Potential 2020 reading challenges! My ebooks have so much potential and I am horrible at reading them. All of those are going to be New to Me authors plus Klune from the physical books. I can't wait!!
Letterboxd presents our community’s 25 top rated horror films of all time.
With the release this month of the newest Halloween, and an embarrassment of riches in the form of thousands of new horror film reviews thanks to all the Hoop-tober / Shocktober / 31 Days of Horror challenges, we are feeling brave enough to open the crypt and pull out the Letterboxd community’s 25 Highest Rated Horror Films of All Time.
Don’t @ or stab us, these are computed from your ratings of all feature-length films tagged in our horror genre, as at 24 October 2018. It’s a wide-ranging list, with some perhaps surprising omissions—for example, the original Halloween, Night of the Living Dead and Evil Dead 2 all just missed the cut. See the full list or read on for data insights and member reviews of our highest rated horrors.
Strangling the numbers:
Though there is some genre crossover (into comedy with Young Frankenstein, mockumentary with What We Do in the Shadows and One Cut of the Dead, and zom-rom-com with Shaun of the Dead), these films are all categorized as horrors by us (and IMDb).
In the battle of great horror decades, the scary sixties wins with seven films, over five films from the slasher seventies and three from the evil eighties. Shout out to the terror twenties, with three films.
By country, USA has most films in the list, but Japan comes in strong second with four, Germany has three and France, Sweden and the UK are represented with two each. India, New Zealand and the Czech Republic also make the cut.
The most obscure film on the list (from a Western perspective) is Manichitrathazhu, from Kerala-born director Fazil, watched by just over 250 members.
All the directors are dudes. We can’t make any excuses for that, but we can point out that, behind-the-scenes and on-screen, women played important roles in these films. The Phantom Carriage, for example, is based on the novel by Sweden’s Selma Lagerlöf, who in 1909 was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. And what would Jaws be without the editing prowess of Verna Fields?
There are five films on the list from this century, some by directors of color, including Jordan Peele, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. Roll on the 21st century of horror.
On that note: this top 25 is based on member ratings, but we also have a popularity index—based on the sheer amount of activity for each film regardless of rating—which produces quite a different list, heavily favoring the 21st century.
Letterboxd’s 25 Highest Rated Horror Films (as at October 2018):
1. Psycho (1960, USA)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
“Throughout his career, director Alfred Hitchcock has enriched the world of cinema with some truly groundbreaking thrillers and despite that, Psycho feels like something of a first from him. It’s his first stint with the genre of horror, it breaks through the barriers of censorship unlike any film before and over the years, it has played a major role in influencing not only films but pop-culture as well.” —CinemaClown
2. Alien (1979, USA)
Directed by Ridley Scott
“When shit hits the fan it comes with the best first impression of any monster. PERIOD.” —TKettle
3. The Shining (1980, USA)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
“As soon as Jack Torrance is in frame, that uneasy feeling takes over. I feel as though I wish I could warn all of the other characters in the movie to walk on eggshells, don’t upset him! Maybe you shouldn’t talk to him right now! Can’t you see it! Just leave him alone! There has never been another character to give me such all-consuming anxiety.” —HollieHorror
4. The Thing (1982, USA)
Directed by John Carpenter
“The man responsible for the movie’s stomach-churning physical effects deserves most of the credit for its appeal and success. Rob Bottin worked so hard he was hospitalized for exhaustion, pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer! And he was only 21 at the time! Pure underrated genius.” —Josh Stoddard
5. Rosemary’s Baby (1968, USA)
Directed by Roman Polański
“I’m awestruck by how good this is. Every little detail from the very beginning means something and you really experience exactly what Rosemary experiences. Masterful spectatorship alignment.” —Sean Upton
6. Get Out (2017, USA)
Directed by Jordan Peele
“When you prod underneath the surface here there’s so much just waiting to be unpacked. As a piece of writing it’s a masterclass in foreshadowing and subtext.” —Alex Secker
7. Jaws (1975, USA)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
“Bruce, the mechanical shark, still works today. Even with all the VFX-heavy films that are commonplace now, the shark is [as] scary and compelling now as it was in 1975. The camerawork is masterful, and it feels like films now are still trying to catch up to what was happening behind the camera on this movie.” —EJ Moreno
8. 修羅 (Demons) (1971, Japan)
Directed by Toshio Matsumoto
“Matsumoto è stato uno dei più grandi innovatori del cinema giapponese e fonte di ispirazione di grandi registi del cinema mondiale. Quest’opera non fa che confermarne l’importanza e la genialità.”
