Today is Leap Day, which is by far the strangest day of the year, as it disappears for four years at a time and exists only in "ghost" status most years. On such a freaky day, you'll want to have some freaky movies to help you pass the time.
As such, I now present you with my 100 (or more) favorite horror movies of all-time...
#1: Halloween (1978)
Only one movie can be No. 1, and that one movie is Halloween. The day Michael came home from the mental hospital is a day that will forever live in infamy, as there was now a masked lunatic stalking the Haddonfield streets with soulless eyes and an unforgiving butcher knife. The embodiment of pure evil, Michael has no real rhyme or reason for doing what he does, as he was raised in an affluent Midwestern home. But since Michael also doesn't speak, good luck trying to reason with "The Shape." For him, life is nothing more than one big body count, and he seems to have a murderous preference for babysitters and family members.
#2: The Exorcist (1973)
Inspired by the real-life 1949 exorcism of Roland Doe, the events that occurred in both William Peter Blatty's 1971 novel and William Friedkin's 1973 movie have both been met with commercial success, and for good reason! In one of the most bone-chilling tales you'll ever hear, a 12-year-old girl named Regan MacNeil gets demonically possessed and her personality quickly goes from Sunday school to reform school, as she starts speaking vulgar phrases, purposely regurgitating split pea soup onto priests, spinning her head completely around, crawling wrong-ways down the stairs, slamming beds that she's been tied to and even sticking crosses in her hoo-haw. The sad part is that the real Regan would never do that, and wants out, but this demonic force refuses to loosen its grip on her, despite various Catholic priests trying to fight it out of her. It's the epic battle of good vs. evil, and it features an antagonist who really doesn't want to be one.
#3: Psycho (1960)
Psycho, which was almost inarguably Alfred Hitchcock's magnum opus, revolved around Norman Bates and the Bates Motel. Owned by a boy and his mother, the motel isn't all that it's cracked up to be. See, there's a reason every cabin is vacant, and it has little to do with the old main highway having been moved a while back, and everything to do with us all going a little mad sometimes, one moreso than others -- Norman. Featuring the shower scene to end all shower scenes (and involving "Scream Queen" Jamie Lee Curtis' mother!), this was Hitch at his very best, which is quite the feat since "The Master of Suspense" also gave us such classics as Rear Window, Vertigo, The Birds, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
#4: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
What is scarier than wandering away from your friends on a trip down to Texas, only to come across a family of cannibalistic nuts, the largest of whom wields a chainsaw and likes to wear peoples' skin as a mask? Surely, nothing I could imagine! The sad part is, this entire movie, plus the one ranked above it at No. 3 and the one ranked below it at No. 16, are all loosely based on the same guy, a real-life serial killer by the name of Ed Gein, a.k.a. "The Butcher of Plainfield."
#5: The Shining (1980)
How can a film directed by my favorite director of all-time (Stanley Kubrick), starring one of my favorite actors of all-time (Jack Nicholson), and being based on a 1977 novel by the creepiest writer of all-time (Stephen King), NOT be scary? Especially when it so precisely relates the story of a man descending into madness! Jack Torrance, a writer and recovering alcoholic, takes a job as an off-season caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel. His young son possesses psychic abilities and is able to see things from the past and future, such as the ghosts who haunt the hotel. Some time after settling in, the family is trapped in the hotel by a snowstorm, and Jack gradually becomes influenced by a ghostly presence, starts going mad and ultimately attempts to murder his wife and son. The only thing left for you to do now is to pour out the "Redrum!" and run like hell through the labyrinth maze that is this movie.
#6 (tie): Friday the 13th, Parts 1-3 (1980-1982)
These three movies had to be ranked together because the three of them combined to give us one of the most vicious madmen in cinematic history, Jason Voorhees. In the first film, it's Jason's mom getting revenge for her drowned summer camp child. In the second film, we finally get to meet that drowned boy, as a revived Jason comes a-killin'. It isn't until the third film, however, that Jason finally takes on his signature look, that of a pissed-off hockey goalie wielding a toolshed's worth of weapons, but always seemingly favoring his trusty machete. Thus, a franchise was born that has grossed over $465 million worldwide, and to date, has consisted of 12 slasher movies (including one remake, which poorly attempted to combine these same three films), a television show, novels and comic books.
#7: Scream (1996)
After the horror genre had bottomed out in the mid-'90s due to a string of cheesy horror flops (and some that might've been, if not for the help of the infamous "cult status" label), Wes Craven, one of the all-time masters of the horror craft, came out with this gem of a hit and revitalized it to the fullest, much like he'd done for the similarly-floundering A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise two years earlier when he created part seven of it, Wes Craven's New Nightmare. But really, Craven -- who also gave us such classics as The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left, The People Under The Stairs and the aforementioned Nightmare series, just to name a few -- outdid himself here. Figuring the only way to bring horror back was to first let it die for its sins, he made this movie wherein he openly mocked the genre at every turn, pointing out the bad clichés, silly in-movie decision-making and stereotypical formulas, so as to tell other horror movie directors to stop regurgitating the same things over and over. Fans took to that style like white on rice, and it became the prototype for horror movies moving forward, while still keeping the same basic formula that made the Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises so popular: one masked killer, one small town, some suspense and lots of casualties. The best part? It became the world's highest-grossing slasher film of all-time, and thus, Wes' biggest financial success.
#8: The Omen (1976)
Earning two Academy Award nominations, this first -- and best! -- installment in The Omen series centers around a young child adopted as an infant by American Ambassador Robert Thorn after his own son, unbeknownst to Thorn's wife, died at birth. Surrounded by mysterious ominous deaths at every turn, the couple is unaware that the child they're raising is actually the Antichrist, but once they cut little Damien's hair and come across the "666" mark (a.k.a. the mark of the beast) on his scalp, they begin putting the pieces together.
#9: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
While "Ghostface," the serial killer from Wes Craven's other big franchise (Scream), was loosely based on the real-life "Gainesville Ripper," the bad man in this string of movies was inspired from a mixture of Wes Craven's nightmares and his childhood bully, a kid by the name of -- you guessed it! -- Fred Krueger. Dressing his childhood bully up in a brown fedora hat, a red- and green-striped sweater, construction boots and a welder's glove with knives attached to it, Craven took some liberties by burning up the guy's face and making him exist only in dreams. And thus, a very fun -- and, at times, scary -- franchise was born with "Freddy" at the helm. Some nine films and $455 million later, fans of the series are still afraid to go to sleep for fear that they may encounter "The Springwood Slasher" and never wake up again!
#10: Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Are you a fan of films such as 28 Days Later and World War Z? Do you spend every Sunday night sitting on your couch watching The Walking Dead? Then, this film is a must-watch, as it was the first truly commercially-successful zombie flick. Despite being released through an independent studio and being heavily criticized at the time of its release for its explicit gore, this movie still put George A. Romero on the map and turned a huge profit, pulling in a then-whopping $30 million (after only costing $114,000 to make!). Drawing on earlier pop-culture depictions of zombies, the story follows seven people being attacked by a large and growing group of unnamed "living dead" monsters, while trapped in a rural farmhouse in Western Pennsylvania. Fun fact here is that not once during this film's 96-minute run time will you hear the word "zombies" uttered, as that word hadn't yet been coined.
