Slant Magazine

You guys are all over the place, such a mess. But I guess that's why I love this website, there is always such a variety in these lists.

Clear snubs here for many many films, but still enjoyable.

Mmmmmm. Wonton relish. Yum.

This list looks like it was cobbled together by people who either don't A) Watch horror movies, or B) Know what a horror film really is.

Also, Tom Six is Dutch, not British.

Since there are a handful of thrillers on your list, I'd submit Hong-jin Na's CHASER (2008). Great film.

Pretty good list in that it covers a wide array of genre variations and origin. The majority of the films would also be on my own list, albeit with possibly different rankings. Some potential omissions (and this comes down to taste) are Shadow of the Vampire, The Ring, The Hills Have Eyes (yes, the remake), [REC], The Others, Trick R' Treat, The Ruins, Grace.

Nice list. Please consider adding the dates next to the film titles?

I admit I was disappointed not to see The Ring. It touched on a swarm of cultural anxieties (reproduction, technology, media) like a finger poking a bruise. I saw it in a packed theater in a college town, and I've never felt a more palpable wave of dread in my life than during the last three seconds of that film. People were literally gasping for breath.

Good list, but the addition of Chan-wook Park's "Thirst" would've made it even better.

Why no Fessenden?

Great list! But no Lucky McKee? May's pretty nasty. Session 9's missing, too!

Interesting to see Zombie's Halloween II make the list. Horror, much like action, movies tend to be acts of sadism on the viewer's part. Even bloodless horror movies are like this, because they require the audience to get some kind of thrill and/or entertainment value out of watching people get terrorized/killed/mutilated/you-name-it. Horror sequels, in many ways, often feel like, "Remember all that sick shit that happened to character XYZ in that movie? Well, now it's gonna happen to them all over again!" And it's often treated so trivially. What I like about Zombie's Halloween sequel is that it does a bit more than just put Laurie Strode in danger again. It's probably the first horror sequel that I know of that actually puts some real thought into the long-lasting psychological trauma that someone would be inflicted with if this ever happened to them.

I also like how it made slasher clichés feel new again by making us (well, me, anyway) actually care about certain characters before killing them off. Yes, there were more than a few scenes of "watch this asshole get what's coming to them," but I'm thinking specifically about the scene where a couple of teenagers go to the back of a car to have sex, only to turn the stereotypes on their ears by making the girl more sexually aggressive and the guy more nervous, but in a fun way. They seemed halfway real and likable, which is often the last thing slasher movies allow, making their deaths at Michael's hands seem tragic, rather than carnographic.

I don't understand the love for The Descent. The mountain of bones leading to a symbolic birth scene at the end was beautiful to look at, though I admittedly didn't get the point. More importantly, though, I didn't find the movie very scary, as it was mostly a lather, rinse, repeat cycle of "something jumps out of the shadows, something loud happens, something bloody happens," and this is done over and over and over to the point where I found it more emotionally deadening than frightening and thrilling.

I also have a question for Rob Humanick that I might as well ask now. Some Halloweens ago I saw Trick 'r Treat and enjoyed it, only to find it on your worst of the year list at the time. I unfortunately can't intellectually defend the movie, I only remember it "working" for me at the time. I was wondering if you'd be willing to explain why you disliked it so much. That's why I like this website, the reviews challenge me.

I have a soft spot for Hostel and Camp Fever. I think Roth's films have a dialectic beyond the frat-boy persona that is often attributed to him.

Seeing "Halloween II" on here makes me EXCEPTIONALLY happy. One of the aughts' best horror films, for sure. And of course, I'm speaking in terms of the Director's Cut... I wrote a lengthy analysis of the film that has changed many views on the film from negative to positive:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B-Ae9ALmqyPBYTE3YmVmM2YtNjZmOC00M2M2LWE1MDUtOTI4MGMzOTlmMGY1&authkey=CNjap5UM&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

Thank you Slant for realizing the brilliance in that film.

Most surprising snub of the list: Trouble Every Day.

It's a really great list though. But you guys already know that.

