This time around, I set out to do something unique, which I don't believe has ever been done before. As an English Lit. major, I was very familiar with the concept of a "canon"--specifically, an agreed-upon collection of "great works" that should be read by every student/scholar. And so, I decided, why not take this concept and apply it to horror movies?
My plan was to create a list of absolutely indispensable horror films that every fan needs to have seen in order to consider themselves a proper horror geek. This is not to be confused with "The Greatest of All Time". For example, Plan 9 from Outer Space would not be on my list of the greatest of all time, but I might very well consider it "must-see" viewing for any wannabe horror fanatic!
Think of it this way: If someone came to you and said, "I want to get into this whole horror thing, what movies do I need to see? " Which movies would you give them to watch? In another scenario, let's say aliens came down and asked you, "What's this horror movie business all about?", what movies would you give them to take up in their ship?
Each participant provided me with their essential ten, and I tallied up all the votes using my byzantine points system, resulting in the rock-solid list of 35 which you will find below. And so I give you, THE HORROR MOVIE CANON:
- Halloween (1978) dir: John Carpenter
- The Exorcist (1973) dir: William Friedkin
- Night of the Living Dead (1968) dir: George Romero
- Frankenstein (1931) dir: James Whale
- Dracula (1931) dir: Tod Browning
- Psycho (1960) dir: Alfred Hitchcock
- Alien (1979) dir: Ridley Scott
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) dir: Tobe Hooper
- Nosferatu (1922) dir: F.W. Murnau
- Bride of Frankenstein (1935) dir: James Whale
- Dawn of the Dead (1978) dir: George Romero
- The Shining (1980) dir: Stanley Kubrick
- The Thing (1982) dir: John Carpenter
- Evil Dead II (1987) dir: Sam Raimi
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) dir: Wes Craven
- Let the Right One In (2008) dir: Tomas Alfredson
- The Wolf Man (1941) dir: George Waggner
- Cannibal Holocaust (1980) dir: Ruggero Deodato
- Suspiria (1977) dir: Dario Argento
- Gojira (1954) dir: Ishiro Honda
- The Ring (2002) dir: Gore Verbinski
- Orphan (2009) dir: Jaume Collet-Serra
- Jaws (1975) dir: Steven Speilberg
- The Evil Dead (1981) dir: Sam Raimi
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) dir: Robert Weine
- Hellraiser (1987) dir: Clive Barker
- House on Haunted Hill (1959) dir: William Castle
- Saw (2004) dir: James Wan
- The Haunting (1963) dir: Robert Wise
- Zombi 2 (1979) dir: Lucio Fulci
- The Phantom of the Opera (1925) dir: Rupert Julian
- The Omen (1976) dir: Richard Donner
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) dir: Don Siegel
- A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) dir: Ji-woon Kim
- The War of the Worlds (1953) dir: Byron Haskin
As was to be expected, there is a bit of overlap here between this and the "Top 50 of All Time" list. Specifically, the top two films are the same--guess there's just something about those two that seem to make just about everyone agree as to their greatness. However, I'm struck by the amount of contemporary films on this list of 35, much more than the Top 50. There are a total of five films (1/7th of the list) from the current decade, with the most recent of them being Orphan, still in theaters! That's promising for the future of the biz, if you ask me--maybe the Elite were in a little better mood than last year, who knows.
However, the fact remains that no film in the top 15 of this list was made in the past 20 years, so let's not break out the confetti just yet. I'm impressed with the showing of Dracula, which scored a lot higher here than it did in the top 50--I think people recognize it as somewhat inferior overall to Frankenstein, yet nevertheless an extremely important film for any horror fan to see. I'm also impressed by the amount of foreign films on the list--a total of eight, or just under one quarter of the entire rundown. Its nice to see our participants taking into account such cult films as Cannibal Holocaust (you sickos!) and A Tale of Two Sisters, easily the most unexpected of the bunch. It's not only about the obvious choices, folks.
Decades breakdown:
- 1920s: 3
- 1930s: 3
- 1940s: 1
- 1950s: 4
- 1960s: 3
- 1970s: 9
- 1980s: 7
- 1990s: 0 (!)
- 2000s: 5
Iloc Zoc of Zombos' Closet of Horror
Wes Cavins of Horror Film Magazine
Max Cheney of The Drunken Severed Head, 2008 Rondo Runner-Up for Best Blog
Ryne Barber of The Moon Is a Dead World
The Lightning Bug of The Lightning Bug's Lair
Jeff Allard of Dinner with Max Jenke and Shock Till You Drop
Justin of Send More Cops
Pierre Fournier of Frankensteinia, Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Famer
BC of Horror-Movie-a-Day and Bloody-Disgusting
Unkle Lancifer of Kindertrauma
John Kenneth Muir, horror critic (Booklist Editor's Choice)
Pax Romano of Billy Loves Stu
Ms. Harker of Musings Across a Continuum
Marc Patterson of Brutal as Hell
Christine Hadden of Fascination with Fear
Monster Scholar of Monster Land
Soap Magic of The Beyond and Bloody-Disgusting
Cortez the Killer of Planet of Terror
Judd Clarke of Igloo of the Uncanny
RayRay, Vault of Horror contributing writer
Frank Godbey of TFAV...1630...Pure Horror!
Matthew House of Paracinema and Chuck Norris Ate My Baby
Johnny Boots of Freddy in Space
Corey Lafferty of Evil on Two Legs
James Zahn of Fangoria.com
Karl Hungus of KarlHungus.com
BJ-C of Day of the Woman and Bloody-Disgusting
Nate Yapp of Classic-Horror.com and Cinema Blend
Scott Weinberg of HorrorSquad, FEARnet.com and Cinematical
And yours truly, of course.
There you have it. Digest. Discuss. Debate. Distribute.