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a lovable loser, a nerdy nebish. This movie is very seldom really scary, even considering its love of gore, because we really care so much for the love and friendship relationships. Even when mom turns zombie, there's more concern about how Sean feels than blowing off the undead's head with a shotgun.

2) Psycho, by Alfred Hitchcock. This film is a brilliant example of what Hitchcock does. It has all the elements we expect from this great director. It's about a boy who runs an out-of-the-way hotel with the help of his invalid mother. And people keep dying when they come to stay. The shower scene, the final denouement, the police detective's demise, are all great cinema. Hitchcock pulls out all the stops with his camera work and his use of sound and suspense to generate fear. Without giving anything away, which in this case would be close to criminal, the shower scene is a brilliant melange of sex and death. Hitch was a master at making his audience squirm as they become voyeurs and participate in evil vicariously.

1) Silence of the Lambs, by Jonathan Demme. Demme created a brilliant masterpiece of horror. Now, let's be honest. Jodie Foster's portrayal of Clarice Starling and Anthony Hopkins' amazing turn as Dr. Hannibal Lecter are what elevate this film, based on a book by Thomas Harris. What might just be a police procedural about tracking down a serial killer becomes a poetic slash in the face of psychological torment and desires. Starling enlists the aid of the vicious killer-genius Lecter to find a killer called Buffalo Bill (because he skins his humps). The plot is never really very important, but the tension between the evil but urbane Lecter and the wounded but charismatic Starling is what makes this movie so wonderful. the gore factor is high, but the dramatic tension and the foreboding sense of evil is what makes this the best of the genre.

Without doubt, the horror genre has produces some really wonderful films. These five films have won their accolades, their awards and their fans on their way to becoming beloved classics.

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