Well, great list. Really appreciated that you included many foreign languages horror, especially those from Japan and France. Many of my favorite are in there. But I have some concerns:

-Audition was released in 1999, thus disqualified.

-Some of them are not technically Horror. Imo Horror movies are movies that their intend (main purpose) is to scare the audience. In that sense Let the Right One In and Let Me In are DRAMA movies with HORROR, COMING OF AGE, and somewhat ROMANTIC elements. The same goes for AntiChrist, which is more of PSYCHOLOGY DRAMA more than HORROR. Then if films contain Horror-element are qualify, Shaun of the Dead should be on the list.

-And yes, some from these: The Others, The Ring, Session 9, The Tale of 2 Sisters, [REC]. Paranormal Activity, ZombieLand should be on the list.

-And for Saw (which is not on this list); I know it's not a very good movie (in truth, bad), but it's undeniably influential (not in the good way, but it helps create a whole TORTURE PORN genre in the last half of decade). Sometimes when putting list of movies like this one I don't know if it should be included on the list or not

Sad not to see Ichi the Killer, in my opinion it's up there with Antichrist and Wolf Creek as one of the best horror films of the aughts.

Excellent list!

Noting the obvious omission of Dario "giallo" Argento's oeuvre makes me wonder if this list is centered around a more recent time frame? And why so? Also in my humble opinion, Ti West's House of the devil deserves better than #13

Proceeding to watch Kiyoshi's Pulse.

No Trouble Every Day? Really?

I have to add that I'm a little perplexed at the inclusion (and high ranking!) of "Inside." I never bought the hype on this one. Full of logical inconsistencies, uneven formalism, indefensibly gleeful sadism, and even occasional unintentional laughs, the film is a total mess. If there is any subtext or social commentary in the whole affair, it is buried pretty deep. While there is an undeniable visceral aspect to much of the bloodshed and some decent suspense, the violence seems to exist for its own sake. I think its a lousy piece of art.

Boy, there are a lot of films on here that I wouldn't really classify as "horror". I guess it comes down to genre discussion, which is pretty tedious.

Maybe I'd like to see your guys' take on which of the more typically "horrorish" of the aught's films were the best.

I do really like your inclusions of some films that have sort of fallen by the wayside, such as War of the Worlds and The Mist.

Yeah, crazy omission, for a Slant list anyway, Trouble Every Day.

Also, I suspect Amer was somewhere around #26 most likely?

Always funny to me how even the "comments" section on Slant is filled with talk of subtext and social commentary. Its a good thing of course, but sometimes you just gotta feel a film, especially in the horror genre. Plus, you can find subtext anywhere you look if you look long enough. Point being, Inside is a great horror film even if you can't find subtext. I found plenty, but didn't champion the film on the basis of it anyway. Rather, I liked the dreamlike atmosphere and nail-biting suspense in addition to the gore.

While on the subject, I imagine on the individual ballots that Inside finished on more ballots, but that Martyrs finished higher on the lists of those who included it?

A great list. Always like to see Zombie get his due; even as I remain on the fence about him, I am drawn to and fascinated by his work.

@ lotus plaza

Well, of course the time frame is recent; the aughts are not the 80's, after all.

I'm not sure which of Argento's four (sub-par) films from the last decade you believe to be worthy of inclusion?

I was unclear. I didn't mean to suggest that "Inside" was lousy strictly because it lacked subtext or social commentary. What I meant to say was without intelligent ideas, or without some kind of meaningful underpinning, in the case of this film, you're mostly left with slipshod artistry.

There's some suspense, yes. Initially. Eventually it gives way to bloodletting. An excess of bloodletting. Which quickly grows tiresome... and then absurd.

Admittedly it's been awhile since I've seen the film. But I seem to remember some pretty stunning images at the beginning and some pretty lazy shot composition by the end. It was discontinuous. David Bordwell, are you out there anywhere? Help me out.

And hopefully without revealing too much to those who haven't seen the film, the whole thing culminates with a final bloody act that comes across as nothing more than a money shot for the audience at the expense of an undeserving victim. What was the meaning of this?

