Let me begin by saying that there's a certain irony in the story I'm about to tell. I've spent the last week and a half in defense of the so-called "Dead Teenager Movie". When I started Classic-Horror, eight years back when I was younger and dumber, it was meant as a shining spire of enlightment, broadcasting a message of excellent horror in what I perceived to be a wasteland of Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees fansites. My notion of horror on the Internet has changed significantly since then, as has my appreciation of the slasher genre.

Let's take a second to review the process of listing "best movies". The only word that can really be used to describe the process is "arbitrary." In the case of the AFI's "100 Best" lists, the American Film Institute's "experts" -- over 1,500 "leaders from the creative community", including directors, writers, actors, cinematographers, and editors -- vote from a list of 400 nominated films on which 100 are the very best. The film must be feature-length and American.