MC Rank-o-Thon: The Ten All-Time Best "Horror" Films

[dreamdead]

Take the auspices of "horror" to mean whatever you want it to mean. As we approach Halloween I'm interested in the consensus of what films make up your canon of the best horror films. I'm influenced in this topic by this list (http://thefilmexperience.net/blog/2013/10/22/team-top-10-horror-films-after-the-exorcist.html), which handily includes a before/after 1973 category. I'm especially intrigued by what foreign films make up your list...

After it seems that entries have died down, I'll go ahead and compile the results, but I'm intrigued by the discussion that could come of the topic as well...

[Dukefrukem]

I have this list readily available.

1. John Carpenter's the Thing
2. Alien
3. Cabin in the Woods
4. Night of the Living Dead
5a. Jaws (Personally I enjoy watching this in the summer time and not the fall)
5b. The Decent
6. High Tension
7. House of the Devil
8. Black Christmas (despite the 5a sidenote, I can watch this anytime)
9. Drag Me to Hell
10. Evil Dead

HM1. Signs
HM2. I Saw the Devil
HM3. A Nightmare on Elm Street

[Lucky]

Psycho
Poltergeist
Interview with the Vampire
The Exorcist
The Ring
The Descent
Scream
The Others
The Orphanage
Paranormal Activity

Ghost stories are my favorite, apparently.

[Ezee E]

1. The Shining
2. The Exorcist
3. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
4. Alien
5. Nosferatu
6. The Descent
7. Psycho
8. Misery
9. The Fly
10. Suspiria

[Dead & Messed Up]

Alien
Dawn of the Dead
Evil Dead II
Frankenstein
Halloween
The Haunting
The Leopard Man
Nosferatu
Peeping Tom
Pulse

This opinion only accounts for DaMU at 11:46 am on 10/26/13. DaMU at 12:00 pm could make a completely different list.

[Pop Trash]

1. The Exorcist
2. The Shining
3. Psycho
4. Poltergeist
5. Halloween
6. Frankenstein
7. A Nightmare on Elm Street
8. Dawn of the Dead
9. Alien
10. Texas Chainsaw Massacre

I should note these are the originals and not the remakes.

I also feel like I should pick some post 1990 horror but eh...

[eternity]

1. Gummo
2. Suspiria
3. Alien
4. Detention
5. The Shining
6. Paranormal Activity
7. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
8. Halloween
9. Evil Dead 2
10. The Descent

[Raiders]

1. Pulse (2001)
2. The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
3. White Dog (1982)
4. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
5. Opera (1987)
6. Diabolique (1955)
7. Peeping Tom (1960)
8. Paperhouse (1988)
9. A Bucket of Blood (1959)
10. The Seventh Victim (1943)

[Mysterious Dude]

1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
2. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
4. House (1977)
5. Warning Shadows (1923)
6. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
7. Alien (1979)
8. The Tell-Tale Heart (1953)
9. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
10. The Sixth Sense (1999)

As I was compiling my list, I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd done this before (http://matchcut.artboiled.com/showthread.php?3141-Your-Top-10-Horror-Movies).

[Irish]

1. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (74)
2. Black Christmas (74?)
3. Halloween (78)
4. Psycho (61? 63? 68? I'm not looking up these damned dates!)
5. Alien (79)
6. The Haunting (Uh ... early 60s?)
7. The Thing (1982)
8. The Descent (2005)
9. Wolf Creek (2005)
10. Insidious (2011?)

HM: Ringu, Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, High Tension

[Bosco B Thug]

1. The Birds
2. Vampyr
3. I Walked With a Zombie
4. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ('31)
5. Nosferatu
6. Death Proof
7. Freaks
8. Don't Look Now
9. The Leopard Man
10. Day of the Dead/The Funhouse/Carnival of Souls/The Wicker Man/The Seventh Victim

[megladon8]

Can't rank 'em, but...

