1. The Exorcist (1973 )- So much has been said and written about this movie that we hardly feel that our two bits will make the slightest difference, YET, we are among the few people that actually find the opening sequence as brilliantly effective and crucial to setting the tone for what is to follow. This is a marvelous horror film - one that could have ended up being laughable had it been treated differently. Though there were reports of modern audiences laughing during recent screenings in Britain where the film had been ridiculously banned as a "video nasty" for several years - one also laughs when nervous or tense. The film is a quarter of a century old yet still has the power to scare, an achievement in itself considering all the horrors of this century are not in monsters and creatures that suck blood and devour human flesh. There is far too much real, tangible horror around us in our everyday lives for us to feel threatened any longer by a Dracula, a Frankenstein or indeed Satan. The Exorcist is, by a whisker the most frightening experience that we have enjoyed in a cinema. Most Memorable Moment: well, that voice!
Rated 95 on the Scary Scale.
2. Halloween (1978) - visually stunning, poetry in motion of a terror ride with nothing much happening, yet the tension is almost unbearable. Perhaps the most imitated movie of the last twenty years or so, it has lost the power to shock because we audiences have become so accustomed to the "rules" of the horror movie genre as cleverly pointed out to us in "Scream". BUT, Halloween was indeed the first, or nearly the first to take the stalker idea to unprecedented, murderous heights. Halloween is THE classic Psycho on the loose horror movie of all time. The gliding visual point of view camera, the tinkling eerie score, the use of shadows and oh that agonizing, stark tension. What a huge masterpiece.
Most Memorable Moment:"he's still not dead" - and any of the stalking scenes after Michael escapes from the sanitorium are incredibly tense.
Rating 94 on the Scary Scale.
3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) - Left me shell shocked for several days. The first death scene is so absolutely shocking and presented with such cold starkness that it's almost too real to be bearable. Followed by such shockers like the girl being slowly let down onto a meat hook which is hooking into the back of her head. She tries desperately to climb off the hook, but to no avail. There was an expectancy of such brutal horror materializing from nowhere in this film that even an open doorway into the darkness of night presents a terrifying prospect. There are elements of black humour here, but obscured by the monstrous horrors on display. It just takes the sound of that grotesque chainsaw sputtering to life to make the hairs on one's neck stand up. The film is an incredible terror ride, and more incredible for the fact that having watched it and felt as though you have just visited a slaughterhouse, there is hardly a drop of blood shown in the entire movie. Tobe Hooper has created a masterpiece of horror that suggests so much outright violence and mayhem that you can swear that you have seen it, even though you haven't. Indeed the most terrifying aspect of the movie is actually embedded in the name itself, another masterstroke of triggering the mind to all sorts of horror's. A brilliant movie in every sense and one of the greatest horror movies ever. Most Memorable Moment: one of many is Leatherface's first appearance - pure shocking majesty.
Horror Rating: 92.
The above films are in a category of terror way above the rest of the list which is presented in an order that tends to change with mood from time to time. Note that there is no place for either Scream or The Blair Witch Project, probably because the writer has become immune to scary movies over the years...but the search for a new height in terror goes on and on...its a disease, a terrible curse!
4. The Vanishing (Spoorloos) (1988) A brilliant film about our obsessions and the frequently blurred margin between genius and madness, sanity and sickness, normalcy and lurking madness, and the devastating premonitions that we all have, that go quite unnoticed. A twisting, winding psychological journey, utterly compelling, with the most devastating climax scene ever (recently borrowed in a dire Hollywood thriller). Whatever you do, please don't reveal it to your friends, and please, please however desperate you may be, under no circumstances watch the horribly compromised Hollywood remake made surprisingly by the same "sell out" director. The original remains one the truly great psychological horror films ever made. Sublime. Most Memorable Moment: the haunted Rex Hoffman finally finds out how he lost his girlfriend - one of the most harrowing and bone chilling scenes in cinema.
