Siskoid Cinema Battles is your one-stop shop for movie-related bracket fights! In this seasonal episode, Siskoid sits down with two horror experts – Lonely Hearts’ Marty Léger and making his FW debut, Jérémie Richard – to debate which horror film is the best, as 32 top horror films are thrown into the arena to fight it out for the top spot!
The bracket so you can follow along is down below in the comments.
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Theme: “Techno Syndrome” by The Immortals.
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Fun listen, even if I disagreed with almost every vote here. 😉
All kidding aside, I don’t get worked up about these things anymore. No bracket or list like this is definitive in anyway, no matter who puts it together. AFI could do it, and it would be wrong for a good chunk of the horror fans out there. I enjoyed the conversations about the films.
No horror expert, here. In the quadrants I’ve seen 3 and 5, and 3 and 5 movies. Growing up in the dawn of the slasher film, I developed the philosophy that if a horror movie didn’t scare me, it was silly to watch it, and if it did scare me, I couldn’t sleep that night.
The only match ups where I’ve seen both contestants were: Exorcist/Omen, the four vampire films, and Psycho/Wicker Man. I’d would go with your choices, and everyone else gets a bye out of the first round. Exorcist beats Suspiria and coasts into the Frightful Four. The Shining runs unopposed into Let the Right One In, and wins. Night of the Living Dead beats the Bride and Shaun. Psycho wins the hardest fight, against Jaws, then Carrie/Get Out… yeah, Carrie, to give me your semifinals.
So I guess I can’t complain, but, then, you can’t complain about my choices!
Taste is so fascinating. I have never … and I mean NEVER … heard the Exorcist 3 talked about so glowingly. Interesting.
The Exorcist works for me, maybe especially because of the clueless docs using antiquated equipment (although current for the time). Let The Right One In is elevated horror for me and works incredibly well. Bride of Frankenstein is nearly perfect and just edged out American Werewolf. And hard to understand Hereditary getting dismissed as it freaked me the F out.
Exorcist, Let the Right One In, Bride of Frankenstein, Hereditary.
So that was my final 4 with Exorcist ultimately winning overall.
Great discussion. Made me want to (re)watch some films which is always the mark of a good show.
Slashers: I’m one of those Halloween 2 trolls that prefers the gratuitous violence and finds the original a bit of a bore. And feel similar about Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, but amplified by TCM2 being a personal favorite of that franchise and genre. As a franchise, I prefer Halloween, but the original TCM is so visually striking and viscerally potent, it advances. I’ve never seen any Black Christmas, and am prone to confusing it with Silent Night, Deadly Night, which I at least caught on Movie Macabre. A Nightmare on Elm Street is at best my third favorite of that franchise, of which I’ve seen every entry, so, y’know. And I also prefer it pretty much entry for entry against TCM… except the first two. And the remakes, come to think of it. Plus I grew out of Freddy but I still wear a Sawyer Family BBQ shirt. TCM advances.
Satanic: I enjoy a bit of hell raising, but this is also a sub-genre defined by what are usually not scary people casting devious looks related to a belief system that I don’t subscribe to, so I can only take it so seriously. I saw The Exorcist only after witnessing a thousand parodies involving things like pea soup and John Byner, and I laughed out loud during the most cooch-centric scene. The Omen was way more ominous and weighted by presences like Gregory Peck and David Warner. I maybe saw Suspiria too late, because striking aesthetic aside, I found it dopey. My favorite thing by Argento was his influence on Dawn of the Dead, not his actual directing efforts. Polanki is a better director and Rosemary’s Baby speaks to eternal anxieties. I like Donner/Omen, but Damian just can’t compete at the level Rosemary’s Baby.
Hauntings: Ghosts and demonic possessions are my gal’s most scary thing and my least. I ain’t afraid of no ghost. I’ve seen some/all of the Haunting remake, and I’m not sure to what degree the original, but I’ve actually spent the night at The Stanley Hotel. We saw the first two Conjuring movies theatrically, and my gal is a fan. I thought that they were fine with some novel scares, but like the Haunting, wasted Lili Taylor. Ringu/The Ring has that great opening and a nice closing, but everything in the middle leaves me wanting. At least the Conjuring is entertaining, where The Shining is a bit of a slog, punctuated my memorable moments/elements. I’d much rather watch a given Conjuring over Shining, even if I dislike both films’ directors.
Vampires: I’m not sure that I’ve ever sat through all of Nosferatu, but I saw the Klaus Kinski one theatrically, and enjoyed Shadow of the Vampire with friends on video. Near Dark was a huge disappointment the one time that I rented it, especially give how much of a cast it shares with Aliens, and I preferred the oddly similar antics of the Fright Night 2 vamp clan. I’m not certain that I’ve ever seen a Christopher Lee Dracula movie, as in my childhood, I preferred and had more access to Universal Monsters over Hammer Horror. Meanwhile, Let the Right One In was one of the first movies that I saw when I started dating my partner, the first she firmly embraced in my presence, and i bought her the original novel. So she loves it, and I liked it, plus it’s clearly had staying power, with the U.S. remake and television series. Between the greater familiarity and that prowess, it dominates the bracket.
