For years, the 'horror' film has been a much maligned presence amongst viewers, critics, in video rental shops, online forums and, of course, down the pub. Many consider them 'silly' and not worth placing alongside the current raft of Cannes winners or Oscar nominees. Girls screaming, blood flowing and masked maniacs. That's it for those who, in actual fact, have probably only seen one or two horrors and don't care for what they saw anyway. Is there a genre out there that can redefine itself as regularly, and with such success, as 'horror' though? What is a 'horror' film? When looking at romantic comedies, invariably, a man and woman meet, don't like each other and come together at the end with a rain-soaked kiss. Add various Hugh Grant mumblings and musical montages of the seasons passing and there we have it. Of course, this is as base a description of romantic comedies as many apply to horror films and yet, no-one minds that too much. For this countdown (in order of release date and NOT in order of preference) I am going to use a definition from one of the best films writers out there, Kim Newman, who prefers to call horror films 'nightmare movies'. I agree with this because horror, at its purest level, is there to scare us either with a simple jump shock or to get us thinking about the 'what ifs'. If you've not read 'Nightmare Movies' then do so immediately. It's brilliant and you might also be surprised by some of the films he discusses ranging from straight horror, to apocalypse films, conspiracy movies, science-fiction and backwoods thrillers. It's about the fear and the nightmare that we could all find ourselves in, that's what matters. As we're looking at the last fifty years, that does mean that some true nightmare classics such as Psycho, The Birds and Peeping Tom miss the list but, make no doubt about it, these were the films that created the template for many of the ones on this list. To that end, here are The Top Twenty Nightmare Movies Of The Last Fifty Years (In Order of Release!) with spoilers included.
