The Sight and Sound Poll is a survey that has been conducted once every ten years since 1952, denoting film critics’ opinions on the 100 greatest films of all time. The results of the 2022 poll have just been released — marking the first update to the rankings since 2012.
Two surprising additions to the Top 100 rankings are horror films Get Out and Parasite, with the former landing at spot number 95, and the latter at 90. Despite landing at the lower end of the rankings, the two films landing on the list at all is quite the achievement, considering the list chronicles the best of the medium from around the world since its inception.
In case, time is an illusion to you, might we remind you that both Get Out and Parasite both arrived in the past five years?
Reactions to two of the best horror flicks from the past decades being included were mostly positive, but certainly not without elitist naysayers downplaying the significance of the two films:
The two horror films currently sit at near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes scores, with Parasite at 99% and Get Out at 98%. Not too shabby for Jordan Peele’s directorial debut.
The only two other films from the past decade to make the poll’s cut were Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) and Moonlight (2016). The 2022 Sight and Sound Poll was also the largest ever conducted, with 1639 ballots cast by critics, curators, and academics, per BFI.
There was cause for celebration with the top spot being taken out by a female-directed film for the first time in the poll’s history, a 1975 French film titled Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles from director Chantal Akerman.
Perhaps the results of the poll will help settle some of the debates the internet has been having about the greatest horror movie performances of all time.