The Big Picture: The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture

Published 2019-10-25; 1:49:56 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “The Big Picture (The Ringer)” and the episode “The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture”.

Hosts: Sean Fennessey. Guests: Chris Ryan, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski.

Subject films: Unfriended (2015), You're Next (2011), The Invitation (2015), It Follows (2014), Green Room, Black Swan (2010), The Cabin in the Woods (2012), The Conjuring (2013), The Witch (2015), Don't Breathe (2016), Get Out (2017), Hereditary (2018), Midsommar (2019).

On the transcript: No speaker labels and many choppy lines; Sean/Chris splits are often guesses, and the two screenwriters are nearly indistinguishable. The first 52 minutes are the horror list; the last hour is a separate Dolomite Is My Name interview.

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Jonny Greenwood did not score Midsommar (Bobby Krlic did); the transcript records the speaker's line as said.
Amanda Dobbins is a regular host but is absent here; she is mentioned only as next week's cohost.

Films that came up

Claims (87)

people (people): Get Out → Catherine Keener. Get Out has one of the best horror supporting casts, including Keener and Whitford.
“get out features one of the best cat supporting cast”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:05:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): The Cabin in the Woods → Scream. The decade's tropes-aware strain starts with Scream-era 90s movies and culminates in Cabin in the Woods.
“I think that culminates with Cabin in the Woods.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:06:10 · Chris Ryan (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Robert Eggers → The Lighthouse. Eggers moved from The Witch to The Lighthouse, fantasmagoric rather than strictly horror.
“Robert Eggers, who made the witch, just put out the lighthouse, which is kind of fantasmagoric”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:07:09 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.50 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Us → Get Out. Chris reads Us as a high-concept thriller rather than a horror film, a direction Peele seems headed.
“I didn't really think of us as a horror movie more so as a super high concept thriller.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:07:16 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Ari Aster → Alfred Hitchcock. Aster, Eggers and Peele use horror as a portal in a Hitchcock or Bergman vein, not as lifelong genre men like Carpenter.
“They're all kind of Hitchcockian or Bergmanian.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:07:27 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.50 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Jordan Peele → John Carpenter. Peele, unlike Carpenter, won't stay in horror and sci-fi forever.
“They're not the John Carpenter.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:07:34 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Mike Flanagan → Doctor Sleep. Flanagan has Doctor Sleep, the Shining sequel, coming.
“who has Dr. Sleet, the shining sequel coming later”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:07:43 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Mike Flanagan → Guillermo del Toro. Flanagan is to horror what del Toro is to fantasy.
“like the way that Guillermo del Toro is related to fantasy”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:08:12 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): It (2017) / It Chapter Two → It (2017) / It Chapter Two. The sequel was weighed down by movie stars and franchise service, unlike the surprising first film.
“you're going to have to service the idea that this is a huge property rather than just like, boy, we really caught people unaware with that 1st one”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:09:01 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): The Texas Chain Saw Massacre → The Innocents. Sean's horror test: supernatural or extraordinarily visceral. Chainsaw is gory, The Innocents ghostly.
“So Texas Chainsaw Massacre is not supernatural, but it is incredibly gory and violent.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:10:26 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Jonny Greenwood → Midsommar. Chris describes the Midsommar experience as Ari Aster playing Greenwood's strings until his eardrums explode.
“Ari Astor stuffed me in a fucking bear carcass and played Johnny Greenwood strings in my, until my eardrums explode.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:11:14 · Chris Ryan (0.70 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Seven → The Conjuring 2. Both give Chris the chest-tightening dread he wants, though Seven is a thriller.
“I can remember that experience they are describing of seeing that movie and kind of like my arms tightening against my chest”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:12:19 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Unfriended → Agatha Christie. The screen-only chat setup works like an Agatha Christie whodunit in internet hyperdrive.
“it's essentially just like an Agatha Christie novel, but played out in this hyperdrive internet driven way”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:14:36 · Chris Ryan (0.90 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Unfriended → Jaws. Unfriended is exhausting and one-and-done, not a film to rewatch and study the way you would Jaws.
“I don't need to revisit that and study it like its Jaws”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:14:50 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Unfriended → Blumhouse. Unfriended fits the cheap, high-concept Blumhouse mold.
