• Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:

    1. The CAPTCHA key's answer is "Percy"
    2. Once you've completed the registration process please email us from the email you used for registration at percyreghelper@gmail.com and include the username you used for registration

    Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.

Just Keep Telling Yourself It's Only a Thread: Talking Time's Top 50 Horror Movies!

Dracula

Plastic Vampire
(He/His)
The fact that this of all movies has a vote from a mysterious, unknown entity who could be any one of us is :chefkiss:

I guess we're just gonna have to take blood samples of each vote and put a hot wire to each of them and see what happens!
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
John Carpenter has made a lot of great films but the Thing is one of his strongest. Its a clever, cynical film in which the mistrust tearing our heroes apart is sadly quite justified, as there's no easy answer to stopping the title threat. In terms of special effects, its one of the most accomplished film even after decades of film spectacle. The film keeps you guessing on first watch and on second you can ask "wait, when did he get infected?" Its a film where you must question intentions and just because you killed a regular human didn't mean you made the wrong move. Its a movie that bombed on release but thankfully its been reconsidered and is rightly considered a true classic.
 

Dracula

Plastic Vampire
(He/His)
1UsGt1I.jpg


m5LPl2n.jpg


jmz6yHv.jpg


ARlTkdD.jpg


H5uZepz.jpg


ZRyVH2c.jpg


wfM1jUb.jpg


VPYhnVD.jpg


No. ?? (????)
Points Unknown | Lists: Jbear (??); Falselogic (??)
“I would like to show everyone something that I voluntarily eat on a regular basis.”

 
I didn't vote for this because, while it is well paced and the special-effects are appropriately disgusting, if you've seen the protagonist's previous appearances in productions such as Top 50 Fantasy Novels, Top 50 Snack Foods, and Top 50 Tabletop Games, you can see the plot twist coming a mile away.
 

Dracula

Plastic Vampire
(He/His)
jI3ifKw.jpg


lLdRgin.jpg


ULSTzth.jpg


Gvvxfai.jpg


Y33wnHI.jpg


xfcF3mc.jpg


xdMoKZj.jpg


1yIAopJ.jpg


YYA2azX.jpg


Er6AOcy.jpg


JkBkJEn.jpg


dTNAunn.jpg


Zqdy1Db.jpg


BMwHBJG.jpg
Aw maaaaaaan! If I didn't know any better, I'd think we were in some sort of semi-ironic comic story!

MP8Jp8E.jpg
At least it's a great movie to end on.

5gM3oMH.jpg
I'm disappointed. I think Alien 3 is the best one of the series.

MP8Jp8E.jpg
You may have saved movie night, but now you're also banned from it.

No. 1 Alien (1979)
Points: 522 | Lists: Neo Skimbleshanks (#2); Sabrecat (#1); YangusKhan (#8); Rascally Badger (#5); Kishi (#19); ?? (#3); Issun (#3); Vaeran (#4); Teg (#2); Beta Metroid (#3); Kirin (#1); Octopus Prime (#23); Johnny Unusual (#5); WildcatJF (#1); Adrenaline (#11); Dr. Nerd (#10); ShakeWell (#6)
“You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you? The perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.”


zXSLx0i.jpg
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon. Based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, it follows the crew of the commercial space tug Nostromo, who encounter the eponymous Alien, an aggressive and deadly extraterrestrial set loose on the ship.

Drac’s Notes: Once again, I have another mystery vote in my tallies. I had it attributed to username “Alien” (lmao). But, again, even if the aberrant #3 is discounted, this movie still wins by a mile.

Alien is unforgettable for a number of reasons. The most striking is the creature and environmental design provided by artist H.R. Giger, which has been homaged and copied in sci-fi and horror so much that it’s practically its own genre by now. There’s the cast, defined by genre queen Sigourney Weaver and backed up by character actors Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and others. Ridley Scott’s direction turned the cold depths of space into something that feels alive and breathing - there’s so much texture in this movie, from the slimy xenomorph caverns, to the sterile medical bay, to the dripping back hallways of the vast mining ship.

Then there’s the alien itself. The xenomorph’s life cycle is by now known to nearly everyone, but the scene early on in which it’s first discovered is one of the best and most shocking moments in film history, even if you already know how it plays out.


The way John Hurt’s hands are still twitching as the alien nymph emerges is still chilling to me.

There are just endless things to say about Alien, so for now I’ll step aside and let y’all say why you put in so many votes for it.

