Top Ten Horrors since 1990

[Dead & Messed Up]

I was reading Fangoria, and one of the editors mentioned how he contributed to an aggregate list of the top horrors since 1990. The top ten as compiled (don't ask me what the parameters were for choosing critics) were:


1. The Descent (2005) dir: Neil Marshall
2. The Blair Witch Project (1999) dir: Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sanchez
3. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) dir: Jonathan Demme
4. The Ring (2002) dir: Gore Verbinski
5. Scream (1996) dir: Wes Craven
6. The Mist (2007) dir: Frank Darabont
7. 28 Days Later (2002) dir: Danny Boyle
8. Braindead (Dead Alive) (1992) dir: Peter Jackson
9. Inside (2007) dir: Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury
10. Shaun of the Dead (2004) dir: Edgar Wright

Not too bad, I guess, although I'm very much in disagreement with The Ring and The Blair Witch Project appearing on the list. For what it's worth, my top ten are:

01. Seven
02. Cemetery Man
03. Pulse
04. Shaun of the Dead
05. The Silence of the Lambs
06. Dead / Alive
07. Session 9
08. Misery
09. Frailty
10. The Mist

Seven's status as horror is obviously nebulous for some, so if you're nitpicky about such things, take it off and add The Descent to the bottom.

[Pop Trash]

Hmmm...interesting since I've thought about this as well. In general horror has really gone downhill since the the peak years of the 70s and 80s. I'll leave Lambs and Seven off my list since those seem more like violent, serial killer dramas rather than horror.

1. Scream
2. The Blair Witch Project
3. Misery
4. Shaun of the Dead
5. 28 Days Later
6. Wes Craven's New Nightmare
7. Dead Alive
8. The Descent
9. 28 Weeks Later
10. Freddy vs. Jason (guilty pleasure for sure but suprisingly enjoyable)

[Bosco B Thug]

I was reading Fangoria, and one of the editors mentioned how he contributed to an aggregate list of the top horrors since 1990. The top ten as compiled (don't ask me what the parameters were for choosing critics) were: The Descent and Inside? Nah.

I still have a soft spot for The Ring. It's got thematic layers and very very strong artistic design, despite it being teen-pandering and lapsed vanilla filmmaking otherwise.


02. Cemetery Man
03. Pulse
10. The Mist I dig it. I should re-see Frailty.

Mine would probably, very tentatively, look something like this:

1. Candyman
2. Death Proof
3. Pulse
4. Audition
5. Seance
6. Dead Alive
7. Cure
8. Wendigo
9. Habit
10. The Mist?

And some very honorable mentions...: The Others, A Tale of Two Sisters, May, Scream, Cemetery Man, The Host, The Silence of the Lambs

[DavidSeven]

Seven's status as horror is obviously nebulous for some

Just as nebulous as The Silence of the Lambs me thinks.

[Raiders]

My list:

1. Pulse (K. Kurosawa, 2001)
2. The Host (Bong, 2006)
3. Wolf Creek (McLean, 2005)
4. A Tale of Two Sisters (Kim, 2003)
5. The Addiction (Ferrara, 1995)
6. Séance (K. Kurosawa, 2000)
7. The Reflecting Skin (Ridley, 1990)
8. Braindead (Jackson, 1992)
9. Wendigo (Fessenden, 2001)
10. 28 Weeks Later (Fresnadillo, 2007)

[Ezee E]

What year was Jacob's Ladder?

[Pop Trash]

What year was Jacob's Ladder?
1990.

[Robby P]

I assume these lists were compiled prior to the release of Let the Right One In.

These results seem skewed toward English language movies. No J-Horror at all.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I assume these lists were compiled prior to the release of Let the Right One In.

These results seem skewed toward English language movies. No J-Horror at all.

The full list of twenty-five (http://thevaultofhorror.blogspot.com/2008/12/cyber-horror-elite-strike-again.html) is a bit more well-rounded, but yeah. There's a definite skew.


