Saturday, January 31, 2009

Film #108: Grindhouse

The following is an interview conducted by the magnificent Dark City Dame of Noirish City about one of my favorite films of the 2000s:

DarkCityDame: Let me start off by asking you this question: why did you select the film Grindhouse to be added to your list of 30 films from 2000 to the present?

Dean: Grindhouse stands as one of the most unusual moviegoing experiences I've had in recent years. As a fan of Tarantino's, and to a lesser extent Rodriguez's, I had immensely high hopes for the picture, but I got so much more than I was anticipating. Here I go into a personal story. I saw the film in Atlanta on a blah-sort-of Monday afternoon with one of my best friends, Patrick Flynn. We're both big fans of the grindhouse genre, so we were looking forward to this movie greatly. We snuck in some beers and sat down for a good time. There were, I think, only about 15 other people in the theater--surely all of them were as excited as we were to see this movie. Once it began, with that funky-cool old 1970s "Coming Attractions" teaser trailer and a few fake trailers for movies we'd never see in full, we all knew we were in for a treat. By the time the movie surely had its hooks in us, we were all whoopin’ and hollerin’, crackin’ jokes out loud just like you do at the drive-in or maybe at a midnite movie. After Patrick and I caught our wind after gasping and laughing so hard at the film’s final minutes, I decided I had just seen a masterpiece. But I hadn’t just SEEN it—I had very much LIVED it. See, Grindhouse is a movie about watching movies—about the LOVE of watching movies and having fun at the movie theater. It reproduces, down to every little edit and scratched bit of film, the ecstatic adventure of watching a beat-up old film print at an 80s-era Times Square venue or at an old, battered drive-in. This is a quality that was lost on many of the film's younger viewers, who were not of the generation that experienced weathered double features on a regular basis, if at all.DarkCityDame: So tell us about the first film in this double-feature

Dean: The first film on the bill, Planet Terror is a perfect reproduction of an early 80s zombie action movie, replete with a sexy opening credits sequence (obviously inspired by Russ Meyer's Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!), a role for Josh Brolin that makes him look exactly like his father James (who was in at least a few of these sort of movies—most memorably 1977’s fun/awful The Car) and some soppy scenes of gore unlike anything either Rodriguez or Tarantino had ever delivered to movie audiences.

DarkCityDame: Who are some of the other people in the cast?

Dean: Well, we've got Freddy Rodriguez as a lovelorn trucker, Rose McGowan as his stripper girlfriend, Jeff Fahey as a mad truck stop owner, Josh Brolin as an ultra-serious doctor, Marley Shelton as an excitable physician on Brolin's ward, Michael Biehn as a harried sheriff, Bruce Willis as a zombie-killing military man, and Tarantino himself as a character billed as "The Rapist." Quite a cast.DarkCityDame: And the second feature Death Proof? What’d you think of that?

Dean: That was quite a change of pace from Planet Terror—a little more talky and maybe political than the first feature. I’d also say it’s a spoof of a movie, maybe, from the late 70s, so it’s a bit slower, but perfectly so. A lot of viewers complained that Death Proof was a film with a different, more subdued sort of energy to it, but we have to remember that Grindhouse was trying to replicate the double feature, and as such, the two movies couldn’t be cut from exactly the same cloth. Planet Terror was such a whirlwind of blood and guts that we needed a breather. Death Proof provides us with that. It stars Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike, a cucumber-cool customer in a 1971 Dodge Charger who has a beef with women. And there are a group of attractive ladies that prove to be his toughest challenges: Tracie Thoms as Kim, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Lee, real-life stuntwoman Zoe Bell as Zoe, Marcy Harriell as Marcy. I love the Tarantino dialogue here; still as entertaining as always. (It mystified me that people were impatient with the dialogue in the film; who writes better talk than Tarantino?) And the stuntwork towards the latter half of Death Proof is among the best examples of the craft in recent years (particularly since CGI has taken over in the moviemaking world). Finally, I adore the performances of Zoe Bell (who was Uma Thurman's stunt double in the Kill Bill series) and Kurt Russell, who's never been more repulsively unctious. His girlish crying at the end of the movie is pure joy to me.

DarkCityDame: How did Grindhouse fare at the box office? Do you think that Tarantino and Rodriguez will team up again?

Dean: I would love to see more Rodriguez/Tarantino Grindhouse movies, but, alas, this one was not a hit at the ticket counter. People just were all out confused at the notion of double features and I suppose they weren't willing, for some damn reason, to sit in a theater for three hours and FOR ONCE truly get their money's worth in entertainment. As a result, the film Grindhouse has still not gotten a proper release on DVD, and has instead been released as two separate films. Which, I think, is a travesty and an insult. For laughs, thrills, and moviemaking detail (loooove those fake trailers, especially Edgar Wright’s “DON’T”), nothing comes close to bringing the goods like Grindhouse does. It's a shame people couldn't just go with the flow and enjoy it. That said, I'm sure Rodriguez and Tarantino will work together again. They're joined at the hip, so to speak (though I think the film's success has a lot more to do with Tarantino than Rodriguez).

DarkCityDame: My final question: since you selected this film as number 24 on your list of 30 films from the year 2000 to present, why do you think that the readers and I should add this film to our DVD collections?

Dean: Put simply: if you're a student of all types of film, nothing--and I mean nothing--replicates the pure joy of seeing trashy movies in a broken-down urban movie palace like Grindhouse. I mean, a whole book could be written on the directors' attention to detail in this film. They got every little splice mark, cigarette-burned frame, credits typeface, and music cue just exactly right. What’s not to like? What more could you want as an entertainment and an education? All movielovers owe it to themselves to see it. So when Miramax actually DOES release the full, reunited Grindhouse on DVD (as I hear is soon to happen), rush out and buy it post-haste.

