The Top 30 - Part 1/3: No. 30-21

A list counting down the top 30 movies belonging to the slasher, splatter, or giallo genres. Most of these films are essential viewings for anyone who calls themselves a fan of the genres, and each of these movies brings something unique to the table - whether it is through its plot, style, execution, or nostalgic interest. Sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots, re-imaginings, and spin-offs are not on the list - only the original vehicle material.

30. BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA (1971)
Director: Paolo Cavara
An indefatigable detective investigates a series of gruesome murders where the victims were paralyzed with wasp venom and kept alive to witness their own agonizing deaths.

29. THE NEW YORK RIPPER (1982)
Director: Lucio Fulci
A burned-out womanizing New York detective teams up with a college professor to find a vicious, brutal, misogynistic maniac butchering beautiful women throughout the city.

28. SAW (2004)
Director: James Wan
Two men wake up chained to the walls in an abandoned room with no recollection of how they arrived, but soon realize they are the latest victims of the Jigsaw Killers, a madman who tests his victim's will to live through gruesome death traps.

27. PROM NIGHT (1980)
Director: Paul Lynch
Six years following the accidental death of a young girl, the four teens responsible are stalked by a masked killer out for revenge on the night of their high school prom.

26. SWEET SIXTEEN (1983)
Director: Jim Sotos
With her sixteenth birthday approaching, the beautiful new girl in town finds that every boy she tries to go on a date with ends up dead, sparking suspicion from the sheriff and his two teenage sleuth kids.

25. MADMAN (1982)
Director: Joe Giannone
After a cocky pre-teen at a summer camp jokingly summons him, a mass murderer named "Madman" Marz returns from the grave to continue his bloody legacy, now hunting down the camp's counselors.

24. GIRLS NITE OUT (1982)
Director: Robert Deubel
When their campus hosts an all-night scavenger hunt in honor of the anniversary of a murder that made the school famous, various co-eds unknowingly cross paths with a killer dressed in a dancing bear suit.

23. THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977)
Director: Wes Craven
An all-American nuclear family must face off against a savage family of inbred mutants living in the desert hills when their car breaks down and they become stranded in the savage's territory.

22. THE STRANGERS (2008)
Director: Bryan Bertino
While staying at his parent's isolated vacation home, James Hoyt and his girlfriend Kristen McCay are terrorized by three unknown masked assailants for seemingly no reason but because they were home.

21. JUST BEFORE DAWN (1981)
Director: Jeff Lieberman
After inheriting some land in the mountains, a college student takes his four friends to explore the area and have an R&R weekend, only they quickly encounter a machete-wielding maniac.