#this movie has made me genuinely really love leatherface

[neon-green-reagent]

Ranked: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

So in all my franchise devouring, this is definitely one of THE most disappointing series I've covered. To be fair, nothing can touch what watching all the Paranormal Activity movies did to me, and there is more to love here, but this is going to be kinda rough all the same.

Texas Chainsaw 3D : So at bare minimum, most of the movies are genuinely well-made and look good. NOT THIS ONE. This was the cheesiest and most sellout, oddly enough, that the series ever gets. Imagine if TCM was the Friday the 13th 2009 remake with less charm. Now that's some stinky shit right there. The concept is interesting, a long lost Sawyer rediscovering her roots and meeting Leatherface, but the execution is downright dumb. It makes it so there are no heroes and no villains and everyone's just a gray lump. A notion that a movie with better production values maybe could handle. But that ain't this. Oh, and Leatherface looked like total shit, which is the only time I can honestly say that of this series. Even the bad entries get that basic part right.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) : What was I just saying about no heroes, no villains, just gray blobs that get turned into tomato bisk? Yeah, that. I don't quite know what the point is of making a film with intensely politically charged talking points and making every character be in the wrong, but I can tell you what it makes. A MESS. Where if you root for someone, chances are they'll do something awful, stupid, backwards, or go against their own principles at some point. This is probably the goriest entry, but who gives a damn? Gore is supposed to serve a story or characters (or ideally both) that you care about. Without that, it's corn syrup.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning : So... this is a prequel to the 2003 remake. About a quarter of the way through, I found myself going, wait. I thought they said in the previous movie this is the first time anyone ever made it out alive to report the murders... YEP. A prequel where it was preordained there will be no survivors. So they made sure to make everyone very thinly written so you wouldn't be too worried about that. The main thumbs up I have here is that it's one of my favorite Leatherface designs of the entire series. Otherwise, it's easily skipped.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation : The reputation this movie has is a bit off in my opinion. It's starting to get "so bad, it's good" cred. Yes, there are things about it that I would say fit that description. Particularly Matthew McConaughey's performance. All the over-the-top acting in general. But at the end of the day, the movie plays all of its extremely weird gags very straight. So the tone is dead serious while we introduce such non-TCM concepts as the illuminati. And it turns out, no, this isn't a comedy. The cocreator of the entire franchise was absolutely sincere. It shows, and it really brings the fun way down. It's ridiculous and way out in left field, but it doesn't mean for you to laugh. Yikes.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) : We're finally in watchable territory. And yet when I say that... The last half hour just becomes what it always is for these movies. A girl screaming non-stop while chased or tortured, and after several rounds of that, you start to check out. I've also never seen a final girl fuck up her own escape as much as this one does. Also, and this goes for TCM: The Beginning too, R. Lee Ermey is one of the most one-note, overrated actors I've ever seen, and his presence here is not helpful in making me enjoy the film. Otherwise, this is serviceable if TCM is your thing.

Leatherface (2017) : Of the later sequels/remakes/prequels, this is pretty fun. Imagine, a TCM movie having fun with the premise. Trying something different. With an origin story that wants you to guess which character will be our big ole chainsaw boy. While him turning out to be the least likely suspect might put some people off, I thought the transformation was pretty dang cool. There's a lot of strong acting going on here from Lili Taylor and Stephen Dorff. The absolutely wild girl with the burn scars was a welcome addition to rather a lot of nutty characters, so it's a real feat she managed to make herself stand out. Overall, a stronger film than I could have hoped for that late in the game.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (OG) : WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S NOT NUMBER ONE!? I mean, it's not. Not for me. I find this movie to be a pretty difficult sit. There are a lot of tiresome and forgettable characters. Our villains are loud and annoying. But the grit this was filmed with, the determination to get it made, the messages that lie underneath, and the character of Leatherface all shine through. It's an important film that ushered in a new era of horror, so while I don't find it that watchable, I deeply respect it.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 : This is the movie The Next Generation wishes it was. Tobe Hooper decided he could never follow the first film, so he decided to make a parody of his own work. Genius. It's hilarious, disgusting, lurid, wild, and extremely fitting with the decade it was made in. Stretch is by far my favorite final girl in the series. Dennis Hopper knew exactly what movie he was in. And the soundtrack is great, too.

