My Favorite 100 (plus) Horror Movies of All Time

Okay, a little explaining about these lists. These represent my personal favorite horror movies. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are the best (although some I’d certainly argue are, especially the top 10) but the ones that I get the most enjoyment watching. I know Friday the 13th Part IV is not a better movie than Halloween; I just have a better time watching it. Same thing with Frankenstein meets the Wolf man. I know that FMTWM is not the best of the Universal Horror Classics, but it’s the one I enjoy the most. There are a lot of great movies not on this list for one reason or another, usually it has to do with when I saw them, or maybe I just totally forgot about them and I’ll kick myself (hard and in the nuts) when I realize it.

Another thing I want to mention; I didn’t want this list to have too many sequels, so I limited it to only 3 films from a series. I just figure that if you know I liked Friday the 13 Part IV, then I probably liked Part VI as well.

As you can see, my top 100 is actually broken up in to 2 list; I have a top 80 all time faves, and a top 20 list of more recent flicks (late 90’s-ish and beyond). I made the second list ‘cause I didn’t know where to put the more recent flicks on the all time list just yet. You’ll have to wait until I’ve seen my last horror movie and I’m on my death bed before you get the definitive list. And really, From 30-100 could easily change places.

Please feel free to make comments and post your own (no doubt inferior) list!

One last thing; the top three are basically tied and for my all time favorite. On any given day I could call any of the top three my all time fave.

One more thing: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

My Top 80 All time Favorite Horror Movies:

1. Evil Dead
2. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
4. The Wicker Man (1973)
5. The Thing
6. Black Christmas (1974)
7. Psycho
8. The Fly (1986)
9. Rosemary’s Baby
10. Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man
11. Friday the 13 Part IV: The Final Chapter
12. Army of Darkness
13. Creepshow
14. Zombie
15. Near Dark
16. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
17. The Omen (1976)
18. Evil Dead II
19. The Wolf Man (1941)
20. The Abominable Dr Phibes
21. A Nightmare on Elm Street III: The Dream Warriors
22. The Lost Boys
23. Halloween (1978)
24. The Birds
25. The Exorcist
26. JAWS
27. The Hills have Eyes (1977)
28. Dracula (1931)
29. Phantasm II
30. Horror of Dracula
31. The Hitcher
32. The Fog (1980)
33. ALIEN
34. Frankenstein (1931)
35. The Howling
36. The Creature from the Black Lagoon
37. The Omega Man
38. An American Werewolf in London
39. House
40. Day of the Dead (1985)
41. The Fly (1958)
42. Halloween IV: the reurn of Michael Myers
43. Friday the 13th
44. A Nightmare on Elm Street
45. I spit on your Grave
46. Bride of Frankenstein
47. Silver Bullit
48. Salem’s Lot
49. Poltergeist
50. Cannibal Ferox
51. Death Dream
52. My Bloody Valentine
53. Deranged
54. Tales from the Crypt
55. Rabid
56. The Dead Zone
57. Carrie
58. Terror of Frankenstein
59. Pet Semetary
60. House of Wax (1953)
61. Fright Night
62. Prison (Seldom seen 80’s haunted prison flick, sadly not available on DVD)
63. Phantasm
64. Nosferatu (1922)
65. Misery
66. Child’s Play
67. Texas chainsaw Massacre Part II
68. The Crazies
69. Night of the Living Dead (1990)
70. American Psycho
71. Return of the Living Dead
72. Plague of the Zombies
73. Last House on the Left
74. Pumpkinhead
75. Phantom of the Opera (1925)
76. Dolls
77. Re-Animator
78. Satanic Rites of Dracula
79. Hellraiser
80. The Blob (1988)

My Top 20 soon to be added to my all time Favorite Horror Movies

1. Shaun of the Dead
2. Ginger Snaps
3. Session 9
4. Sixth Sense
5. Pan’s Labrynth
6. SE7EN
7. Brotherhood of the Wolf
8. House of 1000 Corpses
9. Grindhouse
10. Bubba Ho-Tep
11. Scream
12. Dog Soldiers
13. From Dusk till Dawn
14. 28 days later
15. Devil’s Rejects
16. High Tension
17. Bubba Ho Tep
18. The Descent
19. The Devil’s Backbone
20. The Blair Witch Project

*Special bonus list enrties: The Ruins, Mulberry Street, and The Strangers. Probably my three fave horror films of the last year or so.

**Extra Special Bonus list: Movies (in no particular order) that either almost made the cut or that I’d forgotten about until just now: Christine, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Cannibal Apocalypse, The Blob (1988), Cabin Fever, Horror rises from the Tomb, Vault of Terror, House that dripped Blood, House on Haunted Hill, Hostel, SAW, Creepshow II, Ringu, The Frighteners, Dawn of the Dead (2004), Slither, Pieces, Spider Baby and about 100 other flicks that I’ll remember later and hate myself for not including on one of the above lists.

Pseudo Book Review: Off Season by Jack Ketchum

A group of City folk vacationing in the back woods of Maine runs afoul of some cave dwelling cannibals in Jack Ketchum’s Off Season. Blood, guts, and a recipe for human sausages (swear to God) ensue!

How I only recently discovered a book about cannibalistic savages written by Jack Ketchum will forever be an unsolved mystery (hopefully like Ashton Kutcher’s murder). However, thanks to the miracle of mega book stores, I found this gritty little tale and was glad I did.

The book certainly doesn’t break new ground; especially if you’re an avid viewer of 70’s survivalist horror flicks like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. Stories of City Dwellers trekking too deep in the woods and running across its unfriendly inhabitants have been seen before. Still, even with the familiarity, there are several particularly vicious moments in the book that had this grizzled horror veteran squirming ever so slightly.

As is the norm in the Survivalist Horror sub-genre, the so called “civilized” characters resort to decidedly un-civilized behavior to survive. There is a scene during the novel’s climax in particular that hammers this point home. The book definitely doesn’t have a Steven Spielberg type ending, that’s for sure.

Unlike my first experience with Uncle Lou, my first experience with Jack Ketchum was a good one. It’s got Violence, suspense and Cannibals all written in a style that never had me wanting to put the damn thing down. If you can’t read, learn how and pick up Off Season.

FYI: The version of the book I read was sort of a “Director’s cut.” It includes several scenes not included before and a completely different ending. Ketchum was forced to make several cuts to the book by the original publishers. If you’ve read Off Season before, you may want to check out this un-cut version.

Reviewapolooza: Holiday Weekend Reviews of Frontiers, Night of the Demons 2, The Machine Girl, and The Tingler

We Canucks got screwed out of a Long weekend for Canada Day this year because the holiday was on Tuesday. Of course, I didn’t work very hard on Monday, so it all evens out.

I celebrated my Nation’s birth by watching movies all week. It was a pretty good mix of foreign films, rubber monsters, and boobs!

Frontier(s)

This brutal combination of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Nazis (now that’s a match made in hell) makes for a pretty intense viewing experience. It’s not quite the second coming of horror as it’s been made out to be, but I still enjoyed it.
The “heroes” of Frontier(s) are actually pretty unlikable, but in the end you can’t help but root for them since the villains are so despicable. What’s worse than Cannibals? Nazi Cannibals of course! It’s also the 2nd French horror flick I’ve seen in a month that had the recent Race Riots in France as a backdrop. Inside (A’linterieur) was the other. https://pacinofan.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/pseudo-review-inside-alinterieur/

Night of the Demons 2

Night of the Demons 2 is a lot like Beer. It’s not fancy, new, or original but it gets the job done. All I wanted was some gore and nudity, and that’s just what I got. Not quite a cult classic like the original, it was nonetheless a fun way to waste 90 minutes. Decent effects as well.

The Machine Girl (Kataude mashin gâru)

The Machine Girl is actually a Japanese movie made specifically for Western Audiences. It really shows since the filmmakers threw in everything Westerners have come to expect from Asian film:

-Everybody knows Kung Fu.
-The bad guys are Ninjas, Yakuza, or both.
-All the girls in Japan wear school uniforms w/ short skirts.

I guess I’m a sucker, since I enjoyed this tale of a girl w/ a machine gun arm out for revenge. It’s filled with intentionally cheesy gore that can be silly at times, but ultimately adds to the movie’s charm.

The Tingler

Definitely the most fun I had this week, The Tingler is classic William Castle Schlock (that’s a compliment by the way).

Vincent Price is awesome as usual, here playing a scientist researching fear. His experiments lead to the discovery of the sex toy sounding The Tingler, a parasite that forms on the spinal cord in moments of intense fright.

The Tingler is technically a bad movie. There are huge plot holes (more like a plot craters) and the “special” effects consist of a rubber worm and a lot of visible wire. None of that matters, of course, because the movie is so much fun you’ll easily overlook its shortcomings. This is a really entertaining Drive-in flick and highly recommended for B-movie lovers’ liker myself.

Scary Stuff

Some things that scare: 

• Session 9
• The Devil’s face in The Exorcist
• The opening sequence of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• Being captured by Cannibals in the jungle
• All my birthdays after my 29th
• Calling for my daughter and not hearing her call back
• My increasingly bad eyesight
• A Zombie attack
• What’s behind me at night
• Driving on the highway in a snow storm
• Computer viruses
• Human viruses
• The Far Right
• June Bugs
• My ever increasing debt
• Staring too long at faces in old photographs. I swear the eyes start to move…
• Finding out what my car needs done to pass inspection
• Going to Prison. More specifically, my cellmate.
• The end of Friday the 13th and Carrie. Those final scenes still make me jump.

What’s in a name or Naked Zombie Apokolips

Horror is a genre blessed with awesome Film Titles. The 70’s were an especially ripe time for creative movie monikers. Exploitation Filmmakers always had to have some sort of hook to overcome their low budgets. Other than the trailer, a good title was the best way to entice a potential audience. The name alone of a movie like The Tool Box Murders is enough to conjure up images of bloods and guts.Here are just a few of my favorite Horror Movie titles. These aren’t necessarily all great movies (some are, some definitely are not) but they all have groovy names:

Children shouldn’t Play with Dead Things – A bloodless zombie flick directed by Bob Clark. He’d make better movies, but none would have as good a title.

Let Sleeping Corpses Lie – Classic Italian Zombie flick. A great title that’s also great advice

Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter– ‘Nuff said

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – One of the greatest American movies ever made in any genre. A lot of Horror movies have “Massacre” in the title, but the best one still takes place in Texas

Die! Die! My Darling! – You gotta give it up for a title with three exclamation marks.

The Town that Dreaded Sundown – I have wanted to see this forever, although I hear the actual film isn’t all that good.

Two Thousand Maniacs – Slight exaggeration

Glen or Glenda – Not really horror, but features Bela Lugosi and directed by Ed Wood. Plus, how could I not include a movie about transvestites called Glen or Glenda?

I Dink your Blood – Classic tale of Hippies eating meat pies infested with rabies. Dirty hippies.

I Eat your Skin – Apparently there is little to no skin eating in this. Pity.