1. The Descent (2005) dir: Neil Marshall
2. The Blair Witch Project (1999) dir: Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sanchez
3. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) dir: Jonathan Demme
4. The Ring (2002) dir: Gore Verbinski
5. Scream (1996) dir: Wes Craven
6. The Mist (2007) dir: Frank Darabont
7. 28 Days Later (2002) dir: Danny Boyle
8. Braindead (Dead Alive) (1992) dir: Peter Jackson
9. Inside (2007) dir: Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury
10. Shaun of the Dead (2004) dir: Edgar Wright
11. Saw (2004) dir: James Wan
12. [REC] (2007) dir: Jaume Balaguero & Paco Plaza
13. Audition (1999) dir: Takashi Miike
14. Ginger Snaps (2000) dir: John Fawcett
15. American Psycho (2000) dir: Mary Harron
16. Session 9 (2001) dir: Brad Anderson
17. Dawn of the Dead (2004) dir: Zack Snyder
18. Army of Darkness (1993) dir: Sam Raimi
19. Dog Soldiers (2002) dir: Neil Marshall
20. Cabin Fever (2002) dir: Eli Roth
21. Let the Right One In (2008) dir: Tomas Alfredson
22. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) dir: Francis Ford Coppola
23. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) dir: Stanley Kubrick
24. Halloween: 20 Years Later (1998) dir: Steve Miner
25. Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetery Man) (1994) dir: Michele Soavi

What Halloween: H2O is doing on this list is anybody's guess.

[Pop Trash]

Eyes Wide Shut is a horror movie?? By that rational they should have more psycho/weird movies like Mulholland Drive or Jacob's Ladder.

[Ezee E]

Jacob's Ladder should definitely be on that list.

[megladon8]

I would probably qualify both Mulholland Dr. and Inland Empire as horror films.


DaMU, what do you have against The Blair Witch Project? Is it just something you didn't personally enjoy? Because I'd say it definitely deserves a place on the list, regardless of personal taste...I can't remember a horror movie gaining so much hoopla since then, and it definitely terrified a lot of people.

[Spun Lepton]

This is a tough list for me, I'll have to think it over before posting.

[Pop Trash]

DaMU, what do you have against The Blair Witch Project? Is it just something you didn't personally enjoy? Because I'd say it definitely deserves a place on the list, regardless of personal taste...I can't remember a horror movie gaining so much hoopla since then, and it definitely terrified a lot of people.

Yup. Plus it's hugely influential. Cloverfield, Diary of the Dead, Rec, and Open Water to name a few influenced by it. Even 28 Days/Weeks later seem to be influenced by it's verite shaky cam style.

[Rowland]

I really dig The Ring remake. Not only is it my favorite Verbinski picture, but I even prefer it over Nakata's original. It may be less subtle than Ringu, but I find it more compelling, vibrant, and haunting. My favorite Nakata horror flick is Dark Water (which I also liked the remake for).

These lists of bests don't interest me too much, since they tend to be the usual suspects. How about a list of most underrated/overlooked?

[Dead & Messed Up]

DaMU, what do you have against The Blair Witch Project? Is it just something you didn't personally enjoy? Because I'd say it definitely deserves a place on the list, regardless of personal taste...I can't remember a horror movie gaining so much hoopla since then, and it definitely terrified a lot of people.

The underlined statement perplexes me, but here goes:

It strikes me as a picture with one conceit in its favor. It's a great conceit, and it's obviously influential. But I find the movie a middling one, where the filmmakers use that one concept to carry them through some serious gaps in logic. My primary problem is that I think the protagonists in Blair Witch are uninteresting, flat, irritating people who don't speak in interesting ways, offer different perspectives, or contain much intelligence at all.

I won't argue against the film as innovative and influential in its approach. But that's different than what I consider "the best."

