Tag Archives: Top 10

Top Tens – Film: Top 10 King Horror Films

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“Here’s Johnny!” – the iconic scene from The Shining

 

King horror – Stephen King horror, that is, for the cinematic adaptations from one of the most iconic and prolific horror writers of our time. Images, lines and scenes from his work reverberate throughout popular culture, particularly driven by their cinematic or screen adaptations.

There’s something of a trope that goes around that his work makes for bad cinematic adaptations. This trope seems wrong to me – the more correct statement would be that the cinematic adaptations are mixed. A number of films from his work are good or well regarded – hence this special mention – “while many others are not”.

Of course much depends on the director but one rule of thumb I have is that the better movies are based on his shorter or tighter works. Like most screen adaptations of literary works, the longer the book, the messier the adaptation gets. Not too short though – short stories can have too little substance to them for a feature length film.

And for the worst Stephen King cinematic adaptation ever – The Lawnmower Man – they didn’t even use what little substance they had from the titular story for a feature film, choosing instead to go off on their own weird jaunt based on a single (misplaced) line. The film became notorious for King suing it to remove his name from it.

Anyway, here’s my King horror cinematic top ten on the spot.

 

1 – THE SHINING (1980)

 

“Here’s Johnny!”

Probably THE King horror film adaptation that everyone loves – ironically as King himself is not a fan given the different direction (heh) in which Stanley Kubrick took the film from the book. I like both.

 

2 – CARRIE (1976)

 

It’s not nice to make fun of Carrie…it’s not safe either.

That’s the tagline I recall for the film. With a strong cast including Sissy Spacek in the titular role and taut direction by Brian De Palma, the film is consistently ranked a high place among King adaptations – even more so because it was the adaptation that allowed King to become a full time writer.

 

3 – CUJO (1983)

 

Who’s a good boy? Well, he was until…

 

4 – CHRISTINE (1983)

 

Probably the most famous possessed car in popular culture.

Well hello again, Mr Carpenter – although King himself wasn’t a fan of the film.

 

5 – CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984)

 

He Who Walks Behind The Rows.

The first film was a cracker, based on the short story by King. The sequels or franchise? Not so much.

 

6 – PET SEMATARY (1989)

 

“No fair”

A monkey’s paw of a movie – in that sometimes getting what you wish for is the worst thing you can get.

They came back wrong. Classic pulp horror but that line and scene gets me each time – because evil Gage is telling the truth. Everything about his death, resurrection and, ah, re-death wasn’t fair.

 

7 – MISERY (1990)

 

“I’m your number one fan!”

Arguably the best and tightest of King’s cinematic adaptations, due to the dynamite duo performance of Kathy Bates and James Caan – Bates got an Oscar for her performance, making the film the only King adaptation to win one.

 

8 – THE MIST (2007)

 

One of the biggest wham endings of any horror film – which Stephen King liked so much he preferred it to his own ending.

 

9 – IT (2017-2019)

 

Ah – Pennywise!

One of the best known of King’s cinematic adaptations, due to the visually iconic depiction of the titular antagonist and all its creepy extensions of itself. I might rank it higher but Part 2 didn’t quite stick the landing from Part 1.

 

10 – IN THE TALL GRASS (2019)

 

Where’s a mower when you need one?

 

HONORABLE MENTION

 

(1994 – 1999) THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION & THE GREEN MILE

 

Honorable mention because neither are horror, although there’s something of a dark fantasy element in The Green Mile. The Shawshank Redemption doesn’t even have any fantasy (or SF) elements – it’s just straight up real world drama. I mention it here because it’s just such a damn good film, often listed by people as one of their favorites, presumably unaware that it was based on a Stephen King short story because of the lack of horror or dark fantasy. It also has my favorite use of the word obtuse in any film.

 

Top Tens – Fantasy & SF: Top 10 Fantasy Books (Special Mention: Classic) (10) Robert E. Howard – Conan

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O yes – he’ll be showing her his savage sword! Classic Conan pose (or leg cling) in The Savage Sword of Conan cover art by Earl Norem for “The Treasure of Tranicos”, issue 47, 1 December 1979, Marvel Comics (fair use)

 

 

(10) ROBERT E. HOWARD –

CONAN (1932-1936)

 

“As Dracula is to vampires, Sherlock Holmes is to private detectives, and Superman is to superheroes, so Conan is to barbarian heroes”.

