Since the HMV Top 50 Horror Films poll has been getting a lot of play recently I thought I'd take a stab at it as well. I've seen all but two of the films listed and, back in my days as a DVD reviewer, I've written about a fair number of them.
First off I'll pull films that are undeniably important within the genre due to their subsequent influence or vast polularity but simply aren't Top 50 material, for me personally. Many of these films might make a Top 100 or 200 list but a few do absolutly nothing for me. I've tried to get into Lost Boys half a dozen times but can't. Blair Witch and Saw had killer concepts but were poorly executed - though my disappointment with them might have been due to my own higher than realistic expectations. The Shining (plus It and Salem's Lot) may have faced an unfair disadvantage thanks to my affection for the source mterial (but The Mist would have disappointed me even if I hadn't loved King's novella).
Influential and/or popular but wouldn't make my top 50...
2.The Shining. Stanley Kubrick (1980)
5.Saw. James Wan (2004)
7.A Nightmare on Elm Street. Wes Craven (1984)
13.Lost Boys. Joel Schumacher (1987)
17.The Blair Witch Project. Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sanchez (1999)
23.Scream. Wes Craven (1996)
32.The Hills Have Eyes. Wes Craven (1977)
28.Hellraiser. Clive Barker (1987)
29.Hostel. Eli Roth (2005)
36.Child's Play. Tom Holland (1989)
Movies I like but wouldn't be in my Top 50
26.Final Destination. James Wong (2000)
30.Salem's Lot. Mikael Salomon (2004)
31.The Descent. Neil Marshall (2005)
33.Wolf Creek. Greg McLean (2005)
34.Misery. Rob Reiner (1991)
38.The Entity. Sidney J Furie (1981)
41.House on Haunted Hill. William Malone (2000)
48.The Vanishing. George Sluizer (1993)
Movies that wouldn't make my Top 200
43.It. Tommy Lee Wallace (1990)
50.Planet Terror. Robert Rodriguez (2007)
Movie that wouldn't make my top 500
46.The Mist. Frank Darabont (2008)
The Two I Haven't yet seen
37.The Orphanage. Juan Antonio Bayona (2008)
49.Shutter. Masayuki Ochiai (2008)
Which leaves...
1.The Exorcist. William Friedkin (1973)
3.Alien. Ridley Scott (1979)
4.The Silence of the Lambs. Jonathan Demme (1991)
6.Halloween. John Carpenter (1978)
8.Ring (Ringu). Hideo Nakata (1998)
9.The Wicker Man. Robin Hardy (1973)
10.The Omen. Richard Donner (1976)
11.The Birds. Alfred Hitchcock (1963)
12.The Thing. John Carpenter (1982)
14.Dawn of the Dead. George A Romero (1978)
15.The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Tobe Hooper (1974)
16.Jaws. Steven Spielberg (1975)
18.An American Werewolf in London. John Landis (1981)
19.Se7en. David Fincher (1995)
20.Poltergeist. Tobe Hooper (1982)
21.The Amityville Horror. Stuart Rosenberg (1979)
22.Candyman. Bernard Rose (1992)
24.Carrie. Brian De Palma (1976)
25.Friday the 13th. Sean S Cunningham (1980)
27.The Evil Dead. Sam Raimi (1981)
35.Rosemary's Baby. Roman Polanski (1968)
39.Nosferatu. FW Murnau (1922)
40.Night of the Living Dead. George A. Romero (1968)
42.The Haunting. Robert Wise (1963)
44.Audition. Takashi Miike (1999)
45.The Changeling. Peter Medak (1980)
47.Suspiria. Dario Argento (1977)
So what would I add? Well the words Universal, RKO, Hammer, Toho, Freda, Bava and Argento come immediately to mind. In fact the more I think about it that's just the tip of the iceberg and if I really got to cogitating on it I might have to start pulling more titles off of HMV's list.
Well, that's it for my silly meaningless take on yet another silly meaningless poll. Your mileage is pretty much guaranteed to vary so please don't hate me too much if we don't share the same exact taste in scary movies.
