Whats your favourite horror movie of all time? This question was asked of me the other day, my friend who asked the question expected me to be able to answer this straight away and give a definitive answer within a couple of seconds, unfortunately i had to think about this one. There’s probably a massive difference between the best horror film ever made and your own personal favourite. From a personal point of view i have always enjoyed monster movies and also horrors that leave something to the imagination rather than the slasher type movies, it is often more frightening imagining whats behind the door than actually seeing it. Some of the best horror movies ever made are ones that have that sort of indescribable virtue of ” atmosphere” a good director can create an atmosphere within a film that adds to the movies overall effect greatly, for example F.W.Munaraus Nosferatu released in 1922 even today it still has the ability to send a shiver down your back, or Ridley Scott’s ALIEN from 1979, part of the films ability to scare is that we actually see very little of the monster and the spaceship setting is very claustrophobic and confined almost making the viewer believe that they are trapped on the Nostromo themselves.
As a horror film fan i believe that a good horror should also have a bit of humour included, whats better than going to the cinema , being scared and having a laugh? Recent films of this type to enjoy include Sam Raimis Drag Me To Hell and the Final Destination series of films. Of course a good story and some decent actors can help a film no end, The Omen was a huge success in the 1970s helped immeasurably by fine performances by Gregory Peck, Billie Whitelaw and Patrick Troughton amongst others as well as having an interesting if far fetched narrative
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In recent years horror films featuring scenes of torture and very realistic violence have hit our movie screens, films such as Hostel and Saw have been perhaps suprisingly rather successful at the box office, other succesful movies have included Eden Lake and The Last House on the Left , films that are quite disturbing as they are set in more everyday settings and play on our fears of breakdown within our own societies.
Obviously when voting for your best horror film of all time one cannot help but be subjective, personally i don’t like the blood and guts or slasher types of film so if you look at my top ten maybe you will say I’m biased, well yes i most certainly am, its my list , whats yours?
- ALIEN
- The Dead Zone
- Carrie
- The Evil Dead
- Jeepers Creepers
- An American Werewolf in London
- The Lost Boys
- The Fly
- The Omen
- The Entity
5 Comments
I agree that Alien is one of the best, but my top 5 are The Exorcist, The Thing, Psycho, Aliens and Misery.
Good article btw, cheers!!
Thanks for the comments James, to be honest the Exorcist nearly made it into my list and if it would have been a top twenty so would have the Thing and Misery never a fan of Hitchcock movies though,cheers.
PSYCHO is my top horror film of all time. THE EXORCIST comes a close second. i picked these two films because the actors and actresses in these films turned in excellent performances. the stories of these two films also make people think about serious subjects like religion, faith, alienation and how sometimes the human mind can be twisted.
Blimey, this is a difficult one to list? I think mine would be:
The Asphyx (A classic!)
1) Alien
2) The Thing
3) The Lost Boys
4) Bram Stokers Dracula (just for its imagery alone)
5) Wrong Turn
6) Jeepers Creepers
7) The Omen (original version)
9) Harlequin
10) Descent
I’m enjoying your articles Frosty!
I don’t think I could pick a top ten, it really does matter what mood I am in. I like thrillers, what lies beneath, hand that rocks the cradle. I am like you I don’t like obvious blood and gore, I have watched them mainly for research for my thriller novel in which the main character, a woman has to torture a man to death, so Hostel 2 was really good for me.
Great article I love things I can take part in:-)