Top 100 Horror Movies of All Time: From Psycho to Edith Scob

Scariest Horror Movies: Sigourney Weaver and Alien creature demonstrate that life is less horrific if you don’t hold grudges.

Top 100 horror movies of all time: Chicago Film Critics’ choices

(See previous post: A look at the Chicago Film Critics Association’s Scariest Movies Ever Made.) Below is the list of the Chicago Film Critics’ Top 100 Horror Movies of All Time, including their directors and key cast members. Note: this list was first published in Oct. 2006.

See also: Fay Wray, Lee Patrick, Edwige Fenech, and Mary Philbin among the movies’ “Top Ten Scream Queens.”

1. Psycho (1960).
Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
Cast: Anthony Perkins. Janet Leigh. Vera Miles. John Gavin. Martin Balsam.

2. The Exorcist (1973).
Director: William Friedkin.
Cast: Ellen Burstyn. Linda Blair. Jason Miller. Max von Sydow. The voice of Mercedes McCambridge.

3. Halloween (1978).
Director: John Carpenter.
Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis. Donald Pleasence. Tony Moran.

4. Alien (1979).
Director: Ridley Scott.
Cast: Sigourney Weaver. Tom Skerritt. John Hurt.

5. Night of the Living Dead (1968).
Director: George A. Romero.
Cast: Marilyn Eastman. Judith O’Dea. Duane Jones.

6. Jaws (1975).
Director: Steven Spielberg.
Cast: Roy Scheider. Robert Shaw. Richard Dreyfuss.

7. The Shining (1980).
Director: Stanley Kubrick.
Cast: Jack Nicholson. Shelley Duvall.

8. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).
Director: Tobe Hooper.
Cast: Marilyn Burns. Allen Danziger.

9. Dawn of the Dead (1978).
Director: George A. Romero.
Cast: David Emge. Ken Foree. Scott H. Reiniger.

10. Rosemary’s Baby (1968).
Director: Roman Polanski.
Cast: Mia Farrow. John Cassavetes. Ruth Gordon. Sidney Blackmer. Maurice Evans. Patsy Kelly. Ralph Bellamy. Elisha Cook Jr. Charles Grodin.

11. The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Director: Jonathan Demme.
Cast: Anthony Hopkins. Jodie Foster. Diane Baker.

12. The Blair Witch Project (1999).
Director: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez.
Cast: Heather Donohue. Joshua Leonard. Michael C. Williams.

13. Nosferatu / Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922).
Director: F.W. Murnau.
Cast: Max Schreck. Greta Schröder. Gustav von Wangenheim.

14. Frankenstein (1931).
Director: James Whale.
Cast: Boris Karloff. Colin Clive. Mae Clarke. John Boles.

15. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).
Director: Wes Craven.
Cast: John Saxon. Ronee Blakley. Heather Langenkamp. Johnny Depp. Robert Englund.

16. Carrie (1976).
Director: Brian De Palma.
Cast: Sissy Spacek. Piper Laurie. Amy Irving. John Travolta. William Katt. Nancy Allen.

17. The Thing (1982).
Director: John Carpenter.
Cast: Kurt Russell. Wilford Brimley.

18. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
Director: James Whale.
Cast: Colin Clive. Valerie Hobson. Boris Karloff. Elsa Lanchester. Ernest Thesiger.

19. The Haunting (1963).
Director: Robert Wise.
Cast: Julie Harris. Claire Bloom. Richard Johnson. Russ Tamblyn.

20. Poltergeist (1982).
Director: Tobe Hooper.
Cast: Craig T. Nelson. JoBeth Williams. Beatrice Straight. Dominique Dunne. Heather O’Rourke.

21. Suspiria (1977).
Director: Dario Argento.
Cast: Jessica Harper. Flavio Bucci. Miguel Bosé. Alida Valli. Joan Bennett.

22. Wait Until Dark (1967).
Director: Terence Young.
Cast: Audrey Hepburn. Alan Arkin. Richard Crenna. Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

23. The Birds (1963).
Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
Cast: Rod Taylor. Tippi Hedren. Suzanne Pleshette. Jessica Tandy.

