My Top 275 Favorite Horror Movies of All Time

  To be quite honest, this movie may not really be good enough to recommend to anyone or even to include on this list.
But I do have it on this list simply because I think it's a great way to start off a list, whether it be about favorite horror films or just about any other subject matter.
Plus, any film that can take a tried-and-true horror genre like vampirism and imbue it with the sexual allure of girl-on-girl action, particularly during the cinematically stiff period of the early 70's, deserves some kind of credit.
  So, strap-on a wooden stake or a massive black donkey-sized dong, and let's get going on a super-long journey through many of my preferred choices when it comes to fright filled escapism.
 Or, if the mention of Vampyros Lesbos makes you feel the inclination, go watch some internet porn. Either way is a good way to "kill off" some time.

  The title of this movie could also have been "We Are What We Eat". But then again, now that I think about it, maybe that would've been a bit too obvious. Because if a horror movie alludes to humans eating something that's out of the ordinary, then in keeping with the horror angle, we all can pretty much guess what that "something" is. And if that "something" is part of a family recipe, having a dinner guest over is most likely the answer to what makes that family what they are.

 Okay, I gotta be with you guys honest here, even though the subject of this thread is a big list of individual horror flix and why I like 'em so much, the truth of the matter is that there are really, truly only a couple of reasons why I like this movie so much.
 And both of them have to do with Adrienne Barbeau.

  Home is where the horror is. 
  And reality is to be found nowhere on the premises.
  In other words, I don't believe it when the marketers of The Amityville Horror movie try and convince us that this was based on a true story. Yeah, I read the facts of what happened there, but when it starts to rail off into the stuff of the paranormal, I'd rather watch it in a movie theater as a scary piece of fiction than as a way to give ghost believing fanatics any validity to their claims of hauntings, poltergeists, wandering spirits and whatever other supernatural claptrap they want the world to illogically follow them into.
  Amityville may not be the greatest ghost story ever told, but it's a lot better than any story someone tells you when they're trying to convince that they once lived in a haunted house.

  Hey, is there anything more Christmassy than a slayride? Well, actually, the answer is, "Yeah, there are". The truth is, there are a sh#tload more things that are more of an embody the spirit of Christmas. However, this movie is not about that kind of Christmas spirit. This is about an evil spirit who takes on the form of a Father Christmas, but the only gifts he gives out are death and destruction. And he doesn't if you're naughty or nice, everyone is on the naughty list as far as he's concerned. Based on the Swedish legend of Sinterklass, The Saint is the ghost of Christmas Aghast, whose English translation of his name could quite possibly be Santa Claws and whose primary purpose is to add a nice sharp edge to the Holidays. The nice sharp edge being the one on his Scythe of course. 

 With movies like Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, and Lady Vengeance, Chan-wook Park has become one of the most acclaimed directors not just of South Korea cinema, but also of the worldwide modern filmmaking industry in general. In this one, he takes the theme of the vampire and injects it with a dark eroticism that makes other romance neckbiter films like Interview with a Vampire and Twilight look like child’s play (especially Twilight). Like Guillermo del Toro from an earlier entry, Park takes a very particular aspect of the lore and delves into it deeper than we've seen before and therefore presents the legend with a shocking and distinctive originality that helps to the director to impale his own stake into the heart of the genre.

  It's ba-ack...!
  Pennywise, the clown face of the multi-formed entity of evil eternal has returned! And the children he antagonized in Chapter One are now all grown up, and this time, they are through clowning around with him/it, even though his hunger for their childhood fears is as strong and as insatiable as ever. 
  Chapter Two was not as fully embraced as Chapter One was from either fans or critics, but this is one Listophile who found "It" still worthy of a spot somewhere here on this long list of cinematic cherished chillers. 

 What do you get when you mix alchemy and hermitry with demon summoning rituals?
 You get a chemical reaction of a horror movie that covers the subject of demonology in a manner all its own. The Alchemist Cookbook is one of those rare films that, after watching it, will make you realize that just when you thought Hollywood had the genre covered from all angles, there will always be a filmmaker that will come from almost nowhere and tell you "No way, homie".
(and BTW, that's a reference to something that's in the movie, for those of who haven't watched it).

        From Japan, here's a horror mockumentary in almost the exact same vein as Blair Witch Project, but not at the same level of breakthrough quality. If I'm being truly honest here, I felt that this story of an ancient curse bought forth to modern times comes off as a bit more complicated than it needs to be, not to mention that some of the side paths the plot takes feels like they could've been edited out.
But still, it is worth sitting though, as by the end, the viewer will feel a sense fright-filled freakiness that is usually expected in shaky-cam subcategory of this particular horror genre.
   Noroi is by no means perfect, but as someone who has grown restlessly tired of the formulaic so-called scare fare that the American movie market had been cranking out for the previous two decade before this, I was just glad to see any effort that steps out of the today's horror-themed same-ol' same-ol'.

  A camp infested B/W sci-fi flick filled to the brim with cheeseball plotholes, cardboard props, aliens, zombies (of course), & a heaping sense of guilty pleasure.
  To keep this entry short, here's a review that I wrote which explains why I like it: www.listal.com/viewentry/192805

  Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein's monster all get together for the first time to make the first of the official "monster rally" pictures (also known as "Monster mash" movies or "Super Shockers"). And where do they decide to have this epic meeting of the macabre? Well, at ol' Frankie's digs, of course. 
  Which made me realize something of distinction to he of the most famous of patchwork men here....
  First there was 1931's Frankenstein. Then there was The Bride of Frankenstein a few years later.  Which naturally led to The Son of Frankenstein.  Followed by this flick, the House of Frankenstein. And when you think about it, based on the titles of these movies, it truly seems as though Frankenstein did a pretty good job of putting together quite a nice little life for himself. Which, when you consider how he was created, is about as good as it gets when it comes to setting oneself as a good example. Which ain't too bad for a guy that was made outta spare parts. 

  The original Sputnik from 1957 had only two functions....
  First, circle the globe and send continual beeping transmissions down to Earth. 
  Second, as a symbol that the Russians were ahead in the space race.
Sputnik the movie, was also created by the Russians but in 2020, long after the thaw of the Cold War. But in this film, the "Sputnik" in question is not a space satellite but instead a "cute" alien parasite with a taste for human flesh. And with its ability to control its host to meet its appetital demands in a rather macabre version of "how to serve mankind", this Anti-Sputnik shows that it when it comes to human race acting as an "all-you-can-eat" buffet, this orbital nasty is much more of a symbolic statement that says that what's down here on the ground is what truly is the limit.

 I don't how to describe this movie other than to say
it's something along the lines about adopting a baby outside the conventional means....
 Or maybe,
the way this story pans out,
the best I can say is that it's pretty f#cked up.

 Inside is part of the New Extremity movement of French horror movies in which the stories are presented with a visceral, no holds barred type of attitude.   Therefore, this is just one of the very few that movies of that type that can be found on any of my "favorite films lists".

In this intellectual remake of the 50's classic, Jeff Goldblum portrays a professor whose experiments metamorphisizes him into a large, hairy, decayed-flesh ridden housefly. And in the process, still gets to score with super-fly 80's beauty, Geena Davis.
*sigh*....only in the movies, I guess.

  During one of the driest spells in terms of quality for werewolf movies, 1981 proved to be a good year for moonlit monsters. For it had not just one film that showed that the subject wolfmen made for good modern cinema, but two: American Werewolf In London and this one, The Howling.
 And while Howling may not be as famous as American Werewolf for its groundbreaking special effects depicting the transformation from man to beast, it still held its own in helping to show that when it comes to depicting the horror of lycanthropy on the big screen, the myth of the man-wolf was still a force to be feared and revered.

   As I already mentioned in an earlier entry, back in 1944, Universal Studios released the latest monster mash up movie called House of Frankenstein.  It did well enough that, for their next film, they decided that if the flat-headed fiend can have a place to call his own, then why not the King of all bloodsuckers. So, obviously in 1945, came House of Dracula, a direct sequel to HoF. And just like Franky's house, the whole gang of Universal's macabre membership were all present and accounted for.
 However, by that point in time, with the novelty of the morbid motley crew meeting up beginning to wear thin, this is one of the last times we got to see the monsters mashing it up in one movie.
 It wouldn't be until decades later that we finally get to see the gang all together again, and by then, Dracky's heirs have moved on up from a just residing in a house to owning and running a horror hotel up in the high end of Transylvania.

 

  I've often said that the werewolf is one of the most underutilized classic monster figures in the fast-ever-increasing world of horror cinema. One of the reasons is most likely that many writers and directors don't seem to know what to do with the creature beyond its overused trope of man vs. his own beastly nature. And another reason is just the pure visuals of the creature. There's not much one can do with the lupine looks beyond what we've already seen over the years. 
  Wildling is one movie that does try to recognize these problems to some extent, but in the end, it wasn't enough to leave much of a mark on the genre. It's not a very strong entry in the lore of lycanthropy, but what little it does offer makes it worth a watch at least once in the lifetime of any die-hard fans of half human moon howlers. 

  Vampires vs. the Bronx is a comedy horror in the vein of The Lost Boys but splattered with a bit of civic flavor. While TLB takes place on a fictional beach front community that has become the murder of the world, VVtB takes place in the nonfictional borough of the Bronx, which at one time was quickly becoming one of the murder capitals of the island of Manhattan. These days, the local black and Hispanic residents of the Bronx have managed to come along in strides when it comes to cleaning up their streets, despite a few lingering spots of the criminal element. But this is a process that is interrupted when a small group of vampires descend into their midst and even begin buying up property. A situation that has even the locals crying to themselves "There goes the neighborhood!". 
 This is a movie that may not be on track to reaching the classic "kids vs fanged fiends" status that Lost Boys was able to achieve, but Vampires Vs. The Bronx is still worth a bite or two for those who thirst for this kind blood-spilled urban legend fear infested fable.

  Will and Jim are two boys who live next to each as neighbors n a small sleepy town known as Greentown Il. They're best friends who both share a birthday that just so happens to fall on Halloween. One day, a traveling circus comes to town, and the boys soon start to realize that this creepy carnival, whose ringmaster has the devilish name of Mr. Dark, seems to have brought something wicked with them. And as if that wasn't enough, there's a storm a'brewin' out over yonder. 
  Something Wicked This Way Comes is a horror film produced by Walt Disney Studios, which means that it backed by a pretty solid financial foundation. But despite how well it looks, it does get somewhat deluded in that the horror elements are clashed against the typical family friendly formula that is Disney. 
 Because of this, I'm not sure how well this Something would hold up in the eyes of any new viewers, but those of us who saw back when it was first released, it is one of those films that does come with pretty hefty heaping of 1980's nostalgia. 

  One of the earliest "Monster Mash-ups" I saw as a kid on a local TV frightfest show called "Creature Features". I remember my older brother telling me right before the program started that just because this is called "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" the truth was that all three of the Universal Monsters Top Trio of Terror, Franky, Dracky and Wolfy, would be making an appearance throughout this film.
 To which I couldn't help but inquire "All three of 'em? Cool. Who's on first?"

   When this fourth installment of the REC series came out, I walked into it expecting to see the final nail in the coffin of a series that really should have been left alone after the first one. Now IMO, Apocalypse still didn't do anything to redeem REC as a collective whole, but, if you watch it as a standalone film, it's pretty damn good. Gone is the shaky cam along with the shock ending that helped to provide the first one with the kind of chills that made someone want to soil themselves, but here, the elements of the franchise are converted into an action-type thriller with the kind of suspense that can keep you on the edge of your seat.
For the Halloween season, when you're in the mood to be scared, watch REC 1. However, at any other time of the year, when you wanna watch just a decent roller coaster (albeit a bit water-logged) thrill-ride, filled with suspense and of course, rotted rabid zombies, then REC 4 is worth standing in line behind the Redbox.

  Making it to the executive level of any corporate building usually requires a lot of ambitious office politicking, wrangling and highbrow ass kissing. And when there's a massive outbreak of human style rabies in which murderous inhibitions are unleashed, those rules don't change. On the contrary, the ruthlessness and unrelenting to achieve 'em just become even more pronounced.
Truth be told, I am not usually a big fan of these kinds of black comedies. The kind that try to merge some kind of underlying message themed satire with blood splattering violence. Because most of the time, the satire, from my point of view, tends to be one note, obvious and often, it just acts as an excuse for the blood flow to hide behind.

  But Mayhem does start out it's metaphoric missive about corporate ladder climbers with a wit that manages to score an office corner. Now, for my tastes, once the bloodletting begins, it tends to water down the sharpness that started early in the script, but the momentum was enough to keep me watching to the end. And enough to mention it on this list.

  A centuries old contraption in the shape of a scarab resurfaces in the present restoring an aging, antiques dealer to his younger and healthier self. But as is in the case of all things that are too good to be true, he quickly discovers that there is a price to be paid when it comes to immortality. And in keeping with the theme of this list is a pretty obvious one.... one must become a blood craving vampire if one wants to live forever.
  And while that may at first come off as a simple premise for a movie, under the directorial direction of Guillermo del Toro, Cronos is a beautifully shot piece of modern horror in which the subject of vampirism is not used as a tool of terror, but instead, as a fitting method to depict the quest for eternal youth and the underlying consequences that are spawned from such a  “never ending” journey.

 In the first Omen, we are introduced to a little boy named Damien, who just so happens to be the hell-spawn of none other than the Devil himself.
Yep, he's the Anti-Christ. But in the first film, we hardly got to know "Lucifer Jr." as the story and action centered more on the "paternal father" and how he deals with the fact that the boy who he thought was his son was in reality, "the Beast marked with the 666".
  So, in this follow-up, we now get to see what Damien the person is really like as he struggles thru the growing pains of anti-Christ-like adolescence. And just like any boy approaching manhood (or half-manhood, half goat-hood), he soon finds that even a pathway towards a demonic destiny is bound to be paved with a few blemishes and pimples along the way.

 Quentin Taratino is in my top ten list of favorite directors of all time. I have loved every single movie he has directed thus far. With the exception of this one. Now, don't get me wrong, I like Death Proof as QT's contribution to the double feature known matinee homage he and Robert Rodriguez put together and collective called "Grindhouse". However, I didn't love it. I think it's Quentin's weakest effort so far, and that's why, unlike all of his other motion pictures, it's not as near the top of the list as those. And what keeps Proof from holding a much more esteemed position here is that the payoff of a movie centered around a car themed killer is there (eventually), it's just that until it arrives, it feels like we're riding in neutral through a series of uninteresting dialogue scenes (very uncharacteristic for a Tarantino penned script) that are centered around obscure pop references and barely-there background relationships that most viewers would most likely find interesting and bland.

  There really isn't all that much that I can say about Big Ass Spider because everything we need to know is right there in the film's title. It's a movie about a big ass spider. And we also know that it's not a film that is supposed to be taken too seriously since in the title, the spider is described specifically as a "big ass" spider. Not that this is an eight-legged epic that should be completely devoid of fear. Again, lookin' at the title and seeing it actually has an exclamation point at the end of it is an indication that it's so big, there's pretty good likelihood that some screaming will be involved. And can you blame it? I mean, if seeing a spider crawling up your bathroom wall is enough to make you let out a startling shriek, image what reaction you would have seeing a big ass spider the size of a space shuttle crawling up your building.

  A bored and disgruntled small town schoolteacher decides to spend his Yuletide holiday in the big city of Sidney. Midway through the journey however, he finds himself stuck in another small town the locals call "The Yabba". Although it might as well be named "Hades" considering that he soon finds himself slowly descending into his own personal drink-binging, kangaroo-killing, bar-brawling hell. A tale from down under that goes even further down under.
  In short, a Christmas vacation, the outback way.

What's scarier than being deep out in the middle of the woods? Being out in the middle of the woods with a buncha rednecked hillbillies, that's what.
And what's scarier than being out in the middle of the woods with a buncha rednecked hillbillies?
How about being out in the being out in the middle of the woods with a buncha rednecked hillbillies who worship a pit that contains a supernatural force.
On top of all that, it's a buncha rednecked, pit-worshippin' hillbillies that's led by that crazy bitch, Sean Young.
Maybe this movie doesn't take it all to it's highest potential of backwards horror, but still, the combination of all those elements is enough to let anyone know that if ever you come across somethin' like this in their neck 'o' the woods, yer in fer a whole heap of alotta trouble.

