I love the Halloween season, even though I never seem to celebrate the unofficial holiday by doing anything other than watch scary movies. For those interested, I watched the original Bela Lugosi Dracula followed by The Shining, two very different classics from two different era’s of film-making.
To celebrate Halloween, this week I asked the writers of Obsessed With Film to put together a Top 10 List of their favourite horror movies of all time. I left no restrictions on what they could pick (so you may see some non-horror movies listed here) with my general thinking being if two or more people thought that movie was a horror… then I guess you could classify the film as being one.
So I asked everyone to put together a list in order with 1st place earning 10 points and 10th earning 1.
I added all the totals up and this is how what we came up with…
10. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) – Robert Wiene (16 votes)
tie 9. The Fly (1986) – David Cronenberg (17 votes)
tie 9. Halloween (1974) – John Carpenter (17 votes)
7. Dawn of the Dead (1978) – George A. Romero (18 votes)
6. 28 Days Later (2004) – Danny Boyle (19 votes)
5. Jaws (1975) – Steven Spielberg (24 votes)
4. The Thing (1982) – John Carpenter (26 votes)
3. Psycho (1960) – Alfred Hitchcock (28 votes)
2. Alien (1979) – Ridley Scott (31 votes)
1. The Shining (1980) – Stanley Kubrick (45 votes)
The Shining was far and away the winner with 45 votes and was consistently high on most people’s lists. Do you dear readers agree that The Shining is the greatest horror movie of all time?
I will eventually add every writers individual list here when I get chance (I will slap an updated logo on the post when I do, but time has beaten me at the moment).
Only one movie from the last 20 years made the final cut. Is that a sad state of affairs of the current genre or should we not look too much into it because after all, we were looking at only 10 horror movies from nearly 100 years of film.
16 Comments
I wouldn’t look to deeply into that. Some more recent films may reach classic status in the future.
I’m one of the few that is left cold by the Shining – it just doesn’t do a thing for me. I even watched it earlier this year to see if my opinion had changed, but no. It’s even stranger seeing as how I’m a massive Stephen King fan (from this era) and I didn’t like the book either! It’s just one of those things, I suppose…
I don;t think it’s necessarily to do with the horror films from ‘the modern age’ being rubbish. As Cal said, give it a few years and people will be looking back and lauding them as classics.
I know that for me personally I prefer goldie-oldie horror movies and have seen more of them than modern ones. They have been, as Matt said, around for a good deal of time and so naturally resonate more than something that hasn’t been in people’s memories as long. Anyway, nice to see The Shining as numero uno, and good to see that Dr. Caligari crept into the top 10.
Wow im surised the shining won. I can’t beleive Halloween wasn’t higher up the lsit. where was the Exorcist and Nightmare on Elm Street. I think The Exorcist was the scariest movie ever. The shining wasn’t close to being that scary.
What no Killer Klowns From Outer Space? No Leprechaun? You wanna know what really scared me as a kid? Kazaam, and Steel! Seriously if your thinking horror and classic you gotta go Texas Chainsaw, Amittyville, and where the hell is exorcist!
Well… most of mine didn’t make the final list! No surprises there given horror is my least favourite genre and I included things like Silence of the Lambs and Se7en.
Surely musicals are worse than horror?
Come on, no Exorcist? Should be #1 followed by Halloween on #2. WTF!
Yeah, I’m quite content with “The Shining” as being the top favorite horror movie. I don’t think it’s necessarily “scary” even, it’s more disturbing and supposed to get into your psyche which creates the illusion of being scary. JAck Nicholson plays the role of a psychotic so flawlessly it’s just truly captivating. Kubrick picked at our heads like a little kid, by using disturbing imagery and the creepy ambient[noises] soundtrack. So for being the favorite horror movie among 45 voters, i think is pretty fair. since this is not the list for “scariest” horror movies, only “favorite” horror movies.