“Yeah, you can see that it's in that blumhouse mold that I was describing.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:14:56 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Blumhouse → Kevin Bacon. Blumhouse pairs unknown-director micro-budgets with name stars like Kevin Bacon on profit participation.
“we'll have Kevin Bacon star in this movie, like sinister”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:16:09 · Chris Ryan (0.60 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Blumhouse → Marvel. Blumhouse's small budgets let them do things a Marvel movie can't.
“they can do a lot of stuff in these kinds of movies that they might not be able to in a Marvel movie”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:16:21 · Chris Ryan (0.60 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Adam Wingard → You're Next. Chris argues Wingard may be the most consistent genre director of the decade; Sean pushes back and calls him both most creative and most disappointing.
“there's an argument to me that Adam Wingard is at least the most consistent R director of the decade”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:17:15 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): You're Next → The Strangers. Chris pitches You're Next as The Strangers with the dial turned up.
“is basically the strangers on steroids”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:17:29 · Chris Ryan (0.90 sure it was them)
people (people): Ti West → Joe Swanberg. The arrow-in-the-face actor Ti West came up in the same cohort as Swanberg.
“a part of a cohort of filmmakers who came up around that same time along with Joe Swanberg”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:18:29 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
people (people): VHS → Ti West. The VHS anthology shows work from the whole mumblegore cohort.
“I think VHS, the anthology has got features work from a lot of these guys.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:18:41 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Barbara Crampton → You're Next. 80s scream queen Barbara Crampton plays the matriarch.
“the matriarch of the family portrayed the movie is Barbara Crampton, very famous 80s scream queen”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:18:45 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
career (career): The Guest → You're Next. The Guest, right after You're Next, convinced people Wingard was for real.
“And I think when guest comes out, people are like, dude, this guy's for real.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:19:11 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): The Guest → The Terminator. The Guest plays more like the first Terminator than expected.
“it was a little bit more like Terminator one”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:19:20 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Blair Witch (The Woods) → The Exorcist / Exorcist III. Sean says Blair Witch's last half hour is scarier than anything else he's seen in a theater though the film isn't good, like the Exorcist III sequence versus the Exorcist.
“There's a part of Exorcist 3 that is scarier than any other moment in the Exorcist trilogy, but I wouldn't say Exorcist 3 is better than Exorcist.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:20:08 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Adam Wingard → Godzilla vs. Kong (announced). Wingard went from Blair Witch and Death Note to a Godzilla film.
“So next spring, Godzilla versus King Kong is coming out.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:20:33 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): A Horrible Way to Die → The Guest. Simon Barrett wrote A Horrible Way to Die, The Guest and You're Next, a Wingard trilogy that nods to earlier landmarks.
“written by Simon Barrett, who wrote the guest and who I believe wrote your next as well”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:21:19 · Chris Ryan (0.60 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): The Invitation → Rosemary's Baby. The Invitation, like Rosemary's Baby, is a realistic situation that keeps getting altered until pandemonium.
“that's the movie that I would compare it to in terms of this is a relatively realistic situation that just keeps getting altered more and more”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:22:43 · Chris Ryan (0.90 sure it was them)
people (people): Logan Marshall-Green → Michiel Huisman. The Invitation stars two lookalike bearded actors, a Spider-Man-pointing meme.
“Logan Marshall Green and Michael Weisman play Spider-Man hot guy meme”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:24:26 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): The Invitation → Tom Hardy. The two leads read as knockoffs of Tom Hardy and Bradley Cooper.
“one guy who's ¢10 Tom Hardy and one guy who's ¢10 Bradley Cooper”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:24:50 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): The Invitation → Zachary Quinto. Originally the leads were supposed to be Zachary Quinto and Topher Grace.
“I think originally the people in this movie were supposed to be Zachary Quinto and Topher Grace.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:24:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): It Follows → John Carpenter. Chris compares It Follows to Carpenter, though he knows Mitchell tired of that comparison.
“I apologize for comparing this to John Carpenter”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:25:48 · Chris Ryan (0.85 sure it was them)
