Time Out's 100 Best Horror Films

MakeEmLaugh

Did anyone see Time Out magazine's list of the 100 Best Horror Films, published in April? It was compiled by the likes of Guillermo del Toro, Frank Darabont, Clive Barker, Joe Dante, Roger Corman, Gareth Evans and Simon Pegg, and is pretty outstanding, if you ask me!

100) Come and See (1985)
99) Braindead/Dead Alive (1992)
98) Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)
97) I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
96) Cronos (1993)
95) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
94) God Told Me To (1976)
93) Threads (1984)
92) Inferno (1980)
91) The Fog (1979)
90) Daughters of Darkness (1970)
89) The Black Cat (1934)
88) The Mist (2007)
87) Martin (1976)
86) Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)
85) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
84) Black Sunday (1960)
83) The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
82) Re-Animator (1985)
81) Day of the Dead (1985)
80) Hellraiser (1987)
79) Dead Ringers (1988)
78) Society (1989)
77) Salo (1975)
76) The Orphanage (2007)
75) Phantasm (1978)
74) Dracula (1958)
73) Black Sabbath (1963)
72) 28 Days Later (2002)
71) Pulse (Kairo) (2001)
70) Jacob's Ladder (1990)
69) Eraserhead (1977)
68) Wolf Creek (2005)
67) Angel Heart (1987)
66) The Vanishing (1988)
65) The Devil's Backbone (2001)
64) Black Christmas (1974)
63) The Sixth Sense (1999)
62) Repulsion (1965)
61) Ringu (1998)
60) The Night of the Hunter (1955)
59) The Silence of the Lambs (1990)
58) Poltergeist (1982)
57) The Old Dark House (1932)
56) Kill, Baby...Kill! (1966)
55) The Wicker Man (1973)
54) [REC] (2007)
53) The Others (2001)
52) Night of the Demon (1957)
51) Switchblade Romance/Haute Tension/High Tension (2003)
50) Vampyr (1932)
49) The Beyond (1981)
48) Kwaidan (1964)
47) Les Diaboliques (1955)
46) The Devils (1971)
45) Deep Red (1975)
44) Hour of the Wolf (1967)
43) The Tenant (1976)
42) Peeping Tom (1960)
41) The Evil Dead (1981)
40) Carnival of Souls (1962)
39) The Descent (2005)
38) Possession (1981)
37) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
36) The Blair Witch Project (1999)
35) Dead of Night (1945)
34) Eyes Without a Face (1959)
33) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
32) Cannibal Holocaust (1979)
31) Martyrs (2008)
30) Frankenstein (1931)
29) Cat People (1942)
28) Let the Right One In (2008)
27) Videodrome (1982)
26) Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
25) The Changeling (1979)
24) The Birds (1963)
23) The Fly (1986)
22) Nosferatu (1922)
21) Freaks (1932)
20) The Omen (1976)
19) Evil Dead II (1987)
18) Audition (1999)
17) The Haunting (1963)
16) An American Werewolf in London (1981)
15) Carrie (1976)
14) The Innocents (1961)
13) Night of the Living Dead (1968)
12) Don't Look Now (1973)
11) Jaws (1975)
10) Dawn of the Dead (1978)
9) Suspiria (1976)
8) Halloween (1978)
7) Rosemary's Baby (1968)
6) The Thing (1982)
5) Alien (1979)
4) Psycho (1960)
3) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
2) The Shining (1980)
1) The Exorcist (1973)

Anyone notice any glaring omissions? Anything they're especially glad was included?

Personally, I would have liked Manhunter to have been on the list, but otherwise I thought the choices were excellent.

gammygils

For me it was Wolf Creek.

Had nightmares after the feckin thing

johnny_ultimate

Seemed like a relatively solid list, hitting most significant eras, styles and regions.

But then I realised Hausu didn't make it. List fail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN0HVJ5tkIM

Personal gripe: Evil Dead > Evil Dead II

Notch000

the sixth sense ??? whats that doing on this list
Also I think martyrs is the scarieset & most disturbing thing ive ever seen

podgemonster

They seem to have avoided a whole section of slasher movies that emerged in the 90s and 00s and focused more on old classics. The Scream movies, Friday the 13ths, I know what you did last summer, new nightmare.

As much stick as Paranormal activity gets, i found it quite unsettling and would warrant a 80-100 position at least.

puzzle factory

podgemonster wrote: »

They seem to have avoided a whole section of slasher movies that emerged in the 90s and 00s and focused more on old classics. The Scream movies, Friday the 13ths, I know what you did last summer, new nightmare.