#11: Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
I didn't know this, but this film -- which certainly holds up fine on its own! -- was actually the second movie of a Roman Polanski trilogy, sandwiched in between 1966's Repulsion and 1976's The Tenant, all three of which involve an apartment-dwelling protagonist beset by mysterious, horrific events. Considering how sick a man Roman Polanski is in real life -- he pled guilty in 1978 to having had unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, then fled to France before his sentence came down, and has never returned to the U.S. to serve his pending jail time -- not to mention the sick stuff he's lived through, including the murder of his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, by the "Manson family," it's no wonder he's able to create such twisted stories! This particular one revolves around a pregnant woman learning that her husband has made an evil pact: he's sacrificed the couple's baby to his occult neighbors for them to use in a breeding ritual in exchange for success in his acting career. With Satan having already planted his seed in Rosemary, she now doesn't know what to expect from her newborn child, but definitely realizes that she can't trust her husband nor her neighbors any longer.
#12: When A Stranger Calls (1979)
Imagine receiving obscene and threatening phone calls all night long, contacting the police about it, and then learning from those same police that those calls are coming from inside your house. How scary would that be? Scary enough to get this movie up to No. 12 on my list!
#13: Black Christmas (1974)
I think the reason Nos. 12 and 13 on my list are ranked so high is because the thought of having the serial killer that's out to get me trapped within the confines of my own residence is just petrifying to me. In the above-ranked movie, the killer's in the upstairs bedroom of a suburban home, whereas in this one, he's in the attic of a sorority house. Either way, nobody needs to be that close to a psychopath, hence why both these movies rank amongst my creepy favorites. It's also probably why both had remakes done for them in 2006.
#14: Peeping Tom (1960)
Jason, Freddy, Michael, Ghostface, Leatherface, etc., would not have existed had it not been for fictional filmmaker Mark Lewis. "Who's that," you ask? The character at the middle of this first-ever "slasher" film. This right here is the movie that started it all for that genre, and it actually came out in Great Britain, not in North America. Carl Boehm perfectly portrayed a socially-awkward loner who works at a film studio during the day, and at night, takes racy photographs of women. However, unbeknownst to the women he's photographing, Mark's also making a documentary on fear for which he likes to record the reactions of his victims as he murders them with a knife that he's built into his camera's tripod.
#15: Se7en (1995)
John Doe may be holier than Hell, but he's certainly going there one day, as he likes to not only kill people who break the seven deadly sins, but he also likes to taunt the cops assigned to his case, sometimes even ruining their lives in the process. As the movie reaches its end, you'll find yourself asking, "What's in the box?!" But frankly, the answer to that question is one you really wouldn't want to know. You have been warned, you glutton for pain, you!
#16: The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Intelligent. Suave. Cultured. Sophisticated. Classy. These are all words that describe forensic psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter. However, there're three other words that describe him, too -- cannibalistic serial killer! Based off of Thomas Harris' series of suspense novels, Hannibal likes to taunt Clarice Starling, the top student at the FBI's training academy, by playing mind games with her that make her realize just how "green" she is, and just how charmingly insane he is. How do you capture a guy who is always ten moves ahead of you, and who, unlike you, has no limits to the things he'll do? [Insert "eating lady fingers" joke here.]
#17: Saw (2004)
This first film of the franchise is almost inarguably the best 21st century horror movie made so far. In it, photographer Adam Stanheight and oncologist Lawrence Gordon regain consciousness while chained to pipes at either end of a filthy bathroom. The two men eventually come to realize that they've been trapped there by a sadistic serial killer named "Jigsaw," and that they must now complete his perverse puzzle to continue living. However, in order to do so, they must sever limbs and commit other horrible atrocities, as their families are being forced to watch via closed-circuit television. The really, really sick part is that the killer is even closer than they realize. Although the rest of the film was great, the ending is what really solidified this movie as a horror movie classic.
#18: Audition (1999)
From Takashi Miike, the man who also created Ichi the Killer, comes this slow-moving creepy atmospheric masterpiece that totally changes directions in the final stretch of the film when lead character Shigeharu Aoyama begins having a horrific nightmare, in which his new wife is, among other things, jamming needles into his eyeballs while giggling. Since there can be so many interpretations of that artistically-executed climactic scene, I'll offer mine: I think that it was meant to act as an extended metaphor of the guilt he has toward replacing his deceased wife clashing with the fear he has of his new bride finding out about the deception he used to meet her. No matter how you interpreted it, though, the end result's the same -- we're left unsure as to whether Asami Yamazaki is a psychotic serial killer or if that was all just imagined due to the gaping holes in her résumé. Regardless, Miike really outdid himself with this film, and I'll never look at piano wire the same way!
#19: Rear Window (1954)
Based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder," this classic suspense film revolves around a wheelchair-bound photojournalist being bored in his apartment one day, looking out his window and thinking he might've just witnessed the tail-end of a murder. In typical Hitchcock fashion, the protagonist, played by It's A Wonderful Life's Jimmy Stewart, starts investigating as best he can, but inevitably ends up getting himself caught. As the could-be killer heads up to the photojournalist's apartment to deal with his prying eyes, it makes for a memorable finale with flashing camera bulbs and cops arriving just in time to break the two up. But, was the man really guilty or did he just not want people snooping on him?
#20: Jaws (1975)
This movie played on just about everybody's biggest aquatic fear -- shark attacks. Just when you thought it was safe to get in the water, terror comes to Cape Cod in the form of a shark fin and some very sharp teeth. To make the waters safe again, three guys go out on a boat to hunt down Bruce, the large shark making such waves, but end up getting more than they bargained for and realizing that they just may need a larger boat.
#21: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
The quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema, this silent horror film from the '20s featured one of the most unnerving visual styles ever through its usage of sharp-pointed forms, oblique and curving lines, structures and landscapes that lean and twist in unusual angles, and shadows and streaks of light painted directly onto the sets. The story itself is as fascinating as can be, too, as it was written by two pacifists who were left distrustful of authority after their World War I experiences with the military, and so the script was essentially trying to thematize brutal and irrational authority with Dr. Caligari representing the German war government and Cesare being symbolic of the common man who was being conditioned to kill. Rebellious in nature, this film was meant to question Germany's unchecked obedience and unwillingness to rebel against deranged authority, and as such, some people claim the film was a premonition for the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. However, on film, it was but the story of an insane hypnotist using a somnambulist to commit murders behind the front of a carnival fortune-telling show.
#22: Carrie (1976)
When an odd girl with an overly-religious mother gets picked on for being strange, then falls victim to an embarrassing prank at her high school prom, she finally decides to exact revenge by showing everybody just how "strange" she really is. Who knew having telekinesis could be so much fun?!
#23: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
By the 1950s, people were already getting used to "creature features," so they weren't as scary anymore. How do you change that? Answer: You add in the three-dimensional experience. As The Creature came to life right before the audience's eyes, so too did the scares. Filmed in 3-D and originally projected by the polarized light method, the audience wore viewers with gray polarizing filters, similar to the viewers most commonly used today. Because the brief '50s 3-D film fad had peaked in mid-1953 and was fading fast in early 1954, many audiences in the smaller neighborhood theaters actually still had to see the film in 2-D. But whether they could afford to go to the larger downtown theaters to see this movie in 3-D or not, all of the films' audiences saw the same story: a geology expedition in the Amazon uncovered a skeletal hand with webbed fingers, fossilized evidence from the Devonian period of a link between land and sea animals, that upon further inspection, led the expedition's sea vessel right to where The Creature could wreak havoc upon them.
#24: The Fly (1958)
There was a 1986 version of this movie starring Jurassic Park's Jeff Goldblum that some people argue is actually better than the original, but since I have yet to see that one and have long owned this one, I can only vouch for this version of this tale. I've always loved this Deluxe Colored "creature feature" about a scientist who mutates into a human fly after one accidentally flies into his teleportation machine, mixing up their atoms. In trying to perfect teleportation, what would surely have been the world's greatest scientific breakthrough, Andre Delambre may have accidentally cost himself the rest of his life... unless his wife Helene and/or their child Philippe can find the one white-headed fly in the couple's garden with which he would be able to reverse the unintentional mutation, but time is quickly running out, as every second that goes by sees Andre becoming more and more like a fly. The first film to feature such a thing on screen, this movie was a trendsetter of the best kind, and the closing scene where the fly is saying "help me!" is as iconic as they come.