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 : Sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry. But I love this one best. You've got Ken Foree kicking ass. You have Viggo Mortensen serving cunt. The Sawyer family actually manages to feel like a loving and supportive family in a twisted way, which is a trope I love. They realized they can't up the ante when Hooper has already set the bar so high, so they don't try. They make ridiculous fights, silly dialogue, and have fun. Fun is always the biggest component for me as to whether or not a film will be a winner. So uh... winner winner, chicken dinner?

Thus my journey ends. I want to add that aside from that dead last entry, even when I didn't love whatever movie I happened to be watching, they did right by Leatherface. He's one of those Jason-y slashers that you want to hug, because he probably deserves better than being used like an attack dog by his own family. I always enjoyed watching him, and every actor brought a different physicality and presence. So, no, I didn't hate every second. And if Leatherface seems intriguing to you as a character, you'd definitely get something out of going over this franchise, too.

[final-boy]

Shoutout to Texas Chainsaw 3D for making the cops the bad guys

Sheriff Hooper is the only one I trust and like

You fucking icons

Anyways my love for Leatherface only grows

[dalekofchaos]

Things I would change about the Elm Street Franchise

I absolutely love the Elm Street series, but if I could change anything about the series it would be this.

My other Horror changes

Halloween 

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

Texas Chainsaw 3D

Leatherface

Friday The 13th

Before we begin. I need to address the elephant in the room. One of the crucial things I would change is just cutting out the campy humor. There is a problem when trying to make Freddy Krueger  funny?  In the original film, there really aren’t that many jokes coming from Freddy, at least not ones that aren’t meant to have frightening double meanings. Otherwise it’s just mocking and cajoling the various victims as he picks them off one by one. Freddy Krueger is a violent psychopathic child rapist who returns from the dead to seek revenge against the children of the people who murdered him. What about that setup sounds remotely funny? Sure the concept is out there enough for humor to be found, but the sequels just keep getting goofier and goofier as they went on. Granted, this isn’t to say they weren’t fun to watch but they came at the cost of the genuine existential terror that Krueger instilled in the audience.

A Nightmare On Elm Street

The only thing I would change about the original is that I would keep in the deleted scene that had Nancy’s mother explains that Nancy, Glen, Rod and Tina all had siblings that Freddy killed during his Springwood Slasher days. “You weren’t always an only child,” This additional dialogue serves to better explain why Marge and Donald were directly involved in the killing of Fred Krueger, and it also adds an emotional new layer to the ongoing battle between Nancy and Freddy – she wasn’t just trying to survive, she was also trying to get revenge for the murder of the sibling Freddy took away from her.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 2:Freddy’s Revenge

Since this movie is considered an LGBT movie by fans and has been labeled a Gay Horror movie, fuck it go all in. Make Jesse and Grady boyfriends. Lisa and Grady help bring Jesse out of Freddy’s possession. It'd be a nice addition; that the straight girl is nothing but loving and supportive of Jesse and Grady, which would be a hell of a good message in a movie that came out right in the midst of the AIDs crisis.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 3:The Dream Warriors

Dream Warriors is perfect, so nothing would be changed.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 4:The Dream Master

Keep Patricia Arquette as Kristen

Cut out the campy humor. Keep the unique dream kills, but just make Freddy as dark and twisted as he was in the first movie

Do not kill off Kristen, Kincaid and Joey. The entire point of Dream Warriors is they are the final Elm Street Children. Freddy’s entire motive is he is killing the children of the people who killed him. Take that away and you pretty much have nothing. You made Freddy no different from Jason or any other slasher villains.