  For anyone who studies or just like physics, it's obvious that the word "coherence" is used here more as a scientific term that anything else, but, IMO, it can also apply to just how consistent the story is with the concept of the science it's based on. 
  When it comes to time travel or alternatives realities, those have always been tricky thing to use as a premise for a movie. Now, if it's terms of a comedy or adventure like Back to The Future or The Source Code, then it doesn't really matter how well the science sticks because those films are more about entertaining the audience than they are introducing them to any kind physics-themed concepts. But when it comes to horror or thrillers, that often requires a little mor depth in the way the "numbers add up".   Which is why most of them are never really truly successful as plot premises. And TBH, Coherence falls into that category. Still, it does make an effort to delve a little deeper despite it reliance on its characters undermining doing what's right in such a "complicated" situation in order to provide the seeds of thrill needed to steer the mechanics of this vehicle.    And so, while this movie hasn't yet "gotten it right" just yet it is a step in a slow-moving direction that many fans of such technically heavy cosmic science fiction films are waiting for.

Black Sheep is what you could call, well...the "black sheep" of animal attack themed horror movies. While the subgenre is generally open to any kind of species of the wild kingdom to populate the running time of these types of beasties vs humans' confrontations, you won't normally expect to see fans flocking to theaters to see one where sheep are the center of the chaos. Usually, we expect to see animals that have the attributes already required to put some scare into us, such as sharp teeth, pointy horns or at least have the ability to make our skins crawl, such as spiders, bugs, snakes and the like.
 But Black Sheep is a product of New Zealand, a country whose most famous animal is the kiwi bird. So, I think we could afford them some levity if they choose to use these kinds of rogue woolen baaad-boys (sorry...) as the animals in their cinematic effort to fill our nightmares with. Besides, if they do succeed in making sheep the reason why we wake up in the middle of the night screaming, any stray images of 'em that are left lingering in our heads, by counting 'em,, we could use 'em, as the means in which to help us go back to sleep.

  I mean, let's be honest here, has there ever been a slimy public figure who was a bigger meme sensation on the world wide web than Cthulhu?
Oh, okay, maybe Chuck Norris.
But still, no matter how much Mr. Norris likes to brag that he can kick anybody's ass, we all know that he wouldn't stand a chance against this guy.
Hell, even as an actor, Cthully can swim circles against the ol' Chuckster. And Cthulhu is just a stop-motion effect.
 The truth is, no matter how much martial arts training CN has had, at the end of the day, brass testicles just don't stand a chance against mass tentacles.

  'Ey, I got a question for you... have you wondered how a zombie apocalypse would affect you if you were a disc jockey secluded away in the confines a radio studio? If so, then have I got the film for you. It's called Pontypool and it came out in 2007. It's a good film and depicts what could possibly happen to that one angle of society during the end of the world via the spread of the dead.
  Then, when you finish watching that movie, you can watch this one. It's also about a radio disc jockey being on the air when the zombies come a'shamblin', and how the circumstances of such a situation would affect him while he's on the job.  Yeah, this one's the lesser of the two-radio themed zombie flix, but for any hardcore fans of the genre (and let's be honest, when it comes to zombies, you're a not fan unless you're hardcore), Dead Air is worth watching. If, at least, just so to say "Yeah, I watched that." when the subject "rises up" during a discussion about the apocalypse between hardcore fans.

While it may seem that ever since Jaws splashed into the blockbusting record books back in the mid 70s, that the concept of nasty beasties coming outta the water is a brand we tend to see coming mostly outta the U.S., it becoming quite apparent that the international waters are now throwing their nets into the pool to see what they can haul up. So far, it looks like the Aussies are the ones who seem to have been able to fish up the most catch (Rogue, Black Water, etc), but there are other countries, like South Korea (The Host) who appear to be hookin' their lines with some successful bait. With this film, Ireland is showing that they too are now grabbing their fair share of underwater nasties who are surfacing with their own brand of ire towards those from the land.