[megladon8]

The underlined statement perplexes me, but here goes:

It strikes me as a picture with one conceit in its favor. It's a great conceit, and it's obviously influential. But I find the movie a middling one, where the filmmakers use that one concept to carry them through some serious gaps in logic. My primary problem is that I think the protagonists in Blair Witch are uninteresting, flat, irritating people who don't speak in interesting ways, offer different perspectives, or contain much intelligence at all.

I won't argue against the film as innovative and influential in its approach. But that's different than what I consider "the best."


Fair enough.

And I know my statement seemed perplexing, and of course a list like this is more interesting when based on personal taste.

I was just thinking from the standpoint of a magazine like Fangoria. The Blair Witch Project was an undeniably important and successful horror film that became somewhat of a phenomenon that year.

I would equate it to my loathing Saw and the whole series, but it's still quite an influential and important horror film from the last decade, so if I were making a list like that for a magazine (where personal taste might need to be curbed a bit) I'd probably include it.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Fair enough.

And I know my statement seemed perplexing, and of course a list like this is more interesting when based on personal taste.

I was just thinking from the standpoint of a magazine like Fangoria. The Blair Witch Project was an undeniably important and successful horror film that became somewhat of a phenomenon that year.

I would equate it to my loathing Saw and the whole series, but it's still quite an influential and important horror film from the last decade, so if I were making a list like that for a magazine (where personal taste might need to be curbed a bit) I'd probably include it.

Also fair enough.

And Rowland's comment about underseen horror is a wise one. A lot of these flicks are common knowledge to the people who frequent such sites. A list of underrated / underseen ones, for me, would include:

Habit
Cthulhu
Severance
Lighthouse
Cronos
The Eye
In the Mouth of Madness

And some others I'm probably overlooking myself.

[The Mike]

Here be what I said.

10. Mimic
9. Slither
8. From Dusk Till Dawn
7. 28 Days Later
6. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
5. The Mist
4. The Frighteners
3. Candyman
2. Dog Soldiers
1. Army of Darkness

Honorable Mention for Shaun of the Dead, Bubba Ho-Tep, Nightbreed, Incident On and Off a Mountain Road, and Clownhouse.

[megladon8]

Isolation is a great underseen horror.

[Pop Trash]

So are we done with The Sixth Sense as one of the best since Shayamalon kind of sucks now? It came to mind but its hard to be supportive of anything M. Night these days.

[EyesWideOpen]

So are we done with The Sixth Sense as one of the best since Shayamalon kind of sucks now? It came to mind but its hard to be supportive of anything M. Night these days.

Shyamalan has made nothing but very good films so for me it's very easy to be supportive of him.

[Pop Trash]

Shyamalan has made nothing but very good films so for me it's very easy to be supportive of him.
I don't know about that. Can you imagine if he pulled a Terry Malick and just became a recluse after Unbreakable? Cinephiles would champion him like crazy.

[EyesWideOpen]

I don't know about that. Can you imagine if he pulled a Terry Malick and just became a recluse after Unbreakable? Cinephiles would champion him like crazy.

So "cinephiles" would rather a director stop directing prematurely just so they can "champion him like crazy" instead of him continuing his passion of making films. Makes sense.

[Pop Trash]

So "cinephiles" would rather a director stop directing prematurely just so they can "champion him like crazy" instead of him continuing his passion of making films. Makes sense.
His legacy would be secured. Just sayin'

[Dead & Messed Up]

So are we done with The Sixth Sense as one of the best since Shayamalon kind of sucks now? It came to mind but its hard to be supportive of anything M. Night these days.

I'd say it's one of the best, but it wouldn't make my top ten. It's an effective ghost story and a well-done portrait of two broken families struggling to reconcile.

[Yxklyx]

The best in chronological order:

Misery
The Silence of the Lambs
Habit
Cure
The Blair Witch Project
Little Otik
Pulse
The Devil's Backbone
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin Diary
May
A Tale of Two Sisters
The Call of Cthulhu
Planet Terror
Death Proof
Cloverfield