The 1. 00 Best Horror Movies of the 1. Everybody likes horror movies, but not everybody has the time to really delve into them and explore the genre. There are just too many, and unless you’re actively making your living as a film critic, it is entirely understandable if you don’t have the time. But that’s how misconceptions get started, those misleading observations based only on the most visible motion pictures in a genre, like the frequently expressed belief that the 1. That’s not really fair. The 1. 99. 0s were, if we take a serious look at it, an exceptionally interesting time for the horror movie genre, although that does perhaps have something to do with the fact that it was going through an identity crisis. The 1. 98. 0s were easily defined as an era of slasher thrillers and ambitious gore films, but those trends were already dying out by the time the 1. 2016 has been a great year for horror fans. Sure there were a few sequels nobody asked for, though a few of those were actually rather well done (the following list. Let’s take a look at the biggest and best horror movies of 2013. The scary list features the usual mix of remakes ( The 100 best horror films The best horror films and movies of all time, voted for by over 100 experts including Simon Pegg, Stephen King and Alice Cooper.
The late 1. 99. 0s would eventually be defined by Scream and the ironic genre commentaries that emerged in its wake, but the majority of the decade was an amorphous time period in which filmmakers experimented with new ideas, toyed around with the old ones, and produced a lot of exciting movies as a result. Of course not every horror movie from the 1. A couple of the most popular ones didn’t even make this list, and we’ve already produced an entire downloadable commentary track, available free of charge, that explains why Event Horizon is one of them. But despite their absence it still wasn’t difficult to compile this list of one hundred great – and if not great then at least entertaining (or at least extremely interesting) – horror movies from throughout the decade. These films reveal just how diverse and fascinating the genre really was in the 1. So the next time someone tells you that horror movies sucked in the 1. Even some of the so- called “bad” horror movies of the era are worthy of new eyes twenty years later, and it may surprise you to learn that they play a lot better now than they did the first time. Let’s get rolling with. The Burning Moon (1. Intervision. German filmmaker Olaf Ittenbach didn’t just make The Burning Moon, he got away with it. It’s the sort of film makes you want to call the police. Shot on home video, Ittenbach’s movie is the sick tale of a demented teen telling his little sister bedtime stories, but they are completely unacceptable for children or even adults of any age, detailing detestable murders and finally a descent into one of the most gruesome Hells ever conceived. It doesn’t belong in your home video library, it belongs in evidence locker. But there’s a market for that sort of thing. Man’s Best Friend (1. New Line Cinema. Can a film have multiple personality disorder? John Lafia’s killer dog movie doesn’t quite know if it wants to be Air Bud or Cujo, and it races back and forth between family- friendly jokes and horrifying imagery like a dog repeatedly catching a stick. It’s the story of a newspaper reporter who liberates a dog from a shady laboratory, only to discover that it’s a dangerous, genetically enhanced organism that can turn invisible, eat cats whole and even cut her boyfriend’s brakes. Man’s Best Friend is definitely ridiculous, but it’s also entertaining from start to finish. Popcorn (1. 99. 1)Studio Three Film Corporation. A group of film students rents out a movie theater for an all- night horror film festival, complete with William Castle gimmicks like Smellovision and electrified seats, but in all the crowd- pleasing commotion nobody seems to notice that a maniac is murdering everyone offstage. Clever deaths and an unexpected, charismatic villain make Popcorn one of the better slashers you’ve probably never heard of. My Boyfriend’s Back (1. Touchstone Pictures. Bob Balaban directed one of the scariest horror comedies in history, but that was Parents, back in 1. In the 1. 99. 0s the Close Encounters of the Third Kind co- star returned to the director’s chair for a goofier but still very likable zombie rom- com, about a teen who asks the hottest girl in school to the prom just before he dies. The thing is, when she says yes, out of pity, he refuses to stay dead. Can he still be the good- natured John Hughes underdog when he needs to eat his fellow classmates to survive? Boasting an eccentric sense of humor and weird early performances by Matthew Mc. Conaughey and Philip Seymour Hoffman, My Boyfriend’s Back is an oddball treat. Giggles (1. 99. 2)Universal Pictures. Dr. Giggles was marketed like it was going to be the next great slasher franchise, but nobody saw the danged thing. That’s a pity, because they probably would have liked it just fine. Larry Drake plays a homicidal doctor who metes out violence on his patients while uncontrollably giggling to himself, in a performance that’s campy, but creepy nevertheless. It may not have broken the mold, and it may not have broken into the public consciousness, but it’s gradually finding a cult audience who recognize that it’s one of the most underrated late- era slashers. Thinner (1. 