Best Horror Movies of All Time

[Older Beholder]

One I forgot:
The Killing of a Sacred Deer

 

[TiQuinn]

Exorcist III was another very good one

One of the best jump scares in the history of cinema, no lie.

 

[Autumnal]

I don’t do best-of lists; my brain just doesn’t work that way. Instead, here are ten of the movies I’m most likely to rewatch whenever I find myself with a movie-length chunk of time free.

Alien
Alien 3, workprimt. These movies are set in the same timeline. Aliens is in a parallel universe of its own. The first and third, with an implicit different version of the second,, make a complete story in which Ripley gets to the only end she could.

As Above, So Below
Devil’s Pass
Grave Encounters. I like found footage. These all have some really haunting moments - the piano and the car in As Above, So Below, the final attempt at escape in Devil’s Pass, the moment where they break through the front door in Grave Encounters. I find it easy to get immersed in these.

The Descent, British ending. As someone said above, relentless. Like Poe’s theory of short stories, everything supports the tone and marches toward an awful, excellent climax.

Lost Highway
Mulholland Drive. Why, this then is hell, nor are any of us ever out of it. Identities don’t last, but guilt and suffering do.

Resolution. Stories aren’t for living in. At least, not surviving.

Underwater. Just a perfect story of the struggle to survive in terrible circumstances, with escalating horrors making everything worse.

Equally worthy candidates: The Thing, both original and prequel; In The Mouth Of Madness; Prince Of Darkness; The Endless; The Cabin In The Woods; Absentia and Oculus; Last Train To Busan: Dawn of the Dead, both versions; The Ring; Scanners, Naked Lunch, Videodrome, Eastern Promises; Rabid, remake.

Edited to add: I forgot to add The Changeling, darn it. The shot of the red ball bouncing down the steps…

 

[Mannahnin]

Alien
Alien 3, workprimt. These movies are set in the same timeline. Aliens is in a parallel universe of its own. The first and third, with an implicit different version of the second,, make a complete story in which Ripley gets to the only end she could.

Nice thesis!

 

[payn]

Just saw The Platform on Netflix. Not bad.

 

[Greg K]

My Top 10 (I am not including some classic Universal movies written by my uncle which hold a sentimental place in my heart or a popular horror/comedy in which my "aunt's" brother was cinematographer). In no particular order:

• The Thing (1982)
• The Exorcist (1973)
• Alien (1979)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
• An American Werewolf In London (1981)
• Fright Night (1985)
• Halloween (1978)
• Jaws (1975)
• Lost Boys (1987)
• Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Honorable Mentions (that are in my top 20):

• Child's Play (1988)
• Dracula (1931)
• Frankenstein (1931)
• Get Out (2017)
• Poltergeist (1982)
• Scream (1996)
• The Fly (1986)
• The Howling (1981)
• The Wicker Man (1973)
• Videodrome (1983)

 

[Greg K]

If your answer is The Exorcist, Jacob's Ladder, or Lake Mungo, I'm sorry to inform you that those movies are a good but vastly overrated. And if your answer is mother! you just have bad taste in movies.

I disagree that The Exorcist is overrated having recently seen the reactions of some people watching it for the first time. They didn't faint or vomit, but they had strong reactions to several scenes that I could not help but place it in my top 10.

 

[Greg K]

Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens -The 1922 silent movie with its masterful use of shadows and Max Schreck performance still manages to be terrifying

Jennifers Body - This is a suprisingly clever movie, despite being standard campy teen horror.

Two very good choices.

 

[Greg K]

• Near Dark (1987): is one of the few vampire movie I can think of that never uses the word vampire. Lance Henriksen leads a hillbilly family of blood suckers feeding across American when his daughter adds a new member. Jeanette Goldstein and Bill Paxton are also members of this little family.

Another good suggestion. An excellent movie.

 

[Greg K]

My Top 3 Horror Picks:

Black Christmas (1974): A wonderful cast, expertly directed, in one of the most terror-inducing slashers I've ever seen. It still scares the bejeesus out of me all these years later and although there have been two attempts to remake it, neither comes close to capturing the absolute genius of the original.

A very influential movie that inspired later slasher movies such as Hallowen. I think I saw it for the first time a year or two ago.