Compare to the superior "Martyrs" — a more disturbing film, but one which denies the audience revelment in the brutality. There's some real sympathy at the core of that film. And some ideas.

"Inside" was like, 'Here's a bunch of awful violence, guys. Hope you enjoy it. The end.'

Rich—I was more just commenting in general. I understand you just didn't "feel" it as I did and then questioned the artistry, and then didn't find a surplus of ideas to fall back on.

But the victim was deserving...after what she did! jk jk But honestly, they both seemed like victims to me, and I felt some real sympathy toward both protagonist and antagonist in Inside. But mostly I just felt really creeped out and on edge.

You're spot-on about Martyrs, which shook me like no other, which is why I'm curious how the voting on individual ballots went.

I agree with Thirst. The list has a notable absence of Korean Horror, which made up the better end of the decade.

Fessenden produced House of the Devil, so he's there in a way.

I would have liked to have seen the following given their due:

'The Host', '28 Days Later', any of Christopher Smith's films, 'Dogtooth', and 'Chawz'. I go into detail of why I think these fit the war on terror over on my blog.

Any horror film list that doesn't include the very disturbing 'A Serbian Film' should be automatically viewed as grievously flawed.

Good choice for #1, Pulse has very strange and sad atmosphere and that slow-mo ghost scene was scary as hell. I was thinking that Lynch's Mirror Father Mirror will win since you all love that crazy clown so much. Korean Tale of Two Sisters should be here, it has no layers but some really tense scenes.

I'd have to second A Serbian Film for inclusion, though I don't necessarily know if its better than any of the films that made the cut. Although, I've never really thought of A History of Violence as a horror film.

Eric, 'A Serbian Film' really isn't SO bad... just keep a Danish midget armed with a melon-baller around to scoop out your eyes when it gets too intense.

Works every time.

;)

A SERBIAN FILM is garbage, although it may deserve a mention as being symptomatic of horror failure—perishable shock tactics with the full force of braindead, but very self-serious, political allegory behind them.

Great choices overall, and a couple I'll be tracking down this weekend.

Glad to see that Martyrs and Inside were so high on the list, although I'd have flipped their rankings; in fact, Martyrs would be in my number-one spot, while Pulse would be sent packing; it's my least favorite Kurosawa film by far (too teeny-bopper), but I guess Cure is a year too old.

I also agree with Zane Grant that The Host and Dogtooth deserved to make the cut, and I'd add the original Paranormal Activity, which surprised me with its humor and depth (Paramount's crap ending notwithstanding); Pontypool, cheap as it is and despite a spotty supporting performance; and maybe The Signal and Monsters.

Nice work, Slant, even if I'll never, ever understand what people see in Halloween II.

P.S. I forgot about Session 9, as well. Great movie!

Also, Audition is 1999 technically, but according to IMDB.com it did debut in the USA in the aughts (if that is what the list is going by.)

Visitor Q and A History of Violence are not horror movies. Shock value and violence are not in-of-themselves criteria of the horror genre.

There are a lot of great choices on this list but I find it funny that you've excluded the two films that actually scared me. The Ring is a classic in so many ways and deserves a spot more than another remake like Halloween 2. And how can you exclude Paranormal Activity, the only film that had me up all night after seeing it. I can only imagine that its success makes it too mainstream for your article which is a shame because it is easily one of the best horror films I've ever seen. The fact that you have an inferior film like 28 Weeks Later on here instead makes me gag more than when I watched Human Centipede.

The list is really good. Thank you for the posting. It's particularly nice for inclusion of several from the Tartan 'Asian Extreme.' In addition to the list, Ji-Woon's "A Tale of Two Sisters" should be added. It's effectively creepy and disturbing without bloodletting. And, considering how the French Exteme appears with "Martyrs" and "Inside," Marina De Van's unnoticed "In My Skin" and Xavier Gens' "Frontiere(s)" should be discused.

