Do you like scary movies? 

For my first official post, I will countdown the top 20 greatest horror movies of all time. 

From legendary black and white classics to modern cheesy jump scares, this list will evaluate the greatest scary movies ever! This is my list, so if any criticism, tell me in the comments 

Hopefully no spoilers, 

Let's Begin! 

20. Friday the 13th

Director: Sean S. Cunningham

Starring: Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Jeannie Taylor,                                            Kevin Bacon, Mark Nelson, Peter Brouwer, Robbi Morgan,                                                              and Betsy Palmer 

What do camp counselors do when there are no kids on camp? 

Apparently have sex, play Monopoly, and get gruesomely murdered. 

Cheap actors, cheap set, and cheap costumes make this film feel more like an actual real life event than just a movie. 

Teenagers have sex, they die. End of story.  

Jason Voorhees was attending Camp Crystal Lake in 1958. He decided to go for a swim when his counselors went away to have "adult time". Little Jason drowned. 

Now 1980, Camp Crystal Lake is opening it's doors for the first time in 22 years. Before kids get their, the counselors party, have sex, and get hacked off one by one. 

What makes this typical slasher film so special?  Look at it, set in an isolated camp in the middle of nowhere and a surprise ending where the real killer is the least but most expected suspect. Friday the 13th has spawn a billion sequels, crossovers, and remakes. It is a movie that everyone knows and holds dear in their heart. 

Never underestimate a mother. 

19. A Nightmare on Elm Street

Director: Wes Craven 

Starring: Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley,                                                    and Robert Englund 

Bedtime is the favorite part of most peoples day. Crawling into the warm sheets at night makes you feel safe and secure. Until you get a visit from dear old Freddy. 

One of the most unique horror movie plots, when teenagers fall asleep, creepy Freddy Krueger pays a visit and tortured you in your dreams. When you wake up, you find bruises and scratches all over you. Is Freddy real? 

Bringing Wes Craven out of the cracks, A Nightmare on Elm Street was an instant success, making it an immediate classic. Every person over the age of 15 (and I'm being liberal)  has heard of Freddy Krueger and knows that rhyme : 

"One, two, Freddy's coming for you.

Three, four, Better lock your door

Five, six, grab a crucifix.

Seven, eight, Gonna stay up late.

Nine, ten, Never sleep again...."

18.  House on Haunted Hill

Director: William Castle 

Starring: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Carolyn Craig,                                                   Elisha Cook, Julie Mitchum, and Alan Marshall 

What kind of horror movie list would this be without Vincent Price somewhere? 

Going to back to the old Hammer Horror Productions, they had on average the same cast consisting of Price, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Michael Gough. Only Price appeared in this one. 

Millionaire Vincent Price invites five guests  to stay the night in his haunted house. Whichever guest that stays the night gets $10,000 ( a lot of money in 1959). Thing happen, people disappear, blood is involved, gunshots, etc. 

Last year I watched this movie for the first time, and in 2015, it was well beyond creepy. Vincent Price carried this film for the most part, but with him and the cheesy effects make this film an elegant Halloween movie that should be watched every year. 

Watch out for the skeletons... 

17. Scream

Director: Wes Craven 

Starring: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard,                                               Skeet Ulrich, Rose McGowan, Jamie Kennedy, Henry Winkler,                                                        and Drew Barrymore 

Wes Craven is popping up again on this list. Twelve years after A Nightmare on Elm Street, he needed a huge hit. He found the script of Scary Movie and ran with it. Changing a few things, like the title, he finally got Scream. 

Small town in California, a psycho is running around wearing a common Halloween mask killing their fellow classmates. Craven brought back horror movies in a big bang style. Using almost every style of previous films in the genre (like killing the most famous actress off after five minutes), the film still felt fresh. Plus having Henry Winkler as a foul mouthed, touchy-feely principal added extra creepiness. 

