This blog entry is dedicated to what I consider to be an official version of my Top 10 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time. Aside from some different choices, this year, I also decided to cite reasons for each ranking. I know I have said it before (click here and here), but it bears repeating – all lists (including my own) are subjective. Nevertheless, please be kind to number 7 on this list because that one means a lot to me 🙂 Anyway, Happy Halloween to all of my dear readers 🙂 Now, without further ado, I present to you all:
-My Top 10 Favorite Horror Films of All-Time-
10.) Vampyr (1932)
Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Country: Germany/France
Color: Black and White
Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer’s only true horror film was implicitly unfairly viewed by critics as one of his lesser works during it’s initial theatrical release in 1932. Fast-forwarding 91 years later in 2023, many critics now consider Vampyr to be (in the words of former Village Voice critic J. Hoberman) Dreyer’s most radical film. Given everything that came before and after in Dreyer’s oeuvre, Hoberman’s view can not be stated any better. Intentionally emphasizing atmosphere and imagery over plot, as a foreign horror film, Vampyr may be the closest one that purely resembles a nightmare.
Since I could not find a youtube video link to an official theatrical trailer, click here to view a 90th anniversary trailer
Click here to view a youtube video link of British film critic Mark Kermode’s commentary of it as one of BFI Player picks
Click here to watch the film on youtube
9.) The Shining (1980)
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Country: United States/United Kingdom
Color: Color
Author Stephen King may have been greatly disappointed over director Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his 1977 bestselling novel, but this has not prevented The Shining from eventually becoming (and deservedly so) a quintessential example of cinematic horror. Along with other Kubrick films, The Shining has only improved with time. Not unlike Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr, The Shining remains the only horror film within Kubrick’s oeuvre. Similar to the former, The Shining resembles the work of an idiosyncratic filmmaker. On the one hand, we get now iconic scares ranging from the blood gushing elevator to images of hacked up twins to the image of it’s lead actor Jack Nicholson exclaiming (through ad-libbing) Here’s Johnny!. As in all (or most) of Kubrick’s films since 1957’s Paths of Glory, The Shining has been open to all sorts of interpretations and neither one would be wrong.
Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer
8.) Nosferatu (1922)
Dir: F.W. Murnau
Country: Germany
Color: Black and White
German director F.W. Murnau’s unauthorized silent adaptation of author Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula also happens to be my personal favorite version of the source material. Whereas other versions romanticized the aforementioned title character, Nosferatu depicts the vampire (named Count Orlok in this film) as a truly hideous monster in every single way imaginable. All of his mannerisms are expressed perfectly by it’s lead actor Max Schreck. As a masterpiece of both German Expressionism and cinematic horror, Nosferatu is driven less by scares and more by it’s eerie atmosphere.
Since I can’t find an official theatrical trailer for it, click here to view this youtube video link of it’s 100 Anniversary trailer
Click here to watch the film on youtube
7.) Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
Dir: David Lynch
Country: United States/France
Color: Color
Critically savaged upon it’s initial theatrical release back in 1992, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me has since been reassessed as not only a misunderstood masterpiece, but also as one of director David Lynch’s major masterworks. As for myself, I will go one step further by citing Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me as the number one greatest American horror film of the 1990’s. A prequel to both the original series (1990-91) and 2017’s The Return, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me centers on the sad last days of Laura Palmer – acted with gusto by the immensely beautiful and talented Sheryl Lee. Aided by composer Angelo Badalamenti’s haunting music score, the result is every bit as surreal and nightmarish as it is ultimately tragic. British film critic/novelist Kim Newman once stated that the film’s many moments of horror demonstrate just how tidy, conventional and domesticated the generic horror movie of the 1980’s and 1990’s has become. I could not have stated it any better.
Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer
Click here to listen to the soundtrack
Click here to watch author Scott Ryan’s introduction to the film at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre from last year
Click here, here, here, here and here to watch a Q&A with actress Sheryl Lee and actor Dana Ashbrook from a 2021 showing of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre
6.) Let the Right One In (2008)
Dir: Tomas Alfredson
Country: Sweden
Color: Color
Even If he is destined to never make another great film, Swedish director Tomas Alfredson can at least be proud of this one. With all due respect to Nosferatu and Vampyr, Let the Right One In stands as my number one favorite horror film ever made to center on a vampire. Let the Right One In breaks with convention by exploring it’s surface themes relating to boy/girl bonding, revenge and social rejection with truly insightful results. If there is another horror film out there that has already achieved this, I have yet to see it.
Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer
5.) The Babadook (2014)
Dir: Jennifer Kent
Country: Australia
Color: Color
Regardless of whether The Babadook continues to stand for myself as the number one greatest horror film of the 21st century is another question. The one thing I can guarantee is that The Babadook will always remain my personal favorite one of the 2010’s. On a whole, the title monster serves as a metaphor for both parenting and grief. The result is all the scarier once you realize how close it hits to home.
Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer
4.) Dead of Night (1945)
Dir: Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer
Country: United Kingdom
Color: Black and White
Noted for being Ealing Studios only foray into the genre (at least based on my knowledge), Dead of Night also served (debatably barring 1924’s Waxworks) as the granddaddy of all horror anthology films. While all subsequent portmanteau horror films can be described as perfect to an extent, for me, Dead of Night is the only one where that aforementioned word can be applied without reservation. Sandwiched between it’s prologue and epilogue are five stories that form a cohesive whole. Though I love them all for different reasons, my personal favorite segment would have to be director Alberto Cavalcanti’s The Ventriloquist Dummy. If that one is not the creepiest of the bunch, then it certainly comes close.
Though I can’t find a trailer for it online, the film is probably available on DVD/Blu-Ray
Click here to view a 2014 retrospective documentary on it entitled Remembering Dead of Night
3.) Diabolique (1955)
Dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Country: France
Color: Black and White
Though Alfred Hitchcock is often credited for initially redefining Cold War era cinematic horror with Psycho, the aforementioned genre was actually first redefined five years earlier in 1955 by French director Henri-Georges Clouzot with Diabolique. As the film’s plot unfolds, Clouzot wastes no time in elevating the tension to completely unbearable heights and effortlessly keeps it going throughout. Culminating in one of the most shocking twist endings ever conceived, Diabolique is a horror thriller that will ultimately make one’s heart stop.
Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer
Click here to view Alex Cox’s Moviedrome intro to the film
2.) Eyes Without a Face (1960)
Dir: Georges Franju
Country: France/Italy
Color: Black and White
Gruesome on the surface, but lyrical in the center, Eyes Without a Face is often implicitly cited (and rightfully so) as what a horror film would look like helmed by poet Jean Cocteau. In contrast to the morbid, yet tragic story is the strangely beautiful atmosphere, which (subtly or otherwise) resembles that of a fairy tale.
Click here to view what may or may not be the film’s French trailer
Click here to view British film critic Mark Kermode’s commentary of it as one of his BFI Player picks
Click here to view Kermode’s Kermode Uncut commentary on it
Click here to view Mark Kermode’s Cult Film Corner commentary on it
1.) Don’t Look Now (1973)
Dir: Nicolas Roeg
Country: United Kingdom/Italy
Color: Color
Now often hailed as one of (If not) the most influential horror films ever made, Don’t Look Now also happens to be my number one favorite horror film of all-time. Reportedly cited by Nicolas Roeg (the British director himself) as his exercise in film grammar, as a horror thriller, Don’t Look Now stands out as quite possibly the most beautiful marriage between form and content. Accompanied by composer Pino Donaggio’s emotionally powerful music score, Roeg’s trademark unconventional editing style and it’s fittingly bleak, yet strangely lovely atmosphere, Don’t Look Now explores a tragedy’s impact on a married couple through the power of visual storytelling. Along with it’s explicit controversial sex scene, Don’t Look Now is noted for featuring (like Diabolique before it) the scariest ending ever conceived in the history of cinematic horror.
Click here to view the film’s original theatrical trailer
Click here to view the film’s 2019 4K Restoration trailer
Click here to view British film critic Mark Kermode’s 2008 Culture Show interview with director Nicolas Roeg
Click here to view Kermode’s review of the 2019 4K Restoration of the film
Click here to view Irish documentarian Mark Cousins 2001 Scene By Scene interview with actor Donald Sutherland on the film
Click here to view Mark Cousins Moviedrome intro to the film
Click here to view Danish-Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier commentary on the film
Click here to listen to the soundtrack
Let me conclude this blog entry with a two questions for my dear readers below
What are your top 10 favorite horror films of all-time?