#25: Don’t Look Now (1973)
The source material of Daphne Du Maurier's short story provides only a meager framework onto which was fleshed this stunning adaptation. Set against a Venetian backdrop, this film moves slowly and deliberately as it builds tension by unveiling this story of a daughter's death and a psychic's premonition. Like few before it, this film truly manages to get under your skin from the very first scene, and gradually, elegantly maneuvers itself into a place where your childhood and adult fears unwittingly dwell. Very atmospherically tense, you'll probably want to watch this one a few times to fully appreciate it.
#26: The Invisible Man (1933)
Ever wondered what it would be like to be invisible? Well, Dr. Jack Griffin wishes he didn't have to know, as he only became that way due to a scientific mishap that he's now trying to undo. However, the further he secludes himself to work on his scientific formulas, the more people take an interest in the monstrosity that he's become, eventually leading Jack to snap and start plotting a takeover of the world through the use of his newfound curse. This was Claude Rains' first American screen appearance, and it came in a science fiction-based adaptation of H. G. Wells' 1897 novella.
#27: Alien (1979)
By providing her with her first lead role, Alien launched Sigourney Weaver's acting career. With its amazing special effects, it also launched an entire media franchise of novels, comic books, video games, toys, and of course, remakes. I've got to admit, I hesitated in ranking this film over the second one, and even considered ranking them both together as the two are equally as impressive, but in the end, I chose to rank this one alone because it's the one that started everything for this series, thus giving it a slight edge. But, to think, the entire franchise could have been avoided had the Nostromo just not confused a warning for a distress signal, therefore never landing on a planetoid they had no business even being near. In the end, though, we're happy they did because their mishap provided the cinematic world with the realest-looking aliens it'd ever seen 'til then.
#28: Pet Sematary (1989)
What if a community was built over an ancient Indian burial ground allowing dead family pets to resurrect themselves? Would having Fluffy back be worth possibly having him back in a much more violent, almost Cujo-like way? At the Pet Sematary, you can get your pets back, but they'll never come back quite the way you remember them!
#29: Frankenstein (1931)
With an idea that was born from a writing competition between Mary, her future husband Percy and two of their mutual friends during a European vacation, English author Mary Shelley came up with "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus," before publishing it anonymously in 1818 London, then finally adding her name to it five years later upon the second edition's French publication. What a lot of people don't realize is that the story was actually loosely based on real-life events that had taken place two centuries before in Gernsheim, Germany, where an alchemist living in "Frankenstein's Castle" had been engaged in lab experiments. Though I'm sure those experiments were legitimate ones, once Mary got competitive against her friends, she turned them into a twisted tale of a young science student creating a grotesque but sentient creature in an unorthodox re-animation experiment using stolen lifeless body parts from the local cemetery. In so doing, she not only gave the world its first true science-fiction story, but also launched an entire genre of horror stories, films and plays. In 1931, her idea was finally brought to life -- pun intended! -- on the silver screen, with Colin Clive playing the role of Dr. Henry Frankenstein and Boris Karloff portraying his uncontrollable monster.
#30: Dracula (1931)
The 1931 movie Dracula, based on the 1924 stage play "Dracula" by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, which in turn is loosely based on the 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, starred Bela Lugosi as the famous bloodsucker. Though Count Dracula is often incorrectly cited as having been the first vampire, he wasn't. Stoker did not invent the vampire, he simply defined its modern form. Nevertheless, his creation definitely merits notoriety, since The Count's appearance has led to a string of entertaining stories being told, the most memorably lasting of which was this film that sees the ancient vamp arrive in England and begin to prey upon the virtuous young Mina.
#31: Sleepaway Camp (1983)
This is basically your stereotypical children-go-to-camp story, except for all the inexplicable deaths that follow them there... and, of course, THAT ENDING!!! Notice the all-caps and the three exclamation points? That's because whatever you think is really happening at Camp Out-of-Whack -- err, Arawak -- is not. The truth is much more twisted! If you haven't seen it yet, be prepared to discover some real strangeness out in the woods.
#32: The Strangers (2008)
Speaking of "strangeness," how about some "strangers?" They can be quite scary, too, especially when they're showing up at your door at 4 a.m. searching, but not really, for their friend Tamara. Or, maybe the truth is that these three murderous mask-wearing strangers have no motive at all, and are just bored out in the middle of nowhere? If that's the case, then good luck to the couple that falls victim to their desensitized ennui, in this case Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman. Godspeed, man!
#33 (tie): House of 1,000 Corpses (2003) & The Devil's Rejects (2005)
I had to rank both these films together because they're parts one and two of the same great horror story, that which revolves around a serial-killing family known as the Firefly clan. And frankly, as different as they are from one another, I can't decide which part I like better. One week, I'll prefer the more over-the-top part one, House of 1,000 Corpses, which deals with a group of twenty-somethings following the trail of a local serial killer named Dr. Satan, only to come across his family and be introduced to the man himself in the worst way imaginable -- by becoming their newest victims! Then, other weeks, I'll prefer the grungier part two, The Devil's Rejects, which deals with the same family, now on the run from the law, kidnapping and torturing four new people at some ho-dunk hotel, before finally offing them and attempting to set off on a new trail of fear.
#34: Misery (1990)
Driving through a blizzard in an attempt to deliver a new manuscript to his agent, Paul Sheldon, a famed romance novelist who wants to start writing more serious books, crashes his car and goes unconscious. Luckily for him, a nurse named Annie Wilkes witnesses this, takes him back to her remote cabin and quickly begins treating his injuries. Unluckily for him, though, she's also his "number one fan" and just started reading his latest romance novel. When Annie reaches the end of the writer's newest publication and learns of the death of Misery Chastain, a character she loves from that series of books, she flips her lid and refuses to let Paul go until he writes another novel entitled "Misery's Return," where he brings back the character. To ensure he doesn't try to leave before finishing this new novel, she burns the manuscript he'd just finished, tells no one of his whereabouts, locks him in his room and breaks both his ankles. Paul now has quite the struggle for survival on his hands! Surprisingly, this was the only Stephen King adaptation to be an Oscar-winning film, as it was based off his 1987 novel. It was also the only movie for which Kathy Bates ever won an Academy Award, as her portrayal of the psychotic superfan let her reign over 1990's "Best Actress" category.
#35: Vertigo (1958)
Since this is an Alfred Hitchcock film, albeit based on a French novel, there's obviously a murder plot involved. To say that it takes advantage of one San Francisco officer's vertigo, though, would be to say too much. I'd rather let you watch this classic yourself, and try to solve the pieces of this beautiful puzzle without any help from your friendly neighborhood narrator. The only thing I'll tell you going in is that nothing's as it seems, but you already know that, since that's always Hitch's modus operandi. That said, enjoy your free tour of San Francisco and I'll see you (or maybe it won't be you?) atop the staircase at Mission San Juan Bautista.
#36: Hellraiser (1987)
As gory as it is with its hook chains and puzzle box games, this franchise currently stands at nine movies and counting, although its best film is undoubtedly its first one, wherein the film world got introduced to Clive Barker's aptly-named "Pinhead" (and Pinhead's followers, the "Cenobites"). The story involves sleazy Frank Cotton escaping Hell and feasting on blood in the real world in an attempt to be "reborn." It also involves Julia, his ex-lover and the cheating wife of his brother Larry, going in on the plot by luring fresh bodies into the attic for him. In the end, though, nobody escapes Hell, because when you do, the Cenobites come after you in the most sadomasochistic ways imaginable.
