Favorite Top 5 Classic Horror Films

[destro]

I really don't care for horror films...so my list will probably be idiosyncratic.

1. Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein
2. The Wicker Man (original)
3. Shaun of the Dead
4. Horror of Dracula
5. Bubba Ho-Tep

Actually as a big horror fan I think those are some really good picks.

[MRP]

No particular order but my tastes in horror range more towards classic Universal monsters, Hitchcock, and more psychological horror films so....

Wolfman (Universal)
Psycho (original Hitchcock version)
Frankenstein (Universal)
Dracula (Universal)
and one of more recent vintage-The Fallen with Denzel Washington, the use of the Stones song through out the movie just gives me chills every time I watch it, something I usually don't get with multiple viewings of horror films

honorable mention to Hitchcock's The Birds, Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Others, perhaps one of the best executed ghost stories in film, and the original Nightmare on Elm Street which totally creeped me out in high school and is the only "modernish slasher" style horror movie I remotely like). Also cultish faves include the British made EC Horror movie adaptations done in the 70's as Tales from the Crypt.

-M

[CromagnonMan]

in no particlar order:

Night of the Living Dead
Zombie a/k/a Zombie Flesheaters
Nightmare on Elm St Part 3: Dream Warriors
The Thing
Halloween

i also like: Hellraiser II, Suspiria, The Burning, The Evil Dead

[berk]

tough call for me ... I used to be a bigger horror buff, in books as well as movies, than I have been the last couple decades, so I haven't kept up with the genre at all. I'll try to pick the movies that I remember making the biggest impact on me at the time:


Nosferatu (Murnau)
Frankenstein
Hammer Dracula films with Christopher Lee
The Shining
Audition


comments:

Frankenstein is a bad adaptation of the book, but a good movie on its own terms.

not sure which of the Hammer Draculas it was, specifically, probably the first or second one, but I know it gave me nightmares for years after I seeing it on tv as a kid. The Lugosi one is good too, better than it's sometimes credited with, IMO. I haven't seen the Spanish one filmed on the same sets, or the Langella. Both are on my list, but the Dracula I most want to see is the Jack Palance tv movie from the early 70s, which apparently was the inspiration for Gene Colan's visualisation of the character in ToD.

I'm not a big Nicholson fan, and he does chew the scenery in The Shining, but it's still an effective performance, IMO. There's never been a good Joker, whether in the movies, on tv, or in comics. Just a crap character altogether in my view.

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

I don't remember either which Hammer Dracula it was that I saw first, but I remember it was at noon hour at high school (where our student council had arranged to show movies in parts during the lunch hour). What I remember is the women wanting to be bitten and wanting to bite. Strong stuff for teens going through puberty.

[thwhtGuardian]

Oh, THAT Dracula I caught and LOVED. The scene with him climbing on the walls of the castle was beautiful and beyond creepy. The Dracula I haven't seen was the original with Bela Legosi. I'm surprised I haven't seen it, to be honest, given the popularity of the Universal horror films. I've seen Frankenstein, Mummy, Wolfman, Creature of the Black Lagoon. But no Dracula.

Yeah I think they portrayed that really well, it kind of reminded me of the way Olaf moved in Nosferatu it was just very other worldly. The original Universal one is equally good, especially with the Phillip Glass score the introduced in the 90's. I'd also suggest seeing Mark of the Vampire which also starred Lugosi which funnily enough is a remake of the film London After midnight which stared Lon Chaney.

Speaking of Dracula, anyone here a fan of the 1931 Spanish version?

This is another film I've long wanted to see, I've heard they did some interesting camera work. I think it's included in the recent DVD releases for Dracula so hopefully I'll get a hold of it soon.

No particular order but my tastes in horror range more towards classic Universal monsters, Hitchcock, and more psychological horror films so....