And as a final note, thank you so much for letting me do another one of these! I was surprised and delighted by which films made the top 10. A great mixture of modern and classic films, with a few that I wouldn’t have predicted to get so many votes. I’m glad to have been able to geek out about these video nasties, and I hope y’all maybe learned about a few that you weren’t aware of. I sure did!
 

WildcatJF

Let's Pock (Art @szk_tencho)
(he / his / him)
Yay Alien! Such a wonderful movie, and I think it's quite deserving to be considered the best horror movie ever made.

Wonderful list Dracula! This was super fun to learn about, and while the genre isn't really one for me, I enjoyed seeing what the classics are according to TTers. :) Plus I love your little toy Dracuverse :)
 
Alien is so cool. Everything is so well-designed (including of course the xenomorph) and Sigourney Weaver gives an incredible performance. I like many of the sequels but generally just wish they'd taken a different path. (unrealistic, I know!) In Alien, the xenomorph is a threat because it's big and dangerous and the cast is unfamiliar with it - I don't like that it's suddenly a threat to all other life in the sequels and you really ought to just kill them all. One thing I like about Resurrection is that it gives the drones a bit of interiority - specifically that one that's like, "aw man, please don't kill me to use my blood to break outta here... this suuuuucks." Avatar's got its problems but at least it has a considerably more enlightened approach to the question of whether non-human life has a right to exist.

Also robot milk.

Confession: I put The Thing on my list mostly bc I wanted to put The Faculty there. The Thing is great! I know I have bad taste! But The Faculty is a lot of fun and I am 90s WB trash. Alien slug queen innocent. List below
  1. Scream
  2. Alien
  3. Jennifer’s Body
  4. Urban Legend
  5. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4
  6. Deep Blue Sea
  7. Fright Night
  8. Resident Evil
  9. Fright Night II
  10. Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds
  11. You’re Next
  12. Ready or Not
  13. Event Horizon
  14. Happy Death Day
  15. The Faculty
  16. Tenebre
  17. Videodrome
  18. Valentine
  19. Resident Evil: Afterlife
  20. Knife + Heart
  21. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare
  22. Rob Zombie’s Halloween II
  23. Wrong Turn 2
  24. The First Purge
  25. The Thing
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
I put Alien near the bottom of my list, but that’s mainly because I figured it’d win.

Incidnetally, I also put Thing above Prince of Darkness because while I like PoD more, i can’t argue that The Thing isn’t a better movie
 

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
Incidnetally, I also put Thing above Prince of Darkness because while I like PoD more, i can’t argue that The Thing isn’t a better movie
Lately I've really waffled between whether Prince of Darkness or The Thing is my favorite Carpenter movie.
 

Torzelbaum

????? LV 13 HP 292/ 292
(he, him, his)
The behind the scenes details about the chestburster scene are pretty interesting:

Great job on the list. This was fun.
This.

  1. An American Werewolf in London
  2. Prince of Darkness
  3. Creepshow
  4. Gremlins
  5. Halloween 3
  6. Ghostbusters (1984)
  7. Maximum Overdrive
  8. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
  9. Bram Stoker's Dracula
  10. Poltergeist (1982)
  11. Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
  12. Resident Evil
  13. Sinister
  14. Freddy vs. Jason
  15. Final Destination 3
  16. DracuLa: Dead & Loving It
  17. The Fly (1986)
  18. Critters 2
  19. Tales from the Crypt presents: Demon Knight
  20. Warlock
  21. Night of the Comet
  22. Army of Darkness
  23. The Frighteners
  24. Blood: The Last Vampire
  25. The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon
 
Last edited:

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
This was a great deal of fun, thank you Dracula!

  1. The Thing (1982)
  2. Jaws (1975)
  3. The Exorcist (1973)
  4. Let the Right One In (2008)
  5. Psycho (1960)
  6. The Ring (2002)
  7. Stepford Wives (1975)
  8. Black Hole (1979)
  9. Amityville Horror (1979)
  10. The Haunting (1963)
  11. Open Water (2003)
  12. From Beyond (1986)
  13. Suspiria (1977)
  14. Blackcoat's Daughter (2015)
  15. Willow Creek (2013)
  16. Bubba Ho-tep (2002)
  17. Night of the Comet (1984)
  18. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
  19. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
  20. Blair Witch Project (1999)
  21. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
  22. Get Out (2017)
  23. Halloween (1978)
  24. Evil Dead (1981)
  25. The VVitch (2015)
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
I actually hadn't seen Alien properly start to finish until just a year or two ago when I watched it for a Retronauts episode. It's real good! For more detailed thoughts from me, please dig up the Retronauts Alien episode. 😁