#37: Basic Instinct (1992)
All I really have to say about this movie is that Sharon Stone was the best thing to happen to female serial killers since Jason's mother. She really takes Michael Douglas for a ride in this one, and in more ways than one, too. Beware the ice pick, Detective Curran!
#38: Cape Fear (1991)
The seventh of eight Robert De Niro/Martin Scorsese collaborations, this Cape Fear remake stars De Niro as Max Cady, the convicted rapist, who after doing 14 years behind bars, is now seeking revenge on his former defense counsel because he's learned of certain legal loopholes that said attorney never used, which may have exonerated him. Psychopathic as he is, though, Cady's revenge tactics end up encompassing Sam Bowden's (Nick Nolte) entire family, including his underage daughter Danielle (Juliette Lewis). Look for the cameo by Gregory Peck, star of the original 1962 version, as Max's new attorney.
#39: The Thing (1982)
In 1951, Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks released the first version of this movie, called The Thing from Another World, and although I also highly recommend that film, this more recent version blows it out of the water! The funny thing about this movie is that we were kind of let in on the fact that John Carpenter planned on remaking it, when in 1978, the original was the movie little Tommy Doyle was watching as Michael Myers attacked Haddonfield in Carpenter's other horror movie masterpiece, Halloween. Four years later, the alien life form with an ability to take over other bodies was again on the loose in an American Research Base, and the scientists in the Antarctic had no clue who was already taken over and who wasn't. I guess they'll just have to do some research now, won't they?
#40: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
"What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” Well, once her child stardom fizzled out, she became an alcoholic and gradually descended into mental illness, until she finally got so sick in the head that she started torturing her live-in wheelchair-bound sister and ended up killing their maid, getting herself arrested for that latter act. However, in Jane’s defense, her sister Blanche is only paralyzed now because she tried to run Jane over with a car, missed and crashed into an iron gate! So yeah, “dysfunctional” would be the best description for these two sisters who unintentionally began the “hag horror” subgenre of horror movies with their outstanding performances in this classic black-and-white film. However, legend has it that Bette Davis refused to acknowledge Joan Crawford’s role in the film’s success, setting off a feud that eventually had Joan rallying against Bette’s “Best Actress” Oscar nomination for the movie, despite the fact that the pair would lose millions if she didn't win it.
#41: Deliverance (1972)
Four Atlanta businessmen decide to canoe down a river in the remote northern Georgia wilderness, expecting to have fun and witness the area's unspoiled nature before the fictional Cahulawassee River Valley is flooded by the construction of a dam. What they end up witnessing instead is much more disturbing, as two mountain men, one who's armed with a shotgun, ticked off at the men's presence along the river, spoil their fun by physically attacking and sexually molesting them, even humiliating one by telling him to "squeal like a pig" as he rapes him. One of the friends manages to shoot that rapist dead, but the other one escapes back into the woods. Still stuck in the middle of hostile territory with a dead body and at least one man out to get them, the four men now have to make it back to their vehicle and get out of the area, in order to finally overcome this experience.
#42: Fatal Attraction (1987)
Considering that my own family fell apart because of marital infidelity on my dad's part, I had a tough time swallowing this movie. As a result, I found myself rooting for the secret to be revealed at first, but then when I found out just how psychotically that revelation would come about, I quickly found myself wishing Glenn Close off this planet instead! With such superb acting, an extremely visceral plot and some disturbing scenes, this film is at times hard to watch, but it's also completely necessary as there's a moral lesson for cheaters to take from it. I just really hope they do!
#43: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
In 1886, Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson published "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Forty-five years later, that novella got turned into a film that won Fredric March his first Academy Award, as he portrayed both characters -- Dr. Henry Jekyll, the mild-mannered man of science, and Mr. Edward Hyde, the homicidal maniac with no conscience, restrictions nor boundaries. Using Victorian London as its backdrop and a developed potion as the story's catalyst, this movie highlights the impulses toward both good and evil that every person has within themselves.
#44: The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Lon Chaney, Sr. plays the title role in this silent horror film adaptation of Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel, "Le Fantôme de l'Opéra." Playing the murderous deformed phantom, Chaney himself devised the ghastly make-up for which this movie's most remembered, and the studio was successfully able to keep it a secret until the film's premiere, when audiences everywhere were finally able to watch phantom Erik haunt the Paris Opera House in his attempt to make the woman he loves a star.
#45: Island of Lost Souls (1932)
In this adaptation of H.G. Wells' short novel, an obsessed scientist conducts profane experiments in evolution creating several half-human abominations and other mutated creations. As if that wasn't bad enough, he goes on to establish himself as their demigod, really ticking off the religious and ethical censors of the 1930s, and getting the film banned in many nations around the globe. Due to the commercial successes of films such as this one, Freaks, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Invisible Man and others, an era of pushing the boundaries erupted, which eventually led to the introduction of the infamous Hays Code banning radical scenes of horror and deviant sexuality. But since this film came out before all that could be regulated, it wasn't affected by it, and instead was held up as a standard bearer for horror movies of the Early '70s, once films finally got liberalized again.
#46: The Wolf Man (1941)
I've always thought of this film as a sort of "passing of the torch," if you will, from one generation's great horror movie actor (Bela Lugosi) to the next generation's great one (Lon Chaney, Jr.). Why? Because in this film, it was Lugosi's werewolf character that passed that condition onto Lon's titular character. In the film, Lon plays Larry Talbot, a practical man who just recently lost his brother to death, moved back home to reunite with his estranged father, fell in love with a girl, but then got bitten by a werewolf "when the wolfbane bloomed and the autumn moon was bright." Now, whenever the moon comes out, the town has a new vicious entity stalking it, but once daylight breaks, Larry can hardly remember transforming into a werewolf. The worst part is that he can't control himself when he transforms, and so one day, that poor girl he likes gets attacked by the wolf side of him until Larry's dad steps in to kill the wolf with Larry's own silver walking stick. In the end, Sir John Talbot killed his own son, but was that really such a bad thing? The town sure didn't think so!
#47: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
While the original 1956 version of this movie was, depending on who you believe, an examination of either McCarthyist conformity or encroaching communism, this remake takes things into weirder, more oblique territory, lampooning the fallout from the ’60s ideal with its lentils-and-beansprouts-natured freaks. Moving the invasion's setting from the small town in the original to the city of San Francisco in this remake, the events in this film start as Matthew Bennell notices that several of his friends are complaining that their close relatives are in some way different. When questioned later, they themselves seem changed as they deny everything or make lame excuses. As the invaders increase in numbers, they become more open about it, and Bennell, who has by now witnessed an attempted "replacement" realizes that he and his friends must escape or suffer the same fate. The question now becomes who can he trust to help him, and who has already been snatched?
#48: The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
This movie is all the reason you need to use your map if you're ever lost while driving through some unknown place. Since stubborn old fool Bob, the family's patriarch, refused to do that, the man led his family straight into a military atomic test site in the Nevada desert. One great big nuclear test later, their family car crashed into a tree and went kaputz. As Bob tried to atone for his mistake by walking back to the nearest place miles away to get some help for the family, a group of animalistic human beings, who were surely the result of the atomic testing, targeted the rest of the family. Not only did they kill the family dogs, but they also stole their baby to eat it because, as bad luck would have it, these attackers were also cannibals.
