When I sat down to put this list together I thought long and hard to define the criteria for this list. Although its called the best 'horror' films, I didn't want a list full of today's slasher, shock movies the likes of 'Saw'. This type of film has no appeal to me. I decided to include any film that created an emotional stimuli that caused feelings of not only shock(that wow! Jolt feeling as Candyman comes through the medicine cabinet) but a more deep emotional impact. Like the feeling of repulse when the Frankenstein monster through the girl into the water or the adrenaline rush you got as you tried to anticipated the next move of the killer in Se7en. I've even included a movie like the Raven, which can be considered a farce rightfully so, but because it includes so many performances by masters of the macabre it had to be considered. I hope you enjoy my list. I know for each selection I made I've left another off that is as probably as worthy depending on a particular taste. Enjoy.
1.THE EXORCIST(1973)-Those who had a definitive belief in Heaven and Hell, of Good and Evil, of Jesus as The Savior and Satan as the epitome of pure evil were affected by The Exorcist far more than those who were agnostic or just never had a strong belief in spiritual matters.The Exorcist caused many to reconsider how they felt about their faith. The Exorcist made the prospect of Satan being alive and well and a life of eternal damnation a very uncomfortable prospect. The fact that the author claims his book and screenplay were based on a true story seemed to give the film even more credibility.
2.THE SHINING(1980)-The Shining is, without doubt, one of Stanley Kubrick's undisputed masterpieces and a true classic in horror cinema. It is a film that, over the course of the years, has managed to scare the living hell out of its audiences.
3.THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS(1991)-Foster's performance is absolutely brilliant. While Anthony Hopkins receives most of the (well-deserved) praise for his chilling portrayal of incarcerated serial killer `Hannibal ‘the Cannibal' Lector', it is Foster's performance that holds the movie together. The fear she shows just behind her eyes makes Clarice's outward courage all the more interesting and vulnerable.
4.TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE(1974)-Chain Saw isn't about storyline and plot; it's about creating an experience, a sensory overload. There are scenes and images that are raw and powerful and ultimately, against all expectations, beautiful. Leatherface's travesty of motherly domesticity as he prepares dinner, his child-like dance in the dawn light, the open door at the gas station, the van making it's slow turn off the road towards the derelict and ivy clad Hardesty residence are all images that burn themselves into your consciousness after just a single viewing.
5.AMITTYVILLE HORROR(1979)-The real 'star' of the movie is the house! The building is both attractive and sinister - truly gothic in the importance of the setting.
6.ROSEMARY'S BABY(1968)-"Rosemary's baby" is a perfect film to me. Scary in a way that makes you breathless. You're thinking and feeling throughout the film. One of the many sides of Polanski's genius is to suggest. And what he suggest is so monstrous that we don't want to believe it, hell on earth, but we do. The characters are so perfectly drawn that there is no cheating involved.
7.SE7EN(1995)-According to Se7en, our culture is drifting through darkness. The prophecy comes from Somerset, a literate man who also happens to be a detective, a man who can read a clue ("This isn't going to be a happy ending") or Dante's Inferno with equal understated bravado. He even provides the film's final thematic statement with a quote from Hemingway.
8.THE OMEN(1976)-The premise behind THE OMEN is frightening: the Antichrist is unwittingly adopted into an American political family. The movie is a loose interpretation of the book of Revelations, the implication being the cinematic depiction of the end of the world.
9.THE SIXTH SENSE(1999)-All your worst childhood nightmares: the noises in the attic, the intruder in your house, that cold breath that makes your hair stand on end are here and then some.
10.THE EXCORCISM OF EMILLY ROSE(2005)-The movie offers a plethora of food for thought, regarding existentialist issues of perception vs. Objective truth, and social issues of liability and responsibility.
11.POLTERGEIST(1982)-Poltergeist, the story of suburban California family that discovers the darker side of the American Dream when their youngest daughter, Carol Ann, makes contact with evil spirits through the family television set. "They're here", never fails to send chills down my spine.
