Horror films

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The First Omen

A prequel nobody wanted that turned out to be the best-directed studio horror of its year.

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The Howling

Rob Bottin was 21. Released months from American Werewolf and between them they finished the subgenre.

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The Ritual

Four men, a Swedish forest, and a creature design worth waiting for.

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The Wailing

Two and a half hours, and it withholds whether the shaman is helping right until the end.

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Zombie Flesh Eaters

A zombie fights a shark. There is also an eye and a splinter. Fulci's most purely entertaining film.

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Bone Tomahawk

A slow western for 90 minutes, then one scene people never forget. You will know it when it starts.

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Häxan

A 1922 essay film about witch trials that is still more radical than most documentaries.

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Malignant

James Wan spending studio money on something deranged. The third act is one of the great swerves.

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The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

Argento's debut, and the film that turned the giallo into an export industry.

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The Haunting

Shows you nothing for two hours and is more frightening than anything that shows you everything.

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What We Do in the Shadows

The funniest vampire film ever made, and the flatmate politics are observed perfectly.

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Abigail

A kidnapping that goes wrong in the most enjoyable way. Very wet, very fast, very funny.

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Candyman

The shadow-puppet sequences are the best thing in it. A sequel that is actually about the original.

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Creepshow

Romero and King doing EC Comics, with panel borders, primary lighting and a story about a cake.

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Dead Snow

Nazi zombies in the Norwegian mountains, and it knows exactly how silly it is.

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Deep Red

Argento's best. Goblin's score does half the work and is fully aware of it.

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Immaculate

Nunsploitation with a real budget. The last shot is a single unbroken take and it is the reason to watch.

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I Spit on Your Grave

Ebert gave it zero stars and called it "a vile bag of garbage". Clover argued the camera is with her throughout. Both cases are live.

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Jacob's Ladder

A Vietnam veteran in New York whose reality will not stay put, and the demons move wrong on purpose.

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Pet Sematary

King wrote the novel and thought it too bleak to publish. The film keeps the bleakness.

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Raw

A vegetarian vet student develops an appetite. Julia Ducournau's debut and a genuine coming-of-age film.

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Re-Animator

The funniest Lovecraft adaptation ever made, which is not what anybody expected.

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Scanners

Everybody remembers the head. The film underneath is about a pharmaceutical company and a custody dispute.

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The Babadook

A film about a widowed mother who resents her son, wearing a monster as a coat.

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The Curse of Frankenstein

The film that made Hammer, made in colour, with blood that looks like blood.

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The Devil's Backbone

Del Toro's other Spanish Civil War film, and he has called it the companion to Pan's Labyrinth.

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The Hills Have Eyes

A nuclear family against a family mutated by nuclear testing. By the end there is no difference in method.

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The Monkey

Osgood Perkins doing King as a gore comedy. The deaths are elaborate and the film is laughing.

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Vivarium

A young couple cannot leave a show home. Bleak, airless, and about mortgages.

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Viy

The only horror film made in the Soviet Union, and the last twenty minutes are extraordinary.

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Braindead

The bloodiest film ever made at the time, and it is a comedy about a man and his mother.

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Dog Soldiers

A squad on exercise in the Highlands versus werewolves, and it is closer to a war film than to horror.

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Martyrs

Two films stapled together, and it takes its argument about suffering completely seriously.

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Renfield

Nicolas Cage plays Dracula as a toxic boss, and his familiar wants to leave the relationship. A horror comedy about codependency.

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Talk to Me

An embalmed hand, a ninety-second rule, and teenagers filming it. The Philippou brothers' first feature.

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Tremors

The monster has rules and the film obeys them. A perfectly built piece of engineering.