#49: The Burning (1981)
One of many Friday the 13th rip-offs that came out in the Early '80s, this surprisingly good one features summer camp caretaker Cropsy getting fire roasted when some pranksters try to scare him with a flaming skull. Five years later, after numerous failed skin grafts, Cropsy is released back into society with a horribly scarred face and even more scarred psychological make-up. Now he's got a bone to pick and returns to the same camp of his accident (after gutting a hooker in the stomach with a pair of scissors) to get revenge on the new campers populating the camp. Armed with a pair of hedge clippers, he doesn't hesitate to hack into a dozen or so foul-mouthed, oversexed teens, setting aside special interest in counselor Todd, who was one of the kids responsible for his burning. By the way, Seinfeld fans, you may want to watch this movie if you haven't already, as a young Jason Alexander co-stars in it.
#50: Poltergeist (1982)
Based on a story written by Steven Spielberg, a.k.a. the director of Jaws, and directed by Tobe Hooper, the man behind The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, comes this classic '80s supernatural horror flick about a suburban California home that's being haunted by those ghostly disturbances that parapsychologists commonly refer to as "poltergeists." In film one of this series, the malevolent ghosts abduct the family's daughter by sucking her in through the television set, forcing the girl's family to have to find the entrance into their ghostly dimension if they hope to rescue little Carol Anne from oblivion's grip.
#51: Nosferatu (1922)
Few people nowadays realize what happened with this silent horror film back when it was released. Essentially, it was just a rip-off that grew legs. Because the studio behind it was unable to obtain the rights to Bram Stoker's "Dracula," they decided to create an unauthorized adaptation anyway. Changing things to disguise the theft within this German expressionist piece, the filmmakers substituted the word "vampyre" with the word "Nosferatu," they changed the name "Count Dracula" to "Count Orlok," they even changed some details of the story, but still nobody was fooled! Stoker's heirs sued over the adaptation, and a court ruling ordered that all copies of the film be destroyed. However, as is the case with most everything that people have tried to destroy in the past, its destruction gave it new life, as word of mouth made people curious, so the few prints that survived went on to become highly influential within the realm of horror movie-making. If I hadn't told you all this, though, you'd surely appreciate the film for its stylistic ways, as it really was one of the best silent films ever made.
#52: Vacancy (2007)
Another Psycho-inspired horror movie, this one stars Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson as bickering couple Amy and David Fox, who because of late-night mechanical issues with their car, decide to overnight at a creepy-looking hotel, one that time seems to have forgotten. After checking in, David browses through the video tapes left on top of the television in their room. At first, they appear to be horror movies, but after careful observation, he realizes they are snuff films that were made in that very room. David looks around, finds the hidden camera, and concludes that they are being watched by Mason, the guy who checked them in. However, when the couple tries to leave, Mason and his henchmen quickly show that they have other intentions, and those plans revolve around silencing the duo. Now, the couple that was once at odds, needs to work together if they hope to survive this mess.
#53: The Raven (1935)
Starring two true icons of horror cinema -- Dracula's Bela Lugosi and Frankenstein's Boris Karloff -- this lesser-known work of theirs was actually the start of a trilogy of horror films. In them, a brilliant surgeon obsessed with the works of Edgar Allen Poe saves the daughter of a wealthy judge from an auto wreck and restores her completely, while simultaneously falling in love with her. However, when he can't have her, he goes mad. Picturing her as his "Lenore," the narrator's love interest in Poe's poem "The Raven," he cooks up a scheme to first kidnap the woman, and then torture and kill her fiancé and father in his Poe-inspired dungeon. Quote the madman nevermore!
#54: An American Werewolf in London (1981)
In the '80s, everybody was getting in on the werewolf craze, as evidenced by The Howling, Wolfen, Teen Wolf and more. John Landis, who is most famous for directing Animal House, wanted to get into the action by bringing us this different kind of animal, as only he could... with dark humor, gory thrills and one of cinema's most detailed human-to-wolf transformation scenes ever. By combining horror and suspense with action and humor, Landis succeeded in making a scary film about two young American men who get attacked by a werewolf during a backpacking holiday in England. One of the two is killed, while the other is transferred to a London hospital where he begins having disturbing apparitions of his deceased friend, who informs him that he is now a werewolf and will begin transforming at the sight of the next full moon. Everything that goes down after that eventually leads David to attempt suicide, in order to stop himself from killing any more people. Though the film sounds intense, it so perfectly uses humor to levity that feeling, so it actually ends up being a very entertaining experience, so much so that it spawned a sequel -- in Paris -- almost two decades later.
#55: Freaks (1932)
In 1932, director Tod Browning, fresh from his success with Dracula, was instructed by Irving Thalberg to top Frankenstein. The resulting film was considered so ghastly that it was banned in Britain for 30 years, as it featured Siamese twins, dwarves, a half-boy, a hermaphrodite, a human skeleton, armless girls and female pinheads, in a story about love, greed and revenge set in a circus. The plot is simple: Cleopatra, a beautiful trapeze artist, marries a dwarf named Hans for his inheritance money, then plots his murder with her secret lover, the circus strong man, Hercules. And though the plot is exploitive and the film's title tasteless, this film tugs at the heart, making viewers ask themselves: "What if I'd been born one of them?!"
#56: Suspiria (1977)
On a stormy night, American dancer Suzy Bannion arrives in Freiburg, Germany to join the famous and expensive ballet school where she will now be training for three years. The next morning, she is informed that a student she met the previous night was violently murdered, and that the police are investigating the crime. She becomes friends with another student, Sara, and then realizes that the house is but a coven for evil witches. Named after the Latin word for “sighs,” this Italian horror film is most remembered for its visual and stylistic flair, use of vibrant colors and its prog-rock soundtrack. Few realize that it was actually the first film in a trilogy of films that director Dario Argento refers to as “The Three Mothers,” followed in 1980 by Inferno and in 2007 by The Mother of Tears.
#57: The Wicker Man (1973)
The sheer number of '70s horror movies with modern-day remakes always surprises me, because unfortunately, the only purposes they serve is to slightly tarnish the legacies of their originals, as was again the case with this one. The Wicker Man was a movie that really didn't need to be remade because, well, it was great the first time around! Heck, silver-screen legend Sir Christopher Lee co-starred in it, and out of the 278 movies he was in, he claims Lord Summerisle was always the character he most liked playing. Let that thought sink in when deciding which version of this film to watch. But hey, as a general rule, whenever picking between a 1970s horror film and its 2000-something remake, you should ALWAYS pick the '70s one! You won't ever really go wrong that way, and you definitely won't in this case, as this movie features a real twister of a plot that'll keep you hooked right until the final twenty minutes as you realize that what appeared at first sight to be an innocent search for a missing girl really turned into a fascinating exploration of pagan rituals on a remote, sex-obsessed Scottish island.
#58: The Mummy (1932)
When the horror genre first established its roots in American cinema, the most fool-proof method of creating scares was with a good "creature feature." Few people delivered a creature as well as Boris Karloff. The mummy Imhotep was yet another example of his genius in that craft. With nothing on but his bandaging, Imhotep comes back to life to stalk a beautiful woman whom he believes to be his reincarnated lover.
#59: My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Twenty years ago, there was an accident in a coal mine in small-town Valentine Bluffs, Nova Scotia, because those in charge of securing the mine were at a Valentine's Day party. The lone surviving miner of that accident, a man named Harry Warden, later killed those distracted employees and warned the rest of the town never to arrange another Valentine's Day party again. However, twenty years later, the town's holiday celebrators are at it again, defying Warden's orders by planning a big Valentine's Day party for the entire town. As the party begins, so do the promised killings.
