Horror Hype Blog, Zombies, Slashers, Monsters, Vampires, Werewolves, Lovecraft, Etc.

The following films received eight votes each!

121. Child's Play -- 1988, Tom Holland

120. Dead Alive (aka Braindead) -- 1992, Peter Jackson

119. Freaks -- 1932, Tod Browning

118. House on Haunted Hill -- 1959, William Castle

117. Interview with the Vampire -- 1994, Neil Jordan

116. Lake Mungo -- 2008, Joel Anderson

115. Mulholland Dr. -- 2001, David Lynch

114. My Bloody Valentine -- 1981, George Mihalka

113. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge -- 1985, Jack Sholder

112. Peeping Tom -- 1960, Michael Powell

111. Phenomena -- 1985, Dario Argento

110. Silver Bullet -- 1985, Daniel Attias

109. The Blackcoat's Daughter (aka February) -- 2015, Oz Perkins

108. The Craft -- 1996, Andrew Fleming

107. The Lords of Salem -- 2012, Rob Zombie

106. The Strangers -- 2008, Bryan Bertino

Each of the following films received nine votes!

105. A Tale of Two Sisters -- 2003, Jee-woon Kim

104. Black Swan -- 2010, Darren Aronofsky

103. Day of the Dead -- 1985, George A. Romero

102. Friday the 13th Part III -- 1982, Steve Miner

101. Paranormal Activity -- 2007, Oren Peli

100. Pontypool -- 2008, Bruce McDonald

  99. Ravenous -- 1999, Antonia Bird

  98. Re-Animator -- 1985, Stuart Gordon

  97. The Devil's Backbone -- 2001, Guillermo del Toro

  96. The Invitation -- 2015, Karyn Kusama

  95. The Wailing -- 2016, Hong-jin Na

  94. Videodrome -- 1983, David Cronenberg

Author Mats Strandberg has been called "the Swedish Stephen King" and while that is certainly a compliment, maybe Stephen King is the American Mats Strandberg, huh? Did you ever think about that? You should! But I get it: Mats's stuff is character driven and scary. But unlike Stephen King, Mats populates his work with characters that aren't so...I don't know, homogenous. Look! Comparisons aren't entirely useful. But if you give Mats's Blood Cruise a whirl--it's out in the US today!!--then you'll see what I mean. It's 'vampires on a booze cruise,' it's scary, it's gory, and it's a lot of fun (I really, really need Blood Cruise to be a mini-series, thanks), and I love that his characters that might be considered disposable in other works are really given a time to shine. I can't recommend the book enough, so I won't try! You lucky Europeans have access to more of his work (including The Home, which is out now in the UK)...have fun reading it while waiting for your free healthcare, you savages!

PET SEMATARY (1989, Mary Lambert)

How do I love these mothervolking witches? Let me count the ways. Or actually, I don't have to. The Gaylords of Darkness and this very blog have already done it way better than I ever could. I did try though, in the Suspiria fanzine that Stacie masterminded. (FG note: zine coming next month, woo! I will update with info when available!)

This is one of those movies that I keep coming back to, over and over. It is by no means perfect, but the imperfections are part of its magic. It always feels like I just have to watch it one more time, and then I'll somehow be able to unearth the perfect horror movie hidden just beneath the surface. (By the way: I feel the exact same way about another Sam Neill vehicle; Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness from 1994.)

This dark fairytale is of the most visually stunning movies ever made.
So in about a week, the future of the entire planet is decided in a rigged US election. No biggie, right? There couldn't be a better October to watch this movie.

Speaking of November 2020; I am so, so happy that this movie exists.

This scratches the same itch as Death Becomes Her (1992) and Addams Family Values (1993) for me; horror-adjacent, family-friendly comedies with very queer undertones. Blithe Spirit is based on a play by Noël Coward, so you know there's going to be campy fun, amazing ladies (both dead and alive) and one-liners galore.

My favourite incarnation of Laurie Strode. I think I might love this movie even more than the original Halloween. Yeah, I said it. *ducks for cover*

I will never forgive Stacie and Anthony for the fact that this wasn't part of The Three-ening.

A newlywed woman discovers that her husband sneaks out at night to meet up with other dudes in the park. Turns out he belongs to an alien species who secretly breed with Earth women. One of my favourite gay-panic movies from the lavender scare era. It's really hilarious or really depressing, depending on how you look at it.

These movies will always be part of my horror DNA. I will always enjoy them. I tell you what is scary though: going down the rabbit hole of erotic fanfiction about Jason Voorhees.

By far the best set of queens in any of the major franchise movies. I love all the characters so much.

Yes, Ripley is a queen. That goes without saying. But all the characters are amazing. This movie was a huge inspiration for my book Blood Cruise. On the Baltic Sea, no one can hear you scream either. A cruise ship and a space ship are both isolated settings that you can’t escape from, surrounded by a cold darkness that would kill you if you fell overboard. But my biggest inspiration was the way this movie depicted the crew: tired, unglamorous, human. They never asked to be heroes, but they stepped up when the blood hit the fan.

I have such a sweet spot for this campy franchise. It seems severely underrated in the horror community, but it's ridiculously entertaining with all the deliciously gory slapstick killings. Also: Ali Larter. Also also: The idea of having Death itself as the boogeyman is beyond brilliant. The franchise (created by our fellow gay, Jeffrey Reddick) has its ups and downs, for sure, but number 5 ties it all together beautifully.

I wouldst like to live deliciously too, please. (By the way, have you seen Daniel Malik who does the voice of Black Phillip? Delicious indeed.)

My favourite giallo movie and definitely the gayest.

Honestly, it was a toss-up between this one, The Haunting (1963) and The Others (2001). I chose this one simply because it came first, and because it was written by Truman Capote.

Wait, I'm at the end of the list already and I haven't even mentioned a found footage movie? Even though it's one of my favourite subgenres? Ok. (deep breath in) I promised myself not to overthink this list. I would simply choose the movies that first came to mind. (deep breath out) I could have gone with As Above, So Below (2014) or The Banshee Chapter (2013), or Paranormal Activity 3 (2011), the standout gem of the franchise. But I'll go with this mockumentary, which to me is much scarier than the movie it was made to promote.

OH DANG, spoiler, sorry. Although...you had to expect it, right? The wordplay of the title alone is enough to earn it top spot. They could have called it Amityville: It's About a Clock, because it is, but It's About Time is so much classier and it also really makes u think. 

Well, I guess we should all try to maintain some excitement as we barrel through these last 150 movies. After all, it's the journey, not the destination, you guys. Final Girl: really makin' u think, as always.

Each of the following films received six votes!

