My Top 10 Horror Movies

I thought, just for fun like, to try and list my 10 favourite horror films (in no particular order). To be perfectly honest, the list probably changes from week to week; but the ten I'm about to list have had the biggest impact on me, and have served to enhance my love for all things horror. In most cases there are *better* films in the genre, but the 10 listed here are the ones closest to my heart.
So, without further ado:

10.) Amityville II: The Possession (1982). Why? Read here.

9. ) Mask of Satan AKA Black Sunday (1960). Love Bava. In my humble opinion, this is his best work. And it has the best opening to a horror film ever.

8. ) Suspiria (1977). Very much inspired and influenced by Bava, Dario Argento's masterpiece is a surreal, visually arresting and gloriously gory. A dark fairytale gone wrong. "You're going to meet death now!"

7. ) The City of the Dead AKA Horror Hotel (1960). Wonderful atmospherics. All that mist! The perfect midnight movie.

6. ) Lost Highway (1997). My favourite Lynch film. It's just so weird and warped and genuinely unsettling though it doesn't make an ounce of sense. Yet, like Suspiria, it doesn't matter because it's like a really disturbing bad dream. And the Mystery Man is one of my favourite cinematic villains ever.

5. ) Day of the Dead (1985). My personal favourite of the Dead films. I can't think of anything worse than being trapped with such a disturbed, seriously unbalanced bunch of people. Think I'd rather take my chances with the walking dead outside. Boasts one of the best lines in cinematic history. Though the end seems relatively upbeat, it still feels as much a dream as the sequence at the beginning when all the hands burst through the wall.

4. ) Phantasm (1979). Saw this when I was a kid (along with Day of the Dead) and it's stayed with me ever since. Sure, the effects are corny/dated, the fashion hideous, but The Tall Man is brilliant, and you gotta love those spheres.... It's such a strange, kooky, fascinating little film that plays out like the best nightmare you've ever had.

3. ) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). Raw and visceral, the original TCM has often been imitated but never bettered. So many scenes stick in my head, not least this, Leatherface's last dance at the end.

2. ) Martyrs (2008). I'm not a fan of all the 'torture porn' stuff like Saw and Hostel, but there's a harrowing, brilliant, highly disturbing point behind all the torture and violence that goes on in this modern day classic. The French are currently making loads of good horror movies, and this is the best out of all of them.

1. ) The Shining (1980). Still my favourite film of all time. Kubrick's use of space and symmetery is staggering, making the viewer feel so small and inconsequential and afraid; as lost as Jack is in the labyrinth at the end. So many good scenes, too numerous to list. Here's one though.
Other films that could make the list on another day include May, Rosemary's Baby, The Devil's Rejects, The Omen, Kairo, The Exorcist, Safe, Masque of the Red Death, Evil Dead, The Nameless, Deep Red, The Thing, Halloween, Don't Look Now and The Beyond.