What video links in my blog entry interested you the most?
cinematiccoffee 
Some good ones there, John. Dead Of Night is one of my favourites. Arguably the greatest anthology horror film ever made. Don’t Look Now lingers long in the memory after it’s over. Maddy
Inferno (Argento) The Mask of Satan (Bava) Day of Wrath (Dreyer) The Shining Kubrick) The House of Usher (Corman) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Siegel) Tarantula (Arnold) The Color Out of Space (Stanley) Rosemary’s Baby (Polanski) The Living Dead Girl (Rollin)
Solid choices, John, though I really didn’t think The Babadook was scary at all and I was greatly disappointed after having bought the DVD based on rave reviews. I might add the original Japanese versions of the films ‘Ringu’, and ‘Ju-On’ (The Grudge) which both scared me.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thank you for the kind words Pete 🙂 As for your take on The Babadook, I understand where you are coming from. For me, the scary aspects came less from the monster and more from what the monster debatably represents. Not only the stress of parenting (director Jennifer Kent has cited it as one metaphor), but also grief since it deals with the loss of a parent (a father in this case). In other words, the boy and the mother must combat the monster, who is a metaphor for both of these things.
As for Ringu, that would be within my 11-20 picks of favorite horror films of all-time. Also, yes Japanese horror cinema truly is scary.
Tell me something Pete, were you happy to see not only Nosferatu on here, but Dead of Night as well? 🙂
Hey Bill, interesting you have as well 🙂 Sorry for the late response 🙂 One thing I notice whenever it comes to the ranking of Dario Argento films, sometimes it will be Suspiria at number one or Inferno or Tenebre 🙂 Interesting isn’t it? 🙂 Though Black Sunday was reportedly Mario Bava’s breakthrough, your choice is fascinating considering that most will put one of his color films as their favorite. Can’t go wrong with Roger Corman/Edgar Allan Poe adaptations. What a coincidence that The Shining is one of your favorite horror films as well 🙂 While Day of Wrath is rarely (If ever) cited as a horror film, I understand why you placed it there because the subject matter of witchcraft is one that has a history within the genre. When it comes to Roman Polanski’s 1960’s work, one usually places either Repulsion or Rosemary’s Baby as his best horror film of that decade. Though it might seem awkward now, giant monster movies like Tarantula and Them! were actually considered horror films back in their day, which was the 1950’s. Not so much when Henri-Georges Clouzot first reinvented cinematic horror with Diabolique, but when Alfred Hitchcock reinvented the genre in America with Psycho, giant monsters suddenly became less associated with horror. A debatable thought I know, but one worth pondering 🙂 With the exception of 2007’s The Invasion, I love every single adaptation of Jack Finney’s story that was adapted to the screen and Don Siegel’s version is every bit as (at least in my opinion) fantastic as the other two (directed by Philip Kaufman and Abel Ferrara respectively). A truly nice list there Bill 🙂
Thank you for the kind words Maddy 🙂 Glad to hear that you loved my inclusion of both Dead of Night and Don’t Look Now. I truly believe every story in Dead of Night works in different ways, but the one that everybody (me included) usually singles out first is The Ventriloquist Dummy. That one was really creepy 🙂 With all due respect to The Birds and Rebecca (I love them both), Don’t Look Now is (for me) the number one greatest film adaptation of a Daphne du Maurier property (it was based on one of her short stories). I love all of Roeg’s 70’s and 80’s work. The only great one from the 1990’s was The Witches. but Don’t Look Now may be the most perfectly realized regarding his unconventional editing style. From start to finish, it feels like a rhythm. This is not to put down any of Roeg’s other major works (I love them just as much), but I can totally see why Roeg felt it was his “exercise in film grammar”.
Btw, I see that you did a blog entry on Marilyn Monroe a few months ago and I loved reading it – I just got finished reading it and I am about to leave a reply 🙂 I did a blog entry on her a few months ago as well, here is the link below in case you are interested in reading it 🙂
Thank you for your well-considered responses to my very subjective list. O grew up on 50’s monster movies, and Jack Arnold was my favorite director of thoise movies. My favorite is the Incredible Shrinking Man, but that truly was more science fiction than horror. Tarantula boasts a vivid iconography of the monster in a small desert town. I also liked all the versions of the jack finney story, but siegels film is the only one i return to regularly. For Roeg, I would have selected Performance, which I found much more horrifying than Dont Look Now. Sorry to Say, but I found Vampyr the weakest of Dreyer’s films, and he is one of my favorite directors. I like Murnau even more, and Nosferatu is a masterpece, but i liked Herzog’s version just as much, and Christopher Lee is my favorite Dracula, but none of the hammer films is that good. Monte Hellman convinced me that Cormans’s Poe adaptations were better than the Hammer Draculas, The Shining remains perhaps the greates of all american horror films, and Rosemary’s Baby is perfect in every way. I loved Repulsion and when i saw it the first time, I was afraid to go home to y empty apartment, but when I see that movie today, all I see is a guy following a beautiful girl around with his camera. Like Pete, I was indifferent to the Babadook, and while I have enjoyed Dead of Night and Let the right One In, they were never among my favorites. I would class Diabolique as a mystery rather than horror, although eyes Without a Face definitely deserves a place in the top ten. The Color Out of space is my favorite 21st century horror, and thought it was much like the shining in its depiction of a descomposing family, all of whose members should never have been put under the same roof, dont consider The Birds a horror film at all. if i did, it would top my list.