Have a romance between Kristen and Kincaid. I always thought there was something that could’ve been between Kristen and Kincaid in Part 3, so there would be a romance between the two

Everyone who is introduced in Dream Master is killed off. Alice is the last to die. Freddy forces Kristen to watch as they all die one by one.

Kristen and Kincaid are the final survivors. Pretty much the same way that Freddy died, but Kristen is the one to do it.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 5:The Dream Child

Cut out the campy humor. Keep the unique dream kills, but just make Freddy as dark and twisted as he was in the first movie

Kristen and Kincaid have a child and her name is Alice in memory of Alice Johnson. 

The little girl Kristen has been seeing since the third movie IS Kristen’s daughter and the dream child in place of Jacob

Joey is the one to die in the motorcycle dream death

Both Kristen and Kincaid take this hard and mourn for their friend

Kincaid frees Amanda’s spirit

After Freddy fails to trick Alice to come to him, Kincaid enters the dream to beat the shit out of Freddy. Freddy gets the upperhand and before Freddy can kill Kincaid and Kristen, Amanda appears and puts an end to Freddy

Freddy’s Dead:The Final Nightmare

Cut out the campy humor. Keep the unique dream kills, but just make Freddy as dark and twisted as he was in the first movie

As time moves on, Kristen returns to Elm Street. She still feels Freddy is alive and she has to put an end to it. Kristen and Kincaid are still together, but facing Freddy alone is something she has to do so Alice will be safe from Freddy

I like the idea of Kristen being the final Elm Street child. It gives Freddy a cat and mouse chase and killing everyone around her and Kristen finally facing the nightmare to protect her family.

The plot of Freddy using Kristen to get closer to his daughter remains the same, but Kristen is able to live and tell Maggie 

Kristen and Maggie work together to bring an end to Freddy

As both Kristen and Maggie work together to bring Freddy out in the real world, the spirit of Nancy comes to Kristen and tells her how to bring an end to Freddy once and for all. It would be similar to how the first movie ended Nancy’s idea of belief weakening him is one step, the thing in Part 2 about love is another big step (any kind of love, romantic or platonic). Part 3 had the “gotta fight back against him” thing. And altogether, that’s how they can defeat him for good. They take away every bit of power they gave to Freddy and stripping Freddy of belief and outright refusal to acknowledge Freddy’s existence is what ultimately ends him. Freddy’s daughter and his past victims ultimately ends him for good. This comes into play in FVJ when the town erases him and everyone forgets about Freddy

I honestly think it would be worth it to have the last of the Elm Street children to live and for Kristen and Kincaid to have a happy ending

Freddy vs Jason

Freddy uses Jason to spread fear so he can return to Elm Street

Instead of Lori, it’s Alice and Joey Parker, the children of Kristen and Kincaid.

Freddy gets more kills. One of my biggest problems with Freddy vs Jason is the fact that Freddy only gets one kill. So to fix this I would have Freddy and Jason be tied with the killings. At the rave Freddy possesses one of the teens and doses the drinks with sleeping pills. So Freddy and Jason are tied 20-20

Upon hearing about the Elm Street massacre, Kristen and Kincaid return one final time to face Freddy, they are not the only ones. Tommy Jarvis comes to Elm Street to warn them all about Jason and helps them

When Alice is put to sleep and can’t wake up, Kristen and Kincaid go to sleep to save their daughter. Kristen hits Freddy in the face and Kincaid loudly yells “HEY FREDDY, REMEMBER ME? TIME TO BEAT YOUR CRISPY ASS ALL OVER DREAMLAND ALL OVER AGAIN MOTHERFUCKER” and then proceeds to beat the unholy shit out of Freddy for even daring to come after his kids after all this time.

Kristen and Kincaid pull out Alice, while Freddy follows them. Freddy thinks he has them, when Jason appears, ready to kick Freddy’s ass

The fight scenes between Freddy and Jason remains the same. 

