100 Greatest Horror Movies Of All Time
13. The Silence Of The Lambs
Although there is an argument to be made that Silence of the Lambs is more of a thriller with horror elements than an out and out horror film, there’s no denying that Hannibal Lecter is an icon of the genre, or that Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling is one of the greatest protagonists in movie history.
Based on the Thomas Harris novel, Jonathan Demme’s film was the second based on the author’s books, but it was also undoubtedly the best. With a compelling narrative, Anthony Hopkin's Oscar-award winning performance as Lecter and a sinister mystery to boot, it’s little wonder that Silence has gone down as one of the best films of the 1990s, or as one of the greatest horrors of all time.
[EP]
12. An American Werewolf In London
Werewolves may make up part of the unholy triumvirate, but they’ve not made the transformation to screen as well as their vampire and zombie counterparts have. For whatever reason it doesn’t quite work as well, with the major exception of John Landis’ horror comedy classic.
Not only is it the finest werewolf movie ever made, but a movie that proved just how well you could mine horror for laughs as well as scares, offering up both simultaneously here.
Landis expertly captures the spookiness of the Yorkshire moors, the duality of David and the wolf consuming him from the inside, and that, as well as being both a horror and a comedy, this is ultimately a tragedy too. And if that’s not enough, well, the transformation scene alone is reason enough to watch.
[JH]
11. The Cabin In The Woods
The very reason we love horror cinema - and horror’s cinematic history - is down to the genre practically having its own shared visual language between fans and creatives. We know when a jump-scare is building, or which characters are likely to die, and playing with these expectations - or subverting them entirely - has lead to some true greats.
Though Cabin in the Woods isn’t discussed in the same vein as a Psycho or an Amityville Horror, Joss Whedon treats the genre like a sandbox, working up a set of meta-commentary circumstances that can effectively be bolted onto every single horror film in existence.
To give away precisely what’s going on would ruin the fun if you’ve not checked out this sublime little gem, but sufficed to say, those bumps in the night served a larger purpose, the slow investigating character might have been tipped off, and that otherwordly horror picking off the main cast? It was let loose by a controlling force.
Interested yet?
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