The Lord of the Rings may have defined modern literary fantasy – fantasy could well be classified as pre-Tolkien and post-Tolkien. And yet…there were of course other writers of fantasy before (and apart from) Tolkien, most notably Robert E. Howard and his Conan stories from 1932 to 1936. I understand that Tolkien read and enjoyed the Conan stories – and I can’t resist quoting George R. R. Martin, who came to The Lord of The Rings from those very different Conan stories:

“Robert E. Howard’s stories usually opened with a giant serpent slithering by or an axe cleaving someone’s head in two. Tolkien opened his with a birthday party…Conan would hack a bloody path right through the Shire, end to end, I remembered thinking…Yet I kept on reading. I almost gave up at Tom Bombadil, when people started going “Hey! Come derry do! Tom Bombadillo!”. Things got more interesting in the barrow downs, though, and even more so in Bree, where Strider strode onto the scene. By the time we got to Weathertop, Tolkien had me…A chill went through me, such as Conan and Kull have never evoked.”

On the other hand, Conan would have made quick work of the Quest, while making off with an elf girl or two…

Conan embodies heroic fantasy in his setting of the Hyborian Age – an age of our own world after “the oceans drank Atlantis” that conveniently predates all surviving historical records. Translation: a setting for which Howard didn’t have to do any of that pesky research for his quick pulp fantasy stories but which could still invoke or have historical vibes as the precursors of civilizations in recorded history.

“Know, o prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars — Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom of the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west. Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian; black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet.”

That pretty much sums up Howard’s stories of his best known hero Conan which often invoke for me Conan as a Hyborian Bond – or is that barbarian Bond? – with similar vibes as James Bond with the different Bond girls for each story, as well as the different monstrous or sorcerous antagonists.

Due to his friendship with H.P. Lovecraft, “the original Conan stories are actually a peripheral part of the Cthulhu Mythos” – and perhaps that friendship also accounts for the huge “loathsome serpents” that recur throughout the stories. They are also canon to the Marvel Universe, thanks to their adaptation to comics by Marvel.

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Mythologies (Twilight of the Gods Rankings)

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Netflix official promotional art for their TV series Twilight of the Gods

 

 

No, not a repetition of ranking mythologies by their apocalypses but more metaphorically in terms of their decline in actual or active belief in them.

These essentially fall on a sliding cultural-religious scale – from those that have declined to cultural impact or influence with diminished, if any, belief in them, to those that remain as the subject of religious belief.

By happy chance, half my top ten mythologies (or five entries) rank in the cultural end of the scale, while the other half rank in the religious end.

.

 

CULTURAL

 

 

(1) MIDDLE EASTERN (BABYLO-SUMERIAN)

 

My top ten mythology ranked highest for twilight of the gods at the cultural end of the scale, due to the lack of name recognition for all but a few of its deities or figures limiting even its cultural impact or influence – which is mostly filtered through other mythologies in any event.

The epic of Gilgamesh is probably its most enduring cultural impact or influence but even that is limited compared to other mythic epics.

If we expand it to the full extent of Middle Eastern mythology such as Persian Zoroastrianism, then it jumps up the scale to rank just into the religious end of the scale, with a tiny residual population of active religious belief.

 

(2) EGYPTIAN

 

One of the mythologies where divine figures have faded away in the twilight of the gods, apart from their small reconstruction or revival within neo-paganism – and one for which I feel that loss more acutely than most. They remain far more within cultural impact and influence as compared to other ancient Middle Eastern mythologies, mainly due to the enduring fascination with ancient Egypt in popular imagination.

 

(3) CELTIC (ARTHURIAN)

 

The once and future king!

The figures of Arthurian legend rank at the cultural end of the scale for twilight of the gods, since they were not figures of religious belief as such and have waned even in historical belief. However, they remain as vivid presences in Western culture.

 

(4) NORSE

 

Having the days of the week named for its deities (in English) has to count for cultural impact!

The trope namer – since that is what Gotterdammerung literally translates as – but ironically not in the way I’m using it here for ranking mythologies by their decline in belief.

As such, Norse mythology ranks at the cultural end of the scale, as the Norse deities have faded from active religious belief by all but the tiny slither of population that is neo-pagan or “heathen” (and even then I query how much of that is genuine religious belief). However, they continue to loom large in culture and popular imagination, second to none but one other mythology in this top ten list when it comes to European pantheons.

 

(5) CLASSICAL

 

“What ailed us, gods, to desert you?”

