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With the nights getting longer and children across the UK about to mimic their American counterparts on Halloween Eve by donning creepy costumes in return for sweets, we at Total Film felt it was the perfect time to rifle through the long, gory history of movie horror and pick out our Top 50. Some are terrifying. Some are horrifying. Some are just plain revolting. But every one of the films on our list is a raw, visceral and highly disturbing shocker.
For the comprehensive rundown (and to find out which films scare the pants off horror maestros like David Cronenberg, George Romero and Wes Craven), pick up the November 2005 issue of Total Film, on sale now.
Disagree with our list? Or is your favourite horror movie missing? Go to the Total Film forum to air your views...
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1 THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE 1974 Cutting deep: Tobe Hooper takes horror to the bleeding edge.
2 HALLOWEEN 1978 Hawks meets Hitchcock as the slasher cycle finds true Shape...
3 SUSPIRIA 1977 Sighs and whispers (and screams) in Argento’s baroque bloodletter.
4 DAWN OF THE DEAD 1978 George A Romero’s definitive document of the walking dead.
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5 THE SHINING 1980 Loving family man tries to put an axe through his son’s head.
6 PSYCHO 1960 Come on up to the house. Oh, and don’t mind Mother...
7 THE WICKER MAN 1973 Creeping pagan terror on a remote Scottish island.
8 ROSEMARY’S BABY 1968 The horny Devil hits home and hearth...
9 DON’T LOOK NOW 1973 Nicolas Roeg’s clammy elegy to love and loss.
10 CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST 1980 Horror doesn’t get any harsher than this.
11 THE THING 1982 Snatched bodies and reheated Cold War paranoia.
12 CARRIE 1976 Memo to all bullies – Stop. Picking. On. The. Quiet. Ones.
13 THE EXORCIST 1973 The Devil rides into the mother of all religio-horrors.
14 THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT 1999 If you go down to the woods today... take a camcorder.
15 WITCHFINDER GENERAL 1968 Lyrical English landscapes are painted red with torture.
16 THE HAUNTING 1963 You are invited to a born-bad house. Bring your own ghosts.
17 THE EVIL DEAD 1981 Five go bloody in the woods in Raimi’s splatter-punk debut.
18 PEEPING TOM 1960 Cameraman fi lms as he kills. Such a nice young man...
19 ALIEN 1979 The ultimate hack’n’slash bad-boy monster.
20 BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN 1935 Karloff’s monster lumbers towards matrimony.
21 NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 1968 A bunch of amateurs stake out a home in horror history.
22 CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE 1944 A haunting, shivery study of childhood loneliness.
23 SWITCHBLADE ROMANCE 2003 Modern horror grows some bloody big balls.
24 A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 1984 Horny teens get fingered by the son of a thousand maniacs.
25 AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON 1981 More than just a shaggy dog story.
26 NIGHT OF THE DEMON 1957 Cat People helmer brings that ol’ black magic to Blighty.
27 HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER 1986 String vests and death by screwdriver.
28 BAY OF BLOOD 1971 Everyone kills everyone else in once-banned video nasty.
29 AUDITION 1999 A woman’s revenge, served with relish by Takashi Miike.
30 SHIVERS 1975 Zombies run riot in an early slab of Cronenberg meat.
31 THE INNOCENTS 1961 Subtle scares in Henry James’ clammy ghost tale.
32 THE DEVIL RIDES OUT 1968 It’s Christopher Lee versus soul-stealing Satanists!
33 LES DIABOLIQUES 1955 Murderous schemes in a French boarding school.
34 DEAD RINGERS 1988 Love, addiction, separation. Nausea guaranteed.
35 INFERNO 1980 Blood and thunder in Argento’s frenzied trip of the brain.
36 MARTIN 1977 Growing pains for bloodsucking teen sociopath.
37 THE HOWLING 1981 A tongue-in-cheek werewolf pic that likes its meat rare.
38 VAMPYR 1932 Gather, darkness: a vampire film like no other.
39 CANDYMAN 1992 Dare you to look in the mirror and say his name five times! No? Thought not...
40 THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES 1966 City quack investigates dying country bumpkins.
41 SCREAM 1996 Wes Craven rewrites the slasher textbook.
42 TARGETS 1968 Trad horror confronts modern terror in Bogdanovich’s debut.
43 THE SECT 1991 Infernal pits, Devil-worship and the son of Satan!
44 THE DESCENT 2005 Six chicks with picks. Be afraid, be very afraid.
45 BRAINDEAD 1992 Quite possibly the bloodiest movie ever made.
46 HOUR OF THE WOLF 1968 Father Merrin must exorcise a few demons of his own.
47 ERASERHEAD 1977 David Lynch presents an argument for sterilisation.
48 NEKROMANTIK 1987 Dead and loving it in a truly sick flick.
49 THE BEYOND 1981 Director Lucio Fulci goes to Hell and back.
Jamie Graham is a freelance writer and former Editor-at-Large of Total Film magazine. You'll likely find them around these parts reviewing the biggest films on the planet and speaking to some of the biggest stars in the business – that's just what Jamie does. Jamie has also written for outlets like SFX and the Sunday Times Culture, and appeared on podcasts exploring the wondrous worlds of occult and horror.
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