As much stick as Paranormal activity gets, i found it quite unsettling and would warrant a 80-100 position at least.

parnormal activity was good

FlashD

Apart from the usual classics, its not really a great list.

Paranormal Activity probably deserved a place.

Some other ones are that quickly spring to mind are

Saw, Silence of the Lambs, Zombieland, Candyman and Misery.

I don't see 'Seven' there either, what's that all about?

Phoenix Park

No films after 2000 in the Top 25, maybe they just don't generate the revenues for studios to take as many on as they used to?
I have a real soft spot for The Descent, knew nothing about it before going and it it was delightfully scary

half way through when you find out there are actually monsters involved, until then i thought it was gonna be the women just trapped in the caves and would they make it out before running out of air etc etc

The Fog would be in my top 10 too.

Tipsy McSwagger

FlashD wrote: »

Apart from the usual classics, its not really a great list.

Paranormal Activity probably deserved a place.

Some other ones are that quickly spring to mind are

Saw, Silence of the Lambs, Zombieland, Candyman and Misery.

I don't see 'Seven' there either, what's that all about?

Seven is a dark thriller not a horror film.

krudler

Phoenix Park wrote: »

No films after 2000 in the Top 25, maybe they just don't generate the revenues for studios to take as many on as they used to?
I have a real soft spot for The Descent, knew nothing about it before going and it it was delightfully scary

half way through when you find out there are actually monsters involved, until then i thought it was gonna be the women just trapped in the caves and would they make it out before running out of air etc etc

The Fog would be in my top 10 too.

I loved The Descent, thought it was the best mainstream horror in years when it came out.

MakeEmLaugh

podgemonster wrote: »

They seem to have avoided a whole section of slasher movies that emerged in the 90s and 00s and focused more on old classics. The Scream movies, Friday the 13ths, I know what you did last summer, new nightmare..

I'm surprised Scream and Wes Craven's New Nightmare didn't make the list, admittedly, but Friday The 13th and I Know What You Did Last Summer are not highly regarded by most film critics.

FlashD wrote: »

Saw, Silence of the Lambs, Zombieland, Candyman and Misery.

I don't see 'Seven' there either, what's that all about?

Those are some notable omissions, alright. 'Seven' definitely should have been on the list.

It would have been interesting to have included Zombieland, as it's more a comedy than horror. If they had included Zombieland, they would probably have had to include Shaun of the Dead. Personally, I think the quintessential comedy/horror is Tim Burton's Beetlejuice.

Also, The Silence of the Lambs did make the list; it was 59.

Playboy

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Personal gripe: Evil Dead > Evil Dead II

Well it was more a a 'horror' and it had a nice story with respect to how they got it made but its a far inferior film to Evil Dead II imo

krudler

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Seven is a dark thriller not a horror film.

yeah I wouldnt class it as a horror film either, same as Zodiac, may have some horror aspect/jump scares but its not a horror film.

MakeEmLaugh

krudler wrote: »

yeah I wouldnt class it as a horror film either, same as Zodiac, may have some horror aspect/jump scares but its not a horror film.

I think the good thing about this list is that many of the films transcend being classified in one genre alone. 'Come And See', for instance, is a war film first and foremost, but is surreal and nightmarish enough to merit mentioning on this list.

'Seven' is a thriller, yes, but then so is 'The Silence of the Lambs', and it made the list. 'Seven' also has one of the great jump-out-of-you-seat shocks in film history:

The moment we realise the Sloth victim is still alive.

mike65

While one can moan about X, or Y not being included that's a great list though quite why Simon Pegg was consulted is a mystery!

Good to see relative obscurities like Lets Scare Jessica To Death and God Told Me To in there. No Scanners or is that science-fiction rather than horror.

MakeEmLaugh

mike65 wrote: »

While one can moan about X, or Y not being included that's a great list though quite why Simon Pegg was consulted is a mystery!

Well, here are Simon Pegg's own personal Top 10 favourites:

1. Dawn of the Dead (George A Romero, 1978)
2. The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
3. An American Werewolf in London (John Landis, 1981)
4. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
5. The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)
6. Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
7. Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)
8. Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
9. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
10. Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935)

Any guy with taste like that is trustworthy, in my opinion!