Desert yes, but preserve in cultural impact and influence.

Alas, I can’t deny the twilight of the gods of classical mythology – or that it is the one where I feel the loss of its deities most acutely.

Like Norse mythology, the gods of classical mythology have faded from religious belief and ritual by all but a tiny neo-pagan following. However, they loom even larger than those of Norse mythology in cultural impact and influence.

 

 

RELIGIOUS

 

 

(6) NATIVE AMERICAN (LAKOTA)

 

A mythology in my top ten that persists in religious belief among Native Americans, albeit at the smallest scale among those top ten mythologies. Huston Smith included a chapter on the primal religions among major religions in his book The World’s Religions – with the Lakota religion featuring prominently.

 

(7) MESO-AMERICAN (AZTEC)

 

I’ve ranked Meso-American mythology just above Native American mythology at the religious end of the scale for persistence in religious belief.

This is based on my understanding that Meso-American religious belief has persisted whether absorbed into Catholicism (in the style of classical or Roman paganism absorbed by the early Church), disguised or hidden within it (in the style of the Afro-American religions), or just existing parallel or juxtaposed to it – although I also understand this may be more apposite to the Maya than the Aztecs.

 

(8) AFRO-AMERICAN (VOODOO)

 

Afro-American mythology or voodoo may seem ranked oddly high – third out of my top ten mythologies – for persistence of religious belief, since Afro-American religions are usually omitted from studies of world religion. However, the African diaspora religions may well rank among the major world religions in number of adherents, but it is difficult to tell since those adherents are often disguised or hidden within Christianity.

 

(9) HINDU

 

Now we get to the big guns of my top mythologies going strongest against the twilight of their gods, for persistence in religious belief – with Hinduism as a major world religion by any metric, indeed as the worlds’ third largest religion.

 

(10) BIBLICAL

 

What can I say? The biggest gun of my top ten mythologies for sheer persistence as well as scale for endurance in active religious belief – outranking all others in my top ten, indeed, probably all of them combined in terms of scale.

Top Tens – Film: Top 10 Shark Horror Films

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Poster art – Shark Bait (2022)

 

For instant horror, just add sharks!

Also just add sharks for an instant Top 10 Shark Horror Films!

Although to be honest, once you get past my top shark horror film, shark horror tends to be well, schlock.

 

1 – Jaws (the original and still the best shark horror film, although even the Jaws franchise couldn’t escape shark schlock in the sequels)

After Jaws in the top spot, I rank them alphabetically because there’s not much difference between them.

2 – 47 Meters Down (with at least one sequel – with those mutated cave sharks)

3 – Bait (the one with the tsunami sharks – in Australia!)

4 – Deep Blue Sea (genetically engineered brainy sharks – with a sequel!)

5 – Great White (res ipsa loquitur)

6 – The Meg (megalodon shark horror)

7 – Open Water (based on a true story from Australia – with at least two sequels)

8 – The Reef (another film set in Australia)

9 – The Shallows (a great white so filled with rage against humans that it doesn’t even care about a juicy whale carcass)

10 – Shark Night (where humans are the real villain, wanting to feed other humans to sharks – same shtick as Dangerous Animals in 2025)

 

SPECIAL MENTION: ALLIGATOR & CROCODILE HORROR – CRAWL & ROGUE

 

While nowhere near as prolific as shark horror films – which always seem to have a few films breach each year – I have almost as much as soft spot for alligator and crocodile horror films. I’d nominate Crawl as my favorite for the former and Rogue as my favorite for the latter.

 

Top Tens – Fantasy & SF: Top 10 Fantasy Books (Special Mention: Cult & Pulp) (9) Richard Kadrey – Sandman Slim

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Cover art from Killing Pretty, seventh book in the series

 

 

 

(9) RICHARD KADREY –

SANDMAN SLIM (2009 – 2021)

 

How could I resist a hero – or anti-hero – named Stark? No simple revenant clawing his way out of the grave – James Stark or the titular Sandman Slim is a revenant who claws his way like a badass out of hell. Literally. The first book (and series) had me at hell – I have a soft spot for heroes back from the dead, or even better, gone to hell and back. Stark is a naturally talented magician (not wizard, because wizarding is for wimps like Harry Potter) in the secret magical underworld of Los Angeles and falls afoul of one of his colleagues, who sends him straight to hell, before stealing the keys to the universe to return to our world for revenge on those who dealt out his damnation. And that’s just where the first book starts!