150. Raw (aka Grave) -- 2016, Julia Ducournau

149. Shaun of the Dead -- 2004, Edgar Wright

148. Slither -- 2006, James Gunn

147. Society -- 1989, Brian Yuzna

146. The Funhouse -- 1981, Tobe Hooper

145. The Host -- 2006, Bong Joon Ho

144. The Hunger -- 1983, Tony Scott

143. The Night of the Hunter -- 1955, Charles Laughton

The following films received seven votes each!

142. Dawn of the Dead -- 2004, Zack Snyder

141. Friday the 13th Part 2 -- 1981, Steve Miner

140. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter -- 1984, Joseph Zito

139. Ghostwatch -- 1992, Lesley Manning

138. Gremlins -- 1984, Joe Dante

137. The House on Sorority Row -- 1982, Mark Rosman

136. Ju-on: The Grudge -- 2002, Takashi Shimizu

135. Messiah of Evil -- 1973, Willard Huyck & Gloria Katz

134. Mother! -- 2017, Darren Aronofsky

133. Repulsion -- 1965, Roman Polanski

132. Sleepy Hollow -- 1999, Tim Burton

131. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 -- 1986, Tobe Hooper

130. The Blob -- 1988, Chuck Russell

129. The Faculty -- 1998, Robert Rodriguez

128. The Howling -- 1981, Joe Dante

127. The Lighthouse -- 2019, Robert Eggers

126. The Love Witch -- 2016, Anna Biller

125. The Orphanage (aka El orfanato) -- 2007, J.A. Bayona

124. The Perfection -- 2018, Richard Shepard

123. Tucker and Dale vs Evil -- 2010, Eli Craig

122. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? -- 1962, Robert Aldrich

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Each of the following films received five votes!

182. Killer Klowns from Outer Space -- 1988, Stephen Chiodo

181. Knife + Heart -- 2018, Yann Gonzalez

180. Pumpkinhead -- 1988, Stan Winston

179. Salem's Lot -- 1979, Tobe Hooper

178. Silent Hill -- 2006, Christophe Gans

177. StageFright -- 1987, Michele Soavi

176. The Mist -- 2007, Frank Darabont

175. The Omen -- 1976, Richard Donner

174. The People Under the Stairs -- 1991, Wes Craven

173. The Stuff -- 1985, Larry Cohen

172. Theater of Blood -- 1973, Douglas Hickox

171. Tremors -- 1990, Ron Underwood

170. Under the Skin -- 2013, Jonathan Glazer

The following films received six votes each!

169. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night -- 2014, Ana Lily Amirpour

168. Bride of Chucky -- 1998, Ronny Yu

167. Burnt Offerings -- 1976, Dan Curtis

166. Children of the Corn -- 1984, Fritz Kiersch

165. Chopping Mall -- 1986, Jim Wynorski

164. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives -- 1986, Tom McLoughlin

163. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me -- 1992, David Lynch

162. From Beyond -- 1986, Stuart Gordon

161. Halloween II -- 1981, Rick Rosenthal

160. Happy Birthday to Me -- 1981, J. Lee Thompson

159. House of Wax -- 2005, Jaume Collet-Serra

158. May -- 2002, Lucky McKee

157. Night of the Comet -- 1984, Thom Eberhardt

156. Night of the Creeps -- 1986, Fred Dekker

155. Night of the Demon (aka Curse of the Demon) -- 1957, Jacques Tourneur

154. Noroi: The Curse -- 2005, Kôji Shiraishi

153. Nosferatu the Vampyre -- 1979, Werner Herzog

152. One Cut of the Dead -- 2017, Shin'ichirô Ueda

151. Pet Sematary -- 1989, Mary Lambert

Each of the following films received four votes:

212. Slumber Party Massacre II -- 1987, Deborah Brock

211. Spider Baby -- 1967, Jack Hill

210. Starry Eyes -- 2014, Kevin Kölsch & Dennis Widmyer

209. Tales from the Hood -- 1995, Rusty Cundieff

208. Tenebrae -- 1982, Dario Argento

207. The Abominable Dr Phibes -- 1971, Robert Fruest

206. The Bad Seed -- 1956, Mervyn LeRoy

205. The Burning -- 1981, Tony Maylam

204. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari -- 1920, Robert Wiene

203. The Gate -- 1987, Tibor Takács

202. The Hills Have Eyes -- 1977, Wes Craven

201. The Invisible Man -- 2020, Leigh Whannell

200. The Ritual -- 2017, David Bruckner

199. The Sentinel -- 1977, Michael Winner

198. The Taking of Deborah Logan -- 2014, Adam Robitel

197. The Uninvited -- 1944, Lewis Allen

196. The Vanishing (aka Spoorloos) -- 1988, George Sluizer

195. Tourist Trap -- 1979, David Schmoeller

194. What We Do in the Shadows -- 2014, Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi

The following films received five votes each:

193. Alice, Sweet Alice -- 1976, Alfred Sole

192. Annihilation -- 2018, Alex Garland

191. Dark Water -- 2002, Hideo Nakata

190. Daughters of Darkness -- 1971, Harry Kümel

189. Final Destination -- 2000, James Wong

188. Happy Death Day -- 2017, Christopher Landon

187. Hell House LLC -- 2015, Stephen Cognetti

186. In the Mouth of Madness -- 1995, John Carpenter

185. Inside (aka À l'intérieur) -- 2007, Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury

184. It -- 1990, Tommy Lee Wallace

183. It -- 2017,  Andy Muschetti

Anyway, each of the following films received four votes. 

244. All Cheerleaders Die -- 2013, Lucky McKee & Chris Sivertson

243. American Mary -- 2012, Jen Soska & Sylvia Soska

242. American Psycho -- 2000, Mary Harron

241. Army of Darkness -- 1992, Sam Raimi

240. Battle Royale -- 2000, Kinji Fukasaku

239. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon -- 2006, Scott Glosserman

238. Black Sunday -- 1960, Mario Bava

237. Brain Damage -- 1988, Frank Henenlotter

236. Climax -- 2018, Gaspar Noé

235. Creature from the Black Lagoon -- 1954, Jack Arnold

234. Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight -- 1995, Ernest R. Dickerson

233. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark -- 1988, James Signorelli

232. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood -- 1988, John Carl Buechler

231. Frankenstein -- 1931, James Whale

230. Funny Games -- 1997, Michael Haneke

229. Grabbers -- 2012, Jon Wright

228. Grave Encounters -- 2011, Colin Minihan & Stuart Ortiz

227. Hellbound: Hellraiser II -- 1988, Tony Randel

226. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer -- 1986, John McNaughton

225. I Know What You Did Last Summer -- 1997, Jim Gillespie

224. I Walked with a Zombie -- 1943, Jacques Tourneur

223. Jacob's Ladder -- 1990, Adrian Lyne

222. Just Before Dawn -- 1981, Jeff Lieberman

221. Krampus -- 2015, Michael Dougherty

220. The Lair of the White Worm -- 1988, Ken Russell

219. Martin -- 1977, George A. Romero

218. Misery -- 1990, Rob Reiner

217. Nightbreed -- 1990, Clive Barker

216. Onibaba -- 1964, Kaneto Shindô

215. Orphan -- 2009, Jaume Collet-Serra

214. Scanners -- 1981, David Cronenberg

213. Scream 2 -- 1997, Wes Craven

I don't know what's with all the alliteration today, sorry. Maybe I'm subconsciously trying to manifest a gig writing headlines for The New York Post?