Translation: “Matsumoto was one of the greatest innovators of Japanese cinema and a source of inspiration for great world cinema directors. This work confirms his importance and genius.” —Tonino Mannella
9. Les Diaboliques (Diabolique) (1955, France)
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot
“It was extremely suspenseful and you can see how this film had such a huge impact on Hitchcock when he made Psycho… Five out of five overly dramatic heart attacks.” —Libby Ajayi
10. Possession (1981, Germany, France)
Directed by Andrzej Żuławski
“Ana’s spectral screams as she flows and dances like a ghoul in the subway. All I could do was cry at it, with her, for her.” —Claire Diane
11. 怪談 (Kwaidan) (1964, Japan)
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
“Every frame of this movie is a piece of art… To ask for more would be greedy.” —Gabe
12. മണിച്ചിത്രത്താഴ് (Manichitrathazhu) (1993, India)
Directed by Fazil
“Perhaps the most popular film to come out of Kerala in this generation. The screenplay, the performance, and the plot are worth a study in [themselves]. Fantastic package of thrilling entertainment and storytelling.” —Vinay Warrier
13. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962, USA)
Directed by Robert Aldrich
“Normally my heart really aches for ‘crazy’ characters who have been brutalized by the concept of womanhood but… it’s very hard for me to feel bad for Baby Jane.” —Caroline
14. The Innocents (1961, UK)
Directed by Jack Clayton
“Exquisite and captivating… it’s the only movie I’ve watched this Hooptober that has genuinely scared me. Squirming, nail biting, chills down the back, all of it.” —Xebeche
15. Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In) (2008, Sweden)
Directed by Tomas Alfredson
“Deep down, it’s just a story about human misunderstanding, but it is gracefully put together to give you a thrilling ride that will make you root for an evil you’re not really sure is there. It makes you question your moral standards and puts you in a nice grey area.” —Charlie Bluu
16. カメラを止めるな！ (One Cut of the Dead) (2017, Japan)
Directed by Shin'ichirô Ueda
“The film starts as a Z-list zombie movie and looks cheesy as hell, but when we discover we are watching more of a mockumentary of this film being made and the director on the verge of a breakdown, the fun really begins. The first 37 minutes are completely one cut… one cut, that actually blows my mind.” —Coles84
17. 鬼婆 (Onibaba) (1964, Japan)
Directed by Kaneto Shindō
“In good ol’ black and white, Onibaba is a visually stunning erotic horror film painted in deep shadows and flesh… it’s less a ghost or monster tale and more of a morality play about the passions and desperation that arise in splintered, war-torn communities, and how no matter what we fear, we are ultimately our own demons. Creepy, sensual and effective.” —Doug Bellak
18. Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) (1920, Germany)
Directed by Robert Wiene
“From Murnau’s Nosferatu and the American noir of the 1940s, to contemporary horror films and every piece of work where Tim Burton asks Johnny Depp to dab black around the actor’s eyes, the influence of Wiene’s film can be felt… it is the stuff of nightmares that still has power nearly a century after it was made.” —Travis Lytle
19. Spalovač mrtvol (The Cremator) (1968, Czechia)
Directed by Juraj Herz
“I find it hard to fathom a film as stylish and mesmerizing as this is, 45 years old! It was obviously way ahead of its time! The cinematography is as captivating as the film is deliciously macabre!” —Juli Norwood
20. The Exorcist (1973, USA)
Directed by William Friedkin
“The Exorcist remains one of the greatest achievements of the horror genre. The things they were able to accomplish with sound mixing at the time have yet to be outdone. The makeup department deserves a heap of credit, and the effects still look great. Acting is something that typically gets sacrificed in most horror movies, but this is one exception where every actor delivers a quality performance.” —Sean
