The Horror List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

[Finch]

Great effort, dom! Could kick myself for forgetting Black Christmas (74) and Peeping Tom, both of which I consider better than Psycho and it's the only one of the three I remembered to put on my list! Had I remembered either of the two, one of them would have taken Psycho's spot instead. Glad to see my Number 1 spot, Cure, in 27th. PS.: Another omission is Deep Red which is not my fave Argento (second only to Bird) but it's scarier than Bird so Deep Red would have been my Argento choice on the list.

My (unrevised) list:

1) Cure (1995) (Kurosawa)
2) Black Sabbath (Bava)
3) The Seventh Victim (Lewton)
4) Freaks (Browning)
5) Alien (Scott)
6) City of Pirates (Ruiz)
7) Rosemary's Baby (Polanski)
8) Halloween (Carpenter)
9) Videodrome (Cronenberg)
10) The Devil's Backbone (Del Toro)
11) The Black Cat (Ulmer)
12) Audition (Miike)
13) Bride of Frankenstein (Whale)
14) The Leopard Man (Tourneur)
15) Kill Baby Kill (Bava)
16) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper)
17) Taste/Scream of Fear (Hammer)
18) I Walked With A Zombie (Tourneur)
19) Eraserhead (Lynch)
20) Evil Dead (Raimi)
21) Night of the Hunter (Laughton)
22) Seconds (John Frankenheimer)
23) The Thing (Carpenter)
24) Night of the Demon (Tourneur)
25) The Invisible Man (Whale)
26) Night of the Living Dead (Romero)
27) Jekyll & Hyde (Mamoulian)
28) Repulsion (Polanski)
29) Blood & Black Lace (Bava)
30) Onibaba (Shindo)
31) Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (Fisher)
32) Dead of Night (various/Ealing Studios)
33) The Fly (Cronenberg)
34) Island of Lost Souls
35) House of The Devil (West)
36) Kwaidan
37) Vampyr (Dreyer)
38) The Old Dark House (Whale)
39) The Innkeepers (West)
40) 10 Rillington Place (Fleischer)
41) Near Dark (Bigelow)
42) Day of the Dead (Romero)
43) Psycho (Hitchcock)
44) House (1977) (Kobayashi? not sure)
45) A Chinese Ghost Story (1987 original)
45) The Exorcist (Friedkin)
46) Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me (Lynch)
47) The Devil's Rejects (Zombie)
48) The Descent (Marshall)
49) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Kaufman)
50) Jaws (Spielberg) (mainly for a couple of excellent jump scares)

[Steven H]

Time for the sad pandas.

#4 - Begotten (Edmund Elias Merhige, 1991). I guess if I had participated enough I would have included this film as my Spotlight. There isn't too much to say about it. It's black and white, gory, mostly in slow motion, and decidedly unique in its horror (and very much on the "arty" side of horror). There is no dialogue and the soundtrack consists mostly of a heartbeat and environmental sounds that don't match the action. You can watch the whole thing here. The plot description there warrants a copypaste here, I think: "God disembowels himself with a straight razor. The spirit-like Mother Earth emerges, venturing into a bleak, barren landscape. Twitching and cowering, the Son Of Earth is set upon by faceless cannibals."

#13, #21, #41 - three films by Nobuo Nakagawa, The Ceiling at Utsunomiya (1956), Snake Woman's Curse (1968), & Ghosts of Kasane Swamp (1957). Nakagawa is really my main weakness for Japanese horror films. I just love the way he puts them together. He usually gets much better performances out of his actors than other genre directors and the films are visually interesting. I prefer his B&W 50s films to his color work, and then when it comes to color I prefer Snake Woman's Curse to Jigoku (though I still quite like Jigoku). At this point I would like to say "ARGH" for forgetting to put Horrors of Malformed Men on my list, the only Ishii horror that I *really* like.