Sesudra

Delighted "Cat People","Freaks" and "The Innocents" all feature so highly - the

hide and seek scene in "The Innocents" still gives me goosebumps

Skerries

The Exorcist 3 should be up there as well as it is just as good as the first one
here is a scene which I love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH8ynu0jRvY

ChtuluDawn

Playboy wrote: »

Well it was more a a 'horror' and it had a nice story with respect to how they got it made but its a far inferior film to Evil Dead II imo

Evil Dead 2 is,for all intents and purposes,a remake of Evil Dead without the tree rape and decent on screen violence.Evil Dead suffered alot from censorship and critics because of its content but still did ok at the box office.Raimi,smelling a chance to make a load of money made Evil Dead 2.

Why do you think the blood and gore in the movie is predominantly greens and blues rather than red?Its because red is the colour of real blood so he used different colours as a way to avoid censorship.

Evil Dead set a new standard for independent horror movies and what could be done.EDII is Raimi being a whore.

johnny_ultimate

I wouldn't go as far as calling Raimi a 'whore', and I think as a whole Evil Dead II is a very entertaining and offbeat sequel / remake / whatever. I do agree it somewhat lacks the raw energy and creepiness of the first. Bar a few moments of strangeness, EDII is a straight up wacky comedy. And it happily succeeds in that regard. But ED1 is every bit as weird and sort-of-disturbing as it is amusing. It certainly has more 'balls', so to speak, and isn't afraid to shock or surprise. Nor is EDII, but it feels slightly cleaner. So yeah, as a horror film I think ED1 is a great success, and a much better example of the genre than EDII. There's nothing in the sequel to match the bloody, bizarre extremes of the ED1 finale.

Tipsy McSwagger

I like the list but The Descent was brilliant and should be on it somewhere. Here's the thing though, Jaws is the best film on that list and while not always seen as a pure horror film like The Exorcist it can indeed be classed as a horror film. So why is Jaws not number one? It's a masterpiece and would fit into any movie lovers top 10 list. It's not even in the top 10 FFS. Is there an argument that yes Jaws is a better film than The Exorcist but it's not a better horror film so can't be allowed to get the top spot?

Myrddin

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

I like the list but The Descent was brilliant and should be on it somewhere.

Em, it is. Number 39

Tipsy McSwagger

EnterNow wrote: »

Em, it is. Number 39

Cheers, 39 is a great position.

Myrddin

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Cheers, 39 is a great position.

Tis a great horror movie :cool:

Playboy

ChtuluDawn wrote: »

Evil Dead 2 is,for all intents and purposes,a remake of Evil Dead without the tree rape and decent on screen violence.Evil Dead suffered alot from censorship and critics because of its content but still did ok at the box office.Raimi,smelling a chance to make a load of money made Evil Dead 2.

Why do you think the blood and gore in the movie is predominantly greens and blues rather than red?Its because red is the colour of real blood so he used different colours as a way to avoid censorship.

Evil Dead set a new standard for independent horror movies and what could be done.EDII is Raimi being a whore.

It was a better produced, directed and acted. It had a bigger budget and still had the same creative talents involved. Yes The Evil Dead might have been groundbreaking but that doesnt make it better. EDII was a much more entertaining piece of filmmaking imho. The whole series is one of the most watched in my collection but I do find myself going back for II more often than the first and Army of Darkness

jaykhunter

I get the feeling with a lot of lists, that it's not the "best" films ranked, but moreso heavily weighing on how historically significant/important a film it is, regardless of looking at the film as just a film, outside of the context of when it was released.

Like personally i think TCM is an AWFUL film (i watched it recently), but to say it had a MASSIVE impact on the film genre is probably an understatement. We're still seeing it's effects in many terrible films each year.

OldeCinemaSoz

Obviously the scribbler has never delved
into the worlde of CAT III.

:rolleyes:

jpm4

jaykhunter wrote: »

I get the feeling with a lot of lists, that it's not the "best" films ranked, but moreso heavily weighing on how historically significant/important a film it is, regardless of looking at the film as just a film, outside of the context of when it was released.

Like personally i think TCM is an AWFUL film (i watched it recently), but to say it had a MASSIVE impact on the film genre is probably an understatement. We're still seeing it's effects in many terrible films each year.

Plenty of good ones over the years too.

Sad Professor

jaykhunter wrote: »

I get the feeling with a lot of lists, that it's not the "best" films ranked, but moreso heavily weighing on how historically significant/important a film it is, regardless of looking at the film as just a film, outside of the context of when it was released.