24. Don’t Look Now (1973).
Director: Nicolas Roeg.
Cast: Donald Sutherland. Julie Christie. Hilary Mason.

25. Evil Dead II / Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987).
Director: Sam Raimi.
Cast: Bruce Campbell. Sarah Berry. Dan Hicks.

26. The Innocents (1961).
Director: Jack Clayton.
Cast: Deborah Kerr. Pamela Franklin. Peter Wyngarde. Martin Stephens.

27. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986; released in 1990).
Director: John McNaughton.
Cast: Michael Rooker. Tracy Arnold.

28. Freaks (1932).
Director: Tod Browning.
Cast: Olga Baclanova. Wallace Ford. Leila Hyams. Roscoe Ates.

29. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).
Director: Don Siegel.
Cast: Kevin McCarthy. Dana Wynter.

30. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari / Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920).
Director: Robert Wiene.
Cast: Conrad Veidt. Werner Krauss. Lil Dagover.

31. The Omen (1976).
Director: Richard Donner.
Cast: Gregory Peck. Lee Remick. David Warner. Harvey Stephens.

32. The Fly (1986).
Director: David Cronenberg.
Cast: Jeff Goldblum. Geena Davis.

33. Se7en (1995).
Director: David Fincher.
Cast: Brad Pitt. Morgan Freeman. Gwyneth Paltrow.

34. Re-Animator (1985).
Director: Stuart Gordon.
Cast: Jeffrey Combs. Bruce Abbott. Barbara Crampton.

35. The Sixth Sense (1999).
Director: M. Night Shyamalan.
Cast: Bruce Willis. Haley Joel Osment. Toni Collette.

36. The Ring (2002).
Director: Gore Verbinski.
Cast: Naomi Watts. Martin Henderson.

37. The Evil Dead (1981).
Director: Sam Raimi.
Cast: Bruce Campbell. Ellen Sandweiss.

38. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931).
Director: Rouben Mamoulian.
Cast: Fredric March. Miriam Hopkins. Rose Hobart.

39. The Hitcher (1986).
Director: Robert Harmon.
Cast: Rutger Hauer. C. Thomas Howell.

40. Near Dark (1987).
Director: Kathryn Bigelow.
Cast: Adrian Pasdar. Jenny Wright. Lance Henriksen. Bill Paxton.

41. Dracula (1931).
Director: Tod Browning.
Cast: Bela Lugosi. David Manners. Helen Chandler.

42. Vampyr (1932).
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer.
Cast: Julian West. Maurice Schutz. Rena Mandel. Sybille Schmitz.

43. Onibaba (1964).
Director: Kaneto Shindô.
Cast: Nobuko Otowa. Jitsuko Yoshimura.

44. Scream (1996).
Director: Wes Craven.
Cast: Drew Barrymore. Neve Campbell. Skeet Ulrich. Courteney Cox.

45. Aliens (1986).
Director: James Cameron.
Cast: Sigourney Weaver. Michael Biehn.

46. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).
Director: Jack Arnold.
Cast: Richard Carlson. Julia Adams. Richard Denning.

47. Session 9 (2001).
Director: Brad Anderson.
Cast: David Caruso. Stephen Gevedon. Paul Guilfoyle. Josh Lucas.

48. Nosferatu the Vampyre / Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979).
Director: Werner Herzog.
Cast: Klaus Kinski. Isabelle Adjani. Bruno Ganz.

49. Black Christmas (1974).
Director: Bob Clark.
Cast: Olivia Hussey. Keir Dullea. Margot Kidder. John Saxon.

50. When a Stranger Calls (1979).
Director: Fred Walton.
Cast: Carol Kane. Rutanya Alda. Charles Durning. Colleen Dewhurst.

51. Repulsion (1965).
Director: Roman Polanski.
Cast: Catherine Deneuve. Ian Hendry. John Fraser. Yvonne Furneaux.

52. Misery (1990).
Director: Rob Reiner.
Cast: James Caan. Kathy Bates. Lauren Bacall.

53. Horror of Dracula / Dracula (1958).
Director: Terence Fisher.
Cast: Peter Cushing. Christopher Lee. Michael Gough. Melissa Stribling. Carol Marsh.

