There’s no shortage of horror movies that garnered the wrath of a Roger Ebert review. The worst horror movies lacked substance and justifiable violence. Where the undeserving failed, the best horror movies produced psychological and emotional experiences fueled by a cinematic vision that extended past the ticket stub. The genre is saturated with gory geek shows and popcorn thrillers, but the top-tier movies in Ebert’s opinion, desired to achieve more. These Oscar nominees and winners, cult classics, and controversial features push the boundaries while setting the precedent.
The canon of best horror withstand the test of time, some losing the scares that garnered visceral reactions over six decades ago; however, their themes, groundbreaking depicts of creatures of the night and creatures of society still push the conversation of what terrifies, what is real, and where the boundary between the viewer and the camera lies.
10
‘Santa Sangre’ (1989)
Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky
A movie like he’d never seen before, Santa Sangre took Ebert down memory lane to a time when bold, courageous originality was hailed over the mass regurgitation of stories already told. The underappreciated film is the story of the son (Axel Jodorowsky) of circus performers, who witnesses a brutally violent event in the opening scenes that lands him in an insane asylum until his now armless cult-leader mother (Blanca Guerra) brings him back to society to commit atrocious acts on her behalf. Ebert’s four-star review emphasizes the powerful imagery layered throughout the movie.
“When I go to the movies, one of my strongest desires is to be shown something new. I want to go to new places, meet new people, have new experiences. When I see Hollywood formulas mindlessly repeated, a little something dies inside of me: I have lost two hours to boors who insist on telling me stories I have heard before. Jodorowsky is not boring.”
Ebert called witnessing the director’s films a privilege. Santa Sangre plays with the psychosis of what is delusion and what is real. The critic called it “a film that grabs you with its opening frames and shakes you for two hours with the outrageous excesses of his imagination.”
- Release Date
-
November 24, 1989
- Director
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Alejandro Jodorowsky
- Cast
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Axel Jodorowsky
, Blanca Guerra
, Guy Stockwell
, Thelma Tixou
, Sabrina Dennison
, Adan Jodorowsky
, Faviola Elenka Tapia
, Teo Jodorowsky
, Jesús Juárez
, Gloria Contreras
, Mary Aranza
, Sergio Bustamante
, S. Rodriguez
, Zonia Rangel Mora
, Joaquín García Vargas
, Teo Tapia
, Edgar E. Jiménez Nava
, Jacobo Lieberman
, Héctor Ortega
, Brontis Jodorowsky
, Valérie Crouzet
, Óscar Serafín Álvarez
, Billy Motton
, Hilario Popitekus Vargas
, Guadalupe TNT Aguilar
, Arturo Rinoceronte Contreras
, Gustavo Aguilar Tejada
, Roger Fayard Arroyo
9
‘The Exorcist’ (1973)
Directed by William Friedkin
The Oscar-winning horror film that left audiences terrified and inspired a subgenre of demonic possession features is what Ebert called, “one of the best movies of its type ever made.” The Exorcist is the story of a young girl’s (Linda Blair) demonic possession and her mother’s (Ellen Burstyn) determination to save her by any means necessary including allowing two priests (Max von Sydow and Jason Miller) to perform an exorcism. Ebert awarded the original release the full four stars, while the 2000 director’s cut dropped to three-and-a-half stars.
“Even in the extremes of Friedkin’s vision there is still a feeling that this is, after all, cinematic escapism and not a confrontation with real life. There is a fine line to be drawn there, and ‘The Exorcist’ finds it and stays a millimeter on this side.”
The Exorcist endures with its narrative investment in character development and shocking scenes that seemingly don’t age. Ebert was surprised the movie didn’t earn an X-rating. Ebert’s issue with the 12-minute longer re-release was an added stunt with possessed Regan and changing the film’s ending. However, both versions remain a cinematic experience with waves of emotions from shock and fear to hope and peace.
- Release Date
-
December 26, 1973
8
‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1978)
Directed by George A. Romero
With a long list of adjectives to describe his visceral reaction to Dawn of the Dead, Ebert gave four stars to the “satiric view of the American consumer society.” Having escaped a horde of zombies and the growing epidemic, a group of survivors find safe haven in a shopping mall, becoming, perhaps, humanity’s final existence. The George Romero film is the sequel to his cult classic Night of the Living Dead, appealing not only horror audiences but also to “the ghoulish voyeur in all of us.”
“If you can see beyond the immediate impact of Romero’s imagery, if you can experience the film as being more than just its violent extremes, a most unsettling thought may occur to you: The zombies in “Dawn of the Dead” are not the ones who are depraved…The depravity is in the healthy survivors, and the true immorality comes as two bands of human survivors fight each other…”
For Ebert, any worthwhile, great horror movie provides some type of commentary subtly (or bluntly) transparent below the surface of movie monsters and psychological terror. He vehemently defends the alleged depravity of the Dawn of the Dead, arguing that the movie is foundationally about depravity with horror as the means of delivery.