12.WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE(1962)-The story itself is about two elderly sisters. One, Baby Jane, (played by Bette Davis) was a child star in the early part of the century. She was hugely popular on the vaudeville circuit. Backstage she was a spoiled brat. Later on in life the other sister, Blanche (played by Joan Crawford) became a popular Hollywood movie star, overshadowing her now 'has-been' sister. A supposed car accident leaves Blanche crippled during the height of her popularity and a crazed Jane is left to care for her.
13.PSYCHO(1960)-Most modern-day horror films make the killer to be an absolutely inhuman, grotesque, unimaginable monster in order to scare the audience out of its wits. Most of the time, however, these stereotypes create a generic murderer a raving, ranting, clearly demented psychopath. Instead Anthony Perkins' skillfully crafts his performance as Norman Bates, a subtle, creepy, cool, and unsettling assault on your psyche.
14.THE HOUSE OF USHER(1960)-Roger Corman's brilliant adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's chilling tale is one of the greatest achievements in cinematic horror. It's hard to pick one of Corman's Poe adaptations as the best, but this, the first, might be it.Vincent Price turns in one of his finest performances.
15.VIDEODROME(1983)-Videodrome is film that manages to repulse and intrigue simultaneously. It is horrific and contains numerous science-fiction motifs, but, unlike the horror and special effects driven pictures of today, Videodrome, has a philosophy. Videodrome is not about mind-controlling cable shows; it is about our un-healthy consumption of visual media.
16.WHEN A STRANGER CALLS(1979)-Carol Kane plays Jill, a babysitter who receives ominous phone calls all night long from psycho (Tony Beckley) who repeatedly asks her if she has 'checked the children'. This goes on until the cops are finally called to the scene - just 21 straight minutes of well-crafted suspense.
17.CARRIE(1976)-Based on Stephen King's first full-length published novel, also the breakthrough film for director Brian DePalma. Sissy Spacek makes a lasting impact as Carrie White, an awkward and ostracized teenager whose classmates can't stand her merely because she's shy and "different". She is finally pushed over the edge at the climactic school prom, unleashing her telekinetic abilities in revenge.
18.HALLOWEEN(1978)-Brutal, emotionless Michael Myers stabs his sister to death at age six on Halloween night in 1963; on October 30, 1978, he escapes from a mental institution and institutes a new reign of terror in his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois. He is pursued the whole time by a psychiatrist (Donald Pleasence) who knows just how evil this young man is. It opens with a bang, and sets up a genuinely suspenseful and atmospheric chiller that is actually superior to the many slasher pictures it helped to inspire.
19.THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL(1959)-The legendary Vincent Price is in his element here as the cynical millionaire trapped in a loveless sham of a marriage, and Carol Ohmart, is a knockout as his tough as nails "better half". Haunted party guests round out the cast.
20.CANDYMAN(1992)-A strong contender for the title of best horror film of the 1990's, Bernard Rose's "Candyman" is a very faithful (and therefore truly scary) adaptation of Clive Barker's skin crawling short story. This film features a very rare and successful combination of both creepy atmosphere and visual ingeniousness. Whereas most movies (especially during the 90's) can hardly focus on any of these essential horror elements, Bernard Rose masterfully succeeds in stuffing his film with genuine tension as well as shocking gore-images.
21.NIGHTMARE ON ELMSTREET(1984)-John Carpenter defined the horror genre in the late 70's, early 80's, Wes Craven re-defined it with A Nightmare On Elm St and Freddy Krueger, the definition of a bastard son. Up until this point, horror was very predictable, most films adhered to the 'rules' of horror' (the 'virgin' survives, if you have sex, you die, if you drink or get high, you die and never say, "I'll be right back" cause u won't). In 1984, this little film came out about a murderer who killed you in your dreams.
