In preparation for Halloween, everyone's listing their favourite horror flicks. Well, Final Girl is, and Ryan 'Stinkbrown' Lindsay is too. I'm sure a bunch of other people are thinking about it. Show me a barrel and I'll scrape it...
Runners up included Evil Dead 2 and 3, Final Destination (any of the first three, not the rubbish 3D one), Rec (Spanish), The Fly (Goldblum), The Hitcher (Hauer) and The Ring (Japanese). Which should give you an idea of how bad my taste in horror films really is.
Here's 20-11 then... come back tomorrow for part 2. You just know it's gonna piss you off some more.
20. Friday The 13th
It's well over twenty years since I saw the original, and I'm sure it wouldn't stand up after all this time, but I still remember the impact this movie had on me - particularly the ending. Diluted to death by a dozen inferior sequels, this stuck a spike through my heart like an arrow through Kevin Bacon's throat. And Jason wasn't even the killer!
19. 28 Days Later
What if zombies could run really, really fast, Christopher Eccleston was a right hard bastard, and Manchester looked like LA from a distance...?
The sequel is... OK.
18. The Strangers
17. Cube
Some ignorami consider this to have invented the torture porn genre and spawned a million Saws, Hostels, et al. The difference being there's more invention, imagination and genuine tension in the first five minutes of Cube than there was in the whole Saw franchise.
The sequels are good too.
16. An American Werewolf In London
Another of those horror films that defined my youth, and not just for Jenny Agutter in the shower.
Keep off the moors and stay on the road.
The sequel is rubbish, despite Julie Delpy.
15. Them (Ils)
Because, it seems, only the French truly understand there's little scarier than a bunch of unruly hoodies. Inspired The Strangers, Eden Lake and a bunch of other "aren't kids bastards?" flicks, none of which were quite as efficiently brutal.
14. Frailty
The film that made Bill Paxton scary. That's some achievement! (He directed it too, so it was all his own doing.) Great twists and a black-as-pitch ending.
13. Duel
The horror film that reminds you you're not as indestructible as you think you are in that little tin box you drive about in every day. Dennis Weaver does the everyman routine perfectly, Spielberg's direction has never been grittier, and the fact we never see the trucker makes him the perfect boogeyman.
I was tempted to include copycat 70s movie The Car in this list, if only for the scenes where the eponymous driverless vehicle refuses to go onto consecrated ground... and then explodes in a fiery devil explosion at the end. In my memory, I often get the two films confused and have that devil explosion tear up the sky after the Duel lorry tumbles over the cliff too. I'm always vaguely disappointed when it doesn't happen.
12. The Blair Witch Project
All you people who hate Blair Witch, sorry, but you're wrong. It may just be a lot of silly running about in the woods, but woods are scary places... and that facing the wall ending haunted me for weeks.
The sequel is bollocks.
11. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Since it was banned in the UK as a video nasty throughout my youth, I expected to be disappointed by TCM when I finally saw it. Disappointed, I was not. Disturbed, I was. Not by the expected scenes of chainsaw torture - which turned out to be mercifully few and actually quite restrained - but instead by the scene at the dinner table where Grandpa's corpse starts sucking the girls finger and she screams... and screams... and screams... and screams.
The remake was far too glossy.
Click here for part 2...
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15 rants and reactions:
I'm not a horror fan, so have only seen American Werewolf on the list...and it is indeed truly memorable, and not just for Ms Agutter. Looking forward to part 2 to see if I fare any better
I'm going to hold fire on passing comment until you publish the top half of the twenty... and then I might steal the meme and write my own! I will say that you've already included two of my favourite films (of any genre) in American Werewolf and Duel.
Rol. YES!
Duel is a spectacular piece of film. Likewise with the Blair Witch Project.
I just hope the original Evil Dead makes in into your list, or all my hopes in you will be lost.
Always knew you were a man of taste, Rol. The presence of Cube on this list confirms this if there were ever any doubt.
Not sure about The Strangers, which I didn't like at all, but the rest is acceptable. Duel is, aside from the Indiana Jones films, my favourite of Spielberg's increasingly-shite output.
As for Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I'm going to write a bit more about this later in the week, but I was disappointed by it, as it just seemed a little silly -- it's Scooby Doo without the dog -- and not at all worth being banned. The "dinner with grandpa" scene you describe had me laughing my head off, but then I saw an interview with Tobe Hooper the other day and he indicated that the film is supposed to be funny. So now I feel better, and like it a bit more.
I watched Duel when I was around 11years old. I'm not a huge horror fan at all, they stay with me too long.
I slept on the bottom bunk, at that time, below my sister and after dreaming about being hunted down by that truck I woke thinking I was being run over by it. I'm not prone to dramatics, but the screams brought everyone in the house running..
and I was finally given the top bunk.
:)
I have to confess to having never seen The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but did see the dire Driller Killer on VHS (naturally) as a kid. I didn't find it particularly horrific just horrifically bad. I'm very picky when it comes to horror movies. Saw and its ilk do little for me but I was impressed with Cloverfield. Looking forward to your top ten.
Nota - I suspect you'll have seen at least one of the films in my Top Ten. I'll be VERY surprised if you haven't seen #5.
Pip - I've forgotten how much I enjoyed American Werewolf. I need to watch it again to remind me.
Ben - I live to disappoint you. Sorry. I always felt that Evil Dead 2 improved on 1, being that it's the same film with more money thrown at it and Raimi's direction had matured (probably not the right word under the circumstances) too.
Kelvin - I can see how the dinner party scene could go either way, and I do agree that there's a lot of comedy in TCM. For me though, that's one of the few times I've been in the cinema and actually thought "I'm going to have to leave if this doesn't stop soon" - her screaming was doing my head in!
Millie - I have similar childhood memories of my #9 film... which I'm sure will surprise some people.
Steve - Driller Killer is utter bollocks. TCM is a far better movie AND a far better horror movie.
Cloverfield came very close to making the list, but in the end I just couldn't decide whether it was a horror film or not.
Cloverfield? Cloverfield?
Oh for crying out loud...
Damn, I wish I'd included it now. Still time to squeeze it into the top ten?
Rol - Cloverfield is utter bollocks. Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus is a far better movie AND a far better horror movie.
I don't see John Carpenter's 'The Fog' anywhere!
Scariest film I've ever seen.
I thought The Blair Witch Project was appalling bad, even for a film which was supposed to be an amateur film and that was it's conceit.
Hmm, I must admit I forgot The Fog. It's a great film, but much longer since I've seen it than either Halloween or The Thing.
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