy, a touch urbane in its high society apartment trappings, and also tinged with cult-like practices. Above all, it signified what the coming New Hollywood would be willing to do to break free of old methods of storytelling.
So here we have young Mia Farrow, giving a pretty transcendent performance. She is tender, innocent, and vulnerable. Inundated with dreams which perhaps portend a ghastly future for the offspring in her womb, Farrow's Rosemary Woodhouse begins suspecting foul play. Indeed, it is her descent into paranoia which is the film's crowning achievement. Still, this picture is also buttressed by John Cassavetes, as Rosemary's struggling husband, and Ruth Gordon (in an Oscar winning role) as one of the couple's offbeat, nosy neighbors. In time, Rosemary's Baby reaches a fever pitch as the world crumbles around the titular character. Fortuitously for us, Polanski's shining debut suffers no such fate.
#20 The Blair Witch Project
More than any other film on this list, the backstory behind The Blair Witch Project is as much a part of its legacy as the scenes it contains. It was the ultimate word of mouth film. After all, that's how "word" spread in '99. I remember it well. I was 16 and working a summer job at an Office Max. One of my co-workers turned to me one day and was like, "Yo. Have you seen this new Blair Witch?! It's craaaaazy." We kept talking, him gesticulating wildly as he recalled a few scenes, and I'll never forget how he concluded the convo - "They got REAL FOOTAGE, man. This was a real trip in the woods that went nuts." He looked me dead in the eye, full on whites showing in his, and then strode away.
No kid in 2021 would get it. The internet was up and running in '99, but social media did not have every angle of every story sussed out the moment news broke. Avoiding spoilers without hiding under a rock was a genuine possibility. So, thousands of young adults and teens like me wandered into theaters wondering just what in the world they were seeing. For my part, I didn't see it until later with my best friend on home video. I recall by that time, we were pretty sure this was all fake. But there was enough doubt to keep it interesting. It's a good thing too, because once you get past this groundbreaking new way of storytelling, the flick itself is quite frankly pretty meh. It's mostly just 3 teens in the woods making incredibly stupid choices and cursing a lot. But it does pick up steam, has its harrowing moments (tent camping would never be the same for me), and packs a wallop at the finish. With Blair Witch, found footage was born to the world.
#19 Evil Dead II
The formula that Sam Raimi uses for Evil Dead II is pretty much unstoppable. In the first 5 minutes of the sequel, he essentially retcons the first movie with a prettier girlfriend character and then moves the story forward. Only he doesn't do precisely that. More characters enter the story - a kind of dumb jock boyfriend, a very smart woman whose father did research in demonology, and another couple featuring a hick and a young damsel - but they are really just archetypes of the same characters from the first film. So, with Dead II, what Raimi has actually done is shot a remake of his own original with truckfuls more money, better special effects and makeup, hilarious stop-motion claymation additions, and a tone which is incredibly knowing and winking.
For most of the runtime of this one, this is really Ash vs. all the deadites. But Raimi shows his cards early on when said gorgeous gf from the first film walks out of her grave as a claymation skeleton and pirouettes around the forest. This immediately runs into an extended scene where Bruce Campbell battles his own possessed hand, in a slapstick sequence which would have made Harpo Marx proud. This film never stops being dramatic and kind of scary, as one deadite after another enters the fray. But, it's equally hilarious with its physical gags and slapstick elements. The gore effects mirror this extravagance as well. One scene features a character who gets consumed by a greedy she-demon, only to have such copiously absurd blood spew out of him that it HAS to be played for laughs. What you have in the end is a film that is perched perfectly between an original that was cheaply terrific and spooky in its own indie ways and a third film which goes full ham. To my mind, it's the best of the bunch.
#18 The Thing
Have we gathered that I'm a John Carpenter homer yet? Look, I know the dude had his flops here and there, but there is just no getting around how masterfully directed a film like The Thing is. It's a pretty quintessential example of what big budget horror looks like in the era of 80's blockbusters. The special effects were cutting edge (if not AHEAD of the game) then, and stand the test of time now. Big actors like Kurt Russell bring gravitas to the proceedings. The film was scored by none other than Ennio Morricone, for goodness sake! *Blown mind emoji* It's the cream of the crop in music, makeup, production design and effects wedded to a director who's dark and stately atmosphere broods over the whole production.
