Entertainment Weekly Does It Again
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly has compiled a list of what he feels are the top twenty horror films of the past two decades. Naturally, it is the duty of every horror blogger to tear it apart. First, the list:
- Audition
- The Silence of the Lambs
- The Blair Witch Project
- Scream
- 28 Weeks Later
- What Lies Beneath
- The Sixth Sense
- Drag Me To Hell
- Alien 3
- Ringu
- Planet Terror
- From Hell
- Misery
- Hostel 2
- Shaun of the Dead
- The Descent
- The Kingdom
- Event Horizon
- Darkman
- Dead Alive
To properly critique a top ten list one must take into account the factors that went into the decision making process. On the one hand, to discount a film such as Hostel 2 would be to discount the controversy that surrounded it and the lasting impact it has had not only on the horror industry but the career of Eli Roth. On the other hand, however, it also assumes that the impact was great enough to allow the film precedence over several other movies that most certainly deserve a spot. If anything, its cousin Saw deserves a spot strictly for the sheer impact it has had.
Other films, though certainly great in their own right, have no business being on a horror top ten list. Event Horizon is definitive proof of the subjective nature of Best of… lists. While the film have enjoyed cult-like success among die-hard horror fans, it is critically reviled and was quickly forgotten. I still count it as one of my favorite horror films, and indeed one of the few horror films to genuinely frighten me, but would I include it on a list like this? Of course not.
Other films, such as The Silence of the Lambs and Darkman, are less horror than they are drama and action, and again, although great films, don’t belong on a horror list; the Lars von Trier-created Danish mini-series The Kingdom isn’t even a movie, and seems to be nothing more than a reason for Gleiberman to flex his Muscle of Pretention; What Lies Beneath is one film deserving of the title “thriller” instead of horror, yet it doesn’t belong on the list because it was total crap; and the relatively unpopular Alien 3 is more science fiction than it is horror.
Despite his grievous oversights and unsuitable inclusions, Gleiberman’s list includes several films that are certainly appropriate, such as The Blair Witch Project, Ringu, and Misery. I don’t need to explain why they’re appropriate, but even if I did, there would still be someone out there who feels I am wrong. Such is the problem associated with the inherent subjectivity of these lists. Bias is always a factor, and when given nothing that explains the motives behind his decisions, these lists will continue to draw the ire of horror fans everywhere.
But seriously, From Hell? Are you fucking kidding me?
RSS Feed
I hate EW I think someone just googled “best horror movies of the past 2 decades” and threw them in a hat. whatever. ugh.
28 Weeks Later over 28 Days Later? Nope. I like 28 Weeks Later, but it is not a “better”, nor more important film than 28 Days Later in my opinion.
Most of the titles listed don’t seem to have been picked based on historical relevance, so in that case FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, DAWN OF THE DEAD remake, THE ORPHANAGE, THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE, TREMORS, ARACHNOPHOBIA, PITCH BLACK are all better than FROM HELL, ALIEN 3, WHAT LIES BENEATH, and DARKMAN.
I’m not opposed to SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, I’d consider it just as much a horror film as PSYCHO. However, if you are going to include SOTL then SE7EN should also be included.
What Lies Beneath!?!? Tha fuck!?!
This looks less like a “best of” list, and more like a “pick 20 random films” type thing.
Darkman is one of my favorites, but I would hardly consider it a horror film.
Yeah…
Gleiberman caught a lot of flack, as he suspected he would, and wrote a response, backing up some of his choices (but not all). What I found to be most offensive, quite apart from his selections, was his blatant “I don’t give a crap” attitude. He even went so far to discount High Tension because it was French. Where I come from we call that bigotry. And bigotry is unprofessional. For this reason alone Gleiberman’s list, and everything else he’s produced, should be immediately written off as the mad ravings of a self-aggrandizing asshole. I personally don’t care what the man thinks or feels of different peoples, but for him to let his prejudices influence his “professional” opinions has brought shame to an already shameful (shameless?) publication.
Gleiberman also writes off Wolf Creek as being a simple TCM remake, however he completely fails to make the same claim for House of 1000 Corpses, which Rob Zombie fully admitted was heavily influenced by Chainsaw. The inclusion of Alien 3 reads as a poor attempt at claiming the genius of Alien for the late 20th/early 21st century. If Gleiberman were truly possessed of any genre-specific expertise or intelligence, he would have put Se7en on the list, thereby tangentially covering all of David Fincher’s films, including Alien 3. I could go on…
Truly, EW has, over the summer, proven itself to be a woefully inadequate genre-reporting publication. Gleiberman’s unfortunate list and his even worse response to reader criticism is one more nail in the coffin.