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John
Murphy leaned across the table in the dimly lit, unassuming, Irish pub, which at first
had seemed ill-suited for such a clandestine meeting. In a tone
of voice that would be
reserved for informing someone that they are descended
from a long ancestral line of
demon hunters, vampire slayers, and ghost busters
that dated back to an ancient
pre-historical order, destined to protect the world from the forces of darkness, Murphy
said: “This is what we’ve been preparing for our whole lives!”
We were
there to assemble the ultimate list of top 100 Halloween movies, save
the holiday, and
pander to our own sense of self-importance. Our lifetime of preparations had included
being members of M-Factor, an illustrious organization
devoted to vanquishing
creatures of the night, which we also happened to have
founded. We smuggled some of
the most grotesquely, cheesy B-horror flicks of
all-time from the local video store
with our patented bait-and-switch con. That is, stashing a copy of (insert any film from
our “so bad they’re good” list) in a tape sleeve reserved for The Love of Benji
— with that warm-hearted, lovable, furry golden mutt — and renting that. In grade
school, we wrote our own brutal horror stories (brutal as more of a critique on
our style than a reflection of the content), pitting Jason against Freddy, Poltergeist
against Amityville, and our own villainous fiends against scores of dimwitted
teens.
Halloween as we know it is in danger of extinction. Every year
urban legends of
razor-barbed apples and poison-laced candy taint the 2,000-year-old
holiday. Each year, across the country, fewer kids seem to be “trick or treating”
and
some communities have even enforced an all-out ban on festivities. These
anti-Hallo-weenies seem to view the date as a sort of “gateway” holiday; if kids
start
enjoying Halloween, it may lead to the harder stuff like dying their hair
black and
painting their nails!
We responded in the same way we’d always handled
issues of this magnitude
— we hit the bar. Our mission moved through the pub faster
than an apocalyptic zombie plague would decimate the population — everyone got infected
with the
Halloween spirit. Using journalistic techniques in Hunter S. Thompson
fashion we
interviewed patrons, conducted an informal survey, and drank ourselves
silly.
Everyone in our survey unanimously listed these first twenty-five
“classic” horror movies.
Twenty-five Halloween
Classics
Compiled by Josh Gryniewicz & John M.
Murphy
25. Fall of the House
of Usher (1960)
24. The Blob
(1958)
23. Twilight
Zone (1983)
22. The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
21. Frankenstein
(1931)
20. The Wolf Man
(1941)
19. The Mummy
(1932)
18. Invasion of the
Body Snatchers (1978)
17. Jaws
(1975)
16. Rosemary’s
Baby (1968)
15. The Silence of
the Lambs (1991) (read the review)
14. Friday the
13th (1980)
16. The Blair Witch
Project (1999)
15. An American
Werewolf in London (1981)
14. The Evil Dead
(1981)
13. Fright Night
(1985)
12. The Birds
(1963)
11. Dracula
(1931)
10. Poltergeist
(1982)
Horror (1979)
8. The Omen
(1976)
7. The Shining
(1980)
6. The Exorcist
(1973)
5. Alien
(1979)
Elm Street (1984)
3. Halloween
(1978)
2. Night of the
Living Dead (1968)
1. Psycho
(1960)
Twenty-five “Classics” that are So Bad They’re
Good
Compiled by Josh Gryniewicz & John M.
Murphy
25. Sorority Babes in
the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1988)
24. Class of Nuke
‘Em High (1986)
23. They Bite
(1996)
22. Night of the
Demons III (1997)
21. Silent Night,
Deadly Night (1984)
20. Bad Taste
(1987)
19. Bordello of
Blood (1996)
18. Killer Klowns
from Outer Space (1988)
17. Blacula (1972)
(1980)
15. Night of the
Lepus (1972)
14. Surf Nazis Must
Die (1987)
13. The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
12. C.H.U.D. II – Bud the Chud
(1989)
11. Ghoulies
(1985)
Massacre (1982)
9. Sleepaway
Camp (1983)
8. Night of
the Creeps (1986)
Zombietown (1989)
6. Motel Hell
(1980)
5. Demon Knight
(1995)
Killer Tomatoes! (1978)
3. Freddy Vs. Jason (2003) (read the review)
(1987)
Outer Space (1959)
Disclaimer: Please note — the list of
Top 100 Halloween Movies includes 125
films. However “Top 100” has a more
official-sounding ring. Also, subheadings
were added long after the titles were
collected. The authors would like to thank
N&W.com, John Dewey of Dark House Cinema,
Erika, Melanie, the Great Pumpkin, and the entire crowd at Teehan’s for helping save
Halloween.
For more of Josh and John’s list, see:
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