This doesnt seem to be a list of the Scariest movies of the OO's; more like a list of the "artsy movies most critics THINK are the best horror movies of the OOs". History of Violence and War of the Worlds are not only overrated, they are not scary in the least. Wolf Creek was low budget sadistic crap of the torture porn variety. The Descent is always a critics favorite even though it made no sense at all and had glaring flaws. Im glad to see Drag Me to Hell, althought the Orphanage should be much higher....and using the weak criteria here, PANS LABYRINTH should be on it. The American remakes of THE RING and PULSE are scarier and more superior to their foreign originals. Also, why critics continue to view 28 WEEKS LATER as superior to the groundbreaking original 28 DAYS LATER is beyond me. The fact that neither THE RING or SESSION 9 or 28 DAYS LATER appears here automatically casts doubt on this list. Heck, even 30 DAYS OF NIGHT is more intense and scary than half the films here.

Has anyone seen Eden Lake (2008)?

It surely is the most disturbing horror film of the aughts. Maybe more so than Martyrs, as it is a film grounded in reality and it comments on youth violence in Britain.

See it for sure. The director, James Watson, is mightily talented and his remake of The Woman in Black for Hammer films (famous revived studio that also just did Let Me In,) comes out in January 2012. Eden Lake also stars the very talented Michael Fassbender

I also hear good things about newish British director Simon Rumley.

He did one film in the aughts: The Living and the Dead (2006).

He just released another film called Red White & Blue (2010. Both films, like the three above, are disturbing and based in reality.

Also if you peeps like low budget short films, there is another disturbing collection directed by Douglas Buck, called Family Portraits: A Trilogy of America (2003)

Anyway, I loved the list. This is my favorite website. Keep up the good work!

Best, Nick S.

Visitor Q, 28 Weeks Later, Suicide Club, The Human Centipede, War of the Worlds, Halloween II, A History of Violence, and Inland Empire. Felt like films that shouldn't be on the list. A History of Violence while a great film doesn't feel like a horror film at all, but more of crime thriller. The rest I could easily replace with similar and better films.

Antichrist is far too high as well, while Let the Right One In is far too low (at least it beats Let Me In). How Them is so high on the list is beyond me as High Tension wasn't even included. But the most bizzare choice is Pulse as #1, which might not even crack many other top 25's.

Notable missing: American Psycho, The Devil's Backbone, The Ring and/or Ringu, Frailty, High Tension, [REC], Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead, A Tale of Two Sisters, Trick 'R Treat, Dawn of the Dead, Pan's Labriynth, 28 Days Later, Shadow of the Vampire, and Saw all felt missing when looking at some rather mediocre inclusions. The disinclusion of the five most signficant horror films for the decade: The Ring, Shaun of the Dead, Saw, 28 Days Later, and Dawn of the Dead—made the entire list suspect. Mainstream or not they are important and in most cases very good. Certainly better than War of the Worlds or Halloween II.

As a fan of the genre I also would be tempted to include more speciality films that are geared towards horror buffs rather than a general audience. The House of the Devil is a great example of this type of film. Others include The Signal (albiet polarizing), Carriers, Eden Lake, May, Ginger Snaps, Dog Soldiers, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, Session 9, May, The Last Exorcism, TrollHunter, Monsters, Red,White,&Blue, Funny Games and Thirst.

Saw shouldn't make this list for the same reasons Friday the 13th shouldn't make a best of all time list—influence and longevity and household name aside, its simply not good enough.

Pulse may not make many peoples' top 25, but I'd chalk that up to it being beyond the understanding/taste of most people. I knew it had to be in the top 3 of Slant's list as it is one of the best horror films in world cinema—if you go back and look over the end of decade polls (film comment, Slant) you'll actually see that it is one of the decade's highest ranked foreign horror films, other than perhaps The Host. Slant's list is ballsy and all the better for it, but I wouldn't consider putting Pulse #1 as bizarre or surprising in the least. Its a great film.

I found Eden Lake to be as tense as anything I've ever seen.

