Blankfist, Smibbo and I seem to share a love of horror films, and I was curious to see if there are other horror fans out there, so feel free to go ahead and list your top 10 (or so) horror films of all time. Just for fun, why not list your 3 least favorite horror films too. There are plenty of horror films I haven't seen, so hopefully you can turn me on to some good scares.
Top 11
1. The Shining
2. Alien
3. Evil Dead II
4. Poltergeist
5. Lost Highway
6. Jacob's Ladder
7. Shaun of the Dead
8. Nightmare on Elm Street
9. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
10. Blair Witch
11. Psycho (obligatory classic)
Bottom 3
I'm going to limit my bottom 3 to films that had some artistic merit to begin with to liven the discussion, otherwise it would be impossible to narrow down between the infinite terrible sequels of all the various horror franchises.
1. Wendigo - The trailer was great, the moster was cool looking, but the film just had nowhere to go.
2. Devil's Rejects - Rob Zombie's white trash horror opera did well with critics and fans, but I found it dull and meandering.
3. Event Horizon - A nice build up, but oh what a dissapointing climax.
Stumble This
1 - The Shining
2- The Ring
3 - Misery
4- Alien
5 - The Thing
6 - Poltergeist
7 - Dawn of the Dead (2004 version - Sorry hardcore Romero fans)
8 - Cujo
9 - Friday the 13th
10 - Children of the Corn
Honorable Mention: The Others, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street
I love Jacob's Ladder and Shaun of the Dead, but I just think of them in a different genre than horror. Because creating a list of worst horror films would be too painful, here are a few horrorish guilty pleasures instead:
1 - Killer Klowns from Outter Space
2 - The Lost Boys
3 - Army of Darkness
But here's my top ten in what I consider horror:
The Others
Jacob's Ladder
The Eye (original, not upcoming remake)
Aliens
Alien
Dark Water (Original, not US remake)
Ju-On (Original, not US remake, although the remake wasn't bad)
Onibaba
obviously i have a preference for J-horror
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
Silence of the Lambs
The Haunting
Village of the Damned
Hellraiser II
Scream
Ringu wasn't nearly as good as The Ring. I've analyzed the US version forwards and backwards, and it is about as damn perfect as a horror story can be. I can write my dissertation on it, but I'll save everyone from sheer boredom. Let me say this, however. In the US version, The Director, Gore Verbinski, did a great job of crafting a great pace and tone for the story, and the screenwriter(s) did an excellent job of taking the lazier and unpolished Japanese version of the story and creating something a touch more in-depth. For instance, in Ringu it is suggested that the mother of Sadako might have had sex with a sea monster or something like that, but in the US version the father of Samara was a horse breeder, and because Samara's mother was incapable of giving birth, well, you can probably see where it went from there. They imply that Samara was birthed in a horse. What makes this significant over the Japanese version, in my opinion, is that the the US theme can easily be summed up as demonstrating the price of "crimes against nature" and we recognize it as something cautionary which is where the great horror mythologies begin.
The Japanese version isn't insinuating a cautionary tale, but rather just displaying a series of supernatural or metaphysical evils, because if the mother of Sadako was to have sex with a sea monster or the sea itself (or whatever is being implied there), then it's not grounded within our reality and therefore it's impossible for us to glean a cautionary tale from their story. It becomes fantasy horror at that point, and without a solid theme for us to relate with on a subconscious Joseph Campbell sort of way, then (for me) the story doesn't succeed as well. I've kind of glossed over the differences in the interest of not writing a diatribe. These are broad strokes here, but I think I did a decent job illustrating my point.
not sure if what I like can be classified as "horror" because I don't really like films like "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" - but I consider those to be slasher flicks.
Friday the 13th and Halloween are more part of the horror genre than Aliens and Silence of the Lambs, I think. To me, Aliens was an action film whereas its predecessor Alien was a haunted house story told on a space ship (therefore it certainly was a horror film, if not sci-fi-horror.). Silence of the Lambs was a thriller more than a horror. Jacobs Ladder, in my opinion, is debatable whether or not it can be considered horror - I, too, think that one is a thriller.
The Shining, The Exorcist, Alien, Jaws, The Fly, Psycho, Nosferatu, Misery, Cujo...
I liked Pan's Labyrinth.
I've never actually seen Killer Klowns. I guess I have to rent it now.
I liked the US version of 'The Ring' better too. I'm going to have to watch that again now after reading your interesting analysis. I'm interested in reading more about it if you want to post it.
I haven't seen very many J-Horror flick. I'll have to check some of the ones you've listed out.
Nosferatu is another gaping hole in my horror knowledge and it's actually on my computer as we speak. I'm going to make a point to watch it soon.
Add: Halloween... no blood, all angles and sound
Agree that the 2004 remake of "Dawn Of The Dead" was a better film over the original, Dark dark and dark once again, LOVED the end.
Hey, DFT, if you turn out to despise Killer Klowns, don't take it out on me. It's a b-movie cult classic from the 80s. I own it on DVD, but I cannot get my girlfriend to watch it with me.
2. Shaun Of The Dead
3. Army Of Darkness
4. Dawn Of The Dead (2004) - Running zombies scare the piss out of me
5. Silence Of The Lambs
6. Nosferatu The Vampyre (1979)
7. Salem's Lot
8. Christine
9. Poltergeist
10. Evil Dead II
11. C.H.U.D.
"The Thing" is my favorite, the rest are in no particular order. And one of those is a joke. Guess which.
A few films that scared me when I was a kid but now make me laugh:
1. The Blob (1958)
2. The Wasp Woman (1959)
3. King Kong vs. Godzilla (Hey, I was a little kid when I first saw it.)
Eraserhead
holy smokes I loved that movie...
1. The Shining
2. Psycho
3. The Descent
4. Shaun of the Dead
5. Alien
6. The Thing
7. Audition
8. Halloween (NOT the Rob Zombie version)
9. The Ring
10. The Hills Have Eyes (the remake)
The worst:
1. A tie between both of the recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre remakes... ugh. If there's anything worse than Michael Bay the director, it's Michael Bay the producer.
2. House of Wax (the remake)
3. Silent Hill
And I have to say, I'm a bit puzzled to see the remake of Dawn of the Dead on so many lists. That's a classic example of style over substance (and not particularly good style, either). There wasn't a single decent, three-dimensional character in the film, which was puzzling considering that the movie spends a ridiculous amount of time with the characters sitting around talking. I hate Zack Snyder, and I'm getting ready to really despise him once he inevitably ruins Watchmen.
http://www.videosift.com/video/When-a-Stranger-Calls-Chilling-Opening
02. Invasion of the body snatchers
03. Friday the 13th (original)
04. The Shining
05. Halloween
06. Aliens
07. Amityville horror
08. The Ring
09. When a stranger calls (opening sequence)
10. Dawn of the Dead (2004) - the opening & end sequence
Honorable Mention
Scream
mothman prophecies
seven
war of the worlds
STINKERS
Cursed
Song Of The Dead
Last Breath
ugh, I really thought that was in the "so bad its nearly a joke" category.
And "Audition" just made me want to puke repeatedly, it didn't scare me at all.
Disappointment - Marebito
but, not so much horror, to me.
so, after careful deliberation, and in
no particular order, as that would be unnecessary, and impossible for me:
The Omen -+- Jaws -+- Creepshow
The Ring -+- The Thing -+- The Shining (The... Sting?
American Werewolf in London
The Fly (Cronenberg) -+- Alien -+- Psycho
next 5: Salem's Lot, Exorcist, Halloween, Nosferatu, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
and Fright Night was a surprisingly good B flick.
i'll sift the trailer if i can find it tonight.
the surprise? i'm the only one to mention 4 of my Top 10!
> Toss: Blair Witch... blow your nose, PLEASE.
ha!
a very worthy rental, if anyone hasn't seen it:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Fright-Night-trailer
2. The Thing
3. Dawn of the Dead (original)
4. The Shining
5. Jaws
6. Day of the Dead
7. 28 Days Later
8. Night Watch
9. Evil Dead II
10. The Birds
Bottom 3:
3. Saw
2. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003 remake)
1. The Grudge
Honorable Mention:
1. Jacob's Ladder
2. Army of Darkness (which I consider more comedy than horror, thus not being top 10)
3. Return of the Living Dead