301. (-53) Halloween II

Rick Rosenthal

1981 / USA / 92m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cyphers, Jeffrey Kramer, Lance Guest, Pamela Susan Shoop, Hunter von Leer, Dick Warlock, Leo Rossi, Gloria Gifford

“Actually, ”Halloween II” is good enough to deserve a sequel of its own. By the standards of most recent horror films, this – like its predecessor – is a class act. There’s some variety to the crimes, as there is to the characters, and an audience is likely to do more screaming at suspenseful moments than at scary ones. The gore, while very explicit and gruesome, won’t make you feel as if you’re watching major surgery. The direction and camera work are quite competent, and the actors don’t look like amateurs. That may not sound like much to ask of a horror film, but it’s more than many of them offer. And ”Halloween II,” in addition to all this, has a quick pace and something like a sense of style.” – Janet Maslin, New York Times

303. (+104) Flesh for Frankenstein

Paul Morrissey

AKA: Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein

1973 / USA / 95m / Col / Monster | IMDb
Joe Dallesandro, Monique van Vooren, Udo Kier, Arno Juerging, Dalila Di Lazzaro, Srdjan Zelenovic, Nicoletta Elmi, Marco Liofredi, Liù Bosisio, Fiorella Masselli

“Disgusting? Yes. Obscene? Oh, certainly. Likely to deprave and corrupt? Paul Morrissey absolutely hopes so. And above all else, wildly fucking funny. The genius of the film lies not in the director’s willingness to “go there” with every depraved idea that crops into his head, but to go there with a song in his heart and a big smile on his face. If I had to come up with one adjective to describe Flesh for Frankenstein, it would probably be “silly”. Or maybe, “goofy”. But surely not sick, violent, over-the-top, any of those other things – for if it is indeed a wicked, wicked film, it is all in the service of its gloriously self-indulgent camp attitude.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy

305. (+60) Psycho II

Richard Franklin

1983 / USA / 113m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Meg Tilly, Robert Loggia, Dennis Franz, Hugh Gillin, Claudia Bryar, Robert Alan Browne, Ben Hartigan, Lee Garlington

“Director Richard Franklin, working from Tom Holland’s screenplay, has infused Psycho II with a deliberate sensibility that echoes the original film’s slow build, and although the pacing is occasionally just a little too sedate for its own good (ie the first half feels more like a psychological drama than a horror flick), Franklin effectively lures the viewer into the proceedings by emphasizing Perkins’ striking performance and by offering up a handful of admittedly suspenseful interludes… Psycho II boasts an increasingly compelling mystery at its core that ensures the film grows more and more engrossing as it progresses – with the inclusion of a few unexpected twists lending the movie’s third act a surprisingly engrossing quality that proves impossible to resist.” – David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews

307. (+24) Targets

Peter Bogdanovich

AKA: Before I Die

1968 / USA / 90m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Tim O’Kelly, Boris Karloff, Arthur Peterson, Monte Landis, Nancy Hsueh, Peter Bogdanovich, Daniel Ades, Stafford Morgan, James Brown, Mary Jackson

“Targets, despite having been made over 40 years ago, remains an intense viewing experience. In some ways, it’s even more relevant now than it was then, because, sadly, we’ve seen far too many Bobby Thompsons, especially in the past decade. The drama therefore feels very real. That Bogdanovich never provides much of an explanation for Bobby’s actions only makes them creepier. The finale, set at the drive-in, is an extended sequence of immense terror, beautifully staged by the director for maximum suspense.” – Mike McGranaghan, The Aisle Seat

309. (+190) I Know What You Did Last Summer

Jim Gillespie

1997 / USA / 101m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Freddie Prinze Jr., Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, Anne Heche, Johnny Galecki, Muse Watson, Stuart Greer, J. Don Ferguson

“Laying its claim to succeed ‘Scream’ as a high-grossing, blood-drenched date-night crowd-pleaser… Once again, the screenwriter is Kevin Williamson, working from a novel by Lois Duncan about four teen-agers haunted by a secret: their decision to dispose of the body hit by their BMW… Though it flies in the face of credibility and becomes downright silly by its end, ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ knows its way around the rules of the popular horror-film genre: the prefiguring ghost story around the campfire, the teen-age sex that insures murder, the spooky killer, plenty of steamy shower rooms and crab vats, pop-up bodies, references to other films and television and an ending that sets the gurney for as many sequels as the public can stomach.” – Lawrence Van Gelder, New York Times

311. (+206) La casa dalle finestre che ridono

Pupi Avati

AKA: The House of the Laughing Windows

1976 / Italy / 110m / Col / Giallo | IMDb
Lino Capolicchio, Francesca Marciano, Gianni Cavina, Giulio Pizzirani, Bob Tonelli, Vanna Busoni, Pietro Brambilla, Ferdinando Orlandi, Andrea Matteuzzi

“What is… haunting, is the number of questions, especially concerning the different villagers’ behaviours and motivations, that The House With Laughing Windows leaves entirely unresolved. For the film is not only about a particularly unspeakable series of crimes, but about the way a closed community’s code of silence can spread complicity and guilt far beyond the original wrongdoers. So while The House With Laughing Windows is certainly a gripping murder mystery, it is also an intelligent allegory… of post-war Italy’s struggles to emerge from the Fascist outrages of its recent past.” – Anton Bitel, Eye for Film

313. (-40) Rabid

David Cronenberg

AKA: Rage

1977 / Canada / 91m / Col / Body Horror | IMDb
Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore, Joe Silver, Howard Ryshpan, Patricia Gage, Susan Roman, Roger Periard, Lynne Deragon, Terry Schonblum, Victor Désy

“Much more than just another zombie movie, this is really about epidemics and the fear of disease, and the scene where a train full of commuters realise there are infected people among them is one of the most riveting depictions of mass panic ever recorded. When he made Rabid, Cronenberg was not an auteur with a reputation to defend. He’d barely even established himself as a cult favourite. What he delivers, then, is unrestrained by any such concerns – he never expected it to win fans or make money, so it follows his own vision, raw and uncompromising. Its disorganised nature is entirely appropriate to the story it tells, so that whilst it may drag in places, whilst there are plot inconsistencies and loose ends, the overall effect is very powerful. It was an unforgettable calling card signalling the start of a unique career, and it’s well worth looking back on now.” – Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film

