Terrifying psychopaths. Ancient demons. Frankenstein! Let's explore some of
the best horror films ever made! From horror classics to recent masterpieces,
these films earned perfect Rotten Tomatoes scores, and you need to know why!
Hans Beckert stalks the streets of Berlin. Only, to a casual passerby, it might not
look like stalking. Beckert is physically unassuming. He's a wide-eyed, dumpy nobody,
who's more easily imagined behind a typewriter than the handle of a knife. And yet, as Berliners
are about to learn, Hans Beckert is a monster: a serial murderer compelled to kill children.
Soon, Beckert's crimes cast a fearful shadow over the city. The authorities crack down, utilizing
every forensic tool at their disposal. Meanwhile, the criminal underbelly begins to assemble its own
manhunt, so they can resume their activities, unbothered by the heightened police presence.
It would be a mistake to dismiss "M" for its age. Released in 1931,
Fritz Lang's masterful procedural terror trip has lost none of its staying power.
"M" occupies the fuzzy midsection of the Venn Diagram between the horror and thriller genres,
rubbing bloodied shoulders with the likes of "Manhunter," "Se7en," and "Deep Red." Lang's
vision of Berlin is a sparse and barren place, suffocated in shadow. Lawmen and criminals
are indistinguishable forces: cruel, twisted men prone to violence, fraying at the seams,
and overwhelmed by a desire to reestablish control. Despite his minimal screen time,
Peter Lorre's Beckert conjures both our repulsion and understanding. He's monstrous, yes. But how
are his violent compulsions different from those of the Berliners itching to spill his blood?
Arguably, "M" stands for "Masterpiece." After all, Lang's film boasts an inarguably perfect
score on Rotten Tomatoes, with the likes of Roger Ebert hailing the film,
"A portrait of a diseased society ... it's a wonder
it escaped the attention of the Nazi censors."
The gargantuan gothic pillar of the Classical Hollywood era,
James Whale's "Frankenstein" adapts Mary Shelly's 1818 novel of the same name with tremendous style,
grace, and pathos. Fuelled by a Promethean desire to play god,
Dr. Henry Frankenstein sets about fashioning an abomination out of rotting flesh.
"It's alive, it's alive!
Directed by the legendary James Whale, this monumental classic refuses to show its age,
running circles around its Universal monster peers that later emerged and
felt altogether lifeless by comparison. It is impossible to praise "Frankenstein"
without paying homage to Boris Karloff's performance. Without uttering a word,
Karloff cements his immortality on the silver screen as a physical force to be reckoned with,
who's capable of conjuring pity out of wounded glances and shaking palms.
"Frankenstein" is a tragic tale of arrogance and existential meddling,
and its perfect Rotten Tomatoes score is further testament to
a story that continues to move and shock in the 21st century.
It is no small miracle that Gerald Kargl's legendarily hard-to-watch "Angst" currently
enjoys a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. A devoted illustration of the brutality perpetuated by
real-life psychopaths, "Angst" follows an unnamed serial killer after he is released from prison. As
soon as the gates close behind him, the thoroughly un-rehabilitated killer immediately scampers off
into the world to commit the perfect murder. This was always part of the plan; now, it's just
a question of finding a suitable victim. After several false starts and missed opportunities,
the killer soon hits a madman's jackpot: a secluded estate surrounded by thick woods.
When the inhabitants — an elderly woman, her daughter, and handicapped son — return home,
the killer wastes no time unleashing his perverse desires on the unsuspecting family.
"Angst" is one of those films you can't really recommend in good conscience to anyone. But it is,
undoubtedly, one of the greatest horror films ever committed to celluloid. The killer monologues
throughout the film's runtime, detailing his sadism and decision-making with unnerving
ease. Forcing its audience into unbearably close proximity to its subject, even the cinematography
lurches and floats with disembodied queasiness and curiosity. Charged with a primal and distressingly
clumsy violence, few films can genuinely claim to be this viscerally uncomfortable to sit through.