career (career): It Follows → The Myth of the American Sleepover. Mitchell's non-horror previous film shares It Follows' atmosphere and use of young actors.
“does have a lot in common with it follows in terms of its sort of atmosphere”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:27:46 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Under the Silver Lake → It Follows. Under the Silver Lake is a detective, paranoia, internet movie, a very different energy from It Follows.
“more of a detective movie, more of like a hipster examination of paranoia and looking for coded messages”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:28:05 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
career (career): Karyn Kusama → Destroyer. Kusama went to Destroyer after The Invitation, an example of directors pulling away from horror.
“she directed Destroyer after uh, invitation”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:28:38 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Wes Craven → Music of the Heart. Craven didn't want to be known only as a horror maestro, hence the Meryl Streep drama.
“Wes Craven always had a very complicated relationship to horror.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:29:05 · Chris Ryan (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Green Room → Blue Ruin. Green Room is Saulnier's mainstream-ish follow-up to the micro-budgeted Blue Ruin.
“it's his follow-up, uh, to Blue Ruin, uh, which was this micro budgeted thriller”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:29:42 · Chris Ryan (0.90 sure it was them)
theme (theme): The Invitation → Green Room. Sean puts both on his runners-up list and says they belong in a separate category called terror.
“I think that those 2 movies should almost be recategorized into what we might call terror.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:32:54 · Sean Fennessey (0.75 sure it was them)
career (career): What We Do in the Shadows → Taika Waititi. The vampire comedy became an FX series.
“it's a comedy about vampires that has now become a successful television show on FX from Taiko YTV”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:33:46 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
people (people): Ouija: Origin of Evil → Mike Flanagan. Origin of Evil is Flanagan's Ouija sequel, and a good one.
“Ouija Origin of Evil, which is Flanagan's Ouija Equal. Good movie.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:34:13 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): The Purge → Death Wish. Sean loved The Purge but saw it as horror in the way Death Wish was.
“Remember feeling like it had as much to do with horror as a movie like Death Wish.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:34:20 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): The Purge → Rolling Thunder. The Purge is nasty and violent but about something, like Rolling Thunder's returning vet.
“Like, it was as kind of nasty and violent and crazed, but also it's kind of about something.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:34:32 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
career (career): Breck Eisner → The Last Witch Hunter. Sean and Chris read Eisner's sparse credits, Sahara, The Crazies, then The Last Witch Hunter.
“a little gym called The Last Witch Hunter, starring Vin Diesel, which you may consider horror”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:35:59 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
people (people): The Crazies → Breck Eisner. Eisner directed the Crazies remake, a deeply satisfying B-minus horror film.
“The crazies is by no means an American masterpiece, but is more deeply satisfying than like 80% of the movies I saw this decade.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:36:19 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)
career (career): Stake Land → In the Shadow of the Moon. Stake Land's director Jim Mickle later made the Netflix film In the Shadow of the Moon.
“Jim Nichol, who recently directed in the Shadow of the Moon, a Netflix movie”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:36:32 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
programming (programming): The Invitation → Starry Eyes. Starry Eyes makes a good double feature with The Invitation for anxiety and terror.
“Starias in particular is a nice double feature, I think, with the invitation”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:37:03 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
career (career): Starry Eyes → Pet Sematary (2019). Starry Eyes' two directors later made the Pet Sematary remake.
“who actually made the somewhat successful pet cemetery remake earlier this year”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:37:03 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Starry Eyes → The House of the Devil. Sean suggests House of the Devil as the godfather of these slow-burn B-minus horror films.
“Would you say House of the Devil is the godfather of those movies?”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:37:20 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): The House of the Devil → Greta Gerwig. Greta Gerwig is in House of the Devil.
“Growig's in that. Is in House of the Devil.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:37:49 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): The Innkeepers → Lena Dunham. Lena Dunham is in Ti West's follow-up, The Innkeepers.
“Lena Dunham is in Tai West Follow up the Innkeepers.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:37:59 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.50 sure it was them)
people (people): Ti West → Hannah Takes the Stairs. West befriended the young New York indie crowd, the Hannah Takes the Stairs set.