315. (-104) Hostel

Eli Roth

2005 / USA / 94m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eythor Gudjonsson, Barbara Nedeljakova, Jan Vlasák, Jana Kaderabkova, Jennifer Lim, Keiko Seiko, Lubomír Bukový

“Eli Roth’s “Hostel” is an agonizing experience to sit through – disheartening, unpleasant, bursting with torture, detached and harsh, and unrelenting in its passion for the horrific. To call it a challenge in the visual sense does not begin to explain its ability to completely rob you of the comfort of artifice; it so fully indulges in its reality that every cut, every bloodcurdling moment in which pain is inflicted on a number of unsuspecting victims, is felt rather than seen. That may rob the movie of repeat value even in the hands of audiences who willingly embrace this overzealous sub-genre of torture-driven horror, but it does provoke deeper considerations: in the hands of skilled filmmakers who know how to establish reason and perspective, can extreme visual depravity rise above its nature to merely sicken and appall?” – David Keyes, Cinemaphile

Genres: Sadistic Horror, Splatter, Thriller, Black Comedy

317. (-72) Day of the Woman

Meir Zarchi

AKA: I Spit on Your Grave

1978 / USA / 101m / Col / Rape and Revenge | IMDb
Camille Keaton, Eron Tabor, Richard Pace, Anthony Nichols, Gunter Kleemann, Alexis Magnotti, Tammy Zarchi, Terry Zarchi, Traci Ferrante, William Tasgal

“Man and nature are both all-consuming in Meir Zarchi’s landmark horror film I Spit on Your Grave, seamlessly surrounding attractive young novelist Jennifer Hills (Camille Keaton) as she drives deep into the New York countryside to escape the hustle and bustle of urban life. It’s hard not to admire Zarchi’s disavowal of substantive character traits and narrative foundation for thematic shock and awe. His film oozes with aggression from all sides, taking form in the sharp reds, blacks, and greens of the film diverse chromatic scale. One can’t mistake I Spit in Your Grave for anything other than a raging political text, a rigorous reminder to the power of a disturbed imagination, be it victimizer or victim.” – Glenn Heath Jr, Slant Magazine

319. (-36) The Quatermass Xperiment

Val Guest

AKA: The Creeping Unknown

1955 / UK / 82m / BW / Science Fiction | IMDb
Brian Donlevy, Jack Warner, Margia Dean, Thora Hird, Gordon Jackson, David King-Wood, Harold Lang, Lionel Jeffries, Sam Kydd, Richard Wordsworth

“Other fine moments, such as an ill-fated car ride with his wife, make The Quatermass Xperiment a little more haunting than you may expect. Though it’s set up as a standard creature feature, it doesn’t capitulate to that mode until the very end, when the monster is finally revealed. It probably looks a little silly to modern audiences, and the film itself is certainly quite tame, this was the stuff of an “X” rating in its heyday (which also explains the odd spelling of the film’s title, which is a marketing ploy). Most of its terrors at the time would have been the psychologically unnerving sort, as audiences were only a decade removed from atomic horrors and UFO hysteria was about to reach manic heights. Guest’s film definitely taps into all of that, though it still works as a brisk, cool horror movie without those subtexts.” – Brett Gallman, Oh, the Horror

321. (+257) The Toxic Avenger

Michael Herz & Lloyd Kaufman

1984 / USA / 82m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Andree Maranda, Mitch Cohen, Jennifer Babtist, Cindy Manion, Robert Prichard, Gary Schneider, Pat Ryan, Mark Torgl, Dick Martinsen, Chris Liano

“”The Toxic Avenger” has a weird joyfulness that’s infectious, even while it stages ghastly deaths and dismemberments. Kaufman and Herz construct a rather effective silent comedy in the midst of all the brutality, with the picture playing just as effectively with the sound shut off. With a cast that wildly gesticulates with every line reading, broad physical comedy, and a hulking, deformed hero, it’s fairly easy to follow the feature without hearing it, as it periodically reaches Vaudeville-style shenanigans. It’s not a tasteful endeavor (maybe babies should be spared the magic of moviemaking), but it has a defined spirit that carries the adventure from beginning to end, stopping occasionally to assess character motivations and explore the romance between Toxie and Sara. Horrible, and I mean horrible stuff happens in “The Toxic Avenger,” but rarely does the effort sit around and wallow in ugliness, always on to the next bit of awful it can manipulate into horror and comedy.” – Brian Orndorf, Blu-ray.com

323. (+285) A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge

Jack Sholder

AKA: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge

1985 / USA / 87m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Robert Rusler, Clu Gulager, Hope Lange, Marshall Bell, Melinda O. Fee, Tom McFadden, Sydney Walsh, Robert Englund

“Viewed strictly on the surface, “A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge” is a well-made and suspenseful possession-laden thriller that drops some of the rules distinguished by the first “A Nightmare on Elm Street” in order to avoid being a mere lazy redux […] For its underlying message about sexual oppression in a cynical world, though, the film endeavors to go one step deeper. Psychology majors could have a field day with “A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge.” So much is left to open-ended interpretation that it couldn’t have possibly been by accident that the picture plays not only as slasher fantasy, but as poignantly-felt coming-of-age story in which the hero’s complicated struggles to find himself and be accepted by others aren’t so easily wrapped up with a tidy ribbon.” – Dustin Putnam, The Movie Boy

325. (-66) L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo

Dario Argento

AKA: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

1970 / Italy / 98m / Col / Giallo | IMDb
Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno, Eva Renzi, Umberto Raho, Renato Romano, Giuseppe Castellano, Mario Adorf, Pino Patti, Gildo Di Marco