Kristen decapitates Freddy and Tommy stabs Jason in the heart. The movie ends with Jason rises from the grave and takes Freddy’s head to his shack and Freddy winks at the end

[slashertalks]

While I reblogged wanting to know your thoughts on Freddy Vs Jason. I think it's best to leave it as a whole different ask. But since you've talked about this film and praised it. Especially you might be happy. I would like to know your thoughts on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. Especially the 2003 remake and some others especially the state the franchise is in. Including I just posted a post with a video about the franchise being with Legendary Pictures now.

eyo! yeah I’ll totally tackle Freddy VS Jason at some point, but I wanna rewatch it b4 I do that so I can give it a fair review 👌🏻

I’ll try to keep this from getting too wordy lol but I LOVE Texas Chainsaw so uh... this might get long:

the first movie I consider the penultimate horror movie- like, out of all the horror films I’ve watched, I legitimately have not seen a better film. I could sing its praises of years and years tbh. I think (like the original Evil Dead) there’s something to be said for the low budget films of the mid 70s-early 80s. I guess there were less protocols in place for safety (+ safety protocols are an important thing, don’t get me wrong!) but there’s something incredible about the ability of these movies to capture human fear + pain (because the actors are actually in pain a lot of the time- which, like, Not Cool but also that does make reactions more genuine)

I think part of the reason the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre is SO good is because it really couldn’t be completely recreated? I mean, when’s the last time you’ve heard an actor say that filming was worse than their tour of duty in the army? like, holy flying fuck. there’s this very genuine grit to the film- there are gritty movies, but there’s generally something artificial about them. The simplicity of the film, the visceral emotions, the very straight-faced presentation: they all lend to the horror of the original film. Had the film not been so incredibly made; had it been lacking any of these factors, it wouldn’t have worked well at all. One of my favorite points is the distinct lack of blood in the film- if the actors’ reactions hadn’t been so genuine, everyone would’ve commented on the lack of gore, of any really violent visuals (plenty of scenes are violating, but many of the violent moments are shot+cut in such a way that we don’t see much at all)

as for the second film, I’ve written a whole review on it here, but I feel like it could’ve + should’ve committed to either being more serious or more ridiculous. like, I like it, but it walks this line between goofy/scary too well for me to really enjoy it? I got a few chuckles but I didn’t laugh at it the way I laugh at Army of Darkness, Shaun of the Dead, or What We Do in the Shadows. At the same time, it doesn’t  scare me the way I want it to. however, I have a lot of respect for the film because of how different it is from the original, and I think it was the right choice to make as a sequel- I really don’t think there was a better way to directly follow the original.

I haven’t seen the third one (and honestly don’t intend to? maybe someday but... mmm), though I LOVE the fourth- Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation has A Lot to unpack as a film, and its commentary on complacent viewership of modern horror is very aggressive + something I agree with near-wholeheartedly. Though I’ll be the first to admit it’s veeeeeery hard to sit through- it’s a super unpleasant film as a viewer and there’s not a moment where the film isn’t grinding your nose into the dirt and yelling at you. I’ll also definitely admit that, from the viewpoint of a fan of the original, it... totally sucks. The only reason I got through this movie in the first place + wound up liking it even remotely is because I deliberately distanced myself from my opinions of the original. I’ve also written a full review of this one! (here)

