Top 100 lists may be incredibly subjective (and everybody seemingly has one), but this week’s list of the 100 Greatest Movies compiled by Empire Magazine should put a smile on the faces of horror fans everywhere.
The magazine’s editors placed four genre films in their Top 20, according to the publication’s website, with another horror classic coming in at No. 21. Not too shabby.
For the insatiably curious, the magazine chose Peter Jackson’s fantasy masterpiece The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring as its top film of all time, with The Empire Strikes Back at No. 2 and The Godfather in the third slot. Hard to argue with those choices.
But, back to the horror selections, Empire chose Steven Spielberg’s 1975 stroke of summer genius Jaws at No. 6. Jaws, of course, was based on Peter Benchley’s novel about the meanest damn shark you ever saw. The Academy Award winner, generally recognized as the first summer blockbuster, earned $472 million on a $9-million budget.
Perhaps surprisingly, 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road came in No. 12 on the Top 100 list. This horror-s/f instant classic from George Miller–the fourth entry in the Mad Max franchise–was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and grossed $376 million on a budget of approximately $180 million.
Not surprisingly, 1993’s Jurassic Park (also from that Spielberg guy) ranked 15th on the list. That dino thriller, based on the Michael Crichton novel, won more than 20 awards (including three Oscars) and earned more than $1 billion on a budget of $63 million.
And, rounding out the Top 20, Aliens (1986) came in at No. 17. This sequel to Alien, written and directed by James Cameron, brings back Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, the sole survivor of an alien attack on her ship. The film earned somewhere between $130 million and $180 million on an $18.5-million budget.
Speaking of Alien, that classic appeared at No. 21 on the Top 100. Alien (1979)–from director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Dan O’Bannon–follows the crew of the space tug Nostromo, who run into…well, you know. The award-winning movie earned $106 million on an $11-million budget.
Keep reading Horror News Network to see how your favorite genre films fare on the next Top 100 list.