#16 - Alice (Jan Svankmajer, 1988). I probably shouldn't have even included this, as I don't really find it to be "horror" but I wanted to include Jan Svankmajer. For me, his films come as close to "stop motion horror" as you can get with their fantastical gothic style and so I shoehorned it in. I regret this decision now, especially since I could have put Horrors of Malformed Men in its place. Lesson learned: never shoehorn.

#20 - El Libro de Piedra aka The Book of Stone (Carlos Enrique Taboada, 1969). Mexican horror film that, while it does contain some stilted and awkward scenes of dialogue, I voted mostly based on the strength of sequences like this one where with the setting and fantastic score reminds me of films like Curse of the Cat People, however, in this film that was *actually* a real element of horror. Maybe now that I think about it, the score really makes this film for me (that and I really do find that statue pretty creepy so it works). I admit to some idiosyncratic placing on my list for this one.

#28 - The Amityville Horror (Stuart Rosenberg, 1979). This is the only film that scared me to death as a kid and I never revisited. It's here for purely nostalgic reasons, I suppose, but also because when I think "horror" it is genuinely the first film that comes to my mind. And of course, it ALL REALLY HAPPENED! True story.

#31 - Tales From the Gimli Hospital (Guy Maddin, 1989). This was the only orphan I was surprised didn't get another vote. Poor Guy Maddin.

#39 - Midori (Hiroshi Hanada, 1992). I'm losing steam here. I'll just link to a bizarre, gory, gory, strange clip. Enjoy.

#47 - Killer Condom (Martin Walz, 1996). Squeaky-voiced cock-eating condoms are loose and terrorizing a run-down hotel (erm *cough* "Hotel Quickie") in "New York" (obviously Germany) and only detective (erm *cough* x2) Luigi Mackeroni can stop them. I'm not really sure what to say about the film's politics. Many of the main characters are gay and there is a lot of talk of AIDS. Watch it all here. I usually don't go in for gruesome comedy splatterfests, but hey, this movie is special.

[swo17]

Great work, domino, you've outdone yourself. I assume Faust at #89 is the Murnau version?

[jiraffejustin]

Jaws would have been higher, but it somehow slipped my mind. Sorry, other Jaws fans.

[domino harvey]

Great work, domino, you've outdone yourself. I assume Faust at #89 is the Murnau version?

Yes, fixed. And sharp eyes will note a small adjustment to the final list thanks to the realization that there are two different films called "Devil Doll," a mistake entirely my own since voters gave me years and/or directors to differentiate. So now the ridic tie at the end of the list only brings the final 100 to 101

[Yojimbo]

Hopefully Price did too (not to mention Karloff and Lugosi). God if there was ever a film actor better than Price I have not seen any movies containing.

Karloff I got at #4, how could I not? But Lugosi doesn't come in until #17 and poor Price sits at #49. What can I say, I never grew up watching Price, so he doesn't have the same meaning for me as those other four. Still, wouldn't be a horror list without him, so I snuck him in at the end.

EDIT: Goddammit! I forgot Witchfinder General, too. That totally would've gone higher on my list than #49. Between this and Don't Look Now, I'm fully expecting to get your vote for Richard Cranium 2013, knives.

No Don't Look Now?????
and no Witchfinder General

and you call yourself a 'Horror' fan???

Enough, already!

[Lighthouse]

[Twin Peaks (European Theatrical Version of Pilot) -- pretty sketchy maneuver but technically allowed]

It 's a signal against injustice in the world. I have the positive feeling that now the world is already a better one than it was last year.

The one I forgot is Carnival of Souls.

And there are of course some in the Top 100 which I don't consider as Horror films, but which I like very much. Especially Se7en and The Night of the Hunter.

