Favorite Classic HOrror Movies
Jeff Krause
It’s October and Halloween is right around the corner. In the spirit of the season here is our list of favorite horror movies. Horror movies are one of the oldest and most successful film genres. The critics don’t always find much to like in them but the public keeps coming back because they are the perfect way to escape reality for a few hours. They are not to send a message. They are meant to send a chill down our spine. So, grab some popcorn but hold on tight as you enjoy our list of favorite horror movies.
Our favorites lists are never quantitative. These are not the biggest or highest grossing horror movies of all time. These are the horror movies that we have watched many times and keep going back to. In keeping with our classic theme, our selections were all released at least thirty years ago.
The Thing (1982)
With the Hollywood Code gone for over ten years, the late 1970s and early 1980s produced many great horror films. Nothing against Halloween or Friday the 13th, but our favorite from this period is the John Carpenter classic, The Thing. A group of researchers in Antarctica are led to a neighboring base where everyone is dead or missing. They discover and return with a strange set of burned remains only to learn it is a shape shifting alien life form who proceeds to kill and assume the forms of the researchers. The Thing is a perfect horror film. Already strained by lack of human contact, the researchers become increasingly paranoid as they realize any one of them might actually be the creature.
Psycho (1960)
No list of horror classics is complete without this Alfred Hitchcock classic. Hitchcock was the master of tension and suspense but Psycho was one of only a few of his films that fall squarely in the horror genre along with The Birds and The Lodger. Psycho tested the limits of the Hays code from its suggestive opening scene to the first ever onscreen toilet flush to the famous shower scene where blood circles down the drain. It was a groundbreaking film that influenced nearly every subsequent horror film.
The Wolf Man (1941)
This film is our favorite of the Universal monsters. Lon Chaney, Jr. plays Larry Talbot, who returns from America to his ancestral home in Wales. One night he visits a gypsy camp with a village girl. A wolf attacks and Larry is bitten as he kills the wolf. Unfortunately, the wolf was actually a man who turned into a wolf with every full moon and has passed the curse on to Larry. One of the things that makes The Wolf Man stand out is the eerie atmosphere it creates. Creepy music, fog shrouded moors and a great cast make this film a horror classic. Lon Chaney Jr.’s turns in his best performance as we watch him agonize over his condition and his fear of harming those he loves. For more about this horror classic, read our review of The Wolf Man.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is both a horror and a science fiction classic that perfectly blends elements of each genre. In a small town, people begin noticing that family members are not quite the same, even going so far as to claim someone is impersonating them. Eventually, we learn that the town’s population is indeed being taken over by extraterrestrial doppelgangers grown from huge seed pods. The themes of an invisible enemy, paranoia, distrust, having nowhere to run, and no one to turn to became staples of later science fiction and horror films.
Gaslight (1944)
This classic does not have werewolves and vampires. Instead, it features a manipulative husband, played by Charles Boyer, who goes to great lengths to convince his wife that she is going insane, all to conceal a big secret from her. Ingrid Bergman is the unfortunate wife who increasingly questions her sanity as pictures disappear, strange footsteps are heard in the night and her gaslights mysteriously dim without being touched. Gaslight strikes a chord in the viewer. We know what is going on and want so badly to tell her. We also gain a glimpse into our own vulnerabilities. Could any of us be manipulated so easily?
Flatliners (1990)
Released just over thirty years ago, Flatliners barely meets our classic requirement. We’re glad it does because we think it is one of the creepiest films ever made. A group of medical students experiment with near death experiences by killing and then reviving each other. As they extend the amount of time before being revived, their experiences become more vivid and dangerous as their pasts come back to torment them. Starring Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon and Julia Roberts, Flatliners still makes our skin crawl thirty years later.
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Sure, it is a bit dated, but Creature from the Black Lagoon deserves its place among any list of classic horror films. When a group of scientists investigate rumors of a strange creature in the Amazon, they find a remote backwater lagoon inhabited by a prehistoric gill-man. Initially, they hope to capture the creature only to find out the creature has turned the tables and trapped them in the lagoon. The Creature from the Black Lagoon incorporated long established elements of horror with its exotic location and monster that becomes obsessed with a beautiful woman. It also established new elements with a new monster (not from folklore or literature) that we feel sympathy for. The atmosphere of this film is perfect and the cinematography shines, especially the beautifully shot underwater scene that clearly influenced the opening sequence of Jaws.