“Now king of the spaghetti slasher, Argento made his directorial debut with this tightly constructed thriller in which an American writer is witness to an attempted knife attack, and then finds himself obsessed with tracking down a serial killer whose next victims could be himself and his lover. There are some extravagant false leads, but tension is well sustained with the aid of Vittorio Storaro’s stylish ‘Scope photography and a Morricone score. Particularly effective are the opening attack, viewed through a maze of locked windows, and a scene with the victim caught on a stairway suddenly plunged into darkness. Certain elements seem to have been an influence on Dressed to Kill and The Shining, but Argento himself zoomed into more and more abstract shock effects, neglecting the Hitchcockian principles observed here.” – Geoff Andrew, Time Out

327. (-166) The Seventh Victim

Mark Robson

1943 / USA / 71m / BW / Mystery | IMDb
Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell, Kim Hunter, Evelyn Brent, Erford Gage, Ben Bard, Hugh Beaumont, Chef Milani, Marguerita Sylva

“Without ever up and telling us, “this is where the horror is, now” – The Seventh Victim builds up an impressive amount of tension, just from skillfully manipulating how much the characters (and thus, the audience) are allowed to know at any given moment, while progressively darkening the movie as it goes, starting off in well-lit interiors and daylight, and ending in thick, impenetrably dark nighttime alleys. Despite keeping closer to naturalism than any previous Lewton film – likely the result of swapping Tourneur, whose subsequent films all have an element of the visually fanciful, with Robson, whose films certainly do not – and tying in rather obviously with the concurrent rise of film noir which was just then in its infancy, The Seventh Victim eschews the nihilistic urban realism of noir, ramping up tension by becoming increasingly unpredictable and uncanny.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy

Genres: Mystery, Horror, Film noir, Thriller, Gothic

329. (+48) Dracula: Prince of Darkness

Terence Fisher

AKA: Disciple of Dracula

1966 / UK / 90m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, Andrew Keir, Francis Matthews, Suzan Farmer, Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, Thorley Walters, Philip Latham, Walter Brown, George Woodbridge

“This classic vampire approach still works for me, despite the 40 plus year old imagary. Sure it’s got its age to contend with and modern horror filmaking is a whole different sport to this but serve me up a slow moving, creepy Dracula luring you into his cape for a nibble above where vamps seem to be at the moment… Movies need to get back to classic vampire imagary like this again and make them scary. Dracula Prince of Darkness, while pretty silly as a movie has the king of all Transylvanian blood suckers doing everything right and this is a fine place to be reminded of just how great Dracula can be.” – Marcus Doidge, DVDActive

331. (+149) Batoru rowaiaru

Kinji Fukasaku

AKA: Battle Royale

2000 / Japan / 114m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Tarô Yamamoto, Takeshi Kitano, Chiaki Kuriyama, Sôsuke Takaoka, Takashi Tsukamoto, Yukihiro Kotani, Eri Ishikawa, Sayaka Kamiya

“A few twists and turns keep the formula from becoming repetitive, and Fukasaku brings enough compassion to the deserving to keep the grizzly deaths from numbing our moral sensitivities. A sharp sense of humor assists him: aimed towards insight and ridicule rather than the nihilistic glee to which it might have succumbed. It chills us even as we snicker, and the resulting mayhem ultimately reads as a condemnation of our own violent tendencies rather than a tacit celebration. The underlying messages combine with sharp filmmaking for a gloriously entertaining ride, provided you have a taste for dark material and don’t mind the occasional poke in the ribs. Battle Royale completely engages us without losing track of its anti-violence message, a tricky balance that has sent many lesser productions spinning into hypocrisy.” – Rob Vaux, Mania

333. (-26) Asylum

Roy Ward Baker

1972 / UK / 88m / Col / Anthology | IMDb
Peter Cushing, Britt Ekland, Herbert Lom, Patrick Magee, Barry Morse, Barbara Parkins, Robert Powell, Charlotte Rampling, Sylvia Syms, Richard Todd

“All in all, “Asylum” is one of the best anthology films ever made. Especially eerie is the tale where a killer is pursued by the severed body parts of his victim, all of which are wrapped in paper. The film makes effective use of Moussegsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” and “Night on the Bare Mountain” as the basis of the soundtrack. With performances that are all top notch and great direction from Baker, the film is a flawless piece of horror moviemaking — a well-made gem from the 1970s that is unlike anything that studios can produce today.” – Lucius Gore, Esplatter

335. (+6) El día de la bestia

Álex de la Iglesia

AKA: The Day of the Beast

1995 / Spain / 103m / Col / Black Comedy | IMDb
Álex Angulo, Armando De Razza, Santiago Segura, Terele Pávez, Nathalie Seseña, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Gianni Ippoliti, Jaime Blanch, David Pinilla, Antonio Dechent

“The Day of the Beast (El Día de la Bestia) was Álex de la Iglesia’s second feature film and effectively launched his career on the international stage. In keeping with the form of Spanish humour known as esperpento – in which a distorted version of reality is utilised in order to critique it – the film contains grotesque violence and slapstick humour in a nonetheless affectionate take on the horror genre… the film benefits from characters who are written and performed with warmth and humour. At the centre, Angulo – who sadly died earlier this year – was never better than as the plucky and determined little priest, ready to do battle with the forces of evil on the streets of Madrid, and he’s ably supported by the rest of the cast.” – Rebecca Naughten, Eye For Film

337. (+229) Green Room

Jeremy Saulnier

2015 / USA / 95m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Anton Yelchin, Joe Cole, Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, David W. Thompson, Mark Webber, Macon Blair, Eric Edelstein, Michael Draper, Andy Copeland

“A merciless maelstrom set within grungy, cramped quarters for much of its 94 minutes, “Green Room” mounts and mounts with grabby urgency and anything-can-happen danger. A battle of wits and survival begins as Darcy uses his power of persuasion from the other side of the door and asks the band to hand over the gun they’ve retrieved, forcing The Ain’t Rights to become resourceful in other ways as they plan their escape out of that one door. When the kill-or-be-killed spree takes off in the second half, the violence is very savage and matter-of-fact without coming across gratuitous for the hell of it. It’s also underscored by cinematographer Sean Porter having an eye for making nerve-shredding chaos look controlled.” – Jeremy Kibler, The Artful Critic

339. (+217) Stir of Echoes

David Koepp

1999 / USA / 99m / Col / Haunted House | IMDb
Zachary David Cope, Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Illeana Douglas, Kevin Dunn, Conor O’Farrell, Lusia Strus, Stephen Eugene Walker, Mary Kay Cook, Larry Neumann Jr.