Nimrod Antal's "Vacancy," and Larry Fessenden's "The Last Winter" are both decent horror films. With "Vacancy," the implied violence is very scary as is the smart direction to implicate the viewer for watching. "The Last Winter" is a clever, 'green' monster film. I think that like with his "Wendigo," however, things fall apart in the end.

Also, could the critics individually list their choices, like they do for yearly "Top 10 Lists"? Did anyone have LaBute's "The Wicker Man," for instance?

@Gregory. I love world cinema in terms of horror (more so than any other genre). I put Pulse in about the same place as Battle Royale. A very cool concept with some interesting stuff going on, but the direction, convention, and overall plot hold it back. In terms of foreign films, I find explicitly better than Pulse: Let the Right One In is an enrapturing tale of adolescence and awkwardness with immaculate cinematography. Eden Lake is perhaps one of the most striking scary films since Halloween and all too relevant in Britain with their knife violence issues. The Descent on paper has all the elements and execution that made Alien a success—claustrophobia, scary monsters, over-sexualized imagery, and that perfect mix of tension of action. A Tale of Two Sisters or Ringu far better encompassed the heart of the Yurei films and delivered a personal stake to it with Ringu holding a far tighter plot and similar technology fears to Pulse. Martyrs, Inside, High Tension all delivered from the New French Extreme on the premise that the conscious can be shocked. Martyrs above the other two proved that there is something hauntingly beautiful in the violence. Cache another film not on the list really explored the cerebral and delicate side of cerebral horror and like Martyrs plagued my mind for several days after viewing. The Devil's Backbone and The Orphanage were chillers with similar pacing and executions. [REC] was a near perfect zombie shaky cam film that delivered an intense sense of doom which seemed almost in contrast to the rest of Spain's chiller films. Its message about the government and disease are as realistically nihilistic as the brilliance of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later. ........and that is just scratching the surface and not talking about films like The Host, Severance, Dog Soldiers, Thirst, Wolf Creek, Rogue, Dead Snow, The Ordeal, and Troll Hunter that I would rank at or beyond Pulse.

Oh boy! Where do I start? I mean, I understand varying opinions and variety but this list is pretty bad. I mean seriously, why is are A History of Violence, War of The Worlds and Inland Empire on a list of Horror films. There are many films which can provoke terror in it's audience that aren't horror films and for that reason alone, these films should not be on here.

Furthermore, while some of your rankings are questionable (I hate Antichrist but understand why others do, but #8?), your inclusion, ranking and write up of Rob Zombie's Halloween 2 is completely indefensible and pretty much robs this list of credibility. I'm all for intellectualizing the reasons for liking a movie but, you seem to be stretching the boundaries of intellect when you praise such a film but when you also insisting that is holds a candle to the original Halloween, you are insulting Horror as a genre. It's even more distressing when it is ranked at #6 yet you don't even include many of the notable (by notable I mean much better) horror films such as Saw, Frailty, & I Saw The Devil. You don't include some brilliant horror comedies like Shawn Of The Dead, Zombieland and Slither. You don't even include one of the very best horror films of the decade, [REC]!

Am I being overly touchy? Maybe. But to back up my point, Halloween 2 on Rotten Tomatoes:20%, [REC] on Rotten Tomatoes: 96%.

BWROSS—I love all the films you mention. As far as Asian films go, I simply think Pulse is a better film than A Tale of Two Sisters and Ringu. But Ringu is kind of a moot point since I think it is from 1998. And I'm not saying I necessarily think Pulse is better than Let The Right One In, either, just that Pulse was the foreign horror film, along with The Host and Let the Right One In, that seemed to receive the most end of decade mentions and therefore it didn't strike me as bizarre that it would finish #1 here...for what it's worth. For the record, Martyrs is probably my #1.

I think Halloween 2 is approximately the equivalent of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me in that one has to let the film shatter one's preconceptions of the franchise in order to give oneself over to it as it chronicles a descent into madness that is actually quite terrifying, powerful and beautiful.

Nonetheless...a 96% is pretty freakin' high, and usually when a genre film scores that high on the tomatometer it means something...so I'm curious, where was REC on this list or in the minds of Slant writers?