54. The Others (2001).
Director: Alejandro Amenábar.
Cast: Nicole Kidman. Fionnula Flanagan. Christopher Eccleston.

55. Jurassic Park (1993).
Director: Steven Spielberg.
Cast: Sam Neill. Laura Dern. Richard Attenborough. Jeff Goldblum.

56. The Seventh Victim (1943).
Director: Mark Robson.
Cast: Kim Hunter. Tom Conway. Jean Brooks. Evelyn Brent.

57. Peeping Tom (1958).
Director: Michael Powell.
Cast: Karlheinz Böhm (a.k.a. Carl Boehm). Moira Shearer. Anna Massey.

58. 28 Days Later… (2002).
Director: Danny Boyle.
Cast: Cillian Murphy. Naomie Harris. Christopher Eccleston. Brendan Gleeson.

59. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978).
Director: Philip Kaufman.
Cast: Donald Sutherland. Brooke Adams. Leonard Nimoy. Veronica Cartwright. Jeff Goldblum.

60. The Hidden (1987).
Director: Jack Sholder.
Cast: Kyle MacLachlan. Michael Nouri. Claudia Christian.

61. May (2002).
Director: Lucky McKee.
Cast: Angela Bettis. Jeremy Sisto. Anna Faris.

62. Shaun of the Dead (2004).
Director: Edgar Wright.
Cast: Simon Pegg. Nick Frost. Kate Ashfield.

63. The Last House on the Left (1972).
Director: Wes Craven.
Cast: David Hess. Sandra Peabody (as Sandra Cassell).

64. 10 Rillington Place (1971).
Director: Richard Fleischer.
Cast: Richard Attenborough. Judy Geeson. John Hurt.

65. Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom / Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (1975).
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Cast: Paolo Bonacelli. Giorgio Cataldi. Umberto Paolo Quintavalle.

66. Cat People (1942).
Director: Jacques Tourneur.
Cast: Simone Simon. Kent Smith. Tom Conway.

67. Frailty (2001).
Director: Bill Paxton.
Cast: Bill Paxton. Matthew McConaughey. Powers Boothe. Jeremy Sumpter. Matt O’Leary.

68. The Howling (1981).
Director: Joe Dante.
Cast: Dee Wallace. Patrick Macnee. Dennis Dugan.

69. Trilogy of Terror (1975, TV).
Director: Dan Curtis.
Cast: Karen Black. Robert Burton. John Karlen.

70. Blue Velvet (1986).
Director: David Lynch.
Cast: Kyle MacLachlan. Laura Dern. Isabella Rossellini. Dennis Hopper.

71. I Walked with a Zombie (1943).
Director: Jacques Tourneur.
Cast: Frances Dee. James Ellison. Tom Conway.

72. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1974, TV).^[1]
Director: Dan Curtis.
Cast: Jack Palance. Simon Ward. Nigel Davenport. Pamela Brown.

73. Martin (1976; released in 1978).
Director: George A. Romero.
Cast: John Amplas. Lincoln Maazel. Christine Forrest.

74. Deliverance (1972).
Director: John Boorman.
Cast: Jon Voight. Burt Reynolds. Ned Beatty. Ronny Cox.

75. Carnival of Souls (1962).
Director: Herk Harvey.
Cast: Candace Hilligoss. Sidney Berger.

76. The Vanishing / Spoorlos (1988).
Director: George Sluizer.
Cast: Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu. Gene Bervoets. Johanna ter Steege.

77. The Masque of the Red Death (1964).
Director: Roger Corman.
Cast: Vincent Price. Hazel Court. Jane Asher. Jack Weston.

78. The Night of the Hunter (1955).
Director: Charles Laughton.
Cast: Robert Mitchum. Shelley Winters. Lillian Gish.

79. Salem’s Lot (1979, TV).
Director: Tobe Hooper.
Cast: David Soul. James Mason. Lance Kerwin. Bonnie Bedelia. Lew Ayres.

80. Fright Night (1985).
Director: Tom Holland.
Cast: Chris Sarandon. William Ragsdale. Amanda Bearse. Roddy McDowall.

81. Black Sunday / La maschera del demonio (1960).
Director: Mario Bava.
Cast: Barbara Steele. John Richardson. Andrea Checchi.

