100 Greatest Horror Movies Of All Time
91. The Night Of The Hunter
Even though it was made during the '50s as Hollywood was shifting to a more "realistic" style of filmmaking, The Night of the Hunter looked to the past to craft its eerie, poetic vision of America, with its landscapes and characters shrouded in chiaroscuro lighting.
However, it's Robert Mitchum's Harry Powell - a misogynistic serial killer who manipulates his way into his prison cellmate's family - that steals the show, and his pursuit of his latest victim's children across the country is as tense as it is terrifying.
Mitchum is perfect as the drifter - one of the all-time great screen villains - who believably bluffs his way into this new community and wins the townsfolk's trust while being absolutely rotten to the core behind closed doors. His violent outbursts are scary enough, but it's the fact that he's always able to shift the blame away from him that makes him so powerful - and so deadly.
[JB]
90. Nosferatu
Vampires had existed on film before F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, but it was his Expressionist masterpiece that showed not only what the creature could be, but the entire horror genre too.
As realism collides with expressionism, Nosferatu gains an eerie quality that suggests something just out of reach of this world; it’s the thing you see in the corner of your eye, or, quite literally, the shadow on the wall.
Max Schrek’s captivating, chilling performance, mixed with the sheer technical craft of the film’s camera angles and lighting, make this a creepy, gothic showcase that, if not outright terrifying, will haunt you long after viewing.
It might not have the name - Bram Stoker’s estate wouldn’t allow it - but this should be considered the Dracula adaptation.
[JH]
89. Aliens
Not the skulking science-fiction horror of its predecessor, this sequel multiplies the alien threat of the xenomorphs by countless numbers, turning an indestructible enemy into veritable sea of monsters intent on harvesting humans to turn into egg incubators. Not very nice, but then again, evil aliens from the depths of space never are.
Packed with colonial marines out for blood and a host planet rife with the creatures, Aliens manages to subvert its action into a social commentary - offering up a dissection of masculinity, femininity, and our perceptions of both as the acid-bloodshed unfolds.
Aliens takes the ravenous hordes of zombie movies and transforms them into almost-unkillable giant murder machines, but none of the tension, or horror, is lost in the process. It knows when to be fun, when to be scary, and when to be badass, with Ripley’s final showdown one of the most poignant and exhilarating in cinematic history.
[AM]