“He was befriending all of the exciting young talents in New York at the time.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:38:05 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Darren Aronofsky → Mother. Aronofsky goes for it in every film, mother! and Noah included.
“I mean, he goes for it every movie.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:39:32 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): The Cabin in the Woods → Dracula. Cabin in the Woods isn't scary but is still horror, the way the original Dracula is a horror film that no longer scares.
“Cabin of the Woods is the same.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:40:46 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
people (people): The Conjuring → Lili Taylor. Lili Taylor's possessed-mother performance is a low-key highlight.
“low-key, incredible Lily Taylor performance in that movie”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:42:45 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
industry (industry): The Conjuring → Annabelle. The Conjuring was made without a franchise expectation and spun a whole universe.
“doing that without a net because there wasn't this expectation or understanding of the conjuring extended universe, all the Annabelle's and stuff”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:42:57 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): The Witch → Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Witch is a slow portrait of puritanical New England in a Hawthorne vein.
“a slow-moving, methodical portrait of a Nathaniel Hawthorne-esque puritanical New England America”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:43:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): It Follows → The Witch. It Follows is a precursor to The Witch in the rise of the term elevated horror, a phrase both hosts distrust.
“I think is an interesting precursor to the witch because that's when we started hearing what I think is kind of an ugly phrase, which is elevated horror”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:44:34 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Kill List → Green Room. Kill List has more in common with Green Room: a masterpiece that is more discomfort than horror.
“Killist, I think, has more in common with green room.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:45:29 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Fede Alvarez → Evil Dead (remake). Alvarez did Don't Breathe, remade Evil Dead and made the Dragon Tattoo sequel.
“He also remade the Evil Dead and he made a very unfortunate girl with the Dragon tattoo sequel last year.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:46:16 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Doctor Sleep → Midsommar. Doctor Sleep, not yet out, is the biggest contender against Midsommar for Sean's 2019 pick.
“I would say that's probably the biggest contender against Midsommar for me.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:47:46 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): A Quiet Place → Get Out. A Quiet Place is a runner-up for 2018 but is not as good as Get Out.
“Well, I don't think it's as good as get out.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:47:59 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Unfriended: Dark Web → 8mm. Dark Web, about buying snuff on the dark web, is an unofficial sequel to 8MM.
“It's sort of an unofficial sequel to 8 millimeter.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:48:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Hereditary → Midsommar. Hereditary comes from Aster's ideas about childhood and parenthood, Midsommar from romantic relationships.
“hereditary is probably rooted in some of his ideas about childhood and parenthood and Midsommar is rooted in his ideas about romantic relationships”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:48:48 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Jordan Peele → Candyman (remake). Peele is producing the Candyman remake, which Chris calls iterative next to the original script of Us.
“he's producing the Candyman remake, which is coming out next year.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:51:38 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Home Wreckers (unmade script) → Purple Rain. Morris Day, fresh from Purple Rain, was to star in their first script, thought a coming mega-star.
“We thought he was going to be the biggest movie star of all time.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:03:03 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Home Wreckers (unmade script) → Albert Brooks. The imagined cast: Morris Day robs a house owned by Albert Brooks, with Walter Matthau as the shady lawyer neighbor.
“And the house is owned by Albert Brooks, who's our favorite comic filmmaker”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:03:14 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Home Wreckers (unmade script) → Ruthless People. Their first sale was in the era of Touchstone high-concept comedies, Down and Out in Beverly Hills and Ruthless People.
“Down Art Beverly Hills and ruthless people, which I really loved.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:06:00 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Home Wreckers (unmade script) → The Fortune Cookie. A studio note asked for a smart legal comedy like Billy Wilder's The Fortune Cookie.
“it should be more like a smart legal comedy like Billy Wilder is the fortune cookie”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:09:37 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Problem Child → Ed Wood. Problem Child turned out terrible by accident, while Ed Wood celebrates a famously bad director.
