“Horror crashes through boundaries and challenges the prohibitions of taste and thinkability in a way few other genres can match,” said film critic Peter Bradshaw. “Horror demonstrates the Guignol potential of cinema and the brutal way it can toy with the viewer.”
These are the 25 greatest horror films according to the critics of the Guardian and Observer.
Director: Roman Polanski
Stars: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes
, Ruth Gordon
Director: Nicholas Roeg
Stars: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland
, Hilary Mason
Director: Robin Hardy
Stars: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee
, Diane Cilento
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall
, Danny Lloyd
Director: William Friedkin
Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow
, Linda Blair
Director: F.W. Murnau
Stars: Max Schreck, Greta Schröder
, Ruth Landshoff
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Stars: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson
, Per Ragnar
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Stars: Julian West, Maurice Schutz
, Rena Mandel
Director: Michael Powell
Stars: Karlheinz Böhm, Anna Massey
, Moira Shearer
Director: Jack Clayton
Stars: Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde
, Megs Jenkins
Director: Hideo Nakata
Stars: Nanako Matsushima, Miki Nakatani
, Yûko Takeuchi
Director: Robert Wise
Stars: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom
, Richard Johnson
Director: Tobe Hooper
Stars: Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal
, Allen Danziger
Directors: Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton
Stars: Mervyn Johns, Michael Redgrave
, Roland Culver
Director: John Carpenter
Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis
, Tony Moran
Director: James Whale
Stars: Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester
, Colin Clive
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Stars: Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot
, Paul Meurisse
Original title: Dracula
Director: Terence Fisher
Stars: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee
, Michael Gough
Directors: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez
Stars: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams
, Joshua Leonard
Evil Dead
Director: Sam Raimi
Stars: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss
, Richard DeManincor
Evil Dead II
Director: Sam Raimi
Stars: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry
, Dan Hicks
Director: Brian De Palma
Stars: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie
, Amy Irving
Director: Louis Feuillade
Stars: Musidora, Édouard Mathé
, Marcel Lévesque
The Guardian (founded in 1821) is a British national daily newspaper, and the Observer (founded in 1791) is its Sunday sibling. They are amongst the most influential papers in the world. The Guardian and its journalists have won numerous journalism awards, especially in the last decades.
Source: The Guardian
Last checked on: 16 January 2016
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