99. 6)Paramount Pictures. Based on a novel by Stephen King, published under his pseudonym “Richard Bachman,” Thinner is a cynical morality tale that probably would have made for a classic Tales from the Crypt episode. As a movie it’s a little longer than it needs to be, but it’s engagingly directed by Tom Holland (Fright Night) and features one of Robert John Burke’s best performances. Burke plays an obese lawyer who uses his political connections to avoid a prison sentence after he accidentally kills a gypsy with his car. The gypsy’s husband curses him to lose weight, uncontrollably, until he dies. It’s a solid “be careful what you wish for” nightmare, with a vicious anti- moral streak. Nobody wants to become a better person in Thinner. They’ll do damn near anything to save themselves. Alien: Resurrection (1. Century Fox. Alien: Resurrection is not a great movie, but it’s an extremely interesting one, and the first Alien sequel to truly revel in the perverse psychosexual imagery that H. R. Giger originally envisioned for the series way back in 1. Ripley, played by a strong and sensual Sigourney Weaver, has been cloned in the future but her DNA has been mingled with the alien xenomorphs she died trying to exterminate in the first place. The action scenes are a mess and the supporting cast is too kooky for their own good, but when Alien: Resurrection focuses on the strange new relationship between Ripley and her enemy – closer than ever, both familial and sexual – it’s a twisted and oddly enjoyable entry in the franchise. Bad Moon (1. 99. 6)Warner Bros. Bad Moon might have been more popular if the title was more honest. Let’s face it: Eric Red’s under- appreciated thriller should have been called Lassie vs. The Wolfman. A single mom invites her estranged brother back home, but he’s not just distant, he’s cursed, and only the family dog knows that good ol’ Uncle Ted (played particularly well by Michael Par. Sure enough, their faithful pooch gets blamed for all the maulings, and eventually there’s a scene where the little boy screams as the Humane Society drags the dog away, while the dog barks its head off trying to warn his ungrateful masters of the danger in their midst. The special effects aren’t great – in fact, sometimes they’re just terrible – but Bad Moon still knows how to hit you in the gut. Anaconda (1. 99. 7)Columbia Pictures. Good old- fashioned monster movie nonsense. A documentary film crew treks their way through the Amazon and runs across a Paraguayan trapper played, with absolute scenery- chewing glee, by Jon Voight. He tricks them into helping him hunt a rare and gigantic anaconda, a quest which eventually gets practically everybody killed. A silly premise, filmed well, featuring an unusually great ensemble cast that includes Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Ice Cube, Danny Trejo and Eric Stoltz. Wishmaster (1. 99. Live Entertainment. An unironic monster movie released in the height of the post- Scream irony boom, it is perhaps no surprise that Wishmaster didn’t find an enormous audience. But they missed out. This clever supernatural thriller, directed by makeup effects maestro Robert Kurtzman, stars Andrew Divoff as an ageless djinn who has unlimited power, but he can’t use it unless somebody else makes a wish. So Wishmaster is full of amusing wordplay – one woman wishes she could be beautiful forever, so the djinn turns her into a mannequin, etc. It spawned three straight- to- video sequels, but only the first one, Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies, is also worth seeking out. Idle Hands (1. 99. Columbia Pictures. Do you remember that scene from Evil Dead II where Bruce Campbell’s hand became possessed and tried to kill him? Idle Hands is that scene, but as an entire movie. It works better than you might think. Devon Sawa plays a pothead who’s so slothful that his hand literally becomes the devil’s plaything. His hand kills his best friends, Seth Green (Robot Chicken) and Elden Henson (Daredevil), but it’s cool. They come back as zombies to help him find a way out of the curse. Very funny stuff from prolific TV director Rodman Flender (Scream: The Series). House on Haunted Hill (1. Warner Bros. It’s no coincidence that the remake of William Castle’s beloved fright flick opens at an amusement park. After all, this all- star spook house thriller works more like a carnival ride than a movie. Geoffrey Rush hams it up as a millionaire who invites a group of weirdos to spend the night in – gasp! But to everybody’s surprise, the place really is haunted, and soon they’re all backstabbing each other to survive. House on Haunted Hill is the kind of madcap fright flick that’s perfect for slumber parties. The Devil’s Advocate (1. Warner Bros. And to think, Al Pacino used to be considered a pretty subtle actor. But by the 1. 