The 20 Greatest Horror Movies …

Do you like scary movies? Of course you do. Halloween is a upon us, and since a lot of horror lists are popping up online, it’s time for some recommendations, both from myself and our readers.

Horror is a genre that’s meant to make you feel something, both viscerally and emotionally. The following twenty films are seminal in my book. They all suck you into their stories. In truth, horror has always been worthy of respect, and these titles are the prime examples of that.

1) “The Exorcist” (William Friedkin)
2) “The Shining” (Stanley Kubrick)
3) “Psycho” (Alfred Hitchcock)
4) “Rosemary’s Baby” (Roman Polanski)
5) “Night of the Living Dead” (George A. Romero)
6) “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (Tobe Hooper)
7) “Halloween” (John Carpenter)
8) “Don’t Look Now” (Nicolas Roeg)
9) “Carrie” (Brian De Palma)
10) “The Thing” (John Carpenter)
11) “The Blair Witch Project” (Myrick/Sanchez)
12) “The Omen” (Richard Donner)
13) “Nosferatu” (F.W. Murnau)
14) “Alien” (Ridley Scott)
15) “The Fly” (David Cronenberg)
16) “Diabolique” (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
17) “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” (Robert Aldrich)
18) “Audition” (Takashi Miike)
19) “The Haunting” (Robert Wise)
20) “The Others” (Alejandro Amenabar)

Maybe the most “controversial” pick here is “The Blair Witch Project,” but people forget just how terrifying it was for movie audiences to watch this movie at the time. It’s the most influential horror flick of the last 25 years. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez' ground-breaker started one of the most influential cinematic movements of the 21st century: The "found footage" genre. It set the standard for how the next 15 years of horror movies would look like ("Paranormal Activity," "REC," Cloverfield”) and even leaked into drama ("End of Watch," “Chronicle”).

So, why “The Exorcist”? Friedkin's spooky film was one of the first to tackle exorcisms, gore and psychological terror, all with such tightly-knit fervor. Stepping back from the gore, the film is actually about a young girl's loss of innocence. It still leaves me in a shaken state of perpetual horror.

The actual “best” film on this list of 20 is probably Kubrick’s “The Shining.” I’ve already written about how it was met with lukewarm reviews upon its release, nearly 43 years ago, now it's considered an essential  addition to his canon of films. Who can forget little Danny Torrance uttering REDRUM or a frighteningly possessed Jack Nicholson huffing and puffing his way into the bathroom door with an axe and delivering a menacing "Here's Johnny!" "The Shining" not only refuses to play by the rules of the horror genre, it just refuses to play by the rules, period. Jack’s descent into demonic madness isn't just horrifying, it's hypnotic, especially when he goes over the edge and attempts to kill his wife and telepathic son.

I’ve seen Hitchcock’s "Psycho” around half a dozen times and it gets better with every viewing. It was taboo-breaking at the time, also met with dubious reactions. "Psycho" was unprecedented in its depiction of not just violence (cue the famous shower scene), but sexuality as well. For example, in "Psycho" we see two lovers sharing, oh my gosh, the same bed, with the woman wearing a bra, something that was somewhat shocking back in the day. Bernard Hermann's iconic, screeching score is also an all-timer. Traditional plotting was thrown out of the window — main characters were killed off mid-way through. An anything goes atmosphere can be the most frightening way to tell a story.

NOTE: As far as modern-day horror goes, there’s no shortage of great recommendations. Last year, I wrote up about my personal picks, all released in the 21st century.