10 Greatest Horror Movie Directors Of All Time

Notable films: The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, The Cat O'Nine Tails, Deep Red, Suspiria, Inferno, Tenebrae, Phenomena

While John Carpenter's horror movies have gone on to influence countless contemporary filmmakers, he himself was greatly influenced by the true master of Italian horror, Dario Argento. Another luminary of the Italian giallo circuit, his 1975 masterpiece of the form, Deep Red, was frequently cited by Carpenter as a key influence on Halloween.

There's a visual opulence to Dario Argento's movies which rivals the best of world cinema. Argento demonstrated a mastery of composition and use of colour, while bringing a flair to the camerawork with elaborate tracking shots, which sometimes led to comparisons with Martin Scorsese.

At his peak, Argento was referred to as the Master of the Thrill, and his particular oeuvre emcompassed both giallo (The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, The Cat O'Nine Tails, Tenebrae) and a run of critically acclaimed supernatural horror films, which include Suspiria and Inferno. These are films which truly elevated horror towards a fine art, both in terms of visual aesthetics and the depths to which familiar themes were explored.

Just as recent remakes have cast John Carpenter back into the spotlight, encouraging a new generation of horror fans to revisit his work, so too has Luca Guadagnino's remake of Argento's undisputed masterpiece Suspiria done much to expose the Italian master's legacy to new audiences.