I agree, Rob. I can't see how anybody with a heart could not get emotionally-invested in "Halloween 2" super 8 scene. I won't copy and paste any quotes from my analysis, due to spoilers, but seriously—it's one of the best things a horror film has done recently. As well as a myriad other things surrounding that pivitol moment.

The only film I feel is missing, I can understand missing. Haha. Victor Salva's "Jeepers Creepers" is a supremely personal work of a director expressing personal demons. The way he is a filmmaker creating this horror film with all these sexually perverse images and ideas is incredibly raw in paralleling him with the film's own villain. The homoeroticism, sudden brutality, and other mythology behind that film is unsettling in ways other horror films don't manage with me in the aughts.

"A Tale of Two Sisters" is great, but "Kairo" deserves the #1 spot.

I've always felt Miike's "Box" to be one of the more lyrical and poetic examples of horror out there. This short film seems largely unrecognized. Of course, the fact that it is a short film probably disqualifies it from most lists anyway, unless someone were to nominate Three Extremes in its entirety, which is doubtful given that the other two short films in the collection pare in comparison to Miike's.

Speaking of boxes, I was hoping that Kelly's "The Box" would somehow slip into the list, considering that the list spans sci-fi and Lynchian style horror.

Agree with most everything except for "Visitor Q" which is more like "Pink Flamingos" than any horror film. Laughed all the way through it, as Miike piles on offense after offense. "Gozu" is more horrific and Lynchian. "Audition"? Well, after all the build-up I found it wonderful and Hitchcockian, but not very horrific.

BUT!!! Kudos to whoever chose "Pulse" as number one. Yes, yes, and yes. No other film has succeeded in showing the soulessness of modern society as this film. Kiss yr pointy little head.

You have no idea how happy it makes me to see 'Suicide Club' on this list, it's good time that Sion Sono got the recognition he deserves on this site. 'Strange Circus' is even better.

I can't believe no one has yet noticed that "Audition" is from 1999 and therefore shouldn't be eligible for this list. Also I don't really consider "A History Of Violence" to be a horror film, or even really a thriller, even though it is by Cronenberg,it's a drama. One film which is little seen and I have never seen on anybody's list anywhere is "Joshua" from 2007 I think. Very creepy.

Has anyone seen the adaptation of the Jack Ketchum story, The Lost (2006)?

It is produced by May/The Woman's Lucky McKee. It is directed by Chris Sivertson, the same guy who did I Know Who Killed Me, but it's'a far superior balance of blunt horror and dark humor. Check it out.

It also has a great performance by the then-newcomer Marc Senter.

The creatures in "The Mist" weren't genetically mutated. The military opened a portal to another dimension from which all these creatures spilled.

I can't begin to tell you how happy I am to have discovered people who share my passion for Zombie's HALLOWEEN II. I'd almost begun to feel like I was crazy for loving it as I do. Thanks, Slant Magazine. There seems to be so much reductive thinking out there among Horror Film fans as to what the Horror Film "is" and what it can do. It's very frustrating. There are no good reasons for films like INLAND EMPIRE not to be on this list but for that type of thinking.

I refuse to believe Zombie's Halloween II deserves a place, whilst [REC] is not even mentioned in passing sentence. I also found 28 Weeks Later only very clumsily executed the political messages it attempted to convey.

If you are seemingly pushing the genre boundaries, perhaps Pan's Labyrinth could be considered.

Some good ones on there, but Halloween II?!? I didn't like it much, and I'm a fan of the franchise (Even the not-so-good movies). As stated, it wasn't pretty to look at- too much violence, and unnecessary at that.

Pulse was amazing. Flawless. I assume, though, that you're talking about the Japanese original and not the half-assed American remake.

Kind of an odd list. Halloween II above The House of the Devil and Let the Right One In? Strange. Also no [REC]?? Audition is from the 90s too. The Woman should have got some consideration also.

I think this is a better list... http://edinburghhorrorclub.blogspot.com/2012/01/horror-club-top-5-post-2000-horror.html

Was Twentynine Palms in contention?