[Yojimbo]

Great work, Dom: especially to provide such detail so quickly

Initial thoughts: great to see my beloved 'The Black Cat' rank so highly; also 'Island of Lost Souls', another great Lugosi with which I only recently became acquainted with
But sad that his iconic 'Dracula' is conspicuous by its absence, however much it creaks.
(perhaps Tod Browning can find solace in 'Freaks' high ranking)

Interesting to see the high rankings of two films which straddle Sci-Fi/Horror fence: 'Alien' and 'The Thing', and which are often comfortably accomodated in either camp; I'd actually preferred the Cameron 'sequel'. I'm not much of a fan of Ridley Scott films, generally.
Hopefully I'll get a chance to see 'City of Pirates' soon

And I see at least two of my films sitting all alone in the 'Orphans Corner'

[Mr Sausage]

Thanks for all the hard work, Domino!

My top ten:

1. Night of the Living Dead
2. The Innocents
3. Hangover Square
4. Frankenstein (1931)
5. Lisa and the Devil
6. Tenebre
7. Cure
8. La Donna del Lago
9. The Haunting
10. The Mummy (1958)

My Orphans:

21. Nightmare (1964): Am I really the only one who loves this delirious, baroque descent into madness? It's such a visual feast, with so many creepy and unsettling moments. One of my favourite Hammers.

31. The Vampire Lovers: I suspected this would end up an orphan, but still held out a bit of hope. It's Hammer's best 70's film and full of everything they did well, plus some bonuses like a few uncharacteristically (for Hammer) beautiful and surreal moments courtesy of director Baker. And, of course, it has Ingrid Pitt. The unusual depiction of the head vampire, Mircalla Karnstein, is just interesting and suggestive enough to push this above being simply a fun, trashy romp and it lends the film a bit of real seriousness. Plus it has I think the best seduction scene in all film, done with nothing more than a look.

34. Tales that Witness Madness: I'm guessing the lack of a DVD release contributed to this being an orphan. Calvin and Hobbes fans alone ought to track this one down. It runs a beautiful tightrope walk between horror and black comedy, and offers up just enough disturbing chuckles and fascinating conceits to become my favourite horror Anthology film (and there's some stiff competition for that crown).

37. The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll: This is my favourite example outside of Horror of Dracula of the one thing Hammer did better than any other company: lead you down the familiar path for a few moments, make sure you have all the old conceits, all the old plot points in mind, get you comfortable--and then rip the rug out from under you and deposit you in completely unfamiliar territory. The more familiar you are with the Jekyll and Hyde story, the more delicious enjoyment you get out of watching the film's hard right turns, its original qualities, the way it plays around with convention. And that's without mentioning the luscious photography and the real sense of blackness at its heart.

46. House of Frankenstein: I knew this would be an orphan. I voted for it for sentimental reasons more than anything. It was my second favourite movie of all time when I was 8. There was a two week period where I watched it every day (until I finally had to return it). It's like comfort food to me now: not objectively the greatest, nor necessarily very good, but more enjoyable than most everything else. Plus it manages to do something rare for a studio programmer: elicit genuine pity and sympathy. J. Carrol Naish gives one of this genre's best performances.

48. The Black Room: Really? No one else thinks Karloff's amazing dual performance warrants a vote?

50. Human Lanterns: I think if more people had made time to watch this one it might've gotten at least one more vote. Delirious, energetic fun that alternates between grand guignol excess and surprisingly delicate beauty. My favourite of the HK films I watched for this project. You don't often see a basic genre effort like this that's so beautifully conceived and shot.

[LQ]

And I see at least two of my films sitting all alone in the 'Orphans Corner'

I've got 4, including, uh, Orphan. Fitting, I guess.

My top 10:
1. The Innocents
2. The Shining
3. Cure
4. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
5. Funny Games
6. Rosemary’s Baby
7. Inland Empire
8. Alien
9. The Silence of the Lambs
10. Don’t Look Now

I didn't see nearly as many member highlights as I had hoped to during the project, but look forward to catching up with 'em all at some point. Thanks again to dom for tabulating!