THE BEYOND (1981, Lucio Fulci)

It's a gothic nightmare that has no problem leaving us blindly standing alone in the road, lost in the depths of despair while one of horror cinema's best scores pounds in the background. Hell may be an endless void, but they really do have the much better band.

If this movie were an intentional slasher parody, it would have been brilliant. As it stands, it's just brilliantly inept. Line readings are sub-dinner theater level, dead extras forget to hold their breath and the killer cracks punny one liners that would make a third rate Borscht Belt comedian cry. Massacres are perpetuated with the titular nail gun at a brisk pace, damn the plot threads left to dangle in the Texas breeze. 
The mid to late 90s boom of meta horror started out as a breath of fresh air, but soon devolved into a dull, interminable game of "Are You Smarter Than A Slasher?" Released at the tail end of that trend cycle, Shadow Of The Vampire instead wraps its meta-narrative around the filming of 1922's silent classic Nosferatu. Rather than a joking poke at genre tropes, the film revises history to offer a terrifying explanation of what may have made the silent classic so damn scary. 
One of the first films rated X primarily for violence, David Durston's exploitation classic is a first-rate example of the wild world of grindhouse era, fly by night filmmaking. A faux-Manson Family of Satan-worshipping grifters terrorizes a tiny town in a spectacularly bloody fashion. Watching the last few townsfolk battle the frothing undead, we learn some valuable lessons about both rabies and LSD along the way. In all of the franchises that dominated the 80s horror box office, Clive Barker's Hellraiser was a welcome dose of Euro weirdness that gave gooey practical effects a highly stylized S&M groove that has been rarely matched before or since. 
Potter's Bluff is one of the greatest of horror's many small towns with a secret. Shrouded in seaside fog and as subtly unsettling as holes to a trypophobic, when the idyll becomes something far more grisly, it's almost a relief. As the body count rises, it’s very clear Sheriff Gillis isn't crazy and neither are we.
Speaking of seaside shockers, Messiah Of Evil is a moody chiller that transcends its myriad of production problems to become something far more unsettling than it otherwise might have been. A young woman goes searching for her father in a coastal California town, and runs afoul of a cult of ghouls that sit at an odd juncture between vampires and zombies, obsessed with moonlit bonfires and the consumption of raw flesh.
Outcasts and the creation of chosen families is a thematic throughline that genre cinema loves to come back to, but few films are more effective than Freaks at illustrating how tightly wound the ties that bind can be. Tod Browning's otherwise promising directorial career was ground to a standstill with this verbose melodrama and its cast of sideshow and circus performers. The open display of so called "oddities" and a sympathetic portrayal of their lives was considered obscene at the time.
In the massive glut of SOV content, Scooter McCrae's Shatter Dead deserves a reappraisal and rediscovery for its impressively empty post-apocalyptic world (made more so by the fact that the cleared streets were accomplished without the luxury of permits), and a conceptual ambition more in line with foreign art films than video store trash.
The Psychopath is a prime slice of grindhouse golden age weirdness that hasn’t seen home video release since the heyday of VHS. Tom Basham puts in a disquieting performance as Mr. Rabbey, a stunted manchild who also hosts an inexplicably popular local children’s television program. When some of his favorite fans and park playtime pals are abused by their parents, Mr. Rabbey takes the law into his own hands, assuming they aren’t otherwise occupied by his selection of creepy ass puppets.
Carnival Of Souls separates itself from the herd of low budget indie films in that it takes the opposite approach than most of the B cinema of its era. Rather than tossing its characters into a flashy parade of blood, beasts and bad taste, it surrounds its supernatural trappings with the distinctly ordinary patterns of small town life. Mary Henry is just trying to get settled in a new job, and a new city, not succeeding particularly well at either one.
Of all of the riffs on 50s creature features like The Blob and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, Larry Cohen's The Stuff livens up his monster kid nostalgia with razor sharp satire of 80s consumerism and a host of lived-in, delightfully quirky performances.
Originally funded as an attempt to cash in on the success of Blacula, writer/director Bill Gunn instead used the loose framework of a vampire narrative to deliver a richly layered thematic kaleidoscope of the effects of addiction, assimilation, and religion on Black experience in America. The visuals are framed oddly, sometimes obscured, and Sam Waymon’s gorgeous musical history lesson of a score is often just as key to conveying plot elements as the spoken dialog. Ganja & Hess has far more in common with the arthouse explorations of the 70s “New Hollywood” period than exploitation flicks.
A hyper-realistic low budget film loosely based on the life of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer is a horror film in the most literal possible sense. There is no catharsis here, no comforting explanation of the how and the why of its protagonists’ ruthlessly efficient violence. Director John McNaughton and co-writer Richard Fire have very little interest in diagnosis or explanation, just a grey, grimy tour through a few days in the lives of men incapable of human empathy.
All roads in the journey to the center of the bad taste world of extreme exploitation and horror cinema eventually make at least one stop amongst the 80’s Italian cannibal trendlet. The cannibal films take the exoticizing, cynical snicker of the Mondo subgenre to its logical, fully fictional extreme. Hiding behind a thin veneer of ethnography and supposed larger points about the nature of civilization, the cannibal flicks had a perfect cover of plausible deniability for a plethora of blood, boobs, and completely unnecessary animal cruelty.
This manic 70s gem is one of the treasures lying buried in the trash heap of those 50 movie public domain DVD box sets. Matthew is a strange young man with a hook for a hand and the mother of all Oedipus complexes. He was sent away after murdering his dad with a tractor and mangling his own hand in the process. Years in a mental institution have done nothing to cure any of his issues, other than allowing his long-suffering mother to forget who he is.
Fritz Lang is better known to modern audiences for his sci fi masterpiece Metropolis, but while 1931’s M is less flashily stylized, it is both importantly directional (as one of the earliest extant examples of a police procedural) and quietly terrifying. A serial killer of children is on the prowl in Berlin, and when the police have no success locating the murderer, even the criminal underground joins the manhunt.
Baba Yaga is a loose adaptation of a story arc from Guido Crepax’s Valentina, a long-running Italian series of erotic comics. What plot there is involves a battle of wills between Valentina, a mod and modern fashion photographer, and the titular ancient witch, who is enthralled with Valentina after a chance late night run-in. 
One of the first stone cold, blood curdling classics of early silent horror cinema, Nosferatu’s genius lies not in its highly questionable, slightly clunky adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel, but in the visual vocabulary of creeping dread that it essentially invented. Lacking the technology or the inclination for the visceral and gratuitous, Nosferatu’s terror lies in the light exposing the outlines of the shadows and the things that lurk there. Max Schreck’s masterful performance as Count Orlok has none of the suavity of the later cinematic adaptations, but is something closer to death, at home in desiccation and decay. What thrall he wields is not a seduction, but the predatory instincts of a carrion creature, the not quite dead sapping the lifeblood from the living.
As a born and bred New Yorker, I have an eternal soft spot for films in which New York itself may as well be a billed character. Frank Henenlotter is another of my hometown’s indie eccentrics, and Basket Case is a seven layer dip love letter to grit, grime, and the Deuce, with all of the trash cinema delights it once had to offer.

