Ten Top Horror Films of All Time

Throughout the years, there have been many, many movies created and distributed that fall under the Horror genre. These movies are gruesome, scary and make your spine tingle. These movies are also known for making people gasp and cower in movie theatres - a genuine sign of an excellent feature film. Out of curiosity, I decided to find out what people felt were the ten best horror films ever created. some I understood why they placed where they did, some didn't even hit the top ten and some that did I'd never seen before. Taking direct results from this poll, this is a list and brief description of what each movie is about for readers to determine if it's worthy of being a top ten horror film.

10. Romero's Dawn of the Dead

George Romero both wrote and directed "Dawn of the Dead" the first sequal to the 1968 horror film Night of the Living Dead. While the film was shot ten years apart and was released in 1979, the movie itself takes place a few weeks after the events that happen in Night of the Living Dead.

In Dawn of the Dead, four survivors: Stephen (David Emge), Roger (Scott H. Reiniger), Francine (Gaylen Ross) and Peter (Ken Foree) flee Philadelphia via a tv station's helicoptor and take up refuge in an abandoned shopping mall in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. After locking themselves in and taking inventory of their assests and kill off any of the living dead that were inside the mall when they came in. Unfortunately, as months go on, tensions begin to grow as the group realize they are becoming victims of consumerism. Just when things couldn't get any worse, a wild gang of bikers discover the abandoned mall and invade it, forcing the foursome to not only fight off the zombies outside but also the ruthless gang within.

9. John Carpenter's The Thing

In 1982, "The Thing" was released. It was directed by John Carpenter and written by John W. Campbell Jr. and screenplay by Bill Lancaster.

In "The Thing", the scene takes place in an Antarctican field (obviously snow covered) where a group of American scientists and helpers are conducting studies on their small base/encampment, they take note of a helicopter circling their encampment, appearing to be chasing and attempting to kill a dog. However, the helicopter crashes and leaves no survivors, but, the dog is let into the base leaving the Americans wondering what instigated the chase.

This is where another helicopter pilot, J.R. MacReady (Kurt Russell), discovers that the crashed aircraft was from Norway and persues the nearby Norweigan encampment to see what happened. Tragically, when he arrives he discovers a completely destroyed camp with no survivors. MacReady finds a body and takes it back to the camp to check it out and see if they can find out what caused all the chaos. After some research, the dog that is still in the camp has changed into "The Thing" that is beginning to attack the researchers of the American camp. It is then that the base's doctor discovers that the creature can take over the appearance of almost anyone flawlessly - leaving a fear of who is already infected by this beast and who still should run.

8. 28 Days Later

"28 Days Later" was one of the newer movies on the list, which was a complete surprise to see it ranked above the previous two. It was written by Alex Garland and directed by Danny Boyle, being released in the summer of 2003.

In this particular movie, a bicyclist named Jim (Cillian Murphy) has been comatose, injured 28 days earlier in a bicyling accident. Instead of waking up to the welcoming London one would expect, he came to in a deserted, grim and destroyed looking city. Jim discovers that a horrific virus has been spread from a UK lab to the public which creates a state of mind where the infected are murderous and lusting after the blood of those that are still clean from the disease. Jim, along with a few other survivors, attempt their escape to a safehaven in Manchester, however, it would not be as easy as one would think.

7. A Nightmare on Elm Street

In November of 1984, a little horror movie called "A Nightmare on Elm Street" came out, having been written and directed by the one and only Wes Craven.

One name can sum up "A Nightmare on Elm Street": Freddy Krueger. In this particular horror film, four friends Nancy Thompson(Heather Langenkamp), Rod Lane(Jsu Garcia), Tina Grey(Amanda Wyss) and Glen Lantz (Johnny Depp) are being terrorized by the evil, murderous Krueger (Robert Englund) in the one place they are never safe: their dreams. Krueger, back in the early 80's was more commonly known as the Springwood Slasher, having murdered several children with a glove covered by sharp, long razor blades. Nancy's friend, Tina, dies in her sleep after being visited by Krueger and her only attempt to destroy him is to lure him out into the real world - or never sleep again.

6. The Blair Witch Project

In 1999, Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick wrote and directed "The Blair Witch Project", which as a result of this movie, many people tried to imitate the events in the movie.

"The Blair Witch Project" takes place in October of 1994, when three film students: Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams (all their real names) go out into the secluded forests near Burkittsville, Maryland to shoot a documentary. The story was that in the 40's, children disappeared in these very forests, causing people to avoid going deep into the woods. The trio are armed with two cameras and a recorder to document every single thing that happened to them within the darkness of the forest. After stumbling across a pile of stones that had been laid out by someone or something, the three begin to hear scary sounds and the three being lost are frightened in their little camp. They awake to find wooden dolls laid out in a cross-like formation. Unfortunately, one day Joshua disappears and the remaining two realize something is not right.
A year later their documented footage is found - but the three are never heard from again.

5. Poltergeist

The first in the poltergiest trilogy, the original Poltergeist was written by Steven Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hooper. This movie (one of my personal favorites) was released in the summer of 1982.

