So I spent several months last year compiling a list of the 126 horror films I think everyone should see before they die (representing 126 years of horror cinema) and unveiled the list last October. Here's what I came up with.
Audition (2000) dir. Takashi Miike
The Babadook (2014) dir. Jennifer Kent
The Bad Seed (1956) dir. Mervyn LeRoy
A Bay of Blood (1971) dir. Mario Bava
Black Christmas (1974) dir. Bob Clark
Black Sunday (1960) dir. Mario Bava
Blacula (1972) dir. William Crain
The Blair Witch Project (1999) dirs. Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sanchez
Blood and Black Lace (1964) dir. Mario Bava
Blood Feast (1963) dir. Herschell Gordon Lewis
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) dir. James Whale
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) dir. Robert Wiene
The Cabin in the Woods (2012) dir. Drew Goddard
Candyman (1992) dir. Bernard Rose
Cannibal Holocaust (1980) dir. Ruggero Deodato
Carnival of Souls (1962) dir. Herk Harvey
Carrie (1976) dir. Brian De Palma
Cat People (1941) dir. Jacques Tourneur
The Changeling (1980) dir. Peter Medak
Child's Play (1988) dir. Tom Holland
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) dir. Ching Siu-tung
A Clockwork Orange (1971) dir. Stanley Kubrick
Creepshow (1982) dir. George A. Romero
Cube (1997) dir. Vincenzo Natali
Dawn of the Dead (1978) dir. George A. Romero
The Descent (2005) dir. Neil Marshall
Les Diaboliques (1954) dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) dir. John S. Robertson
Don't Look Now (1973) dir. Nicolas Roeg
Dracula (1931) dir. Tod Browning
Dracula (1958) dir. Terence Fisher
Eraserhead (1977) dir. David Lynch
The Evil Dead (1981) dir. Sam Raimi
The Exorcist (1973) dir. William Friedkin
Eyes without a Face (1960) dir. Georges Franju
Faust (1926) dir. F.W. Murnau
The Fly (1986) dir. David Cronenberg
Frankenstein (1931) dir. James Whale
Freaks (1932) dir. Tod Browning
Friday the 13th (1980) dir. Sean S. Cunningham
Funny Games (1997) dir. Michael Haneke
Ganja & Hess (1973) dir. Bill Gunn
Get Out (2017) dir. Jordan Peele
Ghostwatch (1992) dir. Lesley Manning
Ginger Snaps (2001) dir. John Fawcett
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) dir. Ana Lily Amirpour
Godzilla (1954) dir. Ishiro Honda
Gremlins (1984) dir. Joe Dante
Halloween (1978) dir. John Carpenter
The Haunting (1963) dir. Robert Wise
Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922) dir. Benjamin Christensen
Hellraiser (1987) dir. Clive Barker
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) dir. John McNaughton
Hereditary (2018) dir. Ari Aster
High Tension (2003) dir. Alexandre Aja
House (1977) dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi
The Housemaid (1960) dir. Kim Ki-young
The House of the Devil (1896) dir. Georges Melies
The Innocents (1961) dir. Jack Clayton
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1953) dir. Don Siegel
The Invisible Man (1933) dir. James Whale
I Spit on Your Grave (1978) dir. Meir Zarchi
It (2017) dir. Andres Muschietti
It Follows (2015) dir. David Robert Mitchell
Jacob's Ladder (1990) dir. Adrian Lyne
Jaws (1975) dir. Steven Spielberg
King Kong (1933) dirs. Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack
Kwaidan (1965) dir. Masaki Kobayashi
The Last House on the Left (1972) dir. Wes Craven
Let the Right One In (2008) dir. Tomas Alfredson
M (1931) dir. Fritz Lang
Man Bites Dog (1992) dirs. Remy Belvaux, Andre Bonzel & Benoit Poelvoorde
Martyrs (2008) dir. Pascal Laugier
The Masque of the Red Death (1964) dir. Roger Corman
Near Dark (1987) dir. Kathryn Bigelow
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) dir. Wes Craven
Night of the Demon (1957) dir. Jacques Tourneur
The Night of the Hunter (1955) dir. Charles Laughton
Night of the Living Dead (1968) dir. George A. Romero
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) dir. F.W. Murnau
The Old Dark House (1932) dir. James Whale
The Omen (1976) dir. Richard Donner
The Others (2001) dir. Alejandro Amenabar
Pan's Labyrinth (2006) dir. Guillermo del Toro
Peeping Tom (1960) dir. Michael Powell
Perfect Blue (1998) dir. Satoshi Kon
The Phantom Carriage (1921) dir. Victor Sjostrom
The Phantom of the Opera (1925) dir. Rupert Julian
Poltergeist (1982) dir. Tobe Hooper
Possession (1981) dir. Andrzej Zulawski
Psycho (1960) dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Re-Animator (1985) dir. Stuart Gordon
[REC] (2007) dirs. Jaume Balaguero & Paco Plaza
Repulsion (1965) dir. Roman Polanski
The Return of the Living Dead (1985) dir. Dan O'Bannon
Ring (1998) dir. Hideo Nakata
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) dir. Jim Sharman
Rosemary's Baby (1968) dir. Roman Polanski
Santa Sangre (1989) dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky
Saw (2004) dir. James Wan
Scream (1996) dir. Wes Craven
Seven (1995) dir. David Fincher
Shaun of the Dead (2004) dir. Edgar Wright
The Shining (1980) dir. Stanley Kubrick
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) dir. Jonathan Demme
The Sixth Sense (1999) dir. M. Night Shyamalan
The Stepford Wives (1975) dir. Bryan Forbes
Suspiria (1977) dir. Dario Argento
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) dir. Kim Jee-woon
Tales from the Hood (1995) dir. Rusty Cundieff
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1988) dir. Shinya Tsukamoto
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) dir. Tobe Hooper
The Thing (1981) dir. John Carpenter
Trick 'r Treat (2009) dir. Michael Dougherty
Vampyr (1932) dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
The Vanishing (1988) dir. George Sluzier
Videodrome (1983) dir. David Cronenberg
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) dir. Robert Aldrich
Whispering Corridors (1998) dir. Park Ki-hyung
White Zombie (1932) dir. Victor Halperin
The Wicker Man (1973) dir. Robin Hardy
The Witch (2016) dir. Robert Eggers
The Wolf Man (1941) dir. George Waggner