Well, since time is flying by we'll just finish this thing off with the top ten horror movies, all in one post.
10. The Devil’s Backbone
Guillermo Del Toro, 2001
Pan's Labyrinth got all of the attention, but this earlier film is Del Toro's true masterpiece. It's a haunting story (hah! Thank you, I'll be here all week), focusing heavily on the weight of history and the the pain and regret that people feel over their mistakes. The ghosts are really just outward manifestations of that – both metaphorically and, to a surprising degree, literally. As with Pan's, Del Toro wrings a strong set of performances out of a young cast that probably shouldn't be capable of it yet. A triumph on all levels.
9. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Tobe Hooper, 1974
Infamously violent yet shockingly non-graphic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the most grueling, intense moviegoing experiences you will ever have. It all begins with a very particular sound – that of a flashbulb firing. It's loud, sudden, and totally mundane – yet it puts you right on edge. That sound basically typifies the movie as a whole – it's painfully normal, almost drab, but still just far enough off of center to be unnerving. Even when the movie descends into nightmarish chaos in the last third, that smothering drabness (and I mean this in a good way, despite my choice of word) is still present.
Also, and unrelated – bonus anti-PC points for having the handicapped character be an utterly unsympathetic asshole.
8. Night of the Living Dead
George A. Romero, 1968
This is zombie patient zero – the very first appearance of what we have come to know as zombies. Before this, the only sort of zombies seen on-screen were the Caribbean, voodoo-type of zombies, which are an entirely different creature. Of course, Romero’s movies are never truly about the zombies, but rather what they reveal about us. Even now, 40 years later, the ending still has the ability to enrage and shock.
7. The Thing
John Carpenter, 1982
John Carpenter's The Thing proves two things. First, that remakes can be superior to the source (especially when the source is as ridiculous and backward-looking as it is in this case), and second, that good, old-fashioned latex-based physical effects can accomplish anything. Of course, all of those brilliant effects wouldn't mean much if they were presented poorly, but fortunately, The Thing is a textbook example of how to make this sort of film. It is, essentially, flawless.
6. The Fly
David Cronenberg, 1986
Another remake that blows the original out of the water. Of course, as with The Thing, the movie is so different that it is hardly recognizable as a remake. In this case, Cronenberg has taken the bare bones of the original The Fly and shaped it into a grueling (both emotionally and viscerally) parable about aging and disease. Fantastic stuff.
5. Return of the Living Dead
Dan O’bannon, 1985
Return of the Living Dead manages to do something that very few other movies have ever pulled off – it is both scary and funny. Sure, there have been successful horror comedies in the past (several of which are on this list), but, while they succeed as comedies (which is usually the primary intent) and they succeed as horror movies, they still aren’t really scary. This one is. The zombies are incredibly menacing and frightening, but also provide some of the funniest moments I’ve ever seen on screen (“send more paramedics”). It’s a difficult tightrope to walk, but Return of the Living Dead never falls apart the way it probably ought to. Wrap it all up with that beautifully nihilistic ending, and you’ve got a winner.
4. Don’t Look Now
Nicholas Roeg, 1973
It’s all about the ending with this one, which just might be the single most terrifying moment I’ve ever experienced in a movie. The rest of the movie is terrific as well – a gut-wrenching portrait of a couple trying to move on after the death of their daughter – but there’s not much fear to be had. You could be forgiven for thinking you were watching some sort of prestige drama – which in many ways, it is. But then that moment happens, and it all changes. I shall speak no more of it until you see it for yourselves.
3. Halloween
John Carpenter, 1978
Well, it's Halloween. It's basically the birth of the slasher movie (yes, I know that it bears many similarities to the earlier Black Christmas, but Halloween took the scattered ideas of the movie and really built them into a coherent whole). When John Carpenter was in his prime, no one could wring more suspense out of a few well-chosen shots than him. No one. And this is exhibit A. Watch Laurie's long walk across the street. Watch Annie's excruciating stuck-in-the-window sequence. Watch basically any other sequence in the movie, and marvel at the way that Michael Myers is always present, always lurking in the background, sometimes so subtly you don't notice it until a later viewing.
2. The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Robert Fuest, 1971
Oh, the colors. Oh, the art deco. Oh, Vulnavia. I mean, er, oh, the wicked humor (“I think it has a left-hand thread”). The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a truly one-of-a-kind film. Lacking the use of his voice (at least on-set), Vincent Price goes completely over the top with a flamboyant, theatrical performance that is both riveting and surprisingly affecting on an emotional level. He never feels out of place, though, as the movie careens wrecklessly from bizarre to nightmarish to hilarious and back again, all the while never less than stunning to look at. I can never get tired of this movie.
1. Dawn of the Dead
George A. Romero, 1978
The best of them all, and one of my very favorite movies, period. Romero took the core of the idea he developed in Night. . . (that we are our own worst enemies) and ran with it, creating a treatise on malaise and complacency (as exemplified by consumer culture) that has never been topped. This was also one of the first movies to feature makeup effects by Tom Savini, and while they’re not really realistic at all, they are enjoyable. It’s often considered to be sort of a horror-comedy, but I don’t really think that’s true. There’s comedy to be had, mostly in the satirical aspects of the film, but it’s a wry humor, tinged with sadness. There are several cuts of this movie available, but the one you’ll want to see is the original theatrical, as the festival version drags and the Italian version is missing too much important material. That said, the festival cut does contain one scene that I really miss in the theatrical – when our heroes are procuring the helicopter for their escape, early on, they encounter a soldier who is stealing a boat for the same purpose. He asks if they have any cigarettes, they say no. The next shot is our heroes lighting up in the helicopter as it takes off. Good guys or bad guys, when the end of the world comes, it’s every man for himself.
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