100 Greatest Horror Movies Of All Time
58. Carrie
Dripping in pig's blood and with a manic, supernatural stare that pierces through your very soul, there are few horror images as striking as Carrie White on her prom night in Brian De Palma's '70s classic. Though it's most fondly remembered for that final crescendo of vengeance though, the rest of the movie is just as suspenseful, as the titular teenager moves from one personal hell to another, day in, day out.
At school, Carrie's bullied by her classmates, a horrible situation which is only exacerbated when she returns home to her religious mother, who sees her daughter as nothing but sinful and worthy of ridicule. Carrie teeters on the edge of sanity all the way through, gaining some semblance of power when she unlocks her telekinetic abilities and can finally become the monster her mother and her "friends" think she is.
[JB]
57. The Exorcist III
Although there’s no denying the preeminence of 1973’s The Exorcist, to write off the rest of the franchise would be a serious mistake. The second film is pretty dreadful, but the third is genuinely quite compelling, and features some fantastic scares too.
Set 17 years after the events of the first film, the third (written and directed by William Peter Blatty), tells a story inspired by the Zodiac Killer, who infamously documented his praise for the first film in one of his many letters to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The film centres around the ostensible reemergence of the Gemini Killer (an analogue of the aforementioned real life Californian murderer), as Lieutenant Kinderman investigates. The less that’s said about the plot, the better, but the point remains that this is the one Exorcist sequel that doesn’t deserve to be forgotten.
[EP]
56. The Fog
John Carpenter’s The Fog may not be the scariest horror movie going, but for what it lacks in scares it more than makes up for in atmosphere and imagery (Carpenter’s own score is deserving of special attention too).
Centred around a coastal town as it succumbs to a supernatural fog, one comprised of a ghostly group of 19th century pirates, Carpenter’s film is worth seeing first and foremost for its practical effects, and for some seriously gruesome deaths.
Hidden beneath all of this is a capable cast comprised of Jamie Lee Curtis, Adrienne Barbeau, Janet Leigh and Hal Holbrook. They don’t do anything spectacular, but their respective performances are serviceable and rightly take a backseat to the visuals and atmosphere of the film itself.
[EP]