FINAL GIRL explores the slasher flicks of the '70s and '80s...and all the other horror movies I feel like talking about, too. This is life on the EDGE, so beware yon spoilers!

Oct 31, 2017

SHOCKtober: 10-1



Here we are, the Top 10, the Final Countdown, the winner's circle, the crème de la crème, the head honchos, the big cheeses, your favorite horror movies of ALL TIME! Bold numbers indicate number of votes received.

10. Carrie (1976, Brian De Palma) -- 26

9. Black Christmas (1974, Bob Clark) -- 27

8. Night of the Living Dead (1968, George A. Romero) -- 27

7. Dawn of the Dead (1978, George A. Romero) -- 33

6. Alien (1979, Ridley Scott) -- 34

5. The Shining (1980, Stanley Kubrick) -- 34

4. The Exorcist (1973, William Friedkin) -- 36

3. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974, Tobe Hooper) -- 39

2. The Thing (1982, John Carpenter) -- 48

1. Halloween (1978, John Carpenter) -- 52

I have to admit, I was kind of rooting for The Thing to take the #1 spot just so there'd be an upset, but there's no toppling the tale of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. They were close right until the end (heck, the whole Top 10 was pretty close), though, and ultimately they're not separated by that many votes. Maybe when I do this again in like ten years...? Eh, who am I kidding, Halloween is just way too beloved. But congrats to John Carpenter on taking the #1 and #2 spots, I'm sure he finds this to be the highest honor he's ever received!

YES I know there are some ties in there–Black Christmas and Night of the Living Dead, Alien and The Shining–but as I said way back when, this ain't yer mama's countdown! I play by my own rules, and my own rules say the rankings are sometimes arbitrary!

And just like that, it's over.

OR IS IT? I'll be back tomorrow with some kind of a post-game show... much like evil, SHOCKtober never dies! Thanks to everyone who cast a vote! Thanks to everyone who's just reading along! Happy Halloween! Exclamation point!

9 comments:

goblin said...

Happy Halloween, Stacie! Is it just me or did this SHOCKtober really just fly by?

Not a whole lot of surprises there in the Top 10, but then again I suppose that was to be expected. All of these movies are timeless classics after all.

P. K. Nail said...

If my calculations are right, there are 258 movies on this list that weren't on the 2010 list (that's a little over a third?). I was pleased to see so many *new* movies on the list, many of them so new they weren't even released until after the 2010 list (or came out that year).

Thanks for doing this again this year!

J. Skel LaTour said...

Happy Halloween everyone!

Steve said...

How many submissions overall, Stacey?

I saw Happy Death Day in the theatre today to finish off my SHOCKtober (somehow managed 32 new films plus a couple of old ones with friends, despite a busy schedule). It was really fun!

Other high points:

The Invitation
The Void
Don't Breathe
Teeth
It Comes At Night
Get Out
They Look Like People (but is it a horror movie?)
Cube
Under The Shadow

Paul Hurh said...

There's one film in the top 10 that I haven't seen, and I think it has gone from a source of horror fan shame to one of those rare treats that I save for a special occasion.

In grad school, a game we talked about but never actually played was: "name the book that you are the most embarrassed to have never read"--and we were supposed to one up one another in shocking others with our ignorance. I wonder if the same could be done with horror movies? What's the number of the film from this Shocktober list that is the first one you haven't seen?

Thank you Stacie for putting this together, and thank you everyone for all the new suggestions. What a great community project!

Eve said...

This was awesome, Stacie. I loved seeing such a huge range of styles and moods in the movies chosen. And your "if you like playing this, watch that" piece got me to add Kwaidan to my to-watch list, so thanks for that as well. HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

Stacie Ponder said...

Thanks so much everyone! This wouldn't be nothin' if it wasn't for all the participatin'.

@Steve– I have no idea how many people submitted, that's one thing I didn't keep track of! Next time, mayhaps!

@Paul– that's a good question, I'm gonna figure it out and include it in the post-game show

@goblin– holy crap yeah, the month FLEW by. I'm so bummed it's over already! I mean, we all kind of celebrate year-round basically, but still

@PK– I didn't keep track of that number either! Boo. But i did track the number of films released since the last go-round. It's definitely a sign that horror ain't in TOO bad a place.

@eve– thanks for clicking over to Kotaku! Kwaidan is terrific, I hope you dig it!

Unknown said...

This was an amazing list, and now I have a ton of movies to watch while my knee heals up from surgery. Binge watching ftw!

Boo Rhodes said...

The 70s were the golden years of grossness and the 80s were super slashers which were tamer than the 70s horrorfest slash them up movies. Today's movies have the gore, but it's so glamorized that it's not gross. Thanks for the great list!