I haven’t seen the newer films? I think I saw part of either the 2003 remake or Texas Chainsaw 3D on TV once but I honestly couldn’t tell you which, it’s been years- I don’t know if I’d ever want to sit down and watch them (though I’ve heard the 2003 one may be worth watching) because of my opinions of the original, though if I got through The Next Generation I don’t see why I couldn’t get through the newer ones lol. Maybe someday

as for the franchise being with Legendary now, I had to check Legendary’s films to remember what all they’d done + I like quite a few of their movies! that definitely gives me a lot of hope for the future of the franchise- I’ve talked a little about Leatherface as a character (particularly in my review of TCM2) and I reeeeeeeeally enjoyed him when he was portrayed by Gunnar Hansen in the original, but felt like he was lacking something in the rest of the films. I just hope wherever the series goes, they’ll be able to bring that spark of humanity back to the character (Gunnar Hansen taking the time to treat Leatherface as more than just “big brute with a chainsaw” is uh.. really important, I think, and you really don’t have to give Leatherface a whole entire backstory [coughthatprequelcough] to make him feel like an Actual Character With Depth, so, shrugs)

this series has sooooooo much potential and like, I doubt it’ll hit the same tier of pure awesome the original hit, but I’d still really love to see where Legendary’ll take it!

[abloodymess]

Tobe Hooper made the best horror movie, he also made the best horror movie sequel (with all due respect to Don Coscarelli and the great Phantasm sequels), and he also made the best made for TV horror movie. Not only that but he made a ton of great idiosyncratic horror movies through his career, some better than others, but all certainly interesting and could not have been made by anyone else (can you believe Lifeforce was made at all!? Who makes a movie like that!?). A true oddball, with a unique vision, that changed the landscape of cinema, not just horror cinema, all cinema with the release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So with Tobe passing I thought I would share my favorite bit of writing on that particular film in its entirety. 

Anecdotal: the concept of one’s own death loiters in the brain of a middle-aged man a lot more frequently than that of his twenty-something counterparts. Once you hit 40 there are, statistically speaking, more days behind you than in front of you, and as much as you try to run in the opposite direction, your mind will always eventually face front to dwell on the non-negotiable black nothingness of oblivion waiting for you at the end.

Not surprisingly, this mindset changes the way one watches the beloved horror classics of one’s youth. Moments of cinematic carnage take on a gravitas that the 18-year-old you couldn’t possibly have absorbed. When we’re young, death is scary but abstract; a dark unknown. In our 40s, death is a fact. It has by now reached out from the shadows and taken a few of our group. It surrounds us, moving toward us as we move toward it. In middle age, we’re always painfully aware that death is waiting, that it’s the one true certainty in life.

Death's inevitability is sitting right there in the title of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. There's no ambiguous "nightmare" or “legend” or "night of terror" in that title. Right there on your admission ticket, it’s printed in black and white: Death is coming. En masse. With that one title, you’ve been told the what, the where and the how. (An opening dateline provides the when; you will never get the why.) The film that follows is not an escapist, spooky funhouse ride. It’s a funeral dirge. And no one gets more existentially fucked up by a funeral than the middle-aged.

That’s an interesting wrinkle, as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is, through and through, a young people’s movie about death. It stars and was made by people mostly under 30, and was ingested primarily by a young audience who, in 1974, recognized it as the primal fairy tale it was. “What happened to them was all the more tragic in that they were young,” John Larroquette's voice tells us in the opening narration, and a young, draft-age audience nodded in agreement. Certainly that was my take on my first viewing, at age 12. In the VHS heyday of the early ‘80s, I found The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to be unnerving in its visual and aural assault, altogether different from the other movies in my rental pile. Of the many films that sparked an early interest in the craft of filmmaking, Tobe Hooper’s 1974 masterpiece was likely in my top three, though I struggled to articulate what was so special about it. It wasn’t exactly fun, or heightened, or overly stylized with the kind of polish that telegraphed “film production” to the viewer. It felt like you were seeing genuine homicidal insanity onscreen. There were no safe, cathartic thrills to be found. It made me feel small and helpless. That’s probably why it wasn’t on rotation in my VCR the way, say, the Friday the 13th movies were.

