10. Vincent Price
Who can dispute Vincent Price's right to be in this article? What actor is more deserving of a place on this list of the Greatest Masters of Fear? No one. None. Nada. Vincent Price's movies may not be all the shocking or terrifying to a modern audience, but for his contemporaries, his films could be just about the scariest visions of terror available. He played good guys, he played bad guys, and he even played a few roles in other genres, but Vincent Price will always be remembered as the Master of Fear responsible for millions of nightmares. Some of his nightmare-inducing flicks include: House on Haunted Hill (1959), House of Wax (1953), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Fly (1958), The House of Usher (1960), and The Last Man on Earth (the 1964 adaptation of Matheson's I Am Legend).
9. Dario Argento
This Italian director, writer, and producer has had more influence on modern horror cinema than probably any other single person. His films (many of which are firmly planted in his sub-genre of choice: giallo) have provided the bloody blueprints for countless tales of terror and films of fear. His credits include such powerhouse horror and giallo entries as Suspiria, Deep Red, Inferno, Phenomena, Trauma, and Romero's Dawn of the Dead (as producer and additional composer). Argento is one of those special, happy breed of Fear Master: he's a classic innovator of the genre who is still working and creating new projects. We can't wait for his next outing. It's bound to be a bloody good time.
8. Alfred Hitchcock
No one will ever call Alfred Hitchcock an outright horror film director. That seems, somehow, to be well beneath the genius of such a celebrated auteur. But there's absolutely no denying that Hitchcock was a man who knew how to film a scary scene. Taking showers has never been the same since Psycho. Watching a flock of avifauna soar through the sky has never been the same since The Birds. And a pleasant rail-ride through the country-side has never been the same since Strangers on a Train. Hitchcock will forever be the Grand Master of Suspense, but he's more than earned this other title as a true Master of Fear.
7. Edgar Allen Poe
Poe was a man whose imagination was capable of delving into the deepest and darkest corners of our fear of the unknown. He showed us the many faces of evil with his short stories and poems, and he let us take a long, close look at them. We saw the horribly questioning eyes of evil in The Raven, we saw the fiendishly wicked fangs of evil in The Black Cat, we saw the long and stringy hair of evil in The Fall of the House of Usher, and we saw the sickly pallor of evil's crimson visage in The Masque of the Red Death. Through countless stories of madness and the macabre, Edgar Allen Poe entertained and terrified us. And for that, we are forever in his debt. A small token of our appreciation? Honoring him as one of the Greatest Masters of Fear.
6. Dave McKean
McKean is an artist of a different kind from those seen previously on this list. He's a visual artist whose work has mostly been witnessed in the comic and picture book arenas. Perhaps most famous for his work illustrating Grant Morrison's spooky Batman tale Arkham Asylum and providing the covers for each of Neil Gaiman's Sandman issues, McKean is incredible at showing us abstract glimpses of pure evil, frightening us with images that waver between realities, and confronting us with horrors that the human mind certainly must not be able to comprehend. And yet, somehow, through Dave McKean, it can be. He's a visionary who deserves far more credit than he usually gets from the public at large.
5. Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson is responsible for the original haunted house story. Her novel, The Haunting of Hill House, has been adapted and rebooted countless times since its publication in 1959 and has been cited as the direct influence on the imaginations of such visionaries as Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Richard Matheson, and so many more. But it's not only Hill House (or Hell House) that she's famous for. She also wrote an absolutely horrific short story in 1948 called The Lottery which explores the cannibalistic nature of human society and how we can become monsters without regret if we are only made to believe that what we're doing is the right thing to do. The Lottery provided inspiration for a great number of novels and movies in the decades following. She was a master of her craft and an undeniable Master of Fear.
4. Wes Craven
You might not be a fan of Wes Craven's latest forays into the world of film directing, but you CANNOT deny that he helped mold and shape the very nature of modern horror cinema. The Last House on the Left. The Hills Have Eyes. Scream. A Nightmare on (friggin) Elm Street. And we're talking all originals here. He left his mark on Hollywood's fear factory; a mark that can never be diminished by time or less successful ventures. He will always be a true Master of Fear for his contributions and we will always look forward to whatever he has planned next.
3. George A. Romero
When you start getting down to the nitty-gritty of the top entries, as we are now, it becomes very difficult to write about these folks. What can I possibly say about George A. Romero that you don't already know in your minds, hearts, souls, and nightmares? He created the living dead. We love zombies today and tales of survival in zombie (and other) apocalypse scenarios because of him. His Night of the Living Dead is consistently regarded as among the top horror films of all time, not to mention the top films of all-time period. Romero is a visionary of violence, a conductor of carnage, a master of mayhem, and above all, a social activist who uses his films to shed an evil light on the evil ways of real life human beings.
2. H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft is responsible for some of the most frightening and joyfully gory stories of the 20th century--and all before 1940. Fellow scary-story scribe Stephen King refers to Lovecraft as the "the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale" and I can't agree more. While he was relatively unknown during his lifetime, after his death his works became gospel to fans of fear and horror. They told tales that not only excited the blood but also engaged the mind. He often explored themes of religion, race, guilt, fate, and forbidden knowledge. He created characters that we recognized ourselves in, as horrifying a thought as that might be in some instances. He crafted the Cthulhu mythos and manufactured the Necronomicon. He didn't just bring more to the horror genre table; he brought a bigger table. H.P. Lovecraft is a Master of Fear and that is no mistake.