271. Something Wicked This Way Comes -- 1983, Jack Clayton

270. Son of Frankenstein -- 1939, Rowland V. Lee

269. Sorority Row -- 2009, Stewart Hendler

268. Sugar Hill -- 1974, Paul Maslansky

267. Suicide Club -- 2001, Sion Soto

266. Teeth -- 2007, Mitchell Lichtenstein

265. The Babysitter -- 2017, McG

264. The Children -- 2008, Tom Shankland

263. The Loved Ones -- 2009, Sean Byrne

262. The Lure -- 2015, Agnieszka Smocszynska

261. The Midnight Hour -- 1985, Jack Bender

260. The Neon Demon -- 2016, Nicolas Winding Refn

259. The Old Dark House -- 1932, James Whale

258. The Stepford Wives -- 1975, Bryan Forbes

257. The Witches -- 1990, Nicolas Roeg

256. The Woman in Black -- 1989, Herbert Wise

255. Thelma -- 2017, Joachim Trier

254. Triangle -- 2009, Christopher Smith

253. Trilogy of Terror -- 1975, Dan Curtis

252. Urban Legend -- 1998, Jamie Blanks

251. Uzumaki (aka Spiral) -- 2000, Higuchinsky

250. Viy -- 1967, Konstantin Ershov & Georgiy Kropachyov

249. We Are Still Here -- 2015, Ted Geoghegan

248. Wes Craven's New Nightmare -- 1994, Wes Craven

247. When Animals Dream -- 2014, Jonas Alexander Arnby

246. Witchboard -- 1986, Kevin Tenney

245. Wolfen -- 1981, Michael Wadleigh

Jason also puts his movie knowledge to incredible use in his work as an artist. Horror folks around Portland OR are familiar with Jason's work from gallery shows and the like, in particular his work as the resident artist for the Queer Horror series at the Hollywood Theatre.  I love that so much of his work centers the oft-overlooked women in horror films, the sidekicks and the weirdos, including some of the queens he mentions in his list. And he draws cats both spooky and cute and plenty of horror hunks too, ok my. Here's his website. Spend some time giving your eyeballs some treats!

And spend some time with Jason's favorite 20 horror films! I knew there would be some off-the-beaten-path entries and it doesn't disappoint.

NIGHT OF THE DEMONS (1988, Kevin Tenney)

It's Judy's turn to cry... for help!

DEMONS (1985, Lamberto Bava)

Perfect movie, perfect cast, but the real question is... how did the usherette get the job? What was the application process like? Who trained her? Does she have a comprehensive benefit package?

DEMONS 2 (1986, Lamberto Bava)

When Sally is the life of the party, it means the party is going to be the death of everyone else!

KILLER PARTY (1986, William Fruet)

SPOOKIES (1986, Genie Joseph, Thomas Doran, & Brendan Faulkner)

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CLASS REUNION (1982, Michael Miller)

EKO EKO AZARAK: WIZARD OF DARKNESS (1995, Shimako Sato)

IT FOLLOWS (2014, David Robert Mitchell)

STAGEFRIGHT (1987, Michele Soavi)

CHEERLEADER CAMP (1988, John Quinn)

I SAW THE DEVIL (2010, Jee-woon Kim)

HONEYMOON (2014, Leigh Janiak)

THE BONEYARD (1991, James Cummins)

THE MIDNIGHT HOUR (1985, Jack Bender)

THE TALL MAN (2012, Pascal Laugier)

PUMPKINHEAD (1988, Stan Winston)

TRIANGLE (2009, Christopher Smith)

THE KISS (1988, Pen Densham)

MESSIAH OF EVIL (1973, Willard Huyck & Gloria Katz)

JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY (1993, Adam Marcus)

303. Eyes of Laura Mars -- 1978, Irvin Kershner

302. From Dusk Till Dawn -- 1996, Robert Rodriguez

301. Ghoulies -- 1984, Luca Bercovici

300. Halloween H20 -- 1998, Steve Miner

299. House of 1000 Corpses -- 2003, Rob Zombie

298. House on Haunted Hill -- 1999, William Malone

297. In Fabric -- 2018, Peter Strickland

296. Inferno -- 1980, Dario Argento

295. Insidious -- 2010, James Wan

294. Intruder -- 1989, Scott Spiegel

293. Jeepers Creepers -- 2001, xx

292. Killer Workout (aka Aerobicide) -- 1987, David A. Prior

291. Kwaidan -- 1964, Masaki Kobayashi

290. Let Us Prey -- 2014, Brian O'Malley

289. Lifeforce -- 1985, Tobe Hooper

288. Lost Highway -- 1997, David Lynch

287. Mandy -- 2018, Panos Cosmatos

286. Maniac -- 1980, William Lustig

285. Maniac Cop -- 1988, William Lustig

284. Opera -- 1987, Dario Argento

283. Ouija: Origin of Evil -- 2016, Mike Flanagan

282. Pan's Labyrinth -- 2006, Guillermo del Toro

281. Perfect Blue -- 1997, Satoshi Kon

280. Piranha -- 1978, Joe Dante

279. Piranha 3D -- 2010, Alexandre Aja

278. Pulse (aka Kairo) -- 2001, Kiyoshi Kurosawa

277. Pyewacket -- 2017, Adam MacDonald

276. Return of the Living Dead III -- 1993, Brian Yuzna

275. Seed of Chucky -- 2004, Don Mancini

274. Silent Scream -- 1979, Denny Harris

273. Sisters -- 1972, Brian De Palma

272. The Phantom of the Opera -- 1925, Rupert Julian

There was only one spot, really, I was focused on. I spent a great deal of time ruminating on many films as they wrassled for the incredible privilege of being called one of my favorites. I'm sure you all know the pain of making many a Sophie's choice! But it finally all settled into place like a good cheek filler and this list is the most me it can possibly be. Here we go, in no particular order!

