Top ranked horror films from our internet survey, listed from over 1280 film, 43 horror films were mentioned, with 35 making the top 1000. This is probably my least favorite genre, as its like cooking hamburgers, there's only so many ways to kill people, and the best of these go beyond that. Unfortunately directors and filmgoers do NOT, preferring the simple slasher films over anything creative. I guess you may have to drop down to #3 to get a "pure horror" film, one of the creepiest of the vampire films.© 2009, William L. Sinclair
1. Psycho [Hitchcock, Alfred, US, 1960] #8 -Crime [photo top]
2. King Kong [Cooper, Merian C./Ernest B. Schoedsack, US, 1933] #40 -Fantasy/Monster
3. Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens [Murnau, F.W., Germany, 1922] #48 -Fantasy
4. Jaws [Spielberg, Steven, US, 1975] #66 -Adventure
5. Alien [Scott, Ridley, US, 1979] #98 -SciFi
6. Shining, The [Kubrick, Stanley, US, 1980] #109 -Fantasy (be sure to see Kubrick's better films)
7. Bride of Frankenstein [Whale, James, US, 1935] #140 -SciFi
8. Exorcist, The [Friedkin, William, US, 1973] #143 -Fantasy
9. Aliens [Cameron, James, US, 1986] #159 -SciFi [photo rt]
10. Frankenstein [Whale, James, US, 1931] #168 -SciFi11. Rosemary's Baby [Polanski, Roman, US, 1968] #173 -Mystery
12. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The [Hooper, Tobe, US, 1974] #248 -Crime
13. Les Vampires [Feuillade, Louis , France, 1916] #266 -Fantasy
14. Vampyr [Dreyer, Carl Theodor, France-Germany, 1932] #316 -Fantasy
15. Halloween [Carpenter, John, US, 1978] #322 -Crime
16. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The [Wiene, Robert, Germany, 1919] #326 -Crime
17. Night of the Living Dead [Romero, George A., US, 1968] #331 -Fantasy
18. Suspiria [Argento, Dario, Italy, 1977] #351 -Fantasy
19. Birds, The [Hitchcock, Alfred, US, 1963] #354 -Mystery
20. Eyes Without a Face [Franju, Georges, France-Italy, 1959] #400 -Fantasy
21. Carrie [De Palma, Brian, US, 1976] #521 -Fantasy
22. Dawn of the Dead [Romero, George A., US, 1978] #555 -Fantasy
23. Sixth Sense, The [Shyamalan, M. Knight, US, 1999] #577 -Mystery
24. Faust [Murnau, F.W., Germany, 1926] #585 -Fantasy
25. Eraserhead [Lynch, David, US, 1977] #601 -Fantasy
26. Thing, The [Carpenter, John, US, 1982] #639 -SciFi
27. Evil Dead II [Raimi, Sam, US, 1987] #640 -Fantasy
28. Let the Right One In [Alfredson, Tomas, Sweden, 2008] #680 -Romance
29. I Walked with a Zombie [Tourneur, Jacques, US, 1943] #686 -Fantasy
30. Videodrome [Cronenberg, David, Canada, 1983] #706 -Fantasy
31. Innocents, The [Clayton, Jack, UK, 1961] #743 -Fantasy
32. Thing from Another World, The [Nyby, Christian/Howard Hawks, US, 1951] #790 -SciFi
33. Phantom Carriage, The [Sjöström, Victor, Sweden, 1921] #875 -Fantasy
34. Night of the Demon [Tourneur, Jacques, UK, 1957] #920 -Mystery
35. Tenant, The [Polanski, Roman, France-US, 1976] #995 -Mystery
36. Host, The [Bong, Joon-ho, Korea, 2006] #1046 -Fantasy
37. Hour of the Wolf [Bergman, Ingmar, Sweden, 1968] #1076 -Fantasy
38. Dracula [Fisher, Terence, US, 1958] #1109 -Fantasy
39. Kwaidan [Kobayashi, Masaki, Japan, 1964] #1156 -Fantasy
40. Kingdom (Riget) [von Trier, Lars, Den-Fr-Gy-Sweden, 1994] #1196 -Fantasy
41. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? [Aldrich, Robert, US, 1962] #1207 -Crime
42. Young Frankenstein [Brooks, Mel, US, 1974] #1258 -Comedy
43. Unknown, The [Browning, Tod, US, 1927] #1281 -Romance
Somehow, they missed these, which I would add:
A Nightmare on Elm Street [Craven, Wes, 1984] - thanks to the special effects and creepy premise, one of the scariest films ever made; do NOT let kids see this or they'll NEVER go to sleep, again - or else!
Poltergeist [Hooper, Tobe, 1982] - Spielberg produced, ILM special effects, this was a classy horror fantasy, can't believe its not listed
The Changeling [Medak, Peter, 1979] - the George C. Scott, classic "haunted house" story, will give you goosebumps even on a rewatching; similar to The Innocents, but better
Of the films they did list, Aliens is easily my favorite, and even Sigourney Weaver admits that the first one (Alien) "was just And Then There Were None, in space" (that's the Agatha Christie novel, filmed at least 2-3 times, people are killed one by one until only one remains); predictable, not nearly as interesting as the sequel. Unfortunately for fans, they made 3 and 4!
I'm usually using the IMDB genre designations, but they had Pink Flamingos listed as horror, the John Waters comedy - so I left that one off.. I don't think of that one as scary, just disgusting.