#60: The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)
When teenage couples in the 1940s start heading toward Lover's Lane in Texarkana, a masked psycho has other plans for them. Based on the real-life murderer "The Phantom Killer," this story tells the tale of how he created panic by attacking eight people and killing five of them. Although the killer was never caught, the killings did eventually stop, leading many folks to speculate on the whereabouts of The Phantom. Many believe he simply satisfied his blood-lust and decided to stop killing. The fact that these events really happened and that the killer may have gotten off Scott free, though, is enough to raise the hairs on the back of anyone's neck!
#61: Hostel (2005)
The thought of rich folk paying good money to murder and mutilate people is bone-chilling enough. Add to it that you've spent a chunk of time already getting to know the people they're about to murder and mutilate, all of whom are tourists staying at a local hostel, and you've found a movie idea sick enough to have been born in the twisted mind of writer/director Eli Roth.
#62: Cabin Fever (2002)
Yes, I just went back-to-back with Eli Roth films, but can you blame me? The guy is one of the more creative horror movie directors out there these days, and this film about a group of college graduates who rent a cabin in the woods only to begin falling victim to a flesh-eating virus is no different! My favorite parts of this black comedy horror film are the casting of Sean from Boy Meets World (Rider Strong) as arguably the main protagonist and the hilarity of the whole Dennis biting incident in the opening scene, but though he pulled it off perfectly with somewhat subtle hilarity, the truth of the matter is that this story wasn't always funny for Eli Roth. In fact, the inspiration for it came from his real-life experience during a trip to Iceland when Roth developed a skin infection. Thankfully, that incident was just minor and nobody ever had to lock Eli up in an outdoor toolshed!
#63: American Psycho (2000)
Starring Christian Bale as psychotic '80s yuppie Patrick Bateman, this story was adapted from the admittedly much-darker pages of Bret Easton Ellis' 20th century masterpiece about a Manhattan businessman who doubles as a serial killer. It's the end result of what would happen if Donald Trump had a child with, say, Ted Bundy. (Try getting that image out of your head!) This film did what most other book adaptations fail to do, in that it transcribed Patrick's personality to a T, from his almost-neurotic infatuation with music to his vile belief system and his competitively opulent lifestyle. So if you learn nothing else from Patrick, at least learn this -- if a guy's business card is made of better-quality paper than yours, then he definitely must be killed!
#64 (tie): The Last House on the Left (1972) & I Spit On Your Grave (1978)
These films are very similar, as they're both "sexploitation" horror films, a boundary-demolishing horror subgenre that was surprisingly popular in the '70s. In both, a girl gets raped by a group of men, and then revenge is taken -- in I Spit's case by the girl herself, but in Last House's case, by the deceased victim's family. Considering the porn industry was blossoming during that era, the ways in which revenge is taken in both films often involves more sex. For instance, in I Spit, a handjob leads to a dismembering, whereas in Last House, oral gratification leads to a jawing clamp-down. Both movies are done in an unnerving style, with Wes Craven's Last House being a slightly better, more complete film, but Meir Zarchi's I Spit focusing more on the feminist response to such an assault. Both movies have stood the test of time and even spawned remakes during this latest century thanks to most people's morbid curiosity and a lot of word of mouth, but in reality, neither is an easy film to watch. Provocative and groundbreaking? Definitely. For the faint of heart? Absolutely not.
#65: The Purge (2013)
To control overpopulation and the like, once a year for a 12-hour period, any and all crime, including murder, gets legalized. Although this is something that definitely would never REALLY happen, I find this movie's only fault lies in the fact that, in it, nobody goes out trying to rob a bank. It's all just -- murder, murder, murder. Frankly, I feel like there are a lot more people who'd rather be millionaires than murderers, but maybe that's just me? Either way, this is a great concept for a horror movie!
#66: Candyman (1992)
Playing off the "Bloody Mary" urban legend, the spirit of Daniel Robitaille will come back from the dead and commit some horrible murders if you speak the name "Candyman" five times into a mirror. But really, can you blame the dude? After all, he grew up during the Civil War, the son of a slave. After falling in love and fathering a child with a white woman, he was lynched by a mob that was hired by his lover’s father. They cut off his painting hand and replaced it with a hook, the same one with which he now kills. Then, he was smeared with honey, prompting the locals to chant “Candyman” as bees stung him to death. I can't blame him for wanting revenge, but when you see just how gruesome his murders are, you also can't really side with the guy. Really, the best course of action is to just NOT speak his name!
#67: It (1990)
This made-for-TV mini-series, that in 1990 ran on ABC from November 18 to November 20, did a great job of jamming a book with more than 1,000 pages into two 90-minute "parts" that're now distributed as one very long but enjoyable film. Pennywise is a shape-shifting demon who feeds off of the imagination of its victims in the town of Derry, Maine, most notably while in the form of a clown. The first part of the mini-series takes place in 1960, when a group of seven children called the "Losers Club" first encounter and defeat Pennywise, vowing to return some day if ever it returns. Inevitably, in the second part, it does, thirty years later, after all but one of those kids has moved out of the town. That kid, Mike, who's now a successful adult, hears about the mysterious, unexplained death of a little girl, and instantly suspects Pennywise. As such, he calls up all his equally-successful old pals, and they all get together again for round two, again vanquishing the demon clown to finally try to move on with their lives. But can such an evil entity ever really die?
#68: Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)
Alice Spages is a withdrawn 12-year-old girl who lives with her mother, Catherine, and her younger sister, Karen. Karen (who is played by a very young Brooke Shields in her first-ever cinematic performance) gets most of the attention from her mother, and Alice is often left out of the spotlight. But when Karen is found brutally murdered in a church before her First Holy Communion, all suspicions are turned toward Alice. But is a 12-year-old girl really capable of such savagery? Guess you'll just have to watch to find out!
#69: Piranha (1978)
Some say Roger Corman only released this film to poke fun at the movie Jaws, which had come out three years earlier. Whether or not that's true, it became a cult classic since it was released at the height of camp-themed horror movies, and it too fit that mold. What would you do if flesh-eating piranhas were accidently released into your summer resort's rivers?
#70: Creepshow (1982)
Based on the E.C. comics of the '50s and possibly inspired by the supernatural-themed 1964 Japanese film Kwaidan, this movie is a compilation of five stories told as if they were being read from a horror anthology titled Creepshow. Although zombie maestro George A. Romero directed this film, writer Stephen King is the one who appears in it. You can look for him as Jordy Verrill, a not-too-bright farmer whose entire life gets taken over by plant-life after a meteor crashes in his backyard.
#71: The Ring (2002)
A remake of a 1998 Japanese horror film (Ringu) that itself is an adaptation of a novel written by the same guy (KĂ´ji Suzuki) who helped co-write both films, everybody and their mothers has seen the American version of this movie and knows it as "the one with the creepy black-haired girl." However, there's lots more to love here than just spooky Samara Morgan (or Sadako Yamamura, if you're watching the Japanese version), as the premise is one of the more original ones we've come across in recent horror movie-making. There exists a VHS cassette tape that, upon playing it, causes its viewers to die within a week. Once Naomi Watts' journalist Rachel gets her hands on a copy of the tape, she goes on a mission to try to learn more about its curse, a journey that eventually leads her to freeing Samara's dead body from the bottom of a well, but never really ending the tape's curse because, well... $$$ remakes $$$.
#72: Re-Animator (1985)
Part horror and part comedy, this movie is essentially a social commentary on what can happen when you become mad with power, in this case the power to re-animate bodies. However, considering that this is mostly just a sardonically comedic spoof on Frankenstein and other such movies, it is taken to the extreme, leading to a climax -- yes, pun intended! -- where the severed head of a male professor is "eating out" the tied-up girlfriend of one of his students, in a room full of klutzy reanimated corpses that have been spliced together with other people's dead bodies.
