Who’s your favorite horror director of all time?
From Cronenberg and Carpenter to Raimi and Romero and beyond, here are the maestros who inspire chills and thrills among our writers and editors
Film Features Ari Aster
(Clockwise from bottom left) John Carpenter (screenshot), Karyn Kusama (Paul Sarkis/Showtime), Wes Craven and Drew Barrymore (Dimension), Julia Ducournau (Courtesy of Neon), and Guillermo del Toro (20th Century Fox) Graphic: Rebecca Fassola
October may be coming to an end, but we’re going to let you in on a little secret: at The A.V. Club, basically every month is horror month. Because celebrating this venerated genre of cinema can’t be confined to just one month, we’re using Halloween as an excuse to share with you the directors whose films continue to terrify, shock, and delight our writers and editors. Here’s the essential question: Who is your favorite horror filmmaker and why? The answers are just a click away.
36 Comments
Can we get a special shout-out to Val Lewton? The guy produced nine of the best horror movies ever made and gave directorial debuts to Jacques Tourneur & Robert Wise.
Val Lewton, yes definitely! Cat People is still one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen. (I kind of enjoyed the 1982 remake, but it was much more literal than the original, removing every possibility of doubt that that cat stuff was even happening…)
I’ll add James Whale to the list too – his horror stuff had that added element of humor, which gave Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein a unique tone.
Jordan Peele – Too early. Get Out was great, Us was entertaining but had a terrible, non-sensical ending, and I haven’t seen Nope and so will abstain for now (but reviews weren’t kind).I won’t claim to know much about Flanigan, but he made a middling King novella into one of the author’s best adaptations, so cap tip for that one. Hey directors: More Carla Gugino, please.Lynch – Scariest thing he ever did was Bobby Peru. Just nasty.Aster – Probably too early as well. But how do you mention iconic images and not include the most hideous one in recent horror history? Even MORE nasty.You can make a case for most of the others since “favorite” is obviously subjective (though I haven’t seen anything by Ducournau).
I thought reviews for Nope were pretty good, which is why I’ve felt like an outlier in saying it’s lacking. You could have told me it was made by M. Night Shyamalan, and I’d believe you.
I miss Flanagan as a filmmaker, rather than a TV showrunner.Ducournau is also an early pick but I would recommend checking out “Raw” (“Titane” is much less of a horror film).
I agree that it’s early, but I liked Nope and I don’t know what you mean by the reviews not being kind – it has an 82% on RT, which is pretty good.
Nope was good.
Alfred Hitchcock. The answer will forever and always be Alfred Hitchcock. On influence alone not only is he one of the best horror directors but he is one of the most important directors of all time. Period.
I’m not really a horror fan, but my favorite scary film of all time is ‘The Haunting’, so I’m gonna have to go with Robert Wise.
He hardly ever makes any ‘best of’ lists, but I find that so many of my favorite films were directed by him. His films don’t stand in his shadow, like all these ‘auteur’ directors’ films so often do.
I love me some Hitchcock, but I’d call his films ‘suspense’ rather than ‘horror’.
Wise’s adaptation of Jackson is better than Flanagan’s.
Seconded. The Andromeda Strain is way scarier than it has a right to be.
Jim Henson. I still have nightmares about The Dark Crystal.
I wish Gore Verbinski would spend more time in the genre rather than cranking out lackluster popcorn adventure movies. The Ring and A Cure for Wellness both have a creeping dread to them that is masterful. Hopefully the latter film will start to get some more recognition now that Mia Goth is getting press for X and Pearl.
Plus The Ring has one of the great quick cuts in horror, losing the top spot on my list only recently to Hereditary.
If names as recent as Ari Aster and Jordan Peele can be eligible for “All-Time”, then I want to throw my name in the hat for Alex Garland, director of Ex Machina, Annihilation, and Men.
