TEN BEST HORROR FILMS OF ALL TIME
Feb 07 '01 (Updated Mar 29 '01)
The Bottom Line These movies are guaranteed to make you sleep with the lights on or at least snuggle with your spouse.
This was a difficult, although enjoyable, write off for me. I grew up watching "Fright Theater" hosted by a local ghoul who called himself Iago. I have always loved good
horror flicks. The difficult part for me was narrowing the list down to ten and deciding if all my favorites were truly horror films.
I eliminated two of my favorite scary movies because I believe they are in the Sci-fi genre: Alien (and Aliens) and Terminator. O.K., that's three. And I have to throw in one more in this category: Invasion of the Body Snatchers. All of these films could scare the pants off you but they do not fit the true horror genre.
My list will disturb some people because it does not contain one Slasher movie. There is a reason for this: I don't care for slasher films. The one exception was the first Halloween because of Jamie Leigh Curtis but it missed for one reason. I believe horror movies should include sympathy not only for the victims but also for the "monster" or "creature" or "misfit". None of the slasher movie have such a character.
Without further ado, here is my list is Lettermanlike descending order (drumroll please):
10. THE WOLFMAN
Made in 1941, this film has all the classic elements of a great horror movie. The main character, Larry Talbot (played by Lon Chaney, Jr.) is bitten by a wolfman played
by Bella Lugosi who made a pretty good living biting people. Talbot survives and is befriended by a gypsy who tries to save him. We all know the story now. Each time a
full moon arrives, Talbot grows hair, fangs, and claws and scares the whole neighborhood. Great supporting cast, special effects and haunting music all add to its greatness.
9. THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951)
The only member of the cast that I recognize is James Arness and there is no way you could recognize him in the movie. He plays a creature who is found frozen in the
arctic. Although it sounds jicky, the creature is more like a vegetable and we soon find out that he's an alien with a voracious appetite for meat, be it dog or human. This is a classic battle of humans against aliens and its touch and go as to who will win. Another great music score by Dimitri Tiomkin adds to the suspense. A later remake by John Carpenter was just too gory.
8. WAIT UNTIL DARK (1968)
O.K., this movie might not seem to fit my description of horror. First of all, the evil "creatures" here have no redeeming values and they are all human. This movie could be called a mystery but it scared me more than just about any movie I've ever seen. Terrence Young directs an all-star cast featuring Audrey Hepburn as a blind lady, Efrem Zimbalist as her husband, Jack Weston, Richard Crenna and Alan Arkin as, respectfully, the goofy, the smooth and the evil bad guys who think there is heroin in Audrey's
apartment and they will stop at nothing to get it. Silence and near total darkness has never been more successfully used in a movie.
7. ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968)
Roman Polanski directed this faithful adaptation of the book. Mia Farrow lost Frank Sinatra because of this movie but she was outstanding as was the whole cast. Mia plays an innocent housewife whose husband (played by John Cassavetes) makes a diabolical deal with the New York Witches' Union that involves Rosemary and, can you guess, her yet to born baby. We all feel horrible for Rosemary and the suspense builds to the final shocking climax.
6. DRACULA (1931)
Bella Lugosi plays the Transylvanian with a nasty overbite in the role which he defined and eventually hated. His rendition of the bloodthirsty Count has never been equaled although about 1000 efforts have been made. Todd Browning directed the movie with excellent special effects considering the date and good performances by the
whole cast. A classic.
5. THEM (1954)
I know, it sounds preposterous. Giant ants running amok in the desert cause a panic in the great southwest. But remember, this was Cold War time with the U.S. and the
Russkies building bigger and dirtier A and H-bombs to deter each other from creating mutant species. Gordon Douglas directs a great cast of James Whitmore, Edmund Guinn,
Joan Weldon and James Arness in a very well written drama that reached our bomb shelter mentalities of the day. Excellent special effects.
4. DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1920, 1932, 1941)
Take your pick. The 1920 version stars John Barrymore as the good doctor who experiments with the unknown. Silent, of course, but Barrymore is great. In 1932, Frederick March plays the doctor and won an Academy Award for the role. Both are wonderful but my favorite is Spencer Tracy's 1941 version directed by David Price.
Tracy used very little makeup in transforming from the good doctor to the evil Mr. Hyde but his acting was so great that you felt the emotional trauma that Dr. Jekyll realized
upon becoming himself again. Two gorgeous, talented ladies join Tracy: Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner. I loved the scene where Hyde is playing the piano for Turner and spitting out grape seeds.
3. THE EXORCIST (1973)
William Friedkin directs Peter Blatty's horror classic and I've never seen such an audience reaction to a movie. Another great cast featuring Ellen Burstyn, Max Von
Sydow, Linda Blair, Jason Miller and Lee J. Cobb perform perfectly in this demonic possession story of a young girl. When it first came out, I noticed something very strange about the audience reaction to the "possession scenes". Everyone in the audience would hold their breaths and lean forward only to exhale and move back to their seats when the scenes were over. A frightening tale that spawned copycats but was never equalled, this film was just re-released with 12 extra minutes.
2. PSYCHO (1960)
What can I say? The master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, pulled off this terrifying movie without a single head rolling or knife or ax attack. Just pure, dark suspense performed by great actors make this a classic tale in either horror or mystery genres. Anthony Perkins should have won an Oscar for this. Janet Leigh is the beautiful, if flawed, victim. Vera Miles is her sister. Martin Balsom is the detective. And Hitchcock is the master. As Count Basie does in jazz, Hitchcock often uses silence as a suspenseful device. And then the screen explodes with Bernard Herrmann's unbelievable musical score. This movie makes you not want to shower in a motel.
1. FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
The original had audiences running out of the theater. My mother, at that time 9 years old, remembers a scene that was quickly edited out because viewers could not
handle such brutality. The scene was at a pond where Dr. Frankenstein's monster happens upon a little girl playing "She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not" with a flower. I'll
leave it to your imagination as to what the original showed. This was 1931 folks. Nothing like it had been seen before.
Colin Clive plays the mad scientist who wants to create a human but it is his creation who is the true star of the movie. The role of the monster was first offered to Lugosi who turned it down and so Boris Korloff became a star. Although not faithful to Shelley's story, this monster still provokes sympathy. Unfortunately, Korloff never really could get away from this awesome role but he gave us a classic.
Well, that's 10 of my favorites. I'd like to see others' choices.
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