99. The Godfather and Serpico was going WAY over the top in genre flicks like Dick Tracy and, more to the point, The Devil’s Advocate, playing Lucifer himself as a wealthy and oversexed head of a prestigious New York law firm. The 3. 0 Best Horror Movies Of All Time. Almost as long as there has been cinema there have been horror movies. While the genre is often branded with the stigma of being low- brow, cheap, and only for hardcore fans of jump scares and gore, it is also responsible for some of the greatest films of all- time, and certainly many of our favorites fall somewhere along the horror spectrum. Just as there are trashy, forgettable, throwaway horror films every year, there are also those that that play upon our greatest fears to create tension, an ominous atmosphere, and to terrify us to our very core. The history genre is full of monsters, both human and otherwise, horrific events, and chilling scenarios that thrill us, scare us, keep us on the proverbial edge of our seats, and stick around to haunt our nightmares long after we leave the theater. The list that follows is Cinema Blend’s definitive, once- and- for- all comment on the greatest horror movies ever made, though we can’t help but wish there was room for 5. Will you agree with all of our choices? Probably not, but we’re willing to bet that some of your favorites made the cut. Friday The 1. 3th. A franchise most known for it’s hulking, un- killable, hockey- mask- wearing, machete- wielding villain Jason Voorhees, it’s easy to forget that this iconic antagonist isn’t really a part of Sean Cunninghams’s 1. Along with the likes of Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 1. Full of tension and shocks and a very young Kevin Bacon getting speared through the neck, Friday the 1. Shaun Of The Dead. Shaun of the Dead is the one movie on this list that works as a comedy first and as a horror second, but it does both so exceedingly well that there was no way this slice of fried gold could be ignored. From the minds of star Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright, 2. Shaun of the Dead gave the zombie genre the . With homages galore and weapons ranging from rifles to cricket bats to the Batman soundtrack on vinyl (but not Purple Rain), the movie wisely balances the narrative spotlight between imaginative zombie kills and the pub- loving Shaun fighting to keep his life from spiraling away. As quotable as it is blood- soaked and hilarious, Shaun of the Dead is boosted by a stellar supporting cast of talented Brits, including Bill Nighy, Dylan Moran, Kate Ashfield and Lucy Davis (among many others). Fuck- a- doodle- do, this movie is fantastic. Suspiria. With the giallo subgenre, Italian filmmakers put their own unique, memorable stamp on horror. None of them left quite the mark that Dario Argento did, and none of his impressive body of work stands quite as tall as 1. Suspiria. When an American ballet student enrolls in prestigious German dance academy, she finds much more than she bargained for, as sinister supernatural forces leave a trail of violent, grisly murders. Glossy and blood- spattered, Suspiria is visually stunning—a virtual nightmare captured on film—violent, shocking, and with a score by the legendary prog rock band Goblin, the finished product is a hallucinatory sensory overload. And I mean that as the highest compliment. Repulsion. With movies like Knife in the Water and Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski has shown that you don’t necessarily need monsters and jump scares to make a truly terrifying film. Case in point: his first English- language feature, 1. Repulsion. Starring Catherine Deneuve, the story follows her character, Carol, a woman repulsed by all things sexual, who, when her sister leaves her alone for a holiday, comes unwound, sinks into a depression, and is tormented by horrific visions and hallucinations, all of which culminate in shocking real- world violence. Repulsion is widely regarded as one of the all- time greats in the realm of psychological horror, and that acclaim has rightly remained for more than half a century. Don’t Look Now. When a married couple (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie), attempting to come to terms with the death of their young daughter, travel to Venice, they’re haunted by a series of mysterious occurrences and reminders of death after an encounter with two elderly sisters comes with warnings from beyond. Clearly wearing Hitchcockian influences on his sleeve, Nicolas Roeg’s 1. Don’t Look Now employs occult sensibilities, explores the impact of grief on a relationship, and delivers a chilling, menacing story, tinged with melodrama and the supernatural, that sticks with you long after watching. Psychologically and thematically dense, it’s an examination of the human psyche as filtered through the lens of a tense, tight horror thriller. The Thing. Like many great horror movies, the ones that endure over the years, John Carpenter’s 1. The Thing From Another World, The Thing, was initially dismissed by most critics as being nothing more than an excessive gross- out schlock film. However, in the decades since its release, it has been reappraised and become recognized as one of