Scream became an instant hit and attracted millions of people. After this film, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Ring, The Grudge, Scream 2, all were released withing five years.

 Horror was back. 

16. Night of the Living Dead 

Director: George A. Romero 

Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, and Karl Hardman 

Before The Walking Dead, segregation, and women's liberation, a small budget film was released depicting how strangers from different backgrounds come together in times a tragedies. 

Zombies are running amok in the Pennsylvanian countryside, a group of strangers ban together to fight the undead. Some live, some die. 

George A. Romero might not have known what kind of legacy this movie would occur over 40+ years. Night of the Living Dead shocked movie goers and critics, still upholding the creepiness. 

Think about this, without Night of the Living Dead, there would be no Walking Dead. 

15. Dracula

Director: Tod Browning 

Starring: Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Helen Chandler, Dwight Frye,                                                              and Edward Van Sloan

Between Dracula and Frankenstein, I had to choose Dracula. Both are good films, but Dracula is the better choice, because over the years (85, to be exact) it has been mimicked, mocked, and redone. 

Plot is still the same- Dracula kidnaps women and drinks their blood, Dr. Van Hesling comes in and tries to kill him. But is Dracula able to be killed? 

Actors of the caliber such as Christopher Lee, Lon Chaney Jr., Frank Langella, Jack Palance, and Gary Oldman have played the title character. However Lugosi's Dracula proved to be so popular and memorable, that even Halloween costumes are designed after Lugosi's portrayal. 

14. The Omen

Director: Richard Donner 

Starring: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Billie Whitelaw, David Warner,                                                       Patrick Troughton, and Harvery Spencer Stephens 

In 1976, a star such as Gregory Peck in a horror film was unheard of. He was one of the greatest actors of all time, scary movies were beneath him. The Omen scared me to death as a child and still does to this day. 

June 6, 1966, a young boy is born in Italy to two Americans. Throughout the course of ten years, the father becomes the American Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Strange things start happening with his son. An all too eerie babysitter shows up randomly with a huge black dog. Unexplained things, Demonic things. 

Ghosts aren't scary, neither are zombies, those could never happen. Having your child as the Anti-Christ, well that is purely from the Bible. That will actually happen, eventually. But when? Where? Who? How do we know who is the Anti-Christ?   

That is what is truly terrifying about The Omen.  

13. Poltergeist

Director: Tobe Hopper 

Starring: Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Beatrice Straight,                                                                      Zelda Rubinstein,  and Heather O'Rouke 

Probably 90% of Americans have a television in their house. Back in the 1980's, TV went off at a certain time after the National Anthem played. After that time, static and darkness. Pure nothingness. 

Little Carol Anne has an ordinary life in the Southern Californian suburbs. She has two older sibling, and two parents that love her very much. After strange unseen visitors talk to her through the TV, poor Carol Anne gets sucked into her closet and through a portal to the other side. The parents call parapsychologists from the University of California to investigate. 

Poltergeist took ghosts to a whole new level. Innocent normal people were caught up in this horrific event, all because of a shady real estate deal. 

 If one scene could explain the depth of terror, it would be the clown doll scene under the bed. Disturbing and dark, we understand why the son will be emotionally scarred by clowns for the rest of his life. 

They're Here 

12. The Thing 

Director: John Carpenter 

Starring: Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimley, Richard Dysart,                                                     David Clennon, Richard Masur, and Donald Moffat 

 The Thing is not creepy, it is paranoiac. Twelve men who can no longer trust each other, they let their emotions get the best of them. 

Twelve men are in Antarctica for the winter to research for NASA, or something similar. A dog mysteriously shows up on base. They take him in from the cold and then all hell breaks loose as one by one loose trust and start going insane. The dog infects one of the crew, but which one? Who is infected? How do they know who is and who isn't? 