"Poltergeist" follows the Freeling family: the father Steve (Craig T. Nelson), Mother Diane (JoBeth Williams), Son Robbie (Oliver Robins) eldest daughter Dana (Dominique Dunne) and haunted youngest daughter Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke). The family live in a quiet, otherwise pleasant neighborhood and seem to only have whimsical instances of poltergeist activity at first: a few moving objects here and there. However, soon Carol Anne appears to be talking to the spirits through the television and suddenly she is abducted by these now angry, restless spirits through her closet and taken into their world. Steve and Diane take on help from a psychic named Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein) who speaks and sees the spirits too, helping release Carol Anne from their grasp and helping those very spirits cross into the light.

4. Shaun of the Dead

Another newer horror film, Shaun of the Dead also crosses into a comedic-like horror. It was released in 2004, having been written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, who also directed Shawn of the Dead.

Shaun of the dead is about a 29 year old man named Shaun (Simon Pegg) with absolutely no life, driving his girlfrend Liz(Kate Ashfield) insane by going on regular excursions to his favorite drinking location: The Winchester. Shaun's job is a mediocre one where he isn't even given any attention and all he has in his life are two roommates Pete (Peter Serafinowicz) and Ed (Nick Frost) who are constantly at each others throats. However, not everything in London is peachy, in fact, it's downright displeasant with London being infested with pesky zombies - out to eat the living. Shaun realizes he's going to have to do something to rescue the girl he loves, his mother, his precious record collection and partner-in-crime Ed.

3. The Ring

The ring originally was a novel written by Kôji Suzuki and adapted into a screenplay by Ehren Kruger. In 2002, the movie was directed by Gore Verbinksi.

The Ring is about Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts), a young journalist who is trying to figure out the mystery of a videotape that somehow killed her niece and 3 other teenagers. Rachel and her ex, Noah, (Martin Henderson) end up diving into research to discover that a woman named Anna Morgan (Shannon Cochran) and daughter Samara Morgan (Daveigh Chase) are the makers of this tape. The myth of the video is anyone who watches it (Including Rachel) will receive a phone call after stating they will die and a week after viewing, each victim does so - at 10:00pm. Rachel and Noah must find a way to stop the curse that seems to be about this video before they become the next victims.

2. Saw

Saw was written by Leigh Whannell and James Wan, who as well as wrote the story directed the 2004 movie.

The interesting concept about Saw is the fact that writer Leigh Whannell had a main character. The storyline is about two men, Adam (Whannell) and Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) who wake up in a secret lair of a serial killer called "Jigsaw" (A name given to him by police due to the mysterious calling card he leaves). Adam and Lawrence wake up in a dirty bathroom with a dead man between them - clutching tightly to a handgun and tape recorder. The movie focuses on a flashback to a girl named Amanda (Shawnee Smith) that is a victim of this strange killer. She has a mask on her head and the key to the mask is in her friends digestive system. If she didn't escape in time it would rip her jaw open. Luckily, she survives even though her friend isn't so lucky. After more flashbacks of victims, the truth about the "Jigsaw" is discovered - he never kills a victim and instead, gets them to somehow destroy themself.

1. Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

While The Shining was a book written by Stephen King, the screenplay was both written and directed by Stanley Kubrick, making its film debut in May of 1980.

The Shining, by far, is my favorite film and portrays the story of the Torrance family: Jack (Jack Nicholson), Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and their son Danny (Danny Lloyd) and the winter of discontent up in the closed-for-the-winter Overlook Hotel in the mountains of Colorado. Jack, a writer, takes the job figuring it'll give some income to his family and also afford him time to write (perhaps even being inspired by the scenery) his book. However, it is far from peaceful or serene. The Torrance family takes a small tour of the hotel during the final days, being instructed in what their duties are in regards to care and maintaining the Overlook during the season off.

It is there that the son meets the head chef of the Overlook, a man named Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) who seems to catch on that the young son has a gift his grandmother called "The Shining" (also referred to as Tony, the little boy who lives in Danny's mouth) which is a means of communication between others with this gift as well as seeing spirits and events from the past.. After the staff has departed, Danny is given horrific visuals of the past and the horror that happened in the Overloook in years before, including the last caretaker's twin daughters who were brutally murdered by their father before he ended his own life.

Jack continues to attempt to write while Wendy takes care of part of the hotel and Danny, but soon Jack (who is attempting to remain sober due to an accident with Danny in the past), becomes haunted by the spirit of the last caretaker: Grady. Grady convinces Jack to punish the wife and son, calling it correcting instead of murdering. This, along with other hauntings of the hotel cause Jack to lose reality and in a rage lash out against his family - leaving Wendy and Danny to either fight back or end up casualties like the ones before.

Horror is a film genre that even in more recent years seems to have taken a more gruesome, spine-tingling presence than before. While the newer films listed may be considered "more scary" than ones of the past, it is these older films that become cult-like favorites and earn places in people's hearts for a long time. No matter what accompanies the horror genre, be it comedy, romance or even drama, horror leaves you on the edge of your seat ready for what may happen but at the same time have you ready to duck and cover.

While these films are just a few of many, these were the ten most popular horror films ever shot according to public poll. You may disagree with some, or some you may have not seen. Give them a try for yourself and see how they place in your own list.