MoFo Top 100 Horror Movies: The List

Administrator

05-14-19

Originally Posted by rambond

what is there more to explain, i have expressed my opinion that jacob s ladder isn t a horror film, but rather a psychological thriller,it has some scares but it doesn t mean that it s a horror film to go and watch, if you select this movie genre this movie would go to, that would be the Thriller type: it goes with movies like: arlington road, mulholland drive,misery,the game, twin peaks and so on. on which is there anything else to explain?

This, perhaps? Articulating reasons, and a standard, and not just a conclusion:

Originally Posted by Yoda

An example is not the same thing as an argument, though. Detailing your personal standard is not the same as defending it. Examples also don't explain where you draw the line between the two.

That, and why you express this as if it were a fact, and not an opinion. I'm glad you hear you describe it as an opinion now, though, at least.

I think for most people that's enough.

Nostromo87

BANNED

05-14-19

Psycho (1960)
Runtime: 1 Hr 49 Mins
Production Company: Shamley Productions
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Production Budget: $806,947
Box Office: $50,000,000
Thirty Seven Votes
691 Points (25, 25, 24, 24, 24, 24, 24, 23, 23, 23, 23, 23, 22, 22, 22, 22,
22, 22, 21, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 19, 19, 18, 17, 15, 15, 14, 13, 13, 12, 9, 7, 6)
High Voter: @John-Connor , @Pussy Galore

What's that?
It's the light sign.

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Nostromo87

BANNED

05-14-19

SCREENING THE MOVIE AFTER WORK TOMORROW MORNING.

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MovieMeditation

Friendo.

05-14-19

Aaaaand the list slaps me in the face once again with its unpredictability.

Anyways, I had Psycho at #3, but predicted it at #2, which is also where it landed on my Top 50 Horror List. Here’s what I wrote:

Originally Posted by MovieMeditation

~His Top 50 Favorite Horror Films~
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2. Psycho (1960)
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Alfred Hitchcock is arguably my favourite director of all time, and while Psycho isn’t his best film nor does it receive a perfect score from me, it is still among the best horror thrillers ever created and a milestone in cinema on so many levels. It pretty much pushed the buttons on what would eventually become the slasher subgenre, and did so many things ahead of its time and beyond what you could get away with in the 60s. Apart from its famous twist ending and iconic shower scene, it takes plenty of twists and turns throughout, going through classic Hitchcock themes and a wide arrange of genres as well. You never truly have control of what is happening, which is something I really love about this film…

The pacing within the story and the constant structural consistency is simply spectacular, while the direction is classic ‘cock with plenty of tense sequences and clever cuts, not to forget the amazing and aggressive soundtrack that just rage away almost uncontrollably. A truly great blend of the manic and mysterious, which fits perfectly within the atmosphere of the film. The acting is great all around, but honestly it is Anthony Perkins who steals the show as the weird and intimidating Norman Bates.
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Why is it on my list?
So obviously it is a classic; evidently it became an inspiration; clearly it is a respected milestone in cinema... But when it all comes down to it, the most important thing is how great of a film it is in its own right, coming from the mind of a very gifted director.

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Tugg

Registered User

05-14-19

I had "Psycho" at #2.

KeyserCorleone

Msg

Registered User

05-14-19

Ree! Ree! Ree! Ree! Ree!

ahwell

Registered User

05-14-19

The Exorcist is my favorite horror film, but Psycho is likely the objectively "best-made" horror movie. Alien and the Thing beating it out is a travesty! (And I have both those films on my list!)
I had Psycho at #2.
1. The Exorcist
2. Psycho
4. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
6. Halloween
7. Night of the Living Dead
8. Nosferatu (original)
10. Rosemary�s Baby
11. The Bride of Frankenstein
12. Peeping Tom
13. Dracula (1931)
14. King Kong
15. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
16. Get Out
17. Nightmare on Elm Street
18. Suspiria
19. Saw
20. Scream
21. Freaks
22. A Quiet Place
23. Repulsion
24. The Babadook
25. The Invisible Man

Miss Vicky

MoFo's Resident Bitch

05-14-19

I think Psycho was the third Hitchcock I ever saw. It's a really tense movie with plenty of atmosphere. I placed it towards the middle of my ballot at #13, but I'm glad to see it rank so high.