Anyway, another fantastic list from Drac even though it's on a subject I seldom engage with at all. Speaking of which, here's my list full of things that aren't even really horror movies:

*1. Alien - Probably my fave movie almost everyone would count as a horror film though obviously also sci-fi. That atmosphere! Those Giger designs!
*2. Crimson Peak - Okay it's really a Gothic romance, but it was billed as horror and has dang creepy ghosts in.
*3. Pan's Labyrinth - More on the "disturbing" end, it leaves what's real unclear, except for the fact that people can be horrible.
*4. Army of Darkness - Everyone's fave comedy horror for a reason.
*5. Shaun of the Dead - Everyone's fave comedy zombie flick for a reason.
6. Coraline - On the "just spooky" end, but some of the themes and visuals are quite creepy.
7. Perfect Blue - Trigger warning for attempted/simulated rape, but an effective psychological horror piece.
~8. Rocky Horror Picture Show - Has "horror" right there in the title! It must count! A problematic fave.
9. Beetlejuice - Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Classic Burton/Elfman spooks. Also young me may have had a crush on young goth Wynona Ryder.
10. World's End - Not as classic as Shaun, but still fun and creepy.
11. What We Do in the Shadows - I need to watch this again but it's hilarious.
*12. Nightmare Before Christmas - Disneyfied Burton/Elfman spookiness. Still very good. The Mayor is distressing.
13. Addams Family (the original) - *snap* *snap*
14. The Dead Don't Die - I had some issues with this but seeing all these great actors get their meta-zombie on was fun.
15. Pulse (JP original: Kairo, 2001) - Just incredibly unsettlingly creepy.
*16. Little Shop of Horrors - Movie version pulls the punches but is still fun.
*17. Young Franketstein - FrankunSTEEN
*18. Gremlins - Honestly I'm not as big a fan as some, but those buggers were scary when I was a wee one.
*19. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn - Goofy but creepy.
20. Vampire Hunter D (1985) - I'm kind of stretching at this point. Haven't seen this in ages.
*21. Ghostbusters (1984) - Only here in that is has ghosts, but v fun.
22. Ghostbusters (2016) - This one was also v fun.
*23. Silence of the Lambs - Amazing acting but soooo problematic wrt trans issues I hesitate to include it.
24. American Psycho - Americans are also scary.
*25. Event Horizon - This wasn't super amazing, but I have a weird connection to it due to a summer internship so here it is.
 

SabreCat

Sabe, Inattentive Type
(he "Sabe" / she "Kali")
My own "throw whatever I could think of into a direct message to Dracula" list:

Get Out (2017)
Alien (1979)
28 Days Later (2003)
From Dusk till Dawn (1996)
Audition (1999)
Ring (1998)
Let the Right One In (2008)
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
A Quiet Place (2018)
Bird Box (2018)
Predator (1986)
The Host (2006)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Signs (2002)
Black Swan (2010)
Paranormal Activity (2009)
It Follows (2015)
Doctor Sleep (2019)
Slither (2006)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
It (2017)
Army of Darkness (1993)
Halloween (2018)
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2004)

Some clear recency bias there with various Netflix originals from the last couple years, the otherwise not too notable Doctor Sleep, etc.

Audition grossed me out super hard. I almost had to walk out of the theater, but mercifully the nausea-inducing stuff cut off just in time.

I may have meant Evil Dead or Evil Dead II when listing Army of Darkness. I have no idea which of those I've actually seen, and if I've seen more than one, which one I liked best. Ha..
 

Zef

Find Your Reason
(He/Him)
This one's mine, and only now do I realize I left out a LOT of "suspense" or "creature feature" movies because... 🤷‍♂️

  1. The Ring (US, 2002)
  2. Pulse/Kairo (Japan 2001)
  3. Dark Water (US, 2005)
  4. The Changeling (US, 1980)
  5. A Tale of Two Sisters (South Korea, 2003)
  6. Ring (Japan, 1998)
  7. The Thing (US, 1982)
  8. Cabin in the Woods (US, 2012)
  9. The Others (Spain/US, 2001)
  10. KM31 (Mexico, 2006)
  11. Psycho (US, 1960)
  12. Event Horizon (US, 1997)
  13. Mama (Argentina/US, 2013)
  14. Dark Water (Japan, 2002)
  15. Poltergeist (US, 1982)
  16. Audition (Japan, 1999)
  17. In The Mouth Of Madness (US, 1994)
  18. The Exorcist III (US, 1990)
  19. The Mist (US, 2007)
  20. The Exorcist (US, 1973)
  21. Hellraiser (US, 1987)
  22. Wes Craven's New Nightmare (US, 1994)
  23. Marebito (Japan, 2004)

I think my only "creature feature" entry is The Thing, unless human-shaped ghosts and ghouls count?
 
