Exploitation films

Phenomena

Insect telepathy, a Swiss boarding school, and a straight-razor chimpanzee. Argento off the leash.

Piranha

Sayles script, Dante direction, and jokes that land. The best Jaws rip.

Possession

On the nasties list by pure bureaucratic accident. An actual masterpiece about divorce.

Salon Kitty

Nazisploitation with a real budget and Tinto Brass's dirty fingerprints. Ilsa was the knock-off.

Tenebrae

Argento's coldest and cleverest. That crane shot earns its reputation.

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

The best training film ever made. Lau Kar-leung at the peak.

The Beyond

Makes no sense whatsoever and is Fulci's best film. Dream logic, fully committed.

The Changeling

George C. Scott versus a bouncing red ball. The best serious ghost film of its decade.

The Colossus of Rhodes

Leone's actual debut, three years before the westerns.

The Return of the Living Dead

Punk soundtrack, running zombies, and the film that invented 'BRAINS'.

White Zombie

Lugosi, Haitian folklore, and the first zombie film. No eating involved.

Death Wish 3

Abandons realism entirely. Bronson defends a housing block with a machine gun.

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Meyer's best. Tura Satana is a genuine screen presence and the dialogue snaps.

I Saw the Devil

Revenge as a chew toy. Nobody in Korean cinema has been crueller for longer.

My Name Is Nobody

The spaghetti western attends its own funeral, cracking jokes. Fonda, Terence Hill, and Leone's fingerprints everywhere.

Phantasm

A flying silver sphere, a towering undertaker, and dream logic. Nobody has explained it since.

Sabata

A gadget-toting gunfighter blackmails a whole town. Lee Van Cleef, having an obvious blast.

The Devils

A great film about power, finally restored after fifty-five years.

Zombi 2

A zombie fights a shark. Fulci's splinter shot is still the worst thing here.

Häxan

A 1922 documentary about witchcraft that is also a horror film. Way ahead of itself.

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

Argento's debut, and the film that made the giallo an export.

Deep Red

Argento's best. Goblin's score does half the work and knows it.

I Spit on Your Grave

The most argued-about film on this site. Read the glossary entry before deciding.

Re-Animator

Where the effects and the writing finally matched. Jeffrey Combs is perfect.

Scanners

The exploding head made Cronenberg bankable. The film around it is smarter than that scene.

The Curse of Frankenstein

The film that built Hammer, in blood-red colour the censors hated.

The Hills Have Eyes

Craven's meanest. The suburban family turn out to be the better killers.

Braindead

Jackson before the trilogy. The lawnmower scene ends the argument.

King Kong vs. Godzilla

The most-watched Godzilla film in Japan, and essentially an ad-industry farce with two giant monsters.

Martyrs

The New French Extremity's defining title, and the one that empties the room.

Pink Flamingos

Divine competes to be the filthiest person alive. The most notorious act in film history closes it.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

The coldest panel of Park's revenge trilogy, with no jokes and no mercy in it.

Assault on Precinct 13

Carpenter remaking Rio Bravo for $100,000. The ice cream scene is still shocking.

Audition

The slowest, sweetest bait-and-switch in horror. Miike lets you fall for her first.

Black Christmas

Predates Halloween and is scarier. The phone calls still work.

Day of the Dead

The bleakest Romero. Bub is the only sympathetic character in it.