[Yojimbo]

My Top 10
1 Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
2 Night of the Living Dead (1968)
3 Don't Look Now (1973)
4 Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
5 Shining, The (1980)
6 Repulsion (1965)
7 Psycho (1960)
8 Black Cat, The (1934)
9 King Kong (1933)
10 Freaks (1932)

The two orphans that I've already spotted:

19 Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)
24 Lady Vengeance (2005)

[domino harvey]

Top 10 + Orphans
01 Single White Female (Also ORPHAN)
02 Hard Candy
03 the House of the Devil
04 Triangle
05 Anguish
06 Final Destination 3
07 the Old Dark House
08 AntiChrist
09 All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
10 Dead Alive

Amazed that 9/10 of my Top 10 was either on the proper list or the Also Rans, especially more outlying titles like Final Destination 3 (Literally gasped in a good way when I saw someone else saw the light) and All the Boys Love Mandy Lane-- plus that someone else besides myself voted for something like the Slumber Party Massacre is enough to warm even the most tired and jaded list compiler! Almost makes up for all these fucking orphans:

13 I Married a Witch
15 Matinee
16 Bad Dreams Renders the Nightmare on Elm Street films superfluous
17 the Stepfather (1987) What the hell, I thought this board loved this one? Terry O'Quinn. That's my entire defense, btw: Terry O'Quinn
18 the Crazies (2010) the only zombie film I've enjoyed, probably because it's not really a zombie film
19 Fear (1990) Another terrific small-scale thriller that missed out because I suspect no one bothered to track it down
20 Sorority Row A wonderfully subversive and legitimately feminist slasher (a rare thing, despite reclamations otherwise), I hope adventurous souls besides myself and Colin give it a shot
22 the Faculty
24 Lake Placid Fittingly back to back on the Orphans List, as they are two of the best times I had watching a flick this project
25 When a Stranger Calls Back If the first 25 minutes were a short, it would have been in my Top 5. The rest of the film is pretty good too though
27 the Brotherhood of Satan I should have pushed this one more, if for no other reason than that I think the majority of this forum would just really dig it
28 the Walking Dead (1936) Surprised no one else dug this wonderful Karloff pic, but it looks like his votes got a bit spread out
30 Lord of Illusions Much better than Hellraiser, at least!
32 Link I didn't think a movie starring a primate could be anything but awful, but this is like the best 80s kids movie for adults ever
33 Freaked I think/hope people just forgot about this, plus it's historical unavailability doesn't help
34 Tremors USA! USA! USA! Network! At 2PM! Every day growing up!
36 Frailty
38 the Uninvited (2009) Like the Crazies and Sorority Row, this one makes the case in favor of remakes
39 Trilogy of Terror
40 the Lost Boys
42 Beetlejuice
43 Dr Giggles Fuck y'all. It was between this and Man's Best Friend for the Superior Gimmick Slasher slot
45 the Prowler
46 the House on Haunted Hill (1999)
48 Creepshow
49 Home Sweet Home It's not a good film, but it is so bizarrely endearing that I couldn't resist
50 A Night to Dismember This stunning cinematic trainwreck is why No. 50 Slots were invented

And a special shoutout to the entire board for rightly delegating the tiresome yet inexplicably popular Evil Dead II far far below its superior predecessor!

[Yojimbo]

31. The Vampire Lovers: I suspected this would end up an orphan, but still held out a bit of hope. It's Hammer's best 70's film and full of everything they did well, plus some bonuses like a few uncharacteristically (for Hammer) beautiful and surreal moments courtesy of director Baker and, of course, Ingrid Pitt. The unusual depiction of the head vampire, Mircalla Karnstein, is just interesting and suggestive enough to push this above being simply a fun, trashy romp and it lends the film a bit of real seriousness. Plus it has I think the best seduction scene in all film, done with nothing more than a look.

This made my shortlist, but sadly no Hammer made my list either, although I prefer 'Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde' and 'Twins of Evil'
The only 60s British horror which made the grade, - excluding 'Repulsion', of course, - was Circus of Horrors (1960), which just squeezed in

[swo17]

48. The Black Room: Really? No one else thinks Karloff's amazing dual performance warrants a vote?

This is the next Karloff film I would have included if I had had room on my list.