Nothing too upsetting here. I’ll come back to yell at you about the other half’s decisions later…
I read every TCM is your comments as ‘Turner Classic Movies’ in my mind (as that is ‘my’ TCM).
So that made the top paragraph unintentionally befuddling.
If anyone was going to do that, I figured it would be you, but I also see Turner Movie Classics first, even in obvious horror movie contexts.
Comedy: I’m the official zombie guy in my group, but Mac is also a fan who’s ridden along with me on plenty of flicks like 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead, neither of which we were entirely won over by. Both were highly indebted to Romero. Garland & Boyle were infuriatingly derivative and dismissive, which I held against them, while Wright and Pegg were loving and honest about the theft, but we just didn’t like the movie much. The humour didn’t hit us right until well into the second act, about the time it pivots into a soppy drama and then actual horror. I’m usually a champion of atonal cinema, but Shaun maintained the wrong pitch for us pretty much the entire time. The fact that it was embraced so hard so early and ever since has further alienated us from that fandom. Meanwhile, I just don’t “get” Scream. Yadda yadda “meta” yadda yadda. James Whale did The Old Dark House a year after Frankenstein, so miss me with that bullshit. Scream peaks in the opening sequence of the first movie, and I don’t think I’ve bothered with the franchise since the first sequel (or the first parody in Scary Movie, which was certainly the funniest of this lot.) I watched American Werewolf in London with my half-brother on late night broadcast TV in the ’80s, plus the analysis in Terror in the Aisles, and the “preview” in Michael Jackson’s Thriller. I thought that it was fine– a little boring, not especially funny, with the nudity and most extreme gore stripped out. I’ve rented it since, I recognize its accomplishments, but it’s not even in my John Landis top 5.
Zombies: Train to Busan is probably the best dead movie of the past decade, but I thought it was odd that you guys skipped to referencing Peninsula (which I haven’t gotten around to) over the animated sequel Seoul Station (which is worth checking out.) It’s also in contention for best of the 21st Century, but the Bush Administration competition is a lot tougher, and I have a ridiculous affection for the Paul W.S. Anderson Resident Evil flicks that weighs it way down. For the record, the best pure horror quasi-zombie movie of the century is still 2007’s REC. Re-Animator looked a little too intense for me in my earliest VHS rental horror exploration, then I saw one of the sequels on cable in the late ’80s that wasn’t great, so I managed to put off seeing it until I think earlier this year. It was cute, but I saw better when I was more impressionable. Bride of Frankenstein is one of if not the best of the Universal Monsters movies– but I have to confess to preferring Gods & Monsters’ exploration of its making more.
Elevated: My least favorite category, but with some of the best movies. I have yet to see a Robert Eggers film, and my girlfriend’s embrace of The VVitch is a strike against it, because we often have very different tastes in horror. Carrie was the toughest competitor in these brackets for me, because it’s so iconic, and Brian DePalma is one of my favorite directors on one of his most beloved films. I guess it lost because of the Stephen King of it all– the domesticity and relative lack of true terror in favor of a sympathetic “monster.” I completely understand why Jordan Peele didn’t go with his original ending on Get Out, but it felt more true to life and horrific, so I hold the theatrical cop out ending against it. I think the movie has been hugely valuable to the cultural discourse, but I haven’t felt particularly compelled to revisit it, especially after the disappointment of Us.
Other: Really? Other? Jeez. The Blair Witch Project was a clever experiment that paid off handsomely, but it completely falls apart without the viral marketing and being propped up by the pseudo-documentary Curse of the Blair Witch. The teenage daughter of my partner in the comic shop fell for that, and argued with me it really happened. Without that belief, it’s little more than a student film. I’ve never seen The Wicker Man, or maybe I ran the Cage remake in the background for the memes? It’s oft-covered in horror circles, and not really in my lane, so I feel like I know it well enough not to need to know it any better. I managed to miss Jaws for most of my life, despite having read a chunk of the novel and seen parts of the sequels. It’s so many’s favorite of all movies, so I didn’t mind go to a distant theater for the 3D up-conversion in hopes of catching the trailer for the Dawn of the Dead one. It’s beautifully shot, and probably the best 3D movie that I’ve ever seen, with the multiple layers of motion on the boat. I liked Jaws, but again, probably seen to late in life to resonate more fully.
Oh, I like The Old Dark House!
Scary Movie, even the first one, is legit terrible. It would never have found itself on this list.
I’m also a Resident Evil fan (never played the games though), even if it followed every good entry with a bad one. Once you get what Anderson is doing, it’s just a fun watch.
I was strongly considering a “pivot to video” for a while there where I would review horror movies, with Scaredy Cats being the model, but early tests sucked, I lost my nerve, and AV editing is so much worse than just audio. But I shotgunned a bunch of early horror movies in preparation, and Old Dark House was a delight.