My Ballot:
2) Army of Darkness (#77)
3) Gremlins (#51)
4) The Skin I Live In (#80)
7) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (#25)
8) Freaks (#55)
9) Perfect Blue (#36)
10) The Ring (#30)
11) The Others (#38)
12) Interview With the Vampire (#44)
13) Psycho (#4)
14) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) (#28)
15) Onibaba (#73)
25) Earthlings (1 pointers list)

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John-Connor

Registered User

05-14-19

A Masterpiece by the Master of Suspense.
Honor thy elders and thy cinematic classics.
My # 1.

★★★★★ PSYCHO ★★★★★

Cheers Pussy Galore and the other voters.

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cricket

Msg

Registered User

05-14-19

I've always loved Psycho, but I didn't love it enough to vote for it the last time I watched it.

Kaplan

A genuine idiot!

05-14-19

Psycho is the last of my films to show up and I had it at #6. My mother was one of those who saw it in its initial theatrical run and she wouldn't take a shower for the next twenty years, so there's that. I grew up watching it on TV and so I was never able to fully appreciate how radical it is to kill off your main character half way through, but I can admire it now and of course it is a masterpiece.

My complete list:

1. The Omen (#35)
2. Let the Right One In (#14)
3. Night of the Living Dead (#17)
4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) (#70)
5. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (#8)
6. Psycho (#4)
7. An American Werewolf in London (#16)
8. Nosferatu (#27)
9. Rosemary’s Baby (#7)
10. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (#25)
11. Diabolique (#75)
12. Martin (DNP)
13. Raw Meat (AKA Death Line) (DNP)
14. The Hills Have Eyes (2006) (DNP)
15. Repulsion (#24)
16. Peeping Tom (#54)
17. Bride of Frankenstein (#68)
18. Antichrist (#82)
19. Don’t Look Now (#64)
20. Hausu (#57)
21. The Phantom Carriage (DNP)
22. A Bucket of Blood (DNP)
23. Vampyr (#65)
24. The Abominable Dr. Phibes (DNP)
25. Of Unknown Origin (1-pointer)

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mark f

Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

05-14-19

My List
1. Gremlins
2. Poltergeist
3. The Exorcist
4. The Innocents
5. An American Werewolf in London.
6. Rosemary's Baby
8. Psycho
9. Altered Siates
10. The Fly ('86)
11. Gremlins 2: The New Batch
12. Grindhouse
13. The Stepfather
14. Psycho 2
15. Dead of Night
16. Wait Until Dark
17. Carrie
18. The Omen
21. Arachnophobia
22. Shaun of the Dead
23. Let the Right One In
24. Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('78)
25. Diabolique

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pahaK

Anti-Woke

05-14-19

Hitchcock, bah! Seriously though, I haven't seen Psycho since I was a teen. I didn't expect to like it enough to vote but it seems to be on Netflix now so maybe I'll finally have a rewatch.

Also watched The House That Jack Built today. I don't consider it even horror. I definitely didn't hate it but almost as surely didn't love it either. It's way too long and not nearly as smart as it pretends to be. It mostly feels like von Trier was having a blast and just wanted to make a provocative joke (a goal I can't completely detest

).

Seen: 87/97

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HashtagBrownies

Bach

05-14-19

Psycho was No.9 on my list. The score, the atmosphere, the famous scenes, they're all fantastic.

1. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
2. Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
3. Funny Games (1997)
4. The Witch (2015)
5.
6. Shaun of the Dead
7. Evil Dead
8.
9. Psycho
10. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
11. Halloween
12. The Exorcist
13. [REC]
14. Hereditary
15. Invasion of the body snatchers (1978)
16. Creep (2014)
17. The Wicker Man (1973)
18. Saw
19. The Mist
20. An American Werewolf in London
21. Gremlins
22. Cloverfield
23. The Fly (1986)
24. The Lost Boys
25. Don't Breathe

No.2 Little Shop of Horrors. More of a comedy musical if anything, but it's listed as horror on IMDB so what ya gonna do? Nostalgia may be blinding me for this one but this whole damn film fills me with joy.

No.19 The Mist. Very surprised this didn't make it. Even with some dated CGI, it's a wonderfully executed tale of a group of people falling apart told with in a Lovecraft-ian setting.

No.22 Cloverfield. An intense (Slightly melancholic) monster movie with excellent sound design.

No.24 The Lost Boys. A Corey Feldmen film from the 80's, what's not to love? Feel like I need to re-watch it before I'm confident putting it on my list.