82. Scream 2 (1997).
Director: Wes Craven.
Cast: Neve Campbell. Heather Graham. Omar Epps. Jada Pinkett Smith. Sarah Michelle Gellar.

83. Dressed to Kill (1980).
Director: Brian De Palma.
Cast: Angie Dickinson. Nancy Allen. Michael Caine. Keith Gordon.

84. The Stepfather (1987).
Director: Joseph Ruben.
Cast: Terry O’Quinn. Jill Schoelen. Shelley Hack.

85. Friday the 13th (1980).
Director: Sean S. Cunningham.
Cast: Betsy Palmer. Adrienne King. Kevin Bacon. Jeannine Taylor.

86. The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005).
Director: Scott Derrickson.
Cast: Laura Linney. Campbell Scott. Tom Wilkinson. Jennifer Carpenter.

87. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971).
Director: John D. Hancock.
Cast: Zohra Lampert. Barton Heyman. Kevin O’Connor.

88. The Brood (1979).
Director: David Cronenberg.
Cast: Oliver Reed. Samantha Eggar. Art Hindle.

89. Dead Alive / Braindead (1992).
Director: Peter Jackson.
Cast: Timothy Balme. Diana Peñalver. Elizabeth Moody. Ian Watkin.

90. Open Water (2004).
Director: Chris Kentis.
Cast: Blanchard Ryan. Daniel Travis. Michael E. Williams. Saul Stein.

91. The Mummy (1932).
Director: Karl Freund.
Cast: Boris Karloff. Zita Johann. David Manners. Arthur Byron.

92. Requiem for a Dream (2000).
Director: Darren Aronofsky.
Cast: Ellen Burstyn. Jared Leto. Jennifer Connelly. Marlon Wayans.

93. Signs (2002).
Director: M. Night Shyamalan.
Cast: Mel Gibson. Joaquin Phoenix. Rory Culkin. Abigail Breslin.

94. The Wolf Man (1941).
Director: George Waggner.
Cast: Lon Chaney Jr. Warren William. Claude Rains. Bela Lugosi. Ralph Bellamy. Patric Knowles. Maria Ouspenskaya. Evelyn Ankers.

95. Phantasm (1979).
Director: Don Coscarelli.
Cast: A. Michael Baldwin. Bill Thornbury. Reggie Bannister.

96. The Night Stalker (1972, TV).^[1]
Director: John Llewellyn Moxey.
Cast: Darren McGavin. Carol Lynley. Simon Oakland. Ralph Meeker.

97. The Brides of Dracula (1960).
Director: Terence Fisher.
Cast: Peter Cushing. Martita Hunt. Yvonne Monlaur. Freda Jackson.

98. M (1930).
Director: Fritz Lang.
Cast: Peter Lorre. Otto Wernicke.

99. God Told Me To (1976).
Director: Larry Cohen.
Cast: Tony Lo Bianco. Deborah Raffin. Sandy Dennis. Sylvia Sidney.

100. Eyes Without a Face / Les Yeux sans visage (1960).
Director: Georges Franju.
Cast: Pierre Brasseur. Alida Valli. Edith Scob.

Horror TV movie ‘The Night Stalker’ with Darren McGavin.

Which ‘The Night Stalker’? Which ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’?

^[1] It’s unclear which The Night Stalker the Chicago Film Critics are referring to in their Top 100 Horror Movies, but it’s likely the 1972 made-for-TV horror movie, in which a journalist investigates a series of murders committed by a vampire. An unrelated 1987 big-screen suspense thriller called The Night Stalker was directed by Max Kleven, and featured Charles Napier and Joan Chen.

Also unclear is the Chicago Film Critics’ choice of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I’m assuming it’s Dan Curtis’ 1974 made-for-TV horror movie, as it’s found three slots below Curtis’ Trilogy of Terror. Another possibility is Francis Ford Coppola’s costlier and better-known 1992 film, which shares the same original title though it’s chiefly known as just Dracula; Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, and Keanu Reeves star.

The image of Sigourney Weaver and the Alien creature letting go of their horror grudge was found on Twitter.

Darren McGavin in the horror TV movie The Night Stalker image: ABC.