The other books in the series up the ante even more – from hell coming to Los Angeles and Los Angeles going to hell…

The series might well be described as dark fantasy noir or occult detective fiction, sharply written with an engaging cast of characters, not least Sandman Slim himself (whom I can’t help but picture as author Richard Kadrey). If you read contemporary fantasy, you must read Sandman Slim. Where the hell is the screen adaptation?

 

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Film: Top 10 Slasher Horror Films

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2010 film poster

 

“Here, we can see a slasher movie killer in their natural habitat, stalking the final girl.”

I tend to prefer other sub-genres of horror to slasher horror but the latter is so iconic of the horror film genre in general that I have to rank it in my S-tier or god-tier special mentions, particularly with the iconic visual design of their slashers.

They have become so prolific as to define their own film genre, one worthy of their own top ten list many times over just for their themes, tropes and types, as well as by iconic slasher.

Anyway, here’s my Top 10 Slasher Films (and their iconic slashers) on the spot.

 

S-TIER (GOD TIER)

 

1 – WES CRAVEN – NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (FREDDY KRUEGER)

 

My favorite slasher film franchise – the combination of slasher horror with supernatural dream-haunting demon is hard to beat. Wes Craven has also proved one of the more capable directors as creator of slasher horror (and horror in general).

While iconic, Freddy is not the most iconic slasher – that title has to go to the duo of my next two entries

 

2 – JOHN CARPENTER – HALLOWEEN (MICHAEL MYERS)

 

That iconic William Shatner mask. And hello again, Mr Carpenter.

 

3 – FRIDAY THE 13TH (JASON VORHEES)

 

That iconic hockey mask

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

4 – WES CRAVEN – SCREAM (GHOSTFACE)

 

Hello again, Mr Craven. Yeah – we’re very much in the self-referential phase of slasher canon here, with Scream as its definitive franchise.

 

5 – SAW (JIGSAW)

 

Yes – less slasher and more torture p0rn but I’m still ranking it here as close enough. And yes – it’s not so much the killer that’s iconic as that damn puppet. “You want to play a game?”

 

6 – TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (LEATHERFACE)

 

Title says it all really – as does the slasher’s nom de slash.

 

7 – CHILD’S PLAY (CHUCKY)

 

If a dream-demon like Freddy Kreuger can be a slasher, why not a possessed doll? Well, apart from the size thing, which makes Chucky a little hard to take seriously – hence why he’s not in the top iconic slashers.

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

8 – WES CRAVEN – THE HILLS HAVE EYES

 

Hello again, Mr Craven. I’ll rank this here – namely because of the lack of a similarly iconic slasher among its hillbilly mutant cannibal tribe (and also because said tribe strays somewhat from the archetypal slasher film).

 

9 – I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER

 

A distant second to the Scream franchise as representative of the self-referential phase of slasher canon – also that hook guy just doesn’t have the same iconic status or visual design as the top slashers.

 

10 – WOLF CREEK

 

Australian slasher horror!

Although again John Jarratt’s Mick Taylor isn’t as iconic a slasher.

 

SPECIAL MENTION

 

1 – CLASSICAL SLASHER HORROR (1974-1993)

 

According to Wikipedia “the slasher canon can be divided into three eras: the classical (1974–1993), the self-referential (1994–2000) and the neoslasher cycle (2000–2013)”.

Within the classical era, there’s the Golden Age of slasher films from 1978 to 1984 – which would include the first Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street films.

Prior to the Golden Age, there was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, while after it the classical era included Chucky – hence the classical era included seven of my top ten entries.

 

2 – SELF-REFERENTIAL SLASHER HORROR (1994-2000)

 

Scream is the archetypal self-referential slasher horror. I Know What You Did Last Summer was also from this era.

 

3 – NEO-SLASHER HORROR / POSTMODERN SLASHER HORROR (2000-2013)

 

Wolf Creek is my top ten entry from this era

 

4 – EVIL DEAD

 

Yeah, my top horror film doesn’t really fall into slasher horror but I include it in special mention because of Ash’s nickname Ashy Slashy. Also the Deadites are somewhat similar to slashers – and the iconic cabin in the woods is similar to your archetypal slasher setting (of Camp Crystal Lake).

Speaking of which

 

5 – THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

 

As a metafictional horror, slashers feature among the monsters used by the Organization – arguably including the zombie redneck torture family (the Buckner family) picked in the film.

