Director’s Picks: Ben Wheatley’s Five Favorite Horror Films

What Wheatley had to say about Dawn of the Dead was that it was perfect, which is something most horror fans could agree with. He acknowledged the humor, the action, and the film's varied subgenres and themes. Another aspect of the film that he found compelling was its sense of space, especially how it established the mall and made it easy for the viewer to understand where the characters are within the narrative related to the setting. Read more: Interview: Ben Wheatley On In The Earth.

Evil Dead became one of Wheatley's favorites only through chance. He hadn't heard of the movie and decided to try it. Wheatley was floored by how funny the film was and was so impressed that he insisted that his friends come to see the movie the next day. Like most true horror heads, he shouted out the scene with the flying eyeball, which is still hysterically funny to this day. I can't even think of the scene without chuckling.

Because Wheatley has excellent taste, another of his five favorites is Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It's a stone-cold classic, and Wheatley acknowledges the film's strange beauty, artful imagery, and the fact that it isn't as graphic as legend would have it. He had seen the film's sequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, which is an almost different kind of film. Both films have an anarchic spirit and humor, but The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is much more precisely thought-out. Again, he references one of the film's most terrifying sequences: Leatherface slams the metal sliding door after killing Kirk. Read more: Be(ware) The Swallowing: Hungry Homes In The Texas Chain Saw Massacre And House.

Another common fave of hardcore horror fans isn't a slasher or zombie movie; it is Elem Klimov's poetic but brutal World War II film Come and See. Many of the most horrific things in the movie happen by chance, and there's a feeling of being abandoned by goodness in the world. Wheatley said the film sat on his shelf unwatched for five years because even he was too scared to watch it. Once he did, he couldn't stop watching it, stunned and fascinated. Come and See is simply one of the most soul-annihilating movies ever put on film.

I think we can all agree on Wheatley's last choice. Vilified upon its release, The Thing has morphed into one of horror's most beloved films heralded for its paranoid and hopeless atmosphere. Wheatley considers the film pure entertainment and confessed to having watched all of Carpenter's films during the lockdown. He cites the still-stellar special effects by Rob Bottin as a core element of quality. According to Wheatley, the film doesn't age and seems as fresh as it always was, and we agree. Read more: Q&A: Ben Wheatley Makes Up His Kill List.