No.25 Don't Breathe Only included it as I was hoping it would make the one-pointers. Despite a few silly scenes, I'd say it's a very effective thriller that deserves a bit more love.

Last edited by HashtagBrownies; 05-14-19 at 06:51 PM.

HashtagBrownies

Bach

05-14-19

I think it's very obvious what the last 3 will be: Two I absolutely adore and one I think is very good. Just wondering what way they'll be ranked.

Citizen Rules

Noir Time

05-14-19

Psycho was on my list of course, I hoped it might be #1 but at least it cracked the top 5, so thumbs up for everyone who voted for it.

This is one of the longest reviews that I've ever wrote. To me film history and the story behind the films we love, are as important as the films themselves.

Originally Posted by Citizen Rules

Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writers: Joseph Stefano (screenplay), Robert Bloch (novel)
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles
Genre: Horror,Mystery, Thriller

Psycho...the guts of the movie

Fans of Hitch's 1960 horror cult classic have watched Psycho so many times that they know by heart every scene, every word of dialogue and each nervous glance by Norman Bates. Hitch is the master, so what else can be said?

A lot! as Psycho is the result of many talented people who came together to tell one of screen's most vivid horror stories.

Psycho starts not with Hitchcock but with a real life, grisly murderer
Ed Gein, who in 1957 was arrested for the murders of two women. In his home police found artifacts made from his victims body parts. Most disturbing was clothing made of human skin. Psychiatrists came to the conclusion that the psychotic murderer was trying to make a woman suit to wear, so that he could become his dead mother! His mother had dominated him in life...and also in death. Obviously he inspired more than one classic horror film.

Living just miles away from the murder was a novelist working on a suspense thriller murder book. Robert Block published his novel Psycho in 1959. Also in 1959 Hitch was nearing completion on North by Northwest and was looking around for his next project. Reading the book Psycho on a flight over to England, Hitch then decides that this would be his next movie.

Hitch Goes Roger Corman style: Hitch notices that a certain movie producer is churning out, low budget, low quality horror films and making lots of money at it. The fans love them, though the critics don't.

Paramount studio has Hitch under contract for one more movie but they were nervous about making a big budget film from such a controversial book. This forces Hitch to use his own production company Shamley Productions...which then gave Hitch the opportunity to make one of those movies, with a small budget and under a million dollars.

Joseph Stefano...most people don't know that name but they should. He's the screen writer who created Norman Bates and wrote the screenplay for Psycho. Some of the film's legendary status rightly belongs to him.

Stefano was a new kid on the block and Hitch disliked working with new writers, so Stefano knew he had to sell Hitch on his story treatment. He did that by solving one of the stories main problems: how to keep the audience feeling empathy after Marion Crane is killed off in the first quarter of the film.

The original Normal Bates in the novel and in an earlier screenplay had been a middle aged, balding, quiet man who was a homicidal murder. Hardly the kind of character the audience would warm up to...but they needed to do just that, as Marion is out of the picture right at the start...So out of that need is born a young, quirky and even likable Norman Bates, who exist thanks to Joseph Stefano.

Hitchcock: "I don't care about the subject matter; I don't care about the acting; but I do care about the pieces of film and the photography and the sound track and all of the technical ingredients that made the audience scream.."

Hitch's style, Hitch is known as a technical director who creates his movies in his head even before he starts shooting. Hitch works from storyboards and plots out each camera shot, leaving nothing to chance. The camera angle, the distances to the actors, the lighting, the lens focal length and camera movement is all done according to Hitch's master plan.

One thing Hitch is not known for is micro managing the film. He takes a hands off approach to both the script and the acting. Relying instead on choosing talented people who can do their job well.

Screenwriter Joseph Stefano tells the story that: one day in Hitch's office he asked Hitch about one of the story character's motivation for doing what they do. Hitch replied in his usual calm and cool manner, 'Joseph, that is for you to decide.'

Janet Leigh also said in an interview, that Hitch wouldn't give her specific acting directions. Which is something I've heard other actors say about him as well. Instead he left it up to her to interpret the script as she seen fit. But he was strict about one thing! Janet had to stay within the camera frame and not improvise by moving out of the frame. The camera dictated the scene, not the other way around.

"The Hitchcock touch has four hands, and two of them are Alma�s."