 

6 – ALIEN & TERMINATOR

 

I mean, they’re not slashers but they essentially operate by slasher tropes…although you could say that of most horror film antagonists.

 

7 – PSYCHO

 

Precursor and inspiration for slasher horror – it also gives us an iconic horror figure with Norman Bates

 

8 – THE HITCHER

 

As I rank it in my Top 10 Horror Films and it definitely overlaps with slasher horror, I have to give it a shout out here.

 

9 – SILENCE OF THE LAMBS & AMERICAN PSYCHO

Two of the most (in)famous serial killers in cinema – Hannibal Lecter and Patrick Bateman – influenced and an influence on slasher horror films, although they obviously depart from the slasher archetype in a number of ways.

 

 

Top Tens – Fantasy & SF: Top 10 Fantasy Books (Special Mention: Classic) (9) Edgar Rice Burroughs – Tarzan

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Cover art of Tarzan Alive by Philip Jose Farmer published in 2006 by Bison

 

 

(9) EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS –

TARZAN (1912 – 1966)

 

Tarzan is the most iconic hero of fantasy and science fiction – the archetypal jungle hero (or perhaps modern barbarian hero), in a series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The start of the series is easy to date to “Tarzan of the Apes” in 1912 – the end of the series less so but I’ve dated it to “Tarzan and the Valley of Gold” in 1966, authorized as the 25th official Tarzan novel by the Burroughs estate.

Born John Clayton and heir to English aristocracy as Lord Greystoke (or more precisely Viscount Greystoke), Tarzan was marooned with his aristocrat parents and ‘adopted’ after their deaths by a maternal female ape within a ‘tribe’ of great apes – indeed, Tarzan is his name in the ape language.

Philip Jose Farmer condensed Tarzan’s fictional ‘biography’ from the series by Edgar Rice Burroughs into his book Tarzan Alive, which is essentially my central reference to Tarzan (and exclusively so after the first two books). Farmer was an enduring fan of the character and wrote of Tarzan (or his world) in a number of books – most infamously in A Feast Unknown, featuring a thinly veiled pastiche of Tarzan and Doc Savage, or most famously, in his so-called Wold Newton Universe, where he linked together a number of fictional superheroes to the effect of a meteorite.

And I say superheroes as Tarzan has virtually superhuman abilities. After all, we’re talking someone who has wrestled virtually every animal, including full grown bull apes and gorillas. In short, he easily out-Batmans Batman and is the Superman of the jungle.

He is also of superhuman intelligence – a feature not readily discerned from the unfortunate monosyllabic and broken English of his screen adaptations. In the books – indeed, the first book – he could read English before he could speak it, having taught himself to read from the children’s picture books left in his parents’ log cabin and deducing the symbols as a language, in complete isolation from humans. He also spoke French before he spoke English, learning it from the first European he encountered. He readily learns to speak English – as well as thirty or so languages after that. So much for “Me Tarzan, you Jane”.

Despite a certain lack of plausibility, he remains an enduring hero – a “daydream figure” who obviously appeals to our continuing fascination for an animal or nature hero (and perhaps less fortunately to a ‘white god’ figure)

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Film: Top 10 Religious Horror Films

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One of the most iconic images of religious horror – Damien – from one of the two most iconic religious horror films – The Omen

 

The original horror, preceding horror in film and indeed as old as dirt – horror in religion, with the source of the horror as the antagonistic supernatural beings of that religion. In Western popular culture, that religion is Christianity – usually defaulting to Catholicism. Hence the supernatural beings will usually be the Devil, demons or other forces of Hell – with exorcism and possession often featuring prominently as the opposing sides of the battlefield.

No prizes for guessing the top two entries, which for me will always be the two leading religious horror films – but there’s other religious horror films, enough for this top ten, but those two are the biggest.

So here’s my Top 10 Religious Horror Films on the spot

 

S-TIER (DEVIL TIER)

 

1 – THE OMEN (1976)

 

Damien!

Antichrist horror.

And yes – it spawned a franchise. The first two sequels were okay enough but neither equalled the first film. 2024 saw The First Omen as a decent prequel.

 

2 – THE EXORCIST (1973)

 

Another franchise – the title gives you the basic premise.

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

3 – ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968)

 

More Antichrist horror

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

4 – AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979)

 

Iconic haunted house horror – or rather, possessed house horror. Also spawned a franchise.