Last edited:

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
I spent most of my life hating and actively avoiding horror movies, and it's only in the past 5 years or so I've started to develop an appreciation for them, thanks to easing my way in with horror video games. Thus, my list is pretty short, and has several things that barely qualify:

  1. Get Out - One of the rare horror movies that I would actually recommend to people.
  2. The Invitation - Johnny suggested that I go into this one blind, so I didn't even know what genre it was going to be, and it was all the better for it.
  3. 10 Cloverfield Lane - John Goodman sure is good at being a creepy prepper.
  4. The Ring (US) - Knowing the premise of this one going in, I was convinced I'd never sleep again if I saw it, but it turns out that it was fine? Probably a matter of expecations vs. experience. Still good and creepy, though!
  5. The Babadook - Someone on here recently pointed out that this title is an anagram for "a bad book". Clever!
  6. Us - Too violent by far for me, but I still thought it was good, even if I was having trouble paying attention to what it had to say while watching it through my hands.
  7. Duel - The real monster is trucks.
  8. The Sixth Sense - I see child actors with dead careers.
  9. Deep Blue Sea - This movie is dumb, but my mom loves it, I love the scene where Samuel L. gets et, and LL Cool J (who I only know from this movie) and his parrot are comedy gold.
  10. The Innkeepers - Watched this with Johnny and some other friends one night. It's a real long, slow, tense burn, which I like. A surprising delight, and pretty obscure, I think.
  11. Terminator 2: Judgement Day - I know that the first movie is the *actual* horror movie, while this is move of an action film, but I had nightmares about that lady getting stabbed through her milk for years.
  12. Cloverfield - I don't like found footage much as a rule, but it was still novel when this movie was a thing.
  13. The Terminator - I can think of nothing more terrifying than a naked Arnold Schwarzenegger.
  14. The Thing - 'Dat's a good Brimly. RIP.
  15. Tag (Japanese) - I remember this movie being kind of bad, but holy shit does the opening scene make a first impression that sticks with you. (Warning: very bloody)
  16. Pet Sematary 2 - I saw this as a kid and all I can remember is some guy having sex with his wife and her having a hilarious goofy-looking dog head while her bits are bouncing around, which is enough for me to slide it on at the bottom.

Check out the link on #15 for a cool/disturbing clip that you probably haven't seen.

Anyway, thanks to Drac for running a great list!
 

Patrick

Magic-User
(He/Him)
Here's mine:

1. The Thing
2. Evil Dead 2
3. Alien
4. Dawn of the Dead (1979)
5. Nosferatu (1922)
6. The Shining
7. Night of the Living Dead
8. Psycho
9. The Exorcist
10. 28 Days Later
11. Tremors
12. Dead Alive
13. The Witches (1990)
14. The Evil Dead (1981)
15. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
16. Drag Me to Hell
17. The Horror of Dracula
18. Donnie Darko
19. Get Out
20. The Babadook
21. The Blair Witch Project
22. Poltergeist
23. The Blob
24. The Silence of the Lambs
25. Scream

I had Alien at #3, so I'm pretty sure I was the mystery voter.

BOO!

Haha, gotcha.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
  1. The Thing
  2. Gremlins
  3. Prince of Darkness
  4. The Shining
  5. Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors
  6. Jason X
  7. Kiss of the Vampire
  8. Chopping Mall
  9. Fright Night
  10. Monster Squad
  11. The Babadook
  12. Evil Dead 2
  13. Army of Darkness
  14. Annihilation
  15. Halloween 3: The Season of the Witch
  16. Freddy Versus Jason
  17. Birdemic
  18. Goosebumps
  19. Frankenstein (original Karloff style)
  20. 1408
  21. The Mist
  22. Nightmare on Elm Street
  23. Alien
  24. Event Horizon
  25. Slumber Party Massacre 2
 

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
Can't believe I was the only person who voted for The Black Hole. Y'all don't know what horror is:

 

Zef

Find Your Reason
(He/Him)
Can't believe I was the only person who voted for The Black Hole. Y'all don't know what horror is:

The Good Bad Flicks exploration of this film is bursting with interesting data about its production.


I love that even the filmmakers didn't agree on how to end the movie, so they don't agree on what the actual ending is. My personal interpretation is that it's a prequel to Event Horizon.
 
Not surprising, but deserved. Alien is so atmospheric and well paced. Lets talk about rain on a spaceship again.

