An interesting poll in an otherwise pretty blah day.  Entertainment Weekly looks at what they consider some of the best horror films of the last 20 years:

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20284496_20284497_20295591,00.html

If this list proves anything, its that there haven't been all that many memorable horror films released since 1989.  At least in my opinion.

Usually, I find myself in agreement with many of the choices in lists like these, if not the placement of specific films and the fact that there are always one or two movies you feel were unfairly omitted.

This time around, I find myself quibbling with many of their choices.  What Lies Beneath and Darkman were both 'ok' films, but the former didn't do all that much for me and the later...would you even consider it a horror film?  There were certainly "horror" elements, but what Sam Raimi delivered felt more like a superhero film, a cross between Batman/The Shadow and Swamp Thing.

Alien 3, definitely a horror film, was IMHO a dark, depressing misfire (the opening moments crapped on everything that the too-early for this list Aliens accomplished, was particularly egregious.  Did they have to kill Newt and Hicks so offhandedly?!).  What followed, alas, was just not all that good.  You know, if you're going to include a David Fincher directed horror film on your list, why not go for what was probably his best one, and one that was released well within this list's parameters, Se7en?

Planet Terror and Dead Alive (aka Braindead) one could almost consider horror comedies while Shaun of the Dead is a comedy film fitted into a horror framework (ie, George Romero's zombie films).  All three films are quite good, IMHO, but they're really not full on horror films, are they?  (By the way, if they're making a list of great horror/comedy hybrids released since 1989, I'd certainly put these three on the list, along with Bubba Ho-Tep and Army of Darkness (these two, of course, featured Bruce Campbell.  If Evil Dead II hadn't been released before 1989, I'd have included that one, too).

The Silence of the Lambs gets plenty of good reviews and deserves to be on this list, but I've always preferred Manhunter (alas, that movie, which featured the first appearance of Hannibal Lector (played by Brian Cox) was released in 1986, three years too early for this list).  Manhunter's story was essentially the same as SotL (I suspect author Thomas Harris, who wrote both novels these movies were based on, was cribbing from his earlier book when he wrote SotL).

Event Horizon was a beautiful looking movie, and I so wished it would have been a good horror film, but the plot proved such a pastiche of other, far better films, that it was very difficult for me to enjoy.

So, what's missing from this list, in my opinion?

Along with Bubba Ho-Tep and Army of Darkness, I'd also put Mimic on the list.  The film loses itself at the very end, but up until that point I thought this was a terrific horror film.  I'd also include Zack Snyder's remake of Dawn of the Dead, a pretty damn good (again, until the end) reinterpretation of George Romero's classic.

Any more?