Texas Chain Saw Massacre declared top horror flick
Gorefest luminaries pick their fave chillers
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Tobe Hooper's 1974 gorefest The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has been voted the top horror film ever by a veritable bloodbath of luminaries of the genre including John Carpenter, George Romero and Robert Englund.
Total Film asked 63 leading lights to pick their personal faves, then compiled a top ten based on the results. Here's what the industry considers the ultimate roster of fear:
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
- The Exorcist
- Psycho
- The Shining
- The Thing
- Halloween
- Alien
- Jaws
- Dawn Of The Dead
- Suspiria
Total Film's deputy ed, Jamie Graham, said: "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is essentially an old dark house tale fitted with mallets, meat hooks and power tools. We see nothing, feel everything, the aggressive camera, brutal editing, clanging sound design and grainy, grubby visuals striking home like a sledgehammer to the skull."
John Carpenter, who secured fifth spot with The Thing, said of the laureate and his own number one pick: "Tobe really hit the times when he did that movie, more than almost any other film. I remember going to see it when it was out here in Los Angeles - it was '74 or '75 - and I remember that experience of seeing it for the first time. Jeez. What makes it all the more effective is the fact it's so funny."
Mr Hooper himself selected Psycho as the ultimate bowel-loosener, and gave a nod to excellent 1957 chiller Night Of The Demon.
The rest of the experts' picks can be found here. Shame on the lot of 'em for not elevating The Wicker Man* to its rightful place in the pantheon of horror classics, as the unwashed masses did when they also voted The Texas Chain Saw Massacre their shocker of choice back in 2005. ®
Bootnote
*Not the remake featuring Nicolas Cage, we hasten to add. It's a truly horrifying experience, but for all the wrong reasons.
COMMENTS
@Er
Many people accociates Aliens with Alien. Those two are completely different types of films. Alien is a horror. Aliens is a great action movie.
A horror doesnt have to be a gore-fest although both of Alien and Jaws actually do quite well.
Horror films incite suspense, fear, disgust,nightmares ? I think they do as well as any movies of that genre.
Somehow, many people equate slasher gore movies to be horror movies - well guess what they thats not the only kind.
Horror movies is about putting you in a place and situation you dont want to be. Films like Alien, Jaw, Hostel all work with different plots but are all horror movies.
Horror?
Really?
Those films?
... ok, well some, others however, Jaws? Suspiria?
And no Asian horrors? Now they are a people who make good horrors!
Will probably get slated for this but...
I have to agree with the majority above, slasher and action films aren't horror films, they may have scarey elements, but that makes them scarey action / slasher films.
This is why (and this is what I'm going to get slated for) I really like 1408 with John Cusack, and (even more so here) Event Horizon. Totally over done, admittedly, but still, I like it.

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