Monumental Horrors: 10 Top Nominations for the Mount Rushmore of Terrifying Films

Not the first cinematic Dracula, but certainly the most iconic, perhaps even still, Bela Lugosi’s portrayal of the most famous vampire in the 1931 classic film Dracula set the stage for the rest of the Universal Monster movies to come.

But Dracula isn’t the only role that Lugosi made great. He also starred in many other horror films of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s before he died in 1956.

The Frankenstein to Lugosi’s Dracula, Boris Karloff made Mary Shelley’s eponymous monster his own in the film based on her book and perhaps even more so in its sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, which explores the tenderness and humanity of the monster even more.

Karloff went on to have an incredible career, starring in several horror films produced by Val Lewton and Roger Corman, lending them his star power and cache.

Vincent Price starred in horror movies from the 1940s until the 1980s, working with many of the best and most influential filmmakers to contribute to the genre. In the 1950s, he was William Castle’s go-to star; in the 1960s, he frequently collaborated with Roger Corman.

He was a true movie star in the sense that he was capable of starring in any subgenre of horror (or genre of film more broadly) without losing the unique spark that made him so watchable or distracting from the material.

If anyone can rival Lugosi for their iconic portrayal of Dracula, it’s Christopher Lee. The British actor first rose to fame working with Hammer Film Productions on their often lavish gothic horror films and made an indelible mark in these films.

But as all the other actors discussed above, he continued to star in some of the most iconic horror films outside of the studio that gave him his start and brought the iconic gravitas of his voice and face to fantasy and sci-fi as well as Saruman in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and as Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels.

James Whale only directed four horror films, but they impacted the future of horror cinema so much that it’s impossible to ignore his contributions. Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, and Bride of Frankenstein proved that monster movies could be bombastic, emotional, and thought-provoking in equal measure.

And with The Old Dark House, he essentially invented the “travelers must take refuge somewhere that may be more dangerous than the storm” subgenre.

The only person who never worked as a director or actor who deserves a place on this list, Val Lewton produced nine stripped-down, psychological horror movies for RKO studios in the 1940s, who were struggling to compete with the more showy monster films coming from Universal.

These movies changed horror forever and showed that threats of the mind could be just as scary as a monster, if not more so.

Roger Corman may be one of the few directors more important for his contributions as a producer. Corman made some fantastic films, especially his adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe stories starring Vincent Price. But his impact on film history is better measured by the filmmakers he mentored, including James Cameron and Jonathan Demme.

George A. Romero may be the only filmmaker to have the argument about the best in a horror subgenre be the same as the argument about the best in his filmography.

Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead were made by Romero a decade apart, in 1968 and 1978, respectively. Both equally revolutionized what people thought of zombies and zombie movies.

While John Carpenter’s golden era may be shorter than Wes Craven’s, there’s no denying the importance of his work. Halloween popularized the slasher and brought it into the suburbs, and The Thing remains the greatest body horror film ever made that’s still cited today in the discussion of practical effects' superiority to digital.

This thread inspired this post.

Not many filmmakers can claim they have stone-cold classics in three decades, but Wes Craven can. The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes are exploitation cinema classics.

He reinvigorated the slasher genre with A Nightmare on Elm Street and reinvented it with Scream more than a decade later. But it’s not just his output as a filmmaker that makes Craven so important; it’s his influence on the horror world around him. Meta-horror and meta-comedy about horror would not be what it is today without his films.

Horror movies don't often get awarded at the Oscars, so when they do, you know they must be terrific. Whether they won best picture or original screenplay, these terrifying films are sure to impress and scare their viewers.

See the 10 Scariest Movies That Have Actually Won Oscars.