By popular request—yes, there were a couple of you—this is my personal list of the greatest horror films. Unlike my science fiction film list, this has no purpose other than to please myself and entertain readers.

Given my affection for the genre, I found this one growing in length to an alarming degree and finally cut it off at the 150 mark. I admit I’ve long disdained arbitrary numerical limits for these things—the number of great films is the number of great films, be it less or more than ten.

But this way, I’ve managed to encompass almost everything I love about the genre, and I hope it will provide some food for thought. As with the previous list, the blurred borders of genres were a concern. To me, horror cinema is more a question of aesthetics than anything else; it is a realm that takes place just outside the realms of normality, a land painted in psychological hues and filled with emanations from that zone rather than precisely realistic threats, whether they take the form of a supernatural manifestation or a masked killer.

This is the closest I can come to explaining why I included the neo-gothic The Silence of the Lambs and left off the dayglo noir of Manhunter. Others may disagree. All list placements are flexible, and I reserve the right to change them when I feel like it. So there.

1. I Walked With a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur)
2. The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper)
4. Operazione Paura (Mario Bava)
5. Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale)
6. The Gorgon (Terence Fisher)
7. The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson)
8. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)
9. Jaws (Steven Spielberg)
10. Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau)
11. Sei Donne per l’Assassino (Mario Bava)
12. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene)
13. Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
14. Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero)
15. The Horrible Secret of Dr. Hichcock (Riccardo Freda)
16. Halloween (John Carpenter)
17. The Keep (Michael Mann)
18. La Maschera Del Demonio (Mario Bava)
19. Freaks (Tod Browning)
20. Masque of the Red Death (Roger Corman)
21. Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi)
22. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)
23. The Body Snatcher (Robert Wise)
24. The Brides of Dracula (Terence Fisher)
25. Suspiria (Dario Argento)
26. Lips of Blood (Jean Rollin)
27. The Exorcist (William Friedkin)
28. Dracula (Terence Fisher)
29. Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis)
30. Hour of the Wolf (Ingmar Bergman)
31. Peeping Tom (Michael Powell)
32. Ferryman Maria (Frank Wisbar)
33. Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg)
34. Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur)
35. Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren)
36. Isle of the Dead (Mark Robson)
37. Ganja and Hess (Bill Gunn)
38. The Addiction (Abel Ferrara)
39. Viy (Georgi Kropachyov, Konstantin Yershov)
40. Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow)
41. The Fog (John Carpenter)
42. Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (Terence Fisher)
43. The Black Cat (Edger G. Ulmer)
44. Frankenstein (James Whale)
45. Witchfinder General (Michael Reeves)
46. The Serpent and the Rainbow (Wes Craven)
47. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jaromil Jires)
48. Martin (George A. Romero)
49. Eyes of Fire (Avery Crounse)
50. Jigoku (Nobuo Nakagawa)
51. Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju)
52. Eraserhead (David Lynch)
53. The Fearless Vampire Killers (Roman Polanski)
54. Docteur Jekyll et les femmes (Walerian Borowczyk)
55. The Crazies (George A. Romero)
56. A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (Lucio Fulci)
57. The Virgin Spring (Ingmar Bergman)
58. Pit and the Pendulum (Roger Corman)
59. The Woman Who Came Back (Walter Colmes)
60. The White Reindeer (Erik Blomberg)
61. The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg)
62. The White Buffalo (J. Lee Thompson)
63. Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog)
64. Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro)
65. Shivers (David Cronenberg)
66. The People Under the Stairs (Wes Craven)
67. Lisa and the Devil (Mario Bava)
68. The Wolf Man (George Waggner)
69. The Cat and the Canary (Paul Leni)
70. Deep Red (Dario Argento)
71. The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjöstrom)
72. The Velvet Vampire (Stephanie Rothman) 
73. A Chinese Ghost Story (Tony Siu-Tung Ching)
74. Venus in Furs (Jesus Franco)
75. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
76. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Dario Argento)
77. The Devil Rides Out (Terence Fisher)
78. Night of the Eagle (Sidney Hayers)
79. Black Christmas (Bob Clark)
80. The Mummy (Karl Freund)
81. Carrie (Brian De Palma)
82. Waxworks (Paul Leni)
83. The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)
84. Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burton)
85. See No Evil (Richard Fleischer)
86. Night Tide (Curtis Harrington)
87. The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy)
88. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian)
89. An American Werewolf in London (John Landis)
90. Histoires extraordinaires (Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, Federico Fellini)
91. Kiss of the Vampire (Don Sharp)
92. Vampyros Lesbos (Jesus Franco)
93. Amer (Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani)
94. Scream (Wes Craven)
95. The Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur)
96. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (William Dieterle)
97. House of Usher (Roger Corman)
98. Kill List (Ben Wheatley)
99. Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir)
100. Baby Cart at the River Styx (Kenji Misumi)
101. Vampyres (José Larraz)
102. Communion (Alfred Sole)
103. Tale of a Vampire (Shimako Sato)
104. Plague of the Zombies (John Gilling)
105. Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo)
106. The Uninvited (Lewis Allen)
107. Häxan (Benjamin Christensen)
108. Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero)
109. And Soon the Darkness (Robert Fuest)
110. White Zombie (Victor Halperin)
111. The Lair of the White Worm (Ken Russell)
112. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur)
113. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (John Hancock)
114. The Witches (Cyril Frankel)
115. The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi)
116. The Sorcerers (Michael Reeves)
117. The Reptile (John Gilling)
118. The Embryo Hunts in Secret (Koji Wakamatsu)
119. Fascination (Jean Rollin)
120. The Brood (David Cronenberg)
121. The House of the Devil (Ti West)
122. Season of the Witch (George A. Romero)
123. The Haunting (Robert Wise)
124. Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kuemel)
125. Dracula (Tod Browning)
126. Berberian Sound Studio (Peter Strickland)
127. The Blood on Satan’s Claw (Piers Haggard)
128. Murder by Decree (Bob Clark)
129. I Tre Volti della Paura (Mario Bava)
130. Repulsion (Roman Polanski)
131. Brain Dead (Peter Jackson)
132. The Company of Wolves (Neil Jordan)
133. Cronos (Guillermo Del Toro)
134. Les Demoniaques (Jean Rollin)
135. Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural (Richard Blackburn)
136. Eye of the Devil (J. Lee Thompson)
137. The Golem: How He Came Into The World (Paul Wegener)
138. Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski)
139. To the Devil a Daughter (Peter Sykes)
140. Zombies of Mora Tau (Edward L. Cahn)
141. La Danza Macabre (Antonio Marghereti)
142. The Ghost Breakers (George Marshall)
143. The Hitcher (Robert Harmon)
144. Kuroneko (Kaneto Shindo)
145. Dog Soldiers (Neil Marshall)
146. The Witch Who Came From The Sea (Matt Cimber)
147. The Legend of Hell House (John Hough)
148. Wolfen (Michael Wadleigh)
149. House of Wax (Andre de Toth)
150. Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman)