The 100 Best Horror Films Of All Time

[Halitosis Romantic]

She seems openly contemptuous of you.

 

It's fine, I get her back with her woeful, bordering criminal tastes in music

 

Examples?

[Seratonin]

The Descent is excellent. In the cinema.

 

It doesn't translate to DVD quite so well, the big screen really lent itself it to the claustrophobic atmosphere the film wanted to create.

 

Evil Dead 2 is a smart choice, though probably deserves to be higher. As for Phantasm, it's a bit pastiche but i've always loved it.

 

This list misses Braindead, though. I adore that film.

 

Nope, it's Dead Alive.

[Seratonin]

Whilst not really a horror movie, Salo: 120 Days Of Sodom is by far the nastiest, cruelest movie I've ever seen, and should really be higher on the list. I thought the uncut version of Serbian Film was bad... Yes this movie has been accused of being deliberately offensive, and is known as the "shit eating film lol" - but as a whole package, it is something of nightmares. That the book written my Marquis De Sade is even worse blows my mind (there is a scene where three men mutilate a girls body by cutting the wall between vagina and anus and force her to shit out of her 'cunt').

 

As an art film it delivers but on face value the book and movie fascinated me for over a year now.

 

Sex and violence combined is indeed dangerous and the movie makes no apologies at watching men in power dehumanise the human body (sadly of children).

 

This one does cross the line, incredible the book was written in 1700's and the movie shot in 1975.

[Loki]

I'm sorry, machines turn against there programming like they are all infected with something

 

Yeah, like that, but not actually that. Westworld is a scifi movie which takes the classic sci-fi trope "What happens when robots become too advanced" and gives it a Western spin, which is clever as a lot of early sci-fi movies essentially took Western storylines and put them into space.

 

As the scientist says in the key scene "In some cases they've been designed by other computers - we don't know exactly HOW they work." This is not the fear of the supernatural, or the fear of the unknown recesses of the human psyche - this is fear of technology, and that's not really part of the horror genre at all.

 

Again, with The Terminator, there are elements of the slasher movie but once again the antagonist is technological not supernatural. The basic idea of the unstoppable assassin is lifted from the myth of the Golem (and there was a great early movie of that name). But by transforming it into the futuristic, the film moves it out of horror and into scifi. The Terminator is no more a horror film than Forbidden Planet is a Shakespearean romance.

 

Personally, I think certain categories of horror have become so stylised they're effectively their own genre now, particularly zombie films which are more often action movies with zombies than horror films with zombies.

[drew4primeminister]

I'm sorry, machines turn against there programming like they are all infected with something

 

Yeah, like that, but not actually that. Westworld is a scifi movie which takes the classic sci-fi trope "What happens when robots become too advanced" and gives it a Western spin, which is clever as a lot of early sci-fi movies essentially took Western storylines and put them into space.

 

As the scientist says in the key scene "In some cases they've been designed by other computers - we don't know exactly HOW they work." This is not the fear of the supernatural, or the fear of the unknown recesses of the human psyche - this is fear of technology, and that's not really part of the horror genre at all.

 

Again, with The Terminator, there are elements of the slasher movie but once again the antagonist is technological not supernatural. The basic idea of the unstoppable assassin is lifted from the myth of the Golem (and there was a great early movie of that name). But by transforming it into the futuristic, the film moves it out of horror and into scifi. The Terminator is no more a horror film than Forbidden Planet is a Shakespearean romance.

 

Personally, I think certain categories of horror have become so stylised they're effectively their own genre now, particularly zombie films which are more often action movies with zombies than horror films with zombies.

Wouldn't describe The Tempest as a Shakespearean romance to start with (and I know the play inside out as I had to study it for my degree), it's more of a fantasy. And having watched Forbidden Planet so many times I know the dialogue, I'd say there are strong elememnts of The Tempest in the film.

 

However I totally agree about the development of sub-genre within the general genre of horror movies, zombies being a vey prevalent one at this moment in time. In fact I think I'm getting a little weary of zombie films - just couldn't take them seriously after Shaun of the Dead

 

To stray back to the sci-fi discussion, I would have immediately put Invasion of the Body Snatchers under Sci-Fi but yet it does contain an element of horror. It's hard to know where to draw the line....

[patiirc]

I'm sorry, machines turn against there programming like they are all infected with something

 

Yeah, like that, but not actually that. Westworld is a scifi movie which takes the classic sci-fi trope "What happens when robots become too advanced" and gives it a Western spin, which is clever as a lot of early sci-fi movies essentially took Western storylines and put them into space.

 

As the scientist says in the key scene "In some cases they've been designed by other computers - we don't know exactly HOW they work." This is not the fear of the supernatural, or the fear of the unknown recesses of the human psyche - this is fear of technology, and that's not really part of the horror genre at all.

 

Again, with The Terminator, there are elements of the slasher movie but once again the antagonist is technological not supernatural. The basic idea of the unstoppable assassin is lifted from the myth of the Golem (and there was a great early movie of that name). But by transforming it into the futuristic, the film moves it out of horror and into scifi. The Terminator is no more a horror film than Forbidden Planet is a Shakespearean romance.

 

Personally, I think certain categories of horror have become so stylised they're effectively their own genre now, particularly zombie films which are more often action movies with zombies than horror films with zombies.

 

Basically the whole thing boils down to semantics and paradigm shifts on the individual where they attempt to classify movies into specific genres. Each persons definition of what is what, should they have to classify something, is always going to be different. It would be pretty fucking dull if everyone homogenised everything the same way. This is Sci Fi! This is Horror! and so on

 

Westworld and indeed many other films fit into a number of different genres, should people want to classify them as thus. You and Gladders, classify Westworld as a Scifi Western. I and others classify it as a Horror film with Sci Fi and Western elements. Just because it has robots or androids or AI doesn't mean that it and The Terminator cant be horror and it certainly doesn't mean that it should sit in with only being sci fi or thriller as a result. I've included two reviews that class both as Horror, again its down to individual interpretation as to what is. If the discussion was to extrapolate things to the nth degrees it could be argued that all films could be considered to be based around or riffs upon Proppian Theory, which means that they would all be Russian Folk Tales. Clearly however it isn't the case, though people could argue that if they so wanted.

 

I don't agree that fear of technology, and what technology does and can do doesn't count as not being horror. The dictionary definition of Horror runs along the lines of an intense feeling of fear, shock or disgust and something that can exacerbate those feelings. A film version of that would be something that deals with the viewer's nightmares, hidden worst fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. All of which would apply to both those movies.

 

Westworld is nearly 40 years old and human looking robots as opposed to being human shaped is something that could scare or shock people easily then (now not so much as technology is common place), however back then tech wasn't so in your face and things weren't dressed as being real, and were caked in silver or metal, or being industrial in appearance, something that signifies them as other from the outside. When robot's or other creations such as Frankenstein's Monster (which is in effect is a robot made of human body parts) are presented as being realistic they elicit fear because they aren't natural. In Westworld, these things look act and for all intents and purposes could be passed off as humans and thus their actions are one of shock and promote hidden fears as technology could destroy humanity. That the said robots weren't created by humans or can be control by humans and then go on the rampage because of an infection/computer virus/rebellion against their masters or programming serves to highlight this.

 

It's an end of the world type scenario whereby, human's no longer are required and with the Gunslinger and the others then going batshit crazy and murdering people you then tie in with peoples fear of death, fear of mortality, fear of being superceded and fear of losing control. You then have the supernatural element (taking it to be 'above nature') as well because the robots arent naturallly occurring they dont follow 'normal/natural rules and appear complete alien to what was known it terms of the world when it was made. Even now though there are human looking robots in development they still freak the fuck out of people, they still install fear, shock and terror which ties back into the definition of horror as noted before.

 

The Terminator, plays on many of the same riffs and includes a fair amount of body horror as well thats on top of the slasher stuff already discussed. It is a supernatural killer, the fleshy exterior is damagable and looks for all intents and purposes as though it is human, it sweats, it bleeds. However it is a monstrous human, much in the same way as an un-dead or superhuman killer is presented in horror movies. The whole thing is like a human, but it isnt, that the flesh as can be peeled away to reveal something else non human doesn't make any less of a non horrific event. Look at The Fly, the body morphs from human to something completely alien, which is where the fear stems from. It is other, just because the reveal isnt a parasite, a demon, the result of a scientific experiment doesn't make it any less horror inducing to witness. Indeed many of the motif's used for body morphs/body horror are literally science fiction, so why does one film become horror, yet if it involves robots it's suddenly a science fiction thriller and ergo, cant be horror?

[Chris B]

. Indeed many of the motif's used for body morphs/body horror are literally science fiction, so why does one film become horror, yet if it involves robots it's suddenly a science fiction thriller and ergo, cant be horror?

 

Kind of answered your own question there...

 

Joking aside, I think body-horror tends to be biological, and the second it becomes more about the technological, it becomes more likely to be SF.

 

The argument, to an extent, is that if Alien can be classed as horror, than shouldn't Terminator? I think it's more about the idea that Alien is directly on the line between the two.

 

Also, there's the idea that it's about what it primarily is. Terminator is primarily a thriller Sci-fi. Any credentials to being a horror film come third to both of those genres, and I think that's the line where it stops being a horror. Horror films are usually more about the stalking than the action, and Terminator is far more about action.

[Loki]

Exactly, Chris.

 

Pat, you're overthinking this. Westworld has elements of horror, but it just really ISN'T a horror film. The reviews you linked to were trying to make an argument for it being horror, but neither of them convinced me.

 

The Terminator is a scifi movie first and foremost, as is Westworld. Whatever else they reference or subvert or touch upon, that's what they are. Otherwise why bother with classifying ANY film as ANYTHING as they all have elements of different things.

 

The only reason I think that Alien regularly gets classified as horror, as opposed to Scifi, is that the director at the time clearly stated he didn't give a shit about scifi and wanted to make a horror movie, that happened to be set in space. And then he did that. Alien is PRIMARILY a horror film, with elements of scifi. I can just about buy that argument.

[patiirc]

Kind of answered your own question there...

 

Joking aside, I think body-horror tends to be biological, and the second it becomes more about the technological, it becomes more likely to be SF.

 

The argument, to an extent, is that if Alien can be classed as horror, than shouldn't Terminator? I think it's more about the idea that Alien is directly on the line between the two.

 

Also, there's the idea that it's about what it primarily is. Terminator is primarily a thriller Sci-fi. Any credentials to being a horror film come third to both of those genres, and I think that's the line where it stops being a horror. Horror films are usually more about the stalking than the action, and Terminator is far more about action.

 

That's your interpretation of it though, as Ive already tried to put forward my view is different. I appreciated that people think that it is Scifi, and have acknowledged this, but it doesnt tally with how I class the films for the myriad of reasons given.

 

Alien is primarily about rape, or more succinctly male oral rape, it plays on he fear of body modification allowing for male birth and death as a result of said birth, as well as the resultant homicide by the enfant terrible who is the result of the monstrous birth. Basically the whole thing is designed to shit men up, and it has been confirmed many times by Dan O Bannon and HR Giger among others that this was the intention. Horror as a genre plays around with gender identities and perceptions, deliberately so to evoke the feelings of horror. I've already mentioned the use of Richard Benjamin in West World to achieve this by effectively being 'the final girl look at Psycho, or Nightmare Vacation/Sleepaway camp II and so on for many others ( Teedy Kay's wife mentioned The Talented Mr Ripley, which is basically a 'gay serial killer flick, with an assumed identity/body horror as another). Using Ripley in what was specifically going to be a man's role is another way in which the genre messes about with gender stereotypes. In Alien the men, get raped, give birth and die, and the women is the action heroine and the saviour, reinforcing the mish mash of gender roles. Oh and there is a mentalist AI in the form of Ash as well

 

Remove the futuristic setting, but keep the parasite invading bodies to cause birth or death or possession etc and you still get horror staples, ranging from Slither, The Exorcist, Evil Dead, Zombie films and so on, either way its still a horror film. The Terminator is the same in terms of shifting away from sci fi, remove the futuristic from it and you still have a relentless stalker who will at stop at nothing to kill its prey, in this case Sarah Connor, to the point whereby it will kill anyone named Sarah Connor to achieve it's objective. It's classic slasher stuff and just because it's sci fi doesnt make any less of a horror. Replace robot with a parasite or demonic possession and voila its a horror, but because 'robots/AI/etc' have to be Sci Fi, it can merely be a thriller? I dont happen to think so, and have demonstrated some reasons as to why I feel that isnt the case. You dont agree, that's fine.

 

As for the action stuff, many of the slasher films contain frenetic deaths or even scenes where there is an element of multple deaths. Jason at the party/rave in Freddy vs Jason for example, can be compared to The Terminator, killing at the police station. There is no emotion, there is no remorse, it is relentless and there are multiple deaths. One is horror yet the other is Sci Fi despite them both containing the same values and both having elements of science fiction. I cant remember the last time an undead/resurrected killer came back and massacred a load of teens in real life, for example, because scientifically it cannot happen, yet ( and is part of the fear aspect of the whole thing)

 

 

 

Exactly, Chris.

 

Pat, you're overthinking this. Westworld has elements of horror, but it just really ISN'T a horror film. The reviews you linked to were trying to make an argument for it being horror, but neither of them convinced me.

 

The Terminator is a scifi movie first and foremost, as is Westworld. Whatever else they reference or subvert or touch upon, that's what they are. Otherwise why bother with classifying ANY film as ANYTHING as they all have elements of different things.

 

The only reason I think that Alien regularly gets classified as horror, as opposed to Scifi, is that the director at the time clearly stated he didn't give a shit about scifi and wanted to make a horror movie, that happened to be set in space. And then he did that. Alien is PRIMARILY a horror film, with elements of scifi. I can just about buy that argument.

 

Loki, Im not overthinking this, I know my own mind, thanks very much. I just dont happen to agree with your classification of the films under discussion. You see it one way I see another. So you havent been 'swayed' by the discussions. Once things are relatively set in stone, it's a very difficult thing to change. I wasnt trying to change anyone's view point, just present a different view point as to how certain films are view. Some may agree, some will disagree.

 

Otherwise why bother with classifying ANY film as ANYTHING as they all have elements of different things.

 

As said at the outset it's up to the individual how things are classified, some will relate things to one genre more than another. There are arguments on multiple sides of the discussion as to what film is what and why, people arent always going to agree as I said before and what one person calls a Sci fi film, another will call a horror and so on. Rather than trying to impose things, im just putting or justifying my point of view. Im not expecting people to be swayed or have a light bulb moment and suddenly agree as to what is what, either.

 

See above as to why Alien is a horror.

 

Other films that are not mentioned in the Top 100, Id like to have seen there and am probably going to get 'lynched for' are

 

Irreversible

 

Straw Dogs (original)

 

Screamers

 

When the Wind Blows

[Loki]

Jesus Christ, Pat, you're now arguing that Alien is a horror movie (which I've always said it is) as proof that Westworld and The Terminator are horror movies. What are you on?

 

Also,

 

Straw Dogs

 

*bang*

 

slump

[Halitosis Romantic]

Are you trying to say that Straw Dogs isn't a horror movie?

[DeanoTheGame]

I'm a little disappointed The Devil's Rejects isn't on the list. One of the best horror movies of recent times and made all the more remarkable when you consider everything else Rob Zombie has done to be a fucking abortion.

[Devon Malcolm]

Irreversible

 

Straw Dogs (original)

 

Screamers

 

When the Wind Blows

 

No, no, no and no.

 

It's a good job you don't work filling the racks at HMV, isn't it?

 

"Pat? Did you put 9 1/2 Weeks in the fucking comedy section again?!"

[Loki]

Are you trying to say that Straw Dogs isn't a horror movie?

 

What? It's a thriller, it's a psychological thriller. It's in the vein of Hitchcockian thrillers like Rear Window or Vertigo. If you start calling stuff like this horror, you'll have to include Cape Fear, Apocalypse Now, and basically any thriller ever made.

 

I think people are just confusing horror with thriller now. A thriller is a move that uses suspense and intense excitement to drive its story forward. The protagonist faces imminent danger, even death, as he completes a mission, solves a mystery or escapes somewhere. The antagonist is usually maniacal, evil, criminal or some "other" figure outside of the normal laws of society. Rapists, assassins hunting people down... all this is classic thriller material.

 

What makes horror is the element of supernatural, fantasy, freakish monsters and so on. Just being scary doesn't make something a horror movie!

 

 

EDIT: I've realised you're teasing me, RoFo. You heartless, horrid man.

[Halitosis Romantic]

See, that's the pleasure and the shame of being the prankster - I meant what I said, and I'll tell you for why. I count Straw Dogs as a horror movie for the same reason that I think "Heart of Darkness" (not Apocalypse Now, mind) is a horror novel. It's part of that horror cycle of the rural gothic - just because it doesn't go all out Wicker Man/Blood on Satan's Claw horror doesn't mean that there isn't enough horror in it to be considered a horror movie. It's that idea of being unwelcome in a fixed community, of being the outsider whom everyone wants to take advantage of, as much for their accomplishments as for them not being familiar. It parallels I Spit On Your Grave, where Camille Keaton isn't just raped, but ridiculed for her pretensions to write.

 

I could even go with it being strictly a thriller if there were the elements before they run into David Warner, but with what comes before that, it's absolutely a horror-thriller.

 

EDIT - Essentially, I'm saying that it's a futile effort to say some films are definitely one thing or another. I would expect to find Straw Dogs in thrillers, but at the same time, I wouldn't be shocked or upset to locate it in horror. If we go by Loki's definition, then Last House on the Left and [/i]Fight for Your Life[/i] aren't horror, which they certainly are.