The Haunt Of Fear: ILX Top 100 HORROR Movies Poll Results Thread

I always feel that it's valuable for viewers to critique movies on the basis of what the movie is trying to do

except when what the movie is trying to do is bullshit, ie most horror films.

yep jjjusten guessed it

I loved Slither, it was on the low end of my ballot
xp

it is an almost unbearably nerve-shredding experience with headphones in the dark.

That's exactly how I first saw Inland Empire. Recommended.

i will admit to inland empire having some total terror moments, i just dont think anything else he has done works the same way.

inland empire and mulholland dr. are the two scariest movies i've ever seen, bar none. lost highway comes close in the first half, but then wanders a bit in the second before recovering nicely at the end. eraserhead is the only movie i've genuinely liked that gets across the sense of hopeless, nihilistic despair that some itt seem to prize (and which i ordinarily have no use for).

saw henry when it was released. effective, but so's a hammer. i respect it but can't imagine claiming to like it.

That's exactly how I first saw Inland Empire. Recommended.

that's how i watched it the second time (first was in the theater).

I'm up to six at this point (Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer, Creepshow, Hellraiser, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Seven, and Phantasm). Looking through my ballot, I think the chances of 10-12 of my picks (including my #4 pick) making the cut at this point are very slim, so I prolly only have about 30 or so more ponies in this horserace. But what fine ponies they are!

I think I just saw the lid on Eric's coffin close for the night.

Who's in there?!

http://themescompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/LetMeIn3.jpg

DWH, I am shocked, shocked that you have picked nothing pre-'79 as yet

saw henry when it was released. effective, but so's a hammer. i respect it but can't imagine claiming to like it.

Yeah, this is kind of what I was grasping to say about Henry. I think it's the only one of my picks that I don't find enjoyable on some level (and that includes a small handful of films that leave me feeling mildly wrong after I've watched them). But I do think it's a good film and that it deserves to be in these results. It's weird.

DWH, I am shocked, shocked that you have picked nothing pre-'79 as yet

Ha ha. Just wait, Morbs. I think I posted the breakdown in the nominations thread, but my voting was much more temporally diverse than it was in the comedy poll. Stretching all the way back to the fifties, even!

I do think it's a good film and that it deserves to be in these results. It's weird.

yeah, i feel exactly the same way. i don't like henry and didn't vote for it, but it's as worthy a horror film as any, and helps balance out the tourneurs & creepshow, etc.

Yeah, here it is:

My decade-by-decade breakdown:

50s - 2
60s - 2
70s - 10
80s - 22
90s - 7
00s - 7

Nothing from this decade, and the two most recent films in my top 15 are six and seventeen years old, respectively.

7 of my pics have shown up so far w/Near Dark, Creepshow and Drag Me to Hell from today's 15

pretty much all of my top ten will place, i think. except one. and if it does, you are all sickos.

one thing i will say is that i have one film on my list that's basically a fake snuff movie and another that has both corpse-fucking and poop and yet neither of them leave me feeling as unnerved/unclean as "henry" does.

Lucker? Nekromantik? Locks for top 3, ime.

sounds like someone voted for Salò!

fake snuff movie - Faces of Death, I'm guessing?

all the rape in salo was on live bodies as i recall.

I had both Cronos and The Devil's Backbone in the 30s on mine.

yay henry was on my ballot -- though it was near the bottom. which isn't a reflection of me thinking that it was a crap film, merely that there were 40+ horror films at least a smidge better/scarier. so now i'm 7/30.

a fake snuff movie

wait a minute, was the passion of the christ an actual choice in this race?!?

eraserhead is the only movie i've genuinely liked that gets across the sense of hopeless, nihilistic despair that some itt seem to prize

if it weren't for nihilism I'd have nothing to believe in

075. Creepshow [1982, 250 points, 10 votes]
080. Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht [1979, 226 points, 8 votes]
085. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me [1992, 218 points, 8 votes]
086. Witchfinder General [The Conqueror Worm] [1968, 209 points, 10 votes]
087. I Walked with a Zombie [1943, 208 points, 8 votes]
088. The Seventh Victim [1943, 206 points, 6 votes, 1 first-place vote]
094. Paranormal Activity [2007, 189 points, 7 votes]
096. May [2002, 186 points, 8 votes]
098. Blood on Satan's Claw [Satan's Skin] [1971, 177 points, 8 votes]

^^ voted for all these so far

if it weren't for nihilism I'd have nothing to believe in

throw in a bottle of whiskey, and you got yourself a country song

one thing i will say is that i have one film on my list that's basically a fake snuff movie and another that has both corpse-fucking and poop and yet neither of them leave me feeling as unnerved/unclean as "henry" does.

― jesus christ (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Friday, May 18, 2012 3:13 AM (2 hours ago)

ha i have guesses abt waht both of these are but i am being quiet. good choices if i am right tho!