 

5 – ANGEL HEART (1987)

 

Seemingly starts off as film noir, ends up as religious horror. Nice turn by Robert De Niro – going by the transparent moniker Louis Cypher.

 

6 – THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE (2005)

 

More exorcism horror

 

7 – PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (2007)

 

More haunted house horror – or rather, haunted family horror. Also spawned a franchise, albeit with ever diminishing returns in quality.

 

8 – THE CONJURING (2013)

 

More haunted or possessed house horror, even if I otherwise think of the Warrens, like all mediums or psychics, as frauds. Yet another franchise – I’m also counting the Annabelle and Nun spinoffs, the latter being even more religious horror than the Conjuring

 

9 – HEREDITARY (2018)

 

More haunted family horror, similar to the premise of Paranormal Activity – but without the stretches of nothing on “found footage”.

 

10 – LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL (2023)

 

Sadly not Satan hosting a late night TV show but that’s close enough to the premise for the film

 

HONORABLE MENTION:

 

(1997 – 1999) THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE  & END OF DAYS

 

Not really horror – more supernatural thriller, hence the honorable mention. There was just a thing about the upcoming millennium that saw these two films with the similar premise of an apocalyptic plot for the birth of the Antichrist.

 

(1998) FALLEN

 

A serial killer turns out to be something else.

Top Tens – Film: Top 10 Folk Horror Films

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Classic film poster art for The Wicker Man

 

 

“Who are these coming to the sacrifice?”

Folk horror is a subgenre of horror fiction or film – indeed, arguably a sub-genre of religious horror, except based on elements of folklore, supernatural or otherwise, “to invoke fear and foreboding”.

“Typical elements include a rural setting, isolation, and themes of superstition, folk religion, paganism, sacrifice and the dark aspects of nature”.

The original “unholy trinity” identified as folk horror were three British films in the 1960s-1970s – Witchfinder General (1968), The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) and my own personal archetype of folk horror (as well as second favorite horror film of all time), The Wicker Man (1973).

It’s tight (and I have to squint a bit at some films to make them fit) but I can just squeeze out a Folk Horror top ten on the spot – and even a few special mentions.

 

S-TIER (GOD TIER)

 

1 – THE WICKER MAN (1973)

 

The archetypal folk horror film, eerie and otherworldly without any supernatural elements. Second place in my Top 10 Horror Films.

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

2 – PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (1975)

 

“Miranda!”

Light on the horror (as opposed to mystery) but the film is cited as eerie and otherworldly Australian folk horror centered around the titular landmark. The mystery at its heart is left unanswered but suggests the supernatural (which turned out to be true according to the answer to the mystery in the final chapter eventually published by the author of the book on which it is based – and a little underwhelming).

Also how has this not had an adult film parody version (well, apart from being too “artsy” and niche a film)? There’s naughty schoolgirls – and the title basically writes itself.

 

3 – ROBERT EGGERS – THE WITCH (2015)

 

All of Robert Eggers’ films have had a folk horror vibe so far – but none more so than The Witch, with the most supernatural element. Overlaps with Christian religious horror in Puritan America.

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

4 – THE RITUAL (2017)

 

Folk horror in Sweden – definitely with a supernatural element. Ninth place in my Top 10 Horror Films, riding on the back of its supernatural antagonist.

 

5 – GARETH EVANS – THE APOSTLE (2018)

 

A surprising change of direction (heh) to supernatural folk horror by Evans after the martial arts action of The Raid. I’d have ranked it higher if it had included the signature Raid cast.

 

6 – MIDSOMMAR (2019)

 

Brightly lit Swedish folk horror – replaying many of the same beats of The Wicker Man, similarly with no supernatural element.

 

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

7 – DEAD AND BURIED (1981)

 

I featured it in both my Top 10 Horror Films and Top 10 Zombie Horror Films. Perhaps somewhat light on the folk part of its American setting (which is borrowed from folk religion elsewhere) but this film definitely has a folk horror vibe to it – and supernatural to boot.

 

8 – CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984)

 

Based on a Stephen King short story (and surprisingly a film franchise) but it’s also American folk horror – with a supernatural element.

