Vault of Horror has organized a list of the 50 greatest horror movies of all time, tallying the input of the Internet's most well-known horror critics (myself included, along with the likes of Final Girl's Stacie Ponder, Horror Film's Magazine's Wes Fierce, and John W. Morehead of Theofantastique, just for starters.)I don't want to spoil the list here -- which is damned good by my estimation -- so go take a long peek at it. I'll just "tease" the results here with some of the "stats" on the list that Vault of Horror has assembled.
No movie in the top 12 was made in the last 25 years.
No movie in the top 14 was made in the last 10 years.
Only one movie in the top 26 was made in the last 20 years.
Four of the top 10, and 3 of the top 5, were made in the 1970s.
Directors listed most times: John Carpenter & Tobe Hooper (3).
Three silent films.
One TV movie.
Two non-feature length films.
Two great films that didn't make this top fifty list but which I esteem rather highly are Don't Look Now (1973) and Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975). But I just don't see much to quibble with here. (Except number 38 on the list, which I must disavow: I didn't vote for it...)
Regardless, it was a great honor to be involved in the polling on this list, and I applaud all the effort, time and energy that Vault of Horror put into wrangling it!
Thanks, John! It was my pleasure.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested to read what you specific list contained. And I agree about Picnic At Hanging Rock and Don't Look Now being sadly absent. I would also include Repulsion, The Changeling (which I know you did not care much for), as well as many others.
ReplyDelete-Eric-
Hey Eric,
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing.
I actually really love The Changeling (1980). I gave it a four star (out of four...) review in my book Horror Films of the 1980s.
In fact, there's even a litle homage to The Changeling (of sorts) in my House Between episode "Distressed."
My top ten list for the Vault of Horror survey actually looked like this:
1. Psycho (1960)
2. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
3. The Exorcist (1973)
4. Don't Look Now (1973)
5. Halloween (1978)
6. John Carpenter's The Thing (1981)
7. Alien (1979)
8. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
9. Dawn of the Dead (1979)
10. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Of course, that's how I felt the day I wrote it.
Some movies shift in position (and some pop on and off the list...) now and again.
Critic's prerogative and all...
best,
JKM
Night of the Living Dead didn't make your top 10? For shame...
ReplyDeleteI could write for days on this topic. Perhaps it's time for me to get off my lazy ass and write a blog post...