I wasn’t nominating Scary Movie. I saw the first one theatrically with friends and I parts of the second on cable, but wouldn’t say that I was any kind of fan of the material. I just meant that Scary Movie was more successful and entertaining at what it was trying to do than Scream was in its own lane. I don’t see any value in that franchise.
I only actively dislike two of the Resident Evil films (including the failed 2021 reboot,) and loved the first three games (plus I liked Code Veronica, but was exiting gaming entirely and never finished it.) But I’m also a Milla stan, having embraced her first as a singer/songwriter, and am willing to defend Ultraviolet (in that case, I simply have bad taste.)
Sweet Sixteen: I already covered some of these, and screwed up the bracket breakdown in a confusing way that even I’m struggling to follow, but will elaborate because I missed carrying forward on the right-hand side. I’m not willing to cop to bad taste, because I’m familiar with other people’s objectively bad/plebe takes, and mine aren’t that. Weird or unusual or “acquired by circumstance,” more like. Basically, especially with horror, I often see and embrace the “lesser” installment over the originals, just like a lot of my preferences were formed by the quarter bin castoffs in comics. Freddy’s Revenge was among my first uncensored horror experiences, and I took the tormenting of a girly-boy especially personal, so the first Nightmare is maybe my third favorite of the Elm Street series. Movie for movie, it’s the better film series, but it also wore me down in a way that the TCM franchise hasn’t. The making a child molester and murderer into a comedic anti-hero did not age well, and I hold that against the whole series. I like The Omen, and saw it decades ahead of Rosemary’s Baby, but I don’t think we’d tolerate Richard Donner as a director if he was guilty of the same crimes as Roman Polanski.
Quarterfinal: This is no dream! This is really happening! Hail Satan! Yeah, Rosemary’s Baby is good stuff with real world resonance, but it’s not The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The Conjuring is a pretty good modern spook show, but it’s also really corny, lionizes a real world fraud couple, and was shameless in its brand expansion from jump. Night of the Living Dead (and its cribbing of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend) started off one of my most deeply embraced sub-genres, zombie survival horror, and it remains a stone classic. But it’s not even my favorite or the best of the Romero Dead movies, and cannot advance against the impure joy that is Evil Dead 2. Psycho is a horror watershed with several all-time twists and a killer score, plus I saw it on the Channel 13 Late Night Movie in the ’80s… but it didn’t scare me. Yeah, I’ve had my vulnerable moments in the shower, but that doesn’t come directly from Psycho, which is more of a thriller, and a bit slow moving.
Semi-Final: I haven’t rewatched Let The Right One In since theatrical, and it only got this far because the competition proved too weak to stall it out. Hereditary is an absolute beast of a horror movie, and given its relatively recent vintage, is potent enough to linger with me as a thoroughly desensitized adult. Plus I now do that tongue click thing when so inclined. It is maybe the truest horror movie in the brackets, but it’s so devastating, I’ll probably go a decade between viewings. I think there’s more to the genre than just working the audience over, and it’s not a fun experience that I giddily await returning to. It’s not a movie I can readily share with others, because it has the potential to fuck somewhat up to a degree that I don’t want to be held responsible for.
The Final: As mentioned earlier, I planned to express my deep offense at the impossible slight done to Evil Dead 2 in the podcast (#TeamMarty) in a probably over-the-top tantrum. But between then and now, my countrymen betrayed me in an unforgivable way, and elected an actual human monster to one of the most powerful positions in the land. I get to live a horror movie for (at least) the next four years, and I just don’t have the psychic energy to grandstand. As I referenced before, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is kind of like The Exorcist in its being a revered genre classic that I wasn’t entirely impressed with, but holds better, with harrowing moments and cinematography that leaves me gaping. I can’t really take The Exorcist seriously, and I’ve also laughed at the more ridiculous TCM scenes, but at its still much better overall. Given my druthers though, I simply prefer TCM2 in every way, and in the battle of Chainsaw horror, I’m not sure even Ash Williams could overcome it. But Evil Dead: Dead By Dawn is the best entry in one of the strongest horror franchises, noted for its virtuosity, a riot and a terror from scene to scene. Again, I don’t think the original Evil Dead holds a candle to the sequel, and I frankly found the remake to be a much more intense and entertaining experience. Neither is Dead By Dawn though, so Hail to the King, baby!
I am not a horror guy, although I think I saw about 85-90 percent of these films, so maybe I am in denial.
This was a fun conversation, especially because films I did not like at all (Like Texas Chainsaw Massacre) got some extra time, which I appreciated because I wasn’t really going in with my own strong opinion on them and it allowed me to listen more than disagree, if that makes sense.
I am glad my #1 horror film from this bracket matched the winner, and I think I will always take creepy over bloody or scary as a great horror film. Give me a chilling score, a quiet, long hallway, and a man going mad and I am traumatized in the good way.
Thanks for putting this together. Can’t wait for the Christmas edition!