MASTER LIST #4: The 101 Greatest Documentaries


Based on quality and influence, the results are:

1) Salesman (Albert Maysels. David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, 1968)
2) Best Boy (Ira Wohl, 1979)
3) The “Up” series (Michael Apted, 63-2005)
4) Sherman’s March (Ross McElwee, 86)
5) Gimme Shelter (Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, 70)
6) Monterey Pop (D.A. Pennebaker, 68)
7) Titicut Follies (Frederick Wiseman, 67)
8) Man With A Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 29)
9) The Sorrow and the Pity (Marcel Ophuls, 72)
10) Primary (Robert Drew, 60)
11) Crumb (Terry Zwigoff, 94)
12) Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme and Talking Heads, 85)
13) Point of Order! (Emile De Antonio, 64)
14) Burden of Dreams (Les Blank, 82)
15) The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 88)
16) Streetwise (Martin Bell, 84)
17) Capturing the Friedmans (Andrew Jarecki, 2003)
18) Grey Gardens (Albert and David Maysles, 75)
19) Roger and Me (Michael Moore, 89)
20) Woodstock (Michael Wadleigh, 70)
21) The Last Waltz (Martin Scorsese, 78)
22) Harlan County USA (Barbara Kopple, 76)
23) Time Indefinite (Ross McElwee, 93)
24) The Times of Harvey Milk (Robert Epstein, 85)
25) The Gods of Times Square (Richard Sandler, 99)
26) Don’t Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 67)
27) Silverlake Life: The View From Here (Peter Friedman and Tom Joslin, 93)
28) Waco: The Rules of Engagement (William Gazecki, 97)
29) Olympia (Leni Riefenstahl, 38)
30) American Dream (Barbara Kopple, 90)
31) On The Bowery (Lionel Regosin, 56)
32) Gates of Heaven (Errol Morris, 78)
33) Vernon, Florida (Errol Morris, 82)
34) Koyanniquatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 82)
35) American Movie (Chris Smith, 99)
36) And I Will Not Leave You Until I Die (Maciaj Ademek, 2000)
37) The War Game (Peter Watkin, 65)
38) Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, 2005)
39) The Paradise Lost series (Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky, 1996-2011)
40) Inside Job (Charles Ferguson, 2010)
41) The “Why We Fight” series (Frank Capra, Anatole Litvak, John Huston, et al, 43-45)
42) Marjoe (Sarah Kernochan and Howard Smith, 72)
43) Crisis (Robert Drew, 63)
44) No End in Sight (Charles Ferguson, 2007)
45) The Endless Summer (Bruce Brown, 66)
46) Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders (James D. Scurlock, 2006)
47) Sicko (Michael Moore, 2007)
48) Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen, 2003)
49) For All Mankind (Al Reinart, 89)
50) Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore, 2002)
51) Jazz on a Summer’s Day (Aram Avakian and Bert Stern, 60)
52) Heavy Metal Parking Lot (Jeff Krulik, 86)
53) Triumph of the Will (Leni Riefenstahl, 35)
54) Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (Marcel Ophuls, 84)
55) The Fog of War (Errol Morris, 2003)
56) Let’s Get Lost (Bruce Webber, 88)
57) Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 22)
58) Visions of Light (Arnold Glassman, Todd McCarthy, Stuart Samuels, 92)
59) Broadway: The Golden Age (Rick McKay, 2002)
60) Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election (Richard Ray Perez & Joan Sekler, 2002)
61) Hearts and Minds (Peter Davis, 74)
62) No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (Martin Scorsese, 2005)
63) Sound and Fury (Josh Aronson, 2000)
64) Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (Mark Achbar & Peter Wintonick, 93)
65) Hoop Dreams (Steve James, 94)
66) Murder on a Sunday Morning (Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, 2001)
67) Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (Charlotte Zwerin, 90)
68) Scared Straight (Arnold Shapiro, 78)
69) Christo: Islands (Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, 87)
70) Microcosmos (Claude Nuridsany & Marie PĂ©rennou, 96)
71) King: A Filmed Record…Montgomery to Memphis (Sidney Lumet and Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 70)
72) Four Days in November (Mel Stuart, 64)
73) The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (Ray Muller, 93)
74) Frank Lloyd Wright (Ken Burns, 98)
75) The Decline of the Western Civilization (Penelope Spheeris, 81)
76) General Idi Amin Dada (Barbet Schroeder, 74)
77) Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper & Eleanor Coppola, 91)
78) Painters Painting (Emile De Antonio, 73)
79) When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (Spike Lee, 2006)
80) Interviews with My Lai Veterans (Joseph Strick, 1971)
81) High School (Frederick Wiseman, 68)
82) Encounters at the End of the World (Werner Herzog, 2007)
83) What's Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A. (Albert & David Maysles, 64)
84) When We Were Kings (Leon Gast, 97)
85) Champion Blues (Althea Rogers, 2002)
86) One Day in September (Kevin MacDonald, 99)
87) In the Realm of the Unreal (Jessica Yu, 2004)
88) Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (Errol Morris, 99)
89) Festival (Murray Lerner, 67)
90) The Corporation (Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, 2003)
91) Man on Wire (James Marsh, 2008)
92) Brother’s Keeper (Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky, 92)
93) Spellbound (Jeffrey Blitz, 2002)
94) Little Dieter Needs To Fly (Werner Herzog, 97)
95) Night and Fog (Alain Renais, 55)
96) Winged Migration (Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats, 2001)
97) The Celluloid Closet (Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, 95)
98) Manson (Robert Hendrickson and Laurence Merrick, 73)
99) The War Room (Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker, 93)
100) George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey (George Stevens Jr., 85)
101) Pina (Wim Wenders, 2011)


BREAKDOWN BY DIRECTOR:

WITH FIVE FILMS:
Albert and David Maysles:
Salesman (1), Gimme Shelter (5), Grey Gardens (18), Christo: Islands (69), What's Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A. (83)
Errol Morris: The Thin Blue Line (15), Gates of Heaven (32), Vernon, Florida (33), The Fog of War (55), Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (88)
WITH FOUR FILMS:
Charlotte Zwerin: Salesman (1), Gimme Shelter (5), Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (67), Christo: Islands (69)
Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky: Paradise Lost: The Child Murders of Robin Hood Hills/ Paradise Lost 2: Revelations/Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (39), Brother's Keeper (92)
WITH THREE FILMS:
Michael Moore:
Roger and Me (19), Sicko (47), Bowling for Columbine (50)
D.A. Pennebaker: Monterey Pop (6), Don’t Look Back (26), The War Room (99)
Werner Herzog: Grizzly Man (38), Encounters at the End of the World (82), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (94)
WITH TWO FILMS:
Ross McElwee:
Sherman’s March (4), Time Indefinite (23)
Marcel Ophuls: The Sorrow and the Pity (9), Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (54)
Robert Drew: Primary (10), Crisis (43)
Frederick Wiseman: Titicut Follies (7), High School (81)
Martin Scorsese: The Last Waltz (21), No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (62)
Barbara Kopple: Harlan County USA (22), American Dream (30)
Robert Epstein: The Times of Harvey Milk (24), The Celluloid Closet (97)
Charles Ferguson: Inside Job (40), No End in Sight (44)
Leni Riefenstahl: Olympia (29), Triumph of the Will (53)


BREAKDOWN BY DECADE:
Pre-1960s (5): 1922:
57) Nanook of the North; 1929: Man With A Movie Camera (8); 1935: Triumph of the Will (53); 1938: Olympia (29); 1942-45: The “Why We Fight” series (41), Night and Fog (95), 1956: On The Bowery (31)

1960s (15): 1960: Primary (10), Jazz on a Summer’s Day (51); 1963: The “Up” series (7 Up) (3), Crisis (43); 1964: Point of Order! (13), Four Days in November (72), What's Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A. (83); 1965: The War Game (37); 1966: The Endless Summer (45); 1967: Titicut Follies (7), Don’t Look Back (26), Festival (89); 1968: Salesman (1), Monterey Pop (6), High School (81)

1970s (18): 1970: The “Up” series (14 Up) (3); Gimme Shelter (5); Woodstock (20), King: A Filmed Record…Montgomery to Memphis (71); 1971: Interviews with My Lai Veterans (80); 1972: The Sorrow and the Pity (9), Marjoe (42); 1973: Manson (98); 1974: Hearts and Minds (61), General Idi Amin Dada (76); 1975: Grey Gardens (18); 1976: Harlan County USA (22); 1977: The “Up” series (21 Up) (3); 1978: The Last Waltz (21), Gates of Heaven (32), Painters Painting (78); Scared Straight (68); 1979: Best Boy (2)

1980s (19): 1981: The Decline of the Western Civilization (75), Soldier Girls (95); 1982: Burden of Dreams (14), Vernon, Florida (33), Koyanniquatsi (34), From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China (101); 1984: The “Up” series (28 Up) (3), Streetwise (16), Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (54); 1985: Stop Making Sense (12), The Times of Harvey Milk (24), George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey (100); 1986: Sherman’s March (4), Heavy Metal Parking Lot (52); 1987: Christo: Islands (69); 1988: The Thin Blue Line (15), Let’s Get Lost (56); 1989: Roger and Me (19), For All Mankind (49)

1990s (24) (OFFICIALLY THE BEST DECADE FOR DOCUMENTARIES): 1990: American Dream (30), Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (57); 1991: The “Up” series (35 Up) (3), Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (77); 1992: Visions of Light (58); 1993 (OFFICIALLY THE BEST YEAR FOR DOCUMENTARIES): Time Indefinite (23), Silverlake Life: The View From Here (27), Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (64), The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (73); The War Room (99); 1994: Crumb (11), Hoop Dreams (65); 1995: The Celluloid Closet (97); 1996: Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (39), Microcosmos (70); 1997: Waco: The Rules of Engagement (28), When We Were Kings (84), Little Dieter Needs To Fly (94); 1998: Frank Lloyd Wright, The "Up" Series (42 Up) (3); (74); 1999: The Gods of Times Square (25), American Movie (35), One Day in September (86), Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (88)

2000s (22): 2000: And I Will Not Leave You Until I Die (36), Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (40), Sound and Fury (63); 2001: Murder on a Sunday Morning (66), Winged Migration (96); 2002: Bowling for Columbine (50), Broadway: The Golden Age (59), Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election (60), Spellbound (93); 2003: Capturing the Friedmans (17), Los Angeles Plays Itself (48), The Corporation (90); 2004: In the Realm of the Unreal (87)2005: The “Up” series (49 Up) (3); No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (62); 2006: Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders (46), When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (79), Jesus Camp (82); 2007: No End in Sight (44), Sicko (47), Encounters at the End of the World (82); 2008: Man on Wire (91), 2010: Inside Job (40), 2011: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (39), Pina (101)

BREAKDOWN BY SUBJECT:

MUSIC (17):
Gimme Shelter, Monterey Pop, Stop Making Sense, Woodstock, Don’t Look Back, The Last Waltz, Jazz on a Summer’s Day, Heavy Metal Parking Lot, Let’s Get Lost, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser, The Decline of the Western Civilization, What's Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A., Champion Blues, Festival, From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China

POLITICS AND WAR (19): Primary, Point of Order!, The Times of Harvey Milk, Waco: The Rules of Engagement, The Sorrow and the Pity, No End in Sight, Triumph of the Will, Sicko, The Fog of War, Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie, Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election, Hearts and Minds, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, Four Days in November, King: A Filmed Record…Montgomery to Memphis, Interviews with My Lai Veterans, One Day in September, The Corporation, The War Room

POTRAITS (23): Crumb, Burden of Dreams, Don’t Look Back, American Movie, And I Will Not Leave You Until I Die, Grizzly Man, Marjoe, The Fog of War, Let’s Get Lost, Nanook of the North, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser, Christo: Islands, The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl, Frank Lloyd Wright, Stevie, What's Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A., When We Were Kings, Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr., Man on Wire, Little Dieter Needs To Fly, George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey

THE ARTS (14): Man With A Movie Camera, Crumb, American Movie, Grizzly Man, Visions of Light, Broadway: The Golden Age, Christo: Islands, Frank Lloyd Wright, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, Painters Painting, Man on Wire, Los Angeles Plays Itself, The Celluloid Closet, George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey, Pina

CRIME (14): Titicut Follies, Point of Order!, The Thin Blue Line, Capturing the Friedmans, Waco: The Rules of Engagement, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders of Robin Hood Hills, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, Bowling for Columbine, Inside Job, Murder on a Sunday Morning, Scared Straight, Four Days in November, Brother’s Keeper, Manson

WAYS OF LIFE (24): Salesman, The “Up” series, Titicutt Follies, Man With A Movie Camera, Streetwise, Roger and Me, Harlan County USA, The Gods of Times Square, Silverlake Life: The View From Here, American Dream, Gates of Heaven, Vernon Florida, Koyanniquatsi, Olympia, The Endless Summer, Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders, Heavy Metal Parking Lot, Nanook of the North, On The Bowery, Sound and Fury, Hoop Dreams, When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, Spellbound, Wild Style

NATURE (6): Koyanniquatsi, Grizzly Man, The Endless Summer, For All Mankind, Microcosmos, Winged Migration, Encounters at the End of the World 

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

MASTER LIST #3: The 101 Greatest Westerns

There are two types of westerns: the traditional (High Noon and such) and the revisionist (like Brokeback Mountain and Dances WIth Wolves). They are quite different from one another, making this genre a wide-ranging one. I would say there's a greater education about the western in store for me; there must be scores of great 30s, 40s, and 50s-era oaters I must see. Unfortunately, they are nearly impossible to catch, because the Western genre is all but economically dead and is therefore sorely unavailable for revisitation on DVD, unless you have Netflix (which I don't). Still, out of the ones I've seen, the best are ranked in terms of (1) quality, (2) relevance to genre, (3) popularity and influence. Here are the results:

1) The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Sergio Leone, 66)
2) The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 69)
3) Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 92)
4) The Searchers (John Ford, 56)
5) Red River (Howard Hawks, 48)
6) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 62)
7) Stagecoach (John Ford, 39)
8) The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 76)
9) The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, 53)
10) Once Upon A Time In The West (Sergio Leone, 69)
11) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 69)
12) Ride The High Country (Sam Peckinpah, 62)
13) High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 52)
14) The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007)
15) Winchester ’73 (Anthony Mann, 50)
16) Shane (George Stevens, 53)
17) My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 46)
18) Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 59)
19) The Long Riders (Walter Hill, 80)
20) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 48)
21) Day of the Outlaw (Andre De Toth, 59)
22) Lonesome Dove (Simon Wincer, 89)
23) The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 67)
24) Bad Company (Robert Benton, 72)
25) Yellow Sky (William A. Wellman, 48)
26) Fort Apache (John Ford, 48)
27) The Tin Star (Anthony Mann, 57)
28) No Country For Old Men (The Coen Brothers, 2007)
29) Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 54)
30) A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 64)
31) For A Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 65)
32) High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood, 73)
33) She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Ford, 49)
34) Colorado Territory (Raoul Walsh, 49)
35) The Tall T (Budd Boetticher, 57)
36) The Man From Laramie (Anthony Mann, 55)
37) The Shootist (Don Siegel, 76)
38) Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid (Sam Peckinpah, 73)
39) Bend of the River (Anthony Mann, 52)
40) The Cowboys (Mark Rydell, 72)
41) Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher, 59)
42) Bad Day At Black Rock (John Sturges, 55)
43) The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 66)
44) Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 65)
45) The Left-Handed Gun (Arthur Penn, 58)
46) Little Big Man (Arthur Penn, 70)
47) McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 71)
48) Hud (Martin Ritt, 63)
49) Broken Arrow (Delmer Daves, 50)
50) Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 95)
51) The Man From Snowy River (George Miller, 82)
52) Open Range (Kevin Costner, 2003)
53) Hombre (Martin Ritt, 67)
54) Jeremiah Johnson (Sydney Pollack, 72)
55) True Grit (Henry Hathaway, 69)
56) My Name is Nobody (Tonio Valerii, 73)
57) The Hired Hand (Peter Fonda, 71)
58) Silvarado (Laurence Kasdan, 85)
59) Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 74)
60) Valdez is Coming (Edwin Sherin, 71)
61) Heaven’s Gate (Michael Cimino, 80)
62) Giant (George Stevens, 56)
63) The Gunfighter (Henry King, 50)
64) Lonely Are The Brave (David Miller, 62)
65) Western Union (Fritz Lang, 41)
66) The Quick and the Dead (Sam Raimi, 95)
67) The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (Robert M. Young, 82)
68) Lone Star (John Sayles, 96)
69) Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005)
70) Bite The Bullet (Richard Brooks, 75)
71) The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 03)
72) The Westerner (William Wyler, 40)
73) Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (John Sturges, 57)
74) China 9, Liberty 37 (Monte Hellman, 78)
75) Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (Abraham Polonsky, 69)
76) Destry Rides Again (George Marshall, 39)
77) One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, 61)
78) The Good Old Boys (Tommy Lee Jones, 95)
79) Heartland (Richard Pearce, 79)
80) Two Mules for Sister Sara (Don Siegel, 70)
81) Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 46)
82) Ulzana’s Raid (Robert Aldrich, 72)
83) Django (Sergio Corbucci, 66)
84) The Ballad of Little Jo (Maggie Greenwald, 93)
85) The Valley of Gwangi (Jim O’Connelly, 69)
86) A Man Called Horse (Elliot Silverstein, 70)
87) Tombstone (George Pan Cosmatos, 93)
88) Wild Bill (Walter Hill, 95)
89) Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner, 90)
90) Rio Grande (John Ford, 50)
91) Flaming Star (Don Siegel, 60)
92) Wyatt Earp (Laurence Kasdan, 94)
93) The Grey Fox (Philip Borsos, 82)
94) Barbarosa (Fred Schepisi, 82)
95) Calamity Jane (David Butler, 53)
96) They Call Me Trinity (Enzo Barnoni, 70)
97) Duck, You Sucker (Sergio Leone, 71)
98) Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (Richard Lester, 79)
99) The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend (Preston Sturges, 49)
100) Westworld (Michael Crichton, 73)
101) Sergeant Rutledge (John Ford, 60)

LIST BREAKDOWNS:
BREAKDOWN BY FILMMAKER:

EIGHT FILMS:
John Ford:
The Searchers (4), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (6), Stagecoach (7), My Darling Clementine (17), Fort Apache (26), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (33), Rio Grande (90), Sergeant Rutledge (101)
FIVE FILMS EACH:
Anthony Mann:
The Naked Spur (9), Winchester ’73 (15), The Tin Star (27), The Man From Laramie (36), Bend of the River (39)
Sergio Leone: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1), Once Upon A Time In The West (10), A Fistful of Dollars (30), For A Few Dollars More (31), Duck, You Sucker (97)
THREE FILMS EACH:
Sam Peckinpah:
The Wild Bunch (2), Ride The High Country (12), Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid (38)
Clint Eastwood: Unforgiven (3), The Outlaw Josey Wales (8), High Plains Drifter (32)
Monte Hellman: The Shooting (22), Ride in the Whirlwind (44), China 9, Liberty 37 (74)
Don Siegel: The Shootist (37), Two Mules for Sister Sara (80), Flaming Star (91)
TWO FILMS EACH:
Howard Hawks:
Red River (5), Rio Bravo (18)
George Stevens: Shane (16), Giant (62)
Walter Hill: The Long Riders (19), Wild Bill (88)
Budd Boetticher: The Tall T (35), Ride Lonesome (41)
John Sturges: Bad Day At Black Rock (42), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (73)
Richard Brooks: The Professionals (43), Bite The Bullet (70)
Arthur Penn: The Left-Handed Gun (45), Little Big Man (46)
Martin Ritt: Hud (48), Hombre (53)
Laurence Kasdan: Silvarado (58), Wyatt Earp (92)
Kevin Costner: Open Range (52), Dances With Wolves (89)

BREAKDOWN BY DECADE:
PRE 1950s (3): 1903:
The Great Train Robbery (71); 1939: Stagecoach (7), Destry Rides Again (76)

1940s (11): 1940: The Westerner (71); 1941: Western Union (65); 1946: My Darling Clementine (17); Duel in the Sun (81); 1948 (OFFICIALLY THE FIRST GREAT YEAR FOR WESTERNS): Red River (5), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (20), Yellow Sky (25), Fort Apache (26); 1949: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (33); Colorado Territory (34); The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend (99)

