100 Greatest Horror Movies Of All Time
40. Saw
The “killer’s holding all the cards” setup has given us many a pulse-pounding thriller, but Saw’s introduction of the “gornography” faux-genre would be one for the ages, precisely because of its genre-bending ways.
Laid out like a police procedural twinned with survivalist, isolation-fuelled horror, we follow both a pair of detectives on the hunt for the Jigsaw killer, and two of his latest victims, trying to comprehend the “game” they’ve been asked to play.
Cue all manner of pre-thought out foils to their escape attempts, alongside details of past killings that flesh out just how meticulous and effective Jigsaw has become.
Though the franchise would later indulge in its most gore-happy aspects to please the punters, this first instalment is surprisingly light on viscera, bolting you to your chair through a stupidly engaging mix of plot twists, character revelations and ace cinematography.
Essential horror cinema.
[ST]
39. Misery
Misery's brilliance is all about Kathy Bates' Oscar-winning performance as deranged superfan Annie Wilkes (the forebear for basically all of YouTube's comment section and anything with GamerGate in their Twitter bio). In a stunning bit of prescience by Stephen King, she was the world's first and worst fangirl, who ends up "caring for" James Caan after an accident severely injures him.
Misery feels like King's response to some of his more over-zealous fans and their insistence that he write only what they want him to - a deeply personal concern that actually helps feed Wilkes' impact and make her far more real. This could have been a far lesser film in lesser hands, but with Caan and Wilkes both on sparkling form and a moment as viscerally affecting as the hobbling to stick with you, it's a real joy.
[SG]
38. The Craft
The ultimate in very literal genre-bending magic, The Craft is a beloved product of the 90s that sees timid new student Sarah fall in with a trio of outcasts that practise witchcraft. The four girls together have power beyond imagination, but with it comes a dark price.
A love letter to brooding teen movies as well as a brilliant supernatural horror film, the witches of this coven encapsulate femininity in all its forms, good and bad. What’s born of that is an incredible piece of character work, and the Clueless film for goths the world over. Seriously, it’s just fantastically enjoyable and suitably spooky to boot.
[AM]