#73: Identity (2003)
Not quite as good as Psycho, but slightly better than Secret Window, this is what would have happened had the two movies merged into one. Don't worry, I'm not going to reveal anything more than that.
#74: Fright Night (1985)
One of those uber-campy-but-super-fun '80s horror movies, this one revolves around a teenager who learns that his next-door neighbor is a real-life vampire. But when nobody believes him, not even his girlfriend -- played by Married with Children's Amanda Bearse -- the kid decides to hire the help of Peter Vincent, a former T.V. vampire hunter who now hosts a late-night show called Fright Night. Although Mr. Vincent doesn't believe Charley's story because he doubts the existence of vampires, he really could use the money because his show is now being pulled off the air, so he comes along for the ride. Little does he know, he's about to get sucked into an undead world of terror because Charley wasn't wrong about what he saw.
#75: Cujo (1983)
What happens when a friendly dog gets bitten by a bat and contracts rabies? Well, apparently, Hell hath no fury like a St. Bernard scorned! Despite the fact that the 1981 novel won the British Fantasy Award and was generally well-received, author Stephen King wrote it during a period when he was drinking heavily, so he barely even remembers putting pen to paper. About the only thing he does remember about that novel is that he based Cujo's name on the nom de guerre of Willie Wolfe, one of the men responsible for orchestrating Patty Hearst's kidnapping and indoctrination into the Symbionese Liberation Army. When the film came out two years later, Stephen admitted to truly enjoying it and wished he could remember more about the creative process behind the dog's formation. But essentially, the story's a simple one: a dog contracts rabies and then torments two families -- the Trentons and the Cambers -- in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine.
#76: The Amityville Horror (1979)
Based on the 1977 book by Jay Anson, this franchise has so far spawned 13 sequels, which is more than A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream combined. The book claimed to be a true story, and though its truth has been questioned in various lawsuits since then, the series does appear to have a historical basis, as Ronald DeFeo, Jr. shot and killed six members of his family at 112 Ocean Avenue, a large Dutch Colonial house situated in a suburban neighborhood in Amityville, on the south shore of New York's Long Island, on November 13, 1974. A year later, in November 1975, he was convicted of second-degree murder. A month after that, George and Kathy Lutz and their three children moved into the house. Just 28 days later, the Lutzes left the home, claiming to have been terrorized by paranormal phenomena while living there. In 1979's most-well known film of the series, James Brolin and Margot Kidder portray the terrorized couple, and the part of the priest who blesses the house (renamed Father Delaney in the film) was played by Academy Award-winning actor Rod Steiger. The first three Amityville films received a theatrical release, while the fourth film was made for television by NBC. The sequels from the 1990s were released direct to video, and contain virtually no material relating to the Lutz family or the DeFeo murders. Instead, they've concentrated on the paranormal phenomena caused by cursed items supposedly linked to the house.
#77: Secret Window (2004)
Mort Rainey, a novelist suffering from writer's block in the midst of a divorce, retreats to his secluded cabin in upstate New York. Once there, a man named John Shooter confronts him and claims that one of Mort's novels was ripped-off from a manuscript John had written. Mort doesn't agree, so he calls the man a "lunatic" and goes about his business. Afterward, though, John starts terrorizing Mort until... well, let's just say that it goes on until Mort starts seeing things John's way. *Wink.*
#78: The People Under the Stairs (1991)
Since his mom's dying of cancer and his family's about to be evicted from their apartment in the ghetto, money's tight for young "Fool" (real name: Poindexter). Therefore, he decides to help rob a rich brother and sister duo who are said to have a lot of gold stashed away in their house. Once he and a young Ving Rhames finally get into the uberly-secured house, they learn that the home is virtually inescapable, that the "couple" living there are psychotic baby stealers and that there's a horde of cannibalistic cast-aside kids who haven't been fed in a long time living in the basement. Fortunately for Poindexter, the couple's "child" Alice is there to help lead him through this rabbit hole.
#79 (tie): Child’s Play (1988) & Puppet Master (1989)
Everybody knows Chucky, the notorious "Lakeshore Strangler" serial killer whose spirit now inhabits a doll made by the ironically-named "Good Guy" company, since he's had another sequel made every time he tries to transfer his soul from the doll to a human body. However, due to it's direct-to-video release the following year, less people know the other murderous dolls from the Late '80s, all of which were brought to life by a psychic using an Egyptian spell. No matter which of the animated possessed killers you prefer, they all need to be ranked together because, really, they're essentially the same thing, and both have spawned a large number of sequels.
#80: Prom Night (1980)
I'm so old that I actually own this movie on VHS! Oh well, at least I own it, which allows me the opportunity of watching the "Scream Queen" do her thing whenever I want. In this particular film, a group of high school seniors are targeted by a mysterious masked killer in revenge for their culpability in the accidental death of a young girl six years earlier. The anniversary of the incident falls on the night of their senior prom -- hence the title! -- when the older sister of the dead girl (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) is being crowned "Prom Queen." Any guesses as to who'll win this battle?
#81: Children of the Corn (1984)
"He Who Walks Behind The Rows" in the fictitious rural town of Gatlin, Nebraska, is a malevolent entity and cauliflower-looking demon that entices the children of the town to ritually murder all the adults in order to ensure a successful corn harvest. Atmospherically eerie and slow-moving at times, the danger of young and impressionable minds blindly following extremist religious leaders like the child-preacher Isaac is certainly an interesting theme. Unfortunately, there wasn't more material for the movie's makers to work off of, as this franchise-launching movie was based off a 1977 short story by -- who else? -- Stephen King. Also of note, 1995's sequel, Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest, provided Charlize Theron with her first-ever role as an uncredited follower of Eli. So in a round-about way, The Italian Job, The Devil's Advocate, A Million Ways to Die in the West, Monster, Mad Max: Fury Road, North Country, etc., would not exist if not for this creepy cult film starring blond children with strange eyes.
#82: It Follows (2014)
This is the type of movie that you either love or hate, but few remain undecided. If nothing else, it's original, which I like. The story is that there is an unknown supernatural force that wants to kill the ever-changing last person to receive its curse. And how does one receive it? Through sex. So if you're being chased by this relentless entity trying to murder you, the only way to rid yourself of it, is by engaging in sex with another person, thus transmitting it to them. Most people seem to agree that the murderer in this movie is the personification of an STD, but that's never been confirmed outright, so just consider this tidbit some food for thought... and always wear a rubber!
#83: The Evil Dead (1981)
The film focuses on five college students vacationing at an isolated cabin in a remote wooded area. After they find an audiotape that releases a legion of demons and spirits, members of the group suffer from demonic possession, leading to increasingly gory mayhem. Sam Raimi had to produce the short film Within the Woods as a "prototype" first, in order to build interest for his potential investors, a project that eventually secured the director $90,000 USD for this end-goal of a movie. It also secured him investor Ivan Shapiro, who helped get the film screened at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. Bruce Campbell, who played the film's star Ash Williams, and the rest of the B-movie cast on this low-budget horror film had to undergo an extremely uncomfortable filming process locked in a remote cabin in Newport, Tennessee. However, despite all of these goings-on, the movie still wouldn't have even gotten off the ground, let alone spawned two sequels and a remake as one of the most successful cult films of all-time, if not for the rave reviews of Stephen King, who cited it as one of his favorite movies, and thus made its eventual-distributor New Line Cinemas take notice.
