45. Buried (2010)
A claustrophobics worst nightmare. Director Rodrigo Cortes and writer Chris Sparling go a long way with only a little to work with in Buried. One on screen actor in Ryan Reynolds as a kidnapped American contractor in Iraq. One location, the coffin in which he has been buried unground somewhere in the desert. What easily couldve become an exercise in tediousness is transformed into a taut, horrifying thriller as Reynolds races against time to get out of his grave. The script explores every angle of the situation, giving us one new disaster after another to keep us riveted, while Reynolds, in an extremely well put together performance, makes sure that were living each breath alongside him. A small film, but a potent one.
44. Dead Ringers (1988)
I was more hesitant about including this film on the list than almost any other. In many ways its not a horror film; there is no killer, no malevolent evil for a hero to escape, not even much blood and guts most of the way. But it feels horrifying, and by the end, almost as if its violating our senses in what we should and should not see. David Cronenberg, long a maestro of so called body-horror, gives us this tale of identical twin gynecologists (both played to perfection by Jeremy Irons) in the midst of a serious identity crisis after they becoming involved with the same woman. Spiraling quickly into depression and madness, Dead Ringers builds to a climax that haunts us long after the film has finished rolling. It may not be horror in the traditional sense, but it cannot be discounted after seeing how it affects us.
43: Friday the 13th (1980)
Perhaps the first film to truly embrace the conventions and cliches of the slasher formula, the first installment of the Friday the 13th series is a campy classic. It hits all the familiar beats: teenagers partying, drinking, doing drugs and having sex, then immediately being killed before a final girl (Adrienne King) faces off with the killer. After this, the series descended into unapologetic ridiculousness. But while the first Friday the 13th is very mindful of showing its audience a good time, its first priority is still to make us jump. Die hard fans of the series may prefer later installments, but for neutral parties, the original is as good as it gets.
42. Saw (2004)
General disdain for the nearly endless string of sequels (there were seven in all) made many people forget that the first Saw film was actually a rather clever piece of mystery-horror. James Wans film looks and feels dirty as it traces parallel stories of a cop trying to catch the infamous Jigsaw killer, and two of his captives trying to figure a way out of his trap. Jigsaws ingenious games, - in which a captive is forced to shed their own blood to stay alive (or die trying) - were endlessly creative (at least in this installment), and the twist at the end of the film was surprising to most everyone. Comparisons to Se7en (a twisted killer teaching moral lessons through his crimes) were not without precedent, but Saw was original enough in its own right to feel less like a rip off and more like an inspired child of Finchers film. The first sequel wasnt bad either, but the original remains the series high water mark.
41. The Fly (1986)
Body horror at its most intense and most frightening. David Cronenberg's remake of the 1958 Vincent Price film is a much darker vision about the transformation and eventual breakdown of the body and mind of a young scientist whose experiment doesn't go quite as planned. Jeff Goldblum, as the doomed scientist, brings surprising gravity to the role even as he becomes more and more unrecognizable. Cronenberg makes us watch the transformation with an almost cruelly slow pace. We see small changes first, then slowly the hair and face begin to change, teeth and fingernails fall off, and eventually we reach a point where we aren't sure whether more of Goldblum is insect or man. Not for those with a weak stomach.