Like personally i think TCM is an AWFUL film (i watched it recently), but to say it had a MASSIVE impact on the film genre is probably an understatement. We're still seeing it's effects in many terrible films each year.

It's difficult to treat every film equally regardless of how important or groundbreaking it was at the time. The makers of this list did what any of us would do: pick the films that had the biggest impact on them. A lot of them are older guys, so TCM would have been a pretty big game changer.

johndoe99

Glad to see that Ring (Japanese Version) and The Thing is there.

I would have added:

Horror Express (1973)
Pet Sematary (1989)
Dead Silence (2007)
Cold Prey (2006)
Paranormal Activity (2009)
The Fourth Kind (2009)

i see they polled over 100 horror enthusiasts, should have had an open poll to everybody

Sieghardt

disappointed not to see The Host, Tremors, The Dunwich Horror or Noroi

kermit_the_dog

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Seven is a dark thriller not a horror film.

neither is silence of the lambs which is on the list

p to the e

I notice Braindead is in there which is a good addition. One word, "lawnmower". Apart from it's significance in movie history and the fantastic Tom Savini effects I probably enjoyed Zack Snyder's effort of Danw of the Dead more.

lauraww

not the best list ever,and as far as i know night of the hunter was a thriller

Phoenix Park

johndoe99 wrote: »

Glad to see that Ring (Japanese Version) and The Thing is there.

I would have added:

Horror Express (1973)
Pet Sematary (1989)
Dead Silence (2007)
Cold Prey (2006)
Paranormal Activity (2009)
The Fourth Kind (2009)

i see they polled over 100 horror enthusiasts, should have had an open poll to everybody

Yeah, i'd have room for Pet Sematary on mine. I must dig it out again some night.
I'd also put Pumpkinhead in there. The only film where the single review on the dvd cover boasts a solid 8/10 rating Really decent movie. Nice final scene too.

No room for "I Spit On Your Grave" in the Top 100 i see. :pac:

Gee Bag

I wouldn't regard Come and See(no. 100) as a horror film. One of the best films ever made, but not a horror. Salo (no. 77) isn't really a horror film either.

How Suspiria keeps making it into horror top tens is a mystery to me.

Links234

That is a really, really great list! some absolute favourites in there

Gee Bag wrote: »

How Suspiria keeps making it into horror top tens is a mystery to me.

because it's great?

argento at his best! scary as hell, incredible soundtrack, and it's a visual work of art. one of the best horror movies ever

3rdDegree

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I wouldn't go as far as calling Raimi a 'whore', and I think as a whole Evil Dead II is a very entertaining and offbeat sequel / remake / whatever. I do agree it somewhat lacks the raw energy and creepiness of the first. Bar a few moments of strangeness, EDII is a straight up wacky comedy. And it happily succeeds in that regard. But ED1 is every bit as weird and sort-of-disturbing as it is amusing. It certainly has more 'balls', so to speak, and isn't afraid to shock or surprise. Nor is EDII, but it feels slightly cleaner. So yeah, as a horror film I think ED1 is a great success, and a much better example of the genre than EDII. There's nothing in the sequel to match the bloody, bizarre extremes of the ED1 finale.

Raimi was always very happy with his revisit to EDII. After the success of ED1, he was given the budget he wished he had had when making the first movie. When he got the money, he more or less remade ED1 as EDII. The more "polish" is just the extra bucks all up there in screen.

EDIII is the zany comedy!

3rdDegree

jaykhunter wrote: »

Like personally i think TCM is an AWFUL film (i watched it recently), but to say it had a MASSIVE impact on the film genre is probably an understatement. We're still seeing it's effects in many terrible films each year.

I hated TCM so much, I just couldn't watch it. It was just an annoying head-wrecking scream fest of incredibly stupid characters (well, maybe they got more "with it" after I switched off). I just found it to be a thoroughly irritating movie to watch. I think Tobe though he was making a Spaghetti Horror Movie.

I still think he probably didn't direct much of Poltergeist (one of my all time favorites, for over all characters, feel and mood).

I agree with their number 1 choice. For me, that is the best horror movie of all time. Although I must admit, my favorite version is the "version you've never seen before" as it's closest to the book.

No sign of The Ring or The Grudge. I still like The Ring a lot although I never found it very scary. However, I must confess to finding The Grudge very scary when I first saw it. I was new to Japanese horror imports.