A great list! We share many choices, including Les Diaboliques, Eyes Without a Face and Babadook. I guess I also cannot do without Hitchcock here, The Birds & Psycho. And, also Rosemary’s Baby & Midsommar.
Thank you back Bill for your well-considered responses to my reply as well 🙂 I love monster movies from every decade and the 1950’s was no exception 🙂 Before I can officially classify a horror film as well a horror film, I read various sites like IMDB, Wikipedia entries, Rottentomatoes, Metacritic, letterboxd, box-office mojo and Mubi and see how many of them classify something as horror. That is how I learned to classify Diabolique and The Birds as horror films 🙂 As you probably remember, that is how did that 2019 epic list of every single horror film I ever love 🙂 I see Performance less as a horror film and more a crime drama on acid. You probably knew this already, but Donald Cammell co-directed it with Roeg and solo directed Demon Seed and White of the Eye. I think it is interesting that the man who convinced you that Corman’s Poe films were better than Hammer films was Monte Hellman 🙂 Did you ever get to interview him back in the day? 🙂
Cammell also directed Wild Side, and comitted suicide in response to the way its producers handled it. Performance is far superior to Dont Look Now in its treatment of demonology, a subject dear to Cammell which Roeg fiddle faddled with in Dont Look Now, leading to an inconsistent climax that ruined the movie for me. Still, there was much to love about it. Hellman contacted me after reading my enthusiastic review of Road to Nowhere, and we had several chats on many subjects. He also mentored a good friend of mine’s daighter, Aracelli Lemos, whos first film is a masterpiece worthy of Dreyer. She confessed to me that she was thinking of Ordet all though its shooting. See ot if you can, the title is Holy Emy and it has won best film, best director, and best actress awards in festivals around the world, but has yet to find a US distributer.
Thank you for the kind words Diana 🙂 Great minds think alike since three of our titles rank within our top 10 favorite horror films of all-time 🙂 As for The Birds, I would place that somewhere within the top 50 of my favorite horror films and Psycho would have to be either 50-100 or 100 and beyond 🙂 I love them both 🙂 Same sentiments apply to Rosemary’s Baby 🙂 Midsommar would be within my 11-20 of my favorite Horror films of all-time 🙂 If one were ask me what I consider to be the greatest American horror film of all-time, it would be Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me cause don’t forget Don’t Look Now and Dead of Night are British films and The Babadook is an Australian film 🙂 The reason I say this is because prior to listing this, I was often asked that question and it makes me quite happy to see that most of them love Fire Walk with Me 🙂
Nice to see you respond back Bill 🙂 I was aware that Cammell directed Wild Side and while I knew he committed suicide, I had no idea that it was due to how it’s producers handled it. Wow, that is tragic 😦 Performance is actually my second favorite Roeg film and my number one favorite Cammell film well, it is basically a 50-50 film in that regard, so If you were ask to my what is my number one favorite film directed as a solo by Cammell it would be White of the Eye 🙂 Road to Nowhere is a great film and I am glad that Hellman loved ya for it 🙂 He must be pretty interesting to listen to 🙂 Fantastic director as well 🙂 Equally neat is hearing that he mentored somebody your daughter knows 🙂 I will check that out – the film is Holy Emy and the director is Aracelli Lemos 🙂
My daughter is only seven years old. I am friends with Aracelli’s mother. I dont know if you know it, but Hellman passed away in april of 2021. In addition to the handful of movies he directed, he worked as an uncredited editor on dozens of troubled films, which he saved. Also did a lot of script doctoring. My favorite film of Cammells is also White of the Eye, although I like Performance better than any of Roegs and Cammells solo films. Next for Roeg would be the Man Who Fell to Earth, then Walkabout. I also liked Eureka and Cold Heaven.
