It’s one of those top 100 greatest films polls…and this time the genre is horror. Well it is that time of year isn’t it… When the undead get resurrected (and no, I don’t mean Blair this time) and ghoulish fiends lurk the corridors (though that could describe the Tories). I always have two categories for horror, subsets of the genre if you must, ones that go for the spine tingly shocker while others go for buckets of gore schlockers…personally I like a combo of the two… I enjoy spine tingling nightmarish scary ‘things that go bump in the night’ to the Driller Killer/Texas Chainsaw/Night of the Living Dead squishy bloody gore…. I am eclectic… And there’s always slippage from other genres (Alien…sci-fi/horror…haunted house on the hill transported into space)
Back to this poll… I certainly wouldn’t put The Shining at no. 1. But hey, this is all based on subjective (bad) taste. Here is the rest.
And here is mine (in no particular order..) and based on the 100 (and included a couple of my own) though I couldn’t be bothered to list 100 so you’ll have to make do with 35. I am sure I’ve missed some off……And before you ask, I have seen all of these films at some point in my life, no wonder I am anxious and traumatised…..
1. Wicker Man
2. Rosemary’s Baby
3. Bride of Frankenstein
4. Alien
5. Night of the Living Dead
6. Nosferatu
7. Scream trilogy
8. Suspiria
9. Don’t Look Now
10. Repulsion
11. The Haunting
12. The Exorcist
13. Cat People (the original)
14. The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari
15. Carrie
16. Omen
17. Cronos
18. Dead of Night
19. Hellraiser
20. Let the Right One In
21. The Company of Wolves
22. Witchfinder General (Anything starring Vincent Price)
23. Hammer horrors
24. Martin
25. Vampyr
26. The Masque of Red Death (anything made by Roger Corman)
27. Martyrs
28. Shaun of the Dead
29. Zombieland
30. Psycho
31. Psychomania
32. Twisted Nerve (ok, ok really scraping the bottom and utterly reactionary bilge but I remember this film as a kid especially the chilling whistling soundtrack by Bernard Herrmann which was resurrected by Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill the scene where Daryl Hannah dressed as a nurse walking down the hospital corridor whistling that tune ready to dispatch Uma Thurman).
33. The Old Dark House
34. The Blair Witch Project
35. Audition
NB: Another film I find an over rated schlocker is The Silence of the Lambs esp. the hammy performance from Anthony Hopkins as Lecter, I always think of Kenneth Williams in Carry on Screaming (‘Fryin’ tonight’!) and to be honest I much prefer Carry on…. and Kenneth Williams’ acting. And for my sins I have read the Hannibal Lecter books by Thomas Harris. Not impressed.
Just to include a couple of extra films.
36. Rocky Horror Picture Show
37. Planet Terror
38. Carry on Screaming
39. The Descent
40. The Orphanage
Another NB: Reading Sean’s and Tim’s comments about the definition of horror (and it can be loose) also Night of the Hunter is one of my favourite films of all time and really exposed how great Charles Laughton was as a director (and unbelievably the film flopped when first released) it is a kinda modern Grim fairy tale, is it horror? Also I suppose it is how we define horror… Anyway made me me want to include these (and thanks to Tim and Sean!):
41. Night of the Hunter
42. Pan’s Labyrinth
43. The Others
44. Devils Backbone
45. Halloween (never a fan of Friday 13th)
…..Twin Peaks exceptionally weird and chillifying….(I like David Lynch)
Pretty fair 35. Only one change I’d make and that would be moving Nosferatu up to No 1. Bearing in mind it is the daddy, by which all the others seek to emulate. Unfortunately caught my first part viewing of it at about age 10. Hated going upstairs alone for weeks! Developed my love for decent horror though, mostly Hammer and anything with Peter Cushing gracing it is sheer bliss.
Hey Nick, Well I didn’t put it in any particular order but certainly would put Nosferatu higher up. I liked Peter Cushing esp. when he worked with Christopher Lee but Vincent Price scared me the most as a kid…
Oh, and forgot to include The Rocky Horror Picture Show…. (great intro Science Fiction/Double Feature)
I love Masque of the Red Death – Roeg’s use of colour is fantastic. Bride of Frankenstein and Psychomania also great picks. I have a personal liking for Re-Animator, but then I’m a bit of a Lovecraft buff anyway.
Have you ever read Robin Hardy’s Wicker Man novel though? Worth a look if you haven’t.
Will check out Robin Hardy’s bk, shoulda have read it.
I like Lovecraft as well…
Let the Right One In – I’m watching sometime this weekend. Just finished the book. Can’t wait.
The original Halloween and even Friday 13th were very good slasher movies. Of their time no doubt though.
The Others stands out of the recent haunting films, along with the Orphanage. Oh and another Spanish classic, The Devil’s Backbone.
How about Pan’s Labyrinth? Does that count as horror? A film that shows the horrors of the real world (fascism) far outweighs anything the imagination can construct.
Conversely, David Lynch shows that the unconscious is a place of many deep fears – Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks (TV show was sometimes brilliantly scary) and recently Inland Empire had real great moments of terror.
I don’t know if it is truly a horror flick, but Night of the Hunter – starring Robert Mitchum – scared the pants off me when I was a kid. Terrifying.