 

9 – LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM (1988)

 

Featured in my Top 10 Vampire Horror Films, it’s also folk horror with its surviving pagan Roman cult and snake god (with a thing for Christian virgins and characteristic psychedelic imagery by director Ken Russell)

 

10 – THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW (1988)

 

Featured in my Top 10 Zombie Horror Films – it’s also Haitian folk horror

 

SPECIAL MENTION

 

1 – EVIL DEAD

 

My top horror film – also my top zombie horror film, stretching the definition of zombie. It’s not folk horror as such but could easily be tweaked to be, particularly as a cult to the Necronomicon – and occasionally folk horror elements pop up in the franchise

 

2 – FROM DUSK TILL DAWN

 

Featured in my Top 10 Vampire Horror Films, it’s not folk horror but has some elements suggestive of it, especially in that closing shot panning out from the Aztec pyramid at the back of the strip club – and in elements of the TV series.

 

3 – BEN WHEATLEY

 

A director whose films have been a large part of the twenty-first century folk horror revival – I’d probably rank him in my top ten if I could find his films to stream and watch.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD TIER)

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Mythologies (Special Mention: Divine Comedy Rankings)

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An Italian joker card – public domain image Wikipedia “Joker (playing card)”

 

 

 

Life is the laughter of the gods – but sometimes they have a black sense of humor.

Ranking mythologies by their comedy and tricksters, from the laughter of the gods to serious business…

 

S-TIER (GOD-TIER – OR IS THAT JOKER-TIER?)

 

(1) CLASSICAL

 

As for the equal rites of its goddesses or female figures, classical mythology has to rank highly for the laughter of the gods – in the prolific number and enduring iconic nature of myths with comedic elements or trickster figures.

The Odyssey is arguably one long trickster’s tale. Indeed, the origin of dramatic comedy is in Greek theater or drama, which tended to revolve around the tales, themes or tropes of classical mythology.

 

(2) NORSE

 

For a mythology of icy warrior gods holding the line against chaos before being swallowed up by it (literally in the case of Odin), Norse mythology is surprisingly comedic when it comes to the laughter of the gods.

Part of that comes from the prevalence of tricksters, including the head of its pantheon Odin – who always reminds me of a compulsive gambler trying to string out one trick after another to stop the house from winning.

 

(3) CELTIC (ARTHURIAN)

 

Arthurian legend might seem very earnest, but it has quite the comedic streak to it. I mean, the Questing Beast is a gag, right?

Not to mention quite a few trickster figures – I’m counting Merlin.

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

(4) EGYPTIAN

 

There would seem to be little room for the laughter of the gods in a mythology between the desert and the deep blue sea, but surprisingly Egyptian mythology does come to the party with some divine comedy, albeit some of it seemingly unintentional and more comedic to modern readers – as well as working blue.

There’s the creation myth, admittedly one of many, of the supreme god, again one of many, literally mast*rbating the cosmos into existence – or of the sacred scarab or dung beetle rolling the sun like dung. And the less said about Horus’s special sauce in his salad dressing the better, although I presume that must have been intended as a dirty joke.

 

(5) HINDU

 

A mythology that proposes reality as maya or illusion, and as lila or divine play, is clearly one for laughter of the gods, divine comedy and tricksters.

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(6) NATIVE AMERICAN (LAKOTA)

 

More broadly, Native American mythologies have quite the divine comedy of recurring trickster figures – foremost among them the animal trickster gods Coyote and Raven. I like to draw a direct line of mythic descent from the former to Wile E Coyote as modern trickster.

 

(7) AFRO-AMERICAN (VOODOO)

 

The loa seem to enjoy humor, often of a crude nature.

 

(8) MIDDLE EASTERN (BABYLO-SUMERIAN)

 

There’s some laughter of the gods here and there. Gilgamesh has a few gags.

 

(9) MESO-AMERICAN (AZTEC)

 

A priest sacrificing you and dancing around in your flayed skin isn’t that funny.

Okay, it’s a little funny but perhaps more as horror comedy along the lines of the Evil Dead franchise – or splatterpunk.

 

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

(10) BIBLICAL

 

The Bible seems to be very serious business.

Or is it?

You’d be surprised by the Bible when it comes how much divine comedy or how many trickster figures you can squeeze out of it. Some of that is seemingly intentional but even more is unintentional – typically absurdist or black comedy.

What is neither black nor unintentional is the argument that the Gospels are ultimately comedic in nature, essentially along the lines of its eucatastrophe or happy ending in triumph over tragedy.

Taking that a bit further to less serious interpretations, I’ve always been struck by the similarity in style between parables and jokes. And you can’t deny that Jesus had a gift for a snappy one-liner, particularly to hecklers – even when those hecklers include the Devil.