now this isn't meant to be the beginning of an battle (as opposed to my ongoing under-rated bands project over in the music department) w/ mobiusclimber. this is just me listing my pix for post-1970 scary movies that aren't on his list. see his ten... then see my ten... then make up a 10 best list of great horror movies BOTH of us didn't mention.

in no particular order...

JAWS (1975, dir: steven spielberg)
30 years later... i still can't go back in the water. when i was a sub-adult, i used to leave the other kids in my swimming class in my wake 'cause i'd dive in & john williams' music would start up. the sequels get increasingly funny as they go along (seriously... jaws the revenge is HILARIOUS!!), but the original is no joke. roy scheider... robert shaw... richard dreyfuss in the only good movie he ever made (unless you think he's great, in which case start in on me...). steven spielberg back when he was more concerned with making entertainment than art...

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974, dir: tobe hooper)
over the course of the past decade or so there's been an ongoing string of high-budget rip-offs & remakes of this low-budget classic. & every time another one comes out, i dig out my **autographed** copy of the original & watch it instead of buying into hollywood's idea that people will want to watch cheap, though expensive to make, knock-offs of the classics. it's not nearly as gory as you remember (trust me... any given 5 minutes of any of the saw tcm wannabees has more graphic violence than the original), but it's scarier than f&%k. & that's pretty scary!

THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES (1971, dir: robert fuest)
ok... this one's not so much scary as it is GREAT!! & while movies continue to sink into the morass they've been steadily sliding into since the 1940s... i just wanted to have a tip of the hat to the master, vincent price. back in the day, he stood alone against a sea of naturalist actors (brando, dean, clift...), bringing old-school stage hokum to the screen. nowadays, everyone digs at william shatner for being a 2nd-rate vincent price. & everyone remembers vincent price as the guy from the hilarious house of frightenstein...

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981, dir: john landis)
whatever you do... DO NOT CONFUSE THIS WITH AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS!!! paris was a piece of celluloid refuse knocked off by studio hacks looking to cash in on name recognition. LONDON... well, if you haven't seen it, then i'm not going to tell you anything about it. just see it. (you made me miss the BOARD!)

EVIL DEAD 2: DEAD BY DAWN (1987, dir: sam raimi)
normally i'm not a sequels man. nor am i a remake man. but this is evil dead 2. & while i hate to cop out on two consecutive write-ups... if you haven't seen bruce campbell give my favourite performance in a "horror" movie since... well, i'd have to go back to griffin dunne in the movie just above this one... SEE IT!! and god help you if you call yourself a horror-movie buff & haven't seen either of them!

ALIEN (1979, dir: ridley scott)
now... i didn't consider "invasion of the body snatchers" for my pre-1970 horror list 'cause it was more science fiction. i wouldn't consider the 1978 donald sutherland remake for the same reason... or predator, say. what's the difference b/w horror & scary sci-fi? watch sigourney weaver's shipmates get picked off one by one & that'll be my answer. ibc is creepy... but alien scares the sh%t out of you. no matter how many times you see it. & no matter how many cheap remakes get cranked out to satiate our need for crappy knockoffs.

FRENZY (1972, dir: alfred hitchcock)
a companion piece for "psycho" perhaps. not really a horror movie... not even particularly scary... but i watched it with an ex-girlfriend years ago (well, she wasn't ex at the time...) & she couldn't sleep for two days (it's true!). so this one's for the ladies.

THE EXORCIST (1973, dir: william friedkin)
still another genuine creep-out that hasn't been watered down despite years of sequels & remakes. i'm sure you've all seen it by now, but it's definitely worth watching one more time. & like alien & texas chainsaw... i like to watch this classic every time another knock-off comes down the pike.

THE CRAZIES (1973, dir: george a. romero)
& a companion piece for "night of the living dead" from the pre-1970 list. true, i could have gone with one of the earlier living dead follow-ups (dawn of the dead, say? that's a great zombie movie). but i'm going with this lesser-known gem. town starts going crazy; army moves in; people start killing each other. if only every plot-line could be so straight-forward!!

RE-ANIMATOR (1985, dir: stuart gordon)
which brings us to 10... & i'm certainly glad i remembered this little gem from many years ago before i went with something like nightmare on elm street or friday the 13th. if yer a fan of the evil dead series... or basket case... then you owe it to yourself to track down this movie. loads of gore... loads of lunacy... you'll hate yourself for enjoying it near half as much as you do!

& a final thought... i assure you i hadn't meant to restrict this to movies released before 1990. it's just that i was unable to come up with a movie made in the last 20 years before these 10 presented themselves as MY 10. i guess someone else will have to come up with a "10 best horror movies of the last 20 years" list, 'cause i'm not sure i could...