1.

1960, dir. Alfred Hitchcock

"Filmed Horror: The Instruction Manual". Accept no imitations.

2. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

I was 6 years old when I first saw this. It got under my skin then, and it gets under my skin now.

3.

1967, dir. Roman Polanski

This is no dream! This is really happening!

Foretelling Cronenberg-ian body horror & the domestic Satanism of The Exorcist, Polanski's viscerally brilliant & haunting masterpiece remains one of horror cinema's most potent nightmares.

5. Carnival of Souls (1962 - d. Herk Harvey)

6.

1967, dir. Terence Young

Based on the famous stage play & directed by class Bond man Young, Wait Until Dark is a teeth-gnashingly intense thriller about a blind woman who's home is invaded by three criminals, one of whom is a frightening psychotic beatnik played by Alan Arkin.

7.  Black Sabbath (1963)  dir. Mario Bava

This compilation film has two effective but rather ordinary sequences in the second and third slots, but the winner by far is the first segment called "A Drop of Water".  An unscrupulous nurse swipes a jewel from the deathbed of a recently-deceased psychic and pays dearly fucking hard for it.  If you've managed to catch this movie before the age of, say, 12 years old, get luck getting this Nightmare Fuel out of your head.

Since a few TV shows made it into the last couple lists, we'd be remiss not to recognize:

9.

1959-1964, created by Rod Serling

As crucial as Poe, Twain, or Lovecraft, Serling's brilliant anthology series is scarier than most films made in the 60s (or any other decade) & remains an essential landmark in popular American fiction. We all grew up on it. Our grandkids will too.

11.

1960, dir. Michael Powell

The British Psycho. It was slapped with an X rating & buried upon it's release in 1960, killing off Michael Powell's career in the process. Now it's considered to be one of the best British films ever made. Probably because it's a jaw-dropping masterpiece. Probably.

12. Seconds (Frankenheimer, '66)

A paranoid nightmare that will stay with you for weeks. It's one of the best twilight zone episodes that never was.

13. Repulsion (1965) dir Roman Polanski

Catherine Denouve's descent into madness is truly terrifying. The small, almost claustrophobic apartment makes the hallucinations all the more effective, and Polanski's use of sound in this film is just tremendous. One of the greatest psychological horror films of all time.

14. The Innocents (1961)

Everything about this film is perfect: Jack Clayton's direction, the performances, the photography, the sound, the score, the atmosphere, the way it balances "high brow literary adaption" with awesome scares (that pond scene is one of the greats). A truly sublime horror film.

15. Eyes Without a Face (dir. Georges Franju, 1960)

The most ghastly / beautiful film I've ever seen. Unforgettable.

16.

1964, dir, Ubaldo Ragona

The first & most faithful adaptation of Richard Matheson's book I Am Legend. An early precursor of the "zombie picture", George Romero has acknowledged that he'd basically ripped it off for Night of the Living Dead &, much like that film, The Last Man On Earth is a helluva lot of fun in spite of it's glaringly low-budget production,

17. Village of the Damned (1960)

Classic sci fi horror film, a masterclass in eeriness and slow building tension, and an essential entry in the CREEPY LIL BASTARDS genre.

18. Black Sunday (1960) dir. Mario Bava

As good as much of Bava's other output is, nothing else matches the palpable sense of dread throughout this entire film. Featuring some really grisly scenes that were heavily censored at the time, as well as some really great sets, this witchcraft/vampire/zombie hybrid is still amazingly rewatchable today.

19. Brides of Dracula (1960) dir. Terence Fisher

Perfection!  This list was in definite need of Hammering.......

One of the absolute best Hammer films in general, let alone in their Dracula saga.  And Dracula isn't even in it!

20.

1968, dir. Franklin J. Schaffner

It's a madhouse!

A horror film in all but name, Planet Of The Apes is kind of an obvious pick if you think about it. The horseback charge in the cornfield, Stewart's mummified corpse, the torture of Taylor, the lobotomy & taxidermization of the astronauts, the final, horrible & haunting image on the beach; all of these images seem more tailor fit for a Hammer Horror film than some big budget Hollywood movie based on a French novel about talking monkeys adapted by the Twilight Zone guy. Seriously, how did this movie get made?

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Still an effective thriller about a soldier who is brainwashed and turned into an unwitting assasine.   Plus Angela Lansberry plays one of the all time scary mothers.   It's aged very well.  

22. Quatermass and the Pit aka Five Million Years to Earth (dir. Roy Ward Baker, 1967)

One of Hammer's finest. Nigel Kneale's story is one of escalating horrific discovery and wide spread scope. It puts a science fiction spin on no less than the source of satan, human intelligence, and our need to battle that which is different. With accompanying set pieces from ghostly legends, poltergeist activity, all the way up to "demonic" possession and a confrontation with the devil.  It's sleeker than the teleplay, but no less effective.

Quote:

Originally Posted by S.D. Bob Plissken 

19. Brides of Dracula (1960) dir. Terence Fisher

 

 

Perfection!  This list was in definite need of Hammering.......