Charles Chaplin, Los Angeles Times

Alma Hitchcock, Hitch's wife and partner in the movie making business. Alma had a big influence on Hitch's film including Psycho. She would let Hitch know if his next movie idea was a good one. If Alma liked it, it got made. She read and approved of Stefano's script and the next day Hitch tells Stefano that Alma liked the script.

Alma was also in on casting and approved of the actors selected. Hitch always listened to her. In some ways Alma is the chairman of the board. She even sat in on editing. Much of Hitch's touch is Alma's.

Anthony Perkins, when Stefano was writing his updated script of Psycho he had in mind this young stage actor as Norman Bates. At the start of production Hitch tells Stefano that Anthony Perkins is going to play Bates. Stefano couldn't believe the coincidence.

If Anthony Perkins hadn't been cast as the twisted but likable Norman Bates, I wouldn't be writing this review. He's that important to the movie. Perkins performance is the soul of Psycho! His improvisations of a nervous stuttering young man, under the thumb of his mother, is the stuff of legends. Reportedly Perkins engrossed himself so deep in the role he had a hard time shaking the specter of Bates after filming was over.

Janet Leigh, Hitch decided the role of Marion called for star power. No doubt he was familiar with her work from Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958), in which Janet Leigh played a woman held captive in a hotel room, while wearing not much more than her lingerie. Poor Janet, needed to stay away from motels!

Her role is brief as she's killed off towards the start of the film, but her part is pivotal. We get to see her at work at a bank, as she takes a wad of money from a rich and leering Texan. This is also when we see Hitch's daughter Pat Hitchcock, who provides some lighter moments that helps to take us off guard so that when the infamous shower scene takes place it has maximum effect.

Other Actors...It's easy to focus on Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh but there were other actors who helped shape the movie. Vera Miles plays Lila Crane, the sister of Marion who goes looking for her. Vera was slated to star in Vertigo but had to drop out due to a pregnancy. Vera has a small but pivotal role and adds depthy to the film. I can't say the same for the actor who played Marion's boyfriend John Gavin...who comes across more like a Hollywood leading man than an actual character. However what Gavin lacks, Martin Balsam makes up for in his role as an investigator who's come looking for Marion and the $40,000 in cash she has stolen.

Bernard Herrmann...his name might not ring a bell but his music score for Psycho sure does...rheee! rheee! rheee! We all know that music from the shower scene that screeches terror at us. Herrmann made a bold decision and scored the movie only with string instruments. He explained he wanted a stark black & white sound to match the starkness of the movie. The screeching violins give an effect of fingernails being raked across a chalk board...very effective!

The other big factor, that made Psycho an instant hit was it's highly creative and unusual ad campaign. Hitch insisted that all the theaters showing Psycho would agree to not allowing anyone to be seated once the movie had started. This was a very big deal...it was on the posters at the theater and in the newspaper ads. In some cases people even stood in a special queue line with prepaid tickets, just to make sure the policy was adhered to. The public were also told not to reveal the ending. This much sensationalized hype, generated even more interest in Psycho.

Does Psycho deserve all the praise that's been heaped on it over the years?...Well we're still watching it...and still being amazed by it! and that says a lot!

edarsenal

Women will be your undoing, P�p�

05-14-19

GREAT write up, CR!!

I had Psycho at #6 and don't have much to add except that while the shower scene did mess with me as a kid, it was the Inspector's murder and the storage cellar that always did it for me for scaring the hell out of me.

I'll also add the final two old-time Horror films that didn't make the Countdown. . .

Films Watched: 57 out of 97
#1 The Exorcist (#5)
#2 Carrie (#45)
#3
#4 Ringu (#31)
#5 Ju-on: The Grudge (2005) Didn't Make It.
#6 Psycho (#4)
#7 Halloween (#6)
#8 Dawn of the Dead (#8)
#9 Freaks (#55)
#10
#11 Hellraiser (#53)
#12 Mama (2013) Didn't Make It
#13

14) Frankenstein (1931) Didn't Make It. Hate to be so cliche, but everything about this screams "Iconic".

15) The Wolf Man (1941) Didn't Make It. The Wolf Man was my old Hollywood favorite monster and this is the go-to for it, for me.
#16 Sinister (#76)
#17 The Omen (#35)
#18 The Evil Dead (#13)
#19 An American Werewolf in London (#16)
#20 The Devil's Backbone (#89)
#21 Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (#84)
#22 Theatre of Blood (#103)
#23 Re-Animator (#88)
#24 Final Destination (2000) Didn't Make It.
#25 28 Days Later (#23)

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