8 / 10
7 votes cast
Rate this item

Page 1 Page 2 5. Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock didn’t get the nickname ‘The Master of Suspense’ for nothing. His thrillers and horrors spanned decades and countries from The 39 Steps in 1935 to Notorious in 1946 and 1972’s Frenzy. It was 1960 that cemented his place as a true master of the macabre by bringing Robert Bloch’s pulp novel Psycho to the big screen. Assembling a terrific cast and using every bit of the technical ingenuity that he’d picked up during his time working in Germany as a young man, the film stretches the tension to breaking point with some beautifully worked set pieces . Whether it’s the shower scene, Arbogast’s encounter with Mrs. Bates or mother’s revelation, the film is full of wonderfully crafted moments that are there to savour and illustrate why Hitchcock is considered by many to be the greatest director that ever lived. If this didn’t convince people that he could make a scary film, three years later he released The Birds, which ensured that few looked at our feathered friends the same way again.
 

 
4. The Evil Dead
In 1968, George Romero showed that, with a bit of money, some committed friends, a good script and technical know-how, you can make a film for very little outlay and gain respect amongst genre fans and critics alike. Being headstrong doesn’t hurt either. Thirteen years later, aspiring filmmaker Sam Raimi and some friends headed south to Tennessee armed with some equipment and a screenplay. By most accounts the shoot was miserable with many cold, wet nights and long days but it was all worth it as the end result, The Evil Dead, marked Raimi out as a formidable talent, established Bruce Campbell as a B-movie legend in the making and his character, Ash, as one of the horror genre’s true icons.  It ran into trouble with the BBFC and then the Video Recordings Act (1984) but has since been released uncut and many people (including me) have bought multiple versions of the film and love it and its sequels. 
 

 
3. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Fresh out of film school, Texas native Tobe Hooper, who had been raised on stories about Ed Gein (the inspiration for Norman Bates in Psycho), decided to turn these tales into a film.  Working with friend Kim Henkel, he co-wrote and directed a film that shocked and confused the ratings bodies as it was virtually bloodless but unrelenting in its horror and is such an onslaught to the senses that there was nothing he could cut out to reduce the impact so his idea of a PG certificate was quickly dismissed.  Released with an R rating in the US and banned in Britain until 1999, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre gained cult status and became a film that you could only watch if you knew someone who had a dodgy video copy, traumatising many children in the process.  Those who banned or dismissed it as a grotesque or sick film missed the sociological points, the intelligent use of mise-en-scčne and interesting camerawork – it is a much more interesting work than something like The Omen, but that’s more audience friendly.  Since 1997, TCSM has had numerous video and DVD releases and debuts on Blu-ray on November 16th. 
 

 
2. Dawn of the Dead
After making his name with a ghoul movie in 1968, George Romero made other fascinating horror films such as The Crazies and Martin but, five years later, returned to the genre in which he made his name with another zombie film, again with a topical subtext and effects to test the stomachs of cinema goers.  This time taking aim at the rampant consumerism spreading across America (and most of the western world), he moved away from an isolated farmhouse and into a mall with the zombie outbreak still in full flow.  Featuring two disheartened SWAT members, a helicopter traffic reporter and his TV technician girlfriend, Dawn of the Dead earned praise from as diverse sources as the horror magazine Fangoria and respected film critic Roger Ebert.  It is now the most loved of Romero’s zombie movies and is the reference point for most works in that subgenre.  (There are three cuts of the film: the Theatrical Cut, Director’s Cut and European Cut; Argento’s version loses the satirical subtext and much of the library music and the erroneously titled Director’s Cut is the version that Romero sent to Cannes prior to re-editing the film to his preferred, shorter, version.)  I loved Night of the Living Dead, as well as Day of the Dead and respect and admire his latest two, Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead, I have high hopes for Survival of the Dead but Dawn is my favourite and probably always will be.
 

 
1. The Exorcist
I wasn’t much of a horror fan growing up (or much of a film fan for that matter) but happened to be in the right place at the right time as I was becoming interested in film in the mid-1990s and so, when the BBFC revisited the list of banned films and opened the floodgates with a whole load of fascinating and interesting works, I was there to lap it up and see them at the cinema and buy them on video and, later, on DVD.  The first of these was The Exorcist, a film that I had only heard of but never seen or knew much about.  When I saw that there was going to be a midnight showing on June 5th, 1999 at my local multiplex I made arrangements to go and was blown away by the power of the film and its lasting impact.  I have now seen it more than any other film I own and have read widely about it and even based an MA dissertation around it and other films in that movement.  There are fans that are more obsessive than I am, most notably the film critic Mark Kermode who regards it as the greatest film ever made.  I wouldn’t go that far, only regarding The Exorcist as the greatest horror film ever made.  It has been my favourite film for over a decade and I can’t see anything that would make me change my mind. 
 

 Previous Page

Posted by David Beckett