21. Körkarlen (The Phantom Carriage) (1921, Sweden)
Directed by Victor Sjöström
“It was not for nothing that Selma Lagerlöf became the first woman to get the Nobel Prize. She’s a great storyteller, and there’s a melody in her writings that is hard to not get sucked into… Victor Sjöström has really understood the tone of the novel and the music that comes with it is in tune with the melody of Lagerlöf's writings.” —Terése Flynn
22. Faust – Eine deutsche Volkssage (Faust) (1926, Germany)
Directed by F. W. Murnau
“I watch this, and cannot fathom how this one man could make the cinematic medium look so relentlessly groundbreaking in its mere infancy. It’s obscene that he died so young… in a sense, Faust’s quest for the ur-truth becomes Murnau’s own quest for his own epic cinema: one that maximizes the potential for awe at every turn, leaving behind mundane methods for totalizing ones.” —Darkness Lingers
23. Shaun of the Dead (2004, UK)
Directed by Edgar Wright
“I understand tossing Batman when your other options are [Prince’s] two biggest contributions to the world of music, but it still saddens me that Shaun and Ed so carelessly tossed away a truly undervalued record. Perhaps, we all do crazy things when we’re trying to survive.” —Willow Maclay
24. Young Frankenstein (1974, USA)
Directed by Mel Brooks
“When Mel hits, he hits big… [he] may not employ nuance often, but he’s got broad comedy and wordplay down pat, and some of his best examples of this are in Young Frankenstein.” —Joe Campbell
25. What We Do in the Shadows (2014, New Zealand)
Directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi
“An absolute must-watch for fans of horror comedy, horror, vampires, brilliant comedy in general, and great improvization. According to their IMDb trivia, Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement and co. shot over 125 hours of improv for this film before finally whittling it down to 90 minutes of the best stuff.” —Voidember
Right. Now that that’s all done with, we are ready to go into town and party.
At the midway point for 2018 we can reveal the ten highest rated narrative films for the year so far. After Paddington 2 missed out on the 2017 Year in Review due to the vagaries of international release schedules, your favorite bear from Darkest Peru is finally having his moment! We are tickled the deepest shade of shrimp.
Congratulations to writer-director Paul King (you can read our Q&A with him—including why fart jokes don’t work for Paddington, and the Phoenix Buchanan dog food jingle we never got to hear—here.) Paddington 2 is closely followed by Paul Schrader’s First Reformed in second spot.
As in past years, our top ten differs from the first ten in Jack Moulton’s Unofficial Top 50 due to our rules: no documentaries, mini-series or stand-up specials; only narrative, feature-length films that have had at least a limited theatrical (or streaming) run in the US in 2018.
This time last year, Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver topped the 2017 halfway list. By year’s end, Call Me by Your Name and Lady Bird had tugged every heart string on the block, and a last-minute showing helped Phantom Thread into third place. Only Get Out and Logan remained in the top 10 through to year’s end.
Side-note: our top ten is restricted to narrative features, but as at 30 June 2018 the highest rated anything on Letterboxd was the Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby’s Netflix special, Nanette, with a weighted average of 4.48 at time of writing. The highest-rated documentary (at 4.33), was Morgan Neville’s film Won’t You Be My Neighbor? about beloved US children’s show host Fred Rogers. Letterboxd HQ recommends both wholeheartedly.
Your ratings determine which films will make the final 2018 Year in Review, so thanks for logging and rating the films you’ve seen so far this year, and please keep it up!