As the power (and appeal) of certain slasher franchises faded with my adolescence, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre continued to cast a spell. Time did not render any of its moments cheesy or hokey for me; the film’s unblinking lack of sentiment served it well in that regard. When more advanced moviemaking technology started to throw the rough edges of my other horror favorites into sharp relief, here was a film that never stopped feeling real. With each new video transfer, its deceptively primitive visual style was revealed to be more detailed and sophisticated than we realized, VHS “purists” be damned. Its soundscape never became dated because it is singular in the history of the genre; nothing has sounded like it before or since. The sound design is near-flawless, impregnating even the quiet moments with a droning sense of doom. It’s the heavy silence of a funeral director’s office, or an oncologist’s waiting room. It’s the noisy silence of blood pounding in your ears during a panic attack.

It's the one film that never became "just a movie" to me, but not for my lack of trying. I’ve attended multiple Q&As with the makers of the film. I’ve watched at least three documentaries, and read at least two books on its making. I’ve digested all the outtakes, and I’ve met every living principal cast member. I even once drove an hour to the relocated farmhouse, ate a meal in its dining room and wandered both floors. Despite my many attempts at demystification, its hold on me remains. In my 40s I now find the film resonates most powerfully in the moments leading up to the characters’ deaths. Pondering your own end, that terrible awareness that you’re rushing toward a point in the future where you will no longer exist. Unease, quiet dread, guilt, confusion, panic, abject terror: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has become, for me, a mosaic of the feelings the idea of oblivion stirs within me. These days, those feelings are where I experience true horror, and I find that the film still delivers on that front.

Make no mistake: the movie still offers plenty of straight-up terror for all age groups. Unpredictable, unknowable chaos reigns in Hooper’s film, a marked contrast from the subgenre it helped birth. Later slasher films would evolve into a rigid set of rules by which characters would live or die; abstinence was rewarded, vice and promiscuity were punished. In a way the slashers came to really epitomize the ‘80s mindset, nearly right-wing in their code of conformity. They reassure a status quo; they're downright comforting in their predictability. This is not the case with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. There are no ground rules as per Wes Craven’s Scream; no one is safe. Our heroes don’t fit the stereotypes of slasher victims, and aside from Franklin’s wheelchair-bound whining, the characters are fairly nondescript. But beyond that well-trod observation, even more unsettling is that these are good kids. They’ve heard reports of grave-robbing in the area, and they’ve gone out of their way to make sure their grandpa’s remains are undisturbed. They are checking on their dead grandpa. It’s a sweet, human, honorable goal. The film does not care. 84 minutes later, they’re all fodder for a saw that’s still swinging when the screen cuts to black.

This is a horrifying notion in more ways than one. These characters - good, bad, indifferent, pretty, fat, annoying, carefree - are all going into the sausage grinder. WE’RE all going into the sausage grinder. Like dumb cattle, oblivious to the signs all around us, one by one we willingly march toward our own screaming, bloody ends, slaughtered without ever understanding what’s happening to us. But part of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s enduring power is the horrible glimpse of omniscience it gives us, and in that clarity is revealed a universe prodding us down the cattle chute from day one. Right from the opening frames, the protagonists’ deaths have been set in motion. The Hitchhiker (Ed Neal) rattles those bones and displays that skeleton, and it’s a beacon. Relatives from miles away descend on the graveyard to check on their loved ones’ remains (who knows how many of these well-meaning people ended up as furniture in that house, their cars piled up under that tarp in the backyard). With his cemetery folk art, the Hitchhiker has summoned Sally (Marilyn Burns) and her friends to their doom, with neither side even aware of it. Later, Franklin (Paul Partain) tells the group that his and Sally’s grandpa sold cattle to the slaughterhouse where Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) and his family worked, and eventually we come to find out that the two families were essentially next door neighbors.

On recent viewings, that last detail chills me the most. The film is rife with omens - the astrology readings, the ramblings of the graveyard drunk, the radio station that broadcasts literally nothing but reports of carnage and mayhem. But more than anything I can't shake the weird angle of these characters dying horribly simply because of where their grandfather happened to live (and die). That vanload of victims had been tied to their cannibalistic murderers for decades before August 18, 1973. Whatever it is that’s gonna kill you, the film reminds us, has probably happened already, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You were always going to end up on that meat hook.