Great thread, even if the 'this isn't horror' comments after nearly every film for a while got repetitive. A fair-sized haul in the poll so far for me:

076. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers [1956, 250 points, 10 votes]
081. Duel [1971, 224 points, 8 votes]
084. Near Dark [1987, 219 points, 10 votes]
085. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me [1992, 218 points, 8 votes]
086. Witchfinder General [The Conqueror Worm] [1968, 209 points, 10 votes]
091. Curse of the Cat People [1944, 200 points, 5 votes]
093. Se7en [1995, 189 points, 10 votes]
097. [rec] [2007, 178 points, 7 votes]
098. Blood on Satan's Claw [Satan's Skin] [1971, 177 points, 8 votes]
099. Pontypool [2008, 176 points, 7 votes]

Lunchtime pastime: Getting the decades sorted.
God, I'm such a 70s stan... Also, on second view, rather erratic and questionable choices/placings in the lower ranks.

20s - 1
30s - 1
50s - 1
60s - 3
70s - 23 (5x 1973 alone...)
80s - 7
90s - 3
00s - 9
10s - 2

And the first big moment of "D'oh, how could I forget that one" in realizing that I failed to include The Medusa Touch, which I love dearly.

you know what's going to get repetitive? people gradually revealing their ballots.

Welcome to an ILX poll thread.

I remember reading that the producers of Henry : Portrait Of A Serial Killer thought they'd be getting a generic slasher film, and weren't too happy with the final result. Tom Towles as Ottis Toole is the most accurate depiction of a total fucking sleazeball I've ever seen, he should have won an Oscar for it! Plenty of humour in there too to lighten the mood - the TV salesman, Ottis's shirt, um I'm sure there was something else.

matt is correct but the longer story is even funnier.

In 1984, executive producers Malik B. Ali and Waleed B. Ali of Maljack Productions hired a former delivery man for their video equipment rental business, John McNaughton, to direct a documentary about gangsters in Chicago during the 1930s. Dealers in Death [1]

was a moderate success, and was well received critically, so the Ali brothers kept McNaughton on as director for a second documentary, this time about the Chicago wrestling scene in the 1950s. A collection of vintage wrestling tapes had been discovered, and the owner was willing to sell them to the Ali brothers for use in the documentary. However, after financing was in place, the owner doubled his price and the brothers pulled out of the deal. With the documentary cancelled, Waleed and McNaughton, decided that the money for the documentary could instead be used to make a feature film. The Ali brothers gave McNaughton $110,000 to make the film, with the provisos being that it was to be a horror film with plenty of blood.

just imagine if that wrestling nerd hadn't gotten greedy

"Would you like a DIP in our CESSPOOL, JESSICORPSE?"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7219/7221144476_8ce56a1ae3_o.jpg

70. LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH
John D. Hancock, USA, 1971
(272 points, 11 votes)

let's scare jessica to death is A+++++
― Є|Э (Edward III), Wednesday, January 5, 2011 3:22 PM (1 year ago)

It therefore becomes several kinds of movie, sacrificing some of its best ideas to trivial shock effect, relinquishing even the slightest claim to suspension of disbelief and sending Zohra Lampert continually scurrying over a countryside occupied by creatures that look less like vampire victims than like science-fiction robots out of a different film in a different decade. You may not think it possible for a movie like this to say that at a certain point it ceases to make sense, but that is really what happens to "Let's Scare Jessica to Death" within a half hour of its beginning.
― Roger Greenspun, NYT (Aug. 28, 1971)

Zohra Lampert, I learned a few months ago, is now married to onetime FM-rock-pioneer-DJ and now Keeper of the American Songbook Jonathan Schwartz.

never saw this

yes getting "let's scare jessica to death" to place was one of the reasons i bothered voting. i need to see it again.

YESSSSSSSSS

yes! i love this movie. i would also like to see it again.

Seeing movies like this whose existence I'm barely aware of pop up in the results is a lot of why I love these polls.

So much stuff I've never heard of on this list! Love it when ILX delivers on tasty obscurities.

I always sort of put Jessica and Season of the Witch into the same category in my mind, it's like valium horror. The look is hazy and soft, but the movie is weird and cold, like the world.

Nice comparison! (Tho I admit to liking the Romero movie more.)

such an inappropriate title for the movie, unfortunately

watching "witchfinder general" for the first time right now btw

faith in poll restored, let's do this

69. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

"Valium Horror" -- great term!

Ok, Britishers, last night I sat down and watched the only movie on this thread I hadn't heard of -- #74, Threads -- and I Have Opinions.

First off, for those of you who were forced to watch this in school, you have my deepest condolences. This knocks the shit out of the U.S. equivalent, The Day After, and features about 9 or 10 images that I cannot believe were foisted upon the general public. The charred baby, of course, but for me the most alarming image is the hand sticking out of the rubble with each fingertip on fire. But is it a horror movie? I think so -- after all, it clearly was made to scare the shit out of everybody and has virtually no other narrative purpose (in fact, it has almost no sensible narrative at all, which kinda aligns it with the Lynch discussions upthread).

In conclusion, if you like watching burnt people puke until they die, this is the movie for you.

Still haven't watched that since it was originally shown on TV, much as I love horror I'm not aure I can face it again.