- Release Date
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May 24, 1979
- Director
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George Romero
7
‘Peeping Tom’ (1960)
Directed by Michael Powell
Diving into the unsettling voyeurism of the psychology of killing, Peeping Tom not only earned a rave four-star rating from Ebert, but a spot in his canon of great movies. Carl Boehm stars as Mark Lewis, a young filmmaker who is working on his documentary about fear. To capture true, authentic reactions of fear, Mark records his victims reactions as he kills them on camera. Things get complicated when the young woman below discovers his secret, and she gets caught. During the film’s initial run, it was banned in several countries and pulled from British distribution, with several reviews calling it “disgusting” and essentially damning the career of director Michael Powell. in his canon of great movies
“He was a virtuoso of camera use, and in ‘Peeping Tom’ the basic strategy is to always suggest that we are not just seeing, but looking. His film is a masterpiece precisely because it doesn’t let us off the hook, like all of those silly teenage slasher movies do. We cannot laugh and keep our distance: We are forced to acknowledge that we watch, horrified but fascinated.”
It wouldn’t’ be until the 1970s when Martin Scorsese’s admiration of Powell’s work and a re-screen to much more accepting, rave reviews that Powell’s film and career became appreciated. For Ebert, he continuously emphasized the movie’s power in involving the audience’s gaze and their inability to deny participation by proxy.
- Release Date
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May 16, 1960
- Director
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Michael Powell
- Cast
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Karlheinz Böhm
, Anna Massey
, Moira Shearer
, Maxine Audley
, Brenda Bruce
, Miles Malleson
, Esmond Knight
, Martin Miller
6
‘Jaws’ (1975)
Directed by Stephen Spielberg
While there is no love lost for Ebert in this franchise’s final installment, the first movie is one of the greatest horror movies of all time to not only Ebert, but to cinephiles everywhere. Jaws is the iconic creature feature about a great white shark plaguing the summer beach community, Amity Island, and the three men who set out to the unforgiving ocean to kill it. Ebert’s four-star, great movie praise points out Steven Spielberg’s one condition for directing and how he strategically built up the unseen presence of this great white.
“When the shark does appear for its closeups, it is quite satisfactorily terrifying, and most audiences are too startled to ask why the shark seems prepared to inconvenience itself so greatly, at one point even attempting to eat the boat. The shark has been so thoroughly established, through dialogue and quasi-documentary material, that its actual presence is enhanced in our imaginations by all we’ve seen and heard.”
Spielberg agreed to the adaptation if the shark wasn’t seen for at least an hour into the movie, using inventive expertise to make the final reveal so anticipatorily terrifying. Ebert reminisced with great passion how the film’s dialogue is so expertly written and performed that many scenes are haunting without needing the shark to be present, like Quint’s (Robert Shaw)’s U.S.S. monologue. The impact of Jaws created a tsunami throughout Hollywood, giving studios a green light for summer releases, while simultaneously launching “most extraordinary directorial career in modern movie history.”
- Release Date
-
June 18, 1975
5
‘The Shining’ (1980)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
A movie about reliability and the power of fear within the imagination, The Shining is what Ebert called “isolated madness” in his four-star, great movie review. The adaptation of Stephen King’s acclaimed novel takes viewers to the Overlook Hotel, a mountainous hotel as it closes for the season, hiring Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) as the winter groundskeeper. Jack, his wife (Shelly Duvall), and their son (Danny Llyod) move to the vast hotel, but the longer they stay, the more terrifying the disturbances appear.
“Stanley Kubrick’s cold and frightening ‘The Shining’ challenges us to decide: Who is the reliable observer? Whose idea of events can we trust?”
As viewers and Ebert accept the challenge of distinguishing who is reliable when and for how long, the task is only made more difficult by the psychic elements infused into the characters and their varying descents into the madness. Ebert called the “elusive open-endedness” the movie rolls credits with “so strangely disturbing.”
- Release Date
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May 23, 1980
- Director
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Stanley Kubrick
- Cast
-
Jack Nicholson
, Shelley Duvall
, Danny Lloyd
, Scatman Crothers
, Barry Nelson
, Philip Stone
4
‘Dracula’ (1931)
Directed by Tod Browning and Karl Freund
While the title of the greatest vampire movie belongs to the terrifying silent film, Ebert made sure to include Dracula as one of the greatest movies of all time in his four-star review. In this adaptation, Bela Lugosi stars as the titular Transylvanian vampire who hypnotizes a British real estate agent, Renfield (Dwight Frye), to do his bidding and transport him to London, where he resides in a coffin, sleeping by day and draining the blood from young women by night. Lugosi’s portrayal is equally creepy as it is timeless, laying the foundation for the myriad of films depicting Bram Stoker’s creature.
