In honor of one of the best months of the year, that of Halloween, we decided to take a crack at another group Top 10 list. You might recall a few months back when we compiled our own list of the Greatest Movies of All-Time, adding our own spin the the then-timely debate as to what the term "greatest" defines as. We created the list by simply adding up the points from each of our own Top 10 lists and generating one composite list that represented the combined efforts of the entire site. We had so much fun with that - and the results so interesting - that we have many more planned.
Our first venture back to the format leads us here, to our Favorite Horror Films of All-Time. Many of us at this site have a strong passion for the Horror genre, so it was fun to pull all of our favorites together and see what we came up with. Interestingly, this list was far different than that of our previous compilation list. With the previous list being about the "greatest", there was a certain built-in standard that everyone made note of, and it kept the number of different picks fairly refined. When we ventured into this list and compiled our "favorite" titles, all hell broke loose - when discussing simple favorites, there are no constraints; any title could make the list, regardless of quality, pedigree, or any other criteria. So overall there was much more parity than the last time around, leading to a few lesser point totals for the films on the list. But regardless, the results were quite interesting and led to some really great (and even some unexpected) selections.
Hit the jump for the full Top 10 list of the "official" favorite Horror Films as presented by the Slackers Selection Movie Blog!
As was the case last time, selection and voting was done by using a simple point system. Here's the link to the last list where you can find a more detailed explanation of the rating system, but it's pretty straight-forward: each writer picks x number of films (this time we each picked 15 films), and each spot is ranked. Your number one selection gets 15 point, number two 14, etc., etc. Then, it's simply a matter of plugging all of the point values into a spreadsheet and seeing which ten films received the most points. It's not rocket science, but it does the trick.
So, after taking all 75 votes into account, here are the ten Horror Films that earned the most points by our staff:
1. Dawn of the Dead (1978) - 43 PTS
2. Halloween (1978) - 33 PTS
3. The Evil Dead (1981) - 30 PTS
4. The Exorcist (1973) - 30 PTS
5. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - 28 PTS
6. Rosemary's Baby (1968) - 28 PTS
7. The Sixth Sense (1999) - 28 PTS
8. The Shining (1980) - 25 PTS
9. The Devil's Rejects (2005) - 24 PTS
10. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) - 23 PTS
First off, for those noticing the films that tied in points, rank was determined by which film(s) earned more votes. "The Evil Dead" appeared on three lists, while "The Exorcist" only on two, hence it got the benefit in its rank.
As far as decade breakdowns go, the 1970's was by far the most represented. Three films from the 70's cracked the top five, with four overall making the top ten. There were three from the 1980's, with two of them grabbing the remaining spots in the Top 5. Outside of that, there was one film each from the 1960's, 1990's, and 2000's. It is pretty neat that films spanning five full decades were represented; it provides a great blanket over the Horror industry throughout the past fifty years.
Overall, we feel the list came out pretty nice though. As was mentioned at the beginning, due to the total variety of films presented, there wasn't nearly as much weight at the top as last time. We're happy with these picks - and regardless, they are what they are - but there were definitely a lot of films even just a couple of points away from being in the top ten. But this gives a pretty good example of the types of films we're most drawn to, and the ones we feel you should first gravitate towards when making your Horror selections.
Anyway, those are the films we voted as the best. We hope that you enjoyed our latest efforts with this list. Whether it's a first-time watch or just a refresher, be sure to take some of these in. With it now being the weekend before Halloween, we can think of nothing better than to go track down a handful of these titles, curl up in front of your television, and enjoy the scares. You can be sure that many of us at this site will be doing the very same thing.
What do you think? Anything not on here that you thought should have made the cut?