22.WAIT UNTIL DARK(1967)-One of the best Hitchcock film that Hitchcock never made. Most of the film is shot within this basement apartment unit. And the thriller is so great because of Hepburn being blind and these three bad guys freely walking into her unit and introducing themselves as her husband's friends, or police, or some neighbour. But they all forget one thing: She uses her ears like no regular person does, she doesn't need eyes. But that is where the thriller kicks in.
23.CAPE FEAR(1991)-A fabulous remake of the 1962 noir classic and it keeps the viewer on the edge right through until the closing credits. Robert De Niro (in yet another brilliant teaming with Scorcese behind the camera) plays Max Cady, a psychopathic rapist who was sent to jail 14 years earlier for such crimes. He leaves prison with vengeance. Not for his victims or his prosecutor, but his defence councillor, Sam J. Bowden, played by Nick Nolte. It seems Bowden did not defend Cady to the best of his ability. Cady knows this and wants some payback.
24.DELIVERENCE(1972)-A bit of odd choice for a horror list but this film is worthy because the film's theme. Nature, in the wild, can be violent. How appropriate that the setting should be the American South. Very few places in the U.S. are, or have been, as violent as redneck country. In a story about Darwinian survival of the fittest, the film conveys the idea that humans are part of nature, not separate from it. use local people, not actors, to portray secondary characters. The locals provide the film with a depth of characterization unequaled in film history. In thus creating the best bunch of villains other films could only wish to create.
25.THE BIRDS(1963)-The movie is still pretty terrifying, even if you've seen it again and again. You know what bad, brutal scenes are coming and don't want to see the carnage again, but can't help yourself. It's ominous as the crows flock tighter and tighter, always more and more, attacking the kids on the schoolyard Monkey-Bars.
26.THE RAVEN(1963)-Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff are a total treat to watch in this tale loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's poem.
27.James Whales FRANKENSTEIN(1931)-The best presentation of the classic story by Mary Shelley. The film was presented in such a way that makes you feel as though you are watching a stage play rather than a film.A creature is given the complicated thing called life.His large,overpowering human form,coupled with the limited capacity to grow,and learn,turn out to be very deadly indeed.He is,basically,a very large baby,who does not understand the world around him.He wreaks havoc on those who he feels are out to hurt him.I have seen the completed version of this film,complete with the disturbing sequence involving the little girl with the flowers,which was cut out of the film for many years.It is indeed shocking,and once you see it,you will understand why this was done.
28.NOSFERATU(1922)-The count is a perfect distillation of evil, that of a vain, narcissistic, absurdly self-confident to the point of machismo, married man largely indifferent to a wife he abruptly leaves to make the fortune worthy of a man of his merits. He ain't afraid of no ghosts, nor robbers. So, the image he sees in that mirror is one of wholeness, perfection - I am Hutter, I command all I see, my unity of identity is linked to my power in body. To the viewer, however, the effect is the precise opposite. The framing of the scene is fragmented, with the outer frame, the window and the mirror; Hutter himself is doubled - the 'real' Hutter and his reflection, or shadow. All the assumptions smilingly embodied in Hutter will thus be destroyed in conventional horror terms.
29.BRAM STOKERS DRACULA(1992)-This film is a very rich gothic telling of a story that has become watered down greatly with the many different versions of stories with the characters. Here the basic plot follows the tale from the creation of Dracula, his love and his confrontation with Van Helsing and the various suitors of the lovely Lucy. The story is told with a real respect for the source.
30.THE WOLFMAN(1941)-The key to a good monster movie is its atmosphere and interesting characters and the Wolfman delivers on both accounts. The story revolves around Larry Talbot who returns to his hometown after having been away for many years. He takes a liking for this girl who works in an antique shop, and while they go out for a walk in the night, he is attacked and bitten by a werewolf. Lon Chaney's performance is excellent as a tortured man, and through no fault of his own is turned into a killing murdering monster.
Later,
Kenaz