[Yojimbo]

50 A Night to Dismember This stunning cinematic trainwreck is why No. 50 Slots were invented

The #50 are the films we all were desperate to find a spot for
I only saw 'Circus of Horrors' for the first time in the early 90s on tv (I think I recorded it off a Saturday matinee broadcast) but it got the nod ahead of all my favourite Hammers.
Erika Remberg may have been the standout, but the presence of Anton Diffring, Donald Pleasance, and Kenneth Griffith undoubtedly helped sway the judges

[Mr Sausage]

Hey Dom, you have Scream of Fear both in the final also-rans spot and in the orphans list (unless there's another Scream of Fear I'm not aware of).

[Yojimbo]

Great effort, dom! Could kick myself for forgetting Black Christmas (74) and Peeping Tom, both of which I consider better than Psycho and it's the only one of the three I remembered to put on my list! Had I remembered either of the two, one of them would have taken Psycho's spot instead. Glad to see my Number 1 spot, Cure, in 27th. PS.: Another omission is Deep Red which is not my fave Argento (second only to Bird) but it's scarier than Bird so Deep Red would have been my Argento choice on the list.

Nice list, Finchy.
I didn't have time to refresh my memory about 'Bird', so I had to omit it
Glad to see you found space for 'Near Dark'.

The Invisible Man (Whale) and Seconds (John Frankenheimer) were two other Sci-Fi straddlers that I wrestled with including, but in the end had to drop
(I think Cronenberg's entries being 'gorier' helped justify their inclusion for me)

I've still only seen 'Cronos' of Del Toro's films: I was enjoying listening to (part of ) his 'Vampyr' commentary after watching the film: the fact that he also had instantly spotted the 'Witness' steal gives him 'brownie points'

[knives]

46. House of Frankenstein: I knew this would be an orphan. I voted for it for sentimental reasons more than anything. It was my second favourite movie of all time when I was 8. There was a two week period where I watched it every day (until I finally had to return it). It's like comfort food to me now: not objectively the greatest, nor necessarily very good, but more enjoyable than most everything else. Plus it manages to do something rare for a studio programmer: elicit genuine pity and sympathy. J. Carrol Naish gives one of this genre's best performances.

I swear to god it would have made my list for pretty much the same reasons if I thought it wouldn't be an orphan. As to my own list here's the top ten.

1Bride of Frankenstein (Whale)
2The Night of the Hunter
3Shanks (Castle) (also orphan)
4The Tenant (Polanski)
5Martin (Romero)
6Ganja and Hess (Gunn)
7Bedlam (Robson)
8Bug (Friedkin)
9Vampyr
10This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (also orphan)

As to my dear poor orphans.
The Flesh and the Fiends: I'll mostly assume this got dissed for being in PD hell, but this take on Burke and Hare is one of the creepiest films ever with a Pleasence performance that is entirely grease that manages an equally horrifying philosophical side with Cushing.

Incubus:No one seriously wanted to see Capt. Kirk speak esperanto? This Bergman inspired treat is worth the list if just for the cinematography.

The Colossus of New York: Don't be turned off by the silly title and initial presentation this glorious reworking of the Golem story by way of electronic Frankenstein is genuinely heartbreaking.

Morgiana:I would have thought the Second Run disc would have more people running to this, but alas not. More camera for then.

The Reflecting Skin: I've talked this one enough, but really? Nothing? I'll get one of these demented coming of age films voted for one of these days.

Woman in the Dunes:The scariest film that the collection this forum is named after can't ever get a vote.

Eating Raoul: Hopefully this at least makes the (black) comedy list. That is the only reason I can conceive for this piece of genius not making the cut let alone orphaned.

