Horror has been part of cinema almost since its inception. Throughout the years, it has tapped into the darkest places of the human mind and has represented different eras of collective fears. It has also, unfortunately, been regarded as lesser cinema because of its history of low budget productions that, though charming, are not exactly high art.
This is unfair, since making a movie is really difficult, and high concept horror has never been favored by financiers. However, the genre has persisted and audiences have demonstrated their love for it by watching these movies. The persistence has paid off with a number of top-rated gems. Here are 10 of them that have a 100 percent rating (or close to it) on Rotten Tomatoes.
Vampyr - 100%
Vampire stories have always been a staple of the horror genre in any kind of media, but especially in cinema. Bram Stoker's Dracula has been a source of inspiration to many filmmakers in the early days of the art-form. Nosferatu, a direct adaptation of the book, is an example of this.
But other stories also brought vampires to the big screen and one of these was legendary director Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr, which proposed a different version of the creature. The film was poorly received at its time, but modern critics have praised it for its mastery of cinema technique.
Creep 2 - 100%
If it's not obvious, this is a sequel to the 2014 found-footage horror film directed by Patrick Brice and starring Mark Duplass. The first Creep is an unnerving story about a serial killer who chooses videographers as his victims, so there's a record of his murders. It was well-received by audiences and critics alike.
Its sequel expanded on the concept and continue the story by not just relying on horror, but also on dark comedy. The film has been praised for Duplass' performance and the inventive story itself.
The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari (1920) - 100%
This is another example of horror in the first days of cinema. Robert Wiene's classic is a psychological thriller that uses a lot of storytelling techniques that audiences take for granted today. The film helped established many thematic and stylistic tropes of the genre by also commenting on the state of mind at the time.
It is also interesting how some of the archetypes presented in the film are still used today. A notable example is Tim Burton, whose style is very reminiscent of the film and the production design of Hermann Warm, Walter Reimann and Walter Röhrig.
The Witches - 97%
The Witches is that horror classic that everyone remembers being scarier than it really was. Based on the 1983's novel of the same name by celebrated writer Roald Dahl, the film tells the story of a boy and his grandmother trying to uncover and destroy a covenant of kid-eating witches.
The movie showcases the talents of the legendary Jim Henson Company since many of the characters were actual puppets. Receiving critical praised at it released, the film, unfortunately, did poorly at the box-office.
The Bride Of Frankenstein - 100%
The 1930s were a golden age of horror cinema and studios were eager to exploit their properties as much as they could. This resulted in a bunch of sequels from classic monster movies like Dracula, The Wolf Man, and The Mummy being released. Some of these were good and some were only cash-grabs.
Frankenstein also fell into this trend and one of its sequels, The Bride Of Frankenstein, was released in 1935. It is regarded as one of the best and helped to expand the Frankenstein mythology and create a new female monster, which was new at the time.
One Cut Of The Dead - 100%
The modern zombie sub-genre was born with George Romero's Night Of The Living Dead. Since then, there have been many permutations of the monster, with innovation taking place over time, like with Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later which introduce the concept of the running zombie.
In the tradition of comedy-horror like Shaun Of The Dead comes One Cut Of The Dead, a 2017 Japanese film that puts a crew of filmmakers in the midst of an actual zombie apocalypse. The movie was a success, earning a thousand times its budget at the box-office.
Frankenstein - 100%
The story of Doctor Frankenstein is a classic of literature. Mary Shelley's novel is regarded as possibly the first science fiction novel of all time, combining this genre with horror as never seen before. Through the years since its publication, several attempts to adapt the book have been made.
But it wasn't until 1931 that the definitive version of Frankenstein and its monster was brought to life. Universal's adaptation not only implated the image of the monster, with two bolts in its neck and that big forehead, in the minds of the audience, but established Boris Karloff as a horror powerhouse of its time.
The Invisible Man - 97%
H.G. Wells is one of the greatest novelists of all time and was one of the first to introduce many of the concepts seen in science fiction and horror, like the novel for which he is most remembered: The War Of The Worlds. But another great book of his is The Invisible Man, the story of Griffin, a scientist, who discovers how to turn himself invisible.
Its Universal adaptation is one of the better-remembered movies of the era and was not only an engaging story but a showcase of early and astonishing special effects usage, especially with the scene when Griffin takes off his bandages a reveals himself to be invisible.
The Wailing - 99%
Korean cinema has been strong in delivering quality horror movies over the decades. Films like Train To Busan, I Saw The Devil, and Bong Joon-ho's The Host are notable examples of this. The Wailing enters this podium, being one of the most praised films by critics because of its story and atmosphere.
It is also an example of the mixing of genres Korean films are known for since the movie begins as a procedural drama and, moment by moment, develops into a gore-film, ghost story, and demonic war.
Under The Shadow - 99%
The Persian movie tradition is not very well-known in America, but it is a long and prideful one that has produced some very inventive pieces over the years. One of them is Under The Shadow, a movie that mixes horror and historical drama by depicting a mother and her daughter being haunted by an evil force during the War of the Cities, an Iraq-Iran conflict.
Only once every few years is a genre movie able to not only to deliver a good story but to also speak about a timely, thought-provoking social issue. This movie delivers on both fronts.