Friday Top Five / Horror Movie Month: The Best Horror Films

I know, I know. It's only Thursday. Tomorrow is going to be a super busy day for me and I know I won't have time to post, so the Friday Top Five is coming a day early this week. This will probably be my last Horror Movie Month related post, so I figured I better make it a good one. I've focused on the best remakes and sequels, and the best horror movies of the last twenty years. Now it's time for my list of the best horror films of all time.

05. Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)
If you haven't seen this movie, maybe you've seen Darren Aronofsky's 2010 film Black Swan starring Natalie Portman. That movie is pretty heavily influenced by Suspiria (without the lesbian action anyway) which focuses on an elite ballet school in Germany and the naive American student who comes there to study. Oh, and witches, too! Argento is more or less the master of horror, and Suspiria is his best film, far and away. He has a knack for making normal, everyday things seem terrifying, such as the rain or even the closing of an automatic door. Everything is terrifying in the world of Argento, and everything is unsettling too. I think this is partially because the musical scores to his films never quite fit with the film. They are always loud and abrasive, coming and going, and it always keeps the mood tense, as if anything can happen at any moment. And when your dance school is really a coven of witches, I guess anything CAN happen.

04. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
What's scarier than being in an isolated hotel in the middle of nowhere in the dead of winter? Maybe the fact that your son goes around saying "Redrum" in the creepiest of creepy voices. Or maybe it's the fact that your husband goes stark raving mad at some point. Shelley Duvall does not have it easy in The Shining, that's for sure! The hotel is haunted by waves of blood and twin girls who are now iconic (and still creep me out). The Shining is so beautifully filmed, the imagery is so unforgettable and haunting. Stephen King (who wrote the book) may not have been happy with this movie, but it's an actual masterpiece, a film that builds on atmosphere and tension all while speeding to its epic, twisted ending.

03. Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)
There's not really much more to be said about a movie that is so iconic and terrifying. It is a classic, a movie that you can watch over and over (and I watch it every year) and it never gets old. In fact, I might even argue that it gets better with time. It's just such a well crafted tale of a psychotic child who murders his sister and spends his life in a mental institution. When he breaks free, he returns home and becomes fixated on a pretty teenager. Then he begins to murder her friends one by one. I like that there is no rational explanation for the behavior of Michael Myers in this first film. All the mythology comes much later. In this first film, Michael is just a man who starts killing people in a small town for no apparent reason. And what's scarier than that?

02. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
Here's the thing about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre - there is almost no blood, no gore, no gross out moments. Instead, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is so terrifying because it's so nihilistic. This is a movie that is deeply perverse and deeply affecting. It's non-stop and it's raw and gritty. It's the absolute opposite of today's slick, music video horror movies aimed at pretty teenagers and starring even prettier teenagers. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is an absolute classic and powerful film with an ending so twisted and wonderful that I get chills just thinking about it. As far as slasher films go, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is the best there ever has been, and the best there ever will be. Hundreds of movies can try too hard to be even a percentage of how good this movie is without even trying.

01. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
I never thought of Psycho as a horror movie until very recently, and when it donned on me that Psycho is, in fact, probably the grandfather of every other horror movie in existence, well, how could I not re-arrange my list to make Psycho number one? Without Psycho there would be no Halloween, no A Nightmare on Elm Street, no Scream. Alfred Hitchcock absolutely revolutionized the way films were made. He paid for Psycho from his own wallet because everyone thought the movie was "too dirty." He killed his lead actress off in the first 30 minutes (notice similarities to Scream??). Psycho may not be as scary as some of these other films, but it most certainly stays with you in a big way. And if you think about it long enough, you can see its DNA in every other horror film that came after.