75... no wait, 81 Must-See Horror Movies

So my first post is going to be about horror movies. I love horror movies. Although that wasn't always the case. When I was a kid I was so terrified of horror movies that I couldn't even watch a TV spot for a horror movie without getting nightmares. Also, when I'd be in a video store I'd completely avoid the horror section. If I even looked at the covers of the boxes it could give me nightmares. To me, as a faithful little Catholic, horror movies had this terrifying, negative presence about them. If I saw a preview, or a poster, or a box, I got the sense like I was in the presence of something truly evil. In my innocent little eyes, they were the devil's work. So yeah, I stayed away from that shit.

Another thing, I was so scared of scary movies that the Star Wars movie I watched the least as a child was Return of the Jedi, even though that's the one kids normally like the best (mini-wookiees defeating the empire with sticks and rocks -- so sick). I would never want to put it in the VCR because of the scene at Jabba's palace when Luke gets dumped in the dungeon with the Rancor. That thing was effing scary.

Believe me, this picture does it justice.

The first scary movies I was ever able to actually sit through (and instantly fall in love with) were Alien and Aliens. I friggin' loved those two movies, and I was like pretty young (maybe 8 or 9). They gave me nightmares too, but I loved them so much I didn't care and I kept watching them over and over. I think that was because I never really thought of them as horror movies. They were just sci-fi thrillers to me. They didn't have that evil, devil-is-present-here thing going for them like movies in the real horror genre. I still stayed away from those.

The first true, hardcore horror film I ever saw was Jason Goes to Hell at a boy-girl party in like grade 7 or so. At the time I thought that movie was incredible. I semi-recently watched some of it on TV and that movie is garbage like all the other Friday the 13th sequels.

But anyway, enough of my life story. Eventually I came to love horror movies and not find them (all) evil.

...

Present day.

So on Thursday one of my wife's co-workers was talking about how he likes horror movies, but he doesn't know any good ones and he wants to watch some real good ones. She was like "Don't worry I'll get you a list." He was like "Huh?" And she was like "My husband is a big movie geek. He'll have a list for you tomorrow." So the next morning at work I spent like 3 hours coming up with a list of must-see horror movies (with some input from my co-worker, Ian, who has good taste in movies, Star Wars and beef sandwiches). Originally I was going to narrow the list down to like 25, but that quickly ballooned to 50, then 65, then 75.... and just now before posting this I added 6 more.

Now this list I made is a list of "Must-See" horror movies. Not the greatest of all time or the most underrated or unappreciated. Nor is this a list of my all-time favorites (although many of them are), but these are the horror movies that I believe MUST BE SEEN by everyone who likes horror movies. Now there are some semi-obvious omissions of incredibly classic, influential horror movies like Nosferatu, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Blood Feast. But having seen all those films more than once, I can safely say, while they are genre classics, they don't really NEED to be seen. Just reading about them, and knowing what made them so influential is probably enough. In my opinion, they no longer blow your mind or provide great entertainment. They are important to see only if you are a hardcore movie nerd who is willing to sit through classics that you don't find particularly interesting (in and of themselves) just to appreciate them within the context of film history. Also, at least one of these movies I wouldn't rate higher than 6/10 on IMDB, i.e., The Amityville Horror. But still, you gotta see the original Amityville Horror. James Brolin's beard is so menacing.

Believe me, this picture does NOT do it justice.

One last thing, all these movies don't fall nicely into the "horror" category. In fact a few of them probably belong more to genres other than horror (e.g., Aliens and Scanners may be more sci-fi and Zodiac and Sixth Sense may be more drama) but in my opinion they are as much horror as they are any other genre. So yeah, here's the list...