Nightmare on Elmstreet was a great movie (except for the stupid ending). I remember thinking that was fantastic when I first saw it.

Finally, one that didn't make the list: The Care Bears. Still gives me the willies <shudder/>

Goldstein

No Event Horizon? come ON!

Also: IT deserves to be there even though it's a mini-series, Drag me to Hell, Long Time Dead, 30 days of Night, 1408, The Objective, Noroi possibly deserving of places too.

johnny_ultimate

3rdDegree wrote: »

Raimi was always very happy with his revisit to EDII. After the success of ED1, he was given the budget he wished he had had when making the first movie. When he got the money, he more or less remade ED1 as EDII. The more "polish" is just the extra bucks all up there in screen.

EDIII is the zany comedy!

To me, the lack of polish is what makes Evil Dead. Without the considerations of a higher budget (and the audience considerations that brings) Raimi et al just had a real passion they put up on screen. They threw everything at us, and the results are clear. Again, I like Evil Dead II a hell of a lot two, but I'd pick ED over it if I had to. Army of Darkness is... well.. Army of Darkness :pac:

(Curiously, I think Drag Me to the Hell is arguably up there with the two of them. I just think it's a brilliantly funny but strangely creepy film)

MakeEmLaugh

Gee Bag wrote: »

I wouldn't regard Come and See(no. 100) as a horror film. One of the best films ever made, but not a horror. [

I just watched Come and See for the first time the other night. Picked it up the two-disc special edition on DVD for €3 the other day! Powerful stuff, indeed.

I like it making the list, though. Otherwise there;d just monster movies and slasher films.

Deus Ex Machina

In my opinion The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, The Omen and The Blair Witch are absurdly low on the list, all in my top ten of the horror genre.

Incidentally, I believe that Paranormal Activity is one of the worst films I have ever seen, and I really give horror films every possible chance because I have a horn on me for the whole genre.

LH Pathe

Good to see Ringu features and not the woefully dire us remake that's only ever shown on tv. but they should have delved deeper into what was asian dominance of the genre either side of the millenium

Gee Bag

Links234 wrote: »

argento at his best! scary as hell, incredible soundtrack, and it's a visual work of art. one of the best horror movies ever

It must be me, everyone else seems to love it.

MakeEmLaugh
I just watched Come and See for the first time the other night. Picked it up the two-disc special edition on DVD for €3 the other day!

Where did you buy it?

MakeEmLaugh

Gee Bag wrote: »

Where did you buy it?

E2 Music, it's a second hand record store on College Green, beside Trinity College in Dublin. It was the only copy there, I'm afraid. Still, quite the steal!

Da Shins Kelly

It's a good list, but I would have had REC and 28 Days Later a bit higher. Glad to see Audition on there, but I probably would have included A Tale of Two Sisters too. I agree with leaving out Paranormal Activity. Didn't like that at all.

Personally, I think I'd have Psycho at number one.

FlashD

Yeah, agree with another poster, it's not much of a list without 'Event Horizon'.

Where is Carpenters 'Prince of Darkness'?

Not much sign of David Lynch either, a lot of his stuff could be classed as surreal pschological horror.

MakeEmLaugh

Da Shins Kelly wrote: »

Personally, I think I'd have Psycho at number one.

Have you seen any of the sequels to Psycho? If so, what did you think of them?

Sesudra

MakeEmLaugh wrote: »

Have you seen any of the sequels to Psycho? If so, what did you think of them?

I know you didn't ask me (:P) but the Psycho sequels are all pretty decent, IMO. Psycho 2 is the best of the 3 sequels, it helps that it has

Vera Miles reprising her role as Marion Crane's sister from the first film.

. The story itself is good and has some great set pieces

Psycho 3 is much more graphic and the nudity and violence is pretty over the top, but still worth a watch, and the relationship between Norman and the nun (whose name I can't remember) is interesting

Psycho 4 was made for TV, and looks it. It's pretty hard to swallow that

Norman was released from the hospitall AGAIN, and fell in love with one of the nurses

but the flashback stuff is interesting and Olivia Hussey does a good job as Norma Bates.

All in all, the sequels don't disgrace the original and they're all worth a watch for one reason or another. You can pick them up in a boxset pretty cheap, I think I saw it in HMV for €15 or so

mike65

Psycho 2 was one of the most unexpectedly enjoyably horror thrillers I've seen. You don't expect too much 23 years after the event but Richard Franklin did a bang up job.