   Anyone even with a basic knowledge of history is aware of who Jack the Ripper was. An infamous London street killer who targeted ladies of the night. However, even the most well studied historians have no idea who Jack the Ripper really was. What was the true identity of this mysterious slasher who baffled criminologists detectives for near nigh a century and a half?
 From Hell is a film adaptation of legendary comic book writer Alan Moore's limited series of the same name. In it, it is postulated which of the primary suspects it could have been, A gothic mystery thriller that doesn't match up the  intensity and deepness (and which pretty didn't a chance to) of the printed series, but serves up a nice little helping of serial killing spree of the old skool British flavour (spelled with a "u", just the way those looney limeys like it).

  Jenn is a young lady who wakes up on a shoreline of a deserted island. She sees that a friend of hers is several feet away, unconscious with a piece of sharp, jagged coral impaled into his side. Despite trying to helping him, her friends dies, and we, the viewers, quickly realize that a boat of some kind had sunk into the ocean, and two of the of boat's occupants had washed up on the shore. After the death of her friends, Jenn is the sole survivor who, after of couple of night, comes to discover that she isn't the sole inhabitant on the isle. 
  And the other inhabitant isn't human. Now what exactly it is, is never really explained, but one thing is for sure, this other inhabitant is also not a sweetheart. Why this movie is called that, I don't know, but the unexplainable reason for that doesn't take away that this is a pretty good castaway horror thriller that shown that Blumhouse Productions is new maker of fear-themed films to keep an eye out for.  

If I can be really honest here, Elm Street is the franchise that began my distaste for the slasher flix, despite that horror is one of my favorite genres when it comes to cinema. The whole Freddy Krueger thing really blew up during the 80's and, in my eyes, became the perfect example to showcase many of the aspects that I came to hate when it came to the whole unstoppable mad kiiler thing. That said, when I watched the very first Nightmare on Elm Street, even though I didn't adore it like so many movie-goers did at the time, I didn't think it was bad. I felt the Krueger kharacter was bit over the top, particularly when compared to other masked murdering icons of the day like Michael Myers, Leatherface and Jason Voorhees. But overall, I still appreciated the creativity Elm Street was shooting for when it came to its body-counting kills. It was the sequels that followed Freddy's first foray into fear features that made me come to hate the Krueger style kamp which strayed the character away from his debut, when he still had a more serious attitude when it came to his teen terrorizing vocation. 

  Trilogy Of Terror is a made-for-TV anthology movie that has become a bit of a cult favorite among horror fans.
 This entry focuses mostly the most famous tale of the trio, titled "Amelia".
And, to be honest, now as an adult, whenever I watch this segment in which a possesed Zuni voodoo doll chases the wide-mouthed Karen Black around the apartment, I can't help but giggle at the the low-budget cheesiness of it all.
But as a kid, that plastic doll, with it tiny beady white eyes, lil' spear and endless row of saw-like teeth, scared the living sh#t out of me.
  And frankly speaking, the ending shot of a demon-possessed Ms. Black crouched down and stabbing the floor with the large kitchen machete still has the ability to raise a hair or two off the back of my neck.

 A mutant strain of cockroaches packing fire-starting abilities are crawling out from the deepest parts of the earth after an earthquake has struck and created fissures to reveal the nasty little buggers. And their power to heat things up isn't the only the only they seem to possess. There seems to be group mentality of consciousness that may require more than just s few cans of Raid to exterminate.



 I first watched Bug back when it was being run on TV as a late-night horror film but didn't get a chance to give any more viewings until many years later, as an adult and with the aid of the internet. And there was something I that caught my eye that I missed upon my initial viewing as a kid...
For any fans of the Brady Bunch out there, you might recognize a familiar background in one of the scenes in Bug. It's the same kitchen backdrop used for the Brady household, with very little changes. Now while I knew some of the Brady sets had been used in other TV shows like Mission: Impossible and Mannix, but not until I was able to rewatch the creep crawly movie did I notice that a set was recycled again here.
  Obscure 70's horror thrills with a touch of campy corny trivia.

  Pontypool is a snowy small town somewhere up there in Canada. And after a shock jock loses his job in the Big City, his new position as local DJ reveals to him that there's something in the air colder than the winter chill. Something that's transforming all the townspeople into zombies. And it seems to have something to do with the on-air static.  Even with a big ol' clunky chunk of a metaphor at its center, this is a film that provides a nice little different take on the walking dead genre.  Sometimes the plot comes off as stretched out a bit thin but still, the efforts in its unique approach along with Stephen Mchattie's strong camera presence against the cramped and creeped out atmosphere, was enough to warrant a place on this list.

  So, yeah, it's true.... in space no one can hear you scream.
  But down here on Earth, screaming is a pretty effective way in getting people's attention. More specifically, it's a pretty effective way for horror film producers to get assess in the seats.  That is, until the formula started to be overused and abused as an easy way to fill up movie theaters. Because of years of this, the horror subgenre known as the slasher flick began its sharp decline both creatively and financially. Fortunately, this was a downturn that didn't last very long when one of the masters of this kind of scream feature was able to effectively reinvigorate the slasher genus with the first screamed themed chapter of the franchise that was, appropriately enough, simply called Scream. A new type of slasher misadventure which was now more self-aware and satirizing towards the cliches that almost killed its own kind, it was now a brand of fear fare that was more in demand than ever before.
  Which leads us to Scream 2...



... and thus the cycle begins anew.....

  Anna is a typical, modern teenage schoolkid. Which means that when a globe-shattering event occurs, like a zombie apocalypse f'rinstance, she's gonna do what any nonappreciative don't-know-how-good they-got-it millennial would do. She's gonna sing her way through the corpse-ridden Ragnarök like it was a Zac Efron High School musical.
  Oh, and I forgot to mention, the zompocalypse is happening during Christmas.



  I tell ya, these damn kids today, they don't realize how good they got it. Back in my day, if we wanted a Yuletide Day of the Dead, we'd have to walk barefoot, through 12 inches of snow, uphill, both ways, to get it. And if we got it, we loved it.
   Now, get off of my lawn before I call the cops.

  The mind can be a prison. Or more fitting to the title of this psychological thriller, a cell. And when I say "psychological" in "psychological thriller", I mean that in as literal as it could possibly mean. Because that would be more fitting for the unique theme to this psychological thriller. And when I say "thriller", I don't mean Jennifer Lopez's big ol' onion booty. Because as thrilling as that may be, that would not be very fitting to the story of this psychological thriller. That would be too much of a distraction to the point of this entry. The point here is to point out how psychologically thrilling The Cell is. Not how absolutely perfect Jennifer's big ol' oni... uh.... I'm staying here, aren't I?
Okay, let's just move to the next movie. This list is too long to start swerving off to something off the subject such as the absolute example of perfection that is Mz. Lopez's greatest asset....

Y'know, if a kid ends up with a babysitter who's built like a long legged super-model, and she's really "cool" and "gets" him, there could be a chance that he may have made a deal with the devil. Especially at an age when other kids have sorta outgrown the whole "being sat while the parents are away" thing.
In The Babysitter, it's the long legged babysitter who has made the deal. But, in typical scary cinematic fashion, it's the kid who's gotta pay the price. And after seeing that her long legs also come with a demonic cult who need to sacrifice young boys in order to satiate the appetites of their dark lord and master, that's usually the point where a kid comes to the conclusion that maybe he is old enough to look after himself whenever mommy and daddy are gone.

  Here's a dark ditty of deviltry about a family of hellbent hillbillies that makes even Lucifer hisself go "Damn....! These ratchety-ass rednecks are just plain downright evil.....!"



  Ever since the first Texas Chainsaw Massacre back in 1974, there have been a certain type of subhorror slasher-family flicks that have since tried to match the bar 'o' evil that was raised by the original Leatherface Clan.
While Rob Zombies' creation of Captain Spaulding's kith and kin, IMO, doesn't quite match up to the legendary status of TCM, it's was still a worthy effort into the genre (especially since I'm usually not really a big fan of Zombie's sadistically themed approach in portraying fear in his flicks).

Zombies who speak German. Well, not actually speak.....
growl is more like it. But still, whatever noise you can hear rumbling from their outta their rotworm-infested mouths, it's definitely Deutschland.



Actually, to be honest, while I did end up liking this film, I still found to be somewhat underwhelming. However I decided to still include it on this list just because any time anyone makes an honest effort to create a quality zombie flick with it's own unique twist to it, to distinguish it from all the others, it's always a good thing.
Besides, the year that Rammbock "came to life", 2010, also saw other movies that were released like Atrocious, Changi, Rare Exports, Stakeland, and Trollhunter. I wanted to show what an exceptional year that was for scare-fare of a more independent and worldwide nature.

  When I watched I Am Legend, I didn't watch it in theaters mostly because I wasn't that big of a fan of Will Smith's blockbusters. Back when he was one of the biggest stars of Hollywood, I often found many of his big budget films to be a bit underwhelming (I don't use the word "overrated' because, the truth is, I don't think that the concept of something overrated doesn't exist. It's just a buzz word that people use for popular movies that they don't want to be popular). But I am a fan of vampire movies. So, I waited until it came out in DVD to finally give it a view. After I watched it, it didn't do anything to change my mind about Smith's movies, but it wasn't too bad, 
  Now, if the idea of the vampires in this story had been a little more like vampires of lore than it was like that of some kind of sun-fearing zombies, then I think I'd be able to muster up something more positive to say 'bout this so-called legend. But as it stands, this is about the best that I can in terms of including it on any of my list of film faves. 

  Vampires, werewolves, mummies, zombies, ghosts, masked slashers, etc...
When it comes to creatures that have occupied the silver screen in order to instill audiences with the deep, instinctive feeling of fearsome fear within them, the list of scary cinematic "sub"-species is almost endless. 
However, just when it seemed like we maybe we had exhausted the well of ideas when it comes to mayhem-making movie monsters, real life comes in to "loosely inspire" Hollywood into cranking yet one more out of it's  well-worn fright-fetching formula factory. 
  Yeah, I'm pretty sure that anyone out there reading knows what that is since it's right there as the name of this movie. 
  So, since there's no real surprises here in this description, nor in the film's plot (it's pretty much what any fan of these kitschy campfests would expect and enjoy), the subject of this film has loosely inspired me to go out and get high. AF. 

  With the rapidly increasing rate that horror movies are being made today, when it comes to those that are about out a small, lonely dwelling out in the middle of the woods, Hollywood is quickly going through the simple names that are synonyms for these kinds of lodgings. Cabin in the Woods, The Rental, The Beach House, and this one, The Lodge.
This one focuses on a soon-to-be-mom who finds herself snowed in a lodge with her two stepchildren who aren't too warmed up to the idea of her being the new mommy. And as the time goes by, their isolation out in the middle of the woods obviously leads to strange and creepy happenings that only serve to make the cooled feelings of everyone involved even colder. 

A group of teenagers go off to an isolated cabin in the woods for the weekend, and soon come to discover that whenever a group of teenagers goes off to an isolated cabin in the woods, the end result is never good.
Particularly when the cabin contains a tome of demonology.
Heck, I coulda told them that.

 A lot was expected by Gremlins. Everyone and their mother was sure that this was gonna be one of the biggest blockbusting classics of the 80's. With Steven Spielberg as the executive producer, Chris Columbus as the writer, Joe Dante in the director's chair, tow guys who were on the rise in their respective roles, it's no wonder that it was believed that this would the next E.T.. the majority of theater screens throughout the country were set for it's opening weekend, shiploads of merchanside were stacked in stores, and all topped off with a massive advertising push, the kind rarely seen before. 
  If it sounds like I'm setting this up as a failure in the end, it wasn't. However, as successful as it was, it still was no E.T.. And it's was, and still considered as much of a classic. An unbalanced tone, a Chrsitmas setting released as a summer blockbuster, and a cute concept that was darker than most people expected it was kept it from climbing higher in the heirarchyof timeless, classic 80's franchises.