31 FILMS THAT GIVE YOU THE WILLIES

Over at Shoot the Projectionist, Ed is asking for people to submit their lists of "31 Films that Give You the Willies." The idea is to compile a list of 31 great horror films. I'm a compulsive list maker, so I've decided to take up the challenge. Not all of the films on this list are films that I would normally talk about here at Esotika, but in honor of Halloween being this month, I thought I'd participate. The list includes only one film per director, and I tried to stick with films that are (more or less) easily classifiable as horror, since most of my favorite films tend to be weird hybrids that cannot fit securely into a single genre. So, without further ado, here's my list, in alphabetical order:

99.9 (Augusti Villaronga, 1997)
All the Colors of the Dark (Sergio Martino, 1972)
Audition (Takashi Miike, 1999)
Baba Yaga (Corrado Farina, 1973)
The Beyond (Lucio Fulci, 1981)

Black Christmas (Bob Clark, 1974)
Blood of Dr. Jekyll (Walerian Borowczyk, 1981)
The Brood (David Carpenter, 1979)
The Church (Michele Soavi, 1989)
Cigarette Burns (John Carpenter, 2005)

Daughters of Darkness (Harry Kumel, 1971)
Devil's Nightmare (Jean Brismee, 1971)
Evil Dead Trap (Toshiharu Ikeda, 1988)
Fascination (Jean Rollin, 1979)
Haunting of Julia (Richard Loncraine)

Inferno (Dario Argento, 1980)
Isle of the Dead (Mark Robson, 1945)
Kairo (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2001)
Last House on Dead End Street (Roger Watkins, 1977)
Legend of Hell House (John Hough, 1973)

Lord of Illusions (Clive Barker, 1995)
Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1997)
Marebito (Takashi Shimizu, 2004)
Outer Space (Peter Tscherkassky, 1999)*
Possession (Andrzej Zulawski, 1981)

Puppet Master (David Schmoeller, 1989)
The Reflecting Skin (Philip Ridley, 1990)
The Sentinel (Michael Winner, 1977)
Silent Night Bloody Night (Theodore Gershuny, 1974)
Symptoms (Jose Larraz, 1974)

The Uninvited (Su-yeon Lee, 2003)
Virgin Among the Living Dead (Jess Franco, 1973)

*I should note that one of the stipulations for Ed's polling was that the films had to be feature films. Tscherkassky's Outer Space is a short film, but it's honestly one of the most terrifying things I've ever seen so I had to include it. Hence, I added a 32nd film to make the list 31 feature films.

Leftovers from my initial list include the following:
Abominable Dr. Phibes (Robert Fuest, 1971)
The Changeling (Peter Medak, 1980)
Dawn of the Dead (George Romero, 1978)
Lair of the White Worm (Ken Russell, 1988)
Monster Squad (Fred Dekker, 1987)
Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (Chuck Russell, 1987)
The Omen (Richard Donner, 1976)
Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1977)
Session 9 (Brad Anderson, 2001)
Der Todesking (Jorg Buttgereit, 1990)
The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)