1950s (21): 1950: Winchester ’73 (15), Broken Arrow (49), The Gunfighter (63), Rio Grande (90); 1952: High Noon (13), Bend of the River (39); 1953: The Naked Spur (9), Shane (16), Calamity Jane (95): 1954: Johnny Guitar (29); 1955: The Man From Laramie (36), Bad Day At Black Rock (42); 1956: The Searchers (4), Giant (62); 1957: The Tin Star (27), The Tall T (35), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (73); 1958: The Left-Handed Gun (45); 1959 (AN INCREDIBLE TRIO): Rio Bravo (18), Day of the Outlaw (21), Ride Lonesome (41)

1960s (21) (OFFICIALLY. QUALITY-WISE, THE BEST DECADE FOR WESTERNS): 1960: Flaming Star (91); Sergeant Rutledge (101); One-Eyed Jacks (77); 1962: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (6); Ride The High Country (12), Lonely Are The Brave (64); 1963: Hud (48); 1964: A Fistful of Dollars (30); 1965: For A Few Dollars More (31), Ride in the Whirlwind (44); 1966: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1), The Professionals (43), Django (83); 1967: The Shooting (23), Hombre (53); 1969 (OFFICIALLY THE BEST YEAR FOR WESTERNS): The Wild Bunch (2), Once Upon A Time In The West (10), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (11), True Grit (55), Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (75), The Valley of Gwangi (85)

1970s (22)(OFFICIALLY, QUALITY-WISE, THE 2nd BEST DECADE FOR WESTERNS): 1970:
Little Big Man (46); Two Mules for Sister Sara (80); A Man Called Horse (86); They Call Me Trinity (96); 1971: McCabe and Mrs. Miller (47), The Hired Hand (57), Valdez is Coming (60), Duck, You Sucker (97); 1974: Bad Company (24), The Cowboys (40), Jeremiah Johnson (54), Ulzana’s Raid (82); 1973: High Plains Drifter (32), My Name is Nobody (56), Westworld (100); 1974: Blazing Saddles (59); 1975: Bite The Bullet (70); 1976: The Outlaw Josey Wales (8), The Shootist (37); 1978: China 9, Liberty 37 (74); 1979: Heartland (79), Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (98)

1980s (8): 1980: The Long Riders (19), Heaven’s Gate (61); 1982: The Man From Snowy River (51), The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (67), The Grey Fox (93), Barbarosa (94); 1985: Silvarado (58); 1989: Lonesome Dove (22)

1990s (10): 1990: Dances With Wolves (89); 1992: Unforgiven (3); 1993: The Ballad of Little Jo (84), Tombstone (87); 1994: Wyatt Earp (92); 1995 (THE BEST RECENT YEAR FOR WESTERNS): Dead Man (50), The Quick and the Dead (66), The Good Old Boys (78), Wild Bill (88); 1996: Lone Star (68)

2000s (4): Open Range (52); Brokeback Mountain (69); The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (14); No Country For Old Men (28)

Monday, January 26, 2009

MASTER LIST #2: The 101 Greatest Science-Fiction Movies

Films are ranked in order, based on (1) quality, (2) relevance to genre, (3) influence. Here are the results:

1) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 68)
2) Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 82)
3) The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 80)
4) The Matrix (The Wachowski Brothers, 99)
5) Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 27)
6) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 56)
7) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 77)
8) La Jetee (Chris Marker, 62)
9) Alien (Ridley Scott, 79)
10) The Day The Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 51)
11) Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 68)
12) Star Wars (George Lucas, 77)
13) Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 72)
14) Five Million Years to Earth/Quatermass & the Pit (Roy Ward Baker, 68)
15) The Terminator (James Cameron, 84)
16) THX-1138 (director’s cut) (George Lucas, 71/2004)
17) Children of Men (Alphonso Cuaron, 2006)
18) Mad Max (George Miller, 79)
19) The Thing (John Carpenter, 82)
20) Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001)
21) The Iron Giant (Brad Bird, 99)
22) Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 56)
23) The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky, 2006)
24) Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron, 2013)
25) Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 85)
26) Altered States (Ken Russell, 80)
27) RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven, 87)
28) Alphaville (Jean Luc-Godard, 65)
29) Slaughterhouse-Five (George Roy Hill, 72)
30) Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven, 97)
31) Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 66)
32) Dark Star (John Carpenter, 74)
33) Aliens (James Cameron, 86)
34) Wall-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008)
35) They Live (John Carpenter, 88)
36) The Andromeda Strain (Robert Wise, 71)
37) Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007)
38) The War of the Worlds (Byron Haskin, 53)
39) Gattaca (Andrew Niccol, 97)
40) The Fly (David Cronenberg, 86) 
41) The Road Warrior (George Miller, 81)
42) Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, 71)
43) Superman (Richard Donner, 78)
44) Threads (Mick Jackson, 84)
45) The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 57)
46) Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013) 
47) Primer (Shane Carruth, 2004)
48) ET The Extraterrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 82)
49) The Man Who Fell To Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 76)
50) Things to Come (William Cameron Menzies, 36)
51) 1984 (Michael Radford, 84)
52) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
53) Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)
54) Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
55) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer, 82)
56) The Abyss (director’s cut) (James Cameron, 89/92)
57) Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (Fred F. Sears, 56)
58) A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
59) Rollerball (Norman Jewison, 74)
60) Contact (Robert Zemeckis, 97)
61) Fahrenheit 451 (Francois Truffaut, 66)
62) X—The Man With The X-Ray Eyes (Roger Corman, 63)
63) Time After Time (Nicholas Meyer, 79)
64) Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 83)
65) Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002)
66) Escape From New York (John Carpenter, 81)
67) Enemy From Space / Quatermass 2 (Val Guest, 57)
68) Fantastic Voyage (Richard Fleischer, 66)
69) Scanners (David Cronenberg, 81)
70) The Day After (Nicholas Meyer, 83)
71) Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 97)
72) The Brother from Another Planet (John Sayles, 84)
73) Iron Man (Jon Favreau, 2008)
74) Contagion (Steven Soderburgh, 2011)
75) X-Men (Bryan Singer, 2000)
76) Dark City (Alex Proyas, 98)
77) Event Horizon (Paul W.S. Anderson, 97)
78) Invaders from Mars (William Cameron Menzies, 53)
79) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves, 2014)
80) Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (Robert Parrish, 69)
81) The Arrival (David Twohy, 96)
82) Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 85)
83) The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004)
84) The Creeping Unknown / The Quatermass Xperiment (Val Guest, 55)
85) Demon Seed (Donald Cammell, 77)
86) Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009)
87) Repo Man (Alex Cox, 84)
88) Starman (John Carpenter, 84)
89) Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel, 75)
90) Galaxy Quest (Dean Parisot, 99)
91) When Worlds Collide (Rudolph Mate, 51)
92) 20 Million Miles to Earth (Nathan Juran, 57)
93) Iceman (Fred Schepisi, 84)
94) Delicatessen (Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 91)
95) Mystery Men (Kinka Usher, 99)
96) Man Facing Southeast (Eliseo Subiela, 86)
97) The Quiet Earth (Geoff Murphy, 85)
98) The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, 97)
99) Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer, 73)
100) The Stuff (Larry Cohen, 85)
101) Barbarella (Roger Vadim, 68)