THE HAUNTING (1963, Robert Wise)

MESSIAH OF EVIL (1973, Willard Huyck & Gloria Katz)

"They're waiting for you...and they'll take you, one by one. And no one will hear you scream!" God DAMN do I love Messiah of Evil. It's possible that it caught my eye during a SHOCKtober past--whenever it was, it was definitely here when a kindly commenter recommended it. As we all know, I love a town with a secret, and Messiah's Point Dune is a town by the seaside and under a blood red moon with a cult of the undead secret. Is it any wonder I fell in love so hard? I've never seen another film capture the idea of the uncanny so well. In the beginning voiceover (very reminiscent of another love, Let's Scare Jessica to Death), our heroine tells us that Point Dune "doesn't look any different than a thousand other neon stucco towns," and it's true. From the bright lights and overwhelming walls of products at an empty grocery store to the televisions displayed in storefront windows to the marquee of the local movie theatre, Point Dune looks like Average Small Town, USA. But it feels wrong. It's too quiet, for one thing. The streets are always empty. If the townsfolk aren't acting strange--standing silently on the beach staring out to the sea, or silently looking to the sky--then they're afraid of those who are. Every instance of comfortable, familiar Americana dissolves when the horrors awaiting in that grocery store and on those streets and at that beach and in that theatre are revealed.

And they're revealed after sequences of long buildup, where the tension ratchets up as, say, Laura walks down the grocery store aisles or the seats behind Toni at the theatre slowly fill up . Messiah of Evil is a masterful example of using mood and atmosphere to the utmost, and it's a gorgeous rumination on the creative process to boot, full of art, striking cinematography and colorful production design. I will never not recommend this film! The Code Red physical media editions are out of print and pricy, but there's a handsome transfer on YouTube, of all places. Check it out.

THE DESCENT (2005, Neil Marshall)

It's always heartbreaking when that photo I've just posted appears onscreen after all is said and done and those six women are gone, killed by horrors they never could have predicted. Who knew that monsters from our nightmares are real, and that being trapped by a cave-in wouldn't end up the worst part of their day? There's no doubt that Neil Marshall made a bonafide genre classic: the sense of claustrophobia is palpable. It's got lots of cringe-worthy violence and gore in times of pure action and relative quiet. The creature design is some of the best. But what keeps this movie feeling fresh and vital to me are those six women and the relationships between them. Marshall gives us plenty of time to get to know them and the cast chemistry makes this one of horror's greatest ensembles, which only heightens the tragedy of it all. They display remarkable resolve and courage in the face of indescribable terror and there are small, human moments that take these characters beyond the usual stock archetypes we get in these kinds of movies: I think of Sam, the future surgeon, giving a last tentative glance at her hands before she ruins them in her desperation to survive. I think of the deep friendship between Sarah and Beth brought to an end neither of them should have had to face. I think of sisters Sam and Becca protecting each other and encouraging each other to push on. There is such relief in gulping in that fresh air alongside Sarah when we think she's found a way out, but ultimately the UK ending feels right to me--not just because the US version ends on a dumb jump scare, but because of that bittersweet photo.

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999, Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez)

Of course, of course. This movie was (and continues to be) an experience and I cannot overstate how much I love it. It made me the found footage apologist / aficionado I am today. It still scares me beyond belief. Although it is not set in New England, it taps into my homegrown love of witches and witches' graves and urban legends and the woods and all the horrors waiting within. I feel this movie. 

It's also interesting to dissect the politics in this film, the way the two men berate and undermine Heather almost from the jump, their gaslighting and disdain so palpable and obvious that a silly fan theory has evolved, which is that they lured her out there to the woods to kill her. It's ridiculous, of course, but it does speak to the fine whiff of misogyny that seeps in from time to time in the film and in the fandom. No, they say, this isn't a film about a woman who just fucking wants to make a movie and ends up mired in a supernatural situation beyond her control, it's actually a movie about these two men. They are driving the narrative! Meanwhile, Heather cops the blame for a situation wherein she did absolutely nothing wrong and still goes on to frame one of the most iconic shots in horror film history. Justice 4 Heather Donahue, Heather Donahue 4ever.

FRIDAY THE 13th PART 2 (1981, Steve Miner)...no wait, FRIDAY THE 13th PART III (1982, Steve Miner)...PART 2? PART III...PART III? PART 2

I have long maintained that Part 2's Baghead Jason is best Jason, and while that is still true, my love for Part III cannot be denied. It cannot be denied so much that there is constantly a war for my affections waging between these two movies! Ultimately I couldn't decide...or maybe I decided that I want both. Part 2 is full of iconic moments and characters, from the machete in Mark's head to Mrs. Voorhees's beef jerky head to Ginny fucking goddamn Field...but I ask, does Part III not also have more than its share? The spear in Vera's eye (RIP, queen), Jason putting on that hockey mask but sometimes giving us a peek at what's underneath it, and BIG DUH, horror's most underrated, underappreciated, and overlooked BOSS of a Final Girl, Chris motherfucking Higgins. All of that in THREE whole dimensions. It's clearly my favorite Friday the 13th! But then again, I love Jason showing up in Alice's apartment in Part 2, and...ugh. I now pronounce them movie and movie, and their marriage makes them one big experience that's my fave Friday.

THE WITCH (2015, Robert Eggers)

This masterpiece exemplifies some of the things I mentioned when talking about The Blair Witch Project, mainly my love of New England and everything spooky therein. The woods! Finally the woods of my dreams (nightmares) was captured on film: the darkness, the sheer size, the beauty, the foreboding. The wind is foreboding in this movie. Everything is foreboding in this movie. It evokes the damp, the chill, and the grey of a perpetual Autumn. I find the tension throughout The Witch almost unbearable as I wait for this hyper-religious family to tear itself apart or for the horror of the woods to emerge or both; the tension and build are so much for me that the first time I saw it (in the theatre, opening weekend...RIP Before Times), I said OH MY GOD right out loud like a fool when some of said tension broke during that raven scene. I expected to get a great horror film and to be scared, and I got all that. What I didn't expect, however, was a parable about women's autonomy. I never could have predicted that Thomasin would choose to live deliciously and instead of being punished, she flew up into the trees feeling nothing but joy. Before 2015 I'd long lamented on the pages of this here blog that I vehemently wanted more witches in my scary movies...even so, I thought that if I got 'em, those witches'd never be allowed to live. The Witch proved me wrong and ushered in an era that has vastly shifted the way women's stories are told in horror.

STRAIT-JACKET (1964, William Castle)

It's not William Castle's most bonkers movie, but oh, is Strait-Jacket so much fun. As Lucy Harbin, Joan Crawford takes an axe and gives her cheating lover forty whacks, then emerges from the asylum years later and attempts to rebuild her life and her relationship with her daughter (played by a young Diane Baker, aka one Senator Ruth Martin, she of the fantastic suit). Is Lucy holding on to her sanity? Or is she responsible for all the freshly axed heads rolling around?