John Carpenter's second biggest hit, The Thing is probably my favorite movie on this list. However, it has some flaws, that's why it is ranked only #12. Overall, the movie is golden and the best of Kurt Russell's career. You could cut out the creature aspect of the film and still have a great movie about men who spent too much time together and start to wonder about each other. Do you really trust the one's you have to spend another three months with? 

This is the tip of the ice burger on The Thing's ambiguity. That's what makes it effective 

11. JAWS

Director: Steven Speilberg 

Starring: Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary,                                                                                 Murray Hamilton, and Robert Shaw 

Of course, JAWS is on the list. Some may feel it should be ranked higher, some think it should be ranked lower. JAWS is one of the greatest movies of all time, no doubt. 

However, from here on out, I had to get down to the nitty-gritty of each of these films and question why it is so darn scary. The score, unquestionably, would be ranked in the top five on any list. 

Who can't forget the great Robert Shaw as Quint, either??? 

JAWS is about a shark that gets too close to the beach of a tourist island during the 4th of July holiday weekend. With a mayor refusing to shut down the island after several shark attacks, the police chief has to kill the shark before the holiday. Good luck. 

The reason JAWS is only #11 is because of how fraudulent the idea of a shark eating people so close to the beach actually is. Tiger sharks do not eat so many people like so. 

Sorry JAWS, but you're still one of my favorites! 

10. Rosemary's Baby

Director: Roman Polanski 

Starring: Mia Farrow, John Cassavettes, Ruth Gordon, Sydney Blackmer,                                                      Maurice Evans, and Ralph Bellamy 

Imagining being impregnated by the Devil and barring his child for nine months. 

OK, so now you got the frame of mine right for Rosemary's Baby, let's examine why this film is #10. 

While, I am personally not a huge fan of Mia Farrow, she uses her acting talent superbly here. The elderly neighbors are top notch, with a certain edge to make something seem off in them. Watching the film, just imagine what it would be like knowing your child belongs to Satan, how creepy is that?!

Rosemary's Baby is excellent as a film of mystery and suspense.

Lurking our way down the list now... 

9. The Conjuring 

Director: James Wan 

Starring: Patrick Wilson, Ron Livingston, Lili Taylor,  and Vera Farminga 

Even though the film was made in 2013, it has the feel of an older horror movie like Rosemary's Baby or Night of the Living Dead. 

Young family moves into an older farmhouse by a lake in the country, odd things occur including the dog dying and doors opening alone. 

The Conjuring is frightening and intense. It has layers of context and messages that you pick up on the second or third time watching it. I enjoyed The Conjuring, as much as I was scared by it. 

While it may be the best modern horror film, it is #9 because the top eight are almost perfect films. 

8. And Then There Were None 

Director: Rene Clair 

Starring: Barry Fitzgerlad, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward,  Roland Young,                                                 June Duprez, C. Aubrey Smith,  Richard Hayden,                                                                               and Judith Anderson 

From Agatha Christie's best selling novel of the same name, this is probably the least known and yet most controversial ranking on this list. As #8, it was the first unofficial slasher film. While not as gruesome as others on the list, And Then There Were None deserves to be ranked high as it follows the source material liberally close, while maintaining her original themes. 

Eight complete strangers get mysterious letters to go to this remote island off the shore of Devon, UK. Greeted by the butler and maid, they are told their host will arrive soon; after dinner, the host still hasn't shown. Over the course of the weekend, one by one the guests start dying off like the nursery rhyme "Ten Little Indians". 

While it is not "technically" a horror film, the idea of having ten people, and only ten people all together while others are being murdered makes is a terrifying movie. One of the first movies to prove that it is not what you see, it is what you do not see, which makes it ten times as scary. The Thing, for example, had an alien creature with them. 

And Then There Were None taught us that humans are the real monsters. 

7. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Director: Tobe Hopper

Starring: Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal,  and Gunnar Hansan 

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is NOT based on a true story. It is based on ELEMENTS of a couple of true stories. However, the movie is one of the freakiest movies of all time. Cannibals are a very real thing in the real world. 

