25. Rick Baker
A third entry for the makeup and special effects wizards of the film industry is Rick Baker. But don't you dare compare him to anyone. Baker is a master's master and will never be second best to anyone. He's man who brought to life some of the worst nightmares we could have ever conceived of and we are forever in his debt for scaring the pants right off our bods time and time again. This absolute Wizard of Fear was responsible for the awe-inspiring (not to mention pee-producing) effects in such gruesome horror flicks as The Exorcist, An American Werewolf in London, The Howling, The Funhouse, Videodrome, Thriller (yep, the Michael Jackson long-form video), and a whole host of other amazing movies that are not quite as gruesome. He's a God among men in the SFX department and we couldn't be happier that he is still working today.
24. David Cronenberg
The writer, director, and actor most responsible for the Body Horror sub-genre, David Cronenberg is a legend in the business of fear. One of the reasons his films stand a head above so many others is that he uses the tropes of horror and sci-fi as a means to an end. And unlike some of the splatterporn flicks that have come out lately, that end is NOT simply blood, guts, sex, and gore. No, Cronenberg uses his tales of terror and the fantastic to explore the depths of the human mind and body and how the two are intrinsically intertwined. For a sleepless night (but a rather philosophical one, all the same), check out any number of Cronenberg's great films, like: Scanners, Videodrome, The Fly, The Dead Zone, Dead Ringers, and so much more.
23. Jamie Lee Curtis
Yes, I know, Curtis has had a long and illustrious career doing comedy, drama, and even action movies and is very much beloved for her work in those corners of cinema. BUT, she is also one of the original Scream Queens, getting her start in such excellent horror flicks as Prom Night, The Fog, and Terror Train. Yet she will always be remembered as Laurie Strode, the heroic and horrified heroine of Halloween. In these movies, early on in her career, and especially in the role of Laurie, Jamie Lee Curtis proved that she is indeed a Master of Fear as she bared her soul and showed us what it would be like if one of us actually came face to face with pure evil€and what it might be like if we could find the courage to make a stand.
22. Neil Gaiman
Gaiman's work tends more to the fantastic side of fiction than the horrific, but he's still a storyteller who knows how to send shivers up his readers' spines just about any ol' time he wants to. Gaiman will always be a Master of Everything for his Sandman comic series, his novel American Gods, and his promotion of reading to kids of all ages. He seems, basically, like just about the greatest human being on earth. But he has his dark side, too. You can read it in the opening scene of The Graveyard Book, you can see it in the early Sandman issue 24 Hours, and you can absolutely feel it in his recent Audible release of the short story Click-Clack the Rattle-Bag. Here is one of the finest tale-spinners of any generation and he is, indeed, a Master of Fear.
21. Sam Raimi
You might say that Sam Raimi has a taste for the ridiculous and absurd; that even in his more serious flicks, there's always something goofy going on at the periphery of your vision. You might say that. And you'd be right. But even though Raimi and his crew love to crack jokes and make blood-soaked funnies, they also know a thing or two about fear. He was, after all, the director of Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness. He's made other horror flicks since then (Drag Me to Hell and, arguably, The Gift), but he earns his place so high on this list for those first three cult classics. They helped define the "cabin in the woods" genre and showed a new generation of up-and-coming auteurs that you don't need $100 million to make a great movie. You just need imagination, ingenuity, and Bruce Campbell.