An outstanding feature film debut from British director Remi Weekes, "His House" follows Bol
and Rial, a couple who arrive in the United Kingdom after fleeing South Sudan. As a condition
of their asylum, Bol and Rial must abide by the strict rules that govern their day to day
lives and must live in assigned housing. It's a crumbling tenement house in a racist neighborhood,
but after dealing with so many hardships, having a roof over their heads means the world to them.
While Bol tries to assimilate into British culture, Rial can't shake the feeling that
something dark has followed them across the ocean. Still grieving the loss of their daughter,
who did not survive the journey, the couple soon begins to feel the presence of something
dark and angry lurking within the walls of the house they've been ordered to live in.
"His House" is a harrowing and powerfully realized tale of survivor's guilt and the
ghosts of the past, exposes the real horrors of a dehumanizing immigration system, while
conjuring actually disturbing supernatural spooks. An emotional and genuinely terrifying modern take
on the haunted house formula, this film recalls the nightmarish dream logic of Lucio Fulci while
carving out a space all its own. Sporting a perfect critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes,
"His House" balances its disarming intelligence with genuinely unsettling imagery that puts
most modern supernatural fare to shame. As Tim Grierson of Screen Daily aptly sums up:
"The film has much to say about grief, guilt, assimilation,
and the on-going refugee crisis. And on top of that, it's also a nifty nerve-jangler."
In the end, "His House" is proof that horror films can do it all.
"This is our home."
If you haven't had the joy of watching "One Cut of the Dead" just yet, heed this warning:
It is best, if possible, to go into it blind. No spoilers here,
but proceed at your own risk. Part of the undeniable charm of Shinichiro Ueda's 2017
Japanese horror film is in its revelations. It has a cunning way of lulling you into thinking
you're in for yet another low-budget found footage flick, before revealing that it's
something else entirely. To say much more would be to give away the mid-film rug pull.
But if you're finding yourself rolling your eyes during the film's first act, push on:
There are bloody delights awaiting you on the other side. To call it a slow burn doesn't really
do it justice. "One Cut of the Dead" is more akin to a long and winding stand-up routine.
Sitting pretty with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score as of the time of publishing,
"One Cut of the Dead" has been unanimously praised for its cheeky mix of gleeful gore and
intelligent meta commentary. As The Los Angeles Times puts it, the film is "a master class in
endless narrative inventiveness and an ode to the resourceful and collaborative spirit of hands-on
filmmaking." Part of that collaboration comes from you, the audience, and your willingness
to give yourself over to Ueda's unfurling Russian doll. As the title boldly proclaims,
much of its action takes place in a genuine single take, free from cuts but bountiful in bites,
screams, and foregone limbs. Few horror films manage to secure a flawless Rotten Tomatoes score.
Look, the early days of quarantine made all of us do wild things. But — and not to victim blame
here — holding a virtual Zoom sèance is just asking for trouble. "Host" follows six pals
who have the bright idea to hire a medium to help them communicate with the dead over the
internet. What begins as an awkward filler for their weekly Zoom hang soon descends
into something far more sinister. The group begins to notice unexplainable phenomena,
and realize that their cheeky social event might have unleashed a malevolent spirit.
A document of both the uncanny digital state of being that defines modern-day
quarantine and the increasing popularity of the "screenlife genre," "Host" earned
unanimous praise on Rotten Tomatoes. As Jenna Stoeber writes for Polygon,
"[The film is] deeply clever, playing off familiar
aspects of video call technology and not at all skimping on the stunts."
Mary Beth McAndrews of Film Cred also sums up the film's appeal nicely, saying,
"[The film proves] how crucial found footage is in capturing social fears [...] by
adapting to current world events and the popular technology that goes with it."
For the best viewing results,
watch on your laptop in your bed at 2 in the morning with the lights off.