A group of teenagers' van breaks down in the middle of nowhere in Texas. The see a house and go to ask for help, only to run into psycho Leatherface and his cannibalistic family. The chainsaw happy enjoys not only eating humans, but torturing them. 

Director Tobe Hopper was a college professor at the University of Texas at Austin, hired UT students to act in the film, and locals from neighboring towns to play the family. Making it all too much of a real feeling, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is intense even in today's time. 

The final scene with the young girl and the family is extremely frightening, with camera angles getting close making it fee like the viewer is actually there. 

Texas really is not like that. 

6. The Shining

Director: Stanley Kubrick 

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, 

                 Barry Nelson, and Scatman Crothers 

Surprisingly the only Stephen King adaptation on the list.The Shining is honestly not a well done adaptation of a source material. While the film is always ranked as one of the greatest films of all time, it is a good movie, but a horrible book adaptation. 

Jack Nicholson gets hired to be the winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel in Colorado from October to May. The hotel manager tells Jack that a previous caretaker went insane and killed his family with an axe. Jack assures that will not happen. He takes his wife and young son up there, too. Sometime between all the snow and the stress of being alone, Jack snaps and finds an axe... 

Of course, The Shining would be on this list, as it is an American classic. Director Stanley Kubrick won awards for comedy, war, and science fiction, he eventually had to do horror. 

Shelley Duvall was heavily criticized for her role as the wife. Think about this- she does not see what we see, she does not understand why her husband snapped like we do, or why her son is terrified of the hotel. She is a victim, too. 

The Shining, while many think should be ranked differently, the top five are the best of the best, so brace yourself.... 

Here we go, the TOP 5 ARE:  

5. Alien

Director: Ridley Scott 

Starring: Sigounrey Weaver, Tom Skerritt,  John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright,                                                  Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton, and Yaphet Kotto 

In 1977, George Lucas brought us Star Wars. In 1978, John Carpenter brought us Halloween. Ridley Scott ingeniously came up with the idea of putting a slasher flick in space. He gave us Alien, thank God. 

The diverse cast list consisted of well known Tom Skerritt, Shakespearean trained Sir Ian Holm, Bond villain Yaphet Kotto, heart throb John Hurt and new comer Sigourney Weaver (who beat out Meryl Streep). All, expect Weaver, were between 30 to 50, all seemed like real people. 

What makes Alien so effective? The fact that the chest bursting scene is ranked as one of the greatest scene in cinema history and the acting is top not is why.  

On one hand, Alien stole two of the most famous productions of the time, but it is well done enough to pull it off. From the sets, acting, and special effects, Alien will be ranked in the a top list until the end of time. 

From the chest bursting scene, to Skerritt climbing through the air vents as the alien closes in on him, to one of the characters revealed to be an android trying to take home alien remains, Alien is just AWESOME! 

I bet you won't cough the same again. 

4. Halloween

Director: John Carpenter 

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, PJ Soles, Nancy Loomis, Charles Cyphers,                                                            and Donald Pleasance 

John Carpenter was dead broke, had long hair, worn jeans and T shirts, and smoked. He wasn't the most likely candidate to handle a movie. However, he took the the typewriter and typed up a simple B- movie with sex crazed teenagers and a masked killer. 

Young Jamie Lee Curtis is a babysitter in an affluent neighborhood in Illinois. Her friends are, too, just they want the kids to go to bed so they can have their guy friends come over and have "adult time". 

It is October 30 and Mike Myers has escaped from the mental institution in Chicago. He wants to go home. His psychiatrist is on his trail. To make a long story short, Curtis and her friends are all babysitting in the same neighborhood. While her friends are having sex and getting murdered, Curtis is trying to protect the kids before Mike kills her. 

 Carpenter thought this movie would tank. It didn't, obviously, but why? Was it the score? Having Sir Donald Pleasance play Dr. Loomis? The slasher of slasher films. Halloween is great. Halloween set the bar for every horror movie after. A very high bar at that. 

