3. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
There have been sequels and remakes with more gore, bigger budgets, higher body counts and better actors, but much like Night of the Living Dead, Tobe Hoopers original Texas Chain Saw Massacre goes further than the films that followed it despite having less resources at its disposal. The key to The Texas Chain Saw Massacres effectiveness is its texture. The whole film feels sweaty, uncomfortable, a perfect reflection of the setting and its surroundings. From the outset things dont seem right. The camera hovers far too long on a herd of cows. We see a decomposing body; a dead armadillo by the side of the road. What Hooper is feeding us are images of meat, and by the time we meet Leatherface and his family, we realize that we too arent much more to some than the meat on our bones, animals for consumption. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is violent, but not overtly gory. Even the worst scene, the infamous meat hook, isnt especially bloody. What is affecting about the film is how uncanny it feels, the inherent feeling of wrongness that the picture carries with it. Weve entered a world with people so crazy that they may not even realize something is wrong with them, where a group of young travelers is nothing more than the next meal for a hungry family, and where even if someone escapes, theres no reassurance that the evil will ever be defeated or dealt with.
2. Halloween (1978)
Of the 50 films on this list, John Carpenters Halloween is the most perfectly structured. From its long, POV opening to its final shots, every beat is played exactly as it needs to be. Carpenter knows when to cut away and when to leave a shot rolling, when to show and when to imply, and how to use framing and editing to ratchet up the feelings of tension without ever showing us a thing. Carpenter shoots Halloween as a slowly shrinking film, one that tightens around us. It starts off with long, deep shots of a small town, and then gradually moves into smaller and smaller shots and spaces until were finally hiding in a closet at the films climax, trying to catch our breath. Equally important is the use of music. Carpenter scored the film himself, and while the opening theme remains the most famous piece from Halloween, the music used during different interludes, build ups, and chases are just as vital. Halloween is a film where the music does more than just work with the footage, its actually vital in driving the film forward and creating the overarching mood of terror that looms over it the picture as a whole. And then there is Michael Myers. He never speaks and never runs, creating a model copied by other slashers for years to come. What makes him so effective is not only the blank, emotionless mask that covers his face, but his lack of motive. He is, simply, evil. There is no rhyme or reason to why hes doing what hes doing, he kills because that is who he is. In later films, of course, all of this would be explained, and the rationale for Michaels vendetta against the little town of Haddonfield would be revealed. But while this may have satisfied some viewers, it weakened his overall character. Motiveless, he was pure, unclouded. A force of nature more than a man. A real bogeyman.