Time Out: 100 Best Horror Films

[Mac]

The Exorcist it is a great movie with exceptional performances, even Linda Blair and especially Ellen Burstyn.

There are a handful of movies that immediately defined a genre upon release, and The Exorcist was one of them.

It's incredibly profane, however not at the expense of the story or to push buttons - it makes sense a demon would be so offensive. Just because you and others on these boards have become jaded with all the bad ripoffs like Hostel and The Human Centipede, movies that are simply meant to offend sensibilities, doesn't mean The Exorcist didn't do it right.

The story is rock solid. The mother is at a loss because she isn't a "believer" and knows her daughter is on the verge of being institutionalized, a place she would surely rot. So she has no reason but to turn to religion for help.

It creates interesting discussion: What's worse, the devil inside her daughter or the prodding torture at the hands of the doctors? And while the movie is very obscene, it can be argued that it promotes religion.

So while it may not be your number one horror flick, it shouldn't be a huge surprise that others find The Exorcist their top choice. Few movies elicit as many talking points as it does, even 40 years after having been released.

I have to say I'm pleased The Changeling made the list - a spooky ghost story for the ages.

[Chutzpah]

You can call Come and See a lot of things but I've never thought of it as being a horror-film. Interesting; the label works the more you think about it.

[Feel the Soul]

It's an okay list. There will always be the same twenty or so movies near the top, but I'm always happy when I see my favorite old shit (Night of the Demon, The Black Cat) or my favorite foreign shit (The Vanishing, Black Sunday) listed somewhere near the bottom.

As for me, I'm glad to see Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and Dead Ringers on the list because those are quite easily the two films on the list that disturbed me the most.

But where's the hammer horror? I mean, c'mon, man.

[Lonnie]

wow, no Scream?

[Timmer]

Where the fuck is The Entity?

[JeanRZEJ]

And since when did a film have to reinvent any wheels in order to deemed as great cinema?

Great films don't innovate, they transcend.

If a film isn't a hovercraft of some sort I tend to ask myself - was that really better than porn? Typically no.

I think the fact that so many people are freaked out by and unsettled by The Exorcist make them mistake it for great cinema. No wheels, horror or otherwise, were reinvented here in my opinion. This was not Psycho.

Want to know what freaks me out? The Kardashians. I think the fact that so few people are freaked out and unsettled by it makes it great television, of the 'transcending the way unintrospective voyeurism kills the soul' variety. It'd make my top 10; such a work transcends the delineations between 'film' and 'television'.

[Largo]

If a film isn't a hovercraft of some sort I tend to ask myself - was that really better than porn? Typically no.Want to know what freaks me out? The Kardashians. I think the fact that so few people are freaked out and unsettled by it makes it great television, of the 'transcending the way unintrospective voyeurism kills the soul' variety. It'd make my top 10; such a work transcends the delineations between 'film' and 'television'.

Except the Kardashian brand doesn't extend to film.

Yet.

:scarechord:
:hornblare:
:LOST:

[JeanRZEJ]

You make a good point:

LOST is the most terrifying thing ever recorded in motion.

There are so many unresolved plot threads in that show that they are all stuffed into one massive 'off-screen' black hole of tension. Polar bears on a tropical island? Smoke monsters? Time travel? As if my fear of flying wasn't bad enough - now I have to fear getting stranded on deserted tropical islands with polar bears? This list is looking worse by the second.

[guany]

Wow, what a shocker, another AD-er who has a bias against the horror genre! Of course it can't hold a candle to films from other genres!

LOL, what? I have no bias against the horror genre! This is nothing but another typical Blasty generalization that always seems to happen when somebody simply disagrees with you!

I think that The Exorcist is a great film. I think the notion that "great cinema" needs to "reinvent the wheel" is far too high of a standard.

Tell me, Blasty, all of the films that you think "reinvent the wheel". I hope you think that ALL of them are great pieces of cinema! I'm also curious as to the "great" films you love that don't reinvent the wheel. Like, I love Cache, but it didn't reinvent any wheels, so it clearly isn't great cinema. Michael Haneke has much to learn from Phyllida Lloyd. Lord knows that Cache, The Piano Teacher, and The White Ribbon don't hold a candle to Mamma Mia! and The Iron Lady!

[Blasty]

LOL, what? I have no bias against the horror genre! This is nothing but another typical Blasty generalization that always seems to happen when somebody simply disagrees with you!

I think that The Exorcist is a great film. I think the notion that "great cinema" needs to "reinvent the wheel" is far too high of a standard.

Tell me, Blasty, all of the films that you think "reinvent the wheel". I hope you think that ALL of them are great pieces of cinema! I'm also curious as to the "great" films you love that don't reinvent the wheel. Like, I love Cache, but it didn't reinvent any wheels, so it clearly isn't great cinema. Michael Haneke has much to learn from Phyllida Lloyd. Lord knows that Cache, The Piano Teacher, and The White Ribbon don't hold a candle to Mamma Mia! and The Iron Lady!

You very clearly said that no horror movies have "reinvented the wheel" which is a stupid expression, I'll agree, and no, films don't have to do that, but why can't horror movies have done so? Plenty of us think horror movies have redefined cinema, for us, you brushed them off and said none of them ever had - that's your opinion and your entitled to it - I interpret it as a bias against horror movies that they can't ascribe to the same level of the Citizen Kanes of the world.

I mean, most of the most esteemed critics of the world, including the likes of Pauline Kael are biased and honest about it - we all bring our preferences to our appreciation of art - it isn't a "sweeping generalization" to say you have some kind of likely bias against horror movies that makes you fail to consider them on the same playing field of the Sight and Sound list or whatever. There are plenty of people who feel that way about horror movies - it is what it is.

The Exorcist is a likely #1 pick because it is the kind of horror movie that those esteem who don't really care that much for horror movies as well - EVERYONE and their mother has seen it as well - plenty of people, including AD-ers and critics often refuse to even see alot of horror movies. Something like The Exorcist is one of the most widely seen, if not the most widely seen horror movie ever made, which definitely helps it top this list. Many, many people have seen it who would never see a slasher like Halloween, which is more ghettoized to the slasher sub-genre and therefore doesn't get the fair shake that The Exorcist gets.

[Timmer]

I think different people have different ideas about what "horror" constitutes, and they thus have different ideas about what the best horror films are.

The reason films like The Exorcist routinely end up at or near #1 on lists like these is that they are the most popular horror films that straddle all or most of the different opinions.

I'm still shocked about The Entity not being on that list. It's one of the most unsettling films I've ever seen.