The Haunting ('63)
Night of the Living Dead ('68)
Halloween ('78)
Pulse ('01)
The Phantom of the Opera ('25)
Session 9
Suspiria / Deep Red (could flip a coin on these two)
Black Sunday ('60)
The Evil Dead
Onibaba

[baby doll]

Ten titles off the top of my head...

The Hands of Orlac (Robert Wiene, 1924)
Vampyr: Der Traum des Allan Grey (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932)
I Walked With a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)
The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)
Les Yeux sans visage (Georges Franju, 1960)
Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
Cuadecuc, vampir (Pere Portabella, 1971)
Sisters (Brian De Palma, 1973)
The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

[megladon8]

The Hands of Orlac is one I've always wanted to see but just never been able to find a copy of locally.

Apparently the '35 remake is quite good as well.

[Russ]

If if did a list for this, it would have to include a new entry:

Calvaire (aka The Ordeal).

Any fan of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (or Deliverance) needs to see this. I think a few here have seen it, but not most?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn3oba5HmH8

[Ivan Drago]

1. The Shining
2. The Thing (1982)
3. Jaws
4. Scream
5. Dead Alive
6. The Fly (1986)
7. Halloween (1978)
8. Alien
9. The Exorcist
10. Psycho (1960)

[Spun Lepton]

1. John Carpenter's The Thing
2. Evil Dead 2
3. Dawn of the Dead ('78)
4. Ringu
5. An American Werewolf in London
6. The Haunting ('63)
7. The Fly ('86)
8. The Shining
9. The Exorcist
10. Alien

[Kurosawa Fan]

1. Halloween
2. The Thing
3. Alien
4. The Exorcist
5. Psycho
6. Creature From the Black Lagoon
7. Repulsion
8. Evil Dead 2
9. Night of the Living Dead
10. The Shining

[Dukefrukem]

Good lists folks.

Impossible to argue with anything said here.

[bac0n]

1. JC's The Thing
2. Halloween
3. Alien
4. The Changeling
5. The Descent
6. Cabin in the Woods
7. Night of the Living Dead
8. The Others
9. Hellraiser
10. Session 9

[Boner M]

1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper, 1974)
2. Rosemary's Baby (Polanski, 1968)
3. The Shining (Kubrick, 1980)
4. The Thing (Carpenter, 1982)
5. The Phantom Carriage (Sjöström, 1921)
6. Carnival of Souls (Harvey, 1962)
7. Martin (Romero, 1977)
8. Sombre (Grandrieux, 1998)
9. Who Can Kill a Child? (Serrador, 1976)
10. Possession (Zulawski, 1981)

HM: The Exorcist, Alien, House of the Devil, Videodrome, Psycho, The Birds, The Changeling, The Tenant/Repulsion, Jaws, Eyes Without a Face

Not purely-horror enough in my eyes, but worthy of mention: Wake in Fright, Les Diaboliques, Cure (Kurosawa), Under the Skin (Glazer), Hour of the Wolf, The Addiction (Ferrara)

[MadMan]

Slightly revised Top 10:

1. Halloween (1978)
2. Alien (1979)
3. The Thing (1982)
4. Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
5. The Exorcist (1973)
6. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
7. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
8. Jaws (1975)
9. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
10. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

And yes I am aware its 60s and 70s heavy but hey those are the two best decades for horror films. I just go where the ratings take me.

[Rowland]

A top ten of not yet mentioned:

Alice (1988)
The Blair Witch Project
Come and See
Eraserhead
Häxan
The Innocents
Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('78)
Jacob's Ladder
Martyrs
Tenebre

[Raiders]

Nobody else here has seen Epstein's film? Amazing silent film with some of the most spellbinding surrealist cinema ever. Can't imagine it not being a bit hit here.

[Rowland]

Nobody else here has seen Epstein's film? Amazing silent film with some of the most spellbinding surrealist cinema ever. Can't imagine it not being a bit hit here.It's a masterpiece, which I was actually planning in advance to feature on my list of unmentioned favorites before you beat me to the punch.

