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For my ranked list of the 100 greatest films of all time, click here.

Scroll down for my lists of greatest Westerns, Horror Movies, Noir Films and Comedies of all time.

Here is my ranked list of the greatest Western Films of all time.

  1. The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
  2. McCabe And Mrs Miller
  3. The Wild Bunch
  4. Once Upon A Time In The West
  5. The Searchers
  6. A Fistful Of Dollars
  7. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
  8. The Outlaw Josie Wales
  9. Unforgiven
  10. Hud
  11. Django Unchained
  12. The Great Silence
  13. The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre
  14. Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
  15. Meek’s Cutoff
  16. The Man From Laramie
  17. My Darling Clementine
  18. Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid
  19. For A Few Dollars More
  20. Rio Bravo
  21. Dead Man
  22. Fort Apache
  23. The Beguiled
  24. Silverado
  25. Jeremiah Johnson
  26. The Tall T
  27. Django
  28. The Ox-Bow Incident
  29. The Rider
  30. High Noon
  31. High Plains Drifter
  32. Fistful Of Dynamite
  33. The Naked Spur
  34. True Grit (1969)
  35. Tombstone
  36. Winchester ‘73
  37. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
  38. Ride in the Whirlwind
  39. The Shooting
  40. True Grit (2010)
  41. No Country For Old Men
  42. Hell Or High Water
  43. Day Of The Outlaw
  44. Red River
  45. Day Of Anger
  46. Death Rides A Horse
  47. Ride Lonesome
  48. The Big Gundown
  49. Sergeant Rutledge
  50. Gunfight At The O.K. Corral
  51. The Shootist
  52. They Call Me Trinity
  53. Ulzana’s Raid
  54. 3:10 To Yuma (1957)
  55. The Power Of The Dog
  56. Vera Cruz
  57. Seven Men From Now
  58. Shane
  59. Wind River
  60. The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs
  61. The Gunfighter
  62. The Proposition
  63. Man Of The West
  64. Doc
  65. Tin Star
  66. The Mercenary
  67. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon
  68. Pale Rider
  69. Companeros
  70. Keoma
  71. 40 Guns
  72. Magnificent 7
  73. The Far Country
  74. Stagecoach
  75. Johnny Guitar
  76. Destry Rides Again
  77. A Pistol For Ringo
  78. Hang ‘Em High
  79. The Violent Men
  80. Wagon Master
  81. Ride The High Country
  82. Silver Lode
  83. Blazing Saddles

Here is my ranked list of the greatest Horror Films of all time.
(I cheated and counted Alien and Aliens as one film. I decided that the David Lynch films, Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and Inland Empire, even though I love them, are not horror movies.)

