15. Nosferatu: Phantom Der Nacht
Werner Herzog, 1979
Like much of Herzog's work, Nosferatu is so beautiful and deliberately paced that it's almost hypnotic. While there are no specific images that can match the original Nosferatu for sheer terror, even when they attempt to recreate exact shots, Herzog's film manages to instill a more profound sense of horror – the plague of rats, in particular, is tremendously nightmarish and surreal. This is easily the best version of Dracula on film.
14. The Whip and the Body
Mario Bava, 1963
The Whip and the Body is the ultimate expression of Mario Bava's skills as a director. His use of color is more pronounced, his in-camera trickery more clever. The story falls into the category of many movies on this list, the is-it-or-isn't-it ghost story. Really, the only fault I can find is the fact that Christopher Lee was dubbed by a different actor – and in fact, after this movie, he made it a contractual issue that no one else could ever dub him over for english language tracks.
13. Frankenstein
James Whale, 1931
This is essentially the birth of American horror. While there had been earlier, silent horror films in the states before, they generally turned out to be more like detective stories in the end, with Scooby-Dooesque conclusions. With Frankenstein, however, James Whale took a healthy dose of german expressionism and applied it to an actual tale of horror. He got Jack Pierce to design the most iconic monster makeup ever (even to this day). It was a game-changer, and without it, I doubt much of anything on this list would even exist.
12. Shaun of the Dead
Edgar Wright, 2004
This is what happens when you take a bunch of comedians who have an actual, legitimate affection for a genre and turn them loose on it – not a spoof, not a satire, but an honest, legitimate zombie movie that also happens to be funny as hell. What I love about this movie is that they don’t spend their time condescending to the subject matter (yeah, fuck you, Scream) or criticizing the tropes of the genre, but still find plenty of opportunities to laugh. There’s nothing else quite like it.
11. The Beyond
Lucio Fulci, 1981
This is the most beautiful horror movie I’ve ever seen. It’s a complete disaster as a narrative, but it functions as a weird cross between a painting and a dream, filled with strikingly surreal images and gorgeous compositions that even the occasional shoddy effect (*ahem* tarantulas with teeth) can’t undermine. I often describe movies I love as having a certain sort of indefinable magic; that’s true for this one moreso than most. You really just have to see it.
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