The 1,000 Greatest Horror Films
INTRODUCTION to the 1,000 Greatest Horror Films
Current Version: May 2021 (7th edition)
Welcome to the 7th edition of They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They! This year sees the addition of nearly 800 new lists, although that led to only a small number of new entries. I am still experimenting with tweaking the weighting system so that has not come into play yet, but I am hopeful I will have the spare time to work on that over the next year. The new edition of the Hidden Horrors list is also up. Continued apologies for the formatting errors regarding breaks due to something that has changed with WordPress which I’m still trying to work out how to fix. I will also be adding English titles at some point, but I haven’t had the time to redesign around them.
The director’s list is still in progress and will be released when I am happy with it. The new 21st century list will be updated around August. Subset lists will be updated soon, and hopefully resumed. There is also a Facebook page for this site in case anyone wishes to keep updated through Facebook. I now have a Google sheet with a master list and all previous editions. A full list of all films can also be found on IMDb.
There are 27 new additions to the 2021 edition of the list.
2021 Edition Stats:
Decades
1910s: 3
1920s: 23
1930s: 41
1940s: 33
1950s: 47
1960s: 99
1970s: 164
1980s: 185
1990s: 128
2000s: 196
2010s: 79
2020s: 1
Regions
USA/Canada: 633
Europe: 288
Asia: 56
Australia/New Zealand: 17
South America: 7
Africa: 1
Top 10 Highest New Entries
241. Der Student von Prag (1913)
314. The Ghoul (1933)
433. The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
504. Murders in the Zoo (1933)
532. Horrors of the Black Museum
650. Vredens dag (1943)
666. The Return of the Vampire
815. Mirrors (2008)
817. Joshua (2007)
830. Svengali (1931)
Currently 3,700 lists have been compiled into the final result. Weighting each list based on its type and source and using a few formulas, I’ve managed to narrow down 8,683 films into possibly the most definitive guide to the best horror films. As with any consensus list, it’s never going to be perfect and it’s always going to be partly a popularity contest but hopefully this list will help to guide your horror diet and discover some new films. This list can also be found on iCheckMovies, IMDb and Letterboxd. This site also uses information taken directly from IMDb, including the use of original titles. Please note that this list and website is not affiliated with Bill Georgaris’ ‘They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They’, but that the title, website design and compiling methods were inspired by it.
If you want some extra viewing, check out the Hidden Horrors list.
I’m always on the lookout for new lists, so if you find a list that you think could be useful, please share them!
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