[SFF]

Originally posted by Sam The Egg
Hitchcock and William Friedkin. Both directed great horror movies (Hitchcock with Psycho among others, Friedkin with The Exorcist) that, while staying 100% true to the horror genre, were good enough to transcend just being great horror movies and be considered great movies in general. Sure, if looked at from a certain perspective this might hinder their being considered "God of horror", but a lot of the other people mentioned, while loved within the horror community, are looked down upon in general cinema. People in the horror community, for the most part, love Psycho and The Exorcist. This is also true for people outside the horror community, even people who don't like horror. People who've tried to do that on purpose (Most Scream-style movies) have failed miserably. These attained that status because of quality. Who else can claim that they've made a movie that good? So those are my picks. Hitchcock and Friedkin.

I think I can agree with those. John Carpenter would be a good addition as well. Even Ebert loved Halloween.