Top 100 Scariest / Horror Films of all Time?

Well this is complex, is it not? Or maybe it is just more about sharing scary film with the masses.

I was thrilled to see the Horror clip during the Oscars.

… sure Irreversible and August Underground aren’t there… nor is Men Behind the Sun.. but Salo is, and a whole bunch of other treats.  And where is Cannibal Holocaust? Save your top 10 for my next posts… scariest moments, scariest films! (ED NOTE: I cannot believe I called those “treats”.  Apologies and Ugh).

Anyhoo… the below .. The Chicago Film Critics Association has compiled a list of the top 100 Scariest Movies of All Time. It’s not just big names… it’s fairly competent. I can’t find a link, which makes me dumb… but here’s the list:

1. “Psycho”

2. “The Exorcist”

3. “Halloween”

4. “Alien”

5. “Night of the Living Dead (1968)”

6. “Jaws”

7. “The Shining”

8. “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)”

9. “Dawn of the Dead (1978)”

10. “Rosemary’s Baby”

11. “The Silence of the Lambs”

12. “The Blair Witch Project”

13. “Nosferatu”

14. “Frankenstein (1931)”

15. “Nightmare on Elm Street”

16. “Carrie (1976)”

17. “The Thing (1982)”

18. “Bride of Frankenstein”

19. “The Haunting (1963)”

20. “Poltergeist”

21. “Suspiria”

22. “Wait Until Dark”

23. “The Birds”

24. “Don’t Look Now”

25. “Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn”

26. “The Innocents”

27. “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer”

28. “Freaks”

29. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)”

30. “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, (1921)”

31. “The Omen (1976)”

32. “The Fly (1986)”

33. “Seven”

34. “The Re-Animator”

35. “The Sixth Sense”

36. “The Ring (2002)”

37. “The Evil Dead”

38. “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1933)”

39. “The Hitcher”

40. “Near Dark”

41. “Dracula (1931)”

42. “Vampyr (1932)”

43. “Onibaba”

44. “Scream”

45. “Aliens”

46. “Creature from the Black Lagoon”

47. “Session 9”

48. “Nosferatu the Vampyre”

49. “Black Christmas”

50. “When a Stranger Calls”

51. “Repulsion”

52. “Misery”

53. “Horror of Dracula”

54. “The Others”

55. “Jurassic Park”

56. “The Seventh Victim”

57. “Peeping Tom”

58. “28 Days Later”

59. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)”

60. “The Hidden”

61. “May”

62. “Shaun of the Dead”

63. “Last House on the Left”

64. “10 Rillington Place”

65. “Salo”

66. “Cat People (1942)”

67. “Frailty”

68. “The Howling”

69. “Trilogy of Terror”

70. “Blue Velvet”

71. “I Walked with a Zombie”

72. “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”

73. “Martin”

74. “Deliverance”

75. “Carnival of Souls”

76. “The Vanishing (1988)”

77. “Masque of the Red Death”

78. “The Night of the Hunter”

79. “Salem’s Lot”

80. “Fright Night”

81. “Black Sunday (1960)”

82. “Scream 2”

83. “Dressed To Kill”

84. “The Stepfather”

85. “Friday the 13th”

86. “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”

87. “Let’s Scare Jessica to Death”

88. “The Brood”

89. “Dead-Alive”

90. “Open Water”

91. “The Mummy (1932)”

92. “Requiem for a Dream”

93. “Signs”

94. “The Wolf Man”

95. “Phantasm”

96. “The Night Stalker”

97. “Brides of Dracula”

98. “M”

99. “God Told Me To”

100. “Eyes without a Face”

I agree the list is good, but there is no evident reason they should be ranked like that… they are all out of whack. But is this about sharing horror films, and fun scary stuff from the past… or is this about complaining about personal taste?

It’s my blog, so….

If I am not mistaken, Rosemary’s baby caused a political and religious backlash more than the “horror” (I do love seeing Ruth “Maude” Gordon in that movie though)… and a movie like Blair Witch shouldn’t be that high. It did redefine how pop movies did 1st person, but Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust was predating that.

Dawn of the Dead is simply one of my top 3 of all time. It has zombies and piefights goddam it.

But I don’t think, at the time, the movie was scarier than Nosferatu or The Thing, at the time.,, these movies cannot be judged without recognizing their place and moment in time, right? Anyhoo.. I will be watching a lot of these again. Soon. Hoot.

I am happy to see films like May or Session 9 in there. (As well as one or two I honestly haven’t even heard of, let alone have seen.

*MY* list of top horror films will be coming soon. Mainly, because I know my wife and dog, the two people that read this, care.