“With a minimum of movie cliches, the film plunges these normal people into extraordinary situations to create tension and a real sense of dread. It helps that Bacon and the entire cast are superb, playing it with authentic humour and fear that draws us into the tale (based on Richard Matheson’s novel). Koepp handles all of the elements perfectly, crafting a visually fascinating film and building an internally wrenching drama amid all the scary stuff. And even if the ending seems a bit tidy, the film is still effective and nicely creepy–definitely worth seeing.” – Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

341. (+228) Don’t Breathe

Fede Alvarez

2016 / USA / 88m / Col / Home Invasion | IMDb
Stephen Lang, Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto, Emma Bercovici, Franciska Töröcsik, Christian Zagia, Katia Bokor, Sergej Onopko, Olivia Gillies

“The key highlight of director Fede Alvarez’s movie is innovation. There’s a segment in the movie shot in pitch darkness with grey night vision and that has the potential to be the most frightening 10 minutes of your life. Even the build up on the sequence where the gang breaks in to the house at night is just nerve-wracking. You can easily compare Don’t Breathe to thriller horror classics like Psycho, Old Boy and Vertigo. The tension here is so authentic and gripping this film can impress even those with nerves of steel. Forget those CGI-driven ghost soap operas that pretend to be horror movies. This film, its dark basement environments and its superlative camera and sound work is like a real life nightmare unfolding on the big screen.” – Rachit Gupta, Filmfare

Genres: Home Invasion, Horror, Heist Film

343. (+189) Roadgames

Richard Franklin

AKA: Road Games

1981 / Australia / 101m / Col / Psychological | IMDb
Stacy Keach, Jamie Lee Curtis, Marion Edward, Grant Page, Thaddeus Smith, Steve Millichamp, Alan Hopgood, John Murphy, Bill Stacey, Robert Thompson

“Director Richard Franklin has openly confessed that his Road Games is an “Alfred Hitchcock derivative.” Replacing Jimmy Stewart’s apartment view in Rear Window with the fly-splattered windscreen of an 8-wheel truck, Road Games hurtles into a world of obsession, mistaken identity and psycho killers as if the master himself were in the passenger seat. But the sheer unhinged energy Franklin injects into the narrative make this more than just a simple pastiche. This is Hitchcock at 80mph and it doesn’t let up for a second.” – Tom Fallows, Classic-Horror

345. (-27) Pontypool

Bruce McDonald

2008 / Canada / 93m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, Georgina Reilly, Hrant Alianak, Rick Roberts, Daniel Fathers, Beatriz Yuste, Tony Burgess, Boyd Banks, Hannah Fleming

“Scriptwriter Tony Burgess knows that by entering the world of cinematic zombiedom, he has a responsibility to comment, to satirise – to not just tear open and chew on but also engage the mind of his characters and audience. He does this via a stunning reveal as to the nature of the ‘plague’ that has corrupted the collective mind of society (a clue is in Mazzy’s role as a lowbrow social commentator). In the hope of curing the population of its new-found fleshy hunger, Mazzy unleashes a last-gasp broadcast that is a wild, frenzied meld of brilliant scripting and tour-de-force acting. Spouting nonsensical gibberish at an electrifying pitch, Stephen McHattie throws himself into the film finale with wild abandon and it is a sight to behold. Horror fans may gripe at the lack of blood-&-guts (though a couple of moments keep the ‘that’s gross!” factor high). Fuelled by committed acting, tight direction and a wonderfully focused script, Pontypool proves a winning combination of shuddery suspense and intelligent observations.” – Simon Foster, SBS

Genres: Psychological Horror, Zombie, Epidemic, Siege Film, Disaster, Chamber Film

347. (+27) I Was a Teenage Werewolf

Gene Fowler Jr.

1957 / USA / 76m / BW / Werewolf | IMDb
Michael Landon, Yvonne Fedderson, Whit Bissell, Charles Willcox, Dawn Richard, Barney Phillips, Ken Miller, Cynthia Chenault, Michael Rougas, Robert Griffin

“There are few horror titles which are as evocative as I Was a Teenage Werewolf, immediately a klaxon announcing bad make-up, bad acting, drippy 50’s pop culture trappings and throw-away chaff. In actual fact, it is a well-made, well-shot drama which, though having the worst song and accompanying dance routine in the history of cinema, is a more successful commentary on teenage life than many alien invasion/nuclear bug films were at decrying The Bomb. Landon, almost squeaky in his youth (he was actually 21 years-old) plays the role of every-man perfectly well, whilst his generic group of friends and sundry adults prove to be a more believable agitate than a parade of well-known names.” – Horrorpedia

349. (-117) House of Usher

Roger Corman

1960 / USA / 79m / BW / Gothic | IMDb
Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey, Harry Ellerbe

“Price is his usual impressive self as the almost certainly incestuously inclined Roderick Usher who, having buried his sister alive when she falls into a cataleptic trance, becomes the victim of her ghostly revenge; but it is Corman’s overall direction that lends the film its intelligence and power. The sickly decadence and claustrophobia of the Usher household – which is both disturbed and temporarily cleansed by the fresh air that accompanies Damon’s arrival as suitor to Madeline Usher – is admirably evoked by Floyd Crosby’s ‘Scope photography and Daniel Haller’s art direction, the latter’s sets dominated by a putrid, bloody crimson. But Richard Matheson’s script is also exemplary: lucid, imaginatively detailed and subtle.” – Time Out

351. (-54) Scream 2

Wes Craven

1997 / USA / 120m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Neve Campbell, Liev Shreiber, Timothy Olyphant, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy, Jerry O’Connell, Laurie Metcalf, Jada Pinkett Smith, Omar Epps