[MadMan]

Are you guys referring to The Fall of the House of Usher? I've only seen Roger Corman's version.

[Rowland]

Are you guys referring to The Fall of the House of Usher? I've only seen Roger Corman's version.It's a balls to the wall brilliant surrealist silent, hard to find but highly recommended.

[Raiders]

Streams of it are easy to find, though the quality is usually average at best (and they may be the ones with English voiceover). It is in the public domain, so it is widely distributed. I torrented from KG the HQ/DVDrip version and it is glorious. It helps to either know some French or just follow the film without understanding the few intertitles as the version with English narration of the intertitles is maddening in my opinion.

[Spun Lepton]

I call redo!!

1. John Carpenter's The Thing
2. Evil Dead 2
3. Dawn of the Dead ('78)
4. Ringu
5. An American Werewolf in London
6. The Haunting ('63)
7. Creepshow
8. Videodrome
9. The Exorcist
10. The Shining

[Dead & Messed Up]

It's a balls to the wall brilliant surrealist silent, hard to find but highly recommended.

If there's no other access people have to it, there's always Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HUOFNMOfsg). The Archive.org version, as Raiders points out, has English voiceover.

[Rowland]

Streams of it are easy to find, though the quality is usually average at best (and they may be the ones with English voiceover). It is in the public domain, so it is widely distributed. I torrented from KG the HQ/DVDrip version and it is glorious. It helps to either know some French or just follow the film without understanding the few intertitles as the version with English narration of the intertitles is maddening in my opinion.Yes, I should have specified that it's hard to find a nice copy of it without resorting to torrents. I'd buy the shit out of a Blu-ray remastering.

[Gizmo]

10. Audition
9. Misery
8. The Exorcist
7. The Cabin in the Woods
6. Psycho
5. Jaws
4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
3. Halloween
2. The Others
1. The Shining


Others that showed up on my Criticker genre search of horror that would have made top 10, but I don't consider them horror:
Black Swan, Let the Right one In, Pan's Labyrinth

[D_Davis]

1. JC's The Thing
2. Alien
3. Poltergeist
4. Jacob's Ladder
5. Kairo (when did this become Pulse?)
6. The Haunting
7. Dawn of the Dead '04
8. Descent
9. Brain Dead
10. Freddy vs. Jason

[Rowland]

Because I often find alternative lists more useful, and I've got horror on the brain thanks to all the lists here and elsewhere around the internet, here are thirty more all-time favorites that haven't yet been mentioned:


Alice, Sweet Alice
Amer
A Bay of Blood
Beyond the Black Rainbow
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Cannibal Holocaust
Carrie
City of the Living Dead
The Company of Wolves
The Devil's Rejects
Don't Torture a Duckling
Dressed to Kill
Dumplings
Evil Dead Trap
Four Flies on Grey Velvet
From Beyond
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
In the Mouth of Madness
Kill, Baby... Kill!
Murders in the Rue Morgue ('32)
Mystery of the Wax Museum
Prince of Darkness
Raw Meat
Season of the Witch ('72)
Soft for Digging
Stagefright: Aquarius
Torso
Tourist Trap
Tremors
28 Weeks Later

[Raiders]

5. Kairo (when did this become Pulse?)

When we decided to post in English?

[Rowland]

5. Kairo (when did this become Pulse?)I remember the days when it was referred to as Kairo (I still own my imported DVD), but it was been popularly known as Pulse since it was commercially released in the U.S. as such.

[Raiders]

I have always known it as such. I don't call Cure by its Japanese name, either.

[Rowland]

I have always known it as such. I don't call Cure by its Japanese name, either.I'm thinking of the early '00s, when it was first released and still something of a J-horror cult oddity outside of the festival circuit, known predominantly within online horror circles and commonly referred to by its Japanese name for whatever reason. I'm not arguing that this is what it should be called now.

[D_Davis]

When we decided to post in English?

I posted in English. ;)

I thought Kairo was it's English title, and that Pulse was the name of the remake.

:shrug:

I like Pulse better as a title.

