Monster Mash

Describe Your Taste in Horror in 10 Movies

Instead of generating yet another list of 20 or 50 or 100 great horror movies for Halloween-viewing consideration, I tried to approach the task a little differently.

My original plan was to present many movies in various horror subgenres with different labels (“under the radar,” “fashionable but worthy,” “classic,” and “could do without”), but I realized I was mostly repeating myself.

So instead, I offer one movie in each of 10 horror divisions, with some effort to avoid the obvious, everybody’s-seen-them choices. A director can only appear once on the list.

The goal: Describe your personal, hopefully idiosyncratic taste in horror in only 10 selections. With the same rules and the same subgenres, what does your list look like?

Without further ado … :

• The sentient undead (vampires and the like): Martin, George A. Romero, 1978.
• The instinctive undead (zombies, mummies, Frankenstein’s monster, etc.): 28 Days Later, Danny Boyle, 2002.
• Temporary transformations (werewolves and Mr. Hydes et al.): Ginger Snaps, John Fawcett, 2001.
• Haunted houses and ghosts: The Devil’s Backbone, Guillermo del Toro, 2001.
• Witches: Suspiria, Dario Argento, 1977.
• Satan and friends: Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist, Paul Schrader, 2005.
• Psycho killers: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Tobe Hooper, 1974.
• Science gone wrong: The Fly, David Cronenberg, 1985.
• Creatures of unknown origin (including but not limited to aliens from outer space): The Descent, Neil Marshall, 2005.
• Bad shit of unknown origin: Picnic at Hanging Rock, Peter Weir, 1975.

Because certain names pop up multiple times among my favorites (del Toro, Weir, Romero, and Cronenberg in particular), changing one or two choices could affect many other selections. (Some genres overlap a little, so some movies could be re-slotted, but that’s going to be rare.)

If, for example, I choose del Toro’s Cronos (1993) over Martin and Cronenberg’s The Brood (1979) over The Descent, my list might look like this:

• The sentient undead: Cronos.
• The instinctive undead: Land of the Dead, Romero, 2005.
• Temporary transformations: Ginger Snaps.
• Haunted houses and ghosts: The Orphanage, J.A. Bayona, 2007.
• Witches: Suspiria.
• Satan and friends: Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist.
• Psycho killers: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
• Science gone wrong: 28 Days Later.
• Creatures of unknown origin: The Brood.
• Bad shit of unknown origin: Picnic at Hanging Rock.