“It would be unfair to reveal too many twists, but the windy plot allows Wes Craven to demonstrate again just how good he is at punching your scare buttons, employing sharp editing and a superb sound mix to make even the hokiest sudden-appearance-out-of-the-dark a moment guaranteed to spill your popcorn. In-joke fans will especially relish the extracts from Stab, in which – as she feared in the first film – Sidney is played by Tori Spelling. In Stab, key moments from Scream are done again with caricature cheap horror movie twitches that pile up on what were already essays in textbook genre-making. Clever parody of the sequel trend; once again we are treated to a movie mocking its own conventions.” – Kim Newman, Empire

353. (+75) Trolljegeren

André Øvredal

AKA: The Troll Hunter

2010 / Norway / 103m / Col / Found Footage | IMDb
Otto Jespersen, Glenn Erland Tosterud, Johanna Mørck, Tomas Alf Larsen, Urmila Berg-Domaas, Hans Morten Hansen, Robert Stoltenberg, Knut Nærum, Eirik Bech

“With this Bizarro-World trek through the fjords, fields and mountaintops of wintry Norway, Andre Ovredal joins a select group of European filmmakers who have clearly paid attention to Hollywood’s lessons – particularly in the class on creature-features old and new – without negating their own specific cultural sensibility… Some plot turns don’t entirely hold water in the exciting climactic stretch, and the agitated hand-held visuals can grow wearying. But this is nonetheless an original and highly assured fusion of B-movie lore and fairy-tale terror. The premise may be absurd but the filmmaker and his able cast show unwavering commitment to the story’s elaborate mythology.” – David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

Genres: Giant Monster, Mockumentary, Found Footage Horror, Black Comedy, Low Fantasy, Folk Horror

355. (+63) Bakjwi

Chan-wook Park

AKA: Thirst

2009 / South Korea / 135m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
Kang-ho Song, Ok-bin Kim, Hae-suk Kim, Ha-kyun Shin, In-hwan Park, Dal-su Oh, Young-chang Song, Mercedes Cabral, Eriq Ebouaney, Hee-jin Choi

“Throughout very audible kissing and slurpy blood-drinking, the film proves to be scary, remarkably moving, and startlingly evocative. And like most Park films, it doesn’t end when the audience expects it to. The final section of the film transforms the characters and retains their humanity, even amid their most frenzied embrace of their obsessions. Park’s film is an ingenious look at a sleepy topic, proving that the vampire movie hasn’t lost its verve, but that most directors making them have. Place a filmmaker like Park behind the camera and suddenly the genre awakens from its slumber, digs itself from out of its own grave, and emerges ready to feed from the ideas of a great director.” – Brian Eggert, Deep Focus Review

Genres: Vampire, Drama, Romance, Black Comedy, Erotic Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Horror Comedy

357. (+384) The Slumber Party Massacre

Amy Holden Jones

AKA: Sleepless Nights

1982 / USA / 77m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Michelle Michaels, Robin Stille, Michael Villella, Debra De Liso, Andree Honore, Gina Smika Hunter, Jennifer Meyers, Joseph Alan Johnson, David Millbern, Jim Boyce

“Even if one wanted to ignore the obvious overtones, they’re left with a pretty rad little slasher with impressive gore and ass-kicking girls. I’m not sure why anyone would want to discard the interesting subtext, though—it’s much more fun to read it as a film by two women who were quick to call the slasher genre out on its bullshit. Their initial vision may have been somewhat thwarted, but the hints in the margins here result in a slasher film that’s actually more interesting now than it was when I first watched it as a kid (when I was interested in it for all the things Brown and Jones were trying to highlight, of course).” – Brett Gallman, Oh, The Horror

359. (-162) The Blob

Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.

1958 / USA / 86m / Col / Science Fiction | IMDb
Steve McQueen, Aneta Corsaut, Earl Rowe, Olin Howland, Stephen Chase, John Benson, George Karas, Lee Payton, Elbert Smith, Hugh Graham

“It’s interesting to watch writers and fans scramble to find an appropriate metaphor for “The Blob” – after all, this was the 1950s, when every sci-fi horror flick had to mean something, be it a commentary on Eisenhower-era conformity or a reaction to atomic age fears or a warning of the Communist threat. The most common analysis suggests the latter, but I’d like to think “The Blob” stands for nothing but a good scare at the movies (suggested best by the classic, winkingly meta sequence where the creature oozes into a theater showing a “midnight spook show,” sending viewers screaming into the streets). Sure, it sneaks some ideas into the corners, mainly the aforementioned “the kids are alright” premise, but overall it’s harmlessly, almost admirably shallow. It works because it’s sincere in its superficiality, hoping to earn some gee-whiz reactions from an eager audience.” – David Cornelius, Popcornworld

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Alien Invasion, Teen Movie, Giant Monster, Cosmic Horror

361. (-158) The Devil’s Rejects

Rob Zombie

2005 / USA / 107m / Col / Splatter | IMDb
Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon Zombie, William Forsythe, Ken Foree, Matthew McGrory, Leslie Easterbrook, Geoffrey Lewis, Priscilla Barnes, Dave Sheridan

“The Devil’s Rejects is a visceral little film that reverberates with nasty attitude, a knowing smirk, and a demented gleam of the eyes. That said, this is not a film for everyone. It’s a hard R, filled with disturbing imagery and f@#k laced spurts of dialogue, but it’s all part of the package and those who get it, however, will be treated to a high-octane thriller that operates on a much deeper level than your average slash-and-gore film. In the end it’s not only a perversely entertaining yarn, but a wickedly intelligent one, as well; a film that is destined to become a cult classic of the highest caliber.” – Spence D., IGN

Genres: Sadistic Horror, Hixploitation, Road Movie, Black Comedy, Vigilante

363. (-176) The Man Who Laughs

Paul Leni

1928 / USA / 110m / BW / Melodrama | IMDb
Mary Philbin, Conrad Veidt, Julius Molnar, Olga Baclanova, Brandon Hurst, Cesare Gravina, Stuart Holmes, Sam De Grasse, George Siegmann, Josephine Crowell