For me, Men kinda worked backwards from its metaphor in a bad way, and was the first time I thought some of the complaints about the A24 style had some validity. It’s well shot and a lot of its imagery is striking, but I feel like the best horror should have some internal logic that can function on its own outside of the social commentary. Like Dracula has some pretty unpleasant themes about immigrants, but you can mostly ignore them and vampires still work as a literal monster in other settings. If the creature in Men isn’t teaching the audience a lesson about the patriarchy, it doesn’t really make any sense.
I fancy myself a bit of a horror slut, I have enjoyed Eli Roth’s stuff, I do love some gore. But I have always loved Cronenberg work as well.
Have you seen Cronenberg’s son’s films? I thought Possessor was excellent.
I have not I will have to check it out. If he is anything like his did I will like it lol oh looks like it’s on Hulu. Another good one is the Collector
Mario Bava
Him and Lamberto!
Tod Browning. Freaks, The Unknown, Dracula — I’d say he deserves to be part of this conversation.
somewhere, Clive Barker’s ears are burning
Well I’d give a strong nod to the German Expressionists of the
silent era, namely Robert Wiene (“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” and “The Hands
of Orlac”), Paul Wegner (“The Golem”) and of course F.W. Murnau (“Nosferatu”).
I’d also note Carl Dreyer and his AMAZINGLY nightmarish “Vampyr.”You also have to acknowledge James Whale and Todd Browning (the
latter’s work with Lon Chaney is often quite horrific). I’d also note Carl
Freund whose “The Mummy” has a genuinely dreamy quality.Considering Val Lewton’s strong hand on his pictures he
certainly warrants directorial recognition but if you want to go strictly by
screen credit then Robert Wise deserves serious recognition for “The Curse
of the Cat People” and the great “The Body Snatcher” (not to mention the monumental
“The Haunting” which is still quite potent). Ditto Jacques Tourneur for
“Cat People,” “I Walked With a Zombie” and “The Leopard Man” as well as
his terrific solo effort , “The Curse of the Demon.”I also think the Hammer catalog is long overdue for a serious
reappraisal, particularly the films directed by Terence Fisher who had a really
dynamic touch that had a huge impact at the time and pretty much single-handedly
revived the horror genre.
If I had to choose one it would probably be CarpenterHalloweenThe FogPrince of DarknessThe ThingIn The Mouth of MadnessEscape From New YorkVampires (underrated)They LiveAssault 13After him I’d pick Wes Craven.
Carpenter’s eighties run was nothing but bangers, for real.
Tobe Hooper beats at least half these clowns. Texas Chain Saw Massacre One and Two. Poltergeist? What about George Romero, creator of the modern zombie genre? Even some one offs, like Clive Barker with Hellraiser or James Gunn with Slither. Check your horror movie credentials before you write an article like this.
Romero was mentioned above.. but only his Dead films. Martin, Creepshow & The Crazies are all worth checking out as well.
The very obvious omissions for me are the italians, particularly Argento and Bava. It’s also weird how many of the top horror movies were directed by dabblers in the genre. The Shining, The Exorcist, and Alien are all frequently brought up as candidates for the best horror movie of all time, none of whose directors made the list.
Facts. No Fulci or Bava (Mario, Lamberto) is a disgrace, but this is The Av Club so *shrugs*
Brian D ‘ Palma, Alfred Hitchcock, and Jordan Peele.
Dario Argento
Polanski? The Tenant, Repulsion, arguably Chinatown, Ninth Gate,
Fulci, Carpenter, Romero, Argento, Hooper, Craven, Herschel Gordon LewisWomen directors who made iconic contributions to horror: Amy Holden Jones, Deborah Brock, Carol Frank, Rachel Talalay, Nia DaCosta, Jackie Kong, Nikyatu Jusu, Mary Harron, Kathryn Bigelow, Antonia Bird
The fawning praise here for Peele is over-the-top absurd. lol
Jordan Peele is the go-to for people who never seen Blacula, Eve’s Bayou, Def By Temptation, Tales From the Hood, or Ganja and Hess.