The films

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High Tension

Aja before Hollywood, at maximum brutality, with a twist that still starts fights.

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My Name Is Nobody

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

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Orca

The whale wants revenge and has a plan. Morricone score, oddly moving.

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Phenomena

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

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Piranha

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

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Tenebrae

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

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The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

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

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The Beyond

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

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The Changeling

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

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The Colossus of Rhodes

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

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The Return of the Living Dead

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

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White Zombie

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

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Death Wish 3

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

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Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

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

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I Saw the Devil

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

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Phantasm

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

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Sabata

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

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The Devils

A great film about power, still censored fifty years on.

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Zombi 2

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

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Häxan

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

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The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

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

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Deep Red

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

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I Spit on Your Grave

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

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Pink Flamingos

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

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Re-Animator

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

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Scanners

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

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The Curse of Frankenstein

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

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The Hills Have Eyes

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

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Braindead

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

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Death Race 2000

Corman satire with actual teeth. Stallone before anyone knew.

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King Kong vs. Godzilla

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

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Martyrs

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

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Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

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

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The Holy Mountain

Jodorowsky's spiritual epic. Every frame is a blasphemous tableau, and it is dead serious.

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Assault on Precinct 13

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

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Audition

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