LIST BREAKDOWNS:
BREAKDOWN BY FILMMAKER:

THE AUTUERS OF SCI-FI:

WITH FIVE FILMS:
John Carpenter:
The Thing (19), Dark Star (32), They Live (35), Escape From New York (66), Starman (88)

WITH FOUR FILMS:
George Lucas:
The Empire Strikes Back (3), Star Wars (12), THX-1138 (16), Return of the Jedi (63)
Steven Spielberg: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (7), ET The Extraterrestrial (47), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (57), Minority Report (64)

WITH THREE FILMS:
Nigel Kneale (creator of the Quatermass character):
Five Million Years to Earth / Quatermass and the Pit (14), Enemy From Space / Quatermass 2 (67), The Creeping Unknown / The Quatermass Xperiment (84)
James Cameron: The Terminator (15), Aliens (33), The Abyss (55)
Nicholas Meyer: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (54), Time After Time (62), The Day After (70)

WITH TWO FILMS: 
George Pal (producer/director): The War of the Worlds (38), When Worlds Collide (91)
Ridley Scott: Blade Runner (2), Alien (9)
Robert Wise: The Day The Earth Stood Still (10), The Andromeda Strain (36)
George Miller: Mad Max (18), The Road Warrior (41)
Brad Bird: The Iron Giant (21), The Incredibles (83)
Darren Aronofsky: The Fountain (23), Pi (53)
Paul Verhoeven: RoboCop (27), Starship Troopers (30)
David Cronenberg: The Fly (40), Scanners (69)
William Cameron Menzies: Things to Come (49), Invaders from Mars (78)
Robert Zemeckis: Contact (59), Back to the Future (82)
Richard Fleischer: Fantastic Voyage (68), Soylent Green (99)

BREAKDOWN BY DECADES:

PRE-1950s (2): 1927: Metropolis (5); 1936: Things to Come (49)

1950s (11): 1951: The Day The Earth Stood Still (10); When Worlds Collide (91); 1953: The War of the Worlds (38), Invaders from Mars (78); 1955: The Creeping Unknown / The Quatermass Xperiment (84); 1956 (OFFICALLY THE FIRST GREAT YEAR FOR SCIENCE FICTION): Invasion of the Body Snatchers (6), Forbidden Planet (22), Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (56); 1957: The Incredible Shrinking Man (45), Enemy From Space / Quatermass 2 (67), 20 Million Miles to Earth (92)

1960s (13): 1962: La Jetee (8); 1963: X—The Man With The X-Ray Eyes (61); 1965: Alphaville (28); 1966: Seconds (31), Fahrenheit 451 (60), Fantastic Voyage (68); 1968 (OFFICIALLY THE YEAR WITH THE HIGHEST-QUALITY SCIENCE FICTION): 2001: A Space Odyssey (1), Planet of the Apes (11), Five Million Years to Earth / Quatermass and the Pit (14), Barbarella (101); 1969: The Gladiators (39), Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (80)

1970s (17): 1971: THX-1138 (16), The Andromeda Strain (36), Silent Running (42); 1972: Solaris (13), Slaughterhouse-Five (29); 1973: Soylent Green (99); 1974: Dark Star (32), Rollerball (58); 1975: Death Race 2000 (89); 1976: The Man Who Fell To Earth (48); 1977: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (7), Star Wars (12), Demon Seed (85); 1978: Superman (53); 1979: Alien (9), Mad Max (18), Time After Time (62)

1980s (29) (OFFICIALLY THE TOP DECADE FOR SCIENCE FICTION): 1980: The Empire Strikes Back (3), Altered States (26); 1981: The Road Warrior (41), Escape From New York (66), Scanners (69); 1982: Blade Runner (2), The Thing (19), ET The Extraterrestrial (47), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (54); 1983: Return of the Jedi (63), The Day After (70); 1984 (OFFICIALLY THE BEST YEAR FOR SCIENCE FICTION): The Terminator (15), The Brother from Another Planet (72), Threads (44), 1984 (50), Repo Man (87), Starman (88), Iceman (93); 1985: Brazil (25), Back to the Future (82), The Quiet Earth (97), The Stuff (100); 1986: Aliens (33), The Fly (40); 1987: RoboCop (27); 1988: They Live (35); 1989: The Abyss (55)

1990s (14): 1991: Delicatessen (94) ; 1996: The Arrival (81); 1997: Gattaca (24), Starship Troopers (30), Contact (59), Men in Black (71), Event Horizon (77), The Fifth Element (98); 1998: Pi (53); Dark City (76); 1999: The Matrix (4), The Iron Giant (21), Galaxy Quest (90), Mystery Men (95)

2000s (15): 2000: X-Men (75); 2001: Donnie Darko (20), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (57); 2002: Minority Report (64); 2004: Primer (46), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (51), The Incredibles (83), 2006: Children of Men (17), The Fountain (23); 2007: Sunshine (37); 2008: Wall-E (34), Iron Man (73); 2009: Moon (86) 2010: Inception (53); 2011: Contagion (74); 2013: Gravity (24); Under the Skin (46); Her (54); 2014: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (79)

WHAT WE'RE STUDYING: A GENRE BREAKDOWN (some titles appear as part of more than one category)

The history, and the future, of mankind: 2001: A Space Odyssey 

Robotics: Blade Runner, The Terminator, RoboCop, Wall-E, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Iron Giant, Demon Seed

Other Worlds: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars, Forbidden Planet, Return of the Jedi, Dark City, Flash Gordon, Moon, Barbarella 

Missions to Space: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris, Starship Troopers, Alien, Dark Star, Aliens, Sunshine, Silent Running, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Event Horizon, Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, When Worlds Collide, Galaxy Quest, Gravity 

FutureEarths: The Matrix, Metropolis, THX-1138, Planet of the Apes, Children of Men, Gattaca, Brazil, Alphaville, The Gladiators, 1984, Rollerball, Fahrenheit 451, Things to Come, Minority Report, Escape From New York, Logan’s Run, Death Race 2000, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, The Fifth Element, Soylent Green, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 

