100 Greatest Horror Movies Of All Time
55. Upgrade
The best movie from Saw writer Leigh Whannel since that first instalment, Upgrade is a brutally terrifying look at the soullessness of machine learning and iteration.
Essentially a revenge flick at heart, its injection of body horror elements shows Logan Marshall-Green go from wheelchair-bound paraplegic to A.I.-reliant death-bringer. Now, it would’ve been supremely easy for Whannel to essentially make another Robocop-lite future city thrill-ride, but the first time Marshall-Green’s Grey Trace gives his A.I. counterpart control over his entire body is one of the most disturbing shots in recent cinema.
Whannel manages to showcase transhumanism in a way that’s both enticing yet dangerous; effective yet disgusting. The more Grey gives into this A.I. keeping him moving, the more you too indulge in the wanton escapism of Trace delivering justice to those who wronged him.
The takeaway message though, and overall throughline commentary on our own reliance on technology, is a total mindf*ck you won’t see coming.
[ST]
54. The Blair Witch Project
Almost 20-years after it was first released, leaving cinemas in stunned silence and various states of shock, there are those who to this day will tell you The Blair Witch Project really happened.
That’s a nonsense, of course (or is it…?), but it’s a testament to just how well-executed, convincing (and ahead of its time) this movie was.
A groundbreaking entry in the found-footage subgenre, it twists the horror game into the new millennia with some seriously effective scares and imaginative techniques.
[JH]
53. Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Forget Keanu Reeve’s dreadful accent for just one second and admit it - Bram Stoker’s Dracula is brilliant.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gary Oldman in the eponymous role, the 1992 film is by far the most authentic retelling of Bram Stoker’s gothic novel. It features some incredible imagery, and though Reeves’ casting was a peculiar one, the rest of the cast turn in some brilliant performances, with Anthony Hopkins in particular embodying the role of Van Helsing with a class Peter Cushing himself would’ve been very proud of.
Coppola’s film, despite being the most authentic adaptation of Stoker’s text, is by no means the best production based on that book. However, it deserves special acclaim for the way in which it captures the imagery of that novel, and it’s for that reason why it remains one of the finest horrors of all time.
[EP]