I revisited Carrie a few years ago and was astounded at just exactly how patient the direction is. It is a nearly perfectly paced film, that eschews a lot of cinematic short-hand and hurry-up that would be de-rigeur today. I didn't think much about when I first saw it, because I think that kind of patience was normal then, but I've since had to sit through a rapidly normalizing freneticism--especially in the horror genre--that makes it stand out upon revisiting. I think impatience is exactly the reason the Nic Cage remake of The Wicker Man fails so completely.

And Jaws is straight up horror... and, in particular, the character of Quint (Shaw) is archetype: both survivor and seeker; like the audience, he turns toward the horror in fascination and need all while arming himself against it... The moment he smashes the radio out from underneath Brody is both incomprehensible and entirely understandable and, thus, perhaps the sublest horror.

Alien still gives me nightmares.