Alien Invasions, Nasty Division: The Matrix, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Five Million Years to Earth / Quatermass and the Pit, The Thing, They Live, The Andromeda Strain, The War of the Worlds, The UFO Incident, Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers, Enemy From Space / Quatermass 2, Dark City, Men in Black, Invaders from Mars, The Arrival, Repo Man, 20 Million Miles to Earth, The Stuff

Alien Invasions, Nice Division: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Iron Giant, 2001: A Space Odyssey, ET The Extraterrestrial, The Man Who Fell To Earth, The Abyss, Contact, Men in Black, The Brother from Another Planet, Starman, Man Facing Southeast; Under the Skin  

Time Travel: La Jetee, The Terminator, Donnie Darko, The Fountain, Slaughterhouse-Five, Primer, Time After Time, The Time Machine, Back to the Future

Experiments out of control: La Jetee, Altered States, Seconds, The Andromeda Strain, The Fly, Primer, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Pi, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Contact, X—The Man With The X-Ray Eyes, Time After Time, Fantastic Voyage, Scanners, The Creeping Unknown / The Quatermass Xperiment, Demon Seed, Back to the Future, Iceman

Post-Apocalypse: Mad Max, Wall-E, The Road Warrior, Threads, La Jetee, Cloud Atlas, The Terminator, The Time Machine, The Day After, Delicatessen, The Quiet Earth, Contagion

Superheroes: Superman, Iron Man, Flash Gordon, X-Men, The Incredibles, Mystery Men

Innerspace: The Incredible Shrinking Man, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Inception, The Abyss, Fantastic Voyage, Her 

Saturday, January 24, 2009

MASTER LIST #1: The 101 Greatest Horror Movies



Films are ranked in order, based on (1) quality, (2) scares, (3) influence. Here are the results:

1) The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 73)
2) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 74)
3) Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 60)
4) Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 68)
5) Halloween (John Carpenter, 78)
6) Frankenstein (James Whale, 31)
7) The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 80)
8) Eraserhead (David Lynch, 77)
9) The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 61)
10) Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 65) 
11) The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi, 81)
12) Alien (Ridley Scott, 79)
13) Vampyr (Carl Th. Dreyer, 32) 
14) Seven (David Fincher, 95)
15) Les Diaboliques (Henri Georges-Clouzot, 55)
16) Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 97)
17) Dawn of the Dead (George A Romero, 78)
18) An American Werewolf in London (John Landis, 81)
19) Phantasm (Don Coscarelli, 79)
20) Black Christmas (Bob Clark, 75)
21) Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 22)
22) Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 68)
23) The Honeymoon Killers (Leonard Kastle, 70)
24) Targets (Peter Bogdanovich, 68)
25) The Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 35)
26) Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur, 57)
27) The Other (Robert Mulligan, 72)
28) Deep Red (Dario Argento, 75)
29) Deliverance (John Boorman, 72)
30) Freaks (Tod Browning, 32)
31) Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 75)
32) Witchfinder General (Michael Reeves, 68)
33) The Reflecting Skin (Philip Ridley, 90)
34) Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 60)
35) Hour of the Wolf (Ingmar Bergman, 68)
36) The Thing (John Carpenter, 82)
37) Carrie (Brian De Palma, 76)
38) Punishment Park (Peter Watkins, 71)
39) Jigoku (Nobuo Nakagawa, 60)
40) The Vanishing (George Sluizer, 88)
41) Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 62)
42) Quatermass and the Pit (Roy Ward Baker, 67)
43) Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 60)
44) The Changeling (Peter Medak, 80)
45) Jacob’s Ladder (Adrian Lyne, 90)
46) The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 25)
47) Theater of Blood (Douglas Hickox, 73)
48) Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 42)
49) Tales from the Crypt (Freddie Francis, 72)
50) The Nanny (Seth Holt, 65)
51) Safe (Todd Haynes, 95) 
52) The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 73)
53) Evil Dead 2 (Sam Raimi, 88)
54) The Fly (David Cronenberg, 86)
55) The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, 99)
56) Don’t Look Now (Nicholas Roeg, 73)
57) Frankenstein: The True Story (Jack Smight, 73)
58) Ringu (Hideo Nakata, 98)
59) The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 63)
60) The Horror of Dracula (Terrence Fisher, 58)
61) Martin (George A. Romero, 77)
62) The Tenant (Roman Polanski, 76)
63) Duel (Steven Spielberg, 71)
64) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (John McNaughton, 86)
65) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 20)
66) Dracula (Tod Browning, 32)
67) Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004)
68) Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 87)
69) The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 91)
70) Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, 82) 
71) The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise, 45)
72) Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)
73) Paperhouse (Bernard Rose, 88)
74) Play Misty For Me (Clint Eastwood, 71)
75) Wolf Creek (Greg Mclean, 2005)
76) The Company of Wolves (Neil Jordan, 84)
77) The Old Dark House (James Whale, 32)
78) House on Haunted Hill (William Castle, 59)
79) Signs (M. Night Shamalyan, 2002)
80) The Haunting (Robert Wise, 63)
81) Cape Fear (Martin Scorsese, 90)
82) [rec] (Jaume BalaguerĂł, Paco Plaza, 2007)
83) Sisters (Brian De Palma, 73)
84) Let The Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)
85) The Entity (Sidney J. Furie, 81)
86) The Fog (John Carpenter, 80)
87) At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (Jose Mojica Marins, 64)
88) The Lords of Salem (Rob Zombie, 2012)
89) Audition (Takashi Miike, 99)
90) The Hills Have Eyes (Wes Craven, 77)
91) The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2005)
92) The Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard, 2012)
93) Thesis (Alejandro Amenabar, 96)
94) The Curse of Frankenstein (Terrence Fisher, 57)
95) Of Unknown Origin (George Pan Cosmatos, 82)
96) The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg, 83)
97) We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay, 2011)
98) Magic (Richard Attenbourough, 78)
99) God Told Me To (Larry Cohen, 76)
100) Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)
101) The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)

LIST BREAKDOWNS:
BREAKDOWN BY FILMMAKER:

DIRECTORS WITH THREE FILMS EACH:
1) George A. Romero: Night of the Living Dead (4), Dawn of the Dead (17), Martin (61)
2) Roman Polanski: Repulsion (10), Rosemary's Baby (22), The Tenant (62)
3) James Whale: Frankenstein (6), Bride of Frankenstein (25), The Old Dark House (77)
4) John Carpenter: Halloween (5), The Thing (36), The Fog (86)

DIRECTORS WITH TWO FILMS EACH:

