'The Exorcist' has been named the top horror movie of all time.

The 1973 classic, which starred Linda Blair as a young girl possessed by the devil, was voted number one by HMV.com's online customers in the entertainment store's annual Horror Poll.



Mark Frampton HMV's DVD Catalogue Manager: "The horror genre was not really taken seriously for a long time, but it's moved on from the slightly camp Hammer stereotypes that many of us remember, and now enjoys the respect it fully deserves. It's become one of our most important genres, and Halloween is now a major calendar event for the business."

'The Exorcist' topped the first Horror Poll in 2005, but was replaced by Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' last year.



'The Shining', starring Jack Nicholson as a man who slowly goes mad living in an empty haunted hotel, has fallen back down to second place.

Classic slasher movie 'Halloween', starring Jamie Lee Curtis, was placed third, while 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' - about monster Freddy Kruger who kills youngsters in their dreams - came fourth.

Meanwhile, 1958 Hammer horror classic 'Dracula' starring Christopher Lee was today re-released on DVD to mark the 50th anniversary of the Hammer horror genre.


HMV.com 2007 Annual Horror Poll top 10:

1. 'The Exorcist' (1973) - William Friedkin
2. 'The Shining' (1980) - Stanley Kubrick
3. 'Halloween' (1978) - John Carpenter
4. 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' (1984) - Wes Craven
5. 'Ringu' - 'The Ring' (Japanese version) (1998) - Hideo Nakata
6. 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' (1974) - Tobe Hooper
7. 'The Omen' (1976) - Richard Donner
8. 'Stephen King's It' (1990) - Tommy Lee Wallace
9. 'Hellraiser' (1987) - Clive Barker
10. 'Hostel' (2005) - Eli Roth

Good list, except for ‘Hellraiser’ & ‘Hostel’.

Hostel?

They’re kidding, right?

I think they got lazy on the last two.

was hostel a horror movie?

They forgot to add The Descent

Hostel?  Really?  They should have House or 1000 Corpses on there.  What about any of the Saw movies?  There are a whole lot of newer horror movies that are better than a few of those older ones too.

What?? Where is Psycho, the granddaddy of them all???

Um….Hello? Night of the Living Dead? And Hostel made it on the list?? what is this world coming to?

ew, screw “Hostel.” “Texas” should have gotten the top slot, followed by “The Shining.” “The Exorcist” is overrated.

y’know i never saw the Exorcist until just last year and i wasn’t scared AT ALL. it was probably b/c i’d just read the book and knew what was coming, but i thought it was cheesy and not scary.

Shining is pretty damn scary, i agree with that one. Halloween, Nightmare, Hellraiser, all pretty damn scary.

but the movie that scared me worse than any other in my whole life, to the point where i was CRYING in the movie theater and trying to cover my eye and plug me ears at the same time was “The Descent” straight out scary blood and guts and freaky as hell.

Hostel was a waste of 1.5 hours, NOT a horror movie. This proves many people (poll takers) have no good taste in movies. How else did Hostel get on here?

Next year, I’m adding Night Of The Lepus and Leprechaun. Ugh.

There is simply no really good horror movie from the past 10 years.

What, no House of Wax? I guess I can see the point of excluding it, though. Watching Ol’ Wonk-Eye Hilton get impaled was more comedy than horror.

On a serious note, how the fuck did a crap movie like Hostel make the list over such awesomeness as Psycho, Dawn of the Dead, or even Amityville Horror?

As some one who own both the old UK DVD and the Japanese DVD I can say there`s no bloody Ringu it`s Ring and that`s it.

Also the list is a bit mixed some save, but solid picks, but also some utter rubbish.

Any of the infamous Hong Kong Cat 3 movies makes Hostel look like walk in the park.
I`d say Ebola Syndrome or Human Pork Chop would be far better if far more contraversial picks, that`s why Hostel got in any way.

Hostel?? Really?? Who made up this list, somebody’s 13-yr-old brother who has never seen tits?

Hostel was not a horror movie it was just horribly made. And i used to watch hellraiser when i was little when they had that USA up all night station, i used to love that movie.

Ringu shouldn’t be in there either. It just seems weird to mix an international film (and if you’re going to do it anyway, at least research to see what else is out there). And Hostel? Really? At least Saw started the whole thing of over-the-top blood and guts. It would’ve made more sense to put Saw in there.

I agree with everybody else, and thanks for the tip ill go watch The Descent

Only the exorcist and the omen deserve to be on the same list as “The Prince of Darkness”

Yikes

Exorcist…Right on!
Stephen Kings IT?....What the F&%!?!!!

i agree on the exorcist, i believe it to be the greatest horror movie of them all, it just scared the hell out of me. but i think they should have included ‘the blair witch project’ but just the first one, remember.. it was pretty scary, and i dont know i think at the time it had everyone talking about it

and what about poltergeist? or emm, the one about emily rose! woa! that was REAL, cmon!!!!! you wont find something more scary than a based-on-real lifeee MOVIE! daa! i also agree on dracula.