As for the people saying that “Exorcist” should be on the list, I can kinda agree why they’re complaining, but also disagree. While at the TIME of its release, it was truly horrifying for audience-goers, I don’t think it is that scary. It’s repulsive, shocking, and sick! but does that make it scary? Maybe combining those elements with the devil and religion and the concept of a young linda blair being posessed by a demon(transforming her into a horrifying monster) maybe that was scary. But honestly, can you watch it now and say it’s scary? I’m one who can’t watch it and take it seriously…and it’s not because of the skewing of its seriousness with the scary movie parodies…i saw the movie long before those parodies were out. Even then, it was just a stupid movie.(to me)
ONE THING I ABSOLUTELY AM SHOCKED SEEING(and moreso than than the exorcist) IS “28 DAYS LATER.” What is that? That actually beat out “Dawn of the Dead” and “Halloween”??? No way….I really can’t understand who can like that crap. “28 days later” to be labeled the “one movie from the last 20 years to make it in the final cut” must be a joke. I thought “28 Days later” was just horribly executed as a movie, but its amazing to see how 28 weeks later was 10X better executed(maybe the budget helps) yet 28 Days sticks as a favorite, but not weeks. but still…where there was better story and camera work in Weeks, it was horribly lacking in Days.
But once again this is the list for FAVORITE Horror Movies…all up to personal opinions and the impacts the movies had on the people from their first initial viewing. I am happy to say I caught alot of great ‘horror’ movie flicks that were shown on AMC, FMC, and on satellite in leui of Halloween!
I’d have to disagree on the Exorcist, ALK. I watched it recently (believe it or not, I saw it when I watched the Shining which I mentioned above – it was sold in a double pack!) and thought it was pretty damn scary. And it was the first time I’d watched it properly. I personally voted it in my top ten.
I love 28 Days Later. I think it’s a great film. Having said that, I AM a bit surprised it’s in here – especially seeing as how 28 WEEKS Later isn’t!
The only film I haven’t seen out of this lot is the Cabinet of Dr Caligari. Perhaps I should look it up…
Anybody remember seeing a horror film with a creepy rendition of “London Bridge is falling down, falling down…” featuring a swarm of killer androids who you thought were human all along??
I saw part of this film on a European cable channel about 15 years ago and still haven’t met anyone who knows what its called or caught a glimpse of it!! Perhaps it was just a bad dream??
Also I was pretty spooked out by the Oliver Stone horror pic The Hand when I was a youngster…
ALK,
My bet is that 28 Days Later made the list due to the fact it takes place in England. You can’t blame Matt and the crew for being a bit nationalistic.
Well you certainly can’t blame me for it’s inclusion because I didn’t vote for it.
First of all how can you be obsessed with film when you can’t even get the year right on one of the greatest horror movies ever. Halloween 1978 not 1974.
I also agree that you have to have the Exorcist on this list in the top 2 if not 1.
Unfortunately, The Exorcist isn’t as atmospheric as the The Shining and neither did it age as well. If someone could do a remake that was honest to the original and of a sufficiently high calibre of production I’d welcome it. Unfortunately I don’t believe they can. The Exorcist is certainly one of those films that would improve a lot by being well restored, but unfortunately it is difficult to get past the ‘then cutting edge’ effects.I am however disappointed that films such as The Omen (1976), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and Rosemary’s Baby (1968) didn’t make the list. I would however agree with The Shining’s high ranking as it’s one of the few films that’s actually bother me after the credits end. Halloween (1978) was a good film, with a great deal of suspense which perhaps deserves it space for it’s influence, however come the end of the film it’s all a little amusing. The same can not be said for some other films.
Im going to have to say im happy to see 28 Days Later, because i really enjoyed the movie. I do think it was vastly superior to the sequel, which may have had more “scary moments” but it didn’t have an impressive story like the original.
Man I don’t at all agree with ‘The Shining’!!
It’s probably the worst Kubrick film I saw!
In the published above list I would prefer
John Carpenter’s The Thing
Alien
Halloween
28 days later
Allthough My favourite of them is ‘Jaws’ but it is not a horror movie mind you!