Gotcha Bill 🙂 I think that is awesome that you are friends with Aracelli’s mother 🙂 I was aware that Hellman passed away in April of 2021 and If I am not mistaken, he was 91-year old. I am familiar with his uncredited jobs. Aside from serving as co-editor on Sam Peckinpah’s The Killer Elite, he also directed the added prologue of the TV broadcast version of A Fistful of Dollars (1964) that aired in 1977 on ABC. I heard he finished the Muhammad Ali biopic The Greatest. Speaking of Sam Peckinpah, he and Hellman both directed films written by novelist Rudy Wurlitzer. In the case of Hellman, it was 1971’s Two-Lane Blacktop and for Peckinpah, it was 1973’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. I love both films 🙂 Anything, you would like to expand upon regarding Hellman and Wurlitzer? 🙂
Nosferatu, Dead of Night, and Vampyr are three of my favourites, John. Naturally, I am very happy to see them here.
Hellman claimed Wurlitzer wrote Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid for him, and had he directed the film, it would have been much different from Peckinpahs, although he does love the movie Peckinpah made. It is my favorite film, and Paul Seydors book, .The Authentic Death and Contentious Afterlife of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid: The Untold Story of Peckinpah’s Last Western Film will tell you everything you need to know about it. I have a co[y of Wurlitzer’s script, and it is quite different from the film.
Sorry for the late response Bill, it has been a busy day 🙂 I did read that Rudy Wurlitzer originally wrote Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid for Hellman to direct 🙂 Nice to hear that Hellman loved the film 🙂 Me and you really love it 🙂 I have heard of Paul Seydor’s book about the making and unmaking of Pat Garrett and Bill the Kid and I see him as the quintessential (or at one of them) historian on Sam Peckinpah. I totally belive that Wurlitzer’s script was quite different from the result. I do not know If cult director Alex Cox (Repo Man and Sid and Nancy) loved Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, but he must have loved the work of Rudy Wurlitzer because he wrote the script to his 1987 hallucinatory acid western Walker, which I also love 🙂 In one of many ways, Walker plays out as what a collaboration would like between Peckinpah and Richard Lester.
Paul Seydor also put togetherthe most accurate version of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid that is on the market. it goes under the moniker special edition 2005 110 minute cut…..i hate the turner version. the opening bar room scene with the kid and garreett is completely ruined by inserting bits of dialog that peckinpah had trimmed . the rhythm of one of his best directed scenes obliterated. seydors version leaves the theatrical cut intact, while restoring most of the scenes that were cut against peckinpahs will..
I hear ya Mike 🙂 As much as I love the other versions, the 2005 cut may be the closest to Peckinpah’s original vision. This is not to say that Peckinpah would have entirely approved because like Major Dundee, it is the most butchered of his films. Nevertheless, I think he would have approved Seydor’s heartfelt attempt to do it justice.
Let the Right One In…ooh. That was a gooooood one.
Not too familiar with the others. I think I’ve missed out on a lot….
NIce to hear from you again Stacy 🙂 As for not being familiar with the others, you must have heard of The Shining and you did tell me last year that you heard of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, but never saw it – so I think you should give yourself a little more credit 🙂
Thanks, John! I’m inching my way back into the blogosphere a few blogs at a time!
And yeah, you’re right, of course! I did love the atmosphere of The Shining and the slow, slow buildup to the end more than I actually liked the last 1/4 of the movie. Shelly running around screaming as she looks at all the ghosts didn’t sit well with me. But Jack’s breakdown was very scary….
And Twin Peaks, which I haven’t seen except for a few episodes we captioned decades ago, lol. I did like that too.
I may have asked you this before: Did you see/like Hereditary? I thought that atmosphere buildup was great, too, the little girl was wonderfully creepy, and Toni Collette was fantastic–as usual. Again, another movie where I wasn’t thrilled with the last 1/4 of it… but at least the first 3/4 of it was pretty good.
Thank you for the insight Stacy, I did see Hereditary and I loved it 🙂 Hereditary was directed by Ari Aster, who also directed Midsommar and the more recent Beau Is Afraid 🙂
In case you have not seen Midsommar, here is the trailer link for it below
In case you have not seen Beau Is Afraid, here is a trailer link below. That one is more of a surrealistic black comedy/drama
Ooh, thanks for the trailers, John. I know of Midsommar and I’m not sure why I haven’t seen it yet. Definitely a creep fest. But of course, anywhere you go where people are involved with a May pole, I think you should be instantly on guard anyway, lol.
And we have Beau is Afraid in our lineup to see, ’cause Joaquin is a favorite of ours. I never really knew what it was about, but seeing the trailer is weird! What the hell is going on, I wonder?! lol Of course Joaquin would choose a movie like this to star in! 🙂