  1. The Birds
  2. Gremlins
  3. Alien
  4. Frankenweenie
  5. Young Frankenstein
  6. Scream
  7. Get Out
  8. The Silence of the Lambs
  9. Army of Darkness
  10. Aliens
  11. Super 8
  12. Shaun of the Dead
  13. Dracula (1931)
  14. Ghostbusters
  15. The Ring
  16. Pan's Labyrinth
  17. Gremlins 2: The New Batch
  18. The Nightmare Before Christmas
  19. The Thing
  20. Psycho(1960)
  21. 28 Days Later
  22. The Blair Witch Project
  23. The Sixth Sense
  24. Beetlejuice
  25. The Shining
 

WildcatJF

Let's Pock (Art @szk_tencho)
(he / his / him)
Here's my teeny tiny list:
1) Alien
2) 28 Days Later
3) Aliens (less horror-themed than the original but still has some spooks)
4) Scooby Doo on Zombie Island (like the only legit scary one in the franchise)

5) Sleepy Hallow (the Burton one)
6) House of Usher (Corman)
7) The Pit and the Pendulum (Corman)
8) Watership Down (the animated one from the 1970s...this features some absolute terror in it)
9) Young Frankenstein (not really spooky but sure playing off of the motifs)
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
My thoughts on Alien

In terms of set and monster design, Alien is astounding but the real strength of Alien is how sparse the film is. Not much music, the camera work is very matter of fact even in the face of an increasingly strange and terrifying monster. Its not "realistic" in terms of story but in the way the story is told it is immediate and knows how to use its quiet, a skill I feel would improve a lot of horror movies. We start in a future both fantastic and mundane with blue collar space men and it doesn't change its look but manages it be insanely tense throughout.

Here's my list with the ones that missed out in bold.
1. Psycho (1960)
2. The Thing (1984)
3. The Fly (1986)
4. The Shining
5. Alien
6. The Babadook
7. Videodrome
8. Us
9. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1973)
10. Get Out
11. Phantasm
12. Black Christmas (1974)
I love horror movies but I'm rarely scared by them. Black Christmas, a film I saw for the first time a few years ago, genuinely scared me. It was one of two films released in the same year with "the calls are coming from inside the house" but while the first twenty minutes of When a Stranger Calls is perfect (because it was made as a short film originally), the remaining film is a bit of a weird and flawed film. Black Christmas is the superior take on the tale. But both do what surprisingly few films seem to be good at: preying on my fear of being alone in a house. I'm not hard to scare but I feel like not enough films properly exploit this scaredy cat part of me.
13. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
14. Evil Dead II
15. The Wicker Man (1974)
Featuring Christopher Lee's finest performance, this is a folk horror story about the terror of faith and specifically those with faith using it to justify horrific things. The protagonist, Sgt. Howie, is actually pretty unlikable and spends much of the film being shitty about the pagans. Do they turn out to be plotting something evil? Yes. But Howie is being a jerk far before it turns out these dudes are planning something monstrous. Its really about two belief systems and they fall into similar traps, and different ones, such has Howie's intolerance and Summerisle being willing to do something terrible to justify things and the hint that things might turn on Lord Summerisle if things don't change next season.
16. Suspiria (1977)
17. It Follows
18. House (1977)
19. Cat People (1942)
The films of Val Lewton were supposed to be an answer to the Universal monster series but very much became its own thing, a sort of moody horror-adjacent series of thrillers, psycho-dramas and dark fantasies. Most of them are great but I'd only consider a small few to be real "horror" movies. Cat People is a wonderful psychological horror movie of fear of female sexuality by both men and women. I still haven't seen the "almost in name only sequel" which is supposed to be great and really a melancholy fantasy, but Cat People is a great horror noir that made psychological horror a cinematic genre.
20. The Others
21. An American Werewolf in London
22. The Haunting (1962)
One of the best haunted house movie that only needs good writing, directing and a few wraps on the door to be completely effective.
23. Deep Red
My favourite giallo movie. These films are so good with titles and over the top deaths. Also, that scene with the doll is perfect. Its moving in a way that is fast but not too fast. Like, it feels like reaching you will be inevitable (even though it turns out to be a harmless distraction).
24. The Orphanage
Nothing like a ghost story that is both truly scary but also truly touching. (If its ever on Netflix, I think JBear would like it)
25. Eyes Without a Face
A strange arthouse Frankenstein film. People remember it being as bloodier than a lot of contemporary films but its also strangely beautiful, with a soundtrack more appropriate for a gentle fairy tale.
 
Top