It is absolutely as campy as it sounds, of course, but Strait-Jacket is so much more than that thanks to Crawford, who turns in a bravura performance. She approaches the role like she approached every role, committing to Lucy Harbin the way she committed to, say, Mildred Pierce. She goes over-the-top as she vamps it up, putting on her jangly charm bracelet and practically shoving her fingers in the mouth of her daughter's boyfriend as she hits on him. But she also lets us feel the weight of Lucy's guilt and pain over her past and all the years she lost. Seeing her desperately try to hold on as it seems her sanity is slipping away again isn't merely a horror movie "will she or won't she?" thrill, it's downright heartbreaking. She's awards-worthy, quite frankly, in a movie that also features really fake-looking decapitated heads. Actresses like Crawford are why the subgenre is called Grand Dame Guignol, after all. Strait-Jacket is a treasure.

LAKE MUNGO (2008, Joel Anderson)

The first time I saw Lake Mungo, I fell in love with it. The second time I saw Lake Mungo, it left me too scared to sleep. It's never left me, and I think about Lake Mungo all the time. Yes, it has that scene, but it's all the unsettling quiet and dread before it that really makes that scene land with such a terrifying, devastating impact. This movie, a mockumentary about the Palmer family coping (or not coping) with the drowning death and possible spectral return of their 16-year-old daughter and sister Alice, is so perfectly constructed and acted it's easy to forget that it's fiction. Still photographs, videotapes, 8mm film, and newsreels tell some of Alice's story, but as we learn, "kept secrets...she kept the fact that she kept secrets a secret." The dialogue is largely improvised and the performances are so natural, it feels like we're actually watching how a family grieves and how some of them might dare to hope that Alice isn't truly gone. Alice was haunted, essentially, by her own death drawing ever-nearer, which feels very familiar as the number of infections continues to rise precipitously every day. That fatalism and sense of doom really speaks to me and is part of the reason why this film hasn't left me. That and, you know. That scene.

The WHISPERING CORRIDORS series (1998-2020)

Hey, if Ben can cite the Poltergeist trilogy as "a" fave in his list, then I can say the whole series! Sure, I like some of the entries more than others, but it's most interesting to look at the five films (there's a sixth on the way) as a whole. 

Whispering Corridors (1998), Memento Mori (1999), Wishing Stairs (2003), Voice (2005), and A Blood Pledge (2009) all use South Korean girls' high schools as a setting, but each socially-conscious film has a different plot and school and different characters, so they need not be watched in any particular order. They deal with various subject matters that these students face, whether it's the brutal school system itself, a suicide epidemic, peer pressure, or even taboo topics like gay relationships. They're hugely important films for many reasons, not the least because they helped kick off cinema's New Korean Wave in the late 90s.

All of this, of course, is wrapped in big supernatural packages with the requisite ghosts and the dark hallways they haunt. Some entries are more "horror" than others--Wishing Stairs might be the most overtly horror movie typical--and they probably won't keep you up at night, but as I've come to learn over the years of writing at Final Girl, that doesn't always matter. In fact, for me these days, it often doesn't. 

I love the creepiness of these movies, but what I love more--what I love most, even--are the relationships between the girls. Unlike most of their western "schoolgirl horror" counterparts, we get to see these characters (GASP) interact. They tease each other, they have fun, they confide in each other, they band together, they bully one another. These movies are spooky, funny, sad, and always interesting. While I'm not--nor have I ever been, SPOILER--a schoolgirl in South Korea, the experiences that play out ring true and familiar regardless. The specifics might not be the same, but hey, teen girls are gonna teen girl no matter where they are. If I have to recommend only a couple, they are Memento Mori, which was one of the first Korean films to explicitly depict a lesbian relationship onscreen rather than merely hint at it, and Voice, which is the most stylized of these movies (and also is gay as heck). I love Whispering Corridors, too. Actually I love all of them and that's why I listed all of them, see?

SALEM'S LOT (1979, Tobe Hooper)

When Tobe Hooper died, I watched Salem's Lot as a tribute. As much as I love it, watching The Texas Chain Saw Massacre wasn't even a consideration that night. This is the only vampire movie for me, if I'm being honest, and one of the greatest--if not theeeeee greatest--made-for-TV horror movies. I will only indulge in the 2-part miniseries event version, thank you, because that shit is epic. Residents of a small town in Maine begin disappearing and dying to something that feels like a plague, but there's no plague. Finally, two hours in--TWO HOURS IN--Mr. Barlow makes his appearance and the true ill that has befallen Salem's Lot is revealed. I'm sure there are some who are not into the long-ass build-up, but I am certainly not one of those some. Give me more, I say! I wish Salem's Lot was a week long, because I can't get enough of it's horror-flavored soap opera feel. 

This movie--excuse me, this event--is so damn scary that I can't believe, still, that it was made for television. Mrs Glick's return? Ralphie Glick's return? Please. And I cannot stress enough how deeply Mr. Barlow terrifies me, like right down to my core. The kitchen scene, where he suddenly materializes from a dark heap on the floor and seems to fill the whole room, is it, baby. I love that he's just this mysterious, repulsive monster. Who is Kurt Barlow? Who was he before he was this? Was he anything before he was this? Who the fuck cares, I say. He is a plague, and that's all I need to know. There's nothing else that would help me anyway.

THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (2009, Ti West)

I am so into this movie. It's the perfect combination of waiting a while for something to happen and hey, the waiting is the point and something happened and it rocked your face off. I drink up the exquisite rising tension of House of the Devil every time I see it, even though I know when the action will really hit. I could watch Samantha explore that massive, unfamiliar, creepy-as-all-h-e-double-hockey-sticks house forever, whether she's doing it stealthily or bopping around as she blasts The Fixx on her Walkman. I love a what's behind the door? movie, and this is one of the best: who is this "grandma" that Sam has been hired to babysit, and why is grandma's door locked? Throw in an eclipse, a sinister pizza order, and a bathtub littered with hair trimmings and you've got a sinister WTF of a good time. And while this film is completely to blame for kicking off the retro trend in horror that we continue to deal with, it remains the one that, to me, gets what a 1983 horror movie feels like, the pacing, the editing, the set dressing, those hair styles...it still feels like a lost movie from another era. RIP to Megan, always the true pal who knew what was up the whole time, never the babysitter.

AMITYVILLE 4: THE EVIL ESCAPES (1989, Sandor Stern)

I talked a bit about my (our) love for all things Amityville the other day, but my love of Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes isn't necessarily a part of that, I don't think. You see, I love Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes because it dares to exist. How can this movie about a possessed floor lamp actually exist? People...made this movie? Like, people showed up to set everyday? To make a movie about a possessed floor lamp?? It seems like a joke--it has to be a joke--but somehow it is not a joke. It's treated completely seriously, which makes its existence all the more baffling. A floor lamp, purchased at a yard sale at 112 Ocean Avenue, becomes possessed by a demon. The floor lamp telekinetically drives a van! The floor lamp makes a garbage disposal turn on! The floor lamp drives a young girl to want to murder! The floor lamp has an evil face sometimes! The floor lamp battles Patty Duke, but the floor lamp loses when Patty Duke throws it off a cliff and it explodes on the rocky shore below! But then maybe a cat gets possessed, so does the floor lamp really lose? It doesn't matter. We all win, just because Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes is.