“We hadn't set out to make problem child terrible.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:13:46 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Problem Child → The War of the Roses. They had pitched Problem Child to be a grown-up dark comedy like The War of the Roses.
“talked about the War of the Roses”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:14:24 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Ed Wood → Bela Lugosi. The film's emotional core is a love story between Ed Wood and his hero Bela Lugosi.
“the idea that it was a love story between Bella and Ed”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:17:15 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Ed Wood → The Life of Emile Zola. Before Ed Wood, biopics were long, dreary studies of people who changed the world, like Zola or Gandhi.
“Biopics were about people who changed the world or were superb artists”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:18:33 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): The People vs. Larry Flynt → Ed Wood. Tim Burton and Milos Forman are as different as directors get, yet both films feel like Scott and Larry movies.
“there aren't more different directors ever than Tim Burton and Milish form”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:21:51 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Ed Wood → Tim Burton. Ed Wood is both a Tim Burton movie and a Scott and Larry movie.
“it is 1000% a Tim Burton movie from frame one to frame N, but it's also a Scott Larry movie”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:22:13 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Stagecoach → The Wild Bunch. They liken their biopic revisionism to how the Western was reinvented from Stagecoach to The Wild Bunch.
“they went from stagecoach to the wild bunch, the good, bad, and ugly”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:23:41 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Daniel Waters → Heathers. Daniel Waters, a friend, brought home the exploitation VHS that introduced them to Rudy Ray Moore.
“a screenwriter named Daniel Waters, who wrote Heathers and Batman Returns”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:29:32 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Dolomite (1975) → Dolomite Is My Name. Rudy's original Dolomite, Human Tornado and Disco Godfather trailers are where they first saw him.
“the 3 Rudy Raymore trailers, Dolomite, the Human Tornado, and Disco God”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:30:01 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Dolomite Is My Name → Ed Wood. Eddie Murphy first met them reciting lines from Ed Wood, which led to the Rudy Ray Moore project.
“Eddie started doing, um, uh, lines from Ed Wood.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:32:59 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Dolomite Is My Name → Man on the Moon. The first pitch 16 years ago came just after Man on the Moon, another comedian film, lost money.
“this was a couple years after Man on the Moon, which is also about a comedian”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:35:46 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Dolomite Is My Name → Billy Jack. The Dolomite script has a four-walling joke citing Billy Jack and Grizzly Adams.
“You talk about Billy Jack and Grizzly Adams.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:40:39 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Dolomite Is My Name → The Irishman. They count Dolomite Is My Name among the ambitious films Netflix is making alongside The Irishman and Marriage Story.
“they're making the Irishman.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:41:19 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Roma → Netflix. Only Netflix would give Cuaron the budget for a black-and-white film about his hometown and keep it in theaters.
“who else would give Alfonso uh, that budget to make a movie, a black and white movie about his hometown”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:41:42 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): The Last of Sheila → Stephen Sondheim. Sondheim and Anthony Perkins wrote The Last of Sheila as the ultimate puzzle movie.
“they decided to write the world's greatest puzzle movie, and the last of Sheila is so fucking clever”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:47:00 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Modern Romance → Annie Hall. Modern Romance is Albert Brooks trying to make his Annie Hall and failing hilariously.
“It's Albert Brooks trying to do his Annie Hall”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:47:44 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Parasite → Get Out. Parasite is smart social satire that slips easily into horror, which fits the episode's broader horror talk.
“it's smart social satire that just very easily slips into horror”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:48:36 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Ball of Fire → Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Ball of Fire is almost a gangster remake of Snow White.
“almost like a gangster remake of Snow White and the 7 dwarfs”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:48:59 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Ball of Fire → Billy Wilder. Ball of Fire was written by Billy Wilder and directed by Howard Hawks, with Barbara Stanwyck.
“by Billy Wilder, uh, and uh, directed by Howard Hawkes”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:48:59 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)