Sure, you say, but is the sum greater than the whole of its parts? In other words, is the film itself captivating? Again, I'd argue in the affirmative. I haven't yet even brought up what I consider to be this picture's greatest asset, namely its setting in a claustrophobic base in the Arctic Circle. This is such a unique locale to tell a story like this, and it makes the feelings of building tension and palpable dread all the more palatable. What's more there is a mystery at the heart of The Thing which Carpenter navigates expertly. We catch glimpses of the being without ever grasping the whole picture. There are visual enigmas everywhere as the camera roams from corridor to corridor. Still, it's the transformation sequences that ultimately take the cake. With The Thing, Carpenter and Russell crafted a solid tale of relentless suspense and grand mystery.
#17 The Cabin in the Woods
If I'm being honest, The Cabin in the Woods may be one of the ten most creative films I've ever seen. No exaggerations here. The film starts one way, has an entirely loaded middle reveal which knocks the wind right out of us. And THEN, when we think we're finally on level ground, this small contained story gets MYTHICALLY large. I'm talking downright Lovecraftian here. I dare not say more for fear I'll spoil it for those who are yet uninitiated to this film's grand power.
To backtrack just a bit then, the "one way" the film starts is with five teens heading off to a remote cabin in, you guessed it, the woods (sound familiar? See #19 and #29). Which is to say, the film begins with horror tropes galore. Except here, rather than attempting to eschew or evade them, it hits them head on. It's an entirely self-aware piece of fiction that smacks us in the face with the history of horror like Moe winding up on Larry. This is apropos too, because Cabin is downright funny at times. Then, we meet the men behind the machine. Only here our Oz stand-ins are none other than studs Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins. (Did I mention one of the "teens" was Thor himself before all that MCU business?) As the film opens up, it becomes a playground for monsters and creatures in a way you would never expect. For some, I suppose, Cabin could just be a little too heavy on parody and imitation, never making its own statement in any meaningful way. But for me, nah, you had me at Cthulhu.
#16 The Fly
This list would not be complete without a nice healthy helping of body horror, and David Cronenberg is simply the master of this delicacy. The Fly is a pretty special picture to me. It's another of those odd treats that I share affection for with my father. (More on why I think this is so in a moment). The 80's was a time of blockbusters and big budgets, as we've stated previously. It was also a period of dragging old pictures forward and giving them more modern, souped up updates. The Fly is no exception, and while Vincent Price is certainly a horror icon if there ever was one, Jeff Goldblum is next level great in this picture. It's Goldblum's ability to imbue this film with his patented brand of wry, gallows humor alongside authentic feeling that is its masterstroke.
The Fly is rightly regarded as one of the last bastions of practical effects in horror cinema. It does, after all, have some of the most gnarly, gory makeup and effects you'll ever see. I also love Goldblum as Brundle, bringing this feverish energy, and, over time, gaining heightened abilities as he merges with the insect. But I think this is also exceptional as a kind of character study of a scientist trying to finally get his teleportation device off the ground, and a couple who are navigating life together. I often end my watch of The Fly with some version of the following reflection: How we can find pathos in a creature who vomits insect acid is a testament both to Geena Davis and Goldblum as performers and Cronenberg's skill in creating a monster flick with genuinely tragic notes. I'm not sure if that's exactly why my Pops digs this one, but I'll be sure to ask him when he makes his own list. :)
#15 A Nightmare On Elm Street
Since I VERY recently penned the full review of this film, I'm going to mostly refer you to it here. What follows is excerpts from the fuller text, spliced up like a few of Freddy's victims:
I would essentially avow that slasher flicks, in general, aren't all that great. BUT...this really was not so in the beginning. The films that birthed the movement were often unimpeachable. The first Halloween in ’78 is one of the greatest horror films ever made, for instance. And six years later, into the foggy, oddly-hued textures of our nightmares came A Nightmare on Elm Street. Nightmare has just the right amount of 80’s pastiche. Its score is both of the time, and in being so firmly located, nostalgically transcendent. Craven’s use of practical effects at various moments are duly impressive, rivaling contemporaries like Carpenter. (Yes, I’m aware that parts of the production and scripting are amateurish. To me, Nightmare’s lack of polish only adds to its charm).