Movies, we like to tell ourselves, are a kind of immortality. Films last forever, and sequels and reboots keep things alive long after the end credits. In the world of cinema, we're seldom asked to confront the actual end of anything. But discarding all the sequels, the remakes, the sequels to remakes and remakes of sequels, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre remains one of the most confrontational films about death ever made. Forty years on, the film offers no comfort in its bleak message: you might live or die at any given moment, and when you finally take the dirt nap it will likely be an unsentimental, arbitrary bit of happenstance. But sooner or later you will end. Once you are dead you will no longer matter to the world at large, and odds are most people on Earth will never know about your experiences. Moreover, time will eventually claim not only you and everyone you love, but the entire planet. The whole of human existence will be nothing but an imperceptible blip on the universe’s radar as our tiny planet of cruelty and chaos is one day swallowed by the angry sun we see erupting in the film’s opening credits.

@PhilNobileJr

[creativity-is-rebellion]

Top 20 Horror Movie List

Since I was a teenager, I have been a horror movie buff. This is my own personal top horror movie list, in no particular order, other than the order they came into my head.

1) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

This is a classic for all horror movie buffs, and a movie that can be re-watched again and again every Halloween. The original Freddie is that perfect mixture of vicious and darkly funny. 

2) Halloween (1978)

This is a slow-burn horror movie, especially when you compare it to later movies in the Halloween franchise, but you could definitely say this, along with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, sparked the first wave of the slasher craze, and spawned the creation of a number of masked, unkillable killers for decades to come.

3) Child’s Play (1988 and 2019, they both are good in their own way)

Chucky is a mixture of evil and hilarious. If you like to watch people get slashed whist the killer is delivering devastating one-liners, this is the movie for you.

4) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (either the 1974 version or the 2003 version, they both bring interesting acting and plots to the table)

See my comment above regarding Halloween. This also squarely fits into some aspects of Southern Gothic (read my post about the Southern Gothic horror genre to see what I mean). I don’t think there is a more vicious and twisted family in horror, save for Rob Zombie’s Firefly clan.

5) Friday the 13th (1980)

If you haven’t seen this one, can you really call yourself a horror buff? The original camp getaway slasher. And the killer isn’t who you think.At least not in this installment.

6) Leatherface (2017)

Not all backstories in horror movies are worth a watch. This one is.

7) Session Nine (2001)

This low-budget slow-burn takes the old idea of an abandoned asylum and gives it a modern twist. It also examines the horrors of toxic masculinity, with supernatural undertones. The ending is mind-blowing. It’s a must-watch

8) Eden Lake (2008)

A brutal and effective British hoodie-horror that, despite the clichés, stays on the right side of scary. It also delivers a surprising ending.

9) Lake Mungo (2008)

Few films convey the complexities of the grieving process better than this psychological horror, which became an instant modern indie classic. It chillingly employs a faux documentary and found-footage format to tell the story of the Palmer family, who are attempting to come to terms with the strange drowning death of their daughter Alice, although I don’t want to give too much away. A must-see.

10)  It Follows (2015)

This movie is the most dire disincentive for fornication on the far side of reality, and its premise is very creative. Not only is the plot quite unusual, the setting and the way in which it was filmed is also unique. It Follows is deceptive (in a good way), as it looks as simple as a horror movie can be, but when you watch closely and pay more attention, some bizarre elements of it really stand out. In addition, it has incredible camera work accompanied by John Carpenter-style music. Watch this movie for a fresh take on the horror genre.

11) Scream (1996)

This movie was a refreshing take on the slasher genre, which breathed new life into this dying (at the time) sector. It pokes fun at and subverts the horror movie tropes that came before it, and although the genre of horror may have now moved beyond what Scream had to deliver, it still owes much to this horror movie gem. Perhaps even its ability to still thrive.

