Sinister Cinema: The 60's

It pretty much goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: I love horror movies. For the past 5 years I've compiled a "31 Days of Horror" list, which directed readers to watch a different scary movie every day of October. But this year, I'm switching things up. Instead, I'll be presenting weekly lists - the top 15 horror flicks of each decade. We'll start with the 60's and work our way up to the present day. I ranked these movies based on 3 main criteria: how much I like them, how objectively good they are, and, well, how scary they are.

So sit back, turn off the lights, and enjoy. Pay no attention to the shadows pooling in the corners. And that presence you feel looming behind you? The faint sound of heavy breathing from around the corner? Oh, it's nothing.

Trust me.

1960's

15.) Carnival of Souls (1962): This is surreal horror at its simplest and finest. The imagery is creepy, the story is unsettling, and the overall vibe is downright haunting.

14.) Persona (1966): The less I say about this one, the better. So if you're in the mood for bizarre psychological horror, then this underrated gem by Ingmar Bergman will do you just fine.

13.) Lady in a Cage (1964): I saw this movie as a kid and wow, did it leave a lasting impression. This is a nauseating thriller, one with a melodramatic flair that is fun and frenetic.

12.) At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964): This Brazilian horror flick written, directed, and starring Jose Mojica Marins is arguably the craziest movie of the 60's. It is terrifying, trashy, and totally terrific.

11.) Eyes Without A Face (1960): Few countries do gore quite as well as the French, and here, we have some very early, and very effective, splatter scares. And although the plot is unapologetically bleak, it is very effective.

10.) Black Sabbath (1963): Anthology horror films can be a mixed bag, but when famed Italian director Mario Bava is steering the ship, how could you go wrong? The 3 stories in this movie are each great in their own distinct ways - the first is vicious, the second is macabre, and the third is campfire fun.

9.) The Haunting (1963): For decades, haunted house movies have been content to stick to a certain formula, one ripe with cliches; for that, we can thank The Haunting for setting the gold standard. It is fun and, when viewed in the right atmosphere, genuinely eerie.

8.) The Innocents (1961): If The Haunting is the haunted house genre's gold standard, then The Innocents is its demented counterpart - less gothic, more grotesque. It's a slow burn, but if you can stick it out, the third act (especially the fatal finale) is shocking.

7.) The Birds (1963): This was the very first horror movie I ever saw, and in hindsight, it really did a number on me. The premise is incredibly simple, maybe even a little silly, but Hitchcock's direction is so serious, so sinister, that it's impossible not to get sucked in.

6.) Peeping Tom (1960): Here's the premise: a strange photographer gets his kicks by snapping pictures of murder, so he stabs beautiful women to get the perfect shots. It is twisted, dark, disturbing, and dangerous - all the things a good horror flick should be.

5.) Night of the Living Dead (1968): This infamous independent film propelled writer/director George Romero to the big leagues, and it also solidified "the zombie" as a horror mainstay. And while it hasn't aged all that well (some of the performances are downright cringe-worthy), the guts and grit on display is more than enough to enshrine it in my top 5 of the decade.

4.) What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962): As far as sibling rivalry stories are concerned, few are as downright disturbing as this psychological horror classic starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The enduring legacy of this thing is solidified by the caliber of performance from everyone involved, particularly the stars, the screenwriter, the cinematographer, and the costume designers (who nabbed an Oscar - a rare feat for a genre film).

3.) Repulsion (1965): Roman Polanski is a terrible person, but he has made some incredible films (sorry, but it's true). This simple film, centered on a woman who loses her mind in her New York apartment, is a cagey, claustrophobic nightmare.

2.) Psycho (1960): I know, I know - a lot of you are understandably annoyed that this isn't my number one. Sorry - we'll get to that in a moment. For now, all you need to know is that the heaps of accolades that's been piled on Psycho over the decades are all true. Anthony Perkins should've won an Oscar for his deeply sympathetic performance as Norman Bates, and the score is just as iconic as ever. In every sense of the word, it is a classic.

1.) Rosemary's Baby (1968): ...but if there's one movie responsible for cementing horror as an artistic, effective genre, then Rosemary's Baby has got to be it. It's Roman Polanski again (*annoyed sigh*), but it's here for a reason. This is, irrefutably, one of the scariest movies ever made. At the time, no other popular movie had been so defiantly demented. Cloying neighbors, nefarious doctors, LSD-inspired nightmares, demonic rape, and a satanic child? Come on. This one has got to be the best scary movie of the decade, and is arguably one of the best ever made.