The dream angle opened up new vistas for haunting and suspense, and a couple of the kills remain lodged in my cranium forever. (R.I.P. Tina, you of the ceiling slashing). Moreover, this whole “the kids are smart and know what’s really going on while the adults hide in their drunken, suburban stupor” satirical theme courses through the film’s veins. Which is to say, it’s smart. It’s original. In fact, in crafting its villain as a child murderer somehow risen from the dead, wearing a hat and bladed gloves, and hunting down the young in their dreams, it really shouldn’t work at all. But somehow it does. In truth, it works majestically. The fact that other films down the line would dilute this one does not take away one bit from its pure essence.
-Check out my full review of A Nightmare on Elm Street here
#14 Poltergeist
So, I'll run the formula one more time: What do you get when you cross the man behind Texas Chain Saw with one of the greatest 80's family/action directors of all time (occupying a producer role here)? You guessed it, Poltergeist. And I would argue that it's in the unique admixture of Tobe Hooper's more grotesque sensibilities with Steven Spielberg's deft touch in adventure, family yarns, and pop entertainment that this film gets its impeccable charms. Are there really fun haunted house movies? Hooper and Spielberg respond with an emphatic yes. The ingredients are all there: Just an average American family in suburban California purchasing their new dream home. It's 1982, and Spielberg is here. We must be getting a kind of E.T. sibling, right? Um, no.
Sure, all is well and good until the little girl Carol Ann (an impressive turn by Heather O'Rourke) stares enthralled at a blank TV screen. The episodes involving the "TV people" are innocuous enough at first. Moving objects, rattling some walls. But soon things turn rather malevolent. When the girl goes missing, the heat gets turned up on the proceedings. A parapsychologist gets called in as back up, Jo Beth Williams does her best Nadia Comaneci in a t-shirt and underwear on the walls and ceiling of the house, and dark apparitions begin to make an appearance. (Damn you, freaky clown!) Soon revelations about the plot of land where the home resides come to bear, and the greatest asset of all enters the fray - the most unique exorcist you will ever see. Tangina Barons (what a name) portrayed by the effervescent Zelda Rubinstein (what a better name!) should go down in horror lore forever. Her little hand triangle, shouts of gooo toooo thee light, and the slick rescue operation she concocts involving doors to other realms and connective objects just send Poltergeist to the stratosphere. This film is about as fun as terrifying gets. They're here.
#13 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Speaking of Tobe Hooper and the most commonly misspelled film title of all time (Who the hell spells chainsaw as TWO WORDS?!), this might be the most disturbing film on the entire list. Hmm. Well, top 3 at least. What struck me on my most recent watch was how little exposition is given here. There is no background on the family, no motivation for violence. No psychological profile or offense deserving retribution. As Ebert noted at the time, "It's simply an exercise in terror." So, Hooper should be applauded for his gritty, relentless tone throughout the proceedings.
What then is the point of Texas Chain Saw? Well, it's a fair question, on the one hand. The trouble is that it's just exceptionally well made. The actors are just these kids in the woods kind of tropish thing, but they are actually pretty terrific. Once you enter the house of horrors, the production design will blow you away. Skin covered walls, animal and human bones displayed as oddly ordered artistic creations. The Ed Gein Museum (the killer on which this was apparently based) houses some real life artifacts which are of the same caliber. (Google it. Just have a warm shower ready). The sound design is equally compelling. The final 15 minutes are aurally abrasive (My God, will this girl stop screeching!), which is of course entirely effective. They're also suspenseful and captivating as we wonder if this final girl will escape the horrors of Leatherface and his misfit, mentally deficient kin seeking to cannibalize her alive.
#12 Scream
It's soooo meta, man.
Yeah, I know how lame it sounds. The trouble is, in this case it's entirely true. Scream is almost wholly a work of metafiction, and it's in many's failure to view it through this lens that it gets discarded as the beginning of just another wave of slasher flicks. See, the characters in Scream actually know horror films. They've seen them. They talk about them, using in-jokes and gags which are downright funny at times. They know, for example, the main girl should stay away from her boyfriend's advances, because only the virginal make it through these ordeals alive. They advise partygoers not to go off alone, because those are the times when no one comes back. Yet, there is a masked killer on the loose here, and Scream is also a quite violent, intrepid affair.
I would shout out the opening scene with Drew Barrymore as a masterclass in both homage and subversion here. Everyone knows what's supposed to happen with leads, and the staging and device of the phone call is just epic stuff. In fact, it becomes clear early on that Craven is just having a blast with us. He'll cue the horror strings and block shots in such a way that we can't see when a killer is entering the scene, only of course to show that there wasn't any danger. Until there is. Soon absolutely everyone is a suspect, and old Wes red herrings us to death by weaving plot strands around one another. So look, yeah sure maybe it's not an all-time pantheon great. But Scream is smart, stylish, extremely well executed, and introduces a whole new stalker with an awesome mask to the next generation.