MARTYRS (2008, Pascal Laugier)

Martyrs always appears, rightly so, on those lists of the most extreme horror movies. It is violent, it is gory, it is brutal. To call it a "tough watch" is to put it way, way too mildly. In short, it is not my kind of movie! I don't enjoy watching people get tortured, and I don't "enjoy" Martyrs, but I do love it. It is a depressing film made by a depressed man, a film that speaks to our inhumanity to one another, to the way the wealthy (and white) will casually exploit the disenfranchised until there's nothing left. It is a rumination on our endless fixation on knowing the unknowable, on what's next, on what awaits us after the end, on what the point of all of this is. It seems that Laugier, in his state, was saying that there is no point beyond pain and suffering.

There's more to it, however, whether intended by Laugier or not, and it's what flayed me open the first time I saw Martyrs and what keeps me coming back to it: it is that for all its seeming inhumanity, Martyrs is actually imbued with kindness, and Martyrs is a love story. 

Anna is a saint long before the cult attempts to make her one, and it's why she is able to "transcend" at the end of her life. Despite this world continually beating her down or beating her loved one down--she and Lucie met at that orphanage, after all--Anna helps. She never stops. She talks Lucie down during her psychotic breaks. When she sees that one of Lucie's victims is still alive, she tries to get her to safety; Anna doesn't know that this woman was also one of Lucie's torturers, but she might have afforded her some kind of mercy regardless. She tries to rescue and gently takes care of the victim she finds in the basement. Laugier doesn't seem to want to reward this--rather, Anna's repeated kindness lead to her capture and torture. Martyrs feels like nihilism 101: the world doesn't reward kindness, he seems to say, and none of it matters. But it turns out that it does matter, and it's that surprising, secret, soft heart of the film that breaks me. 

In her pain, Lucie saw the monster, the fellow torture victim she had to leave behind.

In her pain, the unnamed victim sees cockroaches crawling all over her and burrowing under her skin.

In her pain, Anna sees Lucie. "I miss you," she says.

Instead of more pain, Anna gets some comfort near her end. It's beautiful, and it's the most any of us can hope for.

CREEPSHOW (1982, George A. Romero)

As I'm sure you've heard me say time and again, this movie is absolutely perfect, and I don't have the words to describe how much I love it. It is the best Halloween-time viewing. It is the best anthology movie. It is fun with a capital fun. There is not a story I would excise, there is not a story I simply tolerate to get to the others. They are all baller, and this EC comic come to life is gross and scary and, to use a word that all the youths use, a "hoot." The cast is pitch-perfect, playing it riiiiight on the line of campy. I will never, ever tire of dotty old Aunt Bedelia, of Leslie Nielsen in that velour track suit, of Sylvia Grantham's smoky-voiced scolding, of Upson Pratt being a right bastard, of everything, most especially Adrienne Barbeau as Wilma "Billie" Northrup. She is always a treasure, but here she is her most treasureful. I mean, she knows all the best stores. 

ZOMBIE (1979, Lucio Fulci)

Listen, like any rational human being I adore George Romero's Night, Dawn, and Day of the Dead. They are essential films not only to me, but to the horror genre. But while I was composing this here list, it came to be like a bolt out of the blue (or, perhaps, like a rotten hand out of the ground): holy shit. I fucking love Zombie. 

As I said, I adore Romero's work and he's the father of the zombie genre as we know it. But this absolutely disgusting Lucio Fulci film is my perfect zombie movie. There is none of that "the living are the real monsters" pontificating. There is no allegory. It is simply the dead come back to life, and as the movie's tagline says, they have one goal: we are going to eat you. That's all I need to be scared out of my mind!

I knew about this movie long before I ever saw it, thanks to ol' worm-eye's appearance on the cover of Fangoria. You know who ol' worm-eye is. This movie has iconic zombies, and they are all so gross. I love it. They are rotten and nasty and falling apart and full of worms. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I fucking love it when zombies claw their way out of the ground, and this movie gives me the goods a lot. I love that almost all of them have their eyes closed and move by instinct. I love that they move with the slowest shuffle--barely moving, so much so that they make Romero zombies look like Snyder zombies. But when they get close, suddenly they'll getcha just like that. I love the mystery of an abandoned ship and this movie gives me that. I love any score by Fabio Frizzi, but Zombie's title track might be my favorite. I love the long buildup, the journey our heroes undertake on their way to the voodoo-cursed island Matul intercut with the medical staff there trying to get a grasp on the plague killing residents and causing them to come back to life. I love the crazy-ass gore, and that eyeball scene--you know the one--is eye-conic (I'm sure that old Fangoria called it "eye-popping"). And I love that downer ending, with the undead shuffling over the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, the world already lost to them. 

It's not just one sequence or one moment or one shot that unnerves me in this movie, it's everything. This is absolutely my absurd, illogical nightmare come to (un)life, and it makes me want to pull my covers up over my head. More than any other film on this list, I think (even Creepshow), Zombie makes me feel like a kid again.

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991, Jonathan Demme)

Not that it matters, but I sometimes wonder if I would love The Silence of the Lambs--because love it I do--if Clarice Starling was played by anyone but Jodie Foster. I know other actresses have given it a go since, but thinking of the 1991 film, it seems inconceivable, doesn't it? Foster/Starling is such a beyond-perfect melding, or embodiment, or whatever you want to call it, that I can't imagine it being any other actress. Don't get me wrong, this film is obviously a gen-u-ine masterpiece from top to bottom and all the way around. (It was the third film in Oscar history to win the "big five," after all, if you put any stock in that sort of thing.) But I'm not sure it would land on my list of favorites without Foster, because Clarice Starling is the reason it's here. She is such a hero! She's such a hero she's virtually unmatched amongst other female characters. She's the personification of bravery, pushing on despite all of her fear. I love that she fucks up because despite her innate brilliance, she's still in training. Ugh, Clarice, perfect Clarice.

AGONY

PAIN

LOVE -- IT

SUSPIRIA  (2018, Luca Guadagnino)

For example, Amityville Dollhouse. Look, I don't want to give away the super secret plot or anything, but it's about a dollhouse shaped like the Amityville house. AND YET IT'S MISSING FROM THE LIST. Oh well, maybe in 2025. Something to look forward to!

Each of the following films received two votes.

336. They Live -- 1988, John Carpenter

335. Tragedy Girls -- 2017, Tyler MacIntyre

334. Twins of Evil -- 1971, John Hough

333. V/H/S -- 2012, there are nine male directors and I am not listing them all, who cares

326. You're Killing Me -- 2015, Jim Hansen

325. Zombie (aka Zombi 2) -- 1979, Lucio Fulci

Each of the following films received three votes!