“Like many a German expressionist nightmare, The Man Who Laughs (based on a novel by Victor Hugo) is a collision of non-complementary angles and framing that confuses as often as it elucidates. At the same time—and unlike Caligari or Leni’s own Waxworks—it is also remarkably clean in its delineation of action. In the same manner that Veidt is both the film’s central monster as well as its main source of pathos (all but laying out the blueprint for James Whale’s Frankenstein), the film’s fascination with bric-a-brac and its tendency toward spare, minimalist compositions is evidence of a stylistic schism.” – Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine

Genres: Melodrama, Romance, Period Drama, German Expressionism

365. (-43) Wait Until Dark

Terence Young

1967 / USA / 108m / Col / Thriller | IMDb
Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Jack Weston, Samantha Jones, Julie Herrod

“Young’s remarkable ability to create a believable oppressive locality in Wait Until Dark obscures plot holes and irrationalities right up to the film’s extended final showdown. By the time Suzy realizes she’s completely and hopelessly alone in her apartment (she’s sent the dorky Lisa off on a futile mission to locate Sam at Asbury Park), the cumulative effect of Hepburn’s palpable desolation and Arkin’s ruthlessness (combined with Henry Mancini’s overpoweringly harrowing score) bring the film to a justly celebrated climactic bacchanalia, complete with one of suspense cinema’s first and most effective shock leaps.” – Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine

367. (-155) La noche del terror ciego

Amando de Ossorio

AKA: Tombs of the Blind Dead

1972 / Spain / 101m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Lone Fleming, César Burner, María Elena Arpón, José Thelman, Rufino Inglés, Verónica Llimera, Simón Arriaga, Francisco Sanz, Juan Cortés, Andrés Isbert

“The film is not, of course, flawless; like just about every other genre film made on that continent in that time period, the plot is too flimsy to withstand even a slight breeze of scrutiny (there’s a whole entire subplot involving Virginia’s ultimate fate that is of nearly no value to the story whatsoever), and most of the characters are die-cut from cardboard, although Bet is surely a more rounded figure than we often see in these films, and reasonably well performed. But honestly, no sane person goes into a film like this for the story. They go for the atmosphere, the terror, and the zombies, and all three of those things are in peak form here. As the kick-off to the European zombie film, Tombs is just about the finest example of the form that I have ever seen.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy

369. (+278) The Addiction

Abel Ferrara

1995 / USA / 82m / Col / Vampire | IMDb
Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken, Annabella Sciorra, Edie Falco, Paul Calderon, Fredro Starr, Kathryn Erbe, Michael Imperioli, Jamal Simmons, Robert W. Castle

“Shot in b/w, with an effectively murky jungle/funk/rap score, this is the vampire movie we’ve been waiting for: a reactionary urban-horror flick that truly has the ailing pulse of the time. AIDS and drug addiction are points of reference, but they’re symptoms, not the cause. Ferrara’s chiaroscuro imagery is as striking as anything in Coppola’s Dracula, while the voice-over narration often recalls Apocalypse Now. Scary, funny, magnificently risible, this could be the most pretentious B-movie ever – and I mean that as a compliment.” – Time Out

371. (-17) The Funhouse

Tobe Hooper

AKA: Carnival of Terror

1981 / USA / 96m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Elizabeth Berridge, Shawn Carson, Jeanne Austin, Jack McDermott, Cooper Huckabee, Largo Woodruff, Miles Chapin, David Carson, Sonia Zomina, Ralph Morino

“Menacingly scored by composer John Beal, the booming orchestrations complimenting the onscreen action, “The Funhouse” is a scary, fantastical, and most of all intelligent thriller that, like the original “Halloween,” proves slasher films can be sleek and upscale without going for low-rent gore tactics. The climax, rising to a fever pitch within the bowels of the funhouse, is first-rate, while the final scene subtly says a lot without spelling things out.” – Dustin Putnam, The Movie Boy

373. (+191) A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Ana Lily Amirpour

2014 / USA / 101m / BW / Vampire | IMDb
Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh, Mozhan Marnò, Dominic Rains, Rome Shadanloo, Milad Eghbali, Reza Sixo Safai, Ray Haratian, Pej Vahdat

“Iranian-American writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour describes her weirdly exhilarating feature debut, which premiered at Sundance last year, as the Iranian love-child of Sergio Leone and David Lynch, with Nosferatu as a babysitter. It is set in the fictional Iranian ghost town of Bad City (the name nods toward Frank Miller’s Sin City) and plays out like the missing link between Kathryn Bigelow’s first two features; the ultra-cool biker pastiche The Loveless and the latterday vampire flick Near Dark. It is steeped in the pop iconography of the past, yet its crystalline anamorphic black-and-white photography has an unmistakably contemporary edge. Cinematically, it exists in a twilight zone between nations (American locations, Iranian culture), between centuries (late 19th and early 21st), between languages (Persian dialogue, silent cinema gestures) and, most importantly, between genres.” – Mark Kermode, The Observer

Genres: Vampire, Romance, Horror, Psychological Drama, Neo-Noir, Gothic, Crime

375. (-137) Zombieland

Ruben Fleischer

2009 / USA / 88m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Amber Heard, Bill Murray, Derek Graf

“You could argue that the film is really about ‘family’ or ‘friendship’ or ‘romance’ or ‘finding acceptance’, because these are the elements that make up life, and thus, are the building blocks of most stories. But, life in Zombieland isn’t exactly life at all. Our four protagonists struggle to find normalcy in their situation, and although they succeed to a certain degree, it is only once they learn to accept (and enjoy) the disemboweling of their undead enemies. No, this film is not some Michael Haneke-esque lecture condemning audiences for enjoying the violence within. It is a celebration. It’s nice to see a movie in which the very fabric of society falls apart, yet humanity still soldiers on; not through feats of extreme bravery or powerful self-sacrifice, but through a sense of humour.” – Simon Miraudo, Quickflix

Genres: Zombie, Comedy, Road Movie, Post-Apocalyptic, Action, Horror Comedy, Epidemic, Black Comedy, Survival