#11 Midsommar
When the credits of Hereditary began to roll, I knew we had a master film craftsman on our hands. By the end of Midsommar, I was convinced Ari Aster was a generational wunderkind. My goodness this is a great film! For starters, it's an introduction to the world of the multitudinous talents of Florence Pugh. She carries this picture from bow to stern, and it is all the better for it. Midsommar, on the one hand, is entirely indebted to The Wicker Man and other folk horror tales. Yet it stands alone on its own merits as well. I've never seen a picture which so manages to disturb and terrify while being shot entirely in broad daylight. Plot basics: A young American couple whose relationship is on the rocks decides to take a trip together to participate in a renowned Swedish summer festival, in a land of pastoral bliss. What could go wrong?
Well, an awful lot, as it would turn out. But not at first, of course. First there must be some disorientation. In Midsommar, some hallucinogenic drugs with some hippie-like figures fits the bill nicely. (Some of the best cinematography you'll ever see). Then, you must witness a truly disturbing pagan ritual. Soon, all it will take is a slight turn, as our once jovial festival organizers just click that certain air of malevolence into place. Aster takes his great time with this process, stretching out the film's horrors over 2+ hours runtime. The finale, when we at last arrive, is a series of episodes each more unsettling than the last. I note in my lengthier review linked below that the great revelation of this film for me was hearing Aster claim that he was just trying to dress up a classic rom com break up tale in folk horror raiment. (Read THAT sentence twice). The picture even has a "wrong guy" under her nose and a "dream hunk" waiting in the wings. In the end, whether you look at it from this or any other lens, Midsommar is a devastating masterpiece.
-Check out my full review of Midsommar here
#10 The Conjuring
Now, at last we arrive at the top 10, and the film which really prompted me to create this master list in the first place. My best bud (the same mentioned in the Blair Witch review) recently sat down to finally watch The Conjuring, a picture I had been RAVING about for months. His reaction? Eh. I was at once crushed by the demise of a picture I had grown to so love, and galvanized to defend my position and to present in sparkling detail the many merits of this great work. I'll start with a bold claim - The Conjuring is an amalgam, a kind of irreplicable mashup. A triumphant culmination of nearly 50 years of horror cinema.
The Conjuring is Amityville with better effects, much richer characterization, and solid dialogue to boot. It mashes this and many other haunted house pictures up against the likes of demonic possession a la The Exorcist, and in the course of its telling, The Conjuring utilizes found footage moments to heighten suspense and enhance scares. James Wan, the director, is in fact the master of jump scares. This film has a great many of them, from clapping hands to the pulled legs of children abed. The director also employs a tremendous plot device here - namely the introduction of a boarded up, hidden room which hides many maleficent secrets. This mirrors, in fact, a similar room found in the home of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Oh I forgot to mention the Warren's, played expertly by Patrick Wilson and the inimitable Vera Farmiga (let me catch my breath for a second). The Conjuring capitalized on that new trend in horror, whereby A List actors took on critical roles and punched up the film's heft. Finally, of course this film is deftly scored and edited. The shot staging is remarkable (after all, that's what is MOST required in the realm of jump scares). The acting is great, particularly that of Lili Taylor as the poor maternal figure undergoing a possession. In the end, The Conjuring really doesn't do anything new. But everything it does, it does exceptionally well.
-Check out my full review of The Conjuring here
#9 The Omen
If you had asked me as a teen or young adult to give my ultimate Mt. Rushmore of horror flicks, The Omen would have certainly made the grade. BUT, I have to say, on my most recent rewatch, it has slipped a little in my mind. The Omen too has fallen prey to the erosion of time (read: feels dated). The picture runs a little long at over two hours, has a middle section that really drags, and is maybe a little too obsessive about its internal religious codes, symbology, and demonology. It is frankly light on makeup, scares, violence and blood for a picture about the son of the Dark One.
