The 100 best horror movies of all time

Fear is a reddish, demon-possessed, step-son-bioscope. Of course, it's huge business now, and critical acclaim comes with its cash costs. But horror was the most common way visiting hack employees made money, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, when the VHS boom basically filled video store shelves with cheap, bloody records. Writer-director Paul Schrader called horror "the 's of seriousness'" not long ago.

Of course, this is quite far from the truth. In reality, horror has always served as a conductor to study social issues and deep fears that most people understand but occasionally talk about. And if, as Schrader asserts, "the raison d'être of the genre is horror itself," then what, in fact, is wrong? If the value of a film is to make the audience feel something, is it actually capable of evoking a stronger reaction than a great horror film?

Perhaps the film industry will be marked by a renaissance of the horror genre. Among the most talked about films of 2024 are I Saw It, A Television Glitter, Inhuman Nature, Long Legs and Substance, which add a new fearless direction to the genre. But not all are very interesting and afraid to give platforms for discreet manifestations. Do you need proof? Here are 100 great examples.

Creators: Zatt Huddleston, Cat Clark, Dave Calhoun, Nigel Floyd, Phil de Semlen, David Erlich, Joshua Rotkoff, Nigel Floyd, Andy Klutha, Alim Herajah, Matthew Singer.

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The best horror movies

1. The Exorcist (1973)

Director: William Fridkin

Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Jason Miller, Max Sydow Field

On the one hand, there was the "real world" horror of films like Psycho and Night of the Living Dead, films that overplayed the horrors of the realm of everyday life to make them more shocking. On the other hand, in Europe, there was the cruder dream horror of films like Hammer Studios in the UK and Mario Bava and Dario Argento in Italy, where artfulness, particularism and simple ruthlessness took precedence over narrative logic. Rosemary's Child was the first to attempt a fusion of the two directions, but Polanski's heart was clearly in surrealism. The first film to achieve such a combination with unqualified perfection was The Exorcist, which is probably why it was treated as the undisputed favorite in this selective survey.

Moving from the echoey markets of Iraq to the quiet streets of Georgetown, combining dizzying dreams with plausible human drama, Fridkin made a horror film unlike any other before it. Brutal and beautiful, clever and operatic at the same time, it is a study of reckless believers with the medical precision of scientific invasion. The Exorcist is absolutely a horror film. Without paying attention to the fact that it is full of meticulous considerations and wonderful moments, its main task is to shock, frighten and terrify the visitors to "The Price of Consciousness". The fact that the film was completed almost 40 years later speaks to the great vision of director Fridkin.

Tom Huddleston Culture and Arts Correspondent

2. The Shining (1980)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall Jack Nicholson, who does not care about the scary factor of "appearance", looks like a psychopath from a banner on the wall of a student dormitory. This is Johnny. "Ignoring this, Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece is at once executional and claustrophobic. Jack Torrances is a novelist who works as a career in winter in an isolated hotel in the mountains of Colorado. As an aside, according to the novel that was adapted for the screen, Stephen King was not impressed by the work. His writings suggest that Kubrick's suspicions are a paradox: he was in fact "a man who understood so much and really didn't feel enough." He was insulted by Kubrick for removing the unreal element from his situation. Torrance is haunted not by ghosts, but by inadequacy and drunkenness. And it is because of the set, which is such a study in recklessness and failure, that "Radiation" is considered so chilling.