[jiraffejustin]

My top ten

1. The Exorcist
2. The Shining
3. Psycho
4. Suspiria
5. The Fly (1986)
6. Black Swan
7. The Blair Witch Project
8. Blind Beast
9. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
10. Re-Animator

Orphans

8. Blind Beast
9. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
23. Excision
38. Tucker and Dale vs Evil
46. The House of the Devil (1896)
47. The 'Burbs
48. Gremlins
50. Cube

[Matt]

I thought my list would be very conventional, even though I shunned all zombie and slasher films (save a giallo or two). I like my horror Gothic, classy, and big-budget, generally. So...

My top ten:

The Innocents (Clayton, 1961)
The Haunting (Wise, 1961)
Lisa and the Devil (Bava, 1974)
Suspiria (Argento, 1977)
Don't Look Now (Roeg, 1973)
The Tomb of Ligeia (Corman, 1964)
Black Narcissus (Powell & Pressburger, 1947) ORPHAN
Pulse (Kurosawa, 2001)
Inland Empire (Lynch, 2006)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (Weir, 1975)

I supposed I am not surprised to find Black Narcissus an orphan. I probably should have made a case for it in the thread, even though I thought it had been agreed upon elsewhere on the forum that it's basically a haunted house/possession film.

Other orphans:

Mulholland Dr and The Curse of Frankenstein - you're kidding me right? Despite domino's usual fastidiousness, I'd sooner believe a tallying error than believe no one else voted for these, especially considering the appearance of other Lynch and Fisher films on the list.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Robertson, 1920) - not surprised by this one. Most people like the 1931 Mamoulian version best, and it is pretty good. This version with John Barrymore is actually not very good as a film, but I find Barrymore's take on and performance of Hyde to be terrifying, real nightmare stuff.

Curse of the Crying Woman [La Maldición de la Llorona] and The Man and the Monster [El Hombre y el monstruo] - two fine Mexican Gothic horror films by Rafael Baledón. I've been banging the gong about these for years. Go read my reviews on notcoming.com.

Fall of the House of Usher (Corman, 1960) - other Corman Poe films made the list, so I'm okay with this one not making it since it was third of three on my own list.

Demon Seed - I'm used to being alone in liking this. Maybe it doesn't quite fulfill its ambition, but I find it very effective.

The Last Wave - I should have made a case for this, a unique Australian take on Gothic horror. Probably one of the most underrated and under-seen films in the Criterion Collection.

Otherwise a very solid list. I'm pleased to have been a part of it, even though I didn't participate in much discussion.

[domino harvey]

Hey Dom, you have Scream of Fear both in the final also-rans spot and in the orphans list (unless there's another Scream of Fear I'm not aware of).

My fault, fixed and rescued from the Orphans

[Yojimbo]

I supposed I am not surprised to find Black Narcissus an orphan. I probably should have made a case for it in the thread, even though I thought it had been agreed upon elsewhere on the forum that it's basically a haunted house/possession film.

I was seriously considering Black Narcissus ; also The Last Wave and Demon Seed
I think they just got lost in the last minute rush but I'm very happy with the balance of my list.

I only have two Mexican horror films in my collection: both French-subbed.
I'd certainly like to see more but not speaking Spanish doesn't help matters

[domino harvey]

Eating Raoul: Hopefully this at least makes the (black) comedy list. That is the only reason I can conceive for this piece of genius not making the cut let alone orphaned.

My love of Paul Bartel and this film in particular is no secret, but it's just not a horror film to my eyes. Now, if we ever have a Comedy List, it'd surely make mine

[Matt]

I only have two Mexican horror films in my collection: both French-subbed. I'd certainly like to see more but not speaking Spanish doesn't help matters

They're getting a little scarce and pricy now, but both Baledón films (and several other worthy films) were released in English-friendly editions in the US by CasaNegra. They were in business, I think, less than a year (2006).

[domino harvey]

Oh, and in case anyone was still curious, my clues earlier in the thread were for Don't Look Now (Nashville) and Alien (Wrong genre), which were Numbers One and Two up until yesterday