50 Scariest Movies of All-Time?!

'The Thing' is the "scariest movie...ever!" according to 'Boston'

It seems like quite the task, but Boston.com (home of The Boston Globe) has come up with what they consider to be the "Top 50 Scariest Movies of All-Time," a list that has its omissions, but warrants some definite approval of the biggest of horror cinema fans.

They included most of the indisputable films of the last 50 years, such as Ridley Scott's Alien (#5), John Carpenter's Halloween (#9), William Friedkin's The Exorcist (#14), and Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (#22). But it's their choice to reign Carpenter's The Thing (1982) (pictured top right) supreme as the scariest flick on the list, that many would beg to differ. A young Kurt Russell stars in the cult classic as a helicopter pilot who is part of a scientific crew that is stranded at a U.S. research base in the Anarctic, where they become the prey of "the thing." It proved even more terrifying than the 1951 original that it borrowed its story from, but No.1?!

Even more concerning, though, is the addition of some features that were never meant to be scary, like the children's classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) at #47, and most suspiciously, 2006's Jesus Camp (#17), a documentary that follows the God-fearin' church children that are essentially brain-washed into faithfully devoting themselves to the words of the Bible. Truth be told, Jesus Camp induced a different kind of fear, one that felt more real than any Wes Craven nightmare or Ridley Scott alien, because it's based on actual events!

Then again, Open Water (#37) was also based on a true story, while The Exorcist (#14) and The Amittyville Horror (#39) were also supposedly inspired--loosely--on real events. Other films on the list, such as Jaws (#15), The Silence of the Lambs (#22), and Arachnophobia (#50) (pictured bottom right), are easily possible. Now that's scary!

According to Boston.com we are currently in the "scariest" decade for filmmaking, as there are more movies (14) from 2000-08 than any other decade, followed by the '70s (13), the '80s (12), and the '90s (7), while the '50s (1) and '60s (3) came up short, barely sending a chill down our backs. There was a concentration of horror classics during the late 1970s that really brought the genre to its knees, including cult favs like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Dawn of the Dead (1978) (pictured left), Halloween (1978), Alien (1979), and The Amittyville Horror (1979), all of which have been remade in some form or another.

Compiling the 50 scariest motion pictures is not exactly a new premise, but this updated chart brings some new blood to an ever-growing genre of gore and horror, and definitely hits home with some stand-out picks. Personally, I was more than satisfied to see some under-appreciated and overlooked gems mentioned, including Peter Medak's The Changeling (1980), John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness (1994), Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (2002), Frank Darabont's The Mist (2007), and even Frank Marshall's creepy spider fest Arachnophobia (1990), all terrifying in their own way.

The site's staff were also aware of the foreign efforts that have thrilled North American audiences for years, paying homage to nations like England (The Wicker Man, The Innocents), Canada (Videodrome, The Changeling), Japan (Ju-on, Audition), Spain (REC), Italy (The Gates of Hell), and even South Korea (A Tale of Two Sisters). But the heart of evil seems to fit squarely in Hollywood, where they make the best of the worst nightmares come true, and where legendary directors like Kubrick (The Shining), Spielberg (Jaws), Romero (Dawn of the Dead), Carpenter (The Thing), and Demme (The Silence of the Lambs) produce the best scary movies of all.

Another legend of the American horror experience is iconic novelist Stephen King, who's books are responsible for no less than four of the top 50 films: The Shining at No.11, The Mist at No.28, Salem's Lot at No.34, and Pet Sematary at No.38. Not surprisingly, King's only foray into directing, 1986's disasterous Maximum Overdrive, failed to make the final draft.

From 1953's The War of the Worlds (No.25) to last year's Cloverfield (No.12) we, as an audience, have had the shit scared right out of us, and as we become immune to flesh-eating zombies and blood-sucking vampires, Hollywood (& beyond) is forced to come up with new ways to evoke fear. We've been exposed to cannibalism (The Silence of the Lambs), ritualistic murders (Se7en), repulsive experimentation (Eraserhead), Satanism (Rosemary's Baby), masked psychopaths (Halloween), haunted houses (The Amittyville Horror), killer sharks (Jaws), and even a demonic pinhead (Hellraiser), yet we continue to forage for even more.

But what we don't see on this list is a number of high profile efforts that would pain superfans indefinitely, as Boston.com admits its omits of some memorable films, such as Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), Brian De Palma's Carrie (1976), Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist (1982), and any of the countless Friday the 13th thrashers (1980-2009).

Then there's The Omen (1976), the original Evil Dead (1982), Near Dark (1987), The Blair Witch Project (1999), and 28 Weeks Later (2007), all left on the sidelines, but seemingly necessary to forfill a list such as this. And if you're gonna include the unconventional Jesus Camp, then what about other fear mongering documentaries, like Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine (2002), Davis Guggenheim's An Inconvenient Truth (2006), and Dylan Avery's Loose Change series (2006-09)?


I guess we'll just have to accept the list as is, but you're more than welcome to submit some of your own omissions or confess your agreeance with any of the picks. Below is the complete list of Boston.com's "50 Scariest Movies," as well as the year they were released and their directors.

1. The Thing (1982)-John Carpenter
2. Ju-on (2000)-Takashi Shimizu
3. REC (2007)-Jaume Balaguero, Paco Plaza
4. The Ring (2002)-Gore Verbinski
5. Alien (1979)-Ridley Scott
6. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)-Philip Kaufman
7. Dawn of the Dead (1978)-George A. Romero
8. Evil Dead II (1987)-Sam Raimi
9. Halloween (1978)-John Carpenter
10. Audition (1999)-Takashi Miike
11. The Shining (1980)-Stanley Kubrick
12. Cloverfield (2008)-Matt Reeves
13. Quatermass and the Pit (1968)-Roy Ward Baker
14. The Exorcist (1973)-William Friedkin
15. Jaws (1975)-Steven Spielberg
16. Jacob's Ladder (1990)-Adrian Lyne
17. Jesus Camp (2006)-Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
18. 28 Days Later (2002)-Danny Boyle
19. The Changeling (1980)-Peter Medak
20. Hellraiser (1987)-Clive Barker
21. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)-Tobe Hooper
22. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)-Jonathan Demme
23. A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)-Kim Ji-woon
24. Saw (2004)-James Wan
25. The War of the Worlds (1953)-Byron Haskin
26. Se7en (1995)-David Fincher
27. Videodrome (1983)-David Cronenberg
28. The Mist (2007)-Frank Darabont
29. The Mothman Prophecies (2002)-Mark Pellington
30. Altered States (1980)-Ken Russell
31. In the Mouth of Madness (1994)-John Carpenter
32. Session 9 (2001)-Brad Anderson
33. The Gates of Hell (1980)-Lucio Fulci
34. Salem's Lot (1979)-Tobe Hooper
35. The Fly (1986)-David Cronenberg
36. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)-Wes Craven
37. Open Water (2003)-Chris Kentis
38. Pet Sematary (1989)-Mary Lambert
39. The Amityville Horror (1979)-Stuart Rosenberg
40. Eraserhead (1977)-David Lynch
41. Dawn of the Dead (2004)-Zack Snyder
42. Event Horizon (1997)-Paul W.S. Anderson
43. The Brood (1979)-David Cronenberg
44. Rosemary's Baby (1968)-Roman Polanski
45. The Blob (1988)-Chuck Russell
46. The Wicker Man (1973)-Robin Hardy
47. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)-Mel Stuart
48. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)-Joe Berlinger
49. The Innocents (1961)-Jack Clayton
50. Arachnophobia (1990)-Frank Marshall