 

One of the absolute best Hammer films in general, let alone in their Dracula saga.  And Dracula isn't even in it!

As a digression, I love Brides of Dracula. Cushing as an ass-kicking Van Helsing was never better. The cauterization scene is terrific, pulled off in no small part because of Cushing's performance. And the vampirism has some nice kinks in it, including a vampire son putting the bite on his mom. Terrific choice.

23. Witchfinder General (d. Michael Reeves - 1968)

24. Spider Baby (1964) dir. Jack Hill

Not the scariest movie on the list, but a horror classic nonetheless. Jill Banner manages to be the cutest bug-eating psychopath there ever was. Just a completely bizarre movie from beginning to end, featuring the great Lon Chaney and Sid Haig.

25.

1966, dir. Francois Truffaut

Stark & haunting, Ray Bradbury's dystopian nightmare is brought to life with the lush cinematic eye & sensitive intelligence of French New Wave icon Truffaut. A classic.

26. At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964) d. José Mojica Marins

The first film to feature the despicable character of Coffin Joe, played so well by the director Marins. 

27. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962 - d. Robert Aldrich)

28. Dr Strangelove (1964)

Used the obvious image because sometimes you just gotta go with iconic.

Brilliant and bone chilling comedy film about world-ending power vested in the hands of absurd, idiotic, crazy people. To think it could have all been avoided if Sterling Hayden had one of those little blue pills!

Cold war era, so lots of options (even from the same year), but I went with the Kubrick because I think some of the other choices are so po-faced serious that they border on camp sometimes. Plus the impression I always got from this fillm was that humanity is so utterly fucked that all we can do is laugh, and lament. To me, that's beyond scary.

29. Targets (1968) d. Peter Bogdanovich

Intense thriller about a psychotic sniper loose in L.A.

Targets is a great mention. Although my fave scene in the movie has nothing to do with the sniper stuff- it's when Karloff tells his spooky story.

What turns an All-American boy into an All-American killer? Probably all of that hippie rocker noise that's blasting in the background. Seriously, where did this "action" Bogdonavich go? Such a great filck.

31. 2001: A Space Odyssey (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

In space, no one can hear a computer become sentient and proceed to murder the crew.

"I am so going to kill you guys."

32. In Cold Blood (1967)

So many disturbing aspects to this film. The senseless destruction of an innocent family. The fact that such an unfathomable crime took place in a quiet peaceful part of rural America, where things like this weren't supposed to happen. The clinical matter-of-fact documentary style in which the story is told. The amazing performances by Robert Blake and Scott Wilson. The fact that the real killers they play probably couldn't tell you why they did it. That they didn't show remorse. That they got away with $40. That when we see them pay the ultimate price for their crimes, it doesn't feel like justice. It's the ultimate home invasion horror film.

33. House of Usher (1960 - d. Roger Corman)

34. Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (dir. Terence Fisher, 1969)

Not quite Cushing's last hurrah as the Baron, but it would have been a great last outing if it had been. Fisher often played with extremes, his vampire films were always about the seductiveness of evil and generally someone who mixed the rational with religious purity would triumph. His Frankenstein movies were about the pure abuse of rationality with no conscience, religious or otherwise. Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed is the purest expression of the latter as Frankenstein is pure excess satisfying his own amoral cravings with no regards to others. What's interesting is that Frankenstein is utterly successful at all his machinations. Schemes go according to plan. Operations go off without a hitch. There's no abnormal or damaged brains as excuses for his failures. The result is that Frankenstein's mistaken beliefs are utterly exposed for their moral shortcomings. And intellectual shortsightedness. I'd argue it's the ultimate statement on Hammer's Frankenstein.

36. KWAIDAN (1963) Masaki Kobayashi

It's like a fine blended scotch of fear, terror and classic folklore.

37.

1969, dir. John Schlesinger

The crushing portrayal of poverty & desperation in Midnight Cowboy is the reason it's on this list. While it's inarguably a great film, it's also an acutely grimy, depressing, & troubling film to watch.

39. Onibaba (1964)

One of my favorite films out of Japan.  Very psychological and that mask is just awesome.

40. Hour of the Wolf (1968) Director - Ingmar Bergman

Bergman at his most depraved and creepy (take a seat Persona). This is a film chock-full of inventive, dizzying imagery that packs a wallop. One of Bergman's most (in my opinion) underrated works. Simply divine.

41. The Honeymoon Killers (1969)

This nasty piece of work is Bonnie and Clyde deglamorized. A true crime movie, an extremely black comedy, and a perverse love story rolled into one. They say Martin Scorsese left the project due to creative differences but I like to imagine that just being involved with this movie made even Martin MF'ing Scorsese physically sick. 
 

42. The Virgin Spring (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1960)

Bergman's story of rape and revenge has been used as the basis of several subsequent films, notably Wes Craven's Last House on the Left, but nobody has captured the existential dread of Bergman's vision.

This is one badass list.  It's also depressing, considering how many of these I haven't seen.  Off to the Netflix queue.....