Horror Rating: 87%
5. Psycho (1960) - The "Mother" of modern horror. A superlative, utterly compelling shocker, superbly acted, directed and scored. It has certainly lost some of its power to shock over the years as it has become established as an internationally recognized icon and one of the most parodied and "borrowed" sources for stuff like TV commercials and other movies. Yet, it remains THE class act among horror movies and has, like the other horror classics to stand up to a million repeat viewings. Each new viewing brings forward something new to admire and focus on, such is the depth of Hitchcock's masterpiece shocker. Laced with cyanide black humour and another of Saul Bass's fabulous title sequence's which stand a world apart, still. Bernard Herrmann's score is undoubtedly the most influential one in movie composing history - there can be little argument on that topic. His genius elevated this film to its incredible heights and it is in his shadow that Pino Donnaggio developed into a wonderful, let's face it, clone of Herrmann in all those De Palma homage's to Hitch. Most Memorable Moment: Something or someone is moving up to the shower very ominously indeed! - the brilliant bit before the knife comes down.
Horror Rating: 85%
6. Exorcist 3 (The Legion) (1990) - OK, so most people HATE this film and we think the reason is that most people went to see it expecting the same kind of stuff that was on display in the fantastic first installment. There must have been some trepidation after part 2, but most people had managed to somehow expunge that atrocity from memory. Yet, when Exorcist 3 came out, it was a huge disappointment to so many people because there was none of the possession stuff in evidence. That aside, the film is terrifically scary if you can manage to follow the admittedly convoluted plot. The idea is terrifying, and it logically connects with the first film and indeed was written by the author of The Exorcist as the legitimate follow up. William Peter Blatty, the author of what is said to be the fifth biggest selling novel of all time in the US, directed this installment. He has managed to create feeling of pure menace. A film that is disturbing and unsettling and has some genuine shocks and is probably the "newest" of the films that has managed to scare us just a wee bit. Its no classic, and the last five minutes are risible, but otherwise there is a lot of malevolence seeping through this film. Its dark and brooding and we feel, very scary indeed. Most Memorable Moment: hard to say really; the confession scene is particularly effective.
Horror Rating: 83%
7. The Haunting (1963) - and before you all stop reading any further...I am referring to Robert Wise's terrific black and white masterpiece from the early 60's and not Jan De Bont's 1999 mockery. In this movie, Wise manages to breathe life into his haunted house from the very opening frames of the movie. The house virtually comes to life and looms ever ominously - casting black, jagged shadows in the most awkward and unnatural manner. The movie is choc full of atmosphere and is surely the most chilling haunted house film of them all. Remarkably, Wise went on to make a fortune directing The Sound of Music which to numerous people is even more frightening a prospect then The Haunting! Most Memorable Moment:
Horror Rating: 81%
8. Don't Look Now (1973) - A brilliant psychological horror film. All menace, brooding evil, shadows, visions, colours. Great use of colour to represent evil. A corrosive, uncomfortable sort of experience.....subtle, but ultimately devastating horror film. Works as much on the surface as just below it, and that horrifying ending is a gutting experience. A masterfully sinister experience, reeking of evil and those forces unseen. Most Memorable Moment: That grinning vile thing that reveals finally reveals itself!
Horror Rating: 80%
9. Jaws (1975) - Needs no introduction nor any further acclaim. This movie was as frightening as any and had sequences that were pared down horror of the most brilliant kind. Exhilarating, terrifying and thoroughly entertaining with a killer soundtrack to boot. Despite the numerous non scary sequences, those that are scary are bloody scary and certainly propel this movie into our top horror's list. Remember the guy who was chomped on the raft? well, I went to College with him - what a sad life, when your main claim to fame is having gone to College with a fellow (Jeffrey Voorhees) who was devoured in Jaws. . Most Memorable Moment: the head scene is just a huge shock but the really scary scenes are when the shark in menacing - surely the opening scene and the scene with the two fisherman and the rubber tyre.
Horror Rating: 78%
10. Tourist Trap (1979) - Bizarre film that creeps into the top ten is a hybrid of some of the best modern horror films. Trap is a blatant cross between Psycho, Texas Chainsaw with Carrie thrown in for good measure. Pino