Mark Hofmeyer of Movies, Films, and Flix recently undertook the Herculean task of identifying the top-ranked horror movies of the 21st century, thus far. By reading through and aggregating scores drawn from critics and users of sites including IMDb, Metacritic, and Rotten Tomatoes, as well as data from horror sites including Fangoria and Bloody Disgusting, he was able to come up with four separate lists ranking the most acclaimed horror films of the last 15 years according to both critics and audiences alike.
The entire process and resulting analysis and discussion over on MFF is fascinating and well worth an in-depth read—and then, of course, Hofmeyer decided to take things to the next level and asked readers to vote for the Best Horror Film of the 21st Century. The results of that poll are now in, so it’s officially time to FIGHT, INTERNET, FIGHT!!! (By which I mean, take a look at the list below and politely discuss our feelings and opinions about what does and does not belong in the top ten…)
Without further ado, here’s the MFF list, based on votes/poll results:
#10 Drag Me To Hell
#9 Mulholland Drive
#8 Shaun Of The Dead
#7 The Babadook
#6 It Follows
#5 Let The Right One In
#4 The Descent
#3 28 Days Later
#2 Pan’s Labyrinth
#1 The Cabin In the Woods
As the AV Club has pointed out, this new ranking features fewer horror comedies than Hofmeyer’s original lists did (no Zombieland, no What We Do In The Shadows, for example), but overall it’s an interesting mix. On a purely subjective level, I love several of these movies (Mulholland Drive, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Shaun Of The Dead, while very, very different takes on the genre, are all insanely brilliant). Others, I don’t care for at all (I’m rather surprised that Drag Me To Hell rates as highly as it does here and in the previous lists; while I’m a longtime Sam Raimi fan and rushed to the theater to see it on opening weekend, I found it extremely disappointing on multiple levels.)
I was pleasantly surprised to see The Cabin in the Woods in the top spot, though. It’s a movie that I had quite a few thoughts about when it first came out in 2012, when I wrote about its potential long-term pop cultural significance at some length (with bonus Breakfast Club references thrown in for good measure). Personally, I’m delighted to see people voting for a film that manages to be fun, funny, and genuinely clever while driving home a powerful critique of Hollywood and the culture at large. But clearly “horror,” as a genre, means a lot of different things to all kinds of different people—how do these rankings stack up against your own personal Best Of list? And what movie would you nominate for the number one spot?
Bridget McGovern is the managing editor of Tor.com and can’t wait to finally see What We Do In The Shadows this weekend.
Really? I mean given the Whedon-base’s penchant for blindly block-voting in any and all reader and viewer polls, it is practically de rigueur. Its a fun pastiche of the genre, that whiles away a couple of hours, but it doesn’t really bring anything new to the party in terms of horror or even that much in playing with the genre’s tropes. It is a one trick pony which relies on not having seen it before, and on repeat viewing it just becomes a little dull and completely lacking in tension. In fact with all the usual Whedonisms in it, it is the Family Guy of the horror genre (and the Family Guy “Who killed James Woods” special is better) and lacking only a giant chicken fight. It is best practise in every fan poll to ignore any Whedon product and simply bump the rest up a place instead. So I can say that I am pleasantly surprised to see the infinitely better Pan’s Labyrinth in first place.
but Shaun of the dead isn’t a horror film
In the Mouth of Madness should be on this list. It’s sad that not only are there no Carpenter films on here, but there’s nothing classic at all.
@3: You might have overlooked the qualifier “of the 21st century.”
Shaun of the Dead was a great fun romantic comedy, definitely not a movie for this list. Cabin in the Woods also super fun movie, but horror, naw?
Maybe replace those two choices with The Conjuring and Deliver us from Evil?
The only movie missing here is Kill List.
Mulholland Drive and Pan’s Labyrinth count as horror? That’s kind of stupid.
Insidious should be on this list.
Not a bad list. I’d kick Drag Me to Hell off the end and replace it with Absentia.
Mulholland Drive and Pan’s Labyrinth count as horror? That’s kind of stupid.
It is a bit. Mulholland Drive is a lot of things but I wouldn’t say it was a horror film. Pan’s Labyrinth too – is it really horror? Not just fantasy?
Then again, what is a horror film? Does it have to have a supernatural element? (In that case you’re losing Psycho and Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a whole lot of others) Does it just have to be scary – to make the audience jump? Because I don’t think anyone would count Jurassic Park as horror…
And all the “horror” purists start coming out of the wood work…
Not sure why lately, just a grand case of synchronicity, but I’ve seen a lot of talk about the horror genre and there are always those who have to come out and yell about why certain movies aren’t “horror” because… well they never really say why, because they never really define horror, beyond pointing to their favorites like Scream or Friday the 13th (so, slasher flicks only?).
Maybe the biggest “problem” with horror, and why such fans start frothing at the mouth that movies aren’t “pure”, is that it’s one of the easiest genres to mix with others. You could easily make a scifi/horror film (Sunshine), or fantasy/horror film (Pan’s Labyrinth), or comedy/horror film (Shaun of the Dead, Cabin). And I guess that’s where people have their opinions on whether they count it as true horror.
Me, I don’t really like jump-scare movies or slashers. I prefer movies with a psychological element. For it to be a good horror movie it needs to make me frightened on an almost subconscious level. It needs to be creepy and disturbing. Horror that is mixed with a good dose of psychological thriller.
To that end, of these I would rank The Babadook #1 (seriously scary). Pan’s Labyrinth is also great, not sure exactly where I’d rank it though. Mullholand Drive was creepy and weird, but was never really scary (well ok except for THAT SCENE). Shaun and Cabin were alright but wouldn’t make my top 10. It Follows was pretty good, but imo way overrated on the ‘net.
The others I haven’t seen so I can’t really say where I’d place them.
I think The Orphanage and The Devil’s Backbone both deserve places on the list.
I guess it’s nice to see that at least a few of the titles in the list of “Top 10 Horror” movies could actually be considered horror.
I want a horror movie to be scary.
I see very little of that as compared to movies from the 70s and 80s.