100 Greatest Horror Movies Of All Time

31. Dead Of Night (1945)

Dead of Night
Universal Pictures

An Ealing Studios classic that is a must-watch for Horror aficionados, Dead of Night is an anthology horror replete with creepy ghost stories, some elements of comedy, and a seriously sinister puppet called Hugo.

There are plenty of Horror movies of that era that cinephiles should track down, but Dead of Night is undoubtedly one of the decade’s best, and indeed, one of the finest British Horrors of all time.

[EP]

30. [REC]

rec movie
Magnet Releasing

Created as Paco Plaza’s take on both the found footage phenomenon as well as the ever popular zombie craze in cinema, [REC] starts as a documentary on the local fire station’s night shift workers, following them in their routine activities as the evening wears on. It’s only when a visit to a woman trapped in an apartment building goes awry that they realise something very wrong is going on with some of the town’s residents: and by then, they’re locked in the building with them.

One of the best shaky-cam efforts since The Blair Witch Project, [REC] plays with the classic formula and comes up with something absolutely terrifying - bringing about an ending that is enough to leave you with nightmares for a good long time. Seriously. Quarantine has nothing on this.

[AM]

29. 28 Days Later

28 Days Later 1024x576
DNA Films

It’s easy to forget how influential 28 Days Later was, and it boiled down to one simple-sounding idea:

“What if the zombies… could run?”

Divisive as hell at the time, the movie knew precisely how to inject just enough of an evolution into the zombie genre, so those of us who’ve tired of endless shuffling hordes had an altogether new phenomenon to dissect.

Danny Boyle’s direction is something else, too. The blistering pace and pure, feral tenacity with which he portrays the zombies themselves, only to occasionally get in tight with a surviving pack of humans, showcasing just how overpowered the average person has become.

As essential to zombie fiction as Day of the Dead or George A. Romero, to this day there are entire theses dedicated to just how seminal this was, and still is.

[ST]

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.

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NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.

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