[MadMan]

It's a balls to the wall brilliant surrealist silent, hard to find but highly recommended.Sweet. I've read the story too and find it great although its been years since I've read any of Poe's works. If I get my hands on it I'll write a review.

Also cool list on Page 2 btw. I've seen 13 of the ones on it. This thread reminds me that after Horrorfest I'm going to revamp my Top 50 again. Its been a year since I last created that list.

[Dukefrukem]

I posted in English. ;)

I thought Kairo was it's English title, and that Pulse was the name of the remake.

:shrug:



That's what I thought too.

We don't call Ringu, the Ring. We don't call Ju-on the Grudge. Kario is not equal to Pulse.

[MadMan]

Even though I'm going to be watching over 30 something horror movies way into November this is my current revised full Top 50 list:

1. Halloween (1978)
2. Alien (1979)
3. The Thing (1982)
4. Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
5. The Exorcist (1973)
6. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
7. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
8. Jaws (1975)
9. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
10. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
11. Lost Highway (1997)
12. Nosferatu (1922)
13. Dead Ringers (1988)
14. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
15. Dead Alive (1992)
16. The Omen (1976)
17. Peeping Tom (1960)
18. Antichrist (2009)
19. Kill List (2011)
20. Carrie (1976)
21. Re-Animator (1985)
22. Repulsion (1965)
23. Videodrome (1983)
24. Dead of Night (1945)
25. Possession (1981)
26. The Cabin In The Woods (2012)
27. Cemetery Man (1994)
28. Frankenstein (1931)
29. Night of the Creeps (1986)
30. The Man Who Laughs (1928)
31. Tenebre (1982)
32. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
33. Evil Dead II (1987)
34. 28 Days Later (2002)
35. The Fly (1986)
36. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
37. The Changeling (1980)
38. The Mist (2007)
39. Creepshow (1982)
40. Ginger Snaps (2000)
41. Black Swan (2010)
42. In The Mouth of Madness (1994)
43. Slither (2006)
44. The Lords of Salem (2012)
45. Diabolique (1955)
46. Cronos (1993)
47. Torso (1973)
48. The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
49. Tales From The Crypt Presents: Demon Knight (1995)
50. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)


7 on that list were new additions that I watched this Horrorfest.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I call Kairo Pulse, I call Ringu Ringu, I call Gwoemul The Host, I call Hausu Hausu. I call Odishon Audition, but it sounds the same, so Japan wins that round.

[D_Davis]

I call Ringu Ring, because that's what everyone called it before the US version came out. Then people started calling it Ringu to distinguish it from Ring.

Now I think I'll just call it Jap-Ring.

[Mr. Pink]

(unranked)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Thing
Suspiria
Psycho
The Vanishing (original)
Black Christmas
The House on Haunted Hill
Halloween
The Bride of Frankenstein
Night of the Living Dead

I want to include Phantom of the Paradise, but it seems like too much of a stretch.

[MadMan]

As for the "Is it Horror Or Is It Not?" debate on Seven and Silence of the Lambs when I used the horror genre filter on Criticker neither film popped up and both got high enough ratings to be considered for my Top 50. Hmm, interesting. I don't consider Seven to be horror but Silence is pretty damn close.

[Rowland]

If anyone is interested in more horror lists, there are endless underrated horror lists compiled at this blog (http://rupertpupkinspeaks.blogspot.co m/), and Slant (http://www.slantmagazine.com/features/article/100-greatest-horror-films-of-all-time) is doing a 100 Greatest Horror Films of All Time list.

[Yxklyx]

It's hard to classify horror - I'll stick with creepy/scary films with little or no humor in this list:

1. The Shining
2. Eraserhead
3. Alien
4. Jaws
5. The Blair Witch Project
6. The Birds
7. Rosemary's Baby
8. Session 9
9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
10. The Thing

[dreamdead]

Haven't forgotten about this, but time has been limited to compile results together. They'll be forthcoming in the next week.

Sorry, all.