  1. Alien/Aliens
  2. Psycho (1960)
  3. The Thing (1982)
  4. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
  5. The Shining
  6. The Exorcist
  7. Halloween
  8. Jaws
  9. Hereditary
  10. Silence Of The Lambs
  11. The Ring
  12. Possession
  13. Cabin In The Woods
  14. Dracula (1931)
  15. Frankenstein (1931)
  16. Get Out
  17. Se7en
  18. Suspiria (1977)
  19. Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
  20. Audition
  21. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)
  22. Deep Red
  23. Near Dark
  24. Re-Animator
  25. Pulse (2001)
  26. Sinister
  27. The Conjuring
  28. The Fly (1986)
  29. Dawn Of The Dead (2004)
  30. Cure (1997)
  31. Skinamarink
  32. Bone Tomahawk
  33. Kill, Baby Kill
  34. The Loved Ones
  35. Videodrome
  36. Inferno
  37. The Evil Dead (1981)
  38. Evil Dead Rise
  39. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
  40. Tenebre
  41. Carrie (1976)
  42. Kwaidan
  43. 28 Days Later
  44. The Addiction
  45. When Evil Lurks
  46. Gerald’s Game
  47. Messiah Of Evil
  48. Dog Soldiers
  49. The Pit And The Pendulum
  50. Misery
  51. Prince Of Darkness
  52. Wicker Man (1973)
  53. Train To Busan
  54. The Mist
  55. Poltergeist (1981)
  56. Evil Dead (2013)
  57. Hellraiser
  58. Us
  59. Session 9   
  60. Under The Skin
  61. The Cursed
  62. The Blair Witch Project
  63. You’re Next
  64. Aterrados
  65. Eyes Without A Face
  66. Midsommar
  67. Blood And Black Lace
  68. The Mummy (1932)
  69. American Psycho
  70. Cronos
  71. Bram Stoker’s Dracula
  72. The Others 
  73. Color Out Of Space
  74. It, Part I
  75. Shaun Of The Dead
  76. The Wolf Man (1941)
  77. The Strangers
  78. Let Me In
  79. Ugetsu
  80. [rec]
  81. The Descent
  82. Onibaba
  83. Outwaters
  84. Don’t Breathe
  85. A Quiet Place
  86. Repulsion 
  87. Mad God
  88. A Page Of Madness
  89. Oddity
  90. Event Horizon
  91. American Werewolf In London
  92. Nightmare On Elm Street
  93. Opera
  94. The Sadness
  95. I Saw The Devil
  96. From Beyond
  97. Longlegs
  98. The Omen (1976)
  99. Twitch Of The Death Nerve (aka Bay Of Blood)
  100. Vampyr (1932)
  101. Bird Box
  102. The Night House
  103. Black Sunday (1960)
  104. Spider Baby
  105. Nosferatu, The Vampyre (1979)
  106. Nosferatu (2024)
  107. Insidious
  108. It Follows
  109. The Autopsy Of Jane Doe
  110. Curse Of The Demon (1957)
  111. Mandy
  112. Battle Royale
  113. In The Mouth Of Madness
  114. Nosferatu (1922)
  115. The Host
  116. Masque Of The Red Death
  117. The Birds
  118. Kuroneko

Honorable Mention: The TV series Hannibal and the miniseries Haunting Of Hill House were both amazing, and if they were movies would have been high on this list.

Special Honorable Mention: Sharknado, because Sharknado. 

Here is my ranked list of the greatest Noir films of all time.

One of the hardest things about putting together a greatest film noir list is deciding which films are noir and which aren’t. Part of the problem is the definition. It’s one of those “I know it when I see it” genres. But there are a couple of signifiers:

  • Crime. Every noir has a crime at its center. The crimes are usually presented in the “hard-boiled” style that arose in the crime novels of Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane and Raymond Chandler. It’s always interesting to see when filmmakers of other countries adopt the hard-boiled style to films set in their own country.
  • A cynical worldview. There are rarely any genuine heroes in noir, but lots of antiheroes. In fact most of the main characters are deeply conflicted and may ultimately do the right thing but not necessarily for the right reason. The cynicism is also reflected in the almost complete lack of happy endings for the main characters. And every organization is corrupt, especially the legal system.
  • Cinematography. Most films are black and white with lots of black and dark grey. These films love shadows, mist and fog.
  • The dialogue. Lots of sharp, rapid-fire and witty verbal exchanges.
  • Fedoras. Lots of fedoras.

The classic Hollywood noir period is usually considered to be from 1941 (The Maltese Falcon) to 1958 (Touch Of Evil). The vast majority of the films on my list are American films from this era. But there are also later American films and international films as well. Japan and France in particular contributed some amazing films to the genre.

