A new ranking of the 100 greatest horror films has been put together by the team at Variety, and an older classic of the genre has come out on top.
The top positions on the list were largely occupied by 20th century classics, but the film claiming the top spot turned out to be The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which fittingly celebrates its 50th anniversary tomorrow (October 11).
“Very few horror movies possess the quality of a true nightmare — that transcendently scary bad dream you can’t wake up from, because it feels like it’s really happening. In 1974, just the title of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre could put the fear into you,” the outlet said.
They continued: “Hearing those four words — Texas. Chain. Saw. Massacre. — you could almost see the movie unspooling before your eyes, like some bat-house snuff film. Yet as more and more people experienced it, the most shocking thing about Texas Chain Saw turned out to be what a masterpiece of terror it was. Tobe Hooper directed it with a lyrical suspense worthy of an existential grindhouse Hitchcock. He took the story of five post- hippie teenagers driving a van through the Texas wilds and turned it into a plunge into the American abyss.
“There’s a reason The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has cast such a shadow over the last half-century of horror films. As much as Psycho or The Exorcist it created a mythology of horror, one that feels even more resonant today than it did 50 years ago,” the publication shared.
They added: “The film channeled the descent of the American spirit that we can now feel all around us. In the end, what Chain Saw revels in with such disturbing majesty, and what makes it more indelible and haunting than any other horror film, is its image of madness as the driving energy of the world: Leatherface, swinging his chainsaw around in front of the rising sun, his crazed dance of death not just a ritual but a warning — that the center will not hold. That something wicked this way comes.”
Coming second on the list was The Exorcist (1973), followed by Psycho (1960) in third, Jaws (1975) in fourth and Rosemary’s Baby (1968) in fifth.
The top ten was rounded out by Night Of The Living Dead (1968), Audition (1999), Frankenstein (1931), Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) and Carrie (1976).
Other big-name films included on the list include Alien (1979) at 11, The Silence of the Lambs (1991) at 13, The Shining (1980) at 18, Get Out (2017) at 20 and The Blair Witch Project (1999) at 24.
In other horror news, earlier this month the first full trailer for Robert Eggers‘ highly anticipated Nosferatu remake was released. It stars Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter, while Bill Skarsgård will play the titular vampire Count Orlok, with a bloodthirsty infatuation
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