5) Alfred Hitchcock: Psycho (3), The Birds (59)
6) Sam Raimi: The Evil Dead (11), Evil Dead 2 (53)
7) Tobe Hooper: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2), Poltergeist (70)
8) Jacques Tourneur: Night of the Demon (26), Cat People (48)
9) Steven Spielberg: Jaws (31); Duel (63)
10) Tod Browning: Freaks (30), Dracula (66)
11) Brian De Palma: Carrie (37); Sisters (83)
12) David Cronenberg: The Fly (54); The Dead Zone (96)
13) Terrence Fisher: The Horror of Dracula (60), Curse of Frankenstein (94)
14) Robert Wise: The Body Snatcher (71), The Haunting (63)
15) David Fincher: Seven (95), Zodiac (2007)

BREAKDOWN BY DECADES:

1920s (3): The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (65), Nosferatu (21), The Phantom of the Opera (46)

1930s (6): 1931: Frankenstein (6), 1932 (OFFICIALLY THE FIRST GREAT YEAR IN HORROR MOVIE HISTORY): Vampyr (13), Freaks (30), Dracula (66), The Old Dark House (77), 1935: The Bride of Frankenstein (25)

1940s (2): Cat People (48), The Body Snatcher (71)

1950s (5): Les Diaboliques (15), Night of the Demon (26), The Curse of Frankenstein (94), The Horror of Dracula (60), House on Haunted Hill (78)

1960s (17): 1960: Psycho (3), Eyes Without a Face (34), Jigoku (39), Peeping Tom (43); 1961: The Innocents (9); 1962: Carnival of Souls (41); 1963: The Birds (59), The Haunting (80); 1964: At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (87); 1965: Repulsion (10), The Nanny (50); 1967: Quatermass and the Pit/Five Million Years to Earth (42); 1968 (OFFICIALLY THE SCARIEST MOVIE YEAR): Night of the Living Dead (4), Rosemary's Baby (22), Targets (24), Witchfinder General/The Conqueror Worm (32), Hour of the Wolf (35)

1970s (29) (OFFICIALLY THE SCARIEST MOVIE DECADE): 1970: The Honeymoon Killers (23); 1971: Punishment Park (38), Duel (63), Play Misty For Me (74); 1972: The Other (27), Deliverance (29), Tales from the Crypt (49); 1973 (OFFICIALLY THE 2ND SCARIEST MOVIE YEAR): The Exorcist (1), Theater of Blood (47), The Wicker Man (52), Don’t Look Now (56), Frankenstein: The True Story (57), Sisters (83); 1974: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2); 1975: Black Christmas (20), Deep Red (28), Jaws (31); 1976: Carrie (37), The Tenant (62), God Told Me To (99); 1977: Eraserhead (8), Martin (61), The Hills Have Eyes (90), Suspiria (100); 1978: Halloween (5), Dawn of the Dead (17), Magic (98); 1979: Alien (12), Phantasm (19)

The 1980s (19): 1980: The Shining (7), The Changeling (44), The Fog (86); 1981: The Evil Dead (11), An American Werewolf in London (18), The Entity (85); 1982: The Thing (36), Poltergeist (70), Of Unknown Origin (95); 1983: The Dead Zone (96); 1984: The Company of Wolves (76); Razorback (98); 1986: The Fly (54), Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (64), The Street of Crocodiles (92); 1987: Near Dark (68); 1988: The Vanishing (40) Evil Dead 2 (53), Paperhouse (73)

The 1990s (13): 1990: The Reflecting Skin (33), Jacob’s Ladder (45); 1991: The Silence of the Lambs (69), Cape Fear (81); 1995: Seven (14), Safe (51); 1996: Thesis (93); 1997: Funny Games (16); 1998: Ringu (58); 1999: The Blair Witch Project (55), Audition (89)

The 2000s (11): Signs (79), Shaun of the Dead (67), Zodiac (72), Wolf Creek (75), Let The Right One In (84), [rec] (84)), The Lords of Salem (88), The Descent (91), We Need to Talk About Kevin (97), Get Out (100), The Babadook (101)

WHO'S DOIN' THE SCARIN': A MONSTER BREAKDOWN

PSYCHO KILLERS (28): The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2), Psycho (3), Halloween (6), Repulsion (10), Seven (14), Les Diaboliques (15), Funny Games (16), Black Christmas (20), The Honeymoon Killers (23) , Targets (24), Deep Red (28), Deliverance (29), The Vanishing (40), Peeping Tom (43), Theater of Blood (47), The Nanny (50), Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (64), The Silence of the Lambs (69), The Body Snatcher (71), Zodiac (72), Wolf Creek (75), Cape Fear (81), Sisters (83), Audition (89), The Hills Have Eyes (90), Thesis (93), We Need to Talk About Kevin (97)

PURE EEEEEVIL (14): The Evil Dead (11), Night of the Demon (26), Hour of the Wolf (35), Jigoku (39), Carnival of Souls (41), Jacob’s Ladder (45), Tales from the Crypt (49), Evil Dead 2 (53), Don’t Look Now (56), Ringu (58), Duel (63), At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (87), The Cabin in the Woods (92), The Babadook (101)

DAMAGED PEOPLE (12): Eraserhead (8), The Other (27), Freaks (30), Eyes Without a Face (34), Carrie (37), The Phantom of the Opera (46), The Tenant (62), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (65), Magic (72), Paperhouse (73), Play Misty For Me (74), The Dead Zone (96), Get Out (100)

GHOSTS (9): The Shining (7), The Innocents (9), The Changeling (44), Poltergeist (70), The Old Dark House (77), House on Haunted Hill (78), The Haunting (80), The Entity (85), The Fog (86)

VAMPIRES (8): Vampyr (13), Nosferatu (21), The Reflecting Skin (33), The Horror of Dracula (60), Martin (61), Dracula (66), Near Dark (68), Let The Right One In (84)

ALIENS (7): Alien (12), Phantasm (19), The Thing (36), Quatermass and the Pit/Five Million Years to Earth (42), Signs (79), The Descent (91), God Told Me To (99)

ZOMBIES (5): Night of the Living Dead (5), Dawn of the Dead (17), Shaun of the Dead (67), [rec] (2007)

FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER (KING OF ALL MONSTERS) (4): Frankenstein (7), The Bride of Frankenstein (25), Frankenstein: The True Story (57), The Curse of Frankenstein (97)

ANIMALS (4): Jaws (31), The Birds (59), Of Unknown Origin (95), Razorback (98)

PEOPLE WHO TURN INTO ANIMALS (4): An American Werewolf in London (18), The Company of Wolves (76), Cat People (48), The Fly (54)

WITCHES (4): Witchfinder General/The Conqueror Worm (32), The Wicker Man (52), The Blair Witch Project (55), The Lords of Salem (88)

SATAN (2): The Exorcist (1), Rosemary's Baby (22)

POLLUTION (1): Safe (51)

THE GOVERNMENT (1): Punishment Park (38)