the great offerings of the genre. A jagged sci- fi thriller that continually creates a tense, taut atmosphere of paranoia and doubt, The Thing follows the rugged crew at an isolated Antarctic research facility as they’re besieged by an alien presence that can assume the form of anything it touches. Playing to gut- level fears and using grotesquely memorable practical creature effects, this is Carpenter, one of the masters of horror, working at the very top of his game. And the ambiguous ending is still the subject of great conversation and debate. Days Later. No one can argue that George A. Romero is the godfather of zombie movies, but with 2. Days Later, director Danny Boyle became the cool uncle of zombie movies that would show up with a case of beer and a couple of sledgehammers. Headed by Cillian Murphy at his most hypnotic, and from a script penned by future Ex Machina filmmaker Alex Garland, 2. Days Later technically replaced the undead kind of zombies with fast- moving abominations fueled by a rage virus, but it still fits into (and sits near the top) of the subgenre. Winning performances from Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson and Christopher Eccleston only add to its superiority. Scream. In the current landscape, it’s practically impossible to have a horror movie that doesn’t have meta, self- referential elements. You can thank horror master Wes Craven and his 1. Scream for that. As annoying as this trope has become in recent years, as handled by Craven, Scream was a game changer. Using comedy, a whodunit- style mystery, and every slasher clich. Beyond any academic praise you want to heap on the film, at the same time Scream is all of these things, it’s also a great horror film, one that is inventive and funny and harrowing all at the same time. The Blair Witch Project. Similar in spirit (if not style) to producer/director William Castle’s attempts in the 1. The Blair Witch Project was bolstered by fairly extensive pre- release buzz that sold the central story of three missing documentary filmmakers as genuine truth. It’s safe to say that approach was effective, as the film eventually grossed almost $2. At that point, . By choosing indirect and abstract scares to keep viewers unsettled, and letting . Rarely has a less- is- more strategy panned out so successfully. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. An argument can be made that only bad films should get the remake treatment, but 1. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a monolith of an exception. Perhaps it isn’t better in every way than the 1. Jack Finney’s novel), but it’s one hell of a lot more effective as a horror film. Kicking off a solid run of films for director Philip Kaufman, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is the pod people movie to rule them all, and its legacy is cemented by stars Donald Sutherland, his mustache, and Brooke Adams (not to mention Jeff Goldblum and Leonard Nimoy), as well as some of the most fabulously disgusting special effects of the decade. The film also exhibits its 1. Or wherever you want to call that psyche- shattering mutant dog. A Nightmare On Elm Street. The only franchise I can recall that made jumping rope unnervingly creepy, the Nightmare on Elm Street films remain championed more than most genre series for never fully settling into haphazardly conceived dreck. And it all started with Wes Craven’s 1. Freddy Krueger. Everything a horror fan could hope for is in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy is the greatest movie monster of all time, the cast (including an infant Johnny Depp) is perfect, the backstory is chilling and the kills. Freddy’s glove is a masterpiece of weaponry, but this movie’s best deaths were Tina’s, in which her bleeding body is dragged all over her bedroom’s walls and ceiling, and Glen’s, whose murder results in a wonderful geyser of blood shooting up from his bed. Depp’s character said it best: . Baseball bats and boogeymen. Bride Of Frankenstein. When Bride of Frankenstein was first released in 1. Internet where people could argue over the value of movie sequels. Acclaimed but not entirely beloved upon its release, James Whale’s follow- up to his own 1. With Ernest Thesiger eagerly welcomed as Henry Frankenstein’s former mentor Doctor Pretorius, Bride of Frankenstein tells the ghastly next chapter in the story of Henry and Boris Karloff’s Monster, treating viewers to visual and aural splendor for a grisly tale that climaxes in the creation of the Monster’s Bride, played with magnificence by Elsa Lanchester and her unforgettable hair. The Bride is sadly only in the movie for a brief period, but her . One can only wonder what the film would have been like had it not been a big target for censorship. Evil Dead 2. Rare is the sequel that surpasses its predecessor in almost every way, but hail to the king of modern horror follow- ups, baby. As unexpectedly fantastic as 1. The Evil Dead was, director Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell were older and more mature by the time Evil Dead II really started coming together in 1.
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