Best Horror Movies: Robert Englund on Why Brian De Palma’s Horror Thriller ‘Sisters’ Has the ‘Best Split-Screen in the History of Cinema’

This essay by Robert Englund on his favorite horror movie of all time is one of several contributed as part of Variety’s 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time package.

It’s so difficult for me; I change it all the time. For classics, it would probably be “Bride of Frankenstein.” I do love that with all my heart. I love “Rosemary’s Baby.” “The Exorcist.” You can watch those again and again and again, and the acting is just so strong. But I love a down-and-dirty 1972 film by a young Brian De Palma called “Sisters.” It has some of the best split-screen in the history of cinema. There’s a performance by Margot Kidder… Conjoined twins freak me out anyway, but there’s an actor. More recently, I love “Longlegs.” I love “Get Out.” I don’t want to live in a world without Jordan Peele movies.

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The first movie that scared me was “Them!,” the science fiction film with the giant ants. It was the sound effect for the ants. Now we laugh and giggle because it’s black and white, but it’s scrumptious black and white, wonderfully directed. But that movie was up for an Oscar against another film that freaked me out as a child: “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” My mother had the hots for James Mason, so we saw the premiere, and I was singing along with Kirk Douglas — and then all of a sudden, the giant squid with his beak came down into the Nautilus. One of the actors in it turns to the camera, and of course, he’s got the sucker welts all over him from the tentacles of the giant squid. But boy, I didn’t sleep for a week after that.

Robert Englund is an actor who has starred in “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” available on 4K UHD Blu-ray on Oct. 15, and “Urban Legend.“