377. (+66) The Hills Have Eyes

Alexandre Aja

2006 / USA / 107m / Col / Cannibal | IMDb
Aaron Stanford, Kathleen Quinlan, Vinessa Shaw, Emilie de Ravin, Dan Byrd, Tom Bower, Billy Drago, Robert Joy, Ted Levine, Desmond Askew

“The remake to “The Hills Have Eyes” (Wes Craven who has his hand firmly placed in the cookie jar as producer) still isn’t a perfect film, but for what it gives us in its ninety minute run time, is a true definition of a horror movie. Aja knows how to make a horror movie that’s realistic, bold, and provides all the bloodhounds with a satisfactory amount of gore. This remake of “Hills” is superior not only because it provides us with the amount of violence that’s been missing from horror for years, but basically because it has more focus on the survival aspects. There’s more tension, more urgency, more dread, and less camp. Aja’s new film has a sort of eeriness to it from the very beginning as we’re introduced to this family taking a crossroad journey for their vacation (you know how the usual story goes).” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed

Genres: Horror, Hixploitation, Survival, Splatter, Slasher, Cannibal, Sadistic Horror, Road Movie, Family Drama

379. (-117) Dog Soldiers

Neil Marshall

2002 / UK / 105m / Col / Werewolf | IMDb
Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd, Emma Cleasby, Liam Cunningham, Thomas Lockyer, Darren Morfitt, Chris Robson, Leslie Simpson, Tina Landini, Craig Conway

“One of the best all-out, no-apologies, hell-bent-for-leather horror films to emerge from the beginning of the 21st century—a modestly-budgeted, action-packed effort that pits British soldiers against local werewolves with a taste for human flesh. DOG SOLDIERS is derivative of any number of previous films (reduced to its essence, one might call it a hybrid of THE HOWLING and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD), but it works on its own tongue-in-cheek terms, fillings its dialogue with references to its antecedents.” – Steve Biodrowski, Cinefantastique

Genres: Werewolf, Horror, Action, Siege Film, Splatter, Black Comedy, War

381. (-113) Night of the Eagle

Sidney Hayers

AKA: Burn, Witch, Burn!

1962 / UK / 90m / BW / Supernatural | IMDb
Peter Wyngarde, Janet Blair, Margaret Johnston, Anthony Nicholls, Colin Gordon, Kathleen Byron, Reginald Beckwith, Jessica Dunning, Norman Bird, Judith Stott

“”Burn, Witch, Burn” maintains both its tone and the line of ambiguity about whether the witchcraft actually works. Wyngarde is fantastic in a finely nuanced performance. He comes off as a good person but flawed; he’s not always the nicest human being and with that ego comeuppance is assured. Still, this is Hayers’ ship, and he steers it flawlessly. The film is never less than gripping, and past a certain point, you have no idea where this movie is going. With neither the budget nor the technology for flashy effects, the filmmakers had to fall back on quality acting, writing, directing, and editing. They succeeded.” – Ron Wells, Film Threat

383. (-37) The City of the Dead

John Llewellyn Moxey

AKA: Horror Hotel

1960 / UK / 78m / BW / Supernatural | IMDb
Dennis Lotis, Christopher Lee, Patricia Jessel, Tom Naylor, Betta St. John, Venetia Stevenson, Valentine Dyall, Ann Beach, Norman Macowan, Fred Johnson

“Horror film aficionados have long known about an underrated, little-recognized gem from the early ’60s called Horror Hotel. Due to its low budget, The City of the Dead was completely filmed on a sound stage. No scenes were filmed outside. However, instead of becoming a liability, this limitation actually works in the film’s favor, giving it a strong sense of claustrophobia, which makes the horror all the more palpable… One of the movie’s greatest virtues is its sense of a secluded other-worldly environment of near-Lovecraftian implications.” – Gary Johnson, Images Journal

385. (+23) Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight

Ernest R. Dickerson

AKA: Demon Keeper

1995 / USA / 92m / Col / Black Comedy | IMDb
John Kassir, Billy Zane, William Sadler, Jada Pinkett Smith, Brenda Bakke, CCH Pounder, Dick Miller, Thomas Haden Church, John Schuck, Gary Farmer

“Take equal parts Night of the Living Dead and Aliens. Mix thoroughly with generous doses of sick humour and state-of-the-art gore. Toss in one shot of kinky sex and a few dozen naked breasts. Flavour with a thrashy metal soundtrack. Colour with a garish, comic book–style palette. Cook it all up and you’ll get something resembling Demon Knight, the first of three feature-length horror flicks to be presented under the Tales from the Crypt banner. You’ll also have 90 minutes’ worth of twisted, haywire, mind-warping fun, with action and visual shocks aplenty.” – Steve Newton, Ear of Newt

387. (+105) Dracula’s Daughter

Lambert Hillyer

AKA: Daughter of Dracula

1936 / USA / 71m / BW / Vampire | IMDb
Otto Kruger, Gloria Holden, Marguerite Churchill, Edward Van Sloan, Gilbert Emery, Irving Pichel, Halliwell Hobbes, Billy Bevan, Nan Grey, Hedda Hopper

“What we got instead was a snappy, first-rate (if lower-tier) A picture that had only one real drawback: No big name horror star, which is almost certainly why it has tended to be undervalued. In every other respect, it’s a pretty terrific horror picture with the best hero (Otto Kruger) and heroine (Marguerite Churchill) of any classic horror. In fact, their roles—written in something of the style of a screwball comedy by Garrett Fort—pointed in a new, more adult direction for the genre. (How that would have played out will never be known, since this was the end of the line for the original Universal horror era.) It also had an impressive Countess Dracula in Gloria Holden, and a super-creepy henchman for her in Irvin Pichel. Throw in stylish, fast-paced direction from Lambert Hillyer (who had proven himself adept at the genre with The Invisible Ray earlier that year) and a top-notch musical score from Heinz Roemheld, and you have a horror movie to remember.” – Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress

389. (+313) Silver Bullet

Daniel Attias

1985 / USA / 95m / Col / Werewolf | IMDb
Gary Busey, Everett McGill, Corey Haim, Megan Follows, Robin Groves, Leon Russom, Terry O’Quinn, Bill Smitrovich, Joe Wright, Kent Broadhurst

“What Stephen King’s adaptation of “Cycle of the Werewolf” has going for it, beyond everything else, is heart. In many ways, “Silver Bullet” is a multi-faceted horror film that can appeal to fans of family dramas and murder mysteries. “Silver Bullet” is a tension soaked eighties horror film that demonstrates rich characterization and complex feelings with a villain who isn’t completely black and white when all is said and done. Even the worst afflictions can rot anyone who means well enough, and “Silver Bullet” shines a light on two characters with afflictions they can not battle who have potential to rot from the inside out. One individual has embraced the darkness, and the other insists on seeing the bright side of everything, even in the face of pain, misery, and pure evil staring him right in the face.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Film Threat

391. (+54) Night of the Comet

Thom Eberhardt

1984 / USA / 95m / Col / Zombie | IMDb
Robert Beltran, Catherine Mary Stewart, Kelli Maroney, Sharon Farrell, Mary Woronov, Geoffrey Lewis, Peter Fox, John Achorn, Michael Bowen, Devon Ericson

“The easiest way to describe a popcorn flick like Night of the Comet would be to call it a mash up between George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) and John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club (1985). The wacky offbeat sensibility of Night of the Comet is a joy to behold. For genre fans, it’s easy to fall in love with a farcical 80s sci-fi horror movie with zombies. It’s the whimsical warmth of Thom Eberhardt’s direction that gives this movie its heart. It’s obvious he’s a genuine fan of B-movies. Like other cult classic B-movies there is more to Night of the Comet than its wacky sense of humour. It contains genuine terror. An electric piece of cult cinema, Night of the Comet is a classic! ” – Curtis Owen, My reviewer

393. (+105) Oculus

Mike Flanagan

2013 / USA / 104m / Col / Supernatural | IMDb
Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane, Annalise Basso, Garrett Ryan, James Lafferty, Miguel Sandoval, Kate Siegel, Scott Graham

“In many ways, Oculus feels like the best J-horror remake not based on an existing film (apart from being based on Flanagan’s own short films). There’s a pervasive sense of tragedy throughout, as the details of Kaylie and Tim’s tragic past are slowly fed to us through flashbacks and hallucinations, calling to mind the disorientation of The Grudge and the mournful quality of Dark Water… Flanagan delivers plenty of horrible little shocks courtesy of the mirror’s ability to delude and misdirect, with a couple of moments that will have you putting your hands over your eyes, but Oculus is refreshingly light on cheap jump scares… By rooting its clever narrative structure in a tragic story, Flanagan has created a horror that pulls on the heartstrings as often as it grabs you by the throat, helped every step of the way by an excellent cast.” – Jonathan Hatfull, SciFiNow

395. (-185) Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

Scott Glosserman

2006 / USA / 92m / Col / Slasher | IMDb
Nathan Baesel, Angela Goethals, Robert Englund, Scott Wilson, Zelda Rubinstein, Bridgett Newton, Kate Miner, Ben Pace, Britain Spellings, Hart Turner

“Once Vernon gets into character and stalks his prey, he’s a force to be reckoned with, and no one will stand in his way. The last act plays out how we suspect, but we’re left wondering if it will play as Leslie hopes or in a completely different manner. You can pretend to know what’s coming, but you don’t know shit. Either way, we’re left with one final satisfaction; Glosserman has given us a surefire horror classic, and I couldn’t be happier. And for the love of god, stick around after the credits. As a hardcore fan of the slasher genre, “Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon” is a wet dream of a slasher re-construction that sets itself apart from every other slasher film ever made. Compared to this, “Scream” is pure child’s play, a wannabe that states the obvious. “Behind the Mask” is a pure horror film masterpiece, and slasher fans would be best to acknowledge it.” – Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed

Genres: Mockumentary, Slasher, Satire, Black Comedy, Postmodernism, Mumblecore

397. (+266) Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Roy William Neill

1943 / USA / 74m / BW / Monster | IMDb
Ilona Massey, Patric Knowles, Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi, Maria Ouspenskaya, Dennis Hoey, Don Barclay, Rex Evans, Dwight Frye, Harry Stubbs

“By 1943, the steam was mostly out of the second phase of Universal horror movies, even in their new cheaper, B-picture incarnation, and if the cycle was going to keep on going, something bold and splashy had to be done, for then as now movies made their money from a snappy advertising campaign more than because of their inherent quality. The solution, in retrospect, seems inevitable; but who can say how many harried meetings it took until some Universal executive hit upon the idea of putting two of their A-list monster into a movie together. The result was titled, with all due shamelessness, ‘Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man’, and that was pretty much the end of Universal’s horror line as a home for even the vaguest kind of serious filmmaking until 1954.” – Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy

399. (-162) Cloverfield

Matt Reeves

2008 / USA / 85m / Col / Found Footage | IMDb
Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Annable, Anjul Nigam, Margot Farley, Theo Rossi, Brian Klugman

“Reeves, who’s been near anonymous in the pre-release hype, is masterful at choosing shots without appearing to do so. We view this unlovely goliath from all angles – a fleeting leg here, full-length in crafty helicopter shots on news footage there – but he’s even more effective as an unseen presence. There’s equal, if not more, dread in hearing furious roars as our band cowers in a side street, watching the military throwing everything they have uselessly at the beast. This is as much a triumph of sound design as of seamlessly blended CG and unsettling camerawork. Wise to the fact that the most frightening attack is the one without apparent reason, Cloverfield never chooses to explain its monster’s arrival. It’s suddenly there and, as one soldier notes, “it’s winning”. It intends to scare, not educate. The constant air of panic is so pervasive that it’s easy to miss the skilful creation of the sequences, which include a rescue from a collapsing skyscraper and a tunnel sequence so butt-clenching you’ll crap diamonds for a week.” – Olly Richards, Empire Magazine

Genres: Giant Monster, Disaster, Found Footage Horror, Thriller, Alien Invasion, Action, Cosmic Horror