  1. Double Indemnity
  2. Out Of The Past
  3. Laura
  4. The Big Sleep
  5. The Third Man
  6. Touch Of Evil
  7. Chinatown
  8. The Maltese Falcon
  9. High And Low
  10. Night Of The Hunter
  11. L.A. Confidential
  12. Le Samourai
  13. Blood Simple
  14. Point Blank
  15. Le Deuxième Souffle
  16. The Killers
  17. The Lady From Shanghai
  18. Le Cercle Rouge
  19. Miller’s Crossing
  20. Le Doulos
  21. Brighton Rock
  22. The Big Heat
  23. In A Lonely Place
  24. Pale Flower
  25. Taxi Driver
  26. Breathless (1960)
  27. Pulp Fiction
  28. Sunset Boulevard
  29. Fargo
  30. Blue Velvet
  31. Key Largo
  32. The Last Seduction
  33. The Long Goodbye
  34. The Strange Love Of Martha Ives
  35. The Hit
  36. Blast Of Silence
  37. You Only Live Once
  38. The Killing
  39. Pépé le Moko
  40. Act Of Violence
  41. Side Street
  42. A Colt Is My Passport
  43. The Reckless Moment
  44. Panique
  45. Mildred Pierce
  46. Hangover Square
  47. The Limey
  48. Underworld U.S.A.
  49. Narrow Margin
  50. The Blue Dahlia
  51. Night And The City
  52. Elevator To The Gallows
  53. Rififi
  54. Cutter’s Way
  55. Call Northside 777
  56. Gun Crazy
  57. Detour
  58. Sweet Smell Of Success
  59. The Asphalt Jungle
  60. Odd Man Out
  61. Where The Sidewalk Ends
  62. Brute Force
  63. The Friends of Eddie Coyle
  64. Stray Dog
  65. Nightmare Alley (1947)
  66. Pickup On South Street
  67. Cruel Gun Story
  68. On Dangerous Ground
  69. Shoot The Piano Player
  70. The Suspect (1944)
  71. Rusty Knife
  72. Woman In The Window
  73. Ace In The Hole
  74. The Bad Sleep Well
  75. Kiss Me, Deadly
  76. Panic In The Streets
  77. Gilda
  78. This Gun For Hire
  79. Raw Deal
  80. The Set-Up
  81. Classe Tous Risques
  82. Crossfire
  83. I Wake Up Screaming
  84. Odds Against Tomorrow
  85. The Big Combo
  86. House of Bamboo
  87. Criss Cross
  88. Murder, My Sweet
  89. No Way Out (1950)
  90. Kansas City Confidential
  91. Glass Key
  92. The Naked Kiss
  93. Black Angel
  94. Crime Wave (1954)
  95. They Live By Night
  96. Force Of Evil

Creating a ranked list of greatest comedies of all time has been tricky because one needs to decide what is and isn’t a comedy. How many funny scenes does a movie have to have before it qualifies? For example, I didn’t include A Clockwork Orange or Parasite, even though both movies have several very funny scenes and do show up on some comedy lists.

This list is still in progress.

  1. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 
  2. Brazil
  3. Young Frankenstein
  4. Being John Malkovich
  5. Monty Python And The Holy Grail
  6. The Big Lebowski
  7. His Girl Friday
  8. Life Of Brian
  9. Everything, Everywhere, All At Once
  10. Duck Soup
  11. Modern Times
  12. My Man Godfrey
  13. The Awful Truth
  14. It Happened One Night
  15. Fargo
  16. The Bank Dick
  17. In Bruges
  18. This Is Spinal Tap!
  19. Sullivan’s Travels
  20. Annie Hall
  21. Shaun Of The Dead
  22. Blazing Saddles
  23. M*A*S*H
  24. Airplane!
  25. The Return Of The Pink Panther
  26. Evil Dead II
  27. The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie
  28. The Apartment
  29. Sherlock Jr. 
  30. The Gold Rush
  31. Monkey Business
  32. Clerks
  33. Knives Out
  34. South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut
  35. The Lady Eve
  36. Raising Arizona
  37. It’s A Gift
  38. The Philadelphia Story
  39. Mon Oncle
  40. City Lights
  41. Team America: World Police
  42. American Psycho
  43. A Fish Called Wanda
  44. They Call Me Trinity
  45. Bull Durham
  46. Murder By Death
  47. Arsenic And Old Lace
  48. The General
  49. Love And Death
  50. Trading Places
  51. The In-Laws
  52. Day For Night