Fun items (30)

fun, about Midsommar: Chris's summary: Aster stuffed him in a bear carcass and played Jonny Greenwood strings until his eardrums exploded (composer named as said).
“Ari Astor stuffed me in a fucking bear carcass and played Johnny Greenwood strings in my, until my eardrums explode.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:11:14 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Unfriended: The whole film plays on a laptop screen; Chris says it exhausts you because your brain tracks four panes of information at once.
“your brain can process 4 quadrants of information and can actually like listen to people while also watching a mouse clicking over different apps”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:14:17 · Chris Ryan (0.90 sure it was them)
fun, about Chris Ryan's top five: Chris counts down his five best (Unfriended, You're Next, The Invitation, It Follows, Green Room), picking events that freaked him out rather than a bulletproof list.
“I did really pick horror movies that I thought were events.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:16:52 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about You're Next: An arrow through the window ends the first victim at a family reunion, in a mumblegore cast of Ti West, Joe Swanberg and Amy Seimetz.
“gets shot in the eye with an arrow”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:17:43 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Blair Witch (The Woods): Sean praises the attempted surprise release: the film was announced as Wingard's haunted-forest movie The Woods.
“this is one of my favorite little wrinkles of the last decade is the attempted surprise release.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:19:29 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Blair Witch (The Woods): Sean says its last 30 minutes are the most scared he has ever been in a theater, though he doesn't think the film is good.
“the last 30 minutes of Blair Witch is the most scared I think I may have ever been in a movie theater”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:19:51 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about The Exorcist III: A pitch for an Exorcist III episode: George C. Scott plays it big in a fascinating sequel.
“George C. Scott just playing with house money.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:20:20 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about The Invitation: Chris thinks it has one of the most satisfying final shots, the red light.
“Also features maybe the single most satisfying final shot to me.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:25:23 · Chris Ryan (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about It Follows: Against 80s horror, where sex gets you killed, the cursed girl here is the heroine.
“Anybody who has sex in a horror movie is just the 1st person to die and it's the virtuous final girl who makes it to the end.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:26:48 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Green Room: The door-opening scene as the scariest thing he has seen.
“the buildup and execution of when they open the door is the fucking most terrifying thing you will ever see”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:32:25 · Chris Ryan (0.90 sure it was them)
fun, about Green Room: They propose recategorizing Green Room and The Invitation as terror, and note the Ringer's Slack channel called terror.
“At the ringer, we have a slack channel called hashtag terror.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:33:03 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about What We Do in the Shadows: iTunes files it under thriller; Sean blames Apple and jokes about summoning Tim Cook.
“Shall we call Tim Cook here on the big picture?”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:34:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about The Crazies: Chris loves the B-minus horror movie, the good-enough programmer, over the B-minus drama.
“The B minus version of a horror movie is my favorite kind of B minus movie.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:34:47 · Chris Ryan (0.90 sure it was them)
fun, about Breck Eisner: The hosts read out Eisner's credits live, from Sahara to The Last Witch Hunter to a TBA Karate Kid 2.
“And it says here that he's got a TBA for the karate kid 2.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:36:07 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Sean Fennessey: Sean wrote 'The Horror Oscars' last year, a prize for the best horror film across 40 years.
“Last year, I wrote a piece called The Horror Oscars, in which I gave for across 40 years, the best horror movie a prize.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:38:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about The Cabin in the Woods: Chris confesses that at Grantland he spoiled the film in an NBA blog post.
“I spoiled Cabin in the Woods in like an NBA blog post for like 1000s of people.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:41:38 · Chris Ryan (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about The Witch: The goat, Black Philip, went viral.
“That goat went viral.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:43:43 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Don't Breathe: Sean asks if Chris has used a turkey baster since the film; Chris says he's off turkey.
“Have you ever have you used a turkey-baster since seeing that film?”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:46:08 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Get Out: Sean calls it the best horror film of the decade and cites the sunken place as a shared reference.
“One of the cool things about get out was it becoming a conversation topic”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:46:54 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Ari Aster: A running joke: imagine being Ari Aster's ex.
“Imagine being Ari Astor's ex.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:49:02 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Horror as a genre: Horror is the only genre that never expired: action ran the 80s, superheroes run now.
“It's really the only genre that never expired.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 0:51:06 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Home Wreckers (unmade script): They found Morris Day's management by looking up Sand Dollar Management in the white pages.
“we got the white pages, and we found Sandoll Management”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:04:44 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Problem Child: Studio notes spiral: a producer wants a family comedy, a vice president wants a smart legal comedy like The Fortune Cookie.
“you realize you have contradictory notes”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:09:45 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Low-budget horror sets: Boom-mic memories from 1982: the boom was a hockey stick.
“So the boom was a hockey stick.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:15:30 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Rudy Ray Moore: Fun fact: Moore wore a turban and called himself Prince Dumar.
“called himself Prince Dumar”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:26:24 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about The Human Tornado: Watch the red-band trailer without the black lines and beeps.
“red band version without the, without the black lines and without the beeps”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:30:19 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Home video: In the 80s a VHS comedy cost around $100 to buy because tapes were priced for rental; they bought Rudy Ray Moore tapes direct from Xenon in Santa Monica.
“it would cost you $100”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:31:14 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Rudy Ray Moore: Ted Sarandos remembered renting Rudy Ray Moore tapes a thousand times at his video store.
“that's how video stores stayed in business”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:37:48 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about The Last of Sheila: Written by Sondheim and Tony Perkins from their New York scavenger-hunt parties.
“They would throw New York scavenger hunts with clues all around the city because they like puzzles.”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:46:54 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Parasite: Their last great thing seen: tone-perfect social satire that slips into horror.
“it's smart social satire that just very easily slips into horror”
The Big Picture · The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture · 1:48:36 · unknown (Alexander or Karaszewski) (0.40 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Sean Fennessey (host): He loves The Cabin in the Woods, It Follows and The Witch and likes discussion-making horror like Get Out, but he distrusts elevated-horror branding. He wants to be physically dominated by a horror film, and says he is dead inside and cynical, so he is impressed when a film makes him feel something.
Chris Ryan (guest): He loves cheap, anxiety-heavy genre pieces, B-minus horror movies and anything that makes him squeeze the popcorn box. He picked events that freaked him out over big hits, leaving Get Out and the Blumhouse hits off his top five. He can't stand Black Swan-style foot-breaking discomfort and doubts that Cabin in the Woods is scary at all.
Scott Alexander (guest): Screenwriter who, by his own account, grew up in Los Angeles on Marx Brothers comedies and classic Hollywood and loves Super 8 DIY filmmaking, Rudy Ray Moore and old puzzle movies. Attribution of lines to him versus Karaszewski is a guess.
Larry Karaszewski (guest): Screenwriter from Indiana who grew up on Midwest drive-ins and exploitation films and loves puzzles like The Last of Sheila. He says they only do projects they love now. Attribution to him versus Alexander is a guess.