Having spawned a million sequels, remakes, parodies, games, references, and more. Halloween will  always be THE Halloween movie (no pun intended). 

Moving away from monsters to actual humans, here we go....

3. Psycho

Director: Alfred Hitchcock 

Starring: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, 

                John McIntire, Simon Oakland, and Janet Leigh 

Is Psycho good? Yes. 

Is Psycho clever? Yes. 

Is Psycho scary?  Have you ever showered home alone and not thought of Psycho?

Of course you haven't. Alfred Hitchcock had North By Northwest in 1959, and had to top it. He did in a million different ways. 

From buying off the clothes to having his TV crew work the equipment, he knew how to have a cheap budget and make a lot of money. 

Psycho is about a secretary. She steal $40,000 from her boss. She goes to the Bates Motel and disappears. A private investigator goes after her, he disappears as well. The only suspects are the owners of the motel, Norman and his bed ridden mother, Norma. 

Psycho had one of the biggest shock scares of all time. In 1960, no one thought of the infamous shower scene or the idea of a toilet being flushed. Janet Leigh was the star, and she left half way through the movie. Anthony Perkins became a household name, and John Gavin became Ambassador to Mexico. 

People who don't even like scary movies like this movie. It has everything- romance, thrills, murder, mystery, a little humor.! 

Psycho has probably the best score of any horror film, hands down. The reason it is #3 is because it is flawless and perfect, but the top two on this list are just unbeatable.   

2. The Silence of the Lambs 

Director: Jonathan Demme 

Starring: Jodie Foster, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Anthony Heald,                                                                 Diane Baker, and Anthony Hopkins 

Number two on the list, number one in my heart. 

The Silence of the Lambs is one of the greatest movies of all time. While many of you guys will argue it is not a horror movie, it so is! 

This movie is the one that could be based on a true story. Mainly why it is so scary is the fact that things like this actually happen. (Ed Gein, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, etc) 

A lunatic who rapes and skins women is at large. This one women he kidnapped, however, is the daughter to a United States Senator. The FBI is hot on his trail and the only way to stop him to pay a visit to a former psychiatrist, Hannibal Lector, who has a taste for humans. With the senator demanding her daughter back and a rookie agent on the case, will Buffalo Bill be caught? 

Winning not only one, but five, Academy Awards, The Silence of the Lambs deserves it's spot at #2 just out of pure respect. Other reasons on why it is at #2 is because of the thriller aspect, the horrific scenes involving the skinning of Buffalo Bill's victims, and the mind games of Hannibal Lector. 

Despite being credited as a leading role, Anthony Hopkins portrayal was only about 16 minutes in the film. Movie goers wanted more, I want more. Yet, if Lector was on screen more, would it have been as effective? Absolutely not. 

AND..... 

1. The Exorcist 

Director: William Friedkin 

Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Mercedes McCambridge,                                      Jason Miller, and Linda Blair 

What other movie would you suspect as being #1 besides The Exorcist? 

No other film on this list can top the Exorcist. It is pure gold as a horror film. 

First, the movie is the scariest movie of all time, because a little girl is possessed by the Devil himself. How scary is that? The fact is that if the Devil can possess a 13 year old girl, he can possess any one of us. 

One of the creepiest scenes in the movie is when Reagan goes downstairs in her nightgown to talk to the guests of her mothers dinner party. Her mother, a famous actress, has affluent friends, one being an astronaut. Very coldly she exclaims "you're going to die up there" then urinates on the floor. 

The scariest scene in the entire film is when Father Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow) comes to perform the exorcist. Not during the exorcism, but before with the anticipation of what is going to happen. 

The film is absolutely terrifying, creepy, somber, and horrific. 

Not only is The Exorcist one of the greatest horror movies of all time, but one of the most influential.

Hope you enjoyed the list! Comments are welcome!