To celebrate the arrival of Halloween, ComingSoon.net asked our readers just who was the greatest horror director in the cinematic genre’s history and with over 1,000 votes polled the results are in and one mind with a penchant for the apocalyptic came out victorious. Check out the results below!
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Who is the Greatest Horror Director?
Top Five
- John Carpenter (34%, 370 votes)
- Wes Craven (15%, 159 votes)
- Alfred Hitchcock (12%, 133 votes)
- George A. Romero (5%, 56 votes)
- James Wan (5%, 52 votes)
The horror movie genre is one frequently remembered for both its menacing antagonists and the storytellers who bring them to life, but choosing which is the better is one of the toughest decisions to make of all genres. There’s no denying the charm and technical innovations made by early filmmakers such as Hitchcock, Roger Corman (The Raven), Mario Bava (Black Sunday), Dario Argento (Suspiria), Lucio Fulci (The House by the Cemetery), Antonio Margheriti (Cannibal Apocalypse), James Whale (Frankenstein), William Castle (House on Haunted Hill), Tod Browning (Dracula), Bert I. Gordon (The Amazing Colossal Man), Freddie Francis (The Evil of Frankenstein), Terence Fisher (The Mummy) and Roy Ward Baker (Quartermass and the Pit). The rest of the results are as follows, including an unfortunate group of filmmakers left without votes by our readers:
- Don Coscarelli (3%, 35 votes)
- Guillermo del Toro (3%, 34 votes)
- David Cronenberg (2%, 24 votes)
- Tobe Hooper (2%, 24 votes)
- Sam Raimi (2%, 21 votes)
- Dario Argento (2%, 20 votes)
- Clive Barker (1%, 15 votes)
- Lucio Fulci (1%, 11 votes)
- Mike Flanagan (1%, 11 votes)
- Mario Bava (1%, 10 votes)
- M. Night Shyamalan (1%, 10 votes)
- Rob Zombie (1%, 10 votes)
- James Whale (1%, 10 votes)
- Jordan Peele (1%, 9 votes)
- Steven Spielberg (1%, 8 votes)
- Eli Roth (1%, 8 votes)
- David Lynch (1%, 8 votes)
- Ari Aster (0%, 5 votes)
- Terence Fisher (0%, 5 votes)
- Alexandre Aja (0%, 4 votes)
- John Landis (0%, 3 votes)
- Roman Polanski (0%, 3 votes)
- Scott Derrickson (0%, 3 votes)
- Roger Corman (0%, 2 votes)
- Stuart Gordon (0%, 2 votes)
- Andy Muschietti (0%, 2 votes)
- Michael Dougherty (0%, 2 votes)
- Tod Browning (0%, 2 votes)
- Frank Henenlotter (0%, 2 votes)
- Peter Jackson (0%, 1 vote)
- Joe Dante (0% 1 vote)
- Brian De Palma (0%, 1 vote)
- Fede Álvarez (0%, 1 vote)
- William Castle (0%, 1 vote)
- Freddie Francis (0%, 1 vote)
- William Malone (0%, 1 vote)
- Mick Garris (0%, 1 vote)
Zero Vote Club
- Jennifer Kent (0%, 0 votes)
- Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala (0%, 0 votes)
- Patrick Lussier (0% 0 votes)
- Julien Maury & Alexandre Bustillo (0%, 0 votes)
- Antonio Margheriti (0%, 0 votes)
- Bert I. Gordon (0%, 0 votes)
- Roy Ward Baker (0%, 0 votes)
- Richard Franklin (0%, 0 votes)
- Steve Beck (0%, 0 votes)
- Adam Green (0%, 0 votes)
- Mary Lambert (0%, 0 votes)
- Darren Lynn Bousman (0%, 0 votes)
- Ernest Dickerson (0%, 0 votes)
That being said, there’s a lot of fun and chills to be had from those with access to bigger budgets and special effects of the later 1900s and took it in more surreal or comedic directions including John Carpenter (The Thing), George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead), Steven Spielberg (Jaws), Guillermo del Toro (Cronos), Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead), Peter Jackson (The Frighteners), David Cronenberg (The Brood), Joe Dante (Gremlins), Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), David Lynch (Eraserhead), Brian De Palma (Carrie), Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist), Don Coscarelli (Phantasm) and Clive Barker (Hellraiser).
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