The show's recurring bits

Drafts: Hosts and guests draft films in rounds; every pick is a recommendation with an argument.
Hall of Fame: A star's or director's best, ranked and argued.
Countdowns: Ranked lists, top five or top ten.

Names the transcriber got wrong

'Sean Fantasy' = Sean Fennessey
'Michael Monroe' = Maika Monroe
'Korean Kusama'/'Crusomages' = Karyn Kusama
'Jean-Luc Picard' = Patrick Stewart (speaker's joke)
'Jeremy Sanier' = Jeremy Saulnier
'Aaliyah Shawcat' = Alia Shawkat; 'Imogen Putsin' = Imogen Poots
'Amy Simitz/Simets' = Amy Seimetz
'Thai West/Ty West/Tai West' = Ti West; 'Adam Gwingard/Wincard' = Adam Wingard
'Jim Nichol' = Jim Mickle; 'Steakland' = Stake Land; 'Kevin Colson, Dennis Woodmeyer' = Kevin Kolsch, Dennis Widmyer
'Michael Weisman/Eastman' = Michiel Huisman
'Horror boy to die' = A Horrible Way to Die; 'Ouiji' = Ouija
'Lily Taylor' = Lili Taylor; 'Andy Muschetti' = Andy Muschietti; 'Johnny Greenwood' = Jonny Greenwood
'Taiko YTV' = Taika Waititi; 'Willem Defoe' = Willem Dafoe
'most consistent R director' = likely 'horror director'
'Karasowski/Karazewski/Karazuski' = Larry Karaszewski; 'Hershey/Herschel Gordon Lewis'; 'Troy/Toward Johnson' = Tor Johnson; 'Milish form' = Milos Forman
'more stay' = Morris Day; 'Sandoll Management' = Sand Dollar Management; 'Ennis Cancer' = Enes Kanter; 'Mallory Ruben' = Mallory Rubin
'mobile core' = mumblecore

The Big Picture: The 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade | The Big Picture

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Added from the extractor's memory, not said

Films that came up

anecdote (38)

subject (13)

compared (21)

passing (31)

recommended (17)

dismissed (3)

Claims (87)

Fun items (30)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong