Rotten Tomatoes’ exhaustive and controversial list of the 300 best movies ever made has thrown up some interesting results in every genre – including when it comes to assessing the best horror movie of all time. The entire list is full of contentious decisions, with critics questioning the overall methodology, as well as the particular position of certain entries. However, while its overall accuracy is under question, the Rotten Tomatoes list does turn attention towards some less typically popular film choices – including in the horror movie category.

The criteria for a film to make Rotten Tomatoes’ list combined a high critical score with a more opaque “recommendation formula“. According to the site, this involves “consider(ing) a movie’s Tomatometer rating with assistance from its Audience Score, illuminating beloved sentiment from both sides.” This process has produced some eyebrow-raising results – including crowning 1997 neo-noir L.A. Confidential as the greatest movie of all time. While this is a surprising call, given the caliber of the competition, the choice to name a 16-year-old vampire story as the best horror ever is perhaps even more disputable.

Let The Right One In Is Rotten Tomatoes’ Best Horror Movie

It has a 98% rating

Despite some impressive competition from the entire history of horror cinema, Thomas Alfredson’s 2008 gothic vampire film, Let The Right One In, ranks as the best horror film ever made – according to the Rotten Tomatoes list. The movie, which received critical acclaim on release and boasts a 98% positive review score, sits at number 39 on the list and is the first true horror film in the ranking. While other high entries, such as Hitchcock’s Rear Window (number 15), incorporate horror elements, Let The Right One In stands apart as the highest out-and-out horror.

Despite the movie’s impressive critical score and assorted accolades (including a string of Best Foreign Language Film wins at a variety of American film festivals), Let The Right One In‘s position is something of a surprise. The movie only made $11 million globally and its reputation took a while to build. In fact, many viewers might be more familiar with the 2010 remake Let Me In, which also received positive reviews and made $27 million at the box office. Nevertheless, by Rotten Tomatoes’ reckoning, Let The Right One In has beaten out other, more high-profile movies to take the title.

Why Let The Right One In Is Rated So Highly

It’s a bold reimagining of the vampire myth

One of the reasons Let The Right One In received such positive reviews was its relatively unconventional approach to the classic vampire story. Instead of centering on an older, male, Dracula-like figure, the story revolves around two children – one; a lonely 12-year-old boy beset by bullies, and the other; a hauntingly strange girl with a terrifying secret. This setup, which follows the highly-rated source novel, breathes fresh life into a genre that all too often relies on tired stereotypes and over-the-top performances.

Just as the story lends itself to emotional subtlety and a complex meditation on loneliness and friendship, the filmmaking behind Let The Right One In is a masterclass in understatement. Incredibly bloody scenes are juxtaposed with the cold, quiet darkness, while the cinematography gives everything an eerie, ghost-like quality that makes even the most innocent scenes seem incredibly haunting. For this reason, it is a much more complex movie than many of its genre counterparts, while still successfully delivering some effective scares.

How Let The Right One In Compares To Other Horror Movies

It ranks above some incredible films

There’s no doubt that Let The Right One In deserves to be recognized as a top horror film. Everything, from its artful storytelling to its memorable imagery, marks it out as an impressive achievement in a genre that is often underappreciated by mainstream critics. Despite this, however, it is still slightly surprising that Rotten Tomatoes has ranked it higher than other iconic horror movies.

The next highest-rated movie on the list, for example, is Alfred Hitchcock’s legendary proto-slasher, Psycho. One of the most recognizable and influential movies ever made, Psycho (number 48) helped redefine what was possible in cinema, while providing a whole new template for horror filmmakers to follow. Let The Right One In is an impressive achievement, but it’s still slightly surprising to see it come in ahead of the 1960 hit.

There are further surprises further down the list. Let The Right One In also beat out competition from the likes of Alien, The Silence of The Lambs, and Jaws – all of which have arguably had a more lasting impact on horror than Alfredson’s film. Even another more contemporary horror, Jordan Peele’s Get Out, made more of a lasting impact on the cultural zeitgeist. To have beaten such celebrated movies by any metric takes some doing, yet certainly comes as a surprise, considering their relative status.

Let The Right One In Isn’t Really The Best Horror Movie Of All Time

Others have had a much bigger impact

In many ways, the relative rankings of other iconic horror movies on Rotten Tomatoes’ list highlights the problem with Let The Right One In‘s position. For all its deserved recognition and commendable approach as a film, it is hard to argue that it has had the same impact on the horror genre – or even filmmaking as a collective industry – than projects like Alien or Psycho. Importance in the history of cinema is by no means the only metric to consider when weighing up a movie’s merits. However, when deciding the greatest films ever made, it should factor into the equation.

Given horror’s chronic underappreciation by much of mainstream cinema, it is perhaps befitting that Rotten Tomatoes 300 “Best Movies” list features relatively few horror films. It’s also gratifying to see a movie as coldly beautiful and unconventional as Alfredson’s get some much-deserved recognition over a decade after its release. However, despite Let The Right One In‘s achievements and credentials, Rotten Tomatoes’ list is a slight representation of where it sits in the history of horror movies.