#84: The Lost Boys (1987)
I loved this film as a kid and it has always stayed at the top of my vampire genre list, so you could bet I was plenty surprised when I found out that this little jewel of '80s cinema was directed by Joel Schumacher, the man who all but massacred the Batman franchise. Flawed but eminently watchable, this horror-comedy about two Arizona brothers who move to California where they end up fighting a gang of young vampires clearly references the "Lost Boys" in J. M. Barrie's stories about Peter Pan and Neverland, who, like the vampires, never grow up. The film's best element is the fact that it doesn't take itself very seriously, so it's full of great one liners, comedic performances and small touches. Yes, we still have the usual vampire yarn, but the youthful overtones create a different effect, as Schumacher created a film that is not only a fun take on vampires, but a creative take on teenagers and their neverending trek to belong.
#85: Them! (1954)
For some strange reason, my fiancée is really afraid of ants, so imagine how much she'd freak if this movie of atomic tests in New Mexico causing common ants to mutate into giant man-eating monsters that threaten our civilization were to ever come true. The funny thing about this film is that it is so old that you can actually see the strings on some of the fake enlarged ants, if you look closely enough.
#86: Fade to Black (1980)
Dennis Christopher stars as a young film buff with no sense of a real family, no friends and an obsessive need to live vicariously through films. Once he loses all sense of reality, he begins to act out the violence he sees in movies on the people closest to him. This film does a good job of overcoming some obvious budgetary constraints due to its original premise and the likable way it pays tribute to some superb films. Another bonus: a very young Mickey Rourke. Good luck finding it on DVD or Blu-Ray, though, as it hasn't yet made the transfer from VHS.
#87: The Hitcher (1986)
Jim's mom told him never to pick up hitchhikers, but Jim -- whom most of you may recognize as Ponyboy Curtis from The Outsiders -- chose to ignore her while transporting a car from Chicago to San Diego... and it just may have been the biggest (and final!) mistake of his life because the person he picked up, Mr. John Ryder, turned out to be a brooding serial killer! A simple allegory in which John Ryder represents evil, this film presents him as the most hilariously-relentless madman possibly of all-time, which makes this movie a must-watch for horror fans that like their action to be non-stop.
#88: The Conjuring (2013)
I don't know if it's the shaky camera work, the old creepy farmhouse setting, the rare lack of gore or sex in this film, the fact that the script was written without pointless filler or something else, but for some reason, this movie seems way more realistic than all those other 2000s supernatural-themed ones that I didn't much care for, such as Paranormal Activity, Insidious and The Grudge. So if you're into this subject matter and you're someone who likes your horror served with appetizing scares and a cauldron of suspense, this is the one I'd recommend for you.
#89: The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
From Joss Whedon, the same guy who brought you Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel (and brought some actors from both those universes into this project), comes a film involving five stereotypical friends -- a jock, a slut, a party guy, a nerd and a virgin -- who go to a cabin in the woods to party and get away from it all. Trouble is, it's never really safe to go to a cabin in the woods, now is it? It becomes exponentially less safe when you start investigating a cellar with a door that flings itself open. (Hehe!) But seriously, the less you know about this movie, the more you'll enjoy it.
#90: I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
I know what they did last summer, too: they accidentally ran somebody over while driving super fast and somewhat drunk. Worse yet, they didn't even admit their mistake and deal with the consequences of it, but rather just rolled the dude into a lake and promised never to speak of the incident again. However, like me, somebody else knows this truth, and it's a funny thing about karma -- she can be a real tough-@$$ when she wants to be. Kids, let this movie be a lesson in why you should always be honest about things like this, because if you're not, sometimes the "good result" can turn out to be even worse than what-would've-been the "bad result," meaning that your friends can die by the hook of a slighted fisherman. Any questions?
#91: Stigmata (1999)
The story of a non-religious girl receiving the wounds of Christ, a.k.a. "the stigmata," leads to big trouble for the Catholic church, eventually even making a priest reconsider his faith. This movie, which shows just how far the Church will go to keep stuff quiet, is also one of the most visually stunning films of modern horror.
#92: The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Those watching this film nowadays are probably wondering why this movie did so well at the box office and what exactly was so scary about it. I'd ask myself the same thing if I hadn't been around to watch the marketing of this film. Back in 1999, people went to go watch this film under the assumption that it was actually a true story, and that these three student filmmakers really did disappear in the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland. THAT's what made it so scary! Since then, the truth has come out that they didn't, and that the whole thing was basically just an innovative cash-grab hoax of a film, but in pulling their stunt off so brilliantly, this film basically paved the way for an entire genre of "found footage" horror films and movies telling you that they're "based on a true story" when they're truly not.
#93: The Craft (1996)
Women will like this movie because it's a feminist's wet dream: witchy women using spells to get revenge on those who spited them. Guys will like this movie because it features four young women in schoolgirl outfits displaying naughty behavior. No matter which camp you fall into, though, this movie's always fun to watch!
#94: Final Destination (2000)
When death is meant to get you, it will get you... and there's little, if anything, that you can do to change that. That's a simple-enough premise and this is a fun-enough franchise to just barely make it onto our list. Fans of these movies watch it hoping that their favorite characters make it out alive, although they're typically let down in the end. If you liked, say, Urban Legend, then you'll probably also like this series.
#95: Unfriended (2014)
Some viewers had a hard time with the shaky camera work or the excessive reading involved while watching this movie, but not me. Honestly, I was just delighted to see somebody trying something different within the horror realm again. Although the ending didn't live up to the rest of the movie, I still appreciated the effort in trying to make a horror film that exclusively relates to Generation Z by using their tech savviness to serve up some iScares.
#96: Leprechaun (1993)
Another ridiculous-yet-oh-so-fun '90s horror movie, this one features "small person" Warwick Davis playing a nearly 1,000-year-old sadistic leprechaun who had his "pot o' gold" stolen from him by Dan O'Grady. But before Dan can enjoy his newfound wealth back here in the good ol' U.S. of A., the irritated leprechaun follows him all the way to America and tries to kill him to get it back. Dan neutralizes the little bugger by locking him in the closet, but 10 years later, the leprechaun manages to get out, this time with even worse anger management issues than before. Now, nobody's safe from his fun-sized murderous ways!
#97: Terror Train (1980)
What happens when you take the train idea from a great film such as Murder on the Orient Express, and you mix it together with some of David Copperfield's magic tricks, some of Jamie Lee Curtis' screaming ability, some frat kids who three years earlier pulled a prank so bad it landed someone in a mental asylum and a large New Year's Eve costume party with an uninvited masked guest? You get this classic addition to the slasher subgenre of horror films.
#98: The Howling (1981)
This film revolves around a female news anchor who is helping the police track down a serial killer who's taken an interest in her. Well, everything goes just awful and she ends up traumatized. Her shrink suggests that she and her husband take a comfortable, soothing vacation to The Colony, a community to which he belongs, but the residents there appear to be a little on the harrier side, if you know what I mean. ("Ahh-wooooooo!")
#99: Tremors (1990)
Tired of living in boring Perfection, Nevada, two repairmen are about to skip town when they happen upon a series of mysterious deaths, which they later learn are caused by giant, underground worm-like monsters who are hungry for human flesh. Suddenly, life in a small desert town doesn't seem all that predictable anymore, does it? ... and California thought THEY had it bad!
#100: The Blob (1958)
The horror movie elitists absolutely HATE this movie! They can kiss my butt, though, because I love it! There's just something about watching such as simple a concept as a space blob attaching itself to an old man's hand, then engulfing that old man, followed by a nurse, a doctor, and so on... until it is a huge mass of jelly-like substance squeezing through small openings and killing anything and everything in its path that just makes for enjoyable viewing. To think that a meteorite could bring on something that cheesy and have it essentially start taking down the human race is just hilariously fun. And obviously, I ain't the only one that thinks this way, because some 30 years later, this movie was remade, this time without a fresh-faced Steve McQueen starring in it.