Well that’s my little contribution. Great list by the way. Psychomania is a tremendous oddity of a film. Indeed looking at that list reminds me of Saturday night during the late 70s early 80s. On BBC2 they used to show a double bill of horror films. Think I’ve seen every possible film made by Hammer as a result
Sean, dammit I left out The Others, I really liked that and it occurred to me this afternoon …Devil’s Backbone and I did think of including Pan’s Labyrinth.
And Night of the Hunter is one of my all time favourite films. I wasn’t sure whether to include it.
But this is the thing (and also Tim’s comment) is that there is so much slippage and sub genres. Alien, for example, is fused sci-fi/horror, haunted house in space.
Interesting list, with some surprises. I didn’t rate Audition at all; I thought the only reason it got hype was that one scene (which I won’t spoil for anyone who hasn’t seen it by being more specific, but you know which I mean). Suspiria I thought was a bit over-rated – beautiful visual imagery at times but flawed in almost all other aspects. Never got all the way through a Scream film; they just annoy me.
Your top 3, 5 and 6 are all hard to argue with, but if Alien counts as a horror film then it’s a pretty wide definition. On those grounds, could I include Terminator, for example? Blue Velvet? Straw Dogs?
Tetsuo: The Iron Man would be at the top of my list. The Fly should definitely be in there too.
And I am sure C4 included Night of the Hunter in top 100 scary movies?!!
Agree with Let the Right One In – loved it, wonderful film.
Would lose the Scream films and The Blair Witch Project, but add The Burning, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Razorback, They Live, Tremors, Christine… and does Salem’s Lot count? I know it was a TV film.
Kevin, one of my favourite films of this year, Let the Right One In…
I have a soft spot for Scream mainly ‘cos of the ‘do’s and don’ts of horror films’ made me laugh and it is a parody and had to have a Wes Craven film in there somewhere tho’ not a big fan of Nightmare films…tad lame and became a franchise (early Johnny Depp). Blair Witch Project…ahhh c’mon, shaky video, monochrome and add a bit of the chills… I preferred it than Sixth Sense.
I was going include original Texas Chainsaw should have my bad.
And remiss of me AGAIN I didn’t include much John Carpenter, The Thing, They Live, The Fog and Christine…great film and yeah, Salem’s Lot include that as well…
Let’s just say “everything by John Carpenter… except Ghosts of Mars” – boy does that film suck…
Yeah it does… I even watched it (tho’ repressed the memory) and one of the threads on the imdb eloquently states, ‘this film is shit’… Can’t get any better than that.
Not a horror film, but I do have a soft spot for Carpenter’s “Escape from LA”. Kurt Russell is much maligned!
Yeah good film and I thought he was good in Deathproof. Very believable as the vile violent misogynist!
Another favourite is Hitchcock’s silent 1927 film, The Lodger, with Ivor Novello in the lead.
Larry Cohen’s Q – The Winged Serpent was a good one… Moriarty brilliant in it.
I’d love to see an adaptation of Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld novels, but only if it was done really well. She’s got a great muscular writing style and strong female protagonists – the latter not something the genre’s been great with as a whole.
Japanese horror scares me silly. Onibaba gave me the screaming heebie-jeebies when I saw it on telly when I was six. And images of Ringu and the Grudge ambushed me for weeks. Audition. Killy, killy? Urgh! I really liked Final Destination when I caught it by accident — funny, witty deaths. No escape, bwa-ha-ha! Nightmare On Elm Street had some groundbreaking bits and also scared me horribly.
Happy Halloween.
Just got to come back and echo your view on The Silence of the Lambs.
Jeez Louise!! Agent Starling may be new to the FBI, but fair play, how dumb is she? “Dr Lecter….Dr Lecter….Dr Lecter….” He’s hung up love!!
I found the French & Saunders version scarier.
Ok this doesn’t really count, i don’t know who made it but the film Shoah, the film about the story of the holocaust is the most horrifying thing i’ve ever seen, i guess because it really happened..Reality is scarier than fiction. Good list though.
Graham, life is scarier than fiction. Fiction is an escapism from reality.
Madam Miaow: I wasn’t sure whether to include Audition, Ringu is scarier. While Audition, apparently, says things about the oppression of women (??) The American version of Ringu was lame (sorry Naomi Watts!). But Ringu is a chiller…Oh yes, I shoulda included Final Destination it is so tongue in cheek.
Ha! Nick I was thinking of the French and Saunders send up of Silence of the Lambs. Utterly brilliant esp. when Dawn French as Lecter sniffs the air and tells Saunders/Starling that she is wearing Mum roll-on. Priceless.
Splintered, don’t know Kelley Armstrong will investigate.
Take a look at Bitten and see what you make of it. Think you might like.
We watched ‘Let The Right One In’ last night. That rare thing: a film that outdoes the source material. I thought it was better than the book. Possibly the best vampire film ever.
It is a very very impressive film, Sean.
Louise, Mark Kermode has finally caught up with your blog: see http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/2009/11/twilight_of_the_blogs.html
Ha! he’s right about Cronos and Let the Right One In.
worst list ever. so many forgotten and so many no even in horror genre.
I don’t see the big ones in your list
Check out-
Peeping tom
Theatre of Blood
Eraserhead(if u re a Lynch fan)
Evil dead
The village of the dammed