But as I racked my brain for what held it so long in my mind's eye, I kept coming back to the word "indelible." The Omen sticks with you. For one, it utilizes a fabulous narrative device whereby a photographer following the family sees supernatural images foretelling the future demise of those pictured. More importantly, the film features a young director in Richard Donner who was really starting to find himself. After this he would rattle off Superman, The Goonies, and the Lethal Weapon films in the next decade plus. Donner gives this film its greatest strength, namely a breathtaking way of staging a kill. There are no less than five deaths in this film which I just said was not that violent (can I take that back now?), and every one of them is so memorable you're unlikely to have amnesia about them anytime soon. Hangings, decapitation, defenestration. I'll spoil no more, but they are all...awesome! And so is this flick, one of the horror keepsakes which remain dear to me.
-Check out my full review of The Omen here
#8 Get Out
Jordan Peele just has all of the horror filmmaking chops. Get Out is a film with worlds to say that somehow manages to be a preternaturally triumphant frightfest. Its conceit is as simple and common as time immemorial: The boyfriend travels home to meet the girl's family. Of course, in this picture there is the added depth of an interracial couple. So, we've just got a Guess Who's Coming to Dinner rehash, right? Wrong. Things start feeling off pretty early on in this one. Sure, the all white Armitage family is incredibly warm and accepting, fully woke, and as liberal as they come. "I would have voted for Obama for a third term," says the father, played just chillingly by Bradley Whitford.
But something just isn't right. Why are all the grounds workers and menial jobs around the estate occupied by black folks? And why do they talk like they're from an entirely different era in American history? What Daniel Kaluuya's character endures in Get Out (and us along with him as the viewer) is simply bewildering and bizarre. Peele does this magisterial thing where each mounting scene has its own moments of cringe and fear, BUT each sequence also plays as just a silly happenstance from an uninformed population. Consequently what happens is the film doles out reveals along the way rather than saving it all for one ending blast. In so doing, we're able to take in both the film's story of terror alongside its rich social critique, namely Peele's reflection that racism can exist in all manners of subtle ignorance and is not concentrated solely in those of one political persuasion. Oh yeah, and what a hypnotism sequence, right?!
-Check out my full review of Get Out here
#7 Night of the Living Dead
C'mon Nick! This is a TOTAL reputation pick to have this old clunker in the top 10, right??! Well...sorta. But then again, maybe not. I'm well aware that people like their zombies prepared about as many different ways as their steak at this point (speaking of a desire for meaty flesh). Some of you prefer yours lightning fast (28 Days Later), others witty and amusing (Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead), and still others capable of city zoning planning (whatever Zack Snyder is cooking up lately). I respect that. But the fact remains, none of those films are possible if this small little cheap, inside production never gets off the ground in 1968. It's a wonder that it got made in the first place, and a wonder that it still stands as an effective thriller today all the more. (See full review below for more on this).
The thing I love the most about Night of the Living Dead is actually a fortuitous happenstance, namely it's quasi-documentary feel. George Romero, a western PA kid with a few cheap cameras and a dream, just didn't have enough dough to make this look professional. So he shot in low light, in black and white, in basically one extended setpiece. He also cast his own friends in key parts. He was so ahead of the curve of realistic horror and found footage that he practically lapped the field. Moreover, he proved himself a master of mood and tone. Say what you will about Night feeling "dated," but the boarded up house never stops feeling creepy and claustrophobic. There is also real gore and explosions in the film to boot. But perhaps what is most impressive of all is Romero's introduction of social critique which gets baked in to the zombie genre moving forward. Our hero, after all, is a blameless, cerebral, African American man who comes under attack not simply by the undead outside, but the other humans dwelling within. Think this packed a wallop in 1968? I do. And zombie movies thereafter have been as much about the humans standing off against one another as the nameless, hordes of undead seeking to destroy them.
-Check out my full review of Night of the Living Dead here
#6 Psycho
Quick, rack your brain for a second: Where were you when you first saw Psycho? My guess is (now please don't let this logic feel too morbid) - this question is a bit like asking Boomers where they were when they heard about JFK or millennials the same about 9/11. The point is...this film hangs with you. It probably ranks number 1 on the disturbing picture list. I was racking my brain, trying to figure out what I could say new about a film which holds 60 years of reflections written by smarter folks than me. I couldn't come up with much, beyond this most basic thing: viewing Psycho is a kind of soul-stirring, terrifying ordeal. The film is famed, of course, for its shower scene (reek! reek! reek!), for upending convention by killing off the lead on the poster, and for cinema's greatest shock twist ending. But honestly, it is so much more than that. It's a great FILM. Period.
With Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock brought art and craftsmanship to the horror genre. He showed a mastery of the form in the way he staged shots and utilized scoring to heighten tension. It's a technically brilliant picture. It's also one heck of a character study on the great villain Norman Bates (a terrific performance by Anthony Perkins) and a stirring mystery to boot. I begun this blurb by asking you to recall your first viewing of Psycho. I end by asking about any subsequent ones. It's my suspicion that for multiple reasons, many never get to this point. You know who's behind the killing. Being freaked out once is enough. You don't have time for that dumb expository therapist ending, etc, etc. But it's really on second watch where you can start to notice the little stuff. As I've been saying, just how well MADE this is, and how it is pitched for maximal suspense and impact. That, I think, may be the ultimate shock of them all - that a film 60+ years old can live on, survive multiple viewings, and is so well-crafted it remains as vital and relevant today as the day Hitch sicced it on unsuspecting viewers all over the world.
#5 Alien
Perhaps this feels like an odd choice to some. Is Alien really a horror movie? I think it is, but what throws many off the scent of this film is the franchise as a whole. I believe it can be argued convincingly that Ridley Scott's original Alien is a masterclass in sci fi horror. This is not the case, however, for James Cameron's sequel. That is a film which is much bigger, more militaristic, and indebted to action story beats. Kind of like Patton with aliens, if I'm being honest.
This is NOT the case with the first film though. Alien is a mono y mono showdown, helmed by a director who's a master at staging suspense. Ridley Scott utilizes dark corners of the ship, stalking camera movements, and an unknown antagonist to create dread in his viewers. This film has some of the same enclosed space paranoia that we've already noted in other horror pics like The Descent and The Thing above. Of course those films did not have a face hugger, or a character named Ash, who may not be exactly who he claims to be. Most of all, what Alien has going for it is...well, the alien. Designed by the cream of the crop in the world of the "biomechanical," HR Giger, the massive creature is truly terrifying. It works its way through a crew of blue collar toughies (which are some awesome character actors in their own right) until it meets the best action heroine final girl the world will ever see - Ellen Ripley. It's in that epic showdown between the gritty Sigourney Weaver and the terror in space that Alien soars like the Nostromo ship in which the film is set.
-Check out my full review of Alien here
#4 Carrie
Speaking of Psycho, Brian De Palma's Carrie opens on one heck of an update on the terrifying shower scene. This time around, however, it's Carrie White in the crosshairs. She's alone and suffering in blood, also her own, but this time it's high school, her first menstruation, and her classmates are all laughing at her. While doing so, they pelt her with tampons. So we get our first look at Sissy Spacek in one of the all-time great horror film performances. She is terrified, helpless, and withering in fear at what she's encountered. Yet, when she arrives home, she finds even more terrors in the form of her overbearing, obsessively pious, and downright abusive mother. (Yes, Piper Laurie is unreal too in this role). And so Carrie is a very unsettling affair, which operates on multiple levels at the same time. Eventually some good begins happening around Carrie, as the jock with a kind heart, Tommy, asks her to the prom (at the behest of his girlfriend, of course).
On the one hand, Carrie is a kind of coming of age tale, exploring things like teen angst and brutal high school cruelty. On the other, the titular heroine begins demonstrating telekinetic abilities, opening up the film as a playground for supernatural powers. Beyond these things, several scenes have just become a part of the popular culture lexicon, like Laurie crying "THEY'RE ALL GONNA LAUGH AT YOU" and a certain bucket of pig's blood. Of course, it all comes together in the most disturbing prom in school history, where Carrie finally feels empowered to execute what one critic calls "a cathartic orgy of revenge" (Man, I wish I thought of that!). An act which, let's face it, we all hoped was on the horizon. Now, at last, we get to why this film FOR ME is a top 4 picture, namely the exquisite genre filmmaking talents of one Brian De Palma (a Hitchcock diehard in his own right). This cataclysmic explosion is captured with unbelievable shots, as De Palma utilizes split screens, slow motion, and manipulation of sound vs. silence to heighten Carrie's last stand. It's simply just some of the best horror-making you'll ever behold. Carrie begins with blood in the shower and ends with the greatest closing shot I can remember, but in the middle is a rich, surprisingly affecting tale of a sweet teen girl just trying to make her way in the world.