12) The Shining (1980)

This is my favourite movie of all time. It can (and has been) interpreted in a myriad of ways, and has even spawned its own crazy conspiracy-ladened documentary (only see that if you are a die-hard fan). The camera-work, it’s inability to really age, it’s slow-burn script, and it’s exceptional acting make it just as awesome 40 years later as it was when it was originally released (even if it wasn’t initially welcomed and even received a golden razzie award). If you haven’t watched this horror movie classic and you consider yourself a horror fan, what are you doing with your life? Watch it now.

13) Doctor Sleep (2019)

The long-anticipated follow-up to The Shining does not disappoint (at least in my opinion), even if the plot tries to appease both the lovers of the novel and the lovers of the movie (the plot of The Shining diverged from novel-to-movie, if you are not aware). Rose the Hat may be one of the most terrifying villains in modern horror, and this movie doesn’t sugar-coat the more shocking scenarios in King’s novel. Seeing what became of Danny Torrance all grown up does not disappoint.

14) IT Chapter One (2017)

This is one horror remake that I thoroughly enjoyed, and believed to be much-needed. Although Tim Curry in the 1990 miniseries was superb, Bill Skarsgard’s Pennywise is darker and creepier. And let’s face it, the miniseries hasn’t aged well. The kid actors do a superb job, and I easily believe that this was the best horror movie of 2017. Don’t come for me. The only negative aspect is that it had some (of what I believe) to be some cheesy and unnecessary CGI, when practical effects would have sufficed.

15) IT Chapter Two (2019)

I had to watch the second helping of IT twice in order to appreciate the story and the characters, who were all grown up. Taken as a whole, the first movie and this sequel have done a tremendous job telling King’s tale of a killer clown and how to defeat it. The acting, especially of grown-up Ritchie (played by Bill Hader) was great, and there were some genuinely scary scenes. The comments I made about CGI in my review of the first installment also apply here. But you can’t watch the first one without watching the sequel, and this sequel is more than good enough for a watch.

16) The Conjuring (2013)

The first chapter in the stories of possession recounted by real-life, renowned “Demonologists” Ed and Lorraine Warren is slow-burn and creepy enough as the characters gradually experience more and more disturbing supernatural occurrences, before the possession finally occurs. In directing The Conjuring, James Wan has succeeded in creating a new horror movie universe. It was definitely one of the scariest horror movies released in 2013.

17) The Conjuring 2 (2016)

I liked this follow-up movie in The Conjuring franchise because more things happened in this plot than in the sequel, and I like action-packed horror. The fact that these movies are based upon “real life” events makes them creepier to moviegoers. When you think they have found the entity that wants to possess the main protagonist of this story, you are led in a different direction, one that is ultimately scarier. The Conjuring 2 is a respectable follow-up to its predecessor.

18) Insidious (2010)

This is also an example of a successful horror movie universe created by James Wan. The Lipstick Face Demon, despite holding comparisons in appearance to Darth Maul of the Star Wars series, is legitimately terrifying. I love the idea this movie introduces regarding the place called “The Further.” This place is rife with entities, both sinister and helpful, and is mysterious enough to make you want to learn more. It is one of the better additions to modern horror of the past decade.

19) Happy Death Day (2017)

This Groundhog Day-inspired horror-comedy is a light-hearted addition to this list, albeit with an interesting and refreshing plot. You’ll feel invested in the protagonist as she undergoes a positive personality shift, and will also be rooting for her to succeed in finding her killer and thus getting out of reliving the same day again and again. The ending is satisfactory, and will leave you wanting a sequel.

20) Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

The sequel to Happy Death Day offers an entertaining expansion on its original premise, providing further explanation as to why Tree (the protagonist) ended up in the situation she did originally. There are some amusing sequences of different ways she kills herself to reset her day in order to return to her original universe and end her purgatory for good. In my opinion, this is a must-watch.

This is by no means a complete list. I might make another one with new additions down the track.