What do you think are the most effectual horror films?
You may ask how we are defining effectual? But I just want to keep this light. Feel free to define it as you like, and make it personal. For me, of course it's personal. I'm looking at films that affected you strongly in various ways, their significance for someone today looking back, how it would affect someone today, considering how it affected audiences at the time, and how it influenced future films; and not a list of the best, scariest or famous.
Chronological
- Nosferatu 1922
- Frankenstein 1931
- King Kong 1933
- The Wolfman 1941
- Psycho 1960
- The Birds 1963
- Night of the Living Dead 1968
- The Exorcist 1973
- Texas chainsaw Massacre 1974
- Jaws 1975
- Carrie 1976
- Halloween 1978
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978
- Alien 1979
- The Amityville Horror 1979
- The Howling 1981
- Poltergeist 1982
- The Thing 1982
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 1984
- The Fly 1986
- Evil Dead II 1987
- Silence of the Lambs 1991
- Se7en 1995
I have a list of 23. If I had to knock off three, would probably be Silence of the Lambs, A Nightmare on Elm St and The Howling. If I were to add two, it would be Scanners 1981 and Day of the Triffids 1951.
I saw Dracula 33, The Thing 51, Godzilla 54, The Omen, Rosemary's Baby, Evil Dead I, The Shining, etc, but they didn't affect me in any significant way.
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