tyranist's Top 20 Horror Films I've Ever Seen

I love horror. Really. I've loved it for a long time, but I had an under-developed horror childhood. I didn't read my first horror novel until I was 15 and only saw a few movies (say maybe a couple dozen) before I finally moved out of my parent's home and had free reign. They were trying to 'protect' me, I guess.

So I have been trying to make up for it ever since.

That means I've seen a lot of horror in relatively recent years, but I haven't seen it all. The following list is taken strictly from movies I have seen and loved for one reason or another. This will probably change as time goes by and no doubt Rish disagrees and will do his own list. Enjoy.

1)  Alien (1979) [slow-paced, creepy sci-fi]
2)  Halloween (1978) [the movie that had me convinced that a psychopath was hiding in my closet]
3)  Pet Sematary (1989) ["The soil of a man's heart is stonier."]
4)  Army of Darkness (1992) [Ash, Ash, Ash]
5)  The Sixth Sense (1999) [eerie and moving in a way no other film has been]
6)  Dawn of the Dead (1978) [what would you have done?]
7)  Scream (1996) [smart and very well written]
8)  The Frighteners (1996) [pushing the envelope on what Ghostbusters could have done]
9)  The Shining (1980) [I still can't look at Jack without shuddering]
10)  Haunted (1995) [best ghost story I have ever seen on film]
11)  Black Christmas (1974) [well put together slasher that is overlooked perhaps simply because of age]
12)  Dead Alive (1992) [zombie gore galore coupled with the most pathetic/sympathetic hero ever]
13)  An American Werewolf in London (1981) [the only word that comes to mind is drizzly]
14)  A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) [more so than Halloween, this movie launched the slasher genre]
15)  Silence of the Lambs (1991) [so real it is disturbing in the extreme]
16)  Trauma (1992) [why can't Americans make this kind of horror]
17)  I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) [if just for the extremely long Helen Shivers chase scene]
18)  Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) [little Danielle Harris stole my heart]
19)  Bride of Chucky (1998) [what all sequels of bad series should be]
20)  The Birds (1963) [I still can't walk near a large flock of birds]