Fair enough, Poltergeist does look very low.

As for, The Exorcist III, sure acclaim on release was mixed, but I've seen come high (top 10 even) in several scariest films lists though.

Mostly due to that one scene, I'd guess. But if what you say is true then it might as well be at the low end of the list somewhere.

Yeah, it is mostly for that one scene, but I still think it's a very well respected film overall though and deserves its place on the list.

Would've thought that A Nightmare On Elm Street would be a little higher.
I can't see it below something like Suspiria, which is great but still kinda cheesy and underground.

Loads of the films on this list are cheesy part of the charm of many horror movies is cheesy. I don't consider Suspiria any less cheesy than, say, The Exorcist or Psycho myself. I don't see how that is a criticism anyhow.

I've been through this before, but I have a problem measuring popularity for foreign films against english speaking films as simply how many people have seen them, as foreign films are already going to be much less popular to begin with and we're basically punishing it solely for it not being from the USA or the UK, which isn't right. Suspiria is one of the most popular foreign horror films of all-time and probably the most famous non-American, British, Australian or Japanese one. Any horror film which isn't from a select 3 or 4 countries is going to be underground by almost default.

Suspiria has a lot of influence on its surreal and dream-like useage of lighting and colour, which actually can be seen on the dream sequences in Nightmare on Elm Street itself.

Implying Nightmare On Elm Street isn't cheesy

Is "A Serbian Film" eligible for this list?

nah. because that just becomes a gateway for psychological thrillers, shock-thrillers etc

When I get my computer back after xmas, I'll do another revision of this list. Needs updating.

Hey guys, I've been thinking about this and I think Night of the Living Dead could actually challenge Psycho. If I break it down by criteria on the face of it I get it as:

Influence: Night of the Living Dead
Impact: Psycho
Innovation: Night of the Living Dead
Cultural Impact: Night of the Living Dead
Critical Acclaim: Psycho
Popularity: Psycho

However, one reason I'm thinking that NOTLD could beat Psycho as much like I tried to do relative impact and popularity in regards to foreign films and American films as otherwise you'd essentially be punishing a film for being foreign, I think the same thing could be said about B-movies. Horror is far more a cult genre and less about making millions than any other genre imo and Psycho was a picture made by one of the most famous directors and starring one of the most famous actresses of its time, so it was always going to have a big advertising budget and reach a certain amount of audience before it had even been made, whereas NOTLD, being a B-movie would have had a very small budget and would be only advertised to reach a certain niche. Much like a foreign film is going to have less impact and Popularity simply because it's foreign, the same could be said for B-movies and really horror is a genre which is built on the ideals of reaching a certain niche more than any other genre. In relative terms NOTLD probably had as much, if not more, impact in its niche as Psycho. i.e. Psycho only grossed 3 times more than NOTLD despite having 8 times its budget.

Thoughts?

I totally agree with the points you bring up in that paragraph. I'm not entirely sure that NotLD is more influential than Psycho, though. Could you compare their relative influence in a little more detail?

Well, Peeping Tom, which was released before Psycho did a lot of things which Pyscho had done already, in terms of POV camera angles and laying the foundations of the slasher genre etc. Psycho has a lot of influence on ideas in the plot i.e. killing the lead off half way through, the perceived psychological abuse by the mother which gets used a lot but I don't think it actually has that much on the workings of the horror film as Peeping Tom had done most of that already. Whereas NOTLD has a huge influence in creating the modern zombie genre and helping popularise the B-movie. Another massive influence NOTLD had on horror (though this also crosses over to cultural impact) was that it was the first ever horror film to have a black actor as its lead and as well he was supposed to be the first ever black actor on American film to get a lead when it was not specifically written for a black person (i.e. because he was the best actor) though I've also read a couple of articles which say Sidney Poitier had done that a few years earlier so I'm not sure about that one.

Side note -
Does anyone else have the Infinifilm version of Nightmare On Elm Street? It's awesome, you can see alternate versions of many scenes, including an alternate take of Freddy making the glove in the beginning. It's even creepier than the official version...

I thought 28 Days Later was hated by zombie fans.

A small number of Romero traditionalists, maybe. It's impact, influence, critical acclaim etc easily make it one of the greatest horror films of the last decade.