#3 Halloween
I would bet that there may be a few folks who would balk at this choice. The serious horror fans among us. "Really, dude? You've got a SLASHER flick on Mt. Rushmore!" It's true. I do. But let me make my defense. For starters, this is the single greatest horror score of all time. The main piano theme remains as haunting and grim on its 2000th listen as it is on its very 1st. Second, Halloween PROVES the truth of the quip that necessity is the mother of invention. John Carpenter made this film for pennies. He set it in Illinois, but shot it in LA. The crew had to ship leaves into the set so they could make the streets look like an autumn in Midwestern suburbia. Then they had to recycle and reuse said leaves! The original disguise was a stretched out William Shatner mask from a local store. To save money, the director co-wrote AND scored it himself (if you know Carpenter, you know he's done this multiple times before)!
I could keep going about how Halloween did so much with so little. But I want to shift to the film itself. This was on the early wave of what would become an excess of "slasher flicks" in the 80's. But here the bloodletting is comparably tame. After a long opening oner through a child's mask which ranks among the greatest first scenes in any film period, Halloween builds its suspense for the first hour. All the "slashing" is in the final 30 minutes, and it is elaborately staged and executed. Jamie Lee Curtis is the ultimate "final girl." Indeed, the trope itself was practically created in her honor. Still, ultimately what makes Halloween such a prodigious feat is its memorable scenes. From the roof mount of Myers near the asylum, the stalking sequences of the masked crusader behind the wheel in Haddonfield, to the closet scene with Jamie Lee near the denouement (God that scene ROCKS!), Halloween grabs you and never lets up. Its killings are harrowing and surprisingly long in their unfolding (think the chase sequence involving Annie). It's reasons like these and other besides, why Halloween is at the pinnacle of its subgenre.
#2 The Shining
In truth, I could speak for hours about a) my love for Stephen King, b) my fondness for this particular story, c) the remarkable career exploits of a titan of the silver screen (Stanley Kubrick), and d) the ways in which the two men collide, coalesce, and diverge over this exceptional ghost story in a haunted hotel. But to be perfectly honest...I've already done it elsewhere! My good man, he who I've mentioned above in The Conjuring and Blair Witch reviews, has his own blog entitled TWIM (The Week In Movies). I penned a piece over there in which I argued that this remarkable tree of great minds in front of and behind the camera sprouted forth in one of the greatest horror films of all time. I would highly encourage you to read it.
If you remain determined to stick to the blurbs, however, I'll just comment briefly. This film stars Jack Nicholson in one of the all-time throwing heat performances. Alongside him is Shelley Duvall, who was so badgered and beleaguered on the set of The Shining that she nearly broke down, and every moment of sheer terror on her face rings true as a result. Folks like Scatman Crothers occupy the periphery of this work as well. But, most importantly, The Shining boasts an ICONIC score and a series of about five scenes which are so indelible that you could scarcely forget them if you tried. Cascading blood in elevators, creepy twins in halls, the woman in Room 237, axe-wielding "Johnny," and a manuscript with 9 of the most famous words repeated ad nauseum on a typewriter. We could go on and on. At the top of the horror game, The Shining is nearly peerless.
-Check out my full review of The Shining here
#1 The Exorcist
Though I've truncated my full reviews of the other 37 films into little bite-sized blurbs, I wanted to let my words on The Exorcist, my (unsurprising) top horror picture, stand in full. I thank you for coming along for the ride. Here they are for your reading pleasure:
The Exorcist is a complete and utter unicorn. It may not look like the animal you’re accustomed to, with sleek white fur, a shimmering mane, and an invaluable jeweled horn. No, it may be much more decrepit, filled with dark blotches, lacerated skin, split pea drivel, and maniacal eyes. But I assure you, it is a rara avis, as unique and unequaled as this creature from the mythical world. This was the truth that hit home the hardest upon my most recent rewatch of The Exorcist. Quite simply, there is just no horror movie like it. That was true in 1973, and it is just as true nearly 50 years later.
Perhaps this one starts all the way at the top. This film is made at the beginning of the time when studio executives were realizing the incalculable asset of IP, the burgeoning value of owning the rights to great works of fiction. So, like Jaws and other blockbusters around it, The Exorcist began as a novel. From there, we move to examine the man at the helm, William Friedkin. Friedkin cut his teeth working on documentaries, which is a truth to keep readily in mind throughout these proceedings, for this is a great part of the matchless nature of the film. Put succinctly, it wants to present itself like a quasi-documentary. Its fiction is shot and written to look like reality, a skewed patina of a real Georgetown world to be sure, but with an eerie sense of verisimilitude.
