My Top Ten list, in no particular order and subject to change:
Evil Dead 2--The first horror film that disturbed me and made me laugh at the same time.
Frankenstein (1931)--The makeup fascinated me as a child; Karloff's performance impressed me as an adult, and Whale's direction was far ahead of its time.
Black Christmas--It beat Carpenter's Halloween by a few years, right down to the killer's POV shots. Genuinely creepy.
Deliverance--Yeah, I call it an American Gothic horror film. You got a problem with that?
Psycho--Two words for Gus Van Zant: Alfred Fucking Hitchcock. I saw a clip of the shower scene as a child, and it was years before I got the nerve to see the whole movie.
The Ring--I actually prefer this version to Ringu, but probably because I still haven't quite gotten a grip on Japanese Horror yet. Being a lowly American, I'm still bound by plot over atmosphere. However, I felt the American version was suprisingly faithful to the original version. And the video still creeps me out.
John Carpenter's The Thing--Carpenter's best film, in my opinion, and it's probably my favorite because it's so nilhistic.
Dawn of the Dead (Romero's version)--Still the grandaddy of all zombie films, bar none. The only film to come close to touching it--in terms of tone and satire--is Shawn of the Dead. And although I like the 2004 remake, it's more of an action movie than an acutal horror movie. (Zombies that can outrun the T1000? C'mon!)
The Blair Witch Project--Yeah, I'll put it on the list, despite the current backlash due to overexposure. However, I have yet to be exposed to another film that shows the gradual descent to hell that this one depicts. But then, I'm still a neophyte...
The Exorcist--Not the Version I Didn't Need To See, but the original. Friedkin was right in his original vision, and he should never have caved to Blatty's carping. (The only necessary additions were the preparatons prior to the exorcism ritual, and the conversation on the stairs between Merrin and Karras. And screw all the added morphing and subliminal images--they actually pulled me out of the movie.) I fell asleep once while listening to the Blatty commentary, and became semi-conscious when the disc started playing Mercedes McCambridge's outtakes. It was a few hours before I was able to sleep again.
Why Horror? I was late getting on the bandwagon. I grew up with a great disdain for slasher flicks, which seemed to me a cheap way to get a visceral thrill. It's only within the last couple of years, especially after immersing myself in Carpenter's films, that I began to realize the great amount of skill that goes into constructing horror films. That, and I came to realize that I actually enjoyed films that disturbed me on some level, rather than made me jump out of my chair. Maybe because they reach me on a more primal level, I don't know.
Anyway, that's my opinion.