Wolfman (Universal)
Psycho (original Hitchcock version)
Frankenstein (Universal)
Dracula (Universal)
and one of more recent vintage-The Fallen with Denzel Washington, the use of the Stones song through out the movie just gives me chills every time I watch it, something I usually don't get with multiple viewings of horror films

honorable mention to Hitchcock's The Birds, Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Others, perhaps one of the best executed ghost stories in film, and the original Nightmare on Elm Street which totally creeped me out in high school and is the only "modernish slasher" style horror movie I remotely like). Also cultish faves include the British made EC Horror movie adaptations done in the 70's as Tales from the Crypt.

-M

The Fallen is a great movie, Washington's narration was great and I loved the ending.

[shaxper]

Nosferatu: Phantom Der Nacht is the version by Werner Hezog right? I've heard it was really fantastic but I've yet to see it, I have it marked for this years Halloween marathon though. And I'd totally count Murnau's Faust as horror.

Yes, it's Herzog. And, believe it or not, Herzog's Phantom Der Nacht is not the same as his Phantom of the Night. Two very different cuts, and Der Nacht is the superior one.

Speaking of Dracula, anyone here a fan of the 1931 Spanish version?

I like it, but I still find the American version superior. Lugosi is a far more formidable presence.

3. The Wizard of Oz (1939)

I'm not judging it, but I would love to hear your explanation on this one...

4)Dracula (Universal 1979)
.

I'm completely unaware of this version. I will definitely have to seek it out!

[CromagnonMan]

how come noones mentioned The Evil Dead?

[MDG]

how come noones mentioned The Evil Dead?

I was gonna, but here's what I scratched on a notepad when I saw this thread:

Mad Love
The Seventh Victim
Black Sunday
Carnival of Souls
Night of the Living Dead

[dan bailey]

I'm not judging it, but I would love to hear your explanation on this one...

I'm not Ear, but I wouldn't be at all shocked to learn that said explanation rests strongly on 2 little words -- flying & monkeys.

(Calling dr chimp!)

[Greg Anderson]

You know, I'm very surprised to see Seventh Victim on people's list. It's not often I come across a group of people who's into Val Lewton film, or more or less knows his films.

[Shellhead]

In no particular order:

Alien
The Thing (John Carpenter version)
The Shining
The Ring (either version)
Dawn of the Dead (original version)

Regarding some picks by other people:

Aliens is possibly my all-time favorite movie, but I consider it as much an action movie as a horror movie, so it didn't make my list here. The Haunting (the original) would have made my list in the past, but I watched it again recently and it just didn't hold up. I finally saw Carnival of Souls this year, and I was underwhelmed. I even dozed off at one point.

[dan bailey]

You know, I'm very surprised to see Seventh Victim on people's list. It's not often I come across a group of people who's into Val Lewton film, or more or less knows his films.

The fact that you consort with groups other than this one is disconcerting, to say the least.

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

Here in Canada for a long while, probably before I was born, there was a tradition of broadcasting the Wizard of Oz every year. Every year as a child, I would sit with my family and watch that damned movie, then go off to sleep and wake in the night in cold sweats after a horrible nightmare called up by that damned movie (especially those striped socks on the witch under the house, when they shrivel up--I still have an aversion to stripes). To this day, thinking of some scenes from that movie will send shivers up my spine. If that's not horror, I don't know what is.

[dan bailey]

Here in Canada for a long while, probably before I was born, there was a tradition of broadcasting the Wizard of Oz every year.

Same here in the U.S. when those of us of a certain age were growing up. (No idea if the practice has survived the cable-ization of everything.)

Every year as a child, I would sit with my family and watch that damned movie, then go off to sleep and wake in the night in cold sweats after a horrible nightmare called up by that damned movie (especially those striped socks on the witch under the house, when they shrivel up--I still have an aversion to stripes). To this day, thinking of some scenes from that movie will send shivers up my spine. If that's not horror, I don't know what is.

Yep -- that's horror, all right.