And so, The Exorcist does not begin like an actual horror film at all. In fact, we are nearly in the second hour before those more well-known tropes start presenting themselves. (It is worth noting as well that at 130 minutes, this film is a good 40 minutes longer than your average horror flick today). How does it begin then? With a 10-15 minute excursion that depicts Max Von Sydow wandering arid Iraqi landscapes amidst archaeological digs and rare artifacts. There, in a chilling moment, we are first introduced to Pazuzu. But, we don’t really know that just yet.
The film then quickly cuts to Georgetown and the set of a film where Chris Macneil (played magnetically by Ellen Burstyn) is on her most recent shoot. The actress soon leaves work to grab some quality time with her daughter Regan (the ill-fated Linda Blair). All seems idyllic and wonderful, until Regan begins exhibiting some very odd behavior. At one moment she is sort of wilting languidly against the wall, her eyes flitting about in an unfocused way. In the next, she is staring daggers at peripheral characters and shouting obscenities.
Here is where the film really locks into its documentary-like roots and steps away from the genre almost entirely. The question which takes center stage in the first hour of The Exorcist is not How do we exorcise this demon? but What is wrong with this poor, young girl? Due to the science en vogue at the time, it is determined that this must be temporal. It must be a bodily affliction, some brain bruise or cerebral laceration. Thus we get gut-wrenching sequences of Regan going under the knife several times, subjected to various testing like MRI’s, bloodletting, and spinal taps. All of these are of course inconclusive.
Does the supernatural come to the fore now? Think again. No, as Friedkin continues his box-checking, we must now explore the psychological. Regan must go through a therapist, and become prey to the whimsy of a hypnotist (a sequence that ends VERY memorably...and painfully for one character). It is only when all of these tracks fail that the “religious” is brought to the table. Even then it is in a cynical, pscyh-tinged way, i.e. the power of suggestion over a subject who thinks they have been co-opted by an evil spirit. To Friedkin’s credit, he lets all of this play out with utter seriousness, intercutting these tests and examinations (and more than a few scenes of a mother nearing a collapse into hysteria) with the increasingly erratic, discomfiting behavior of this 12 year old girl. The horror here is not only in the jump scares, the vibrating beds and sliding dressers, the 360-head rotations, strange deaths and a series of haunting lines of dialogue delivered by a chain smoking, whiskey-jugging Mercedes MacCambridge. Those visual images stick with us long beyond the credits, but it is this attempt to make it all seem so REAL which is truly bone-chilling (though sexual acts with a crucifix are right up there).
The other side of all of this are the priests. In a stroke of genius, Friedkin cast a relative unknown, Jason Miller, as the personally tortured Father Karras. It is Karras’ crisis of faith and racking guilt over leaving his ailing mother to the care of others that bring the actions of the demon into stark contrast. This is the real good vs. evil at the core of the story, and even Karras’ goodness is infiltrated by this lifelike brokenness.
Once Karras becomes resolved to fight back on behalf of the little girl, we finally realize the story’s connections to the prologue. A titan of the cinema, The Seventh Seal’s own Max Von Sydow, strides back into the picture for the exorcism rite as Father Merrin. Thus begins one of the most jaw-dropping final 20-30 minutes of a film in history. Friedkin and his actors step on our throats and don’t let us move for the better part of half an hour. We squirm in our seat just wanting it all to leave us, but we remain unable to look away. Transfixed to the rite before us, we witness an earth-shattering denouement.
This is the onscreen legacy of The Exorcist. A film which brought horror to the mainstream conscious. A work that pushed the envelope so far that people collapsed in hysteria and cried out in theatres all over the nation. A masterclass in scoring, facial make up, and sound design (not only the Pazuzu sequences but the battery of tests Regan undergoes in the hospital also SOUND positively diabolical). A cast of relative unknowns which only underline the almost veristic nature of the whole affair. William Friedkin may have been a bit of an eccentric (we’d use other words today), shooting guns off in cast members’ ears, tying the woman voicing Pazuzu to a chair so she sounded bound, spending two days grabbing the iconic movie poster shot of Van Sydow underneath the streetlight, and many other things besides. But with The Exorcist, horror cinema would never be the same.
コメント