81 Must-See Horror Movies (in alphabetical order)

1. Alien (1979, Ridley Scott)

2. Aliens (1986, James Cameron)

3. Altered States (1980, Ken Russell)

4. An American Werewolf in London (1981, John Landis)

5. The Amityville Horror (1979, Stuart Rosenberg)

6. The Birds (1963, Alfred Hitchcock)

7. Black Christmas (1974, Bob Clark)

8. The Blair Witch Project (1999, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez)

9. The Brood (1979, David Cronenberg)

10. Candyman (1992, Bernard Rose)

11. Cape Fear (1991, Martin Scorsese)

12. Carrie (1976, Brian De Palma)

13. Cat People (1942, Jacques Tourneur)

14. Child's Play (1988, Tom Holland)

15. Dawn of the Dead (1978, George A. Romero)

16. Don't Look Now (1973, Nicolas Roeg)

17. Dracula (1992, Francis Ford Coppola)

18. Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966, Terence Fisher)

19. Dressed to Kill (1980, Brian De Palma)

20. Duel (1971, Steven Spielberg)

21. Evil Dead 2 (1987, Sam Raimi)

22. The Exorcist (1973, William Friedkin)

23. Exorcist III (1989, William Peter Blatty)

24. The Fly (1986, David Cronenberg)

25. The Fog (1980, John Carpenter)

26. Frailty (2001, Bill Paxton)

27. Frankenstein (1931, James Whale)

28. Freaks (1932, Tod Browning)

29. Friday the 13th (1980, Sean S. Cunningham)

30. Ginger Snaps (2000, John Fawcett)

31. Gremlins (1984, Joe Dante)

32. Halloween (1978, John Carpenter)

33. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986, John McNaughton)

34. The Hitcher (1986, Robert Harmon)

35. Hostel (2005, Eli Roth)

36. House on Haunted Hill (1959, William Castle)

37. House of Wax (1953, André De Toth)

38. The Hunger (1983, Tony Scott)

39. I Spit on Your Grave (1978, Meir Zarchi)

40. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, Don Siegel)

41. It’s Alive (1974, Larry Cohen)

42. Jaws (1975, Steven Spielberg)

43. King Kong (1933, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack)

44. The Last House on the Left (1972, Wes Craven)

45. Martin (1977, George A. Romero)

46. Misery (1990, Rob Reiner)

47. New Nightmare (1994, Wes Craven)

48. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984, Wes Craven)

49. Night of the Living Dead (1968, George A. Romero)

50. The Omen (1976, Richard Donner)

51. Peeping Tom (1960, Michael Powell)

52. Phantasm (1979, Don Coscarelli)

53. The Phantom of the Opera (1925, Rupert Julian)

54. The Plague of the Zombies (1966, John Gilling)

55. Play Misty for Me (1971, Clint Eastwood)

56. Poltergeist (1982, Tobe Hooper)

57. Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock)

58. Re-Animator (1985, Stuart Gordon)

59. The Ring (2002, Gore Verbinski)

60. Rosemary's Baby (1968, Roman Polanski)

61. Scanners (1981, David Cronenberg)

62. Scream (1996, Wes Craven)

63. Se7en (1995, David Fincher)

64. Shaun of the Dead (2004, Edgar Wright)

65. The Shining (1980, Stanley Kubrick)

66. Shivers (1975, David Cronenberg)

67. The Silence of the Lambs (1991, Jonathan Demme)

68. Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984, Charles E. Sellier Jr.)

69. The Sixth Sense (1999, M. Night Shyamalan)

70. Spoorloos (The Vanishing) (1988, George Sluizer)

71. Stir of Echoes (1999, David Koepp)

72. Suspiria (1977, Dario Argento)

73. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974, Tobe Hooper)

74. The Thing (1982, John Carpenter)

75. The Thing from Another World (1951, Christian Nyby)

76. The Tingler (1959, William Castle)

77. Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964, Herschell Gordon Lewis)

78. Village of the Damned (1960, Wolf Rilla)

79. When a Stranger Calls (1979, Fred Walton)

80. The Wicker Man (1973, Robin Hardy)

81. Zodiac (2007, David Fincher)