324. A Dark Song -- 2016, Liam Gavin

323. Alien 3 -- 1992, David Fincher

322. As Above, So Below -- 2014, John Erick Dowdle

321. Beetlejuice -- 1988, Tim Burton

320. The Black Cat -- 1934, Edgar G. Ulmer

319. Black Sabbath -- 1963, Mario Bava

318. Blood and Black Lace -- 1964, Mario Bava

317. Blood Quantum -- 2019, Jeff Barnaby

316. Blue Sunshine -- 1977, Jeff Lieberman

315. Bubba Ho-Tep -- 2002, Don Coscarelli

314. Byzantium -- 2012, Neil Jordan

313. Cannibal Holocaust -- 1980, Ruggero Deodato

312. Cemetery Man (aka Dellamorte Dellamore) -- 1994, Michele Soavi

311. Crimson Peak -- 2015, Guillermo del Toro

310. Cube -- 1997, Vincenzo Natali

309. Cujo -- 1983, Lewis Teague

308. Dog Soldiers -- 2002, Neil Marshall

307. Dolls -- 1987, Stuart Gordon

306. Don't Go to Sleep -- 1982, Richard Lang

305. Dracula -- 1931, Tod Browning & Karl Freund

364. The Convent -- 2000, Mike Mendez

363. The Devil Rides Out -- 1968, Terence Fisher

362. The Devil's Rejects -- 2005, Rob Zombie

361. The Endless -- 2017, Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead

360. The Fly -- 1958, Kurt Neumann

359. The Fourth Kind -- 2009, Olatunde Osunsanmi

358. The Girl with All the Gifts -- 2016, Colm McCarthy

357. The Haunting of Julia (aka Full Circle) -- 1977, Richard Loncraine

356. The Hills Have Eyes -- 2006, Alexandre Aja

355. The House by the Cemetery -- 1981, Lucio Fulci

354. The House of the Laughing Windows (aka The House with Laughing Windows)-- 1976, Pupi Avati

353. The Initiation -- 1984, Larry Stewart & Peter Crane

352. The Keep -- 1983, Michael Mann

351. The Last House on the Left -- 1972, Wes Craven

350. The Legend of Boggy Creek -- 1972, Charles B. Pierce

349. The Monster Club -- 1981, Roy Ward Baker

348. The Monster Squad -- 1987, Fred Dekker

347. The Night Stalker -- 1972, John Llewellyn Moxey

346. The Pact -- 2012, Nicholas McCarthy

345. The Prowler -- 1981, Joseph Zito

344. The Rocky Horror Picture Show -- 1975, Jim Sharman

343. The Stepfather -- 1987, Joseph Ruben

342. The Town That Dreaded Sundown -- 1976, Charles B. Pierce

341. The Village -- 2004, M. Night Shyamalan

340. The Void -- 2016, Jeremy Gillespie & Steven Kostanski

339. The Watcher in the Woods -- 1980, John Hough & Vincent McEveety

338. Them (aka Ils) -- 2006, David Moreau & Xavier Palud

337. Them! -- 1954, Gordon Douglas

So nod away, you unlikely duos...each of the following films received two votes!

397. ParaNorman -- 2012, Chris Butler & Sam Fell

396. Pet Sematary II -- Mary Lambert

395. Prevenge -- 2016, Alice Lowe

394. Prom Night -- 1980, Paul Lynch

393. Prometheus -- 2012, Ridley Scott

392. Puppet Master -- 1989, David Schmoeller

391. Quatermass and the Pit -- Roy Ward Baker

390. Safe -- 1995, Todd Haynes

389. Saw -- 2004, James Wan

388. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark -- 2019, André Øvredal

387. Scream 3 -- 2000, Wes Craven

386. Season of the Witch (aka Hungry Wives) -- 1972, George A. Romero

385. Seven -- 1995, David Fincher

384. Shadow of the Vampire -- 2000, E. Elias Merhige

383. Shivers -- 1975, David Cronenberg

382. Signs -- 2002, M. Night Shyamalan

381. Sinister -- 2012, Scott Derrickson

380. Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers -- 1988, Michael A. Simpson

379. Sorority House Massacre -- 1986, Carol Frank

378. Spring -- 2014, Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead

377. Strait-Jacket -- 1964, William Castle

376. Strangeland -- 1998, John Pieplow

375. Street Trash -- 1987, James M. Muro

374. Summer of 84 -- 2018, François Simard, Anouk Whissell, & Yoann-Karl Whissell

373. The Amityville Horror -- 1979, Stuart Rosenberg

372. The Bay -- 2012, Barry Levinson

371. The Blob -- 1958, Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr & Russell S. Doughten Jr

370. The Borderlands (aka Final Prayer) -- 2013, Elliot Goldner

369. The Brides of Dracula -- 1960, Terence Fisher

368. The Cell -- 2000, Tarsem Singh

367. The Children -- 1980, Max Kalmanowicz

366. The Company of Wolves -- 1984, Neil Jordan

365. The Conjuring 2 -- 2016, James Wan

428. Ghost Story -- 1981, John Irvin

427. Ghostbusters -- 1984, Ivan Reitman

426. Gothic -- 1986, Ken Russell

425. Graduation Day -- 1981, Herb Freed

424. Halloween II -- 2009, Rob Zombie

423. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers -- 1988, Dwight H. Little

422. Halloween -- 2007, Rob Zombie

421. Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages -- 1922, Benjamin Christensen

420. Hell Night -- 1981, Tom DeSimone

419. Hellbent -- 2004, Paul Etheredge

418. High Tension -- 2003, Alexandre Aja

417. Horror Express -- 1972, Eugenio Martín

416. Horror of Dracula -- 1958, Terence Fisher

415. Host -- 2020, Rob Savage

414. Hostel: Part II -- 2007, Eli Roth

413. Hour of the Wolf -- 1968, Ingmar Bergman

412. Housebound -- 2014, Gerard Johnstone

411. Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte -- Robert Aldrich

410. In a Glass Cage -- 1986, Agustí Villaronga

409. Kill List -- 2011, Ben Wheatley

408. Kuroneko (aka The Black Cat) -- 1968, Kaneto Shindô

407. Lake Placid -- 1999, Steve Miner

406. Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural -- 1973, Richard Blackburn

405. Let Me In -- 2010, Matt Reeves

404. Lights Out -- 2016, David F. Sandberg

403. Little Shop of Horrors -- 1986, Frank Oz

402. Maximum Overdrive -- 1986, Stephen King

401. Motel Hell -- 1980, Kevin Connor

400. Night Warning (aka Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker) -- 1981, William Asher

399. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master -- 1988, Renny Harlin

398. Only Lovers Left Alive -- 2013, Jim Jarmusch