“It was the first talking picture based on Bram Stoker‘s novel, and somehow Count Dracula was more fearsome when you could hear him–not an inhuman monster, but a human one, whose painfully articulated sentences mocked the conventions of drawing room society.”
In his review, Ebert acknowledged that in 1931 the movie was rightfully viewed as terrifying; however, as time passed the movie became more fascinating because of Lugosi’s performance, technical execution of not using a complete score until the restored version, and for the stylized sets and photography that capture the gothic narrative. Dracula becomes a contemplation of perspective as Ebert ends his review with, “From our point of view, Dracula is committing an unspeakable crime. From his, offering an unspeakable gift.”
Dracula
- Release Date
-
February 12, 1931
- Director
-
Tod Browning
, Karl Freund - Cast
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Béla Lugosi
, Helen Chandler
, David Manners
, Dwight Frye
, Edward Van Sloan
3
‘Nosferatu’ (1922)
Directed by F.W. Murnau
As a modernized version makes its way to the screen, audiences are reminded of Ebert’s opinion that the original Nosferatu holds the title of greatest vampire movie of all time. In this silent film, Count Orlok (Max Schreck) is a haunting vampire with a newfound interest in finding a new estate and the blood of his real estate agent’s wife. This is the foundational raw vampiric tale before the genre became saturated with clichés, humor, and romances. Ebert points out in his four-star, great movie review that Nosferatu invests heavily in its own material, wholeheartedly believing in the legend and horror of this vampire.
“I admire it more for its artistry and ideas, its atmosphere and images, than for its ability to manipulate my emotions like a skillful modern horror film. It knows none of the later tricks of the trade…It doesn’t scare us, but it haunts us.”
Bram Stoker’s original narrative strictly plunges into the Victorian-era values in which it was written. Ebert’s review discusses “the buried sexuality in the Dracula story” with the never-ending analysis from readers and Nosferatu viewers. The acclaimed horror film, like many silent films, entices viewers into a mesmerizing dreamlike state where monsters exist and will come for you in the night.
- Release Date
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February 16, 1922
- Director
-
F. W. Murnau
- Cast
-
Max Schreck
, Gustav von Wangenheim
, Greta Schröder
, Georg H. Schnell
, Ruth Landshoff
2
‘Halloween’ (1978)
Directed by John Carpenter
From the barrage of negative reviews from Ebert cultivating a list of the worst slasher movies, genre fans will take a reprieve in Ebert’s glowing review of Halloween. The iconic horror movie takes place on Halloween night in Haddonfield, Illinois, as a babysitter (Jamie Lee Curtis) is stalked by a masked madman named Michael Myers (Tony Moran). Ebert’s four-star review called it “a visceral experience,” warning viewers that if they don’t want to be scared, then don’t see Halloween.
“It’s easy to create violence on the screen, but it’s hard to do it well. Carpenter is uncannily skilled, for example, at the use of foregrounds in his compositions, and everyone who likes thrillers knows that foregrounds are crucial: The camera establishes the situation, and then it pans to one side, and something unexpectedly looms up in the foreground.
Refusing to give much away about the plot, Ebert’s review becomes so engrossed in the art of the scare and how good horror requires effort on the filmmaker’s behalf. There’s a meticulous difficulty that comes with trying to portray violence well instead of just spattering blood for gore and shock value. Halloween succeeds on all fronts, earning its status as one of the greatest horror movies of all time.
Halloween
- Release Date
-
October 27, 1978
1
‘Psycho’ (1960)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
The greatest horror movie of all time according to Ebert belongs to the incomparable Psycho. Alfred Hitchcock plays viewers like a piano as their fears stick with them long after they exit the theater. An unforgettable experience in Ebert’s eyes, the story of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and her refuge at the Bates Motel with its peculiar manager, Norman (Anthony Perkins), remains an enduring staple in the genre.
“Seeing the shower scene today, several things stand out. Unlike modern horror films, “Psycho” never shows the knife striking flesh…the slashing chords of Bernard Herrmann’s soundtrack substitute for more grisly sound effects. The closing shots are not graphic but symbolic…This remains the most effective slashing in movie history, suggesting that situation and artistry are more important than graphic details.”
Psycho is a masterclass in cinematic horror whose Oscar-nominated cinematography makes the movie. Ebert’s four-star review inducted the Hitchcock classic into his great movie collection. The director’s attention to detail, minus the divisive ending, set a precedent for the genre’s future and how horror doesn’t have to be a geek show, but rather an intellectual experience that happens to be terrifying.
Psycho
- Release Date
-
September 8, 1960
- Cast
-
Janet Leigh
, Martin Balsam
, Anthony Perkins
, John Gavin
, Vera Miles