Aaron is getting old: 40 is looming on the horizon and his passion project is starting
to feel like any humdrum day job. And hey, look, midlife crises are a dime a dozen. They're
a natural part of getting older and staring your own mortality in the face. And for Aaron,
the joy of plunging axes and kitchen knives into unsuspecting jugulars just doesn't have the same
pizzaz now that gray hairs have started invading his temples. Murdering people just doesn't have
the same je-ne-sais-quoi that it used to. And finding himself going through the motions,
Aaron begins to wonder how he can carry on. Enter: Sara, an aspiring director
in a similar creative slump. Her web series, "Encounters," isn't doing as well as she'd hoped,
and in a last-ditch effort to save her show, Sara answers Aaron's sinister
Craigslist ad. She shows up, in the middle of nowhere, with a camera and an open mind.
"You gotta keep the camera on if you wanna keep the magic."
A terse, tension-filled game of cat and mouse where it's never quite clear who is the cat and
who is the mouse, "Creep 2" is a shocking follow-up to 2014's "Creep." The blend of
dark humor and found footage horror tropes to skin-crawling effect. Released in 2017,
many critics including AV Club's Alex McLevy claimed that the sequel outshines its predecessor
in nearly every way. With Desiree Akhavan’s magnetic screen presence throughout the film,
Dead Central's Jonathan Barkan notes that "Creep 2" creates a,
quote, "white-knuckle, anxiety-inducing tension."
Doctor of Psychology and ardent skeptic Dr. John Holden is en route to London to co-facilitate a
rather peculiar seminar. It's a lecture aimed at exposing devil worship, witchcraft, and occult
power as nothing more than smoke, mirrors, and persuasion. The central target of the symposium is
the ridiculously goateed Julian Karswell, a local cult leader who appears to have a vice grip on his
followers. When Dr. Holden arrives in England, he is surprised to learn that his collaborator, Dr.
Harrington, has been killed in a freak electrical accident. Only, his whip-smart niece thinks the
brutalized state of her uncle's corpse points to a far more violent, and perhaps supernatural,
cause. While Dr. Holden remains adamant that Karswell is nothing but a charming conman,
the evidence begins stacking up that he may be the next to die by ... unnatural means.
The film is directed by the French master of the macabre Jacques Tourneur the man
behind "Cat People" and "I Walked With a Zombie." "Night of the Demon" pits stubborn
rationality against unhinged beliefs with genuinely terrifying results. While "folk
horror" wouldn't be properly codified as a horror sub-genre until the late 1960s or early 1970s,
the rumblings of occult-based cinematic spooks are present in this 1957 chiller.
As Chicago Reader critic Dave Kehr writes in his 1985 review,
"Intelligent, delicate, and actually frightening [...] Tourneur is attempting a
rational apprehension of the irrational, examining not so much the supernatural
itself but the insecurities it springs from and the uses it may be put to."
A renowned big-game hunter named Bob is cheerfully sailing on a luxury yacht,
regaling his fellow passengers with thrilling tales of his past exploits. Then, suddenly,
their vessel smashes into an uncharted reef, killing everyone on board except Bob, who
miraculously survives and washes up on the shore of a seemingly desolate Caribbean island. Soon,
Bob finds himself the guest of the eccentric Count Zaroff, a mysterious Russian recluse.
Finding that he is not the only shipwrecked guest in Zaroff's castle, Bob soon learns
that his host fashions himself something of an accomplished hunter. Only, Count Zaroff
doesn't hunt animals. His interests lie elsewhere, in more cunning prey: humans.
"Here, on my island, I hunt the most dangerous game."
Set loose into the treacherous jungle, Bob and fellow victim Eve must survive until sunrise if
they want to make it off the island alive. Somewhere between cowering in tree trunks
and evading Zaroff's hounds, Bob begins to sympathize with the animals he once hunted.
Based on a 1924 short story by Richard Connell, Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack's 1932
adaptation of "The Most Dangerous Game" is truly remarkable. It was lauded by contemporary New
York Times critic Mordaunt Hall, as, quote, "a highly satisfactory melodrama." Hall also
reserved special praise for Banks' scene-stealing performance as the dastardly Count. Meanwhile,
modern-day outlets like TimeOut have positively remarked on the film's status, claiming,
"[The Most Dangerous Game is] one of the best and
most literate movies from the great days of horror."
Wasting no time with its breakneck pace,
"The Most Dangerous Game" persists nearly a century later with its morbid delights.
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