Thursday, November 1, 2007

Time Magazine Weighs in on the Greatest Ever

In honor of Halloween, Time's veteran film critic Richard Corliss has broken down his top 25 horror movies over at Time.com. They're listed in reverse chronological order, with some very interesting choices. Of course you realize I'm going to have to put my two cents in. You can read the full article here, but these are Corliss' picks:
  1. Shaun of the Dead
  2. Red Dragon - Kudos to Corliss for giving props to one of the decade's most unfairly ignored thrillers.
  3. Audition
  4. Dead Alive - Nice to see a mainstream critic recognizing this cult gem.
  5. Men Behind the Sun - Here I find major fault. If you ask me, including a docudrama based on actual Japanese war atrocities on this list borders on disgusting.
  6. The Fly (1986)
  7. Alien
  8. Halloween (1978)
  9. Carrie
  10. Jaws - I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Jaws is not a horror movie.
  11. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
  12. The Exorcist
  13. Night of the Living Dead - I would've chosen Dawn of the Dead, but Corliss insisted on including only one film per director.
  14. Blood Feast
  15. Black Sunday
  16. Psycho
  17. Peeping Tom
  18. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
  19. Diabolique (1955)
  20. Bambi - Why do these critics always have to get cute? So Bambi's mom dying freaked you out as a kid. Get over it. It's Disney.
  21. Freaks
  22. Frankenstein
  23. The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
  24. Nosferatu
  25. Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat - Another ridiculous one. This is the infamous short that allegedly scared early moviegoers because they thought the train was going to burst through the screen. Horror movie? Gimme a break.

Surprised to see Hammer go unrepresented. American bias showing through, I guess. So what do you folks make of Time's choices? Feel free to chime in. Anyone interested in my own top picks need look no further than the right hand column...