Stolen from RLLM, seeing as Halloween is coming up, how about we do proper best horror film of all time type lists? Simply list ten in order, I'll add up points and such on the 30th and announce the top ten on the 31st. One point for tenth, two for ninth etc. I'll bung my list up first (cue YOU'RE FUCKING WRONG MATE responses) and let's see. Or not.

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DS (the best) list:

10. [Rec.]
 
This really is the culmination of the found footage genre. I took the then missus to see this (I'd watched it prior to its cinema release) and to sit there, knowing what was coming and seeing the reaction of everyone in that semi-packed theatre was immense. Audible groans of fear, people shifting in their seat, the missus grabbing my hand as if she was deep in labour at that scare. Balagueró is a master of the genre (The Nameless, Darkness, Fragie and Sleep Tight are all solid films in their own right), but this little baby just blew me away. Its very, very rare for a horror to absolutely grip me these days, but the intensity, and relentless pace just takes this a step above.
 

9. Session 9

 

I must've seen this ten times since its release, ever since walking into Blockbuster in 2002 and randomly picking it up, and it never disappoints. Filled with atmosphere, and a very slow burn coupled with a real unease throughout. When the recordings begin to play, its as if you are in them, part of this backstory that just builds and bleeds into the frame. It doesn't go for out and out shock (again, rare these days), and allows the relationships between the lead four/five to develop. Still has a line I oft repeat which gave me the chills on first watch.

 

8. The House of the Devil

 

So that Ti West eh? ABCs segment aside, he's easily the most promising horror director around, but then when you produce something like this so early in your career, its gonna be a bit tough to match the heights. Again, its a film that harks back to the 'glory years', with a build that seems to go on and on.Samantha, babysitting someone she didn't originally anticipate, in an old, creaking home, already creeped out by the magnificent Tom Noonan, and really there's not much more to it than that. A girl, a house...its a staple of horror. I recently revisited it, and it had me hooked from that first phonecall to the very end.

 

7. The Blair Witch Project

 

The only film to ever terrify me. I was 15, my auntie had got hold of a VHS copy of this, and it was the viewing that night for me and my cousin, alone, in the dark with the wind going off on one outside. Neither of us slept well that night. I'll never revisit it as I know watching it now, as a full grown adult, it'd be laughably bad, but at that age, in the dark winter, fucking hell.

 

6. Ringu

 

This opened my eyes to (what is generally vastly overrated) Asian horror, and its still the best example (I'd include Audition but I don't really see it as horror). That video, that end (holy shit)...it just seeps creepiness. Again I was young (just turned 16) and it was rented on a whim from the local video shop that didn't care about age ratings. Its just an all round classic.

 

5. Haute Tension

 

Yeah there are those that rave about how it didn't make sense, and it probably didn't, who knows (it did to me, don't make me explain why). This is all about the ride, the unflinching, mercenary violence, the pace at which it builds and builds and doesn't let up. From the first ring of that doorbell, its over an hour of visceral, horrific brutality. Its a modern video nasty, and I absolutely applaud it. I rented it, watched it, then immediately watched it again. Only one other horror has made me do that.

 

4. Alien

 

Near perfection, this. It'd be number one if not for personal preference. Its as close to horror as you can get, something huge, ominous, terrifying creeping after you, with nowhere to hide and nowhere to run. You have to face it, there's no other way. You're staring at a living embodiment of a nightmare, a nightmare that will not rest, or quit until everything in its path is fucked up. Its...yeah. You all know its amazing.

 

3. The Shining

 

Similar to Alien I don't need to put much for this as its been well covered. A slow descent into insanity, everything on screen mirroring a psyche crumbling beneath itself. Nicholson's best performance, horror everywhere. Fantastic.

 

2. Angst

 

A film so perfect within its genre, the director has needed to do nothing commercially since (I know that's not the real reason, but I like to dream). Everyone bangs on about Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer but it can't come close to what is the best study of a truly, truly lost soul. Its a guy compelled to kill. There's nothing that won't stop him. Recently out of prison (for murder), he has to kill again, and that's the plot. You follow the nameless lead as he does just that in the bleakest way possible. Its uncompromising, sadistic, horrible, and possibly the best out and out horror (going by the dictionary definition) film of all time. Many, many more need to see it.

 

1. Martyrs

 

I sat agog watching this. It is my ideal of horror. Seeing a woman so destroyed by brutality suffer the consequences, seeing her friend/lover so encompassed by her bond with her suffer even more due to it, the unflinching portrayal of lives devastated by the worst humankind can inflict upon others, the sheer front to show everything in detail, to make you break and suffer yourself as you watch, to have the balls to just switch film styles halfway through, to fuck with what you see as 'the line'...Astonishing.

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I could've added/replaced loads, and there's more a slant to recent horror due to me finding a lot of the